Proverbs 13:9
The light of the righteous rejoiceth:
But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
The key to the imagery of this proverb is given to us somewhere else.
The light of the righteous rejoiceth:
But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
The key to the imagery of this proverb is given to us somewhere else.
In another teaching our author says, 'the commandment is a lamp (candle); and the law (Torah) is light'. Jewish sages looked at it as the full light of Torah being composed of many candles; that the brightest the light was, the more it ‘rejoiced’. Also, the Hebrew text of this proverb is written in the future tense. Literally translated it would therefore read, ‘The Light (Torah) of the righteous will rejoice; but the lamp (commandment) of the wicked shall be put out. It seems therefore that this verse teaches us about our future fate according to our personal integrity towards the Word. It seems to tell us that in the end of days, when all is said and done, the righteous who has applied God’s commandments to his life will live in great light in that city where there is no sun, but where the Light of God encompasses all. But on the other hand, the wicked, who followed his own commandment will live in darkness.
The Bible is, and has always been a counter-culture book. The lifestyle it promotes is at odds with man’s depraved culture generation after generation. In this day and age, religious teachers have allegorized it so much that according to them, hardly any of its old time injunctions are valid for us. This attitude towards it started with the writings of the Church fathers of the second and third century C.E. Sad to say then, but negating the commandments (the candles) of the Light (Torah) only leads us to a living in the confusion of darkness.
In another passage, our author teaches us that the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. In other words, as we learn to follow and obey God’s Commandments in what Yahoshua coined as this ‘perverse and adulterated generation’, our lives becomes brighter and brighter, especially in the contrast of their darkness.
The Bible is, and has always been a counter-culture book. The lifestyle it promotes is at odds with man’s depraved culture generation after generation. In this day and age, religious teachers have allegorized it so much that according to them, hardly any of its old time injunctions are valid for us. This attitude towards it started with the writings of the Church fathers of the second and third century C.E. Sad to say then, but negating the commandments (the candles) of the Light (Torah) only leads us to a living in the confusion of darkness.
In another passage, our author teaches us that the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. In other words, as we learn to follow and obey God’s Commandments in what Yahoshua coined as this ‘perverse and adulterated generation’, our lives becomes brighter and brighter, especially in the contrast of their darkness.
May our lives always be so.
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