Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
All Commentaries on Proverbs 1:28 Go To Proverbs 1
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
What is it then which Scripture says in many places: “They shall call, and I will not hear them”? Yet surely you are merciful to all who call upon you.… Some call, yet call not upon him of whom it is said, “They have not called upon God.” They call, but not on God. You call upon whatever you love: you call upon whatever you draw to yourself, whatever you wish to come to you. Therefore if you call upon God for this reason, in order that money may come to you, that an inheritance may come to you, that worldly rank may come to you, then you are calling upon those things that you desire may come to you; but you are making God the helper of your desires, not the listener to your needs. God is good, if he gives what you wish. What if you wish ill, will he not then be more merciful by not giving? Then if he gives not, then is God nothing to you; and you say, How much I have prayed, how often I have prayed, and have not been heard! Why, what did you ask? Perhaps that your enemy might die. What if he at the same time was praying for your death? God who created you, created him also. You are a human, your enemy also is human. But God is the judge: he hears both, and he grants the prayer to neither. You are sad, because you were not heard when praying against your enemy. But be glad, because his prayer was not heard against you.
