Proverbs 11:21,  Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.

George Lawson in his commentary on Proverbs writes: "If all the wicked on earth should combine with all the devils of hell, to prevent the execution of judgment, it would only be a combination of thorns fully dry against the devouring flame."

John in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ tells us about a day when these same thorns are pictured as grapes that are fully ripe.

He pictures one sitting like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

The cry is heard to Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.

And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

The warning is clear! When you think to join hand in hand against the Holy One, God's word reminds you that all the hands in the world are simply grapes prepared for His wrath.

God thinks of the wicked as grapes to gather and cast into the winepress of his wrath.

Simple grapes that are to be crushed, whose juices are to be mingled and returned to the earth from where they came.

Isaiah in Isaiah 31:1 and 3 confirms this,  Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!

Isaiah 31:3,  Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.

The world may say that 'might makes right' as it believes in the god of forces.

But the only might that makes right is the mighty hand of God.

Deuteronomy 10:17,  For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

Isaiah says that the LORD shall stretch out his hand and cause both he that helped and he that is helped, those that join hand to hand to both fail together.

Proverbs 1 tells us:  Sinners love to encourage one another in sin.

Sinners desire to join hand in hand.

Come with us, let us wait, let us lurk, let us swallow, we shall find, we shall fill, cast in among us, let us have one purse.

Cowards love company in their cowardly acts.

The generations of Noah desired to join hand in hand when they said in Gen 11:4-6, ..... Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us build, let us make us a name.

They discovered their heart and their heart led them to join hand in hand.

One hand is not enough. Hand in hand and we will make us a name.

Finding comfort in numbers is the occupation of sinners.

Finding comfort in associations, joining hands, a symbol of increased power in numbers is found in the heart of the wicked.

This is also expressed in the numbers that value money. Dollars joining dollars.

Sinners finding comfort in thick wallets and fat purses and big bank accounts.

Therefore it ought not to be so with God's people.

God's people are not to find comfort in numbers but are to find comfort in God alone.

Isaiah knew this when he wrote in Isaiah 8:9-12,  Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

Confederacy for strength, compromise for immediate results. Associations for power.

All have origins from a man's heart, and not from God.

Joining hand in hand for numbers in a quest for success as defined by man, brings a curse by God Almighty.

The Lord warns us through Jeremiah in 17:5-8,  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Hezekiah lived this truth when he was surrounded by the Assyrians in 2 Chronicles 32:7,8,  Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

And David in Psalm 56:2-4 instructs,  Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

Though the hand of the wicked join hand with many or with few God is always the majority.

Arms of flesh will fail always but with us is the Lord our God.

Regardless of the alliance, regardless of the associations, regardless of the unions, regardless of the confederacy, the wicked will not go unpunished:

These are the children of those made right by God.

Hand joined in hand against the seed of the righteous shall fail because the righteous trust in the hand of God.

Cannot the righteous claim a covenant relation similar to the covenant that God made with Abraham?

Genesis 17:7,  And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

Did not David know of this deliverance when he said in:

Psalm 37:25,26,  I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.

Did not Peter on the day of Pentecost confirm this in:

Acts 2:39,  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

What a promise to the righteous! The greatest gift a man or woman can give to their children is to be godly.

They have then a place in the covenant that God makes with the righteous man.

Hand in hand will not deliver. Union with the world for the benefit of your children will not deliver.

Only union with God will deliver your children.