A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; the simple pass on and are punished. Proverbs 27: 12, NKJV.
Dear God, please help us to pay heed to what is happening around us so that we will not have to suffer needlessly. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
I find it hard to understand how we can see people fail, and suffer, in their wrong doing, and still believe that, “It won’t happen to me!” But then it should not be so hard to understand if we realize, that with the entrance of sin, our spiritual DNA suffered a drastic change. We went from knowing only good, which was God’s perfect will for us, to knowing good and evil, which we cannot handle. Along with that change came also a diminishing of our common sense.
The Creator had given a distinct command: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2: 16b, 17). When that command was disobeyed, humankind set in motion a most dangerous trend, that of, doing wrong, while expecting good results.
Immediately, the Adversary went to work and came up with one of his most effective traps: “If it feels right, then it can’t be wrong.” Scripture informs us, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3: 6). She saw, she felt good, she tasted, and then she gave. Thus the most effective counterfeit was born: feeling good took the place of doing good. As human beings we try to make them one and the same, but they are not. We do not create things, we only modify what was already created by God. So calling what God says is wrong – right, will never make it right.
Our Scripture for today informs us, that it is the wise person (prudent) who will hide himself from evil. This reveals such an important truth: we can usually see the evil coming. I believe that is because of the promise that, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10: 13b). If you want to see you will see the danger approaching in time to hide from it. A safe place to hide (Exodus 33: 22) is in the cleft of the Rock Christ Jesus (10)! No evil can touch you there!
The opposite of the prudent person, is the simple person, who, discarding all the warning signs, just walks right into the danger and is punished. It is not unusual that the word punished is used here. The original word anash meaning to inflict a punishment, is quite in order. When we see the danger approaching and simply decide to ignore it, it is as if we were inflicting punishment upon ourselves. If we can learn from someone else’s experience and not have to suffer ourselves – that is to act wisely.
As one of my favorite adages in Spanish goes: “Cuando ves la barba de tu vecino arder, ponga el tuyo en remojo, (When you see your neighbor’s beard burning, put yours to soak). This is good advice! Let us decide from today onward, to look and listen!