Saying Twenty-Seven

Proverbs 24:15-16

Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; do not plunder his resting place; for a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity.

Down is only halfway up.

Meet Kyle. Kyle is two-foot-ten, has creamy-blonde hair, lots of toys, and an attitude problem. His hobbies are breaking things, and yelling. In short, Kyle is one of those two-year-olds on whose account the age is justly labelled ‘terrible.’

One winter evening, presiding pompously over his kingdom of plastic, he observed a new object in his line of vision, its front adorned with a face that seemed to eye him smugly. Too smugly, he thought. Spurning such timorous ideals as fair trials, juries of peers, and all that, he made the executive decision to kick it.

The toy toppled like it was made to do it, and Kyle’s stony heart creaked with pleasure. No sooner had his tyrannical ebullience emerged, however, than it was struck with entitled rage. The toy — can you believe it — had actually dared to resurface, bouncing back to an upright position. Its face wore no sign of repentance; if anything, the dimples had deepened, and the roundness of its backside seemed to exude self-assurance.

Kyle kicked it again — harder. Flip-flopping across the floor, it came to rest in front of the TV, still upright, its unfailing grin projecting shockwaves of exasperation into its despotic oppressor. For several more minutes, Kyle continued to unwittingly vindicate Sir Isaac Newton with unspeakable acts of violence against the innocent wobble doll. Finally succumbing to curiosity — and a sore foot — he squatted down and, with unpracticed hands, inverted the doll, landing it squarely on its impudent head.

Still no luck.

Screams of anguish led him unceremoniously down the hallway in search of his mother — the only source of justice in a world of impenitent wobble dolls.

Ironically, it is the downwards force of gravity that ensures a wobble doll stays upright. Like boat ballast, it grounds the object in a steadying weight that is proof against forces that genuinely toss and topple. A wobble doll may go down, but it is never out.

Righteous men and women are built the same way. Possessing a peace derived from the very nature of God, they live settled lives that rest in the weight of divine glory. God sinks their centre into himself such that every cantankerous shove from the Devil is simply the first half of another rise. Falls become hinges; humiliations become leverage; deaths become resurrections. When the Spirit dwells within you, you are furnished with an inner gravitas that grants you the ability to swing back to true north after every setback.

Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.

Psalm 119:165

Note well, however, that Christians are not hyper-stoic walls of concrete whose half-smiles never fade, whose stiff upper lips never slacken, whose noses never sink below the angle of a posing Victorian princess. To the contrary, the saying predicts that “a righteous man may fall seven times.” Christians, therefore, are realists who acknowledge the certainty of difficult trials, who know how to fall well when they arrive. Christians roll with the punches.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

2 Corinthians 4:17

Why does Paul use the phrase “weight of glory”? One reason is because the Hebrew word for glory (kavód) has a root idea of heaviness. To glorify something is to treat it as weighty; to despise it is to make light of it. This explains the connection between glory and gravitas. A man of gravitas — a man upon whom, and in whom others rest — is one who is not blown about by emotion, who bounces back with cheerful stability when the Devil taps him on the nose with a hammer.

The more chaotic the world becomes, the more such well-ordered men are necessary. As it stands, urban-centric Western culture is full of ‘men’ (I use the term reluctantly, in its strict, biological sense) who float through high school and university like so much flotsam and jetsam on the tides of feminism and social pressure. The pants get tighter, the mullets grow longer, and the voices take on a homosexual hue that begs to be slapped. For any lasting societal change to be possible, these boys must repent of their secular weakness and submit to the Holy Spirit’s spinal growth surgery. They must become men.

Now, although gravitas is a distinctly male virtue, it is worth mentioning that women are also called to strength and dignity. The same weighty source manifests itself differently in the sexes.

Strength and honor are her clothing; she shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31:25

Pursuing this illustration even further, we can see how crucial it is to be free from pride. Pride, an inflationary vice, seeks to raise one’s centre of mass to the head or heart, making life perpetually tipsy. Sin is a helium that must be vented through the top of the head through repentance. And repentance — true repentance — is a gift granted only to those with Holy Spirit-ballast in their boots.

When adults observe children of the Kyle ilk going about their daily tyrannies, their first response may be laughter at the youthful stupidity of it. It is clear from scripture that God thinks similarly of attempts by the wicked to permanently subvert the righteous. Due to a most basic misunderstanding of spiritual gravity, the wicked believe just one more oppression will do the trick. This time, they tell themselves, we’ll deal with the Christians for good. Just one more toddler’s kick.

According to Saying Twenty-Seven, these antics are foolish even for fools. It is as though God is saying: even you guys ought to see how silly this is.

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision.

Psalm 2:4

Saying Twenty-Seven, therefore, despite being addressed to the wicked, is said for the benefit of the righteous. As Christians observe their God laughing heartily at the schemes of their wicked, they may take heart and be encouraged. Our sovereign Lord is not thwarted by idiocy; he sees an opportunity for a good chuckle.

Scriptures for Comparison

2 Corinthians 4:9

2 Corinthians 4:17

1 Corinthians 15:58

Psalm 16:8

Psalm 62:2

Psalm 119:165

Isaiah 33:6

Proverbs 20:29

1 Corinthians 16:13

Ephesians 3:16

1 Peter 5:10

Proverbs 31:25

Micah 7:8