Proverbs 23:18 For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off
Years ago, when my youngest was maybe six years old, we were at our home church where there were several ladies in the church who were expecting babies at any moment. So, the pastor said, “Pray for these ladies who are expecting.” My little guy looked up at his mother and said, “What are they expecting?” He didn’t know. A lot of us don’t know what we are expecting, don’t know what to expect, or think we expect nothing. The fact of the matter is that all of us are doing things now by which we should have some expectation.
Proverbs 23:17-18 says, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” Everybody is expecting something. What are you expecting? Expectation comes from a word that means cord. In other words, it is something to which you are tied. If I have a rope and it is down in a well, I expect to draw up water. That is what I tied into. If I have a long line that is in the water and all of a sudden my fishing pole bends over double and I am fighting this fishing line, I know what to expect. I expect a fish to be on the end of that line. If I go into an old church and there is a rope hanging down from the belfry, I know that if I tug on that rope, I am going to ring a bell because I am tied to that bell.
What are you tugging on? What is on the end of that rope? Being naïve is not expecting an end to what you have begun. “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end.” There is an end to every beginning. Whom do you envy? More importantly, why do you envy them? We are told here, “Let not thine heart envy sinners…for surely there is an end.” The point is you will get what you are tugging on. There is an end and expectation shall not be cut off.
This is something you find throughout the Word of God and Proverbs most specifically. Proverbs 10:28 says, “The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.” Proverbs 11:7 says, “When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.” Verse 23 says, “The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.”
So, to what are you tied today? What are you tugging on today? What should you expect? There is an end to every beginning, an end to every action. You will get what you are tugging on. Let me give you two examples from this proverb. One is wisdom. Proverbs 24:14 says, “So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.” Your cord will not be cut off if you are seeking wisdom from the Word of God and the godly people God has given you. You can be encouraged. You are tugging on wisdom.
You are going to get what you tug on whether a bell on a rope, a bucket in a well, or a fish on a line. What are you tied to? In this case the Bible says that when you are tugging on wisdom, that expectation will not be cut off. You may have a bad day or things that discourage you. You may not be as wise as you wish yourself to be, but if you have an open mind to the Word of God and you are hard-hearted about that, then you will gain wisdom.
Wine is another example of getting what you tug on. Proverbs 23:29-30 says, “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babblings? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.” There is a commentary on this, and then verse 32 says, “At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” There is an end. Someone says, “I’m not going to get drunk. I just want a drink.” Well, drunk is simply the past tense of drink. You are never going to get drunk if you never drink. The two go together.
So, whether wisdom, wine, or some other aspect of your life, you are going to get what you are tugging on. It is naïve not to expect an end to what you are beginning. May God help us to tug on the right things and have hope and expectation because we do.