Proverbs 14:22, Groans or Glories!

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August 22, Proverbs 14:22

Matt. 15:1-20 “Mercy and truth have met together” (Ps. 85:10).

Groans or Glories!

Evil does as evil thinks! To do evil is bad enough, but how much worse to devise evil. Those who carry out the evil plots of their superiors are held accountable even when they are obeying orders from above. Are not those at the top even more guilty? We sometimes hear of corporate executives fined or sent to jail for crimes of their companies, and of so-called warlords being convicted for the atrocities carried out by the soldiers under their command.

1. Overtaken by Evil: This is a clear warning of retribution. Those who devise evil will eventually fall by their own wicked devices. The word devise means to plough or engrave. It depicts the person who uses a plough to sow evil seed rather than good. The harvest he reaps, however, is the opposite of what he plots. In this he most surely does err, for to err is to go astray morally and spiritually to one’s ultimate ruin. These miss their evil objective, and find no happiness for all their plotting. Jesus said, With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you (Mk. 4:24). How did those who plotted against the Lord and against his anointed fare? The Second Psalm says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Their glee will give place to groans! What did Judas gain from his betrayal of the Lord for thirty pieces of silver (Mt. 26:14-16)? To this day the very name Judas is a term of the deepest infamy! To the devisers of evil in His day, Jesus gave this awful warning, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (Mt. 21:33-46). God’s justice will not be outwitted in the end. “Mercy despised brings misery deserved.”

2. Overwhelmed by Good: Let those who love the Lord learn this lesson. Let them be as diligent in devising good as others are at devising evil. What gospel thoughts arise at the words Mercy and Truth? Many translations have removed the word mercy from the Bible! They substitute words like kindness, loyalty or love, but mercy (chesed) is much more than any of these! As someone has aptly put it, “Mercy is from everlasting to contrive thy salvation, and to everlasting to perfect it.” Even the Hebrew Lexicon (BDB) still prefers mercy and truth. The Greek Bible (LXX) translates the Hebrew by the Greek word for mercy. After quoting many of the places in Scripture where this phrase occurs, an old expositor (Cope) said, “Solomon is here no lawgiver, but an evangelist, leading us unto Jesus Christ, [because] we can obtain no mercy but in Him alone.” Mercy comes without a price tag, for it is beyond all price. “Mercy and truth shall be to them, not a reward of debt (they will own that they merit nothing), but a reward of mercy, mere mercy, mercy according to the promise, mercy and truth to which God is pleased to make himself a debtor” (Henry). The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall stand (Isa. 32:8). What Songs there will be in Glory!

Thought: “The merciful fall into the arms of mercy” (J. P. Lange)

Prayer: Lord, by mercy I will sing the songs with the redeemed.