The Scoffer And The King
2/1/2026
Turn with me to Proverbs 20:22-23. These are our verses to study and memorize this week.
Proverbs 20:22-23 Do not say, “I will repay evil”; Wait for the LORD, and He will save you.
23 Differing weights are an abomination to the LORD, And a false scale is not good.
Introduction
Proverbs 20:20-28 continues to deal with the unjust words and interactions of the scoffing mocker in a nation. These verses zero in more specifically on his relationship to his family, to the Lord, and then finally back to the king. The first two verses introduced this section with the scoffing mocker’s harsh way of treating his parents. The middle four verses, which we are starting to look at now, deal with his wrong behavior in relation to God. Then the last three verses will give us another mini-chiasm with the way that the king should decisively deal with the scoffing mocker and his behavior.
Have you ever been wronged and immediately wanted to go back out and get your pound of flesh? Have you plotted in your mind how you can get back at the other person for they way that they mistreated you? If we are honest with ourselves, we have all done this. We have wanted to repay evil with evil. We did not want to wait for someone else to do something about it. We did not want to wait for justice. We wanted to mete out our own “full justice” –whether verbally, physically, or some other way. Our first, reactions, though, are not usually the right ones. They are actually the kind of reaction that characterizes the scoffing mocker who does not do things God’s way. He responds based on how he feels or what he wants regardless of whether it is right or wrong.
In contrast to that our first proverb gives us the right way to respond in accordance with God’s wisdom. This will be the kind of response that we need to cultivate. It will not come naturally, but it is what is needed to build up our lives and nations on God’s wisdom.
Have you ever been tempted to cheat someone in a transaction, to not ring up one of your items at the self-checkout, to not claim something on your taxes, to have someone else clock you in at work when you are running late, to tell a so-called “white lie” to get what you want, to overstep your authority and do someone an unauthorized “favor” with work resources, etc.?
For the scoffing mocker, these kinds of things are a common occurrence. They are just a normal part of looking out for oneself. As much as we might try to justify to ourselves in the ways we cheat others or try to ignore doing what we should do, God does not find it funny when we cheat or defraud people. For a nation to be built up and thrive and for people to be built up and grow in their relationship with God they must not allow justice to be perverted in their interactions. Our second proverb will again deal with this. With that introduction, let’s take a look more closely now at Proverbs 20:22-23.
22 Do not say, “I will repay evil”; Wait for the LORD, and He will save you.
Do not pursue vengeance yourself when you are wronged. Wait for God to bring justice and deliver you.
The scoffing mocker’s response to offenses, maltreatment, injustice, or other such wickedness done against them is revenge. As followers of God, that is not how we are to respond. Revenge should not be in the vocabulary of His people.
This is not to say that pursuing human justice is wrong or somehow an injustice itself. Not at all. God Himself was the one who said in Genesis 9:6 that by man the death penalty should be instituted and carried out for those who killed other people. Likewise, God Himself instituted the Law to guide Israel as a nation. Thus, God can and often does work out justice to repay evil through governments and judges in a nation. That is the way things should work as Romans 13 indicates. However, as we all know, that does not always happen. Injustices occur. People seem to get away with their crimes. Governments can even be the ones doing the injustices. Through it all, we are commanded not to be the ones who take vengeance into our own hands. We must not be the ones deciding to get even and become vigilantes.
Instead, this proverb commands us to do something completely different. It tells us to wait for the Lord. Waiting is not easy. Waiting on the Lord requires us to trust Him that He will do what is right and best. It requires trust in His future justice whenever and however that might occur. On the other hand, when we do not wait, we are saying that we know better than God. We are saying that His justice is not good enough.
Again, this proverb is not to say that we cannot pursue getting justice wherever we are able to in our situation. Indeed, governments and judges have been ordained by God to exercise His justice. Thus, it is completely appropriate to go to them for justice. It is appropriate to press charges. It is right to ask for help when people are being unjust to us. It is even right and fully appropriate to keep on asking for help when it does not come in a timely way. But, what is not right is to take vengeance into our own hands, to stop trusting God, and to repay evil for evil when they fail. Instead, we are to trust in God for His rescue. We are to trust God for His ultimate justice. We are to trust God for His perfect timing—whether that includes in this life or not.
