Don’t Gloat Over Your Fallen Enemies; Help Them Instead

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(17) Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, (18) or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them.’ (Proverbs 24:17-18); (43) ‘<Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount,> “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (44) But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45a) that you may be children of your Father in heaven…'” (Matthew 5:43-45a)

As a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, I have to admit that during football season, I am usually happy to see two things; the Steelers winning and the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals and/or Baltimore Ravens losing.  I, along with the other Steeler fans, have been blessed over the last 52 years (since 1972) as this has been more of an occurrence than not (with the Steelers winning 6 Super Bowls while playing 8 of them).  While the Ravens have won a couple of Super Bowls, the Bengals and Browns have not (and the Browns have never been in a Super Bowl, having last won an NFL Championship in 1964 prior to the beginning of the Super Bowl era). 

As I have gotten older, however, I have realized I would not be displeased if the Browns or the Bengals made it to the Super Bowl, and won – as the Bengals came close to doing a few years ago.  I think of those fans who had to suffer season after season of futility (like the Chicago Cub fans who had to wait 108 years before the Cubbies won the baseball World Series in 2016).  I was rooting for the Detroit Lions last year after the Steelers lost in the first round, as they had a similar history of unsuccessful playoff runs.

Gloating for the failures of your enemies in football is something we may all be guilty of (think both sides of ‘Ohio State vs. Michigan’), but being a game it is temporary and eventually will be reciprocated at some point.  Gloating for the failures of your enemies in life, however, is different; our ‘enemies’ are people or individually a person who like us have family and like us have moments of happiness and joy as well as heartbreak and suffering.  While their failure may be to our gain, we must realize that we would be suffering as they are if the shoe was on the other foot – it may our failure that would be their gain.

Solomon, considered the author of Proverbs 24, wrote this from a position as the Lord’s appointed ruler over Israel.  Taking over his father David’s rule, Solomon had many nations surrounding Israel, like Philistine, Moab and others, that they did not have the best of relations with.  It is likely, given his God-provided wisdom, that Solomon understood that due to their close proximity to Israel, threats to these states were likely going to be threats to Israel.  Throughout Isaiah, we see that when surrounding kingdoms were threatened, conquered and taken over, as the Assyrians did with Moab, Cush, and Egypt, Israel and Judah were going to be next in line. 

Had Israel and Judah worked first with each other (splitting and becoming rivals of sorts after Solomon’s death and Rehoboam took over the throne), and also along with their neighbors, and stayed true to God and His Word, they would have easily repelled the Assyrians and later the Babylonians.  Instead, the rivalry led Israel and the neighboring states to be taken first by the Assyrians (only Hezekiah’s Faith saved Judah and Jerusalem) and later taken by Babylon (which sacked Jerusalem and took the residents into exile). 

We fast forward to today, and while we should support Israel in its bid to eradicate Hamas, we must also pray for and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.  The Palestinians did celebrate the actions of 9/11, and later the massacre of Israeli civilians in the Hamas 7 October 2023 attacks.  They have since experienced, in all facets justified, the destruction of their homes and infrastructure in Gaza while Israel attacks and removes Hamas members.  However, can we justify condemning the Palestinian people to suffer and sit watching while they lack food, shelter and medicine to survive?  We should not gloat over what is occurring to them, though it was brought upon them by their own actions and support of the Hamas government.

It is proper to support Israel to complete its mission to remove Hamas as our friend, to disapprove of the actions of Hamas as our enemy, and it is also proper to support the Palestinian people with aid through the love of Jesus.  It should be our prayer that the people of Gaza realize that in receiving the aid, it is through the power of the Lord Himself who provides their needs and that they turn to Him in repentance, turning away from the hatred of Hamas and to the love of Christ. We did this for Germany and Japan after the end of World War II, and both are now allies instead of foes.

In doing so, we are turning away from the hatred and bias we have in our hearts and turning to the Lord to request His Salvation upon the Palestinian people, as He says we should do in Matthew 5:43-45.  Should they do so, it will be a winning proposition on both sides, turning from hate and turning into His Love.