No Harm Will Befall You?

The fear of the Lord leads to life; and he who has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm. (Proverbs 19:23)

I’m at a loss with this verse.

I discovered it on my way through Proverbs. It instantly reminded me of other, similar verses scattered throughout the Scripture—like “a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you” (Psalm 91:7). If you love and follow God, the verses seem to say, no harm will befall you.

And yet clearly it’s not true.

If it were, how could we explain the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul? Or the assassination of Martin Luther King? Or the Holocaust, or any of the other genocides of the past 30 years?

I’m not even sure I’d want this to be true. I’m much more comfortable with the idea that God “sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Plus, there’s the value of suffering with Christ and thus identifying with him—and with all humanity: “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10).

And yet Proverbs 19:23 and its like are in the Bible. So let’s wrestle with it.

At first, I thought the “no harm will befall you” passages referred to some ultimate, spiritual harm. Nothing will touch our soul. But doesn’t the death of a loved one, or reports of a genocide, touch our soul? As Joan Chittister says in Called to Question, “The way of the cross takes its toll on us.”

To repeat: I’m at a loss. Do you have any ideas? I would love to hear them. Feel free to post them here.