The Narrow Road Is Taxing but Temporary
“Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off” Proverbs 23: 17, 18.
It’s no accident that verse 18 speaks of a “future” hope for those who fear God. That’s because the reward for sin is immediate but temporary.
The Narrow Road Isn’t Easy or Pleasant
The broad path is easy, comfortable and pleasant, but is by nature temporary because it’s a path (Mathew 7: 13, 14). All paths lead to a destination and are therefore temporary.
Context is not needed in Proverbs, but to read the entire passage, click here.
Hebrews 11: 25 tells us Moses chose not to enjoy “the pleasures of sin for a short time“. The nature of all sin is that it’s pleasurable, but the pleasure is short-lived. And it’s characterized by “wages” in Romans 6: 23: “the wages of sin is death”.
But righteousness is sown. This implies we must wait for the harvest. It’s the narrow path of affliction, trouble, suffering tribulation. But all paths are temporary. And this path leads the way to the permanent destination of life.
Now I don’t believe the future reward of the righteous is only in the hereafter. The righteous are rewarded in this life too (Proverbs 11: 31). It’s just that it’s not immediate.
Blessed Are Those with Unmet Needs Now
I believe the beatitudes as recorded in Luke convey the idea of the immediate gratification of sin versus the future reward of righteousness.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. . . Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep” Luke 6: 21, 25.
I think the idea of the passage is if you are hungry and weeping “now” it’s because you’ve chosen the narrow path of righteousness that is difficult in the here and now, but eventually leads to life.
And on the other hand, those who are full and laugh now have immediate gratification because they are on the broad path that’s easy now, but eventually leads to death.
It’s no coincidence that the apostle Paul speaks of the “acts of the sinful nature” as opposed to the “fruit of the Spirit”(Galatians 5: 19-23). This is because we sow righteousness. This implies the reward is not immediate but is the culmination of a lengthy process.
The Righteous Sows on the Narrow Road
And Proverbs 11: 18 says “the wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward”. A person earns wages at least on a bi-monthly basis. And in the days when the Bible was written, wages were handed out at the end of each workday.
But a harvest takes at least four months to reap. This conveys the idea that the reward of wickedness is immediate (but temporary), whereas the reward of righteousness is in the future (but permanent).
And because the reward of the wicked is immediate, we are tempted to envy them. Which is why verse 17 of our text explicitly tells us not to.
We are tempted to envy sinners because the broad path they’re on is much easier and pleasant then the narrow one we’re on. But what we need to keep in mind is the future destination which is permanent and very real.
We have a future hope, whereas the sinner has traded his future for immediate gratification. And this is why his future hope will be cut off (verse 18).
The reason righteousness is characterized as something that is sown is because the Word of God is seed (Luke 8: 11). And when it is sown in a good heart mixed with faith it produces hope and hope, love, which is righteousness.
To read another post related to The Narrow Road is Taxing but Temporary, see Moses and the Promise Land: Rash Words.