Surely one of the greatest emotions is HOPE. If we could never anticipate anything good in the future how black life would be!
Not surprisingly, amid all of the emotions discussed in Proverbs hope features frequently. One such example is:
Pro 10:28 The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.
As with so many of the proverbs, the writer is contrasting the two camps into which every human falls – the righteous (those who are trusting in Christ and have His righteousness imputed to them) and the wicked (those who reject Christ and therefore do not have His righteousness as theirs but instead stand before God in their own wickedness).
Now clearly in this proverb both have a forward-looking anticipation – one called “hope” and the other “expectation”. I don’t think there is anything particularly significant in the use of these two words one from the other, but it may be that the word hope is intended to convey the idea that the person is trusting in someone else, he is not expecting to get something as his right, but instead he hopes in someone or something. The other has a clear expectation – he anticipates good things as his right.
But clearly both are able to look forward and anticipate what will be theirs in time to come. Clearly this proverb is looking not just to the future as in next week, or next year, or to any point in this lifetime. Rather it is looking forward to eternity. Both are looking forward anticipating good things.
But only one will get the future he desires. The hope of the righteous brings joy The one who is trusting in Christ, will not be disappointed. How can we be sure of this? Because our hope is in a person: Jesus Christ 1Th_1:3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. And He has already won the victory, paid our debt, earned the prize. So our hope is a sure and certain hope, and it WILL bring joy!
Sadly, the expectation of the wicked. His anticipation of his future is not grounded in the person of Jesus Christ, it is grounded in who he is, or in what he has done, or in something else that he “expects” will qualify him for eternal life, but which will in reality fail. And so the expectation of the wicked will perish. As another proverb words it: Pro 11:7 When the wicked dies, his hope will perish, and the expectation of wealth perishes too. He will gain nothing, indeed all that he now has will be taken from him!
Friend, are you struggling as a Christian right now? So often in this lifetime it is the wicked who appear to flourish and the Christian who so often appears to be crushed. Only when we view what is happening from the perspective of eternity do we see it aright! For as Paul says: Rom 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.