The Boomerang of Malice Text: Proverbs 28:10
Introduction: The Moral Physics of the Universe
We live in a world that is desperate to convince itself that it is made of silly putty. Our secularist high priests want a universe that is infinitely malleable, a reality that can be shaped and reshaped according to the latest desires of the human heart, which, as Jeremiah tells us, is deceitful above all things. They want to be able to call evil good and good evil, to put darkness for light and light for darkness, and they want to do so without any consequences. They believe they can dig a pit for the righteous, shove them in, and then go out for a celebratory brunch without getting any dirt on their own hands.
But the universe is not made of silly putty. It is made of hardwood. It has a grain. It was spoken into existence by a holy God, and He built His moral law into the very fabric of the cosmos. There are laws of moral physics just as surely as there are laws of physical physics. If you disregard the law of gravity and step off a ten-story building, you do not break the law of gravity; you demonstrate it. In the same way, when you disregard the law of God, you do not break His law; you are broken by it. God's world is a world of covenantal consequences.
The book of Proverbs is a field guide to this reality. It is not a collection of quaint, inspirational sayings for your grandmother's needlepoint. It is a series of hard-nosed observations about how the world actually works under the governance of God. And the principle laid out for us in our text today is one of the central pillars of that governance: the law of the boomerang. It is the principle that what a man sows, that he will also reap. It is the principle of the biter bit. It is the principle that the evil you intend for others will, with an unerring certainty, find its way back to your own doorstep.
This proverb addresses a particularly nasty kind of sin. This is not just the run-of-the-mill wickedness of a man pursuing his own lusts. This is the far more diabolical business of actively seeking to corrupt the righteous. This is the sin of the serpent in the garden, the sin of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin, the sin of those who would cause one of Christ's little ones to stumble. And God reserves a special kind of judgment for this sort of malice. He promises that the trap set for the innocent will become the trapper's own damnation.
The Text
He who leads the upright astray in an evil way
Will himself fall into his own pit,
But the blameless will inherit good.
(Proverbs 28:10 LSB)
The Malicious Guide (Clause 1)
Let us consider the first part of this tristich:
"He who leads the upright astray in an evil way..." (Proverbs 28:10a)
The target here is "the upright." This refers to those who are walking in integrity, those whose lives are oriented toward the law of God. They are not sinlessly perfect, but their way is straight. They are aiming for the right target. The villain of this piece is the one who sees this straight path and desires to introduce a fatal detour. He wants to make the straight crooked. He is a moral saboteur.
Notice the active nature of this sin. This is not the passive temptation that comes from simply living in a fallen world. This is a deliberate, calculated effort to cause another to stumble. The verb is "leads astray." This is the work of a false guide, a spiritual con man. He sees someone walking toward Zion and says, "No, no, the real party is this way, down this dark alley." This is the college professor who delights in dismantling the faith of a freshman. This is the "progressive" pastor who tells his flock that the Bible's prohibitions on sexual sin are outdated and unloving. This is the gossiping co-worker who seeks to lure an honest man into a scheme of slander and intrigue.
Why would someone do this? The motivations are as old as the devil. Misery loves company. The wicked man is often tormented by the simple, happy goodness of the righteous. The upright man's integrity is a silent rebuke to the wicked man's corruption, and so he seeks to extinguish that light by corrupting it. If he can make the righteous man fall, he can tell himself, "See? Everyone is just as rotten as I am. There is no such thing as real goodness." It is a desperate attempt to justify his own rebellion by universalizing it.
This is a sin of the highest order because it is an attack not just on a person, but on the very character of God reflected in that person. It is an attempt to mar the divine image. It is to join the serpent in his ancient business of whispering lies in the ear of the unsuspecting, seeking to drag them down into the mud. And God takes that very, very personally.
The Law of Moral Gravity (Clause 2)
The second clause reveals the inescapable consequence for this malicious guide.
"Will himself fall into his own pit..." (Proverbs 28:10b)
Here is the boomerang in flight. The imagery is stark and common in Scripture. The wicked man is a trapper, digging a pit to catch the innocent. He covers it with branches and leaves, hoping the upright will wander by and fall to their doom. But in the moral economy of God, there is a perfect and ironic justice. The architect of the trap becomes its sole victim.
