Proverbs 11:7 Commentary and Bible Study

The proverb looks forward to the future. What prospects does one who lacks integrity have? All men live to a great extent in the future, and we cannot be satisfied with the present alone. This is also true of the wicked, but the difference between him and the righteous is that his hope is focused on this world – what he can see and touch and possess – while the believer is ready to abandon this world and place his hope in Christ. The unbeliever must be an optimist about this world or else he would fall into despair. He therefore goes on building up his expectation even though death stands at the end, contradicting everything. The expectation of the wicked man must perish because he has invested everything in a world that is passing away and has no inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. It is pitiful to see ruined hopes that result from this approach to life. If they have a hope in a world to come, it is simply seen as the extension of this world and its pleasures, but without the accompanying pain and sorrow. The point of the verse is not only that it is inevitable that the wicked will lose all because of what they have chosen to love, but also that God will make sure they lose all by standing in the way of their hope. Look at the half completed projects that remain incomplete on the day a man dies, perhaps a shed half built in the garden with the materials gathered but nothing built yet.