Jumping back into Proverbs as I set my sights on the next reading, we get back to where left off previously with chapter 24; there are two things that stuck out to me this morning.
First is verse 12, “If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?”. I think we are all masters of deception - especially to ourselves. And it is easy to claim we didn’t know something or we didn’t realize something while, in our hearts, that isn’t entirely true. The writer here is reminding us that we need to go deeper with ourselves...when we are tempted to wiggle out of something with this excuse, “I didn’t realize that _____”, we should pause and ask ourselves, “Really?”...or, “Did I REALLY not know that?”. We should realize that God doesn’t call us to be perfect, but He does value authenticity, or ‘realness’. If we can’t catch ourselves in these little traps and tendencies, we can go along unchecked for a long time, lying to ourselves and creating a narrative that seems right to us but that is not reality. That’s when we check-up, way down the road, and we starting wondering, “How did I get here?”...and it’s because we ignored this little truth, then that one, then another one...and so on. Little lies and little bits of self-deception, its like death by a thousand paper cuts.
And the other thing that jumped out to me this morning is in verses 17 and 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.” Now, obviously we aren’t talking about an enemy in the context of like a war...I mean, let’s not take this to an extreme. I feel like the author is talking about something more like this - that guy against whom you are always competing at work, who seems to always get the recognition and the rewards...or the person you know, of whom you’d have to admit you are jealous (remember our last verse, don’t lie to yourself!), and who always seems to have it all work out...or that person who’s life just generally seems to be so perfect and put-together...whoever THAT person is for you, that pulls out your jealousy, of whom you are envious in one way or another...that person who you view in competitive light in that way, who isn’t someone you’d call your enemy but who really kind of ends up being that in your mind...that’s who we are talking about. And, all of the sudden, he or she fails...she falls on her face and things are perfect anymore, and in your immediate reaction when you find out, you have a little moment of relief, or of celebration, a little ‘yesssss’ moment...I think that’s what the author is talking about. and if that’s in you (and we all have that in us to varying degrees), that is proof that I have work to do on myself; on my heart. We are called to love others, and love for another can’t exist in the heart that celebrates when someone fails...it just isn’t possible. We have to be on high alert when we see this in ourselves, and we have to be brave enough to call ourselves out, confess that, then change. I think the author is confronting the sin of jealousy here, and this is just a vicious sin that hides in our hearts and is easy to miss. I think this ties into verse 12 as well, because this is one of the easiest sins to which we can cling and be unaware, that we can fail to see in the mirror.
Great verses this morning!