Thoughts From Proverbs 24

Proverbs 24: 17-18

¹⁷ Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,
¹⁸ lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.

Just as God denies the desire and any acts of retaliation, so He forbids gloating. This is unnecessary, undesirable, and ugly. Gloating will always carry with it both pride and the motivation for retaliation, all of which are sin.

24:19-20

¹⁹ Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked,
²⁰ for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

This is wisdom that is repeated in Proverbs and elsewhere. The 73rd Psalm is about this concern. Envying the wealthy and the wicked is failure to understand two truths about them. First their influence is limited by both time and space. Only a few will ever know them. Secondly it is brief. I think of a relative who was very wealthy. The few who knew her were concerned about her opinion and affection. But she is gone and few even know her name, and she was not wicked.

24: 30-34

³⁰ I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
³¹ and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles,
    and its stone wall was broken down.
³² Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.
³³ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
³⁴ and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

The writer of Proverbs has no patience with the lazy person. Why? They are like the barren fig tree in Luke 13. They are not productive and they take up a spot where a productive tree would grow!

Verses 33-34 were for years my incentive to rise early. I would awake quoting them and committing myself to escape the danger there.