WWUTT 1434 The Fear of the Lord Prolongs Life (Proverbs 10:22-32)

The wisdom of God is a beautiful gift and leads to a beautiful reward, including a life on earth well-lived and a life in heaven forevermore, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe.

Proverbs 10:22-32 and the Blessing of Yahweh

Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we continue with our study of the book of Proverbs. Open your Bible to chapter 10, if you would, and picking up where we left off last week, I'm gonna start reading here in verse 22.

We'll go to the end of the chapter, verse 32. It is the blessing of Yahweh that makes rich, and he adds no pain with it. Doing wickedness is like laughing to a fool, and so is wisdom to a man of discernment.

What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous has an everlasting foundation. Like vinegar to the teeth and like smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

The fear of Yahweh prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be shortened. The expectation of the righteous is gladness, but the hope of the wicked will perish. The way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the one with integrity, but ruin to the workers of iniquity.

The righteous will never be shaken, but the wicked will not dwell in the land. The mouth of the righteous bears wisdom, but the tongue of perversions will be cut out. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse.

You'll notice at the end of the chapter, we come back to expressions of the mouth again, the wise speaking with a certain kind of language and the fools using a different kind of language. Also in this particular section we're looking at today, the name of Yahweh came up several more times than we see in other sections, right?

Starting in verse 22, it is the blessing of Yahweh that makes rich and he adds no pain with it. Now, does that mean that a person who has become wealthy, that they've become rich because Yahweh has blessed them to become rich?

The answer to that might be no. There are people who become wealthy because they've cheated and they've schemed to get there. So it's not the blessing of God that has made them rich. It's because they've done wickedly, they've done crookedly, but there's a lot of sorrow, there's a lot of pain and angst that comes with wealth a person acquires through dishonest means.

The person who achieves wealth through honesty, through righteousness, well, they've come to wealth because God has blessed them to have that and he adds no pain with it, meaning that there's no sorrow.

There's no guilty conscience that comes from a person who achieves wealth righteously. God has blessed that person to be rich and there's no guilty conscience along with it either. Now, the aim of wisdom is not to get wealthy, but those who practice wisdom, those who do wisely, who are very shrewdly, but still in honest ways, in ways that please the Lord, they may come into an abundance of wealth.

It's not the aim of wisdom, but it may be the result of a person who makes wise decisions and that is the blessing of God. So is the clear conscience that they get along with that. Now, as we looked at some of these statements last week, there is also a spiritual undertone to this.

So the blessing of Yahweh makes rich spiritually. We are spiritually rich through God and there's no pain with it. There's no sorrow in the Christ whom we believe in. Whom we have put our faith and our trust in.

There's no sorrow. We don't feel sorry for ourselves because we believe in Jesus. On the contrary, God lifts up our heads that we may look to things that are eternal above where Christ is. Knowing that whatever we may have on this earth will eventually disappear, but what we have with God in glory is eternal and will never be taken away.

So there's no dread with that. There's no sorrow. There's no feeling that I'm gonna lose the stuff that I have. What we have on this earth is transient. The scriptures tell us that, but what we have eternally with God is forever.

So there's no sorrow that comes with that blessing. Next verse 23, doing wickedness is like laughing to a fool and so is wisdom to a man of discernment. So a fool laughs and he has one kind of laughter.

You might think of like the villain's laugh, right? In a movie or something like that. When a villain laughs, it's an evil scheming kind of laughter but the hero, when he laughs, he has a different kind of tone to his laughter and so it is with the wise man and the fool.

The wicked man's schemes delight his heart a certain way but it comes with a guilty conscience. The wise man has a certain joy in the things that he does as well and there's no guilty conscience. Goes right back to the previous proverb.

It is the blessing of Yahweh that makes rich and he adds no pain with it. So it is the man who does wisely and takes delight in his discernment in what it is that he does. He has joy with no guilty conscience but the wicked, they take delight in what they do as well but there's guilt and a penalty that comes along with that.

The reason why the wise men can delight in what he has done with no guilty conscience is because there's gonna be no judgment that comes upon him for the way that he has dealt righteously. The fool who has done wickedly, there is a judgment that will come upon his head.

The Desire of the Righteous Will Be Granted

Verse 24, what the wicked dreads will come upon him but the desire of the righteous will be granted. Still following the same theme of what we've looked at in verses 22 and 23. What the wicked dreads will come upon him.

Those things that he fears like the reasons he schemes and tries to do things in darkness and tries to do things out of view of others or he lies, he's kind of shifty, he conceals his motivations and his intentions.

It's because he fears a certain recourse but what he fears will eventually come upon him. The desire of the righteous will be granted. What does the righteous desire? They desire everything that comes from God.

As Jesus said in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Everything that we desire from God will be given to us. Now you must think of that though in terms of heavenly reward, not in terms of earthly gain because again, everything that we could possess here on this earth will eventually come to ruin.

