Proverbs 24:17 ¶ Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and
let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: 18 Lest the LORD see it, and it
displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
Jesus Himself goes even further to say this to
us,
Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the
publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than
others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.
One of the character traits of a true Christian,
which I have talked about previously in Proverbs, is the willingness not to
seek revenge for wrongs done to you. Jesus goes further to say that you should
pray for your enemies and even those who “despitefully use you”. How fortunate
we are, how blessed, to have a Saviour, a God, who does not seek to avenge
Himself on us for what we have done to Him but…
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
We are not to be glad when our enemy falls. We
are to have pity on the unsaved and the carnal Christian lest we prove that we
are them. Using the famous line from the old Pogo cartoon which was misquoting
a famous line from our history, “we have met the enemy and he is us.”
How many of you have not only not sought revenge
but praised your opponent or rival when he or she defeated you in sports, or
received an award or a promotion you thought you should get?
It’s very easy to watch the news and think how
glad you are that “those people” whoever they are, received their comeuppance,
their just desserts. What a pathetic example of a follower of Christ we are
when we laugh and mock at our enemies’ distress. Shall we put God in a position
of defending the person we hate or that holds us in low regard?
No one has nailed you to a cross for their sins. No one to
whom you have given all things in eternity has treated you with contempt and
disregard. Who can have done more to you than you have done to Christ? And yet,
God Himself LOVED the whole world saved and unsaved.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
A Christian will be gracious in defeat and
magnanimous in victory. Are you? Or do you cheer when your enemy stumbles?
Proverbs 24:19 ¶ Fret not thyself because of evil men,
neither be thou envious at the wicked; 20 For there shall be no reward to the
evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.
We’ve been told before not to envy wicked
people. Here, we are told not to worry and fret ourselves because of them. The
prophets often would question God as to why the evil were allowed to prosper so
long.
Even Job himself laments;
Job 12:6 ¶ The tabernacles of robbers
prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
Jeremiah also complains;
Jeremiah 12:1 ¶ Righteous art thou, O LORD,
when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore
[Why] doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that
deal very treacherously?
We have the past evidence in the
Bible that God does eventually settle accounts with the wicked person; whether
it be a robber or a wicked king or even a rebellious nation. You can be sure,
in our day, that He will eventually settle accounts with crooked, cynical
politicians, merchants of war, and the occasional Wall Street investment
banker, as well.
God settled accounts with Germany for over a
century of what is called “Higher Criticism” of the Bible which was thinly
disguised contempt and unbelief. He settled accounts with the British Empire
for trashing His Bible, for starving tens of millions of people in India to
death while the grain stocks of England were filled, and for turning its back
on the Jews after promising them a homeland. It is said that World War One
prepared the land for the Jew and World War Two prepared the Jew for the land.
Man does the work, thinking he is running things, but God brings His plans
about often through men. Even Abraham Lincoln admitted the Civil War was a
judgment on the entire nation for the sin of slavery.
God settles accounts but, remember, we are not
to gloat over the fall of the wicked. God has already warned us about that. And
what about you? Will God settle accounts with you? Or will you receive the Lord
Jesus Christ as your Saviour? God is in the process of settling accounts with
this wicked Babylon of America even as we speak. When will He settle accounts
with you? Now is the time to believe and be saved. Otherwise;
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment:
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