“Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished; but the posterity of the righteous will be delivered” (Proverbs 11:21).
In many areas of life, there is safety in numbers. One area in which this maxim is wrong is in the spiritual realm. The army of Assyria led by Sennacherib was nearly 200,000 in number. It was a plague of desolation and destruction in Palestine in the days of King Hezekiah (ca. 701 B. C.). When it marched out of town, it left smoldering ruins and rotting corpses. Yet, one night battle with just a single angel of Jehovah left 185,000 Assyrian soldiers dead (2 Kings 19:25).
For the wicked, there is no safety in numbers. Their guilt before God will not be obviated by amassing a multitude of likeminded rebels. Such a belief is laughable (Psalm 2:1-4).
One the other side of the fence separating good from evil is the watchful, delivering eye God ever has open to the righteous and their posterity. David’s observation in his old age was: “I have been young and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).
Inescapable, inevitable punishment for the wicked. Divine watchfulness and deliverance for the righteous.
Character, not numbers, matter to God.