It will eventually be no more. Even when it comes to like personal relationships which we've talked about a little bit on the podcast earlier this week, looking at first Corinthians chapter one, we may desire a claim from people but even that is transient.

What do we get in heaven? We don't get praise from people. We get to praise with people around the throne of God as we magnify his name forever. That should be our desire, not that we would be praised but that God would be praised in all that we do.

So the desire of the righteous will be granted. If we desire righteousness, it means we desire God and blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness they will be satisfied. Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God.

If we desire the righteous things of God, the prize that we get is God. Think of Hebrews chapter 12, where it says that we must run the race, looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

We run the race with Jesus in view as the prize that we are running for. We've already been given Christ but we receive much more in Christ when we get to his dwelling place forever in heaven above. We continue on verse 25, when the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous has an everlasting foundation.

This is kind of like the story that Jesus gives in Matthew chapter seven, right at the end of the Sermon on the Mount about the wise man and the foolish man. The wise man builds his house upon the rock and when the storms come and beat against that house, it stands because it's built on the rock.

But the foolish man builds his house on the sand and when the storm beats against that house, it wipes it out because the house was built on sand. And Jesus said, and great will be the fall of it. And he said that this, the wise man who builds his house on the rock, this is the one who hears the word of God and does what it says.

So if we read God's word and we obey what he has said, we have an everlasting foundation. Christ, the rock of our salvation. The whirlwind strikes the wicked and they will be no more. Verse 26, like vinegar to the teeth and like smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

There's a word picture, right? So you ask a lazy person to do a job for you, he's not gonna get the job done or he's gonna do it very slowly or he will do it very poorly because very clearly he does not have a heart that desires to do it.

But what about these references to vinegar in the teeth, smoke in the eyes? What does that have to do with being lazy? Well, vinegar is also synonymous with sour wine. So you didn't harvest the grape when you should have harvested it and you get a bad grape that produces sour wine.

So when the sluggard is lazy and he doesn't harvest the vineyard when he should have harvested it, it results not in good wine, but in bad wine. It sets the teeth on edge, makes your teeth hurt. How about this reference to smoke in the eyes?

Well, remember we've had references already in Proverbs to preparing in due season before the winter comes, right? So storing up before the winter comes, the lazy man doesn't work when he should and therefore will suffer in the winter time.

Well, if the lazy man does not gather in the spring or in the summer and then you get to the winter, he's not made preparations to bundle up and stay warm or even build proper tents. And so you're forced to have to build fires, maybe even building a fire in your home in order to stay warm.

And when you do that, the house fills up with smoke and for an entire season, your eyes are burning because of the smoke that has filled your house. Or maybe the slugger did not go and gather the proper materials for burning.

So instead he gets poor materials that produce more smoke. And so the eyes are painfully affected by this lazy man's inability to do the job and get it done. So therefore you've got teeth that hurt because of sour wine and eyes that are burning because of smoke that is filling the house.

Moral of the story is you get a person who wants to do the job and do it well and you will have a good reward. But you give it to a lazy man and everybody's gonna suffer as a result of that. You can apply this to spiritual matters as well.

A pastor who is diligent to labor in the word of God and feed the flock of God, everybody's gonna be blessed by that. But you got a pastor who's lazy and doesn't do the work or he tries to appease worldly notions instead of being faithful to the proper dissection of the word of God, of rightly handling the word of truth.

You get a pastor that's like that, everybody suffers. Spiritually, it's sour wine, it's smoke in the eyes. So is the sluggard to those who send him. We go to verse 27, the fear of Yahweh prolongs life but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

We've seen this several times in Proverbs already. And we remember back to Proverbs 1, 7 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. If we walk in God's ways, generally what that produces is long life.

If you live in foolish ways, if you go after worldly things, if you desire passions of your flesh, you're probably gonna live a lot shorter life, right? Don't we see many of these superstars out there, big rock stars and movie stars, don't we see them die relatively young?

A lot of times we do because they go after what? They go after drugs and booze and sex. They get sexually transmitted diseases that shortens their life, all kinds of things that leads to a short life, dying young.

Live fast, die young. There's a proverb from the world for you. Another one is die young and make a pretty corpse. I remember there was this band years ago rocketing to superstardom. At one point they were probably the most popular rock band in the country.

And I was curious about this band. Some friends of mine were listening to them. So I looked up some interviews with members of the band and there was this one story that was done where they were talking about how, well, this band was just your typical tale of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Every city that they would play in, they would do this contest where the top 20 girls who won the contest got to visit their tour bus. What do you think they were doing on their tour bus? The girls even knew what it was they were competing for to be able to go on the tour bus and do this thing they were winning.

The people who were writing the article, they knew what was going on there. They may not have outright came out and said what was happening on the tour bus, but they understood what was happening. So they were talking with the lead singer of the band who was way more in depth.

