“The one who brings ruin on his household will inherit the wind, and a fool will be a slave to someone whose heart is wise. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but a cunning person takes lives. If the righteous will be repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and sinful.” (Proverbs‬ ‭11‬:‭29‬-‭31‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

I remember my parents taking me to see the play “Inherit the Wind” when I was at an age I could understand and appreciate it. It is a badly revisionist, historically inaccurate, Darwinism propagandist retelling of the story of the Scopes Monkey Trial. To be fair, they didn’t know any of that then and neither did I, and it was a really entertaining play. I mention that because it borrows its title from the first proverbs of this next batch. Given both the intent of the play, the actual history it reimagines, and where history has gone since, it is an ironically appropriate title. Let’s talk about that and the last few proverbs of chapter 11.

The Scopes Monkey Trial happened because the ACLU decided to challenge a Tennessee law that mandated the teaching of creationism in all of its public schools in the mid-1920s. Creationism, of course, is the view that the earth is young and was created by God in six 24-hour days. Darwin’s theory of evolution had really come into its own by then, and the elite intelligentsia of the country, eager to throw off the perceived intellectual and moral restraints of Christianity, had latched onto it with gusto as a way to throw out the baby and the bathwater of the faith that had shaped the world in more ways that its critics even began to realize.

They hired one of the country’s most famous lawyers in Clarence Darrow who was a fierce critic of Christianity and looked down on Christians as ignoramuses who were ripe for being embarrassed and revealed as the saps he knew them to be. He jumped at the opportunity. On the opposing side, defending the law, was William Jennings Bryan, a four-time Democrat presidential candidate and committed believer. Bryan ultimately won the case, but Darrow successfully turned national public opinion against the outcome in ways that cemented the very ideas about Christians and their silly theology that he hoped to feature.

Very little about the play was historically accurate, but it was right at least about how the trial made Christianity look before a national audience. It got the sneering disdain for Christians that the national media who covered the trial had right. And yet, as our understanding of the complexity of life has increased in the 100 years since the trial and the nearly 170 years since On the Origin of Species was released, while young earth creationism still remains a difficult idea to justify, Darwinism in all of its various forms isn’t looking much better. There are many proponents of Darwinism who have brought ruin on their household in their staunch and arrogant defense of a theory that is increasingly in jeopardy, and they stand poised to inherit the very wind they once boasted Christians would receive.

You’ve perhaps seen or at least heard a story of someone who brought ruin on his household by the decisions he made. Maybe you were that person. Nothing good comes of that. In fact, it often leads to the very emptiness Solomon assigns to it here. When you act like a fool, you will wind up owing someone who doesn’t follow in those footsteps. The wise keep themselves free from such entanglements. They bring honor on their houses and inherit the riches that comes with such honor.

Not only do the wise and the righteous bring this honor on their own households, but they act as a blessing to those around them too. “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but a cunning person takes lives.” When you live in pursuit of righteousness, the things that your life produces will serve to bless the people within your sphere of influence. Your reputation in the community will pave the way for your family and friends to advance their interests. Your financial wisdom will create a shield that will protect those you love. Your hard work will create opportunities for people that won’t otherwise exist. You will make the world better because of your pursuit of God’s character and command.

But those who are cunning, just do harm. Solomon here isn’t talking about someone who is merely playful or crafty. This is a person who is constantly on the lookout for ways to advance his interests at the expense of those around him. He is always seeking opportunities to take from others what they aren’t holding tightly so that he has those things instead of them. He is careless of the vulnerable and takes advantage of the weak. This kind of person is not someone you want to have around you if you can help it. These are the kinds of people we cry out for God to judge severly and soon.

And yet, while that judgment will indeed come and at just the right time, Solomon closes this chapter with a warning that should make us pause and reflect for a second. “If the righteous will be repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and sinful.” Even the best of us occasionally drift into sin. We can try our absolute hardest to walk the narrow path that leads to God’s kingdom, but when we try to do that on our own, we still stumble and fall. And when this happens, while God may shield us from some of the worst of the consequences we might face, He won’t save us from all of them. We will still have to face the music when we screw up even if we are otherwise totally committed to Christ.

If you steal something, for instance, it doesn’t matter if you are a follower of Jesus or not. You are still going to be held accountable for that. You will still have to pay a fine to restore what you took. You might even go to jail for it if the offense was severe enough. God won’t save you from that. He loves you enough to let you learn by experience the fact that actions have consequences. If He didn’t, and if He loved His own convenience more, He might give you a break just so He didn’t have to deal with your whining about it. But His love for you is too great to give you space to think you can sin without consequence. The righteous will indeed be repaid on earth.

If that’s the case, though, and if God is indeed a just God as the Scriptures reveal Him to be, then how much more will the wicked and sinful be repaid? How much more will they experience the consequences of their actions in this life? Those consequences may not come as we think they should, but they will come. Because God is just. We who are pursuing the path of righteousness can trust in that and continue down the path without trying to bear that weight. It wasn’t made for us to bear anyway. If we try, we’ll just make a mess of things and wind up miserable anyway. It’s best to let God bear it.

Three proverbs all make the same basic point: our actions have consequences. When we pursue good works as a function of our faith, we will reap the good rewards that comes with such a pursuit. Those rewards will bless us and those around us. But if we take a path of sin and selfishness, things will be harder. We will wind up beholden to those who stayed on the straight and narrow, and will we unleash chaos in the lives of those around us instead of blessing. Let us be the kind of people who unleash blessing, not chaos. The world will be better for it.