Flee From Evil

Falkland Palace, Fife, Scotland.

A prudent man sees evil and hides himself, the naive proceed and pay the penalty. Proverbs 27:12 (NASB)

With age comes wisdom, so society tells us. Learning from past experiences is part of life, but there are people who for whatever reason never seem to get the message. Often as parents of youngsters we utter in exasperation “when will that boy/girl learn?” Believe me I have been there and have the T-shirt to prove it, praise God our kids turned out fine.

In Proverbs we find a constant contrast made between the wise and the unwise, or the believers and unbelievers. Our verse today contrasts the “prudent man” and the “naive man.” Mr. Prudent sees evil approaching, through past experience and by closeness to God. Regular communion with the Almighty in prayer and His Word equips the believer with spiritual strength for the day ahead. On the other hand Mr.Naive either doesn’t see evil approaching or refuses to believe it is present, he sees no need to flee. He pays the penalty being engulfed by the ensuing evil. If only he had followed the example of Mr. Prudent.

In Exodus 9:20-21 we find an examples of Mr. Prudent and Mr. Naive. Pharoah is fore warned about the coming plague of hail and advised to shelter his livestock. Some servants of Pharoah feared the God of Israel and sheltered their own livestock from the coming hail, but others disbelieved the warning and paid a heavy cost.

Dear reader, let us follow the example of Mr. Prudent. Equip ourselves in prayer and scripture each morning, that we may be prepared for any evil in the day ahead. Seeing evil on the horizon we can flee and preserve our life in Him.