Proverbs 24:19-20
Do not fret because of evil people
or be envious of wicked people,
for the evil person has no future,
and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.
It’s just not fair. It’s not fair to see evil people get ahead and succeed. It’s frustrating. It feels wrong. They’re going about getting ahead in the totally wrong way. They are breaking all the rules and doing all the wrong things. They are don’t care about who they hurt along the way as long as they end up a little further down the road.
It’s so frustrating!!!
Until you stop to think about it. For the evil person, this is it. This is all they’re going to get. This is all there is. They have no future. Sure, they may have a few good years ahead of them, but long-term – not so much.
“Great,” you say, “I’ve got a better ‘future’ than they do, but what about the here and now.” That’s hard. I know. It doesn’t seem just. But there is something I want to ask you.
Why are we so busy comparing ourselves with others who live on a completely different time scale than we do? Think about it. The time scale of the wicked is limited to what they can do and accomplish in this life. Not even that. They’re time scale is limited to what they can accomplish while they’re healthy enough to accomplish stuff. Their time scale of doing stuff is only 50-60 years.
They have to get as much as they can in that time because to them, this is all there is. After that, their lamp will be extinguished.
But our time scale is much longer and much different. This life is just the beginning. This life is the start of our future. This is the time when our lamp will burn its dimmest. Our future is much brighter than our present. And no matter how much the wicked acquire during their present, they will never be able compete with our future.
Think about it, if you had a dollar for every day you’ll spend in eternity, how much money would you have? How many days will you have? No matter how much the wicked can accumulate, it will never be infinite. There will always be an end. There will always be a finish line. There will always be a stop. There will always be a period.
But not so for us. So, why are we envious of them? Why do we fret we they succeed? Why do we care so much? If we had a good, honest perspective about our own future, we wouldn’t be so busy trying to keep up with them. We’d be doing everything we can to bring them to our future. Or give them all of our stuff so they can enjoy this life as much as possible.
