Are the Wicked Winning

Happy Sunday. Today we're going to look at a verse from Proverbs that I thought about passing over because it's hard. It seems untrue. It's the 21st verse of chapter 12.

It says, "No harm overtakes the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble." Let me repeat it. "No harm overtakes the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble." Is that your experience?

Let's start with the last part first. "The wicked have their fill of trouble." Have you ever looked at someone and wondered why they were still breathing? I I know that sounds cruel, yet it's exactly what the great prophet of God, Jeremiah, wondered long ago.

Let me read to you Jeremiah's rant found in chapter 12 of the book of Jeremiah. In it he says, "You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice. Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

Why do all the faithless live at ease? You've planted them and they have taken root. They grow and they bear fruit. You're always on their lips, but you're far from their hearts.

Yet you know me, Lord. You see me and test my thoughts about you." And then Jeremiah asked God to do this. "Drag them off like sheep to be butchered.

Set them apart for the day of slaughter." Jeremiah was not a happy camper. To him it seemed that the wicked prospered. At that moment he would have argued against those words from Proverbs 12:21, "The wicked have their fill of trouble."

To Jeremiah it seemed they had no trouble at all. A man named Asaph wrote several of the Psalms including Psalm 73. He and Jeremiah thought much alike. Listen to what Asaph wrote.

He said, "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens.

They're not plagued by human ills. This is what the wicked are like. Always free of care, they go on and on amassing wealth." Let me go back to Proverbs 12:21.

"No harm overtakes the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble." Jeremiah and Asaph would wonder if that were true. To them, the wicked seemed to thrive and prosper. And to be honest, it's likely most of us have seen a wicked, wealthy, celebrity heathen and wondered why in the world God didn't just zap them.

The first part of the proverb can be just as confusing. "No harm overtakes the righteous." Looking at the Bible, we would point to Job. He had harm, boatloads of harm.

And we are told that he was righteous. This is the first verse from the book of Job. It describes a great man. It says, "In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job.

This man was blameless and upright. He feared God and he shunned evil." And you know his story. We also may know people that loved Jesus that have been diagnosed with cancer or Alzheimer's or something else.

Billy Graham was a just man and he had Parkinson's in his last years. Please know that I believe that Proverbs 12:21 is true. In fact, it's spot-on. Let me read it again.

"No harm overtakes the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble." This is so very true. This verse talks about the entirety of life, not just this life, but the next. Not just snippets from some seasons.

In the long run, no harm overtakes the righteous. In the long term, the wicked will have their fill of trouble. It's called heaven. It's called hell.

Earlier I read to you from Jeremiah chapter 12 and Jeremiah asked the question, "Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?" Jeremiah gets an answer from God beginning at verse 14. Let me share that with you.

"This is what the Lord says. As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the people of Judah from among them. But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country. And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name saying, 'As surely as the Lord lives,' even as they once fought taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be established among my people.

But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it, declares the Lord." The point is there that our God is so patient. In the long run, the righteous indeed will be rewarded. And the wicked will be punished.

Until then, let me close with these words from 2 Peter. "Do not forget this one thing, dear friends. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness.

Instead, he's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." That's our God. He loves this world so much that he's patient, giving people more than enough opportunities to come to him. Be thankful he loves you that much.

Pray with me. Father, thank you for the reward for the righteous. We've had some tough days, I know, but when we get to heaven, we won't think about any tough days. We'll be so glad to be in your presence.

Father, help us to love you so much that we try to share the love of Christ with the world around us so the wicked do not perish, but they turn to righteousness and follow you. Help us this week to find somebody to share that great news with. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

God bless. Happy Sunday.