Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, – Proverbs 24:17 (NIV)

Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: – Proverbs 24:17 (KJV)

52 Proverbs in 52 Weeks – Week 40
This week’s theme:  God’s Life Hacks, simple Biblical truths to increase the fruitfulness and happiness of our lives.

God’s Life Hack:  Don’t Celebrate When Your Enemy Falls

This is a hard one for me.  When someone has been unkind to me, my family, or my friends, there’s a part of me that wants to gloat when that person suffers a setback or failure. I want to smile and say “they had that coming” or “they finally got what they deserved.”  It’s that last quote, however, that’s convicting to me…“got what they deserved.”  How many times has God had mercy on me and not given me “what I deserved?”

It doesn’t help that much of our society today loves to highlight the failures of others.  Just look at our political landscape, for example.  Both sides can’t wait to celebrate the personal and professional failures of people on the other side.  And they celebrate those failures as publicly as possible…we see it plastered all over the news and social media.  Unfortunately, we also see that behavior mimicked in our schools, our local communities, and even sometimes in our churches.  But that’s not how God expects us, as Christians, to handle these situations.

Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them.
– Proverbs 24:17-18 (NIV)

There’s a humorous video clip from a soccer game that illustrates this principle in a light-hearted way.  The clip is only 12 seconds long and you can see it here:  Goalie Celebrates Early.  In the video a player misses a penalty kick and the opposing goalie jumps up and runs off to start celebrating.  But…during the goalie’s celebration the ball slowly bounces into the goal behind him.

In truth, most of us don’t seek out conflict.  Unfortunately, however, there are some in today’s society who are anxious to declare us as “enemies” due to our religious beliefs, success in school or sports, political leanings, family values, etc.  When those people fall (and they often do), let’s remember Proverbs 24:17-18 and make sure we don’t celebrate their failures.  Even more, let’s overcome evil with good (see Romans 12:21).

Here’s a link to more verse posts on  God’s Life Hacks.

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