Proverbs
21:12 KJV
The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked: but
God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.
What wisdom could a righteous
man gain from considering the house of the wicked? There are three answers
possible. I tend to take it that when a passage has more than one very probable
interpretation, God so ordained that we could benefit from each:
The righteous man could refer to God Himself
Who considers the wicked and
keeps record
- Of their actions and sin
- Of their training their children to
sin, of the abuses of their privileges
- Of their carelessness for the souls
and the souls of their children.
The eyes of the Lord run to and
fro, beholding the evil and the good.
It could refer to the believer observing the lost and learning from
them what not to do.
We can contrast the outcome of
the life of those who live for God with that of those who live wickedly and see
that the fruit of righteousness is much to be preferred.
It could also mean that the righteous man gets to know the wicked with
a desire to reach them with the gospel.
A wise believer wants to win
his neighbors. He knows that they will eventually be overthrown unless they are
won to the Lord.
- He studies the best way to reach
them, to be friends with them but to carefully associate so as not to be
spotted with their sin.
- He comes to know perhaps, their
interests and finds that common ground which is a suitable place to meet,
develop a friendship and then present to them the gospel.
He also learns that ground he
must not follow his neighbor onto, knowing that there the influence will be
more towards their fall and their neighbor's salvation.
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