Proverbs 11:31,  Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.

When God introduces a proverb to us with the word "Behold" he is commanding us to hold on to what he says.

The sense of this word is to hold, to reach with the eye, to have in sight from straining or extending.

It signifies not only to look or see but to guard and keep, to bind to yourself that which you see.

It is the image conveyed by the phylacteries, (bound bits of scripture) that the devout Jews wore as frontlets between their eyes.

To behold then is, as if that which is reached with the eye is gathered in and kept.

So in regard to this proverb we are to take it’s truth in, to bind its truth to ourselves, to guard its truth as it were a possession.

Behold then, means to think of this truth as though it were a treasure to be held, guarded and not let go.

In other words this proverb is to be taken in by a good man or woman and counted as a good treasure of the heart.

Now this proverb talks about recompense of the righteous, the wicked and the sinner.

In Acts 10:34 Peter concluded that ....God is no respecter of persons:

And this conclusion includes the fact that recompense comes not only to the wicked and the sinner but to the righteous.

However this proverb indicates that recompense is much more for the wicked and the sinner then for the righteous.

But the message of this proverb is that the righteous are not immune from recompense.

The meaning of recompense is to make return of an equivalent, for anything given, done or suffered.

See the word compensation here.

God uses recompense of the righteous for a specific purpose and God provides recompense for the wicked and the sinner for a specific purpose.

God said about Solomon in 2 Samuel 7:14,  I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

God said iniquity in his sons gets repaid in chastisement.

Iniquity gets repaid with the rod of men.

Hebrews 12:6,7, says,  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

The righteous are sons of God and God is their father.

The righteous therefore are recompensed for iniquity with an intention to correct as a father corrects his children.

Recompense for the righteous is for correction not condemnation.

God recompenses his sons so that they will be conformed to sons not to banish them from being sons.

The righteous are under the discipline of the rod of God but not the curse of the rod of God.

God being a wise father will not allow his sons to indulge themselves in sin and therefore sin will be recompensed in his children.

And this proverb tells us that recompense takes place on the earth.

It is an earthly thing and not a heavenly thing.

Those in heaven do not need recompense for they are finished works of God.

Those on the earth are not finished works of God and are in need of recompense.

Iniquity is of the earth therefore recompense is of the earth.

God said about David's seed in Psalm 89:30-33,  If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

God uses the rod in hope.

He uses the rod with the intention of gaining a result.

A father corrects in hope.

God does not give fathers to condemn.

A father chastens with the intention of improvement and reform not condemnation.

As 1 Corinthians 11:32, says,  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

In the Amplified Bible this reads,  But when we fall short and are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined and chastened, so that we may not finally be condemned to eternal punishment along with the world.

Matthew Poole in his commentary says,  God chastens for a good end, to prevent the eternal condemnation of the soul with the impenitent sinners of the world, giving us our hell in this life, that we may escape it in the life to come.

Johnny's teacher says to Johnny, "You have admitted that you cheated on the test.

Are you ready to receive your punishment?"

Johnny is hoping for the best so he reasons with the Teacher, "I know that I have sinned but Jesus died for my sins.

If he paid the price for my sins and took my punishment why do I have to be punished?"

Johnny's teacher wisely responds: There is a payment for sin on the earth that God's children must pay.

Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree so that you would be saved from condemnation but there is a price for the sins we as God's children commit while we are on this earth and we must pay the price.

For the price that we pay is designed to bring the fruit of righteousness into our lives.

There is recompense for sin by the believer but that recompense is always a positive thing bringing profit to the believer but never leads to condemnation of the believer.

But without that recompense where is the profit?

Therefore Johnny you cheated on the test and now I must correct you so that the fruit of righteousness comes into your life.

Recompense is a cleansing just as Jesus cleansed Peter from the sin that occurred in his daily walk when he washed Peter's feet.

Recompense for the sin of a believer clears the account of the believer on this earth.

A child who does not have his sin judged and paid for is kept far from fellowship with his father and his mother.

A child who does not have his sin judged and paid for is kept far from the holiness of God.

Chastisement is a must on this earth if we are to be partakers of the holiness of God while we are on this earth.

As Hebrews 12:10,11 says,  For they (our earthly fathers) verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Just as the payment for sin that Christ made, allowed a believer to be saved the payment for sin on this Earth that chastisement brings allows the believer to be a partaker of the holiness of God while he is on the Earth.

1 Peter 4:17,18,  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

So if God's children be scourged or chastised what then is to take place with the wicked and the sinner?