As Romans 12:21 says, we are not to “be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” As Romans 12:19 says a couple verses before that, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.” God’s justice will be perfect and right. All too often our justice is not actually justice. For some it will go in the direction of being too soft on the crime, and for others it will go in the opposite direction. The repayment of evil will go overboard in the anger and hatred that boils over. It becomes injustice in itself.
If this does not feel satisfactory to you, your issue is with God’s Word and God’s justice. Governments, judges, and other human sources do not always give true justice. But if we truly trust God then we will be able to entrust our lives and full justice to Him when that occurs. That is not a copout. It is what God is commanding us in this proverb to do because He knows and does what is best. Doing this is a protection from being blinded and consumed by our rage at the injustices we see and experience. It is a reminder that God needs to be our focus and trust, not man. It is a reminder that our focus needs to ultimately be on God’s positive purpose for our lives, not on a negative vengeful reaction to others sin.
While we can and should work for justice as we are able within God’s purpose for our individual lives, we will never have full justice in this life. That is why we need God’s eternal kingdom. That is why we need Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. The sin of mankind is so prevalent, so deceptive, so pervasive, so wicked that there is no human solution which can fix it. We need Jesus and His truth to cut through the lies, injustices, wickedness, and evil that is continuing to occur at every level of family, business, government, and even sometimes church situations. Until we realize our desperate need for Jesus and that He is the only solution we will never learn contentment. We will never learn to truly trust God with the circumstances of our lives. We will blame Him, others, and everything else that we can. We will be consumed with bitterness, anger, and rage. Jesus calls us to let all of that go and entrust it to Him.
Do not misunderstand. This is not advocating for any kind of ignoring justice or calls for righteousness. Instead, it is calling us to get the first things first. It is calling us to not respond wrongly. It is calling us to realize the true depths of wickedness, deception, manipulation, and injustice that is occurring. It is calling us to see the one and only true solution in Jesus. It is calling us to make that redemption and solution our primary aim—even as we might also continue advocating for, calling for, and pursuing justice in the appropriate God-given channels that we have.
What those channels are will vary from country and situation. But even where they all fail or where they do not even really exist we know that God’s justice will not fail. Thus we can have peace. We can trust Him. We can still continue carrying out all the purposes that He has for us in seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. No injustice of mankind or Satan can hinder God’s ordained purposes for our lives. Eternal souls can be won even if justice is delayed. Discipleship can occur even if situations are extremely complicated and hard to determine where actual justice exists. Going into all nations or serving in the tangible needs immediately around us to make a difference can still occur despite the sin abounding on every side. Even if the Lord’s timing and the Lord’s exposure of the reality of situations is not our preferred timing we can still carry out all the good works that He has foreordained for us—if we do not let ourselves become gripped by bitterness and sin ourselves or become distracted with letting secondary pursuits become primary ones.
In light of all this, it is helpful to notice that in the context of our chapter, this instruction comes to us with having specifically mentioned the king’s responsibility to carry out justice at the beginning of the chapter—
Proverbs 20:2 The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion; He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
Proverbs 20:8 A king who sits on the throne of justice Disperses all evil with his eyes.
Likewise, in just a few verses that will be re-emphasized.
Proverbs 20:26 A wise king winnows the wicked, And drives the threshing wheel over them.
Proverbs 20:28 Loyalty and truth preserve the king, And he upholds his throne by righteousness.
God has His perfect design in place. That is what we should advocate for—that our governments are indeed a terror to evil-doers and execute justice. But, given the realities of people’s sinful human nature, we know that this is not and will not perfectly occur. Regardless, in all cases, we are to not carry out vengeance ourselves. That is the method of the scoffing mocker. The method of the wise person is to wait on the Lord’s perfect justice and deliverance. As we wait in faith in God we can work within the methods He has ordained. If you want an investigation on something, urge it! If your careful, personal investigation of the facts of something leads you to believe an issue needs more attention advocate for it. Likewise, if the inaction of the government to suppress crime and enforce laws is occurring, advocate for that to be lawfully dealt with.
But do not let yourself be overcome by evil. Do not let your anger turn to bitterness or sin. Instead, overcome evil with good. Walk by the Holy Spirit in all that you do. Do not walk by your flesh. It has a deceptive way of blinding us to truth and reality. Likewise, remember that Satan is the father of lies, and the world lives by deception. Do not be naively deceived into rash behaviors or assuming that any one group is automatically saintly. That would be to ignore the true reality of sinful depravity in every single person. No political party, no organization, no army, no person, and not even any church is going to be perfect this side of heaven. We will examine that more as we Lord willing get into Proverbs 20:25. For this proverb, though, remember to wait for the Lord, to not take vengeance into your hand, and to truly trust Him to bring deliverance in His perfect timing and way.
