Proverbs 26:10 Commentary and Bible Study

When rendered in line with the KJV this proverb is about God’s sovereign disposal of all men, even those who turn away from him. Does God have a purpose for those who do not obey him and who do the opposite of what he commands? Certainly! Can they escape his will by their disobedience? Not at all! God has a more subtle and in many ways a more fearful relation to them, even though they try to take themselves out of his plan. We watch with bated breath as puny foolish sinful human beings attempt to disrupt the plan of God and to go their own way. They appear to succeed and to continue to exist in his universe in contravention to all his standards. Have they thwarted him and done the impossible and overcome the Almighty, though they are so powerless and so short lived? Have they created a contradiction in God’s universe? By no means! Their situation is all the more fearful because the consequence of what they have done is not immediately seen. God will certainly not let them get away with their sin, and he delays to judge them shows because he knows that he can at any time call them to account. Judgment when it comes will be all the more terrible. The truth is that they serve his purpose and they will wish intensely that they did not. God’s relation to those who transgress his law is compared to someone who hires a workman to do a job. The word translated ‘rewardeth’ by the KJV means to hire. God is utterly separated from all evil but he includes the actions of evil men and women in his plan. He does so in such a way that he makes clear that he hates sin, for he forbids all disobedience and then punishes it when it occurs. At the same time he causes evil to play its part in bringing about his purposes, so that Peter speaking to Israel can say, ‘Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain (Acts 2:23). God purposes are a demonstration of his unrelenting antagonism to sin, and at the same time his triumph over it so that it is left without excuse or honour. Satan will be exposed to the utmost shame in the final analysis.