The Future

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

THE FUTURE

Prov 24:13-14

13 Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. 14 Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

NIV

Although the taste of honey from the honeycomb is supposed to be far better, much sweeter, better tasting then that processed or honey that is expressed from the comb and placed in some jar to be sold on the store, this saying has little to do with honey. It merely uses taste of honey from the comb as a comparison to wisdom for our soul. There are references in the scriptures to people dipping into the honeycomb, so it would not be unusual for Solomon to know of this taste. Yet how sweet is wisdom to our soul.  If we find wisdom we have a hope of a future. If we find wisdom we will not be cut off. What or who else could we define wisdom then as God. He is the only one who would give us a future. He is the only one who we would not want to be cut off from. This seems pretty clear that the future spoken here is eternal life. Being cut off means there is no future. This clearly demonstrates people who are cast into the lake of fire have no future. They are not going to suffer the agony of flames for all eternity as that would imply that is their future life. But to be cut off is the opposite of having a future or eternal life. It may be true for some time they may suffer some kind of torment in the temporary place we call hell. We have no real idea of its physical attributes other than the story of Lazarus and the rich man. When the rich man died and was buried he went to hell or hades in the Greek. He was in torment in some kind of fire. Somehow some people get the idea that this is the way it will be in the lake of burning sulfur after the last judgement. But hell or hades give up their dead and hades is cast into the lake of burning sulfur alone with the beast, the false prophet as well as Satan. The three of them will be tormented day and night forever in this lake. However they are eternal beings. All the unbelievers, and a description of their lifestyle is given to us, will be thrown into this lake of burning sulfur and it is said of them, it is their second death. This is first the death the body then the death of the spirit or soul which is the end of life altogether, without any further future. There is smoke that comes from the lake of burner sulfur that will forever be in the nostrils of God. But not from their tormented souls. It merely means that he will always remember the fate, the lack of future those misguided souls did not have and the way they came to their end. We, on the other hand have found wisdom, we have found God. Some would say God found us, but we still had to say yes, we had to accept his grace, his mercy, his provision for our salvation. So we found wisdom and because of him, we have a future full of all the wonderful things he has prepared for us. Jesus has told us that he has prepared a place for us so that where he is we also will be, for all of time, all of future.