The Cursed Life

For Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Proverbs 29:24

The partner of a thief hates his own life;
he hears the curse, but discloses nothing.

The curse is possibly a legal pronouncement made in general against unknown lawbreakers or against witnesses who will not reveal the truth. Here is a person who has joined up with a thief as an accomplice of some kind. Either he has helped to commit the crime or knows about the crime. In either case, he keeps silent, allowing the criminal to go unpunished and the crime to be unresolved, even after a curse is invoked.

Does he think he will escape with impunity? Does he think to mock God, who is called upon by the invoker of the curse to bring about justice? If so, then he in truth acts as one who hates his own life, for he is condemning himself to judgment. He will live under the fear of being found out. If he has a conscience, it will plague him. And what awaits him after death is the final judgment that will expose all crimes and deliver perfect justice.

Perhaps this person joined up with the thief because he thought the thief to be clever. Perhaps he joined in out of fear from the thief. Perhaps he had in a moment of folly committed himself and feels that he cannot break his word. Whatever the case, he shows that he fears man more than God. The day will come when he will rue such a mix-up in whom to fear.