Proverbs 21:24 commentary; Proud wrath.

24 ¶ Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath.

You know the proud and haughty scorner by now. We’ve discussed him or her many times. Here, the proud and haughty scorner deals in proud wrath. He or she is a type of Satan (Lucifer) whose first sin was pride.

Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Do you know someone like this, a narcissistic personality, who is bursting at the seams with pride and highmindedness? It’s all about them. Satan, the adversary (1 Peter 5:8), the accuser of the brethren before God (Revelation 12:10) was perfect, beautiful, and with great responsibility until iniquity was found in him (Ezekiel 38:13,14).

We have noted before how wrath is anger when it has boiled long enough for action.

Genesis 49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

We have many incidents in history of how mighty leaders like emperors and kings, proud and arrogant, placing themselves in God’s stead, were also proud in their cruel wrath. Saul, overcome by an evil spirit sent from God, tried to kill David with a javelin, in 1Samuel, chapter 19. (On a side note, remember that in context evil can be violent, malicious, and wishing to do harm.)

In Livy’s History of Rome he tells of how the Roman Senate sent a letter to a general telling him to not execute the leaders of a rebellious city. However, the general, knowing what the contents of the letter would probably be, did not open it until he had beaten and beheaded all of his victims so that the mercy of the Roman Senate would not cancel out his own proud wrath.

There are countless anecdotes of men, possessed by wickedness, unsaved and so called Christians, whose fury rose to heights of violence and taking the Bible’s admonition for us all to submit to each other and for wives to submit to their own husbands (Ephesians 5:21,22) they use that as an excuse to justify vicious beatings and threatenings. May any man who beats his wife suffer the fate of all proud scorners.

We’ve all heard of these people; who would tie their child to a tree and whip them until they are bloody. Men who, in their wrath, throw their wife to the floor for not cooking a meal to their liking. These wicked, evil men, proud and haughty scorners, with proud wrath, have stalked and raped their own wives and cruelly punished their children spurred on by evil preachers who say, and I’ve heard this myself in sermons online, that if your child isn’t black and blue you aren’t spanking them often enough and that you should spank a baby. May these people get what they so richly deserve.

On the subject of discipline I know that a well respected figure of the 1960’s and 1970’s, John R. Rice, bragged about spanking his 18 year old daughter on the night before her wedding for something he believed to be disrespectful. There is an arrogance and pride and sinful iniquity in a man who would take his hand to the backside of a young woman, especially his daughter.

So, now we have another character trait of the scorner to go along with his mocking unbelief and his foolishness, which is cruelty. He is the man, and this can be a woman as well, although they are more often the victim of this type than the aggressor, who looks at the list of things in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 that show you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you and he laughs. He mocks love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance as being signs of weakness, not evidence of Christ’s Spirit dwelling within.

Are you the kind of person, smirking on the inside, when he hears someone talk about Christ’s gentleness and love? Does your wife or child look at you with fear and do they recoil at your touch? Is the expectation of those physically weaker around you one of impending rage on your part? Oh, Christians, how many children have been held down and beaten with a fist by a father claiming to be a blood bought born again Christian? How many women have lived lives of shame and despair with a husband who is as likely to knock them to the ground as he is to give them a kiss?

Proud wrath is one of the behaviors of the proud and haughty scorner. He is certainly no friend of God’s. John Gill calls him a “blockhead”. If you find yourself falling under this distinction why not get on your knees and plead with God to change you? Then read His words in His Book and let Him speak to you through them. Or perhaps you enjoy being like Satan. Your time is coming.