When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. -Proverbs 16:7
Somebody sent me one of those pictures the other day with a mess of cafeteria plates. It’s super trippy because at the top it says “all these plates are facing up except one”. My eyes scan upon those plates and it’s exactly as described, they are all facing up and then I see the one exception, then my eyes go to the bottom of the page, “when you find it all of them will be turned upside down”. My eyes then dart back up to those plates and I soon discover that all of them are now turned upside down. What in the world?!?!?
Proverbs 16:7 also caught my eye this morning. I’m not sure it caught my eye for good reasons, to be honest. I thought the verse was a bit laughable. For one, it hasn’t always been my experience. There have been times when I was pretty confident that I was walking in a path the Lord would have for me and my “enemies” weren’t exactly living at peace with me.
It’s certainly possible that I’m deluded and in these moments my ways aren’t pleasing to the LORD. But that doesn’t exactly explain away the difficulty of the verse. I say that because according to everything we believe about the gospel, Jesus was always pleasing to the LORD and His enemies were far from at peace with Him. In fact, they slaughtered him. That’s hardly a glowing recommendation for the principle here in Proverbs 16:7.
Because this one caught my eye, I set to writing it. And then I got wrapped up in other work and here we are about eight hours later and I’m coming back to it. I started banging out some words on the ol’ keyboard about what to do with these Proverbs that are so glaringly not always the case—and even seldom not the case. Then that plate thing seemed to happen for me with this text.
Let’s go back to those plates for a moment. Whether you perceive them as up or down is pending upon where you interpret the line as coming from. The reality is that it could be either. Your brain is a big fan of reaching consensus. It wouldn’t be good for your body if your left foot wanted to walk one way and your right another. In the same way our eyes like to agree. So if it says, “all these are down” but then you decide to reinterpret one of them as up, your brain says, “Oh, well I guess I was wrong—let’s call these all ‘up’!”
As I began studying this passage, I discovered that there is some debate about who the “he” is referring to. Is this telling us that if your ways please the Lord then the Lord will make even enemies to be at peace with us? Or is it saying that if your ways please the Lord then you’ll even make enemies to be your friends? Most scholars tend towards believing that the text is telling us that God makes the enemies to be friends.
That doesn’t really solve our conundrum, though. Neither of the options really do. In both scenarios it seems as if it mostly false. I’m not saying here that it’s a general thing that is usually true—but there are exceptions. No, I’m saying that for the most part this proverb seems to be hogwash. (Now, I know I’m not supposed to talk that way—but hear me out). Commentators will bring out all kinds of examples when this happens: Jacob and Esau, Abraham and Abimelech, Asa and enemies, Jehosophat and enemies, amongst others.
It seems to me that if we’re honest the reason why these stories of Jacob and Esau are worth mentioning is because they are exceptions. They aren’t the general rule. Enemies tend to be enemies, that’s what gives them that moniker. And as we read the gospel accounts it doesn’t seem like this is hardly ever true of the Lord Jesus.
Then I flipped the plates…
Jesus has made many enemies to be friends. I’m one of them. Jesus brings shalom across the board. He is the One whose way ultimately is pleasing to the Lord. And what does He accomplish as a result of this God-pleasing life? Well, He has turned enemies into friends. Not because they’ve suddenly decided, “hey, that Jesus’ guy is kind of a nice chap that we’ve misunderstood”. No, he brings shalom to enemies through the shedding of His blood.
Jesus’ obedience, pleasing the Lord to the end, is what procured the salvation for these enemies. He can’t bring shalom any other way. We’re far too foolish and wicked and rebellious. We won’t drop arms unless He does something prior. He rescues us through His compassion. He transforms rebel sinners into friends.
Jesus made even his enemies to be at peace with him.
And now I can’t see it any other way.