Hope or Death

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
HOPE OR DEATH
Prov 14:32
32 When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down,
but even in death the righteous have a refuge.
NIV
The original language reads: ”In his wickedness is driven away the wicked” and it would seem to have a clear message in contrast to the righteous having hope in their death. How clearer can this be? When those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior stand before the throne of God bending their knee as he has declared all will do, they have no hope of eternal life. They will be driven away from the presence of God and cast down, thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, they will be brought down. Why anyone would choose that end is beyond human comprehension. Is the life of self-serving worth that end? Is living anyway one wants to, doing whatever suits their fancy worth being cast down from the presence of God? Do people really think that no matter how they live God will show them mercy on that day and allow them into paradise? Have they been deceived by those who continually proclaim God is a God of love and all will be forgiven even on the last Day of Judgment? God has made a provision for all to escape being thrown down into the lake of burning sulfur. He has already shown his love and mercy, his compassion, his divine plan for all to enter into his rest, his paradise for all of eternity. He has sent his son Jesus Christ to pay the price we all so deserve. Why do people insist on refusing this love, this mercy, this compassion and then except God to allow them in instead of throwing them out? Is that life of wickedness so rewarding? Or are they simply deceived by Satan into thinking it is? How can any intellectual person allow themselves to be so deceived? It would seem the smarter, the more intelligent a person is, the more they would see through the schemes of Satan and realize the truth of God, but it appears just the opposite. It is the smarter, more intelligent thing to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and so on that last day be invited into his everlasting presence, into the refuge of God. The righteous have hope in death, the wicked have death.