What does Proverbs 11:27 mean?
It has been said that those who seek trouble are sure to find it. It is equally true that those who truly seek good will find it (Matthew 7:7–8). In the eternal sense, this is always true. Those who truly want to know and understand God will respond to Him in faith (Matthew 6:33). Those who reject Him will, eventually, be in a state of eternal destruction (Matthew 25:41, 46).If we look for good in others' lives or seek ways to enrich their lives, we will receive favor from both God and man. However, trouble seekers will receive distress or tragedy. The farmer who withholds his grain to sell it at obscene prices when the public's need is critical will fall into the public's disfavor. Those same people will hold him in high regard if he sells with no thought of waiting until he can exact a higher price (Proverbs 11:26).
Because Jesus always did what pleased His Father, we read in Luke 2:52: "Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." His pursuit of godly things brought Him into goodness. Caleb was 85 when he requested the hill country of Hebron as his inheritance, and Joshua granted Caleb's request because he "wholly followed the LORD" (see Joshua 14:6–14). Psalm 84:11 affirms: "No good thing does [the Lord] withhold from those who walk uprightly." Troublemakers can expect nothing but trouble as the natural consequence of their evil attitude and actions.
