Hi Pastor John
Proverbs 24:16: “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked fall into mischief.”
I looked up the word “falleth” and found a couple of definitions that I really liked, besides the usual ones like “fall”, “cast down”. The ones that stuck out to me were “be judged” and “overwhelm”.
I have been thinking about this scripture for a couple of days and some of the thoughts I have had ae these: “When a wicked man falls, he feels mistreated, but when a just man falls, he just feels treated.” He feels he has been judged, and he maybe a little overwhelmed at times, and he has missed the mark. So, he continues on and learns from what he just went through. But the wicked say “What’s the use? I can’t do anything right; everything I do is wrong.” And even if they don’t say it out loud, that is how they feel in their hearts.
Another one of my favorite scriptures is this:
Proverbs 6:23: “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instructions are the way of life.”
If we want to go into the way of life, reproofs and instructions are the way to get there. And we all need them.
Stuart