Proverbs 10:27-28
The Fear of the Lord
Introduction:
1. Once again, Solomon contrasts the righteous and the wicked.
2. Once again he speaks in terms of a proverb… truths that are not true in each and every case. They are generalities about life.
3. In general, he states that the righteous will live long happy lives, and the wicked will live a short life and their hopes for their future will not be fulfilled.
27a The fear of the LORD prolongeth days…
1. This truth has been mentioned several times already in the book.
2. There are several MEANS of prolonging one’s days in the book of Proverbs:
a. 10:27 – fearing God will lengthen one’s days…
• David feared God when he stood before Goliath.
• Had he feared Goliath more he may never have written a psalm!
b. 3:1-2 – obeying one’s parents will lengthen one’s days…
• How many teenagers have been told by their parents to drive under control… no drinking… no speeding…
• How many would be alive today had they obeyed their parents when they got behind the wheel?
c. 3:13, 16 – holding on to wisdom will lengthen one’s days…
d. 9:10-11 – by fearing God and taking heed to wisdom…
• Remember Lot’s wife?
• Wisdom demanded that she flee the city and not turn back.
• Wisdom calls to us and makes demands of us. However, we have the freedom to choose to take heed or to ignore wisdom.
• When we take heed, we prolong our days…
e. Ps.91:9, 15-16 – by making God one’s refuge; calling upon Him…
• The soldiers at Jericho made God their refuge. They trusted in Him and their lives were preserved.
• The soldiers at Ai did not trust in the Lord. They trusted in themselves… and some lost their lives.
• When we stay close to the Lord, we are safe… and who knows how often our life has been preserved as a result?
3. It is good to fear the Lord for many reasons… one of which is “length of days.”
1. This is the flip side of the same truth. It too is mentioned often in Scripture.
2. Reasons for a shortened life:
a. Divine chastisement (Ps. 55:23 – they won’t live out half their days!)
• Some of the Corinthian believers lost their lives because of their sin… God’s ultimate form of chastening… death!
• Ananias and Saphira too lost their lives…
b. Giving oneself to folly and wickedness (Ecc. 7:17)
• Many men have had their days cut short because of their foolish lifestyle…
• Drinking… drugs… STD’s…
c. God calls fools out of this world in a time when they are not prepared to leave. (Luke 12:20)
28a The hope of the righteous shall be gladness…
1. Terms:
a. Gladness: joy, mirth, gladness
b. Hope: confident expectation
2. Righteous people can have a confident expectation of gladness and joy in their lives. This is the general rule.
a. True, many righteous men have suffered greatly.
b. True, many ungodly men SEEM to live the life of Riley… but things are not always as they seem.
3. Yet even if we suffer greatly in this life… (and some saints DO suffer much in this life) our whole life long — we can still have that HOPE (confident expectation of good for the future)… for the life to come.
a. THAT is the source of our true joy and gladness.
b. Hab. 3:17-18 – we can still have gladness or joy in the Lord. No one can take that from us.
4. The Lord has promised us JOY in this life. (John 15:11)
a. Joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
b. It is our every moment that we are yielded and thus filled with the Spirit… whether we are happy or not. Joy is not happiness.
c. Happiness is based upon pleasant circumstances.
d. Joy is much deeper. It exists entirely apart from circumstances.
e. Believers who are not happy with their circumstances can still have the joy of the Lord… true gladness…
f. Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS—and again I say rejoice! (Paul wrote from prison!)
g. The hope of the righteous is gladness and joy.
• Solomon makes a direct connection between righteousness and joy.
• The righteous shall have joy. The ungodly will never know true joy.
• Ps.32: 10-11 – the righteous shall experience joy. They have every reason to shout for joy and to rejoice!
h. John 16:22 – our hope for the future is the coming of Christ. We will have a joy that will never be interrupted!!
5. Ps. 16:9-11 David’s bright hope for the future enabled him to experience joy and gladness in the present.
a. His hope for the future involved passing through death victoriously and being in the presence of God!
b. Thus, he could say, “my heart IS glad”… (not shall be!)
c. If we believe that which we hope for, if our hope is genuine confident expectation of good—then we can experience gladness today… regardless of today’s circumstances.
6. Prov. 14:32 –The righteous have HOPE in death.
a. Death is the ultimate bad experience in life… the worst circumstance we face.
b. Yet in death, we have a hope that no man can take from us.
c. Not happiness, but JOY as we face death…
7. We have a fabulous HOPE as Christians:
a. Being used of the Lord here on earth… to represent Christ and lead others to a saving knowledge of Him…
b. Being rewarded for our present labors some day…
c. Resurrection of the body…
d. Eternally separated from our sin nature…
e. An eternal inheritance in glory…
f. A heavenly dwelling place being prepared for us…
g. The new heaven and new earth… new Jerusalem…
h. Living in the presence of God…
i. Our blessed hope, the coming of Christ…
j. So let others be miserable if they so choose. Not me. I refuse to be miserable.
k. I Cor. 15:19 – if this life is all there is then we have reason to be miserable here. But this is NOT the case.
l. We have every reason to rejoice in the Lord… to serve the Lord with gladness!
m. This too is a matter of personal choice.
• You can CHOOSE to be miserable by CHOSING to focus on the earthly and temporal circumstances.
• Or you can CHOOSE to experience the joy of the Lord by keeping your focus on Him and His wonderful promises that fill us with hope…
• We need to CHOOSE to set our affection on things above, not the things of this earth.
28b But the expectation of the wicked shall perish.
1. All men have hope and expectation concerning their future.
2. Even the wicked hope for GOOD days ahead… for gladness… happiness… favorable circumstances… good health… prosperity… good friends…
3. Wickedness FRUSTRATES any hope of good…
a. Think of the thousands of people in prison right now because of their wickedness… for their crimes…
• They had hopes of going on to college and building a successful career…
• They had hopes for a family…
• Every one of them had hopes for a good life… the little house with a white picket fence…
• Now all their hopes are dashed… some put on hold for 10 years… some dashed forever.
• They chose to commit a crime… to sin… and their wickedness dashed all their hopes for the future.
• Many are left with no hope whatsoever…
• Job 11:20 – Job spoke of this hopeless condition…
b. Solomon is warning us about this very real possibility. Don’t do it! Avoid wickedness. It is a hope-killer!
c. Ps.112:9-10 – the wicked shall see the exaltation of the righteous… his hopes coming to fruition, and it shall cause the wicked to gnash his teeth… frustration…
4. What a good challenge to us all—to lead a life of “Righteousness”… do things RIGHT before the Lord.
a. That is the way of gladness… peace of mind…
b. This is all a matter of choice. We can have either:
• A long happy life by living righteously
• OR a short frustrated life by living wickedly.
• The way of the transgressor is hard. The way of the backslider is hard.
• The choices we make in life will determine the QUALITY of our life… joy or frustration… gladness or a life of dashed hopes.