The Bouncy Righteous and the Brittle Wicked Text: Proverbs 24:15-16
Introduction: Two Kinds of People
The book of Proverbs, and indeed the entire Bible, divides humanity into two fundamental categories. There are not, in the final analysis, many different kinds of people. There are not nuanced shades of gray when it comes to our ultimate standing before a holy God. There are the righteous and there are the wicked. There are the wise and there are the fools. There are those who build their house on the rock and those who build on the sand. One group is defined by covenant faithfulness to God, and the other by covenant rebellion. And these two groups have two very different destinies.
Our text today lays out this great divide with striking imagery. It is a warning to one group and a profound encouragement to the other. It shows us the essential nature of both the righteous and the wicked by describing what happens to them when they fall. Because everyone, in some sense, falls. Trouble comes to all. Stumbling is a universal human experience. The great question is not whether you will fall, but rather what happens after you fall. What is your trajectory? What is your foundation? Are you bouncy, or are you brittle?
This passage is a direct address to the wicked man, warning him not to misinterpret the struggles of the righteous. He sees the righteous man stumble, and he thinks he has found an opportunity. He mistakes a temporary affliction for a final defeat. He is a predator, a spiritual jackal, looking to pounce on what he perceives to be weakness. But he is making a catastrophic miscalculation. He doesn't understand the spiritual physics of God's kingdom. He doesn't understand the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which is taught here in the heart of the Old Testament. He thinks he is laying a trap for the righteous, but he is actually standing on a trap door that is about to spring open under his own feet.
The Text
Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the abode of the righteous;
Do not destroy his resting place;
For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again,
But the wicked will stumble in calamity.
(Proverbs 24:15-16 LSB)
A Warning to Predators (v. 15)
The passage begins with a direct command to the wicked man. He is addressed in the second person, and his intentions are exposed.
"Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the abode of the righteous; Do not destroy his resting place;" (Proverbs 24:15)
The picture here is of a bandit or a predator setting an ambush. The "abode of the righteous" is not just his physical house; it is his life, his family, his peace, his "resting place." The wicked man sees the righteous man as prey. He is filled with envy and malice. He cannot stand the fact that the righteous man has a place of rest, a place of peace given to him by God. The very existence of a godly household is an affront to the wicked, a silent rebuke to his own chaotic and disordered life.
So he plots. He lies in wait. He looks for a moment of weakness, a chink in the armor. He wants to "destroy" this resting place. The word for destroy is one of plunder and violence. This is not a friendly rivalry; it is a spiritual bloodlust. This is Cain against Abel. This is the spirit of the world against the Church. The world sees the people of God, and it wants to spoil their goods, disrupt their peace, and stamp out their influence.
But the command, "Do not," is a divine prohibition. It is God Himself speaking through Solomon, posting a no trespassing sign on the lives of His people. You might lie in wait, God says to the wicked man, but you need to understand who you are dealing with. You are not just picking a fight with a man; you are setting yourself against his Protector. You are poking the bear. This is a fool's errand, and the next verse explains exactly why.
The Spiritual Physics of Falling (v. 16)
Verse 16 is the reason for the warning. It is the theological foundation for the command. It contrasts the nature of a righteous fall with a wicked fall.
"For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked will stumble in calamity." (Proverbs 24:16)
Let's break this down. First, the righteous man. "For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again." Now, some have taken this "falling" to mean falling into sin. And while it is certainly true that the righteous do sin and are restored through repentance, the primary context here seems to be falling into trouble, affliction, or calamity. The wicked man is waiting to plunder his "resting place," which implies an external attack. The contrast is with the wicked, who stumble in "calamity." So, the righteous man is afflicted by calamity, but the wicked are destroyed by it.
"Seven times" is idiomatic. It means repeatedly, completely. It signifies that this is not a one-time event. The righteous man's life is not a smooth, trouble-free existence. He gets knocked down. He faces hardship, sickness, financial loss, betrayal, and persecution. From the outside, looking at one of these falls, the wicked man thinks, "Aha! He is finished. God has abandoned him."
But the wicked man misses the second half of the clause: "and rises again." This is the key. The righteous man is spiritually resilient. He is bouncy. Why? Is it because of his own inner strength or moral fortitude? Not at all. He rises again because the Lord upholds him. As Psalm 37 says, "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him with His hand" (Ps. 37:24). The righteous man is not righteous because he never falls; he is righteous because he has been justified by faith in God. His standing is not in himself, but in God's covenant grace. When he is knocked down, he falls into the everlasting arms. His faith is the instrument by which God raises him up again.
This is the doctrine of perseverance. The saints persevere because God preserves them. Their faith will not ultimately fail, because the object of their faith is Christ, who will not fail. They get back up, they repent, they dust themselves off, and they keep walking. This is the mark of genuine, saving faith. It is not sinless perfection, but it is a resilient, repentant, rising-again faith.
Now, contrast this with the wicked. "But the wicked will stumble in calamity." The language is starkly different. The righteous man "falls," but the wicked "stumble." The righteous man "rises again," but the wicked fall into calamity, and the implication is that they stay down. Their fall is final. When trouble hits them, it is not a chastening experience that drives them to God; it is a judicial blow that crushes them. They have no foundation. They have no one to catch them. They have built their house on the sand, and when the storm of God's judgment comes, the collapse is total and irrecoverable.
The wicked man is brittle. He may look strong, prosperous, and secure for a season. He may be the one lying in wait, looking like the predator. But his foundation is rotten. His strength is a facade. One stumble, one push from the hand of God, and he shatters into a thousand pieces. His calamity is not just an unfortunate event; it is his destiny. It is the end for which he was created, as Proverbs 16:4 says, "The LORD has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for the day of doom."
Conclusion: Where Do You Stand?
So this passage presents us with a sharp and unavoidable choice. It forces us to ask: which man am I? Am I the wicked man, lying in wait, filled with envy, plotting against the people of God, standing on the trap door of calamity? Or am I the righteous man, who, despite many falls, many troubles, and many sins, is defined by a faith that rises again?
The warning to the wicked is clear: Stop. Do not lay your hand on God's anointed. Do not plot against His people. Your malice will boomerang and destroy you. The calamity you wish upon the righteous will be your own portion, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Repent of your wickedness and flee to the only one who can make you righteous.
The encouragement to the righteous is profound. Do not despair when you fall. Do not think that your stumblings and afflictions are the final word. They are not. God is using them to teach you, to humble you, and to show you that your ability to stand has nothing to do with you and everything to do with Him. Your identity is not "one who falls," but rather "one who, by grace, rises again." The world, the flesh, and the devil will knock you down. But they cannot keep you down. You are eternally secure, not because you hold onto God, but because He holds onto you.
The ultimate righteous man was Jesus Christ. He was ambushed by wicked men. They lay in wait for Him. They destroyed His resting place, His very body, on a Roman cross. He fell, not seven times, but once, into the ultimate calamity of death and the grave, bearing the full weight of our sin. And on the third day, He rose again, proving that no fall, not even death itself, could hold a righteous man down. And because we are united to Him by faith, His indestructible life is now our life. We fall, but in Him, we always rise. The wicked stumble into a final calamity, but we stumble, and fall, into the arms of a waiting Father.