The Righteous Are as Bold as a Lion

The wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.   Proverbs 28:1

Sometimes it is beneficial to read the text in more modern or contemporary English. Here’s one:

The wicked are edgy with guilt, ready to run off
    even when no one’s after them;
Honest people are relaxed and confident,
    bold as lions.

     The wicked are not attacked “ no one’s after them,” because they are doing what their enemy wants; evil, sin. The wicked are all ready under captivity. The are right where their enemy, satan, the adversary, wants them. They are slaves to sin. “For when you were the servants / slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.” (Romans 6:20)

      But they do run away from an enemy: their conscious. They know they have transgressed the law written in their hearts, and feel the quilt.  Their guilt keeps them from godly action and is the cause of their turning tale even when no one is confronting them.

Jeremiah 31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

³³ “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

On the other hand, the righteous, when they transgress the law written, confess and turn from their sin, knowing that their God has forgiven their iniquity and does not remember their sin.

The righteous are not just bold and act with courage because they have not sinned, because if the say they have not sinned, they deceive themselves and make God a liar, and the truth is not in us; (I John 1:8 -10).

The righteous are bold because they know their sin has been forgiven.
Psalm 103:12: 

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

One does not have to be sinless to be used of God. Moses slew an Egyptian and hid him in the sand; (Exodus 2:12) and yet God used Moses to deliver His people out of Egypt, out of slavery. David, “a man after God’s own heart,” committed adultery (2 Sam. 11:4) and murder; (2 Sam. 12:9) and yet David is mentioned in Hebrews 11:32 as an example of faithfulness to God. Paul, before his conversion, “outraged the assembly, entering into each of the houses, dragging away men and women he delivered them into the prison. (Acts 8:3 Finck Translation) Saul/Paul was also present at the stoning of Stephen. (Acts 7:58).

God uses those who confess and turn away from their sin and understand that their sin has been forgiven.

But the heart of the matter sin goes much deeper than the confession/repentance cycle:  the men God uses are those who admit their sinfulness, their nature to sin, or as Paul explains in Romans 7:18: 

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing: for to will (to do right) is present with me, but to  perform that which is good I find not.”

The righteous understand the teaching of Romans chapters 5-8 which ends with Paul’s exclamation:

³¹ What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?^{3 33} Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
³⁴ Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
³⁶ As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
³⁷ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
³⁸ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,³⁹ Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

     With this mindset Paul was able to endure all the sufferings listed in 2 Cor. 4:8-10 and 2 Cor. 11:23-28, including fighting with beasts at Ephesus. I Cor. 1:32.
     This understanding of the truth and promises of God in relation to their sinful nature – and their sin - is what makes the righteous bold as lions.
     The temptation is all around us today more than ever. Many times we succumb to that temptation, and then fail to confess and turn from our transgression. Consequently we lose our boldness, we lose our willingness to fight the good fight of faith.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ….. he is the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole (Israelite) Society.” (I John 1:9; 1 John 2:2)

The fight we are battling in is one of faith, “against spiritual wickedness on high.” (Eph. 6:12) Believing the truth and promises of God regarding his faithfulness and promise to forgive us our sins is what will make us as bold as lions in this day of adversity. 

The wicked flee when no one is pursuing,
But the righteous are bold as a lion.

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Heap Coals of Fire Upon His Head

Today, being the 25th of November, I read Proverbs 25 where we find: 21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: 22 For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.

Paul quotes this verse in Romans 12:20.

Paul is writing to the Israelites in Rome, not everyone, everywhere. Enemies here are fellow Israelites that are, unfortunately, at odds with each other, are opposing one another.

"Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head ... " has been an idiom quite misunderstood. Read any commentary on this subject to prove this for yourself.

In the ancient world, walled cities were built to protect the occupants of an area from attacking invaders. During an invasion, the inhabitants would seek safety within the walls of the city. 

Often, the invaders would lay siege upon the city constructing sloping ramparts of rocks and soil to reach the top of the wall to allow their armies to breach the walled-in city. Also,  the main entrance gate of the city might be rammed with a trunk of a tree - a battering ram -  by several men working in unison - to break down the formidable barrier and allow entrance. 

Those inside the city walls did not stand idly by waiting for their attackers' success. Those within the walls would shoot arrows, throw sizable rocks and debri down upon the heads of their attackers. 

They would also build fires within the walls producing coals. Those hot coals were carried to the top of the walls in metal containers. These burning coals would then be rained down up their enemies working hard to gain entrance below the wall and do those within the city harm. 

Obviously, these hot coals were an effective deterrent to such activity and did much damage to those working fervently below.

This practice is, I believe, where the idiomatic term "for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head" originated. 

The lesson here is: find a need our kinsman, but temporary enemy has, and meet it. If he is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink. By not avenging ourselves and returning the evil being done to us but instead, by doing good and not evil to those who oppose us, we use an effective means to get our enemy to stop their attack. We use good, rather than evil.

We heap coals of fire upon his head. 

Should your enemy not accept your peaceful overtures of good, rather than evil, he will then have to deal with the Lord, who has promised vengeance on your behalf; but only if you do not take vengeance yourself.

I pity the man who does not cease from his attack after having coals of fire heaped upon his head.

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The Word “World” in the Scriptures

“…The whole world is gone after him.” John 12:19

Did the whole world go after Christ?

“Then went all Judea and were baptized of him in Jordan.” Matthew 3:5

Was all Judea or Jerusalem baptized in the Jordan?

“We know we are of God and the whole world lieth in the wicked one.” I John 5:19

Does the “whole world” here mean everyone? If so, how is it then that there were some who were “of God?”

The words 'world' and 'all' are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture; and it is very rarely that 'all' means all persons, taken individually. 

(Charles H. Spurgeon, Particular Redemption, A Sermon, 28 Feb 1858)

Romans 10:18

"But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their (those preaching the gospel) sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."

Did those preaching have their sound “go into all the world, unto the ends of the world?”

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.  Luke 2:1

Was “all the world” taxed? 

Probably the most quoted Bible verse, John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Did God so love the entire “world” and did or does “whosoever believeth”  have everlasting life? 

What sayeth the Scripture? 

 Matthew 15:24
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Who did Yahshua Christ send his disciples to?

Matthew 10:6

 ¹And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
 ²Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
 ³Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
 ⁴Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
 ⁵These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

 ⁶But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

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