Posted on 09/12/2019 6:46:31 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved . . . The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them " (Proverbs 12:2-3, 6).
“A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD,” like Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. Noah was righteous in all his generation. God delivered him and his family. A good man, that wants to do everything right, even though he doesn’t understand everything—like Cornelius did—God will show him favor. The Lord will send the gospel to him, whether through a missionary or an angel. Now, the angel won’t tell him how to get saved (he doesn’t even know that answer to that), but as in the case of Cornelius will tell him where to go to find it. If God can’t get the missionary to go to the heathen, God will send the heathen to the missionary. God will show favor to a man that wants to do right.
“But a man of wicked devices will he condemn,” to hell. Haman was a wicked man, concerned about his own profit. Ahab was a wicked man, concerned about his own profit. You just look at the end of those men’s lives—it just didn’t end up right. Of the seven richest men in the 1920’s, all but one of them ended up a pauper. They were wicked and ungodly in their ideals and their lives, and God condemned them, in this world and in the next.
“A man shall not be established by wickedness,” a guy might think that wickedness is the road to success; it is not, it is the road to ruin. This is an absolute promise—the wicked shall not prosper. Psalm one says that the righteous shall be like a tree of life, but the ungodly are like the chaff that the wind drives away. The ungodly shall not stand in the day of judgment. The reason is because they have no root.
“. . . but the root of the righteous shall not be moved,” if a man is saved, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, we all have the same root. He is found in Revelation: “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof” (Revelation 5:5 KJV).
The world can come along and cut down my tree, but the roots are still there. We are rooted and grounded in the Word of God, and we are rooted in Christ and our home is in heaven. There is no way to get rid of us.
“The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood,” they are always looking for trouble, and they enjoy talking about how they did somebody in, or ripped somebody off, or had gotten even with someone. Those are the words of the wicked.
“. . . but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them,” Jesus said that by their words they shall be justified and by their words they shall be condemned in Matthew 12. He said that man would give an account for every idle word.
Let’s read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let’s keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread!
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