Proverbs 12:21 There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief. The things which distinguish us most try us most. Those attributes of our nature which serve to mark its superiority, serve also to evince its liability to trouble. The animal tribes, as they have no capacity for reviewing the past, so have they no power of anticipating the future. And hence they have no dread, in the strict sense, of coming evils. But we can look forward. We can busy ourselves in thought and imagination with days to come. Yet the heavier half of the cares and anxieties that we have to bear are connected with this faculty. The afflictions we fear often distress us more than the afflictions we lie under. But God, who gave us our being, knows this, and has provided against it in His Word. Does not this text meet our whole case? Amidst all disasters the good may be confident and calm. What is the significance of this assurance? It cannot be taken literally. Evil in the sense of earthly calamity, sorrow and trial is the lot of all. What, then, does the text mean? Things which are evil in themselves do not, as such, fall upon the people of God. For them the curse is turned into a blessing. A divine process of transmutation takes place in the case of every ill that befalls a child of God, and the ill becomes a good. Illustrate this — 1. From cases of personal affliction of mind, or of body, or of both. 2. Adverse circumstances. 3. Bereavements. This subject teaches the goodness of Divine providence; and it tranquillizes us under present trials. (C. M. Merry.) Parallel Verses KJV: There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief.WEB: No mischief shall happen to the righteous, but the wicked shall be filled with evil. |
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