Proverbs 3:32-35, Of Saints and Sinners

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February 7, Proverbs 3:32-35

Matt. 5:1-16; 1 Pet. 5:5-11 “Many… awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2).

Of Saints and Sinners

To reveal what little reason saints have to envy sinners, the last four verses compare the respective condition of each. Verses 27-31 were God’s rules, and verses 32-35 give God’s reasons. The history of man is the epic of the violation of those rules! The negative rules are followed by positive reasons. God owes us no explanation for our obedience, yet sinful men wilfully scorn them.

  1. Misery or Majesty: For the froward is abomination to the Lord, but his secret is with the righteous (v.32). Froward means rebellious, and they are an abomination to God. The righteous seek to be obedient. While sinners are hated of God, saints are beloved. God doesn’t just hate sin. He is angry with sinners every day. Sin and sinners are bound together in judgment. The righteous have God’s secret, His confidence, His counsel. What a contrast! What a privilege! One is justly condemned; the other justified by grace. One tastes the misery of God’s condemnation, the other the majesty of God’s confidence.
  2. Mirage or Mansion: The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked (v.33a). Sinners abide under God’s curse; saints enjoy His blessing. How slow we are to believe God means what He says? Sin is never alone; it infects everything in the house. No house is strong enough to withstand this curse of sin. Note the contrast between house of the wicked and habitation of the just (v.33b). The latter means a sheep-cote, a humble shelter or cottage, but an heir to glory dwells there, and blesses all within. The members of that house have no reason to envy the house of the wicked where sin and death reign.
  3. Mocked or Mercied: Surely he scorns the scorners, but gives grace to the lowly (v.34). Scorners mock at everything holy. They are proud, wicked, insolent men. These scorners will not submit to God’s rule and sneer at salvation. No wonder God hates the seat of the scornful (Ps. 1), and treats them in kind. He scorns the scorner (Ps. 2:4). He merits God’s disdain, but God gives grace to the lowly. The saints must bear the scorn of man, but what is that to the smile of God! Saints have surely no reason to envy sinners.
  4. Measureless or Miserable: The wise shall inherit glory; but shame shall be the promotion of fools (v.35). The saints’ inheritance is measureless! Fools promote, flaunt, their very shame! Who are the fools, who the wise? Fools defiantly promote their shame, and they will despise the measureless glory of the saints to their miserable end. It is interesting that the last Hebrew word in this verse (and chapter) is shame and the miserable end of fools, but the inheritance of glory is a foreview of a measureless Heaven.

Thought: “Sin is sovereign until sovereign grace dethrones it” (CHS).

Prayer: Lord, let my lot be with the Righteous.