“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you” (Proverbs 25:21,22).
The simple meaning of this proverb is: Show kindness to your enemies. Kindness to one’s enemy is encouraged many times in Scripture, both in Old Testament (e.g., Prov 20:22; 24:17,29; Exod 23:4,5; Lev 19:17,18; Deut 22:1-3; Jer 29:7; Job 31:29) and New Testament (e.g., Matt 5:43,44; Luke 6:27,28; Rom 12:17-21; 1Th 5:15).
The easy part
A good example of showing kindness to one’s enemies, with beneficial results, is in the story of Elisha and the king of Aram, or Syria, who sent his army to capture the prophet:
“As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, ‘Strike these people with blindness.’ So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. Elisha told them, ‘This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.’ And he led them to Samaria. After they entered the city, Elisha said, ‘LORD, open the eyes of these men so they can see.’ Then the LORD opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, ‘Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?’ ‘Do not kill them,’ he answered. ‘Would you kill men you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.’ So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory” (2Ki 6:18-23).
One preacher, surveying this scene, wrote, ‘What a noble revenge, to provide a feast for his persecutors — to provide a table for those who would provide a grave for him! No revenge but this “revenge” is heroic, and fit for Christian imitation.’
The way to turn an enemy into a friend is to act toward him in a friendly manner. It was said of a kindly old minister, obviously tongue in cheek, that one should be very careful never to do him a disservice or to hurt him in any way, unless one wanted to make him a friend for life!
A Chinese proverb makes the same point quite succinctly: “Meet good with good so that good can be maintained; meet evil with good so that good may be created.”
We who live after the advent of the Messiah have an example unavailable to Solomon or Elisha: an example of self-sacrificing love and forgiveness for one’s enemies. Our Lord Jesus Christ sought forgiveness for the soldiers who crucified him (Luke 23:34), and Stephen followed his Lord’s example by praying for those who were about to stone him to death (Acts 7:60). But our Lord did a greater kindness even than this: he died for all of us when we were his avowed enemies (Rom 5:6-10) — he made it personal, for every one of us!
…and the hard part
That was the easy part of the proverb, at least in understanding it; putting it into practice when we just don’t want to is another matter altogether.
But now we must consider the hard part of the proverb, that second verse: “In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head” (Prov 25:22).
It helps, of course, that the apostle Paul cites these verses when writing to the Romans:
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay [a further citation, of Deut 32:35]’, says the Lord” (Rom 12:17-19).
Then in verse 20, Paul quotes Proverbs 25:21,22, and concludes:
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). Whatever precise meaning this verse may have had for those who first read or heard it, and tempting though it might be to look for an excuse to take vengeance upon one’s enemies, it simply cannot justify doing so. Paul’s inspired application of these words (“Overcome evil with good”) rules this out altogether. Only God Almighty can avenge His wronged children.
But what does it mean?
So, without seeing it as a vengeful act, how can we understand the heaping of burning coals upon another’s head? In Strange Scriptures that Perplex the Western Mind, Barbara Bowen suggests that heaping such coals on someone else’s head describes the way a man might carry a brazier (a pan for holding burning coals) when going to a neighbor’s house to borrow a fire. She says that the expression alludes to the old custom of carrying burning coals in a container. When one’s home fire has gone out, he would need to go to a neighbor — even to his enemy — and request hot coals to carry back on his head. These coals were the evidence of the neighbor’s love. Likewise, the person who receives undeserved kindness feels uncomfortable because of his neighbor’s love. This guilt may gently convict the wrongdoer of his or her sins.
This illustration seems like a bit of a stretch, but in one form or another it is often suggested by expositors.
Perhaps, however, there is a more directly Scriptural interpretation. Let us ask the question, ‘Where, in the Bible, are burning coals being heaped upon the “head” (Hebrew “rosh”: chief or topmost part) of anyone or anything?’
Paying special attention to the Bible links, there are at least two possibilities:
In a number of passages, burning coals of fire symbolize the judgments of God. We know that God will rain these “coals” of judgment down upon His enemies (Psa 11:6; 120:4; 140:10; 2Sa 22:13). There are historical examples of Him doing just such a thing: to Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s day (Gen 19:24; Luke 17:29) and to Egypt in the time of Moses (Exod 9:23,24). In other words, it is God’s prerogative to do so, but not ours. We have already established that, and ruled it out as a legitimate enterprise for true believers in this age — even if they had the power to heap coals of fire upon their enemies in such a way.
Another possibility
However, a second possibility holds promise of helping us. We must now ask the question more specifically, ‘Where in the Bible are burning coals heaped upon the head, not of someone, but of something?’
To this there is an immediate answer. Burning coals belong in one place in the divine worship: the altars of God! In tabernacle and temple, such coals were always found on the altar of burnt offering, and periodically they were taken from that altar, and then heaped upon the other altar, the small altar of incense in the holy place. The purpose of these burning coals was to ignite the incense there (Exod 30:1-9,34-38). The burning incense in turn represented the prayers of the saints:
“May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice” (Psa 141:2).
This pattern is described in the Apocalypse:
“Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand” (Rev 8:3,4).
An extension of this worship was carried out each year on the Day of Atonement, when the high priest would carry a small censer, with burning coals and incense, from the holy place into the most holy place. This would bring the prayers of the whole nation into the actual presence of the Almighty (Lev 16:11-13). This seems to be what the priest Zechariah (soon to be the father of John the Baptist) was doing when the angel of the LORD appeared to him:
“[Zechariah] was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside” (Luke 1:9,10).
This pattern is also described in the Apocalypse, where we see the four living creatures and the 24 elders standing in the presence of the Lamb and before the throne of God:
“They were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev 5:8).
This leads to a quite satisfying conclusion. The burning coals are placed on the altar, or in the censer. And the altar and the censer alike are now seen to symbolize the individual believer. Now we may see this from the viewpoint of the offender, the one who has made himself the enemy of another. When he receives undeserved and unexpected kindnesses from the one whom he has treated as his enemy, he may be drawn to approach God and seek forgiveness for his own hurtful actions and thoughts. His “enemy”, by returning to him good for evil, has put coals and incense upon his head. His initial emotion, of burning shame, can now lead him to turn his heart to God. Now he may become a little individual altar or censer, using the ignited incense placed upon his head to fuel his prayer to his Heavenly Father: ‘Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
The right perspectives
We need the right perspective. We need to ask ourselves: ‘Can I see my “enemy” as the incense altar or the censer? Can I return good for evil, in the hopes that my good deeds may, like fiery coals, ignite the incense of prayer in my enemy, so that he may seek forgiveness from God?’
Then I need one final perspective: ‘Lord, is it I? Must I still learn not to hold grudges, and not to remember old wounds? Must I pray for forgiveness, for those who have hurt me, but also for myself, confessing how I’ve hurt others?’
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One