All Day Fear is All Day Protection

“Let not thine heart envy sinners: but [be thou] in the fear of the LORD all the day long.” (Pr 23:17 AV)

I am curious as to why being in the fear of the LORD every waking moment of the day is a defense against envy.  It would be a defense against all sins.  Why did Solomon word it this way?  I think there is a great lesson here on the nature of some sins.  Some sins are premeditated.  They take thought and planning.  Some sins are habitual.  They are part of our character.  Then there are sins like envy.  Envy enters as an impulsive response to something observed.  Once entered, it can fester.  I think this is why Solomon instructs his children to be in the fear of the LORD all day long.  No one plans to be envious.  No one seeks circumstances to create envy.  For the most part, it just happens.  But envy is not the only sin that is an impulsive response to outward stimulation.  Lust is another of those sins.  Envy and lust often go together.  There is impulsive anger.  We are driving and someone cuts us off.  There are many emotions that are not planned.  They simply happen.  For this reason, being in the fear of the LORD all day long is the first and most important defense against ungodly emotional responses.

We cannot avoid every temptation.  We live in a world full of it.  It’s like going to our state fair and avoiding the midway.  I avoid the games of the midway because they are designed so that the player never wins.  All one has to do is to do a bit of research and note the odds of winning any one game.  Impossible.  So, I avoid the midway.  Then there are the vendors.  Very few are fair and honest.  Most are there to make big money on small-value offerings.  Some are downright scams.  We always go to the booths or buildings that host competitions.  We particularly like the horses.  I can sit there half a day and watch the horse judging competition.  We go to the building with all the arts and crafts.  The things people can do are amazing.  But as soon as you go out of those buildings, the smell of food and fun hit you in the face.  When they do, thoughts of the midway and craftsmen or the sound of a merry-go-round or hawkers bring the mind right back to parts of the fair we do not visit.  This is the world in which we live.  It cannot be avoided.  There is always one more car better than your own.  There are those homes that you would give anything to own.  There is that customer who is worth seven figures but worries about every penny.  The list goes on and on.

Envy, and any other sinful and impulsive emotion, can occur at any moment.  One can sit at a restaurant eating what one can afford and someone next to you gets the most expensive item on the menu.  Envy, lust, anger, etc. can happen at the drop of the hat.  The first guard against it is to fear the LORD.  The LORD has a plan for you.  It is your plan.  It is not someone else’s plan, nor did God accidentally give to someone else your plan.  You are what you are by the grace of God.  You have what you have by God’s providence and provision.  Your life, aside from the wrong choices you make, is part of God’s perfect plan for you.  Desiring something else questions God’s sovereignty and shows no fear toward the one who created you.   This is why Solomon instructs his children to be on guard for envy by being in the fear of the LORD all the day long.  What is even more pertinent is Solomon, being the greatest king at the time, could acquire by force anything of which he was envious.  This makes it even more dangerous.  But being in the fear of the LORD will halt such violent acquisitions.