Proverbs 23

“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” (v17).  Our modern forms of entertainment do a great job of making drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, adultery, and fighting look glamorous.  But Proverbs warns us of the real results: poverty (v21), suffering, grief, loss, and relational conflict (v29).  God warns us against sin because He knows we are easily deceived by the very temptations that will destroy us.

God’s desire is to give us a good future, and so He shows us how to “direct our hearts in the way” (v19).