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One of our biggest challenges in life is avoiding the path which has the appearance of being right, but isn’t. This proverb reminds us that appearances can be deceiving.
This psalm gives us advice that will keep us from following the path mentioned in today’s proverb. If we trust in the Lord, He will keep on us secure and show us how to avoid those paths which seem right, but are not. The psalmist tells us that the wicked will not rule the land of the godly. If a country’s rulers are wicked, it tells us that so are most of that country’s people. Of course, this also tells us that the way to replace wicked rulers with godly ones is to get the majority of the people to embrace godliness.
One of the frequently overlooked lessons of the story of Ananias and Sapphira is that the giving by the well-to-do was totally voluntary. Peter told Ananias that it was Ananias’ decision whether or not to sell his land. And once he had sold it, it was Ananias’ decision what he did with his money. Ananias’ sin was not in his failure to give all of the money he got from selling his land to help the needy. His sin was in lying about it. Ananias and Sapphira wanted both the honour of giving their wealth to help the poor and to retain a good portion of that wealth.
The high council had the Apostles arrested and put in jail. However, over night, an angel released them and told them to go back to the Temple to preach. When the high council sent to the jail for the Apostles the following day, those guarding the jail discovered they were missing. No sooner had word reached the high council than a messenger arrived telling them that the Apostles were preaching in the Temple once more. Imagine this, people had seen the Apostles arrested the previous day. Yet, here they were preaching in the Temple, making no attempt to hide.
When they were brought before the high council and asked why they had defied the council’s order not to preach in the name of Jesus, Peter replied for all of them by saying that they would obey God rather than human authority. Gamaliel pointed out an important point, when a group emerges which is following a human leader, it will soon disappear after that leader dies. Unless the group is serving some purpose of God’s. If the latter is true, no amount of persecution will serve to crush the group. We do not need to persecute those who follow false teachings, God will deal with them in His own time.
Solomon’s reaction to Adonijah requesting permission to marry Abishag, David’s last concubine, sheds light on the importance of learning the context of Biblical passages. Looking at it from the perspective of American culture today, Solomon’s reaction seems overboard: Adonijah was just looking to marry a pretty young woman. However, Solomon saw it as an attempt by Adonijah to position himself to claim the throne again, which it probably was. Adonijah had tried to set himself up as the default successor to David. When he perceived that David was on his approaching death, Adonijah had gathered those dignitaries he could count on to support him. His plan appears to have been to have all of them with him when David died and have them declare him king by acclamation. That failed. Here he appears to be attempting to marry David’s last concubine and through that marriage extend a claim to the throne.