Commentary - Proverbs 11:23

Bird's-eye view

This proverb, like so many others, presents a stark, binary world. There are two kinds of people, the righteous and the wicked, and they are on two divergent paths leading to two entirely different destinations. The proverb gets to the very root of the matter, which is the nature of desire. What a man wants, what he fundamentally longs for, determines his end. The righteous man, because he has been given a new heart by God, has desires that are oriented toward what is objectively good. His longings are being sanctified, and therefore their ultimate fulfillment is a great and glorious good. The wicked man, on the other hand, is driven by his unregenerate appetites. His hope is tethered to this world and his own conceits, and the final harvest of such hope is not fulfillment, but fury. It is wrath. This is a proverb about the teleology of the heart; where your desires point is where you will end up.

The structure is a simple antithetical parallelism. The "desire" of the righteous is contrasted with the "hope" of the wicked. And the outcome of that desire, which is "only good," is contrasted with the outcome of that hope, which is "wrath." This is not just a statement of moral observation; it is a declaration of how God has structured His world. It is a world of moral cause and effect, where the internal orientation of the soul produces an inevitable external reality. Righteousness is life, and wickedness is death, and this proverb shows us that this process begins in the unseen realm of our deepest wants.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs 11 is a chapter full of contrasts between the righteous and the wicked, the upright and the perverse. It deals with issues of honesty in business ("A false balance is an abomination to the LORD," v. 1), the consequences of pride and humility (v. 2), the guidance of integrity versus the destruction of treachery (v. 3), and the ultimate futility of wealth on the day of judgment (v. 4). Our verse, 11:23, fits squarely within this stream of thought. It takes the external realities described in the surrounding verses and traces them back to their internal source: desire and hope. It provides the theological engine for the chapter. Why do the righteous act in a way that leads to deliverance and life? Because their desires have been renovated by grace. Why do the wicked pursue paths that lead to destruction? Because their hopes are fundamentally misplaced, rooted in a rebellion that can only provoke divine wrath.

Key Issues

The Fountainhead of a Man's Life

The book of Proverbs teaches us repeatedly to guard our hearts, for from the heart flow the springs of life (Prov 4:23). This verse is a prime example of that principle. A man is not ultimately defined by his external actions, but by the desires and hopes that animate those actions. You cannot get good water from a poisoned well. And you cannot get a good life from a corrupt heart. This proverb forces us to look past the surface and ask the fundamental question: What do you want? What are you hoping for? The answer to that question reveals your identity, either as righteous or as wicked, and it determines your final destination, either goodness or wrath.

The modern world, and even much of the evangelical world, is squeamish about such sharp distinctions. We prefer to think of everyone as basically well-intentioned, a messy mix of good and bad. But the wisdom of God is not so sentimental. It draws a clear line in the sand. There are two ways to live, because there are two kinds of hearts. One has been made alive by God, and its desires, however imperfectly, are bent toward Him. The other is dead in sin, and its hopes are a fantasy that will ultimately collide with the reality of God's judgment.

Verse by Verse Commentary

23a The desire of the righteous is only good,

We must begin by defining our terms. Who are the righteous? In the ultimate sense, there is none righteous, no, not one (Rom 3:10). The righteous man of Proverbs is not a man who is sinlessly perfect. He is a man who has been declared righteous by faith. He is a man in right standing with God, whose fundamental orientation has been changed by grace. Because of this regeneration, his desires are being transformed. The word desire here refers to the deepest longings and inclinations of his soul. It doesn't mean he never has a sinful desire, but it means the settled trajectory of his heart, the thing he truly wants, is only good. He wants God's will to be done. He wants to see justice and mercy flourish. He wants to please God. And because his desires are aligned with God's own character and purposes, the outcome can only be good. God is not going to frustrate the holy longings He Himself has planted in the hearts of His people. To delight yourself in the Lord means He gives you the desires of your heart, because He has first given you the desires themselves (Ps 37:4).

23b But the hope of the wicked is wrath.

Now for the contrast. The wicked are those who remain in their natural, rebellious state. Their hope is the object of their confident expectation. And what do they hope for? They hope for autonomy. They hope to get away with their sin. They hope for a universe that revolves around their appetites. They hope for a world without God, or at least a God who doesn't meddle. Their expectation is that their scheming and striving will result in personal satisfaction. But Solomon tells us the true end of their hope. The final harvest of a life lived in rebellion against the Creator is not satisfaction, but wrath. The Hebrew word here is potent; it signifies the fury of God's judgment. This is what Paul talks about in Romans when he says that for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, there will be wrath and anger (Rom 2:8). The wicked man spends his life investing in a stock that will inevitably crash. He is banking on a future that God has promised will not happen. His hope is a delusion, and the awakening from that delusion will be terrifying.

Application

This proverb is a diagnostic tool for the soul. It forces us to ask ourselves, "What do I really want?" When you are honest with yourself in the quiet of the night, what is the object of your deepest desires? What is the substance of your hope? Do you long for righteousness? Do you hunger and thirst to see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven? If so, take heart. God is at work in you, and the end of that work is nothing but good.

But if your desires are consistently bent toward your own glory, your own comfort, your own autonomy, then this proverb is a flashing red warning light. Your hope is a fraud. You are expecting a payout that will never come. The end of that road is wrath. The application, then, is repentance. It is to turn from the false hopes of wickedness and to cry out to God for a new heart. The glory of the gospel is that God does not just forgive our wicked actions; He changes our wicked desires. Christ died to purchase for us a new set of "wanters." He frees us from the bondage of our sinful appetites and gives us a new heart that desires what is good, true, and beautiful.

Therefore, we must preach this gospel to ourselves daily. When we find our desires straying, we must remind ourselves of the two destinations. One path looks appealing now, but ends in fury. The other path is narrow and often difficult, but its end is only good. We must ask God to continually sanctify our desires, to make us want what He wants. For the Christian, this proverb is not a threat, but a glorious promise. Because of Christ, our deepest desires are for good, and our good Father will see to it that those desires are, in the end, fully and wonderfully satisfied.