May we not exalt ourselves to God’s position of sovereignty and try to take into our hands what is His right and authority. May we humbly serve Him. May we humbly seek Him for our justice and for the justice of others. May we trust Him and wait for His deliverance as we are commanded to do. May we be faithful to serve Him in making disciples until He calls us home to Himself.
Scriptural Example: When we look to Scripture for an example of this we see a bad one in Lamech in Genesis 4.
Genesis 4:19, 23-24 Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah.… 23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, Listen to my voice, You wives of Lamech, Give heed to my speech, For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me; 24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
Lamech reacted in vengeance and killed someone for wounding him. That is what often happens with vengeance. It over-reacts and a further injustice occurs. The heat of the moment leads to further sin.
On the other hand, we see a lengthy and very positive example of this in the life of Joseph. He was sold into slavery as a young man by his own brothers. He could have gotten bitter, sulked, and focused on himself with the injustice of it all. Instead, he worked his hardest and won favor in Potiphar’s household. Interestingly, Genesis 39:3 says that “his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.” Somehow Joseph clearly gave credit to God for his success and skill. God remained his focus. Serving Him was his purpose. After the false accusations from Potiphar’s wife and his imprisonment Joseph still kept trusting and serving God. The Lord made him prosper there as well and gave him about as much freedom as one could have in jail.
When Joseph had an opportunity to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh’s servants he made sure to acknowledge that all interpretations belong to God. After rightly interpreting their dreams, Joseph was once more forgotten. This time it was for two full years. Did he get bitter at God and all the relentless injustices? We know the answer to that from his response to eventually being called to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. Once again he credited God with the wisdom to interpret and provide guidance. Truly Joseph waited on God and God did indeed deliver him. But it was in God’s timing and way, not Joseph’s. God was doing and is doing much more than we can ever see. In God’s timing and way God provided for Joseph to be the means of protecting his family during the famine and of bringing true reconciliation to the family.
Perhaps one of the hardest things we may be called to do is to trust God when injustices are occurring and are not being quickly resolved—whether personally or on a national level. Yet, that is exactly what we are called to do, and what Joseph models for us in the book of Genesis. If we have our focus and purpose centered on God’s wisdom, then even when opportunity does come to execute justice we will not reach for vengeance instead. Joseph made sure that his brothers had truly changed before trusting them, but he actually forgave them. He looked beyond their past behaviors to God’s perfect plan. Will we look beyond our unjust treatment to in our situations to trusting God for what is best?
Proverb in Comparison: When we compare this proverb with the rest of Scripture we see its consistency on this issue.
Leviticus 19:18 ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
Deuteronomy 32:35 ‘Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them.’
Deuteronomy 32:43 “Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people.”
Isaiah 35:4 Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.”
Nahum 1:2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies.
Romans 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.
Hebrews 10:30 For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.”
Given all this, it is clear that we need to wait on the Lord for justice and judgment. We need to wait for His deliverance. But how do we do this? In Luke 18:1-8 Jesus gives us some insight into this.
Luke 18:1-8 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2 saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3 “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ 4 “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
Pray always. Do not lose heart. Trust in God’s judgment and justice. Seek justice here on earth as we are able. Sometimes we will even get it from unjust judges. But, even much more so, we need to seek it from God. When we do, we can rest assured that He will “bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night.” Are you crying out to the Lord day and night? Are you trusting God’s justice? Are you waiting for Him and being faithful to serve Him and others while you wait? Or, are you turning against Him, blaming Him, trusting your own efforts, and pursuing your own vengeance?
Truth in Connection: Scoffing mockers who disregard God only look for justice and vengeance in this life. They do not really trust God for His justice. Thus, all they have left is to work for and make it here in this life. The bitterness and frustration of that will eat them up and destroy them if they hang on to it as their purpose and ultimate responsibility. For the faithful follower of God we are to advocate and cry out for justice. We are to pursue truth. But we also know that our main purpose in life goes beyond justice to eternity. It goes beyond the kingdoms of this world to God’s eternal kingdom. It goes beyond the injustice of this life to the eternal justice of God’s kingdom. It looks to proclaiming Jesus as the one and only one who can remove sin, change hearts, and turn other unjust people into true disciples of Jesus.
