Friday, September 25, 2026 · Chapter 25
Feed the Guy Who Screwed You
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
Proverbs 25:21
For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
Proverbs 25:22
IThe Hebrew, opened up
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coals — live embers, the kind you’d use to cook or to heat a house
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reward — but the root means “to make whole, to complete, to pay back what’s owed”
Gechalim isn’t a small flame — it’s the kind of heat a household in that culture carried on their heads in a pan to relight a dead fire, a genuine, costly favor. Feeding your hungry enemy is pictured as handing him fire for his own house. And shalam is the same root behind shalom — peace. God isn’t promising to punish you back, He’s promising to make you whole, to settle the account Himself. You don’t have to collect the debt. He already agreed to pay it.
IIWhat this actually means
This isn’t “be nice so he feels guilty.” Solomon isn’t telling you to fake kindness as a weapon. He’s telling you: when the guy who wronged you is standing in front of you with an actual need — hungry, thirsty, stuck — you meet it. Not because he earned it. Because you’re done carrying the account yourself. The coals aren’t your revenge dressed up nice; they’re what happens in his conscience when he gets mercy instead of the payback he expected. Your job is the bread and water. What happens in his head is between him and God. And the line “the LORD shall reward thee” is the whole reason you can afford to let it go — He’s not asking you to eat the loss forever, He’s asking you to hand Him the ledger.
IIIObey it today
Think of the one person who actually wronged you that’s still in your life — a client, a coworker, an ex, a family member. If they need something small from you today and you can give it without lying to yourself about your motives, give it. Don’t announce it, don’t bring up the past while you do it.
Before you fire back a text or comment defending yourself against someone who’s been unfair to you, stop and ask: am I trying to settle this myself, or am I willing to let God settle it? If you’re not sure, don’t send it yet.
Write down, even just in your phone’s notes app, one specific debt you’re still trying to collect from someone in your head — an apology you’re owed, credit you never got. Hand it to God in one sentence and stop running the interest on it today.
PrayerGod, I don’t want to keep score anymore — help me hand You the account today instead of collecting it myself.
Keep this in your chest
“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.”
Proverbs 25:21-22