Proverbs 24:15 - Meaning and Application

This is spoken, not so much as advice to wicked people, since they will not accept instruction (Proverbs 23:9), but as a warning against them and an encouragement to good people who are threatened by them.

See here, first, the plans of the wicked against the righteous, and the success they expect from those plans. Their scheme is laid carefully. They lie in wait against the home of the righteous, hoping to find some fault to accuse him of, or to carry out some evil plan against him. They wait at the door, ready to catch him when he steps out, like David’s persecutors (Psalm 59 title). They are full of confidence. They think they will destroy his house because he is weak and cannot hold it up, because his life is low and troubled, and because he is almost down already. All of this comes from the old hatred that has always existed between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. The bloodthirsty hate the upright.

Second, see the folly and failure of these plans. The righteous man, whose ruin was expected, recovers. He falls seven times into trouble, but by God’s blessing on his wisdom and honesty, he rises again. He works through his troubles and sees better days after them. The just man may also fall, sometimes seven times perhaps, into sin, sins of weakness, through sudden temptation. Yet he rises again by repentance, finds mercy with God, and regains his peace.

The wicked man, who expected to see the righteous ruined and to help bring that ruin about, is himself destroyed. He falls into mischief, and his own sins and troubles bring about his complete ruin.