Commentary - Proverbs 10:24

Bird's-eye view

Proverbs 10:24 presents a sharp, antithetical parallelism that gets to the very heart of what it means to live in God's world as one of two kinds of people: the wicked or the righteous. The structure is simple and profound. What you are on the inside, what you truly dread or truly desire, is what will ultimately define your external reality. This is not because of some nebulous law of attraction, but because God is a just God who has structured reality in this way. The proverb teaches us that a man's internal disposition, whether it is a fearful guilt or a holy desire, is a kind of prophecy. For the wicked, it is a prophecy of doom; for the righteous, it is a prophecy of delight.

The verse is a miniature drama of the final judgment. The wicked man spends his life looking over his shoulder, knowing deep down that the bill for his rebellion is going to come due. He dreads the final accounting, and this proverb assures us that his dread is not misplaced paranoia. The universe will eventually give him exactly what he is afraid of. The righteous man, in contrast, has had his desires reshaped by the grace of God. He longs for God's kingdom, for righteousness, for peace, and for the day when he will see his Savior face to face. God promises to grant that desire. Thus, the proverb is a statement about the ultimate trajectory of two very different lives, grounded in the justice and goodness of God.

Outline

What the wicked dreads will come upon him,

The first clause deals with the psychology and the destiny of the ungodly. The wicked man is not a happy-go-lucky fellow who is simply ignorant of the consequences. Deep down, in a place he refuses to acknowledge, he knows. He knows that his rebellion against the high king of heaven cannot last. He is, as Scripture says elsewhere, like the troubled sea, which cannot rest (Is. 57:20). This lack of rest comes from a deep-seated dread. He fears exposure. He fears justice. He fears the final reckoning. He may try to suppress this fear with noise, with drink, with power, with distractions, but it is always there, a low hum of anxiety beneath the surface of his life. He is a man hearing footsteps behind him, and he flees when no one is pursuing (Prov. 28:1). This dread is not an illusion; it is an accurate perception of his standing in a moral universe governed by a holy God.

And the proverb tells us that this dread is a reliable forecast. What he fears will, in fact, "come upon him." The justice he has been outrunning his entire life will finally catch him. The judgment he has been mocking will be realized. This is not karma; this is the personal, covenantal justice of God. God has so ordered the world that sin carries its own punishment within it. The man who builds his life on lies will eventually be crushed when his foundation gives way. The man who lives for selfish pleasure will find himself utterly alone and empty. The dread is the shadow that the coming judgment casts before it. He feels the chill of the approaching storm, and this proverb promises that the storm will indeed break upon his head.

But the desire of the righteous will be granted.

The contrast, as is common in Proverbs, is stark and absolute. We move from the inner turmoil of the wicked to the settled longing of the righteous. The key here is the nature of the "desire." This is not talking about every fleeting whim or fancy a Christian might have. A righteous man is not promised a new chariot just because he wants one. The "desire of the righteous" refers to those desires that have been sanctified and shaped by the Spirit of God. As the Psalmist says, "Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Ps. 37:4). When a man's chief delight is God Himself, his desires begin to align with God's desires. He begins to long for what God wants: justice, mercy, humility, the flourishing of the Church, the glory of Christ, and the coming of the kingdom.

And to this man, God makes a stunning promise: his desire "will be granted." This is a foundational principle of the Christian life. Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to us (Matt. 6:33). When our desires are aimed at the right target, God does not just grant that one central desire, but He lavishes other blessings on top of it. The righteous man desires God, and in getting God, he gets everything else worth having. This is not a transactional relationship, but a covenantal one. The righteous man is God's son, and a good father delights to give his children good gifts. The ultimate desire of the righteous is to be with God and to see His glory, and that is a desire that is absolutely guaranteed to be fulfilled for all who are in Christ Jesus.

Application

This proverb forces us to ask a fundamental question of ourselves: what is the deep, driving engine of our lives? Is it dread or desire? Are we running from something, or are we running toward something? The wicked man is defined by what he fears. He is fundamentally trying to escape God's reality, and his life is a series of evasive maneuvers. But you cannot outrun the God who made you. The end of that road is the very thing he was trying to avoid.

The righteous man, on the other hand, is defined by what he loves. His life is not an escape, but a pilgrimage. He is moving toward a goal, a person, a city whose builder and maker is God. This proverb should be a great comfort to the believer. Your deepest, holiest longings are not in vain. The world may mock them, and your own flesh may war against them, but God Himself has promised to fulfill them. Therefore, our task is to cultivate righteous desires. We are to steep our minds in Scripture, to delight in the Lord, and to pray for His kingdom to come. As we do this, our hearts are tuned to the frequency of heaven, and we can rest in the sure and certain hope that what we long for most will, in the end, be granted to us in full.