We see this pattern everywhere in the Bible. Haman builds a gallows seventy-five feet high for Mordecai, and ends up swinging from it himself. The enemies of Daniel conspire to have him thrown into the lions' den, and they and their families end up as lion chow. The Pharisees plot to trap Jesus with their questions, and end up being utterly silenced by His wisdom. Judas plots to betray the innocent blood of Christ for thirty pieces of silver, and ends up hanging himself, his own blood spilled on the ground he purchased with his treachery.
This is not poetic justice; it is divine justice. It is how God has wired the world. Sin is not just a violation of an arbitrary rule; it is a self-destructive force. When you introduce deceit, treachery, and malice into the world, you are not just throwing a grenade at your enemy. You are pulling the pin on a grenade that is chained to your own wrist. The pit you dig for your brother becomes the precise shape of your own grave.
This is because God is a God of justice, and He ensures that the scales are balanced. The punishment is not just retributive; it is fitting. It mirrors the crime. The deceiver is deceived. The plotter is ensnared. The one who sought to ruin another's reputation finds his own in tatters. This is a profound comfort for the righteous. We do not need to take vengeance into our own hands. We need only to stand back and watch the salvation of the Lord, for the evil plans of the wicked contain the seeds of their own spectacular implosion.
The Great Inheritance (Clause 3)
The proverb concludes by contrasting the fate of the wicked with the destiny of the righteous.
"But the blameless will inherit good." (Proverbs 28:10c)
While the wicked man is falling into the hole he dug, what is happening to his intended victim? The "upright" from the first clause are here called "the blameless." This doesn't mean they are sinless, but rather that they are living in such a way that no credible charge can be laid against them. Their integrity has been their shield. They may have been tempted, they may have been lured, but they have held fast to their course.
And their reward is to "inherit good." This is covenant language. An inheritance is not something you earn through frantic effort; it is a gift bestowed upon you because of your relationship to the one who gives it. Because the blameless are in a right relationship with God, they are the designated heirs of His goodness.
What is this "good" that they inherit? In the immediate context of Proverbs, it certainly includes temporal blessings: prosperity, peace, a good name, a flourishing family. God's favor is not some ethereal, abstract concept; it manifests in the real world of dirt, crops, and commerce. Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
But the promise runs much deeper. The ultimate "good" that the blameless inherit is God Himself and the world He has promised to them. The meek, Jesus tells us, will inherit the earth. Not just a little plot of land, but the whole renewed creation. While the wicked are disinherited and cast out, falling into the nothingness they have dug for themselves, the righteous are brought into the fullness of the Father's house.
This is the great reversal, the constant theme of Scripture. The last shall be first, and the first last. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. The man who schemed to steal another's inheritance will lose his own, and the man he targeted will end up possessing the good. This is not a long shot; it is the surest thing in the world, because the world belongs to God, and He gives it to His children.
Conclusion: The Ultimate Pit and the Ultimate Inheritance
This proverb finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The most upright man to ever walk the earth was led astray into the most evil way imaginable. The serpent, working through the religious and political leaders of the day, dug a pit for the Son of God. That pit was a cross on Golgotha and a borrowed tomb.
They thought they had trapped Him. They thought they had disposed of the ultimate righteous man, the one whose very existence was a blinding rebuke to their hypocrisy. They rolled a stone over the mouth of the pit and posted a guard. But God's law of moral physics holds true even, and especially, at the cross.
The pit that the devil and his minions dug for Jesus became their own undoing. In the cross, Christ made a public spectacle of the principalities and powers, triumphing over them. The grave that was meant to hold Him could not, and in His resurrection, He broke the power of sin and death forever. Satan, the ultimate schemer, fell headlong into the very pit he had engineered. He sought to destroy the Author of Life and was himself dealt a fatal blow.
And what of the inheritance? Because Jesus, the truly Blameless One, was faithful, He inherited all things. God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name. He is the heir of the world. And the glorious good news of the gospel is that we who are in Him, we who are united to Him by faith, become co-heirs with Him.
We are the blameless who inherit good. Not because of our own righteousness, which is as filthy rags, but because we have been clothed in His perfect righteousness. We inherit the goodness of His perfect obedience and His victory over the grave. Therefore, when men seek to lead you astray, when they dig pits for you, do not be dismayed. Stand firm in the integrity you have in Christ. Your enemy's malice is simply the shovel with which he is digging his own grave. And you, as a child of the King, are destined to inherit the world.