Christian Philosophy: How Christ Fulfills Proverbs 10:3

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Proverbs 10:3 says: “The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked” (KJV). In other words, God will not allow the righteous to suffer hunger, but He drives away [1] the wicked’s desire. [2] How is Christ reflected in this picture?

Christ is the Righteous (1 John 2:1). That is, He is the One who is and does right [3] in God’s eyes. And He does it perfectly, without the slightest trace of sin. [4] So, to say that God will not suffer the soul of the righteous (i.e., the soul of Christ) to famish means He won’t allow Christ “to be hungry.” [5] Though it may seem like a trivial note to make, this passage does not mean that Christ was never hungry in the sense of lacking and/or desiring food, because the Holy Spirit tells us in Matthew 4:2 that, after Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights, He became hungry. So, what does this first clause in Proverbs 10:3 mean, given how 1) Christ is the Righteous and 2) God will not allow the righteous to hunger? To answer that question, we must consider the second clause of this proverb, which clarifies the first clause. First, the Holy Spirit says that the LORD will not allow the righteous’s soul to be famished. Second, God says that He casts away the substance (again, in this case, the desire) of the wicked. The same thing is being said here, but in two different ways. [6] So, the sense in which God will not allow His Son and Christ to suffer hunger is that the Lord Jesus Christ will not be deprived of His desire, whereas the wicked’s will be. And the wicked, or the ungodly, [7] are simply the opposite of the righteous. [8] O Christian, take comfort from both this individual Scripture and the whole of Scripture! Cheer yourself up with the unchangeable, absolute, and omnipotent fact that Christ’s desire will be fulfilled, and the desire of His enemies will be disappointed! And speaking of the Christian, this proverb applies, in a secondary way, to the one who trusts, loves, and obeys Christ. The Christian is, first, righteous in that Christ has justified him (i.e. declared him righteous [9]) in God’s court. The Christian is, second, righteous in that Christ has set him free from slavery to sin to make him a slave of righteousness. [10] Another way of saying this is that the Christian is one who is becoming conformed to the image of Christ. [11] Christian, because you are Christ’s by faith (i.e. trust [12]) in Him, you are righteous (in both of the senses just described) and therefore God will not allow you to suffer hunger (i.e. unfulfillment of your desire [13]), but He WILL deprive the wicked of their desire!

Christian, preach these things to yourself, trust them, rejoice in the Lord for them, and live by them!

Non-Christian, or one for whom Christ isn’t life itself, turn away from whatever you’re setting your mind and your heart on! Set your thinking and your affections on Christ instead! Trust in Him, and Him ONLY! Embrace Him as your very Life! And the Bible, the 66 Books of the Old and New Testaments, is the Portrait in which you can see Him, the Bible being the very Word of God in written form.

[1] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1920.htm [2] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1942.htm [3] The idea that “righteousness” means “right doing” is inspired by Arthur Pink’s work “Enjoying God’s Best,” Part 2, Paragraph 1. https://gracegems.org/Pink/enjoying_gods_best.htm [4] Hebrews 4:15 [5] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7456.htm [6] https://illbehonest.com/the-holiness-of-god-paul-washer; I also want to acknowledge the debt I owe to my professor David Saxon for teaching me this insight on Proverbs in his Proverbs & Ecclesiastes class at Maranatha Baptist University. [7] Job 34:18 [8] Psalm 1:1-4; https://illbehonest.com/truly-psalm-1-man [9] https://biblehub.com/greek/1344.htm [10] Romans 6:17-18 [11] Romans 8:28-29 [12] https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm [13] It MUST be made clear though that this is desiring what God desires, and this transformation of desires comes with the package of becoming conformed to Christ’s image.