Rise Again (Proverbs 24:15-16)
Listen Here:
Proverbs 24:15-16
Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous;
do no violence to his home;
16 for the righteous falls seven times and rises again,
but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.
I think these verses today are a huge encouragement – especially coming off of what we talked about yesterday in Proverbs 14:4. Remember? We’re a mess. We fall again and again – but Scripture tells us here, the righteous don’t stay down. They rise again.
This reminds me of Psalm 37:24:
"Though (I) fall, (I) shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds (my) hand."
Do you hear that?
We may fall into trouble, we may fall into sin, but we never fall completely under it. Why? Because the LORD upholds our hand.
How comforting is that? God already knows you’ll fall. Yet He loves you anyway. And He promises to raise you up, and in one sense He already has because He sent His Son to die on a cross for your sins so that you might be given new life in Him (more on that in a second).
But before that – and this is important – the wicked don’t share this same comfort and confidence. They ‘stumble in times of calamity.’
Verse 15 paints the picture of the wicked trying to harm and hurt the righteous, but verse 16 shows us the result of that. And what happens? The righteous rise and the wicked fall. The righteous win and the wicked lose.
And ultimately? I think this points us straight to resurrection after death.
One day, our hope as believers is that we will rise again and be with Jesus in glory. Our hope is in Him – in His righteousness, in His finished work on the cross. And because of that, we know we will stand and be with Him in heaven one day.
But those who haven’t put their faith in Jesus, the wicked here in these verses, they won’t. They won’t rise. They will remain under the weight of their calamity and sin. They won’t be with Jesus.
To me, that’s the bigger picture here, and I think it's a really cool application of this verse. And I hope that reality encourages you today to stand firm, to keep rising, and to keep your eyes on Jesus.
Let’s read it again:
"Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous; do no violence to his home;
for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity."
So here’s my question for you today:
Do you believe this?
Do you believe that though you fall, in Christ you can rise again?
Do you believe you aren’t defined by your mess or your sin – but that Jesus has already won the victory for you?
Do you believe His work on the cross is sufficient – not just for today, but forever?
Let’s take these thoughts, these verses, and our hearts before God in prayer.
