Posted on 03/04/2020 6:13:36 AM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence” (Proverbs 4:16-17 KJV).
“For they sleep not, except they have done mischief,” they are so twisted, and so perverted, and so warped that they do not enjoy life until they are messing somebody else up. They are so messed up themselves and perverted that they have to hurt people. Now, that is a pervert. Do you know how people get to be like that? People don’t start out like that; they get like that with sin and wickedness and reaping it. They just get so mad at life and at themselves that they just take it out on people. And then that’s the only joy they get. Do you know what the final joy of the Devil is? All the souls he has damned to hell. The book of Ezekiel says that he just laughs over the multitudes that he has damned. These people described in verse 16 are just like their father the Devil.
If a man allows sin to pull him in and drag him down, he’ll get to the point where he can’t enjoy right things. The only thing that he will enjoy in this life is misery. He’ll enjoy misery and he’ll enjoy making other people miserable. “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:32 KJV).
That is the end of a person, when they just allow themselves to indulge in the path of the wicked and the way of sin—they get to the point where they just can’t live without it. They are so tainted, and so wicked, that they can’t sleep, except they are doing mischief.
“. . . and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall,” their consciousnesses are seared of righteousness. “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (I Timothy 4:2 KJV).
They thrive on it. They get so wicked that that is all they live for. From one moment to the next, they live to hurt somebody. They want to do somebody in, to hurt somebody.
“For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.” Some people, it seems, like to feed off of sin and off of violence at times. You know that that's one side of it, but in verse 17 there's a little bit more there and we remind you that so often in the word of God there is a kind of a “on the surface,” devotional, plain practical aspect of things; and then when you start digging a little deeper and digging a little further you find out that there's something more there. For instance, here in verse 17, “For they eat the bread of wickedness.” We would understand it to mean that bread is not actually wicked, and they don't actually eat wicked bread; but what happens if there “is” something like wicked bread?
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They thrive on it. They get so wicked that that is all they live for. From one moment to the next, they live to hurt somebody. They want to do somebody in, to hurt somebody.
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