He Will Remember

Proverbs 10:7 says, “The memory of the righteous is blessed; but the name of the wicked will rot.”

Yesterday was the very first Tuesday Night Bible Study, and we went over the first six verses in Proverbs 10 and talked about what they meant and how they apply to our lives. It was awesome to get hear what people had to say and really see them get into what they were reading. Some even came with prepared notes about what they had read, which was awesome. These next verses are going to focus a lot on the following verses that we will go over.

Going back to the verse quoted above, we have to understand that it is actually split into two different sections. That little semi-comma in the middle splits these sections. This was a very popular technique of poetry in Solomon’s time. The reason they would do this is to emphasis the comparing and contrasting points. The following is going to be our shot at distinguishing the following points that are being compared and contrasted.

The first two words in each section are very similar (The Memory & The Name). Then it goes on to describe two different people (the righteous and the wicked). Then both lines end with a contrasting affect (blessed and rot). From this we can say that both of these men are men. This may seem like a simple point, but the fact that they are men mean that there is no a difference in being between the righteous and the wicked.

Note this closely, that some men are righteous and some are wicked. Yesterday, we described righteous not only as someone who was completely perfect and very far along in his or her walk, but simply someone completely justified by faith. The only way someone can be righteous is by the blood of Christ being shed for him or her. Thus, it would only make sense that the righteous that Solomon writes about is someone that is under the grace of God, not reaching this position by some sort of work or spiritual advancement. By saying this, we can even dare to use a geometrical term called the Substitution Property, which allows us to use “righteous”, and “one saved by the grace of God” interchangeably. We can know transform the first section into “The memory of the one saved by the grace of God is blessed.”

In my Bible, a parallel passage is given to the first section we just looked at. Psalms 112:6 says, “For [the righteous] will never be shaken; the righteous will be remembered forever.” It makes this idea of being remember a blessed thing, from what we know of both passages previously looked at. Another question then comes to mind, why is being remembered blessed? Many people that I know of remember the wicked and are happy in their memory. Is it not all a matter of perspective when it comes to us delegating what is a blessed or cursed memory?

To make this point more understandable, I have included an old example from my Philosophy class. When Christians think of Bloody Mary, they are not filled with an overwhelming sense of happiness, but instead, grief and sorrow. Don’t they have the right to feel this way, for this person persecuted many of the Protestants during her reign? However, what do the Catholics think about Bloody Mary? I would only but guess that their memories are a little more pleasant, as she stood up for what was right, in the sense of Catholicism. Here we see two people remembering one specific person with the same specific action, yet we disagree in the morality of it.

Thus, to my knowledge, the blessing of remembrance is not pointed to men after thinking back to the righteous, but the remembrance of God. Matthew 7:23 says about some who will come and do great works in the name of Christ, “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” We know that these people are not righteous because they have not been justified, and they have not been justified because God’s blood has not been shed for them. This makes the Christian wonder and ask I hope God remembers whom I am! Then shall we turn to this verse and say, “How blessed is the memory of the righteous, that God will take me in because of the price that He paid for me.”

The men are listed as evildoers are also wicked, like it says in Proverbs. Their name has rotted, and is not acceptable when they try to get into the gates of Heaven. God will look at them not with the knowledge of them that He has for us. By knowledge, I don’t mean simply an understanding, but an intimate relationship between two people. The type of relation where the two people really know each other and they have more than a simple understanding, but a legitimate knowledge of the other person.

How wonderful is it that God says that He will remember us, when we were born into a state that said we should never know Him, which was at least His enemy? – Forsake All