May 19 - Today from Proverbs 19 we look at verse 19
"A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again."
Discipline is a necessity in our culture if we are to live relatively peaceable lives. This proverb does not deal with the question of why some people in society are self-demanding bullies. Rather, it deals with the fact that there are bullies and there are necessary means to deal with them.
Not every person who displays a hot temper is a career bully, but when their tempers flair they act like bullies. When things don't go their way, they cross all boundaries in an attempt to make it go their way and to see that those who are perceived to be opposing them pay for their opposition. It's a bully attitude. It deprives others of their basic rights, it is disruptive and divisive, and it is outright sin against the second great commandment "love your neighbor as yourself". There are natural consequences to sin which manipulative people are often able to delay through clever and forceful tactics. In such cases, the appointed authorities of a society or an institution are obligated to administer discipline. Solomon says it this way in Ecclesiastes 8:11, "When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong. Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God."
When penalties for social transgressions are not quickly carried out, the perpetrator continues, seemingly without impunity. The culture in which the perpetrator functions may have to endure the hot-tempered tactics a hundred more times because discipline was lacking. It is not grace to rescue a perpetrator from discipline when there is no self-conviction or repentant attitude. If the penalty is not paid, there is no lesson learned. Instead, bad habits are rewarded and enforced. Wisdom understands that if hot-tempered people who apply their own disruptive and divisive sense of justice against society are not disciplined, society will continue to suffer the ill effects of such behavior. When people lack self-discipline, God has appointed authorities to administer social discipline. It is not revenge against the perpetrator, it is protection for the rest of society.
The final thought here comes from the passage in Ecclesiastes. It may appear at times that the bullies and the forceful have gotten away with their schemes while the God-fearing people suffer because they live humbly before God. But when the Great Judge comes, all scales will be balanced - forever! I don't have the slightest idea how God will consummate all of this on that last day, but I know on the authority of God's Word that "It will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God."
Since Nov 08
About Me
- Ken
- While mentor-ing a couple of young men late in the year 2001 , I told them that if they agreed to read a chapter of Proverbs each week-day as a part of their devotions, I would choose one verse from the chapter and share a meditation by email. They agreed. I continued to write the meditations at my desk in my home for the next two and a half years. They began to forward them to their friends and I received requests from those friends to be placed on the email list. My personal email bundle was to about eighty people. Many of those people forwarded them to friends all over the country – and some over the world. Only the Lord knows how extensive the writings traveled. I am not a professional writer, and each meditation was spun off in a relatively short period of time during my own personal devotions in the morning. In April of 2004 I assembled 366 of the meditations into a calendar year. As I now bring up the Proverb of the Day to send on to my friends, I am surprised at how fresh each of them is to my own heart – and often how they speak to me in a completely different way than when I first wrote them. . . . . Ken Sweers
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