Our minds will break if we try to get a handle on and be enraged about all the injustices that are occurring around the world. We would probably also break and constantly be enraged if we knew the actual truth behind so many of the biased reports about these issues from the internet, social media, and TV. On the other hand, if we entrust it all to God and give up vengeance, we can then focus on what we can actually, individually change and make an impact on in our own personal circles and community. We can and should be making disciples. We can and should be building up others in the body of Christ. We can and should be ambassadors of reconciliation calling people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We are all sinners, and that is the root problem of this all. Only when that is dealt with will injustice be turned to justice. Only Jesus can and will bring that about. In the meantime He has given us our part in making disciples. Are you making disciples? May you be faithful to carry out what God has gifted you and commanded you to do with the one life that you have.
Every little injustice will live rent-free in our hearts and stir up bitterness, anger, and evil if we let it. It will pull us from what God wants us to actually be doing with our lives. May we follow God’s wisdom here in this proverb and wait for the Lord and His perfect deliverance.
Our next proverb returns to a very common kind of injustice that was talked about earlier in the chapter. It is as if God wants us to fully know that He sees every injustice, from little to big.
23 Differing weights are an abomination to the LORD, And a false scale is not good.
God hates unjust cheats. Deceptive business tactics are not wonderful.
The scoffing mocker thinks that shrewd business practices which cut corners and rip off customers is the way to get ahead. Instead, with this proverb we see that it brings down God’s intense disgust.
The second part of the proverb underscores this by way of extreme understatement. Not only is a false scale not good, it is the exact opposite. The intended sarcasm here tells us that truly it is very bad.
The previous mention of differing weights being an abomination to God came in verse 10. There it is the center of the chiasm dealing with the depravity of people from a young age on. The differing weights were seen to be hated by God so much because it defrauds others under the pretense of justice and fairness. Here we see God’s opposition to this abominable practice being reiterated in this section on the scoffing mocker’s relationship to God. Being able to get away with something before other people does not mean it is good, right, or helpful. Nor does it mean it will truly be gotten away with. God’s sovereign sight sees it all and He hates it. He sees through all the manipulations, smoke screens, and lies which can cloud issues so much for us. What a comfort to know that nothing escapes Him. Unjust behaviors will not end well for those who carry them out!
Both of these verses are also a reiteration of Proverbs 11:1.
Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight.
It would seem that God is very intent on us getting the point. What could seems like a little issue of injustice to some people is actually a big deal to God. Cheating others disgusts God. Pretending to be righteous and just all the while offends Him. He despises it. He hates it. It is hypocrisy. It is wrong.
God is not just concerned with our behavior when at church or while reading the Bible. He wants our behavior during the week and in all our interactions with others to always be carried out in righteousness. What we do in our work life and private life ought to fully match who we are as children of a holy God. If we are truly Christians God has redeemed us from our sin by Jesus’ death on the cross. He is making us holy. He is bringing us to heaven. We are no longer slaves to sin. We need to turn from all our old ways of deceit, lust, lies, pride, and cheating. We need to turn to the righteousness of honesty, purity, truth, humility, and justice that characterizes Jesus.
If we do not, we will find ourselves as an abomination to God in those areas. He will not tolerate that. He loves us too much to allow us to wallow in our sin. He knows the true ruin it brings to us and others. Instead, He will discipline us, teach us, and work to purify us. The Holy Spirit is in us in order to transform us and enable us to walk in righteousness. Therefore, may we carefully listen to this repeated instruction that God hates it when people cheat and are unjust towards each other.
Scriptural Example: In Scripture we see an example of this disgust with the way that Jesus twice emptied the temple of the money-changers and scammers. We also see it in the early church with the Lord’s fatal judgment on Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They both learned the hard way that you cannot cheat God, and you cannot deceive God. He hates it. In His time and way He will judge it.
When Paul and Silas were in Philippi they were unjustly beaten and thrown into prison after Paul cast out a demon from a girl. Sometimes justice does not happen right away or in fullness. Yet, God’s plan is still perfect. What did God do there? He sent an earthquake that got the jailer’s attention and led to his salvation. But, notice that this was after Paul and Silas were singing all night in the jail while they bleeding from their wounds. They were trusting in God’s perfect plan and justice and kept serving God instead of licking their wounds and complaining. There must have been a bit of satisfaction when Paul was able to tell the magistrates to personally come and release them after they had illegally beaten Roman citizens.