Much more the wicked and the sinner! our proverb tells us!

Jesus said the same thing in another way in Luke 23:31,  For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

If God recompenses the living what shall be done to the dead?

If the corrections of a Holy Father seem so grievous even with his beloved children what will his wrath be for the rebel?

There is no conclusion other than that they will appear in hell.

Jesus warned the sinner to cut off his hand, to cut off his foot, to pluck out his eye rather than to go:

"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

Take every drastic measure to stay out of hell he warns.

The worst self inflicted physical punishment is nothing compared to that which awaits the wicked and the sinner in hell.

Why doesn't the worm die? Because the worm always has a meal to consume. Never does the worm go hungry!

Yes, the righteous are recompensed in the earth by a loving Father who wishes to conform his children to his only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But if there is no hope of bringing forth fruit, and there is none in the case of the wicked and the sinner, then the recompense is much more.

As we are told in Malachi 4:1-3,  For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

That day to the wicked will burn as an oven but to the righteous that day will be bright as the morning.

1 Peter 5:6 says,  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

Submit therefore to the chastisement of God knowing that it is from a Father that only desires your good.

Now let’s take this instruction into the home for it is in the home where God is mirrored.

God gives us homes that we may understand his thoughts and his workings.

You who are parents can picture yourselves in the role of God.

Now of course you are not God but you are to act in the role of God and to do for God what he chooses for you to do instead of Him doing it himself.

He entrusts you as His representative and you are to follow His lead.

Now consider this proverb in that light.

Proverbs 11:31,  Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.

What does this tell us about recompense as regarding our children.

It tells us that they will be recompensed one way or the other.

It tells us that they will be recompensed as righteous, and I put that word in quotes to change its purity a bit for they are not pure.

But they are purer than what may come later if they do not receive recompense in their childhood.

So God gives you this choice.

You as my representative in the home are to recompense your children while they are children or I will recompense them much more as adults.

So God is telling us recompense is an absolute.

Remember that commercial from Fram Oil Filters?

The message was that if you do not pay a little price now for an oil filter, later you will pay a big price for an engine overhaul.

But the prisons are filled with the "pay me later" adults who did not receive recompense in childhood.

God is saying the "pay me now" is called chastisement but the pay me later is called punishment.

Prisons are not in the business of chastisement.

You as father, you as mother, are called to chastise and if you do not carry out your part of the bargain the only remedy left is punishment.

Love your children with chastisement enough so that punishment is not in their future.

For God promises in this proverb that punishment that comes is far greater than any chastisement you bring during their childhood.

Listen to this proverb and meditate on its truth.

Proverbs 13:24,  He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Now that word hateth could not be any stronger but that is Bible.

How often you hear simple or foolish folks, who do not use the rod, say that they don’t use it because they love their children too much.

I am here to say that they are liars and I can say that with the backing of God’s word for they have no idea of what love is.

People who will not chastise their children are dangling them over the pit of punishment that they will have to pay later, and that cannot be called love.

Chastisement is designed to bring profit and without profit only punishment awaits.

Strike while the iron is hot and the iron will bend easily.

God makes the iron the hottest when your children are very young but as time goes on the iron cools and bending is almost impossible to accomplish.

Next week will teach Proverbs 29:15,  The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

King James Version,  Proverb 23:13,14,  Withhold not correction from thy child; for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

American Standard Version,  Proverb 23:13,14,  Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod. And rescue his soul from Sheol.

New International Version,  Proverb 23:13,14,  Do not withhold discipline from a child; you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.

Proverbs 11:31,  Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.

When God introduces a proverb to us with the word "Behold" he is commanding us to hold on to what he says.

The sense of this word is to hold, to reach with the eye, to have in sight from straining or extending.

It signifies not only to look or see but to guard and keep, to bind to yourself that which you see.

It is the image conveyed by the phylacteries, (bound bits of scripture) that the devout Jews wore as frontlets between their eyes.

To behold then is, as if that which is reached with the eye is gathered in and kept.

So in regard to this proverb we are to take its truth in, to bind its truth to ourselves, to guard its truth as it were a possession.

Behold then, means to think of this truth as though it were a treasure to be held, guarded and not let go.

In other words this proverb is to be taken in by a good man and counted as a good treasure of the heart.

Now this proverb talks about recompense of the righteous, the wicked and the sinner.

In Acts 10:34 Peter concluded that ....God is no respecter of persons:

And this conclusion includes the fact that recompense comes not only to the wicked and the sinner but to the righteous.

