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The Dread of the Wicked Versus The Desire of the Righteous

Proverbs 10:24 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
²⁴What the wicked dreads will come upon him,
but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

What the wicked dreads will come upon him: What is being contrasted here is the outcome of knowing what kind of life you have been living. Dreads (מְגוֹרָה megorah) here is the dread, fear, horror, the terror of living one’s life in expectation what he knows is coming. For example, a thief knows that he can only commit so many crimes and that he will eventually be caught. Therefore, his focus and anxiety, his dreadful fear is on the future when he knows he will have to pay for his wicked behavior, which could mean physical harm, even death, or a very long prison sentence. The wicked one can never live in peace, feeling secure, finding happiness or joy because his life of wrongdoing can only end badly. Yes, at times he has made gains in life but he is always in fear of losing them and much more.

but the desire of the righteous will be granted: In the case of the righteous one, desire (תַּאֲוָה taavah) is a good thing. He wishes for, wants, longs for something based on the good life that he has been living. The present and the future of the righteous one are filled with happiness and joy because he knows he has been on the path of righteousness taking in the knowledge of God. He knows that, in the end, his hope will be fulfilled, his desires will be granted (נָתַן nathan), even if this life has some difficult times along the way.

Solomon points to the value of living a good, righteous, just life. The life of the wicked one brings many difficulties to the righteous one, but in his life, there will be a constant dread, fear, horror, and terror of living his life in expectation of what he knows is coming upon him. The wicked one has no foundation of righteous principles, which makes him like an unstable building that is just waiting to crumble. The righteous one, on the other hand, is like the man mentioned in Jesus’ parable at Matthew 7:24-25. “‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.’” The righteous one lives a stable life even among the chaos of Satan’s world, as his thinking and his actions are grounded in God’s Word. The wicked one is like the man of Matthew 7:26-27. “‘And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.’” The wicked one lives an unhinged life and enjoys the immediate gratification of Satan’s world, as his thinking and his actions are grounded in his fleshly desires. However, deep down inside, he knows this is a short-lived, temporary pleasure.