‏ Proverbs 13:22

To Receive the Good or the Bad

In Pro 13:21, “adversity” is seen as a person who “pursues sinners”, with the thought that adversity will also overtake them. “The righteous will be rewarded with prosperity” from people because of his righteousness.

Adversity is misfortune, disaster. Some people also speak of ‘bad luck’ in such cases. This indicates the exclusion of Divine control over things, as if someone is struck by impersonal ‘fate’. The opposite then is being ‘lucky’.

This verse is sometimes true in life, but always true in eternity. In the hereafter, the imbalances that may be there on earth are corrected. The rich man had received good during his life and Lazarus received evil. That is reversed after death. Abraham points this out to the rich man (Lk 16:25).

When someone dies, the inheritance does not go to the grandchildren, but to the children. Yet grandparents can also leave an inheritance for grandchildren (Pro 13:22). What then can grandchildren inherit? Inheritance does not necessarily have to be about money or material possessions. Someone has said that the worst thing you can do for your children is to leave a lot of money for them. What “the good man” can leave for his grandchildren is his fear of God and his good example (Psa 103:17).

How do our grandchildren remember us? They can “inherit”, that is, adopt the righteous principles that have defined our behavior and begin to live by them themselves. All the prayers we have done for them are a great inheritance we leave behind.

Divine justice determines the final destination of the wealth a person leaves behind. The wealth does not come into the hands of sinners, but into the hands of the righteous. What the sinner contemplates as his wealth, will pass after his death into the hands of the righteous who knows how to properly handle it (cf. Psa 49:10). This will be fulfilled in its fullness in the kingdom of peace, when all the wicked have been judged (Isa 61:6).

When “fallow ground” is cultivated, that is, the land is plowed, it gives “abundant food” to the poor (Pro 13:23). The poor need not go hungry because the earth provides enough for everyone. That would be the situation if the rich were righteous. But because of sin, the practice is that due to injustice, what hard labor has produced is swept away. The poor are oppressed and exploited. There is no lack of food, but there is lack of justice (Jam 2:6; Jam 5:4).

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