Proclamation:
“Do not
gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice,
or The Lord will see and disapprove and turn His wrath away from him.” Proverbs
24:17-18
Explanation:
These
are The Holy Spirit inspired words of King Solomon, the wisest man to ever
live. The Lord sees the people who do
wrong to the saints and they will be punished.
He said that the wicked shall stumble and fall and be brought down by
calamity. (Proverbs 24:16) Then he told
them that if you are blessed to see your enemy fall, don’t gloat or rejoice
over their misfortune. Their doing that would
displease The Lord and He will stop punishing their enemy.
Application:
We
shouldn't be happy and celebrate when bad things happen to our enemies. Gloating over a fallen enemy can be a more serious
problem than the sin that our enemy committed when they did us wrong. That would not be good Christian behavior and
it would displease The Lord. Additionally,
that would cause The Lord to stop punishing them and that is not what we want
Him to do. In fact, what we should do is
be nice to them. The Bible teaches us
that we are to love our enemies, bless them, do good to them, and pray for them
(Matthew 24:43-45). By being good to
them we bring shame and more punishment to them and we “… heap burning coals of
fire on their head.” (Romans 12:20) Don't
make God mad by laughing at someone who is getting their punishment for doing
wrong. Let God handle it and them. It is written, "… Vengeance is mine; I
will repay, saith The Lord." (Romans 12:19 KJV) He also said "... It is mine to avenge;
I will repay …” (Hebrews 10:30) So,
don’t laugh at them and ruin everything.
