Proverbs 24:19 - Homiletics

A needless trouble

I. THERE IS TEMPTATION TO BE DISTRESSED AT THE PROSPERITY OF BAD MEN .

1 . It is unjust . This was an ancient source of perplexity and trouble of mind. While good men often suffer, bad men are often exceptionally free from the world's ills. This pains us as a frightful discord in the psalm of life. It raises doubts as to the presence, or the power, or the justice of God. If the just Lord is in our midst and is almighty to rule, why does he permit such condition of society?

2 . It is hurtful . Prosperity confers power. Thus great resources are at the disposal of bad men, who are able to expend them in extensive schemes of wickedness. A successful Napoleon can deluge a continent with blood, and bring misery into thousands of households. The triumph of bad men not only enables them to inflict suffering to a frightful extent; it gives them exceptional opportunities for spreading the infectious malaria of their sin. When a bad man prospers he contaminates his trade, lowers the character of business generally, and tempts his employes to do wrong on a scale that is proportionate to his enterprises.

3 . It seems to be enviable . Sin looks like a short cut to success. It is hard for a good man who resists temptations to be rewarded with distresses which he would have escaped if he had yielded.

II. IT IS FOOLISH TO BE DISTRESSED AT THE PROSPERITY OF BAD MEN .

1 . Prosperity is infinitely inferior to character . The great question is not as to what a man has, but as to what he is. It is far more important to be upright and holy in life than to be rich, successful, and happy in one's circumstances. Surely he who values true goodness will feel that it is a pearl of great price—the cost of which would not be compensated for by all the wealth of the Indies. Therefore to envy the prosperity of the wicked is to turn aside from the higher possession which may be enjoyed in poverty and adversity.

2 . The prosperity of the wicked is delusive and unsatisfactory . It professes to give pleasure, but it cannot afford real happiness, for it has nothing in it to respond to the deeper cravings of the soul. He who feasts upon it is like a man who would fill himself with chaff and sawdust. In his very satiety he is miserably hungry. Full, he yet starves. Or worse, he is like one who drinks madly of salt water, and is plunged into an agony of thirst in consequence. If, as may happen, however, he feels a measure of satisfaction, this can only be by deadening his higher nature. Such a state is delusive and more terrible than open complaining.

3 . This prosperity is short-lived . "The candle of the wicked shall be put out" ( Proverbs 24:20 ). The psalmist who was alarmed at the prosperity of the wicked saw another picture when he came to consider their end. He who would share the purple and fine linen of Dives on earth must also share his bed of fire after death. It is only the short-sighted, earthly minded man who will much envy the prosperity of the wicked. A deeper thinking man will dread it, and be well satisfied if he has the true blessedness of life eternal.