Proverbs 24:19 Commentary and Bible Study

In the meantime God’s people wait patiently for the end to come. The temporary dislocation of this world does not trouble them. When they see the wicked exalted, filled with ease, surrounded by everything they want in this world, strutting through the earth as if they own it, facing death calmly, the righteous hold back their indignation because they know this is only a temporary state of affairs. How can one envy someone who is ultimately to receive the reward of everlasting punishment, to have their candle put out? What if they temporarily experience the pleasures of sin for a season? Do those pleasures compensate for the loss of their eternal souls? Will they says at the end, ‘Oh well, it was all worth it.’ No, those pleasures will instantly lose any powers of consolation. Therefore the righteous reject any temptation to go the same way, and are careful not to envy the wicked, because to envy them is to wish to accompany them, to have what they have, both now and in the world to come – we cannot have one without the other. Christ’s word does not tell his disciples to console themselves with false consolations, and to turn off envy simply because it is too powerful for them to cope with and is likely to overwhelm them. It tells them not to envy because there is nothing real to envy. That will be the evaluation of one who fully understands the situation. But patience and faith are needed because this evaluation is based on unseen things promised by God’s word and not on things that are currently visible.