Look At Your 6

“Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed.” (Pr 13:21 AV)

I have to be honest.  When I read this verse, I took it a different way than Solomon intended.  I read it to mean the evil who are habitually so, are tailed by temptation to which they will eventually yield.  But the word evil above is judgment.  As I read commentators on the subject, they all agreed it was pending judgment that pursues the sinner.  As I was reading, one particular writer drew an analogy that stuck with me.  Rather than zero in on the word ‘evil’, he focused on the word ‘pursueth’.  He drew the analogy of pending judgment as always future, which it is.  He used the example of a hunter in pursuit of a hare that was driving him toward a cliff.  At the last second, the hare darts off in a safe direction while the hunter plummets to the base.  Generally, this is how we think.  We think of consequences as in front of us and not behind us.  The problem with thinking that way is the delay of consequences is assumed as an escape from them altogether.  If we do not suffer immediate consequences, then we assume we have escaped all of them.  The writer is making the distinction between assuming grace from consequences and delay of consequences.

No one is impervious to this truth.  We all suffer future consequences for present decisions.  I get a kick out of watching police shows where a perp is pursued by a police officer on foot.  Just last night I was watching such a chase.  Usually, in such a scene, the perp is rather young while the police officer or detective is ten to twenty years older.  In last night’s episode, the perp was in his early twenties and the detective was in his late thirties to early forties.  The detective had dress shoes on while the perp had sneakers.  The perp was lightly dressed while the detective had a suit and overcoat on.  The perp wasn’t carrying any equipment while the detective had a gun holstered and other law enforcement equipment strapped to his belt.  Guess who won?  The detective who has sixty pounds and fifteen years on the perp who wasn’t dressed for a track meet chased down and tackled the perp.  Reality doesn’t work that way.  The race goes to the swift.  In reality, if a perp runs, there is usually a network that works against him.  He will eventually get caught, but it won’t be by a middle-aged cop with cardigans. 

This is how we often see consequences.  We see them as something that will never catch us but do not realize there are a whole set of circumstances that work to bring those consequences around.  It may appear we are winning the foot race, but the foot race will turn into a dragnet.  The foot race is only meant to steer us into a waiting dragnet.  We may outrun the jurisprudence of God for a time.  It may appear as though God does not care or that He is being merciful towards it all.  But not so.  He may be merciful.  He may be gracious.  He may not think our transgression is worthy of immediate consequences.  He may even forgive it for a time because the goodness of the LORD leads to repentance.  For the habitual sinner, evil will pursue.  It will catch up.  Rather than run a sprint, evil is a marathon runner.  When the sinner loses the ability to run because he sprints everywhere, fulfilling all desires that he can, then when at rest, evil jogs right in and says, “I’ve been following you and there is something we need to discuss.”  This is the pattern of God’s corrective hand.  It may not come immediately and we may not see it down the road.  But it is there.  Following close behind;  waiting for a time when it will be most effective.