The Boomerang of Wickedness Text: Proverbs 21:7
Introduction: The Moral Physics of the Universe
We live in an age that desperately wants to have its cake and eat it too. It is an age of consequence-free rebellion. Our culture wants to celebrate every form of rebellion against the created order, every defiance of God's law, and yet it is perpetually shocked and dismayed when the bill comes due. They sow the wind, and then act surprised when the whirlwind shows up on their doorstep, ready to tear the shingles off the roof. They want to live in a moral universe where their actions have no reactions, where causes have no effects, and where sin has no wages.
But the universe does not work that way because God did not build it that way. There is a moral grain to the cosmos, a divine physics that governs all things. When you defy the law of gravity, you do not break the law; you demonstrate it. You break yourself against the law. And in the same way, when a man defies the law of God, he does not break that law. He simply illustrates its truth, and in the process, he is broken by it. God's law is not a set of arbitrary suggestions from a distant deity; it is the very operating system of reality. To sin is to attempt to hack the mainframe of the universe. It is a fool's errand, and it always, always ends in disaster for the hacker.
The book of Proverbs is a manual on this divine physics. It is not a collection of quaint, homespun folk wisdom. It is a revelation of the way the world actually works, as established by its Creator. And our text today is a stark and potent summary of one of the fundamental laws of this moral reality. It tells us that wickedness is not just wrong; it is stupid. It is not just immoral; it is self-destructive. It carries within its own DNA the seeds of its own spectacular demise.
The Text
The destruction of the wicked will drag them away,
Because they refuse to do justice.
(Proverbs 21:7 LSB)
The Self-Destructive Nature of Violence (v. 7a)
Let us first consider the initial clause:
"The destruction of the wicked will drag them away..." (Proverbs 21:7a)
The translation here is a bit tricky. The Hebrew word often translated as "destruction" is shod, which can also mean violence, robbery, or devastation. The sense of it is the violent plunder that the wicked perpetrate. So, a more literal rendering would be something like, "The violence of the wicked will sweep them away." This is not talking about some external force of destruction that God sends from the outside, although that is certainly true elsewhere. This proverb is highlighting something more immediate, more organic. It is saying that the very violence the wicked man uses as his tool will turn on him and become his undoing.
It is a boomerang. The wicked man thinks his violence, his oppression, his cheating, is a projectile weapon that he can launch at others to get what he wants. He hurls it out into the world to carve out a space for himself, to build his little empire of dirt. But God has built the world in such a way that the projectile is on a string. It is a tetherball. The harder you hit it, the faster it comes back to wrap around the pole you are clinging to. The violence of the wicked drags them away. The very thing they use to secure their position is what ultimately dislodges them and sweeps them into ruin.
Think of Haman in the book of Esther. He builds a gallows fifty cubits high, a glorious instrument of violence, designed for the destruction of his enemy, Mordecai. He has it all planned out. But by the end of the story, whose neck is in the noose? Haman's. The very instrument of his intended violence became the instrument of his own execution. He was dragged away by his own device. This is the principle. Sin is a suicide mission masquerading as a shortcut to glory.
This is because God is a God of justice, and He has woven that justice into the fabric of reality. He has established a moral law of sowing and reaping. Paul tells us in Galatians, "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows" (Gal. 6:7). The wicked man sows injustice, and he fully expects to reap a harvest of prosperity and power. But the harvest is fixed to the seed. If you plant thistle seeds, you do not get figs. If you sow violence, you will reap a harvest of violence. Your own sin will find you out, not just in the final judgment, but often in the here and now. The world is filled with the wreckage of men who were destroyed by the very tools they used to build their kingdoms of arrogance.
The Root of the Folly (v. 7b)
The second clause of the verse gives us the reason, the underlying cause for this inevitable self-destruction.
"Because they refuse to do justice." (Proverbs 21:7b LSB)
Here is the root of the problem. Why does their violence recoil upon them? Because their entire project is founded upon a rejection of reality. The word for justice here is mishpat. This is not just about courtroom ethics or legal procedure. Mishpat is the biblical concept of the right ordering of society according to God's created design. It is about living in right relationship with God and with your neighbor. It is about fairness, equity, and righteousness in all dealings. To do mishpat is to live in harmony with the grain of the universe. It is to build your house on the rock of God's revealed will.
The wicked, we are told, refuse to do this. This is not a matter of ignorance. It is a matter of willful rebellion. They are presented with God's blueprint for how to live, how to build, how to prosper, and they look at it, and they say, "No." They reject the Creator's instructions. They decide they are smarter than God. They will build their own way, according to their own appetites and ambitions. This refusal is the essence of folly.
Because they refuse to do justice, they have no foundation. They are building on sand. Their violence, their shod, is their frantic attempt to prop up a structure that is fundamentally unstable. They must constantly oppress, constantly cheat, constantly lie, because the moment they stop, the whole rotten edifice will collapse under its own weight. Their refusal to do justice means they have opted out of God's economy of blessing and stability. They have chosen to live in a world of chaos, a world where might makes right, a world of constant strife and conflict.
And so, when their destruction comes, it is not an arbitrary punishment. It is the natural, logical, inevitable outcome of their initial refusal. They chose a world without God's order, and in the end, that is precisely what they get. They get the chaos they loved. Their violence was the only tool they had to maintain their position, but a world governed by violence will eventually consume the violent. They refused the rule of law, and so they are ultimately undone by lawlessness. They are dragged away by the very currents they set in motion.
The Gospel and the Great Refusal
This proverb is a clear window into the way the world works, but it is also a dark mirror for every human heart. For the ultimate refusal to do justice is the refusal of the gospel. The ultimate act of violence is the crucifixion of the Son of God.
At the cross, we see the principle of Proverbs 21:7 in its most potent form. Wicked men, refusing to do justice, refusing to bow the knee to their rightful King, perpetrated the ultimate act of violence against the only truly innocent man who ever lived. They thought they were securing their power, eliminating a threat, and putting an end to the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. They hurled their violence at the Son of God.
And what happened? That violence recoiled upon them with cosmic force. The very act they used to destroy Him became the means of their own undoing and the salvation of the world. By killing the author of life, they unleashed the power of the resurrection. Their violence, intended for evil, was caught and turned by God into the instrument of redemption. The cross was Haman's gallows in reverse. The one who was hung upon it was not destroyed by it, but rather destroyed the power of sin and death through it.
But for those who persist in their refusal, the proverb still holds its terrible warning. To refuse the justice of God offered in Christ is to insist on facing the justice of God in judgment. To refuse the righteousness of Christ imputed to you by faith is to stand before God in your own filthy rags. And on that day, all the violence of your sin, all your rebellion, all your refusal to do justice, will sweep you away into an eternal ruin from which there is no escape.
The choice before every man is simple. You can build your life on the foundation of God's justice, which is now found only in the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ. Or you can refuse that justice and attempt to build your own life, with your own tools of violence and pride. If you choose the latter, do not be surprised when the whole thing comes crashing down. The universe is wired for justice. The wicked are dragged away by their own wickedness because they refuse to be saved by His righteousness. Therefore, repent of your refusal. Lay down your arms. Bow the knee to the King, and in His justice, you will not find destruction, but an everlasting and unshakeable life.