Get Wisdom Proverbs 28:5

Recently, there was a story on the news about a guy who’s a graffiti artist. He went and vandalized someone else’s property; he went and put up his artwork on someone else’s building without asking. Then a magazine was looking for a place to do a photo shoot, and they decided to use the building with this man’s artwork. This made the graffiti artist upset, so he’s suing the magazine for using his artwork without permission…that he illegally put up. I can’t wait to see how this works out.
Our verse today is Proverbs 28:5. It says, “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely.” When he says “evil men do not understand justice,” I think he’s talking about people who reject the LORD, people who have not chosen to follow God. They don’t understand justice because they’re not seeking God. I think that’s the most evil thing possible—to reject the God who made you. Not acknowledging the one who gives you breath is evil.
If we reject or deny God and his justice, then we become our own standard of righteousness. This is so common in our world today. Whatever fits our needs is okay, because we’ve essentially become our own gods. Consider this quote: “God made man in his own image, and we return the favor.” We make a God that suits our needs. Many of us are guilty of this on different levels.
But the second part of the verse says, “but those who seek the LORD understand it completely.” When we seek the LORD, we can see and understand justice clearly and correctly. God is the rightful standard of justice, because he made all things. It’s sad how hard it is for us believers to speak up today about what is truth, because people don’t want to hear it; instead, they want their own god.
But this verse says that “those who seek the LORD understand it completely.” Sometimes we as believers can become very frustrated when people reject God’s truth and it becomes easy to lose focus. We need to remember that these people need the LORD. Their problem isn’t necessarily whatever particular topic we’re disagreeing on; their ultimate problem is that they need God.
We often try to fix people by making them more moral because that makes us more comfortable, when really they first need the foundation of knowing God. We tend to get that backwards. God has not called us to simply be moral people; we’re called to receive and trust in Christ. Of course evil men won’t see things justly; they don’t have the capacity to do so without Christ. So as we pray for non-Christians, let’s make it our prayer not only that they would be moral, but that they would come to know the God that made them.
Here’s our verse one last time: “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely,” (Proverbs 28:5).