verse 5: “Evil men do not understand justice, But those who seek the LORD understand all things.”
I’ve mentioned before enjoying the old Saturday morning cartoon Superfriends. During that first season of the show, the majority, if not all, of the “villains” were not really evil, just misguided in their attempts. They usually learned that what they did was wrong, or at least saw that they could’ve accomplished their goals through less selfish means. Most of them regretted the harm they caused.
But there are those in the world today who do not understand the concept of justice; they only see “their” way as the right way…because they don’t know God’s way. We are not dumb or misguided (as the world says) for wanting to follow God’s way; He knows what’s best for us. Because we follow God’s teachings, we can understand it all. Like Him, we need to love the sinner, but hate the sin. To quote the old question in our daily walk on this old world: “what would Jesus do?”
Something to think about today.
Proverbs 17:5-6
Posted in Proverbs, tagged mock the poor, online news sources, post a comment, What would Jesus do? on January 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »
verse 5: “He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker; he who rejoices at calamity will not go unpunished.”
In this modern age, we get a lot of news and sports information from online news sources. In addition, the publisher of those news stories invites the reader to register (usually for free) and post a comment on the story. It seems that there are 3 types of “posters”: the one who is leaving a comment having nothing to do with the story, but looking for free “advertising”; the intelligent poster who is giving a well-thought out response to the article (whether you agree with their opinion or not); and the poster who gives the less-than-thought-out response. It is the last of these groups who seem to take delight in a person’s misfortunes, more than often.
Solomon is warning us in this verse, that God will judge those who mock the poor. The Holman Concordance on Proverbs (pg. 173) says it another way in that “when you mock the poor, you mock their Maker”. After all, we are all made in God’s image…and God will not be mocked.
So before you make fun of someone else’s misfortunes, take a minute and think about it. To quote a familiar phrase, WWJD: what would Jesus do?
Have a blessed day!
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