We often think that life is unfair and in a way this quotation proves it. It compares what happens to the righteous and what happens tot he wicked. The righteous are those who are virtuous or free from guilt and sin. The wicked are those who are immoral, evil or just mischievous.
It is one of those well crafted sayings that express a principle. There are literally hundreds of such statements in this book of proverbs. The amazing thing is that this book was written over 3000 years ago yet it still resonates with people.
What could this idea mean in practise?
The first thing to notice is that there is no sense of people being judged about whether they are righteous or wicked. People make their own choice of what category they fall in as a result of their actions. No one is saying you are this or you are that.
What it does support is the idea of if you don’t hurt anyone else then other people will not hurt you. I suppose that we have learnt that by experience. What it seems to say is that there is a sort of reciprocation arrangement in the world so that if you hurt someone somehow you are going to end up in a mess yourself.
It does not say what kind of misfortune someone might have. Or what kind of loss or damage they may experience. Or what has caused their misery or serious unhappiness. It could be anything. It might not even be directly related to the unpleasant things that they have done. The idea is that if someone does immoral things they will have so many problems as a result that they will end up having a miserable life.
Something else it does not say is that bad things do not happen to good people. What it says is that if bad things do happen then good people are not as likely to come to harm as bad people do.
It depends on how you see things
Two days before I wrote this I discovered that there was a problem with my car. I was going to do into town but when I tried moving it off the drive it made the most horrendous noise. When the wheels turned there was such a banging noise that I did not dare move it very far.
As I was checking the car I found a piece of metal I was not sure if it came off the car or not. However I later discovered that the springs that formed part of the suspension on the off side front wheel had broken. Umm that piece of metal was the same shape as part of that spring.
I had driven home from a church meeting without a problem but when I tried to go out again the car was very unhappy. I discovered another problem while trying to work out what had happened as I could not undo the spare wheel. The jack that came with the car is stored in the same place as the spare wheel. The last time the spare wheel had been checked the compartment had been fastened so tight that I could not open it.
Brilliant I was stuck. But do you know what I ended up rejoicing when I realised what had NOT happened. The spring had not broken while I was on my own driving along a lonely cold dark road. I had managed to get home safely before it broke. The spare wheel was inaccessible but I had not needed it in the many months since a garage accidentally made it in accessible. Things had gone wrong but I had not come to any great harm as I could have done.
OK I could be annoyed by having to go over so many humps in the road that it had damaged by car. Or I could cross be with myself for struggling to position the car so that I went over those humps in such a way that it took less of a toll on the car. Both of these things are true but I am choosing to focus on being thankful that the things that I feared could happen had not happened.
The other amazing thing is that I managed to get it fixed relatively easily and within a short period of time. I found a way of getting it to a garage without driving it that was not that expensive. The garage was able to fix it quicker than I thought they would be able to do.
Oops that sounds as though I am claiming to be righteous. I know that sounds a bit big headed in ways but what is true is that I am trying to avoid being immoral. What this proverb suggests is that this attitude is what had helped keep me from harm.
How does relate to this idea of the Kingdom?
One of the lovely things about being part of this kingdom is that those who have done what is needed to be seen as a prince or princess are counted as righteous. It is not that they are perfect or good enough in themselves but the fact that they are counted as as a prince or princess means that they are seen as the righteous ones who the king protects from harm.
I was trying to think about what were the benefits of being part of the kingdom and to be honest I was struggling to come up with a list. It seemed to be a list of things that I took for granted. It is not usually easy to see the things that we take for granted simply because they do not stand out to us because they are so “normal”.
Here was something that seemed normal to me but when I looked carefully at what had happened it was one of those benefits I had taken for granted. Yes things had gone wrong but I was kept from harm when they had. Of course it depends on how you interpret what happened, but I chose to interpret events as being protected from harm.
How does this apply to you?
Events happen and often it is how we see them that influences how we react. When I have seen how much better things have been than they could have been it has brought tears of gratitude to my eyes. Tears are only an overflow of emotion and you can cry if you are thankful.
When was the last time you cried tears of thankfulness because you were kept from harm?
You too can give your life a boost by being grateful for the things that have gone right. Even in the times when they might look as if they have not gone to plan. It will also have a boost from trying to do things in a way that does not harm other people. You see if you are trying to avoid hurting others then you will reap a harvest. This harvest will comprise of situations not being as harmful to you as they could have been.
Now what good are you doing to others? Good that might somehow become a harvest of good things coming back to you.