Mailbag Friday!

A friend writes,

Okay so I'm reading the book of Proverbs so there's going to be a lot of questions coming at ya buddy. Chapter 10 verse 3; can you please explain what this verse means? 'The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, But He casts away the desire of the wicked.'

Say hi to the wife and kids.

Thanks Nads,
TWT

Well, obviously I am not qualified to explain what it means but note what St. John Chrysostom writes:

Have I been stripped of every thing,” one says, “and do you bid me keep silent? Have I been shamefully used, and do you exhort me to bear it meekly? And how shall I be able?” Nay, but it is most easy if thou wilt look up unto heaven; if thou wilt behold the beauty that is in sight; and whither God hath promised to receive thee, if thou bear wrong nobly. Do this then; and looking up unto the heaven, think that thou art made like unto Him that sitteth there upon the Cherubim. For He also was injured and He bore it; He was reproached and avenged not Himself; and was beaten, yet He asserted not His cause. Nay, He made return, in the contrary kind, to those who did such things, even in benefits without number; and He commanded us to be imitators of Him.

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Consider that thou camest naked out of thy mother’s womb, and that naked both thou and he that hath done thee wrong shall depart; rather, he for his part, with innumerable wounds, breeding worms. Consider that things present are but for a season; count over the tombs of thine ancestors; acquaint thyself accurately with past events; and thou shalt see that the wrong-doer hath made thee stronger. For his own passion he hath aggravated, his covetousness I mean; but yours, he hath alleviated…

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And besides all this, he hath set you free from cares, agony, envy, informers, trouble, worry, perpetual fear; and the foul mass of evils he hath heaped upon his own head.

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“What then,” saith one, “if I have to struggle with hunger?” Thou endurest this with Paul, who saith, (1 Cor. iv. 10.) “Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked.” But he did it, you will say, “for God’s sake:” do thou it also for God’s sake. For when thou abstainest from avenging, thou dost so for God’s sake.

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“But he that wronged me, takes his pleasure with the wealthy.” Nay, rather with the devil. But be you crowned with Paul.

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Therefore fear not hunger, for “The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but He casts away the desire of the wicked.”

There are a couple of points here:

1. Look to the righteous One, sitting upon the Cherubim, who bore many evils and bids us to follow him.

2. Consider the passing nature of this life.

3. Look closely, and see what the person may have inadvertently relieved you from and heaped upon himself.