What does it mean that a righteous man falls seven times (Proverbs 24:16)?

The wicked man is now warned against the folly of lying in wait against the dwelling of the righteous (v. 15), with the object of gaining plunder from him. "For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again" (v. 16). The wicked may think at first that his evil designs have succeeded, but in the end will find himself defeated, often by sudden calamity.

In the final instructions of this chapter we find first a description of the evil men. Their heart studieth destruction; their lips talk mischief. This theme is repeatedly referred to in this chapter. In verse 15 the evil man is addressed not to lay wait for the righteous and not to spoil his resting place. The Lord takes care of the righteous; he may be overcome by misfortunes seven times, yet will he rise again. Different it is with the wicked when he falls into mischief. Yet there must be no rejoicing over the fall of the enemy, nor gladness when he stumbled. This displeaseth the Lord. Still higher is the command of the New Testament, "Love your enemies; ... recompense no man evil for evil; ... overcome evil with good." There is to be no fretting because of evil men nor envy (verses 1 and 19). Why should the righteous be envious at the wicked in their prosperity? The Thirty-seventh Psalm enters more fully into this; but here the same answer is given in a terse way. The wicked have no reward; their candle will be put out. Their calamity riseth suddenly, and who knoweth the ruin of them both? which means that the Lord and the king, will deal with the wicked. Another proverb of this chapter we mention: "If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small" (verse 10). The hour of trial is the hour which brings the test. When adversity brings despondency, and even worse, murmuring, it is an evidence that the heart does not fully trust the Lord.

It is true that the righteous may fall ever so often — "seven times" — yet he rises again; as the wicked do not stumble into disaster. Look on the one hand at David; at Shimei, Ahithophel, Absalom, and Joab on the other.

Courage is tested in the day of trouble, which gives the occasion to show its worth. But it shines better in delivering those who are in it; and this with integrity before Him who sees, to whom each owes his preservation, and who takes account of man according to his work. He would have one to enjoy the good He gives, but consider wisdom and the issue. A wicked man is warned against lying in wait against the righteous man, who, if he fall, will surely rise, while his enemy stumbles into ruin. Nor does it become one to rejoice at the fall even of an adversary, lest Jehovah see it, and not for nothing.

You notice the emphasis which is put upon the word, "wilfully." It is not slipping or being "overtaken in a fault," or even in an evil hour of self-confidence yielding, as Peter did, to pressure from without, and denying his Lord. Grievous and dreadful as this sin was, it was not wilful. The will of the renewed man shrank with horror from such dishonor to his Lord, and one look from the Lord Jesus brought the poor, self-confident one, brokenhearted back to Him. Thus it ever is where divine life is in the soul. "A just man falleth seven times and riseth up again."

'For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again' (Proverbs 24:16). A disciple wanting to be faithful to the Lord and obey his word - that is the wise man in our parable - can fail also. Nor will he be spared trials. There are happenings and events that will shake the life of even the strongest believer to it's very foundation, but he knows that his house is built upon a solid rock and won't fall. And he has the full and unshakeable security of salvation in respect of eternity as well.

Let us grant that some poor fellow you know has stumbled and fallen. He may have been converted, but not walking near the Lord, Satan has tripped him up, and he has come down. You think he is not genuine. Let me tell you, that at bottom, that man is perhaps much better than the man who has never come down. He will be a better man after he came down than before it. When the devil's maid-servant met Peter in the high priest's palace, she tripped him up, and he came down, and denied his Lord. He, no doubt, went out of that court feeling, It is all up with me; and everybody else might well have said, We shall never hear of Simon Peter again. But you hear of Simon Peter again — a great deal more. Three days after he met his Lord and Saviour in resurrection, and got the sweet sense of His forgiveness, and seven weeks afterwards we find him preaching on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand men and women were converted. I know what the devil said then: "I wish I had left him alone in the high priest's palace; the breaking of him has been the making of him." Peter had been picked up by the never-failing grace of the Lord. He never could have preached like that if he had never fallen. Satan often does the Lord's work without knowing it.

p273 Dear F Kingscote, - Intercession is a general term, used even of the Holy Ghost in us (Rom. 8); but priesthood (in Hebrews) is with God, for mercy and grace to help in time of need: advocacy with the Father, to restore communion when we have sinned. You could not have it for sins in Hebrews, because the worshippers once purged have no more conscience of sins. This answers your three first questions save the end of the third; Why do we fall? Because it is part of the government of God to have us responsibly exercised, though not without grace sufficient for us and strength made perfect in weakness. But if we forget our weakness and dependence, we forget the grace too, and are in the way of a fall: see Peter's case, and the Lord did not ask he might not be sifted; he wanted it. The evil is not in the fall, really grievous as that is, but in the state it manifests. God may allow it that we may learn this.

We will return to this, and look at it more in detail presently. What we begin with is, that in all cases actual sin is the out cropping of a state of soul which went before it, and necessitated that we should be given up to it. And moreover, this state is very generally, and at the best, some form of self-occupation and satisfaction. We never fall because of weakness merely. We fall because we do not realize our weakness. We have our hand out of our Father's hand. What could harm us if it were not so?

While warning it is, there is yet comfort in the warning. If I have fallen into the ditch, it is that I might be turned back out of the path which led to it. It was needful I should fall, and love allowed it for my recovery. But that recovery is not effected simply by my getting out of the ditch, therefore I must be got back to where my path diverged from the true one; yes, and have got the signpost up upon the by-path, too. It is for want of this that we fall again so often in the same way. To judge the open sin is easy, and no assurance at all that I shall avoid it for the future, no token in itself of recovered spirituality. "If we judge ourselves we should not be judged." To judge our sins and to judge ourselves are two different things. For the last we must have distinguished and judged the state of which the sins are only the issue — the root on which, if it be not removed, fresh fruit will surely grow.