His answers were way more in depth than the rest of the guys in the band. But he just talked about how much he feared death. He was scared to death of death. And so he would do all kinds of drugs, alcohol, lots of illegal substances, which he's openly admitting that he does, to try to numb his mind, he wouldn't have to think about death.

He knew though that doing these substances was gonna result in an early grave. So he said, it's kind of this cruel cycle, this cruel loop that I'm caught in, that I'm just gonna keep doing these drugs to numb the reality that death is waiting for me, but I'm probably speeding up my trip to the grave.

And surely you've seen all kinds of stories of all kinds of rock stars who die early because they live fast and die young. If we follow in the ways that God has set before us, according to his word, it will prolong our life.

Now that's a general truth. It's not an absolute guarantee to everybody lives that way because we've surely known people who die young and not just from accidents, but even people get illnesses and die at young ages.

But generally speaking, a person who follows the ways that God has said are righteous will prolong his days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened and tragically so. In a spiritual sense, we can also see that our life is lengthened when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

The scriptures promise us this, everlasting life to those who love God, who love his son, who worship God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. But those who do not love God will die and they will die forever, a place of eternal torment that was prepared for the devil and his angels.

But everyone who follows in the way of Satan, instead of doing the will of the father, will perish along with the judgment that Satan and his minions will receive. We go on into verse 28. The expectation of the righteous is gladness, but the hope of the wicked will perish.

Once again, the wicked desires things they will never really firmly grab a hold of. It's certainly not long lasting. They may give pleasure to the wicked for a time, but even that pleasure is fleeting.

The expectation of the righteous is joy forevermore in Christ, and that we have as a guarantee. Verse 29, the way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the one with integrity, but ruin to the workers of iniquity.

The way of Yahweh is a protection. It protects us from the consequences of doing wickedness when we do the righteous thing, right? So it's a stronghold for the one with integrity, but it is ruin to the workers of iniquity.

The way of Yahweh is ruin to the workers of iniquity because the judgment of a holy righteous God will come upon those who do unrighteousness. Verse 30, the righteous will never be shaken, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.

You can go back to the story that Jesus shares at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. The wise man builds his house upon the rock. He will never be shaken. The foolish man builds his house on the sand and he will not dwell in the land.

The Mouth of the Righteous Bears Wisdom

Verse 31, the mouth of the righteous bears wisdom, but the tongue of perversions will be cut out. It seems pretty self-explanatory. Easy application, right? But look at some of the language here. Let me focus your attention on some of this language.

The mouth of the righteous bears, like we often read in scripture about bearing fruit, but the tongue of perversions will be cut out. What is done to a tree that does not bear fruit? It's cut down. Matthew 7, let me speak again from the Sermon on the Mount.

Verse 16, you will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. And this is what God calls fruitful versus what he says is unfruitful. What the righteous man speaks, what he yearns for, what comes from his mouth is gonna be a reflection of what's in his heart.

We've talked about that many times. So the mouth of the righteous bears wisdom. Wisdom is the fruit of the heart of a righteous man, but the tongue of perversions, perversity is what comes from the mouth of the foolish man whose heart is perverse, his tongue will be cut out.

And this is metaphorically referring to how the person who bears good fruit will reap a harvest as a reward, whereas the person who bears bad fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire, as our Lord Christ has said.

The Lips of the Righteous Know What Is Acceptable

Verse 32, the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse. That goes right along with verse 31. The righteous man says what he says because he knows what is acceptable.

The wicked man speaks perversity and he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. He just speaks his own yammering nonsense. And this is why you have among the wicked and the unrighteous in the world today, this pressing upon us an idea of relative truth, that all truth is relative.

So there is no absolute truth, it's just whatever you want your truth to be. Well, is that an absolutely true statement? It's an argument that commits suicide to say there is no such thing as absolute truth if it's absolutely true, defeats itself.

But such a concept, as nonsensical as it is, such a concept comes from the heart of a person who cannot tell the difference between right and wrong, or they choose not to. They suppress the truth with their unrighteousness because they would rather have their sin.

My friends, just going through the Proverbs here, we've seen the gospel. We've seen types and shadows that are pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ who fulfills the wisdom that is spoken about here. So if you have been convicted by these words, I so encourage you, turn from your sin, seek the wisdom that is from God, and it's in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, as it says in Colossians 2.

Only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can we be saved from sin and the results of our sin, which is death, and be given everlasting life forevermore with God in glory. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for continuing to guide us as a good and loving Father, giving us these truths that we may know how to live, living in such a way that is pleasing to our Father who is in heaven, so that on that day that we come into your kingdom, we will hear, well done, good and faithful servant, now great is your reward.

May we love God and desire to honor you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and take the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

We take this message to a lost and dying world in a wicked and perverse generation. Save us from our sins, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

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