Last Friday’s Proverb was an exploration of who is our neighbor. So often we deliberately hurt the people that are closest to us through our own selfishness and pride. This week we look at another sinful tendency of mankind – envy.
30 Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.
This would usually be termed as “picking a fight,” or “unwarranted provocation.” We see animals taking unprovoked swipes at each other all the time, as well as children. Adults usually hold themselves guiltless of this offense, but generally that notion is dishonest. Mankind’s striving without cause can be directly tied to – envy. The women who snipe at another woman simply because she is prettier, or thinner, or somehow seems better. The guys verbally taking out a coworker that was promoted, a supervisor or employer or some “big-wig” on the grounds that he doesn’t work as hard as they do. They perceive themselves to be oppressed by the person or persons they are attacking. This is striving without cause.
The next verse is interesting in that it relates to oppressors, but it is usually the case – that perception flavors the persona of the oppressor. As with Cain, who directed his anger at God towards his brother – our perception of who is oppressing us can be distorted.
31 Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
In all human history, no people group has been more oppressed and persecuted than the Jews. In Moses’ time, Pharaoh and his advisers felt threatened by the Jew’s incredible prosperity. The Third Reich also envied the Jew’s incredible prosperity. They justified persecuting the Jews because they felt the Jew’s prosperity was oppressing them. Alternately – the Jews themselves were guilty of envying their oppressor’s gentile, pagan, way of life, free from the Law. Israel often sinned in choosing to emulate the pagans around them. Christians also do the same, and act just like the sinful fallen world we are directed to be separate from.
This is the power of the evil one holding sway over the hearts of men, because of his own envy of God. Certainly, Lucifer feels that God is oppressing him.
Are there rich, prosperous , elites oppressing us? Of course. But they can only do this because we allow them to by participating in their rebellion. The Lord terms these oppressors as “froward” = willfully contrary, not easily managed. Frowardness is an abomination to the Lord, as in one who transgresses the Law. The froward oppressor chooses to defy the Lord, despite His manifest love, mercy, and majesty.
32 For the froward is abomination to the Lord:
but His secret is with the righteous.
The Vine Vigil 