Righteous Joy

For Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Proverbs 29:2

When the righteous increase, the people rejoice,
but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Proverbs 28:28 says:
When the wicked rise, people hide themselves,
but when they perish, the righteous increase.

Today's proverb makes clear the impact of the righteous when they increase. It brings rejoicing. People may rejoice in the concept of righteousness and justice, but what brings out the rejoicing here is their own freedom from oppression. The wicked, in advancing their own pleasure, exact money and labor from the people. To protect their wicked endeavors, they repress any attempt to exert freedom or vindication or even to be left alone. The wicked have one goal - their own happiness - and will do whatever is needed to obtain it.

The righteous also have the goal of happiness. The difference is what makes up that happiness. For the righteous, having a people who are happy and contented makes them all the more contented. To see people who are fulfilled makes them feel fulfilled. And the righteous are most righteous according to how much they share in the joy of their heavenly righteous Father. So we see this in the Son whose greatest delight is to delight his Father. And so he brings forth justice at the greatest of cost, knowing that an even greater joy awaits in what his work will produce - joy to his Father and the re-making of sinners into righteous children.

And so he has established a kingdom in which the righteous increase and the people who belong to it rejoice. And so that joy will be made complete when the King returns and consummates his kingdom, bringing a day in which there will be no more groaning.