The Wicked Observed

For Thursday, April 26, 2007
Proverbs 21:12

The Righteous One observes the house of the wicked;
he throws the wicked down to ruin.

The critical mistake of the wicked is to believe that he is keeping unobserved. Think of the image of law officials staking out a house hoping to see or hear something that might give evidence of the wicked's guilt. The great challenge of the law is to come up with clear evidence and in a way that will be accepted in court. The wicked knows how to cover his tracks and use the legal system to supress evidence.

But what he does not take into account is the Righteous One who observes his house even into its secret places, even into his own heart. His outwitting human justice only serves to blind him all the more to the justice that awaits him, whether it be on earth or after death. Ruin is his certain end precisely because all that he does, says, and thinks is observed by the Righteous One who is his Judge.

The tragedy is that his Judge could be his Savior and Advocate if he would but repent. His freedom is free, but his pride over outwitting the "system" keeps him from seeing what even the simplest can see.