A Devotion from D.A. Carson

Leviticus 9; Psalm 10; Proverbs 24; 1 Thessalonians 3

MANY OF THE VERSES IN PROVERBS 24 seem to be set in a time of danger when evil is strong and the

outcome uncertain:

(1) “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!” (24:10). That may be an

uncomfortable thought, but it needs saying. Anyone can bulldoze ahead when the course is

downhill. And of course, our strength often really is small. How often Christians discover, with

Paul, that God’s strength is perfected in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:1–10).

(2) As I write this a horrible case has come to light. A university student peeked over the

wall in a public lavatory and saw his friend abusing and beating a very young girl, and he walked

away and did nothing. Later the friend told him that he had killed the girl, who was found the

next morning stuffed in the toilet. Still the university student did nothing. This is a microcosm of

those who glimpsed something of the horrors of the holocaust and did nothing. So hear the

word of the Lord: “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward

slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart

perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according

to what he has done?” (24:11–12).

(3) “Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no

future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out” (24:19–20). The believer must

take the long view. If we judge everything by who wins and who loses in the short span of our

own lives, we will often be frustrated. But God the Judge has the last word.

(4) Suppose, then, that the wicked, or at least your enemy whom you take to be wicked,

faces horrible reverses, even in this life. Here too there is a right way and a wrong way of

proceeding. “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart

rejoice” (24:17). Why not? Because you have descended to his level, and “the LORD will see and

disapprove and turn his wrath away from him” (24:18)—and quite possibly toward you. As “the

wise” put it, “Do not say, ‘I’ll do to him as he has done to me; I’ll pay that man back for what he

did’ ” (24:29). Christians cannot fail to hear in these words an anticipation of the “golden rule,”

an utterance by the Lord Jesus himself: “So in everything, do to others what you would have

them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12).