Proverbs 3:29 (Why We are Living Under Tyranny)

If you like this blog, then you will like Get Wisdom, Get Understanding which is Pastor Wagner's commentary series on the book of Proverbs which is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle. Find out more here. For all the blogs in this series, click here: Proverbs Commentary. Proverbs 3:29 "Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee." (Pro 3:29)

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Solomon again changes topics, this time switching from paying debts promptly, which he addressed in the previous two verses (Pro 3:27-28), to now warning his son to not take advantage of careless and unsuspecting people. To devise evil is "to order, appoint, or arrange the plan or design of; to plan, contrive, think out, frame, invent" something that is "morally depraved, bad, wicked, vicious" (OED). Godly saints who have a hard time accepting that there are people among us who do such things must remember that the heart of man is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9), and that the Bible says a wicked man "shutteth his eyes to devise froward things" (Pro 16:30). Solomon's father, David, wrote more than once about wicked people who "devise my hurt" (Psa 35:4; Psa 41:7). Evil men can't be satisfied unless they are scheming about how they might rob, cheat, or harm the innocent. They can't be content to just live in peace with their neighbors and fellow citizens, for "they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land" (Psa 35:20). If anyone doubted that there are such desperately wicked people in our midst, the last two years (2020-2021) should have removed any uncertainty as we all watched an evil cabal of malevolent men carry out their dastardly design to shut down people's businesses, force them into unemployment and poverty, lock them down in their homes, order their churches closed, force them and their children to wear useless, health-damaging, and dehumanizing masks, and coerce them into receiving an experimental, dangerous, and deadly gene therapy injection under the threat of losing their livelihoods (see Covid-19 Scamdemic). "Do they not err that devise evil?" (Pro 14:22), the scripture asks rhetorically: the answer is "yes," and one day they will have hell to pay for their cruel crimes. Returning to Solomon's warning in Pro 3:29, the neighbor that dwells securely is one who lives "in a manner free from care or apprehension; carelessly; confidently; without care or misgiving" (OED). A neighbor who is secure is one who is "feeling no care or apprehension; without care, careless; free from care, apprehension or anxiety, or alarm; over-confident" (OED). He is therefore not on his guard and not prepared for trouble. A wicked man would have a temptation to plan evil against such a neighbor because he would be an easy target, which is why the LORD warns him not to.

Pro 24:15 - Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:

Solomon is warning us to not take advantage of careless people. Let this also be a warning to us to not dwell securely (carelessly) ourselves because we will likewise be easy targets for robbery, violence, fraud, or tyranny, as were the men of Laish in the book of Judges who paid for their carelessness with their lives.

Jdg 18:7 - Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man. Jdg 18:27-28 - And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire. 28 And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein.

We should instead be wise and circumspect, paying attention to our surroundings, which, if we had done in 2020 and the years and decades preceding it, we would not be living under totalitarianism and despotism as we are now.

Eph 5:14-16 - Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. 15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.