Shaming Love – Proverbs 25:21-22

“Boy, did I ever have egg on my face!”  Where did that figure speech come from.  We understand it.  It basically means I did something embarrassing.  Maybe it comes from having eaten and left some egg on my face without realizing it.  That would be embarrassing.  Or perhaps it came from performers whose audience felt they were doing a poor job and hurled eggs at them.  The Jews had a similar proverb, only it had to do with coals on one’s head.

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21–22, ESV)

We have already seen that the Old Testament, and the Proverbs in particular, teach the concept of loving your enemies, the teaching which Jesus focused on so powerfully in his elucidation of the intent of the Law in his sermon on the mount.  And here it is again, but with a bit of a twist.

When you love your enemy, what does that involve?  It most basically involves meeting your enemy’s needs.  This is represented by meeting his need for food and water.  But we all have other needs, genuine needs that make us human, like the need to be loved unconditionally, the need to be safe, the need to make a difference for good, and the need to be valued for who you are.

There used to be a TV show I loved called The Equalizer.  A former government agent (CIA, NSA?) had retired but began seeing the injustices around him so he started advertising that he would help equalize someone’s situation, be on their side and help them get justice.  I was shocked in one episode when he met with a former Cuban spy-master living in his neighborhood and no longer the enemy.  The spy-master’s story was that he came across a man in Cuba whom he tortured but who kept forgiving him.  It finally broke him and now he claimed he had come to know God.

It was just a TV show, but it easily illustrated this proverb.  Loving an enemy, giving them what they need, like love and forgiveness in this instance, heaps burning coals of conviction or shame upon them, leading them to repentance.  Does that always happen?  No, remember that Proverbs is not a book of promises but wisdom, teaching what the rule is when you follow the way of wisdom.  There are always exceptions.  But whether your enemy repents or not, Yahweh will reward you.  You have loved as He loves.