Proverbs 21:18-20

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 21:18

THE RANSOM OF THE RIGHTEOUS

This verse must be understood to express the same truth as that in Isaiah 43:3, in which Jehovah, speaking to the Hebrew people, says, “I gave Egypt for thy ransom—Ethiopia and Seba for thee,” referring doubtless to the deliverance by the overthrow of the Egyptians and other nations. Here the Divine interposition is not on behalf of an elect nation, but on behalf of a special character; not for the deliverance of Israel according to the flesh, but of the true Israelite—the righteous and upright man wherever he is found, for “in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him” (Acts 10:35).

I. When the wicked man stands in the way of the true advancement of the good he shall be removed out of the way. It is a law of the universe, and the end to which all God’s government tends, that goodness shall finally have the ascendancy over evil—that right shall triumph over wrong. Now, although we speak of goodness and of evil in the abstract, they have no abstract existence; they can only exist in connection with free personalities; with beings who have the choice of their actions. Hence, if evil is to be put down, it must be put down in the person of evil men or devils, and if good is to rule it must rule in the person of the good. Therefore, when the transgressor in any way opposes the real and true advancement of the righteous man he opposes the advance of righteousness, and he must be sacrificed. This is not always apparent to human eyes; things often seem to tend in quite the contrary direction; but this is because we do not know what is really most conducive to the coming of the kingdom of righteousness, nor how the overthrow of evil can be best accomplished.

II. Every man must either be ransomed from sin or become a ransom for righteousness. The righteous and the upright on the earth have only become so by submission to the righteous will of God—by taking His yoke and choosing His service. This has delivered them from the power of evil—this has redeemed them from the slavery of sin. It was quite open to Pharaoh to fall in with God’s will concerning Israel—to obey the demand which was made upon him. It was only after repeated refusal that he and his were made a ransom for God’s people. It is in every case where God’s will is made known, and it is only when men persist in transgression that they are made a ransom for the upright. But there is no neutral ground. Every man who is not upright is a transgressor, and as such will be subject to this law.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

In the time of some strange visitation for sin, the notorious offender, who is guilty of heinous crimes, by his suffering and death shall free the innocent person from the stroke of God’s vengeance, who should not be spared, but plagued, if the evildoer were winked at. Moreover, some one that hath, by breaking the Lord’s covenant or precept, caused trouble to fall both on himself and many others, who in like manner have not sinned as he hath done, shall, suffering alone for the sin which he hath committed, deliver by his misery the rest that are in the same adversity, but not for the same cause. The executing of Saul’s sons (2 Samuel 21.), the storming of Achan (Joshua 7:20), and casting of Jonah into the sea (Jonah 1:12), may more plainly declare and more fully prove the truth of this matter. It may be here objected, if the Lord punish the righteous for the wicked man’s offence, how is he then righteous? To answer hereunto briefly—First, though the Lord afflict the innocent with the sinners oftentimes, yet He doth not correct them for the faults of transgressors, but for their own faults, there being none so just but that he sinneth sometimes. Secondly, when the just, having authority to punish sin, wink at the known offences of the ungodly, by letting them go scot-free, they make their transgressions their own, so that in such cases no marvel if the Lord scourge the just with the unjust; for even the just do in such cases appertain to the family of the unjust.—Muffet.

It is the hatred of the wicked against the righteous that bringeth them into captivity, but it is the favour of God towards them that He maketh those who have made them captives to be themselves the redemption of them. Or else, if the condition of this world by God’s permission and providence hath cast the righteous into thraldom, it is the sport of the wicked to insult over them; but it is the compassion of God towards them that He maketh those who make sport at them to be themselves the sacrifice of their deliverance. And, seeing misery, being man’s master, requireth the right of command over him, according as many are the general calamities of mankind, God maketh the wicked to serve it, and the transgressor to pay bondage unto it instead of the righteous.—Jermin.

The subjects of Proverbs 21:19 have been already treated in this chapter. See on Proverbs 21:5, and on Proverbs 21:9.