Yet, Paul and Silas still got their wounds and scars. And those who did it were not punished. However, in God’s perfect plan, justice will eventually come. No one will eternally escape His justice. God hates injustice and will not let it go undealt with. In the mean time, God can use our hardships and pain to produce good. Apparently, and this is very important for us to understand, making disciples of Jesus is more important to God than our immediate justice. We know this was true to Jesus, or He never would have gone to the cross. It should be no wonder then that it is also true in our situations.
No doubt after Paul and Silas’s unjust beating the magistrates were much more slow to harass the fledgling church. Knowing that they could have gotten in big trouble from their previous behavior probably caused them to give them a wide berth. Most likely Paul could have gotten them personally punished if he had pursued vengeance here. But that was not his goal, or his purpose. He was supposed to be making disciples of Jesus and being an ambassador of reconciliation to God.
If Paul had lost sight of that he could have just let the Philippian jailer kill himself when he thought the prisoners were escaped. He could have tried to prosecute the hasty magistrates for their violation of the law. Instead, he swallowed all that and reached out by word and example to share the redeeming grace of Jesus to those he interacted with. He let them know of their crime, but then overlooked it for the gospel and for what was best for his fellow believers.
Will we do the same? Or will we keep our focus on our rights ? God hates cheats and injustices. He will take care of them. He can and will do it in His perfect time and way.
Beyond that, we also need to make sure that we are not cutting any corners, committing any injustices, and ruining our own testimony. We are not to be living like other self-focused people around us. We need to stop looking out for every way to get ahead. Instead we need to look out for every way to use our circumstances to exalt God, justice, righteousness, and the life-changing power of the gospel.
Proverb in Comparison: When we compare this with the rest of Scripture we see a contrasting picture of these two kinds of ways of life in James 3:13-18.
James 3:13-18 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
We are not to let bitter jealousy or selfish ambition overtake our perspective. That is not wisdom. It is actually demonic. Instead of that we are to live in a way that is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, and without hypocrisy. If we say we love God, and if we say that we have been saved from our sin through faith in Jesus by what He did on the cross, and then we go and cheat others it is contradictory and hypocritical. There is a lie there. We are going back to our evil sin and saying that it is better than righteousness and our new life in Jesus. We do not need to save that little bit of extra money that our cheating might allow. We can entrust our lives to God. We do not need the extra convenience, comfort, or ease that our unjustly cutting corners might produce. Jesus is better than that. In light of eternity, those things will not matter. They will not have any lasting value. Rather, we will be ashamed of them and their proof of our lack of faith in God.
Truth in Connection: As we apply this to our lives, we need to learn to value righteousness and justice in our behavior the way that God values it. We need to value other people’s souls over the injustices that they commit against us. We need to trust God to be faithful to His Word and judge sin. We need to remember God’s primary purposes for our lives in making disciples and in letting our love be known to all men. That is how they will know we are Christians. If we are loving like this, then we will not cheat others. We will not pursue vengeance. Instead, we will trust God and look to see what will exalt Him most in the situations. We will look to see how our response will help and affect others—not just how it will bring us justice.
All that, though, is assuming that we are Christians. If you have not seen the evil of your sin before God, and the judgment that it deserves, and the amazing love that Jesus showed us on the cross, then that is where you need to start. Otherwise it will make no sense to wait for justice, to trust God for it, or to try to overlook injustices in order to proclaim the gospel. It will all seem like foolishness and a waste.
The truth is, because of our sin God’s judgment is coming upon all those who do not repent and turn to Him in faith as their Lord and Savior. Every knee will bow to Jesus, and every sin will receive justice. The only questions are when and how. If we persist in our sinful defiance of God, we will pay for it in full in eternity. If we humble ourselves before Him and trust in Jesus, then it is paid for us in full by what Jesus did on the cross in our place. Have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Trust Him. Then continue to trust, follow, and obey Him in all that He says—including that He hates injustice and will bring deliverance.
May we get our eyes off of ourselves and see things from His perspective. May we trust Him, and walk in righteous obedience to Him in all areas of our lives. May we value other people’s souls more than our rights and even more than our lives. May we love others with Jesus’ love to us.
Conclusion
If you have any questions on any of this or want help in coming to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior please come talk with us. We are available. Let’s pray.
© 2026, Kevin A. Dodge, All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
English (US) · 