Proverbs 24:17-18: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away His anger from him.”
I have spent most of my life reading Proverbs, and the Proverbs have become “checks” to my soul, pointing out and uprooting weeds of negative thoughts and desires before they root themselves deeply in me and affect my character. At times, I am completely unaware of “bad weeds” beginning to make my soul their growing grounds, so subtle do the thoughts enter. The Spirit uses the scriptures, especially Proverbs, to reveal these “weeds” to me. Then I feel really stupid, but also so very grateful that the Lord is watching over me as He watches over all of us and speaks to us through His Word, as we commit to spending time with Him. Interestingly enough, there are 31 chapters in Proverbs and 31 days in a month, so a chapter can be read daily—like taking your “spiritual vitamin.” Between the clamor of the day and the constant bombardment of secular influences, it is refreshing to know that God’s Word “shoots straight,” no messing around, and it is completely trustworthy and for our good.
From our past devotions, we understand that God really cares about having a relationship with us, but with this week’s devotion, we see that God cares about the relationships we have with one another, even our attitude towards our “enemy.” There is a neat story in 2 Kings 6:18-23, where Israel is at war, but the prophet Elisha would divinely warn the King of Israel of the Syrians’ traps. So angered by this, the Syrian King sent his army after Elisha, the prophet—really a stupid idea! Long story short, the army found the prophet in a small town, but God blinded the army, and Elisha led them to the very heart of Israel where the King ruled, and the King requested permission to slay them. Elisha responded, “How would you treat prisoners captured in war? Feed them and send them back to their Master, the King?” For a long time afterwards, Israel had peace with Syria.
It is so easy to rejoice over our enemy’s misfortune, but that is not the spirit God wants us to have. In Matthew 5:43-48, there are some great verses. Because of its length, I can only quote parts of it, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father who is in Heaven. For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends His rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love those who love you, what reward have ye? And if you greet only your brethren, what do you do more than others? Be ye therefore perfect (full—as in not lacking, matured, complete), even as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” If you have not read these passages before, they are huge. It is so against our natural way of thinking towards those who would oppose us or dislike us.
That’s why a truly Christian life is so much more than just saying a prayer and going to church on Sunday to “fulfill” a need in us, so we can say we are good people.” True Christianity is way beyond that. It is not humanly possible, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, to love our enemy. Why should I? He is my enemy. Without understanding what a great offense for which we have been forgiven—so much so that the Savior had to give His life for us—we are unable to forgive and love our enemy. To be set free from our carnal nature, something with which we all struggle, has to be a God thing. This is the “raw, ugly” side of Christianity, the part that no one wants to talk about. We are all into doing good deeds and receiving praises from that, because it makes us feel good about ourselves, but we don’t want this “raw, ugly” side of the faith. It’s wounding. It’s messy. I have to leave my nicely defined comfort zone, “my happy spot,” to step out and actually put flesh to Christ’s words.
Christ gave a hard speech similar to this, and the scriptures record that many of His “followers” left Him. When we have to forgive, and when we have to say no to ourselves to obey Christ, do we also want to leave Him? He’s my God for the good times, and as long as things go my way and the blessings keep flowing, I am in; but when the blessings stop and times are really tough and someone is wanting to see what a Christian really is, do we check out and retreat back into our comfort zone of religion? The true Christian walk is supernatural. It cannot be done without the aid of the Spirit and a heart that truly is growing in the understanding of what it was saved from and the greatness of the ransom that was paid.
Father God,
This is a hard study, but you yourself say that wide is the road that leads to destruction, and many there be that go on it, but narrow (hard, confined—as if between two boulders) is the way that leads to eternal life and few there be that find it. Let me, let us, be the ones that find it and not count this life as precious, but the life to come. As diamonds in the rough, this life serves to prove us, cut us, and shape us, so that in our reflection, Christ is seen and more may come. Amen. (Matthew 7:13-14 paraphrased)