Grace & Peace: Proverbs 22:24–25

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation (KJV).

Though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly (NKJV).

Proverbs 26:26

Those who are guilty of sin will always want to hide the fact. This has been the case since our first parents heard the voice of Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8), and they immediately took it upon themselves to hide. That was not exactly the smoothest of moves—“Quick! The omniscient one is coming. Let’s hide behind this bush.”

But even though our natural impulse is to hide sin, the Scriptures also teach us that some sins are more angular than others, and so parts of them stick out from their hiding places. Some sins are obvious, in other words, and some are not. “Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after” (1 Timothy 5:24). And in other cases, the sin appears to cooperate with being hidden, but then later, at an inopportune time, tumbles out in front of everybody. This is the kind of thing that this particular proverb is talking about. Just like two chemicals might be volatile when mixed together, so also it is with hatred and deception (about the hatred). If a man carries hatred in his heart toward someone, it is like magma in a volcano, the kind near the top, the kind that wants to come out. You can’t fix that kind of thing by putting a tarp over the top of the volcano.

Moses told the people that their sin would find them out (Num. 32:23). This is true for all sin, in some way, shape or form, but certain sins give themselves away far more readily. You don’t have to go far to find people denying that they are bitter, or malicious, or spiteful, or envious, when that is the most obvious thing about them.

What this proverb promises us is that when people deceive themselves in this way, and seek to cover over their hatred with fair words, the truth is going to become obvious to the whole assembly. The truth will out.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: But whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.

Proverbs 28:26

If our secular age were to settle on a formulation of a great Secular Shema, it would certainly be something like “Follow your heart.” This is the central catechetical lesson that is drilled into the heads of our young people——whether in the curricula of our government schools, in our music, in our movies and sitcoms, and in the secular equivalent of Vacation Bible Schools.

Scripture teaches the opposite lesson, more than a little bluntly. The one who trusts in his own heart is a fool. This means that he is trusting in a fool’s heart. Just as man who represents himself in a court of law has a fool for a client, so also it is with a man who goes out into the world with his heart for an advisor. 

The man who walks wisely, it says, shall be delivered. Delivered from what? Well, delivered from all the snares, traps, pits, or deceptions that the fools walk right into. Whatever it is that a fool does not anticipate, the wise man anticipates—and guards against. 

If we remember what Scripture teaches us elsewhere, and if we consider the nature of the case here, we should be able to see that the mainspring of all the traps will be some form of flattery. 

“For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Cor. 10:12).

The fool is someone who tells himself all manner of lies, all of them with a sweet smelling savor. That is the kind of sacrifice you offer up to a deity, right? The thing they don’t have is any kind of outside, objective check. That objectivity must come from somewhere outside the sinner’s ego. This should of course be Scripture ultimately, but it can also come from the unbending nature of reality, or the forceful rebukes of family and friends.

We live in a generation that does not understand what a grace it is, what a gift we have been given, in the possibility of being wrong.  

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: But by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged.

Proverbs 28:2

Scripture teaches us that there is an ethical interaction between the rulers of a land and those who are ruled. When the wicked rule, the people mourn (Prov. 29:2), but it is also the case, as we see here, that when the people are wicked, the rulers mourn.

More specifically, lack of integrity in the populace results in instability, and that instability extends upwards to the princes of the land. Inability to hold a government together is the result of a land’s transgressions. When there is an earthquake, the top floors of the skyscrapers would be the more exciting places to be. When high winds come, that is not the moment for climbing to the top of a tree.

This is why, when a state is in turmoil, repentance is appropriate everywhere. A radically unbiblical way of thinking is to say something like “don’t blame me, I voted for the other guy.” When judgment falls, it falls on the entire nation. The nation of Judah was taken into exile for their sins, but Daniel—a godly young man—was included in it. And then, as an old man, when it came time to pray for the return from exile, Daniel offered up a prayer of repentance that did not exclude himself. 

The flip side of the proverb is that a man of understanding and knowledge can head such a disaster off. One prince after another is a prelude to collapse, but a man of understanding knows what it will take to prolong the days of a nation. And when a people is caught in the grip of various follies and frenzies, as we most certainly are right now, the prayer of the godly should be for God to raise up a Dutch uncle, who will talk sense to us.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel (KJV).

A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel (NKJV).

Proverbs 12:10

This proverb is telling that that kindness of a righteous man extends into everything, including his treatment of his animals. On the flip side, the cruelty of a wicked man extends into everything, even into those things that he would call merciful. 

A man is what he is in all of his relationships, in other words. He reveals who he is in all of his dealings, whether great or small. 

When we are living in a delusional state, we like to believe that we can turn our behavior on and off, like it was on a switch. Kindness is called for “here,” and so I will leave the switch on. It is not so necessary over there, because I am just alone at home with my dog, so I don’t have to worry about it. But life doesn’t work in that way. Wherever you go, there you are.

You may treat someone cruelly, and call it something else—“necessary firmness,” for example—but Scripture speaks to us with necessary firmness. The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. And a righteous man may do something thoughtful for his cattle, and not think anything of it.

This is the basic difference between the righteous and the wicked. The righteous do good things that they don’t even notice. ““Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?” (Matthew 25:37, NKJV). Their righteousness was displayed in their kindness to the “least of these.” And the wicked will try to justify themselves because they did not recognize that their “tender mercies” to the downtrodden, which were actually cruelties, were reckoned by Christ as having been done to Him.

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