The Righteous Calculation Text: Proverbs 21:12
Introduction: The Moral Calculus of Reality
We live in an age that has declared war on distinctions. Our generation is committed, with a kind of religious fervor, to blurring every line that God in His wisdom has drawn. They want to erase the line between man and woman, between good and evil, between truth and falsehood, and ultimately, between the creature and the Creator. The result is a kind of moral soup, a murky and chaotic mess where nothing can be clearly discerned. But the book of Proverbs is a bucket of cold, clear water thrown into the face of this confusion. Proverbs is relentlessly binary. It presents us with two ways, two paths, two women, and two destinies. There is the way of wisdom and the way of folly. There is the righteous man and there is the wicked man. There is no third way.
Our text today is a sharp, two-edged proverb that cuts right through the fog. It tells us not only that there is a fundamental difference between the righteous and the wicked, but it also tells us how the righteous are to think about the wicked. This is not a matter of pious sentimentality. It is a matter of clear-eyed, spiritual intelligence. The righteous man is not naive. He is not a Pollyanna. He is a shrewd observer of a moral universe governed by a holy God. He understands the architecture of reality.
We are told that the righteous one "considers" the house of the wicked. This is not a casual glance. This is a careful, deliberate, and wise assessment. And what is the conclusion of this assessment? What is the bottom line of this moral calculus? It is this: God turns the wicked to ruin. The righteous man sees the palatial house of the wicked, with its security systems and its well-watered lawns, and he understands that it is built on a sinkhole. He sees the temporary prosperity of the wicked, and he knows it is a stage prop, soon to be struck when the divine drama moves to its next act. This proverb teaches us to see the world as God sees it, to weigh things on His scales, and to live in accordance with the fixed laws of His moral government.
The Text
The righteous one considers the house of the wicked,
Turning the wicked to ruin.
(Proverbs 21:12 LSB)
The Wise Observer (v. 12a)
The first clause sets the scene for us.
"The righteous one considers the house of the wicked..." (Proverbs 21:12a)
Who is this "righteous one?" In the first instance, this refers to the godly man, the one who has been justified by faith and is being sanctified by the Spirit. He fears the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, and so he is capable of true consideration. He is not blinded by envy, which is the standard temptation here. Asaph confesses this very struggle in Psalm 73. He saw the prosperity of the wicked, their houses full, their bodies healthy, and their arrogance unchecked, and his feet almost slipped. He almost concluded that righteousness was for chumps. What brought him back from the brink? He went into the sanctuary of God, and there he "understood their end." That is precisely what this proverb is describing. To "consider" the house of the wicked is to look past the facade and to see its ultimate destiny.
The righteous man is a realist. He does not stick his head in the sand. He looks at the house of the wicked, which represents their entire enterprise, their family, their business, their reputation, their security. He sees the apparent success. But his consideration is informed by revelation. He knows that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. He knows that a foundation not laid on the rock of Christ's righteousness is a foundation of shifting sand. He looks at the wicked man's balance sheet, but he also reads God's audit report in the Scriptures. He sees the temporary success, but he calculates the eternal trajectory.
But there is another layer here. Who is the ultimate "Righteous One?" It is God Himself. Some translations even render this verse as "The Righteous One [God] considers the house of the wicked." And this is certainly true. God is the great observer. His eyes roam to and fro throughout the earth. He is not an absentee landlord. He pays very close attention to the house of the wicked. He marks it. He sees the injustice, the pride, the rebellion, the idolatry that happens within its walls. He is patient, He is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but His patience has a limit. His consideration is the prelude to His action.
So we have a dual reality. The righteous man considers the house of the wicked because he knows that the Righteous God is also considering it. Our wisdom is derivative. We see rightly when we see things from God's point of view. The world looks at the house of the wicked and sees success. The righteous man looks at the same house and sees a structure that has already been condemned, awaiting demolition.
The Inevitable Outcome (v. 12b)
The second clause of the verse gives us the result of this divine consideration. It is not an abstract observation; it is a verdict that leads to a sentence.
"...Turning the wicked to ruin." (Proverbs 21:12b LSB)
The grammar here is potent. The consideration and the turning are part of the same action. The one who considers is the one who turns them to ruin. While the righteous man observes this reality, it is God who accomplishes it. God is the active agent. The ruin of the wicked is not an accident. It is not a stroke of bad luck. It is a divine judgment. It is the direct consequence of their rebellion against the grain of the universe.
The word for "ruin" here speaks of a complete and total overthrow. This is not a minor setback. This is catastrophic failure. Haman builds a gallows for Mordecai, and in a shocking reversal, he is the one who ends up swinging from it. The Egyptians who enslaved God's people are ruined in the Red Sea. The Babylonians who boasted in their impregnable city are overthrown in a night. The history of the world is the story of God considering the house of the wicked and turning it to ruin.
This is a foundational law of reality. Because God is holy and the world is His, wickedness is inherently unstable. It contains the seeds of its own destruction. Sin is cosmic treason, and the King will inevitably put down the rebellion. To build your house on a foundation of wickedness is like building a skyscraper out of dynamite. It may look impressive for a season, but the nature of the material guarantees the final outcome. The righteous man understands this. He knows that the universe is hard-wired for justice. He is therefore not surprised when the house of the wicked collapses. The only surprise is that it stood as long as it did, which is a testimony to the patience of God.
This is why we must not envy the wicked. To envy the wicked is to envy a man on death row who is being served a gourmet meal. The meal may be exquisite, but the destiny is fixed. The righteous man, in considering this, is inoculated against the poison of envy and the temptation to compromise. He knows that the path of righteousness, though it may be difficult, leads to life, while the broad road of wickedness, though it may be pleasant for a time, leads to destruction.
Conclusion: Living in Light of the End
So what are we to do with this proverb? It is not given to us so that we can sit back with a smug sense of self-satisfaction, watching for our enemies to get their comeuppance. It is given to us as a foundational piece of wisdom for navigating the world.
First, it should fill us with a holy fear. We must consider our own houses. Are we building on the rock or on the sand? Are we building with the gold, silver, and precious stones of faithfulness, or the wood, hay, and stubble of wickedness? We are all tempted to cut corners, to adopt the methods of the wicked to get ahead. This proverb warns us that such a strategy is suicidal. The plowing of the wicked is sin, and the building of the wicked is ruin.
Second, it should give us profound patience and hope. When we see wickedness prosper, when we see injustice reign, when it seems that the house of the wicked is the only house left standing, we are to remember this proverb. We are to "consider." We are to look at the situation with sanctified intelligence and remember that God is also considering it. Judgment is coming. The story is not over. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice because the God of justice is sovereign over it.
Finally, this proverb points us to the ultimate house and the ultimate ruin. The house of the wicked is ultimately the entire worldly system built in rebellion against God. And its ruin was secured at the cross. At the cross, the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, entered into the house of the strong man, Satan, and bound him, plundering his goods. He took upon Himself the ruin that our wickedness deserved. He became a curse for us. The house of our sin was overthrown and demolished in His body on the tree.
And in His resurrection, He began building a new house, a spiritual house, the Church, with Himself as the chief cornerstone. This is the house that will stand forever. This is the household of faith. When we consider the flimsy, temporary, doomed houses of the wicked, it should drive us to take refuge in the only house that has a firm foundation, the only house that will withstand the coming storm. We are to consider the house of the wicked, see its inevitable ruin, and then flee for refuge to the house of the Righteous One, which is built on the unshakable rock of His finished work.