Proverbs 13:21
"Evil pursues sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repaid."
I remember and incident that took place when I was about 6 years old going to kindergarten in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A little girl in class was building a tower out of wooden blocks and it was getting rather tall. In my boyish way I thought it would be great fun to sneak up to her tower and knock it down. It came crashing down and I ran away laughing. As you can imagine the little girl didn’t think it was fun at all. I turned around to look at the results of my mischief and caught one of the blocks just above my right eye. The blocks were large and it knocked me to the ground. I ended up needing 5 stitches. My eye was swollen shut and turned a very dark purple just in time for Christmas.
This little story vividly illustrates the principle Solomon writes about in Proverbs 13:21. It is the law of "sowing and reaping". We also know it by this modern day phrase "What goes around, comes around". Solomon writes that sinners are pursued by evil or disaster. It pursues them, chases them and stalks them. And it does so with violent intentions. We may think our evil is fun or that we can get by with it. But eventually the block comes flying through the air and catches us right between the eyes. All Christians would be well-served to keep this thought in mind. There is no sin we can commit, however secretly, and get by with it. It will always catch up to us. And when it does the result is "less than fun".
On the other hand, Solomon, says the righteous shall be repaid with good. The word used here for "repaid" is closely related to the word "shalom". It means "to be safe, secure, complete, uninjured in mind or body". When the righteous are "repaid" by God they rewarded with peace. What a great place to be! At peace with God, receiving His blessing of safety and security, and uninjured by the guilt that plagues the evil-doer.
God desires to bless or repay His children with this kind of peace, safety and security. Let Him! Don’t try to run and hide like Adam and Eve did. Or like I did as a little boy. It won’t work. We can’t run far enough and fast enough to escape the consequences of our evil actions. But Praise God! We don’t have to run. If we do evil. If it pursues us with it’s evil intent. We can stop. Turn to God. Confess the sin. He has promised to forgive the repentant sinner. Where sin abounds His grace will much more abound!
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3 comments:
I don't remember that but then I'm not the one that got nailed. Yeah. Don't Buddhists use the word "karma" for the same concept?
Good post.
It was long time ago. I'll show you a picture sometime. "Karma" does, in a sense, express the Biblical principle of "sowing and reaping" but Karma takes the whole idea to the "n"th degree. Karma is the defining doctrine of Buddhism.
I know very little about Buddhism but the word "karma" I do hear bandied about on occasion. "What goes around, comes around" is another way the idea of sowing and reaping is expressed nowadays.
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