Proverbs 10:30-31
‘Fools die for lack of Wisdom…; but a man of understanding, has Wisdom!… When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; but the righteous has an everlasting Foundation!… The fear of the Lord, prolongs days; but the years of the wicked, shall be shortened! The hope of the righteous, shall be gladness; but the expectation of the wicked, shall perish! The way of the Lord is strength to the upright; but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity! The righteous shall never be removed; but the wicked shall not keep on inhabiting the Earth! The mouth of the just, keeps bringing forth Wisdom!’ Proverbs 10:21-31.
‘Fools die for lack of Wisdom’ (Proverbs 10:21). Those who are foolish, die — and die everlastingly. For they have rejected and lack Christ the Son and Word and Wisdom of God.
However, ‘a man of understanding has Wisdom’ (10:23)! For he has understood that the Son is the everlasting Wisdom of God — and that Wisdom had come and lodged in his brain and heart.
For when at death ‘the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; but the righteous has an everlasting Foundation’ (10:25)! The unwise wicked dies without Wisdom; but the righteous has Wisdom as his own everlasting Foundation. This verse may have been in the mind of Jesus, when He uttered His parable of the wise man who built his house on the Rock as his own everlasting Foundation (Matthew 7:24-27).
Indeed, ‘the fear of the Lord prolongs days’ or adds to them; ‘but the years of the wicked shall be shortened’ (10:27). On the whole, God-fearing people seem to outlive the God-hating. In Puritan England, some often reached 100 years old; whereas till recently, the average lifespan of a pagan Eskimo amounted to but 29 years!
After death, the expectations are even deepened. ‘The hope of the righteous, shall be gladness; but the expectation of the wicked, shall perish!’ (10:28). Even before death, gladness is the hope of the righteous thereafter. But at their death, the wicked perish in their sins everlastingly!
‘The way of the Lord is strength to the upright; but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity’ (10:29). Even before death, the righteous remain strong — by uprightly keeping the way of the Lord. The Lord is a Stronghold to the man who is upright in his way. But those who ignore that way and who work iniquity, are on their way to destruction.
‘The righteous shall never be removed.’ No, never! ‘But the wicked shall not keep on inhabiting the Earth!’ (10:30). In the end, they shall be cut off even from this Earth, for ever!
Why? Because ‘the mouth of the just, keeps bringing forth Wisdom’ (10:31). What the just talk about with their mouths, is Wisdom the Son of God! More and more, whenever they talk — that is what their mouths keep on bringing forth! For the mouth of the just, keeps bringing forth Wisdom’ — for ever and ever! The righteous or the just, shall never be removed from the Earth!
