Finished

For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity.  Proverbs 24:16

Seven Times – The Hebrew word shevah is the number seven.  You’ll recognize the root in the word Sabbath.  Seven is the Hebrew number of completion.  It is the number of the day God finished creation.  It is the rest number.  So, when Solomon says that the righteous fall seven times, he does not mean that they get knocked down once more.  He means that they are finished, terminated, killed.  They come to the end.  They die!  In this world, the expectation of the righteous is not health, happiness and comfort.  It is sacrificial redemption.  God redeems by dying.  That is the model for us.  If you are going to be a living, acting Christian, you are signing up for extinction.

With one exception!  The game is not over after the seventh time.

While the righteous man succumbs to the death sentence of a world that hates God, he rises again.  He is resurrected!  He comes back from the dead.  The world thought that they were rid of the one who stands up for God, but they were wrong.  It is the wicked who ultimately stumble and fall without the possibility of rising again.  When God balances the scales, the righteous will be justified.

The Biblical perspective on this world is always eschatological.  That is to say, it always has the eternal consequence in mind.  If you live according to the Biblical view, you determine your actions based on an “over-the-horizon” point of view.  What matters is not what happens to you today.  What matters is God’s evaluation of what happens to you today.  The righteous can expect to be hated by the world (they hated Jesus, didn’t they?).  The righteous can expect to be persecuted – even killed – because the world does not want to be reminded of God’s image in their midst.  But that is not the end of the story.

In Hebrew, the word shevah is in the first position in this sentence.  It is the position of emphasis.  Yes, the righteous man may be terminated here, but he will rise.  He may be  finished here, but God is not finished with him.  Rejoice, my brothers and sisters in the Lord.  Trials and tribulations are indications that you are at odds with the world – as you should be.  If you are searching for the comfortable life, you are not on God’s pathway.  He takes that highway of thorns and nails, of spears and spit.  Dare you ask for anything less?