Proverbs 12:20-21
"Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy. There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief."
Definitions
- deceit = fraud, craft, false, guile, subtly, treachery
- heart = feelings, will, intellect, mind
- imagine = to scratch, engrave, to fabricate
- evil = bad
- counsellors = o advise, deliberate or resolve, guide
- peace = happy, friendly, safe
- joy = blithesomeness, glee, exceeding gladness
- evil (2nd occurrence) = trouble, to exert oneself in vain
- just = righteous, lawful
- wicked = morally wrong, bad person, guilty, ungodly
- mischief = bad, evil
Those who are just and seek peace will have joy because God promises that He will protect them from trouble that is in vain. However, the wicked fabricate subtle things and will only receive wickedness in return.
Related Scriptures
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:13
- temptation means adversity or experience (good or evil)
- God will not allow us to have more trouble or adversity than the just are able to bear.
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matthew 6:21
- If all you imagine is evil, than deceit will be in your heart.
"And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD." 2 Samuel 11:27
- Deceit was in the heart of David when he took Bathsheba.
Example of This Scripture in the Bible
"And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." Acts 16:19-33
- It may seem that Paul and Silas had to endure evil (trouble) but it was not without a purpose. They were a testimony to the jailor and his family who ended up being saved.
"And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:" 2 Peter 2:5-9
- God delivered Lot out of his trouble because he was just.
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