Proverbs 11:27 Seeking good_
Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it. Proverbs 11:27 NIV
“Whoever seeks” is taken from a Hebrew word meaning “to look for dawn,” carrying the implication that one is awake, ardently waiting for the morning to come. After a long night with darkness obscuring your view, you wait for that faint glow from the horizon to break — revealing the color and beauty of a new day filled with the possibilities ahead. That’s the effect of seeking good, particularly in a world where darkness knocks daily in so many ways. When you find the good, it makes your perception explode with its richness. You find favor.
The second phrase “evil comes” means that harm or adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, displeasure, or distress will come to him who is seeking it — with the implication that the one seeking it is doing so to hurt another.
Both are seekers, looking for something and applying a sense of diligence toward the pursuit. There’s a foundational kingdom truth that seekers will be finders. Jesus said:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8 NASB
Jesus didn’t make a distinction between asking for good or bad. Is it possible that whatever I look for I will find? I believe Solomon is saying just that. The substance of what I am looking for matters. If I look for good in another, they will find good in me. If I judge and condemn another, that same judgement will be returned on me. The idea of reciprocity is important. That which I hand out will be given back to me.
When I think of the benchmark examples of reciprocity, I think of pure good and pure evil: Jesus and Satan. At creation, Satan saw something that would belong to man — a position and place that God’s people would occupy in the kingdom that would eventually jeopardize the angelic “sons of God.” The elevated status was what was at risk, but the real jealousy sprouted from the place man would have with God’s heart and affection. The pride in his heart agonized at that thought that those created out of nothing, dependent on his support, would become something — and he devised a plan that involved snaring man in sin, taking him down and out, separating him from God. Man could no longer inherit that place of affection if we were disqualified. It was a brilliant plan. He laid a trap that Adam — and all men — fell into it. It worked. With one fatal flaw, Satan didn’t account for how deep God’s love is or how far it would go to make things right again. And the ultimate good came at a very steep price when Jesus was asked by God to pay for that sin. Jesus diligently sought good. My good. And it worked.
And the result is at the very heart of this proverb. Satan has been condemned to the evil that he sought and intended for me. In the end, he is cast into the lake of fire which burns forever — the very hell that he threatens mankind with daily. In contrast the good that Jesus sought for me and paid dearly for, has been returned to him. The Father gave it all back to him.
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. Philippians 2:9 NIV
One wanted it all and went to great length to get it and he lost everything, even the good that he started with. (From Isaiah’s description, Lucifer was incredibly beautiful and gifted.) The other, gave it all up and yet he gained it all back. Not only did he receive the good that he started with, but he also received the blessing and benefit included with the people of God, in me, who he purchased in order for us to be with him.
Seeking and finding. What is it that I seek today. Is it good? I love the mornings. It’s when I’m the most awake and energized. My heart is fresh. Possibilities are endless. And his promise to me is that the good I seek will return with even greater favor. Let the desire of my heart align with those things which delight Him.