“Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place: For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” (Pr 24:15-16 AV)
Verse sixteen is often used, and correctly so, as encouragement for those who have fallen by the wayside. It is a promise that because they are a child of God and do have a heart that desires to live right, God honors that and helps the errant child back on his spiritual feet. It is a promise that no matter the situation, those who seek to be conformed to the image of Christ, when they fall away from that goal, will not remain so. He will rise again. The power of the promise in verse sixteen is in the rebuke of the wicked in verse fifteen. The futility of the wicked to completely destroy the just is the thought of verse fifteen. What a tremendous thought. Rebuking the wicked for laying a temporary trap for the just should be motivation for the just to not fall therein. Knowing defeat is not permanent, those who tend to be fatalistic can have hope the world, flesh, and devil cannot have permanent victory over him. He is not destined for failure. He will rise again. And the enemies of God’s people embark on a hopeless mission.
As a child, we have strange games we play without
realizing the outcome is already determined.
Camping got boring. At our family
property, there wasn’t much to do. There
was a swing set, a badminton court, trails, and a pond. That was it.
That would be ok if you were camping for a weekend. But my dad would take us for one to two
weeks. You can only play volleyball or
badminton so many times. You can only hike
the same five trails so many times. And between
eleven kids, I am sure we caught the exact same fish more than once. The pond was a source of fascination. We did all sorts of things at that pond. Skipping stones, of course, was a
favorite. That was until my father
yelled at us because he thought it would harm the fish population. One of our activities at the pond was to
through a log into it to see if we could sink it. We tried to get a wet log knowing we had a
better chance. Forget the little
skipping stones. We threw rocks. We would hit it again and again. Depending on the size of the rock and how
hard we hit it, the log would go under and bob right back up again. The heavier the rock, the more it stayed
down. As children, we did not understand
the science behind buoyancy. We didn’t understand
that no matter how hard you struck the log if there was air in it, it would
rise to the surface. As long as there
was breath in that wood, is was not going down.
We have the breath of life. The breath of spiritual life, that is. We have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in
our hearts and spirits. Just like a
child that cannot see nor conceive of trapped air is a log, the world and the
devil cannot conceive of the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps He is not evidently known. Not at all times. But He is there and a source of life, power,
and endurance which assails the boulders that come our way. So, next time you are discouraged by failure,
remember verse fifteen along with verse sixteen. Note the futility of their attacks. Note the writer, but the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit is calling the attacker an idiot.
They are wasting their time and energy.
Have you heard of The Unsinkable Molly Brown? It is a movie and Broadway play about a
real-life socialite who survived one disaster after another. She got her nickname by surviving the Titanic
and attempting to rescue fellow passengers.
She is a model of endurance. We
may not be the unsinkable Molly Brown, but we are the unsinkable child of God!
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