However this proverb indicates that recompense is much more for the wicked and the sinner then for the righteous.

But the message of this proverb is that the righteous are not immune from recompense.

The meaning of recompense is to make return of an equivalent, for anything given, done or suffered.

God uses recompense of the righteous for a specific purpose and God recompenses the wicked and the sinner for a specific purpose.

God said about Solomon in 2 Samuel 7:14,  I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

God said iniquity in his sons gets repaid in chastisement.

Iniquity gets repaid with the rod of men.

Hebrews 12:6,7, says,  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

The righteous are sons of God and God is their father.

The righteous therefore are recompensed for iniquity with an intention to correct as a father corrects his children.

Recompense for the righteous is for correction not condemnation.

God recompenses his sons so that they will be conformed to sons not to banish them from being sons.

The righteous are under the discipline of the rod of God but not the curse of the rod of God.

God being a wise father will not allow his sons to indulge themselves in sin and therefore sin will be recompensed in his children.

And this proverb tells us that recompense takes place on the earth.

It is an earthly thing and not a heavenly thing.

Those in heaven do not need recompense for they are finished works of God.

Those on the earth are not a finished work of God and they are in need of recompense.

Iniquity is of the earth therefore recompense is of the earth.

God said about David's seed in Psalm 89:30-33,  If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

God uses the rod in hope. He uses the rod with the intention of gaining a result.

A father corrects in hope. God does not give fathers to condemn.

A father chastens with the intention of improvement and reform not condemnation.

As 1 Corinthians 11:32, says,  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

In the Amplified Bible this reads:  But when we fall short and are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined and chastened, so that we may not finally be condemned to eternal punishment along with the world.

Matthew Poole in his commentary says:  God chastens for a good end, to prevent the eternal condemnation of the soul with the impenitent sinners of the world, giving us our hell in this life, that we may escape it in the life to come.

Johnny's teacher says to Johnny, "You have admitted that you cheated on the test.

Are you ready to receive your punishment?"

Johnny is hoping for the best so he reasons with the Teacher, "I know that I have sinned but Jesus died for my sins.

If he paid the price for my sins and took my punishment why do I have to be punished?"

Johnny's teacher wisely responds: There is a payment for sin on the earth that God's children must pay.

Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree so that you would be saved from condemnation but there is a price for the sins we as God's children commit while we are on this earth and we must pay the price.

The price that we pay is designed to bring the fruit of righteousness into our lives.

There is recompense for sin by the believer but that recompense is always a positive thing bringing profit to the believer but never leads to condemnation of the believer.

Therefore Johnny you cheated on the test and now I must correct you so that the fruit of righteousness comes into your life.

Recompense is a cleansing just as Jesus cleansed Peter from the sin that occurred in his daily walk when he washed Peter's feet.

Recompense for the sin of a believer clears the account of the believer on this earth.

A child who does not have his sin judged and paid for is kept far from fellowship with his father and his mother.

A child who does not have his sin judged and paid for is kept far from the holiness of God.

Chastisement is a must on this earth if we are to be partakers of the holiness of God while we are on this earth.

As Hebrews 12:10,11 says,  For they (our earthly fathers) verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Just as the payment for sin that Christ made, allowed a believer to be saved the payment for sin on this earth that chastisement brings allows the believer to be a partaker of the holiness of God while he is on the earth.

1 Peter 4:17,18,  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

So if God's children be scourged or chastised what then is to take place with the wicked and the sinner?

Much more the wicked and the sinner! our proverb tells us!

Jesus said the same thing in another way in Luke 23:31,  For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

If God recompenses the living what shall be done to the dead?

If the corrections of a Holy Father seem so grievous even with his beloved children what will his wrath be for the rebel?

There is no conclusion other than that they will appear in hell.

Jesus warned the sinner to cut off his hand, to cut off his foot, to pluck out his eye rather than to go  "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

Take every drastic measure to stay out of hell he warns.

The worst self inflicted physical punishment is nothing compared to that which awaits the wicked and the sinner in hell.

Why doesn't the worm die? Because the worm always has a meal to consume. Never does the worm go hungry!

Yes, the righteous are recompensed in the earth by a loving Father who wishes to conform his children to his only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But if there is no hope of bringing forth fruit, and there is none in the case of the wicked and the sinner, then the recompense is much more.

As we are told in Mal 4:1-3,  For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

That day to the wicked will burn as an oven but to the righteous that day will be bright as the morning.

1 Peter 5:6 says,  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

Submit therefore to the chastisement of God knowing that it is from a Father that only desires your good.