Proverbs 10:25-28. When the storm passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous remains, established forever. Sluggarts are like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes of the ones who send them. Fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked are short. The hope of the righteous ends in gladness, but the wicked's expectations come to nothing.

I want to focus on "The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short." Why does this seem so often not to be true? Why does it so often seem that "only the good die young?" Why do so many saints die so young? I think there are a few ways to reconcile this proverb with the seeming unfairness of early earthly death, but I think the best way is to think of this in terms of our eternal life. Usually when the Bible talks about life, it is eternal life that is meant.

Our time here on earth is infinitesimally short when compared to eternity. Even someone who lives over 100 years here has nothing on a saint who is living forever in eternal joy in heaven. So if a person has feared the Lord and lived righteously, his or her earthly death is just a sooner rebirth into a perfect eternal life. Those people really do have the better and longer life over those of us who are left here. Conversely, while it seems so unfair that seemingly unrepentant sinners often live to a ripe old age, they have eternal days of death to look forward to (this sounds like an oxymoron, I know, but read on!).

All of us, the good and the bad, exist eternally. After earthly death, we will exist either in heaven (possibly after a stay in purgatory) or in hell. However, the Bible often talks about those in hell as not having life. I think this is because being in hell is really being dead for all of eternity (that is, being eternally separated from the source of life itself, God) with the added bonus that not even that ends the pain. Those in hell feel the pain of that separation for all of eternity! It is so horrible to think about!

So the wicked here on earth will have eternal death if they do not repent. They are often given longer lives here on earth to allow them the opportunity for repentance - it is a form of mercy for them, to hopefully keep them from suffering eternal death. The righteous, the saintly, really do have a prolonged life - they have eternal life, while the hell-bound have only their years on earth in which any joy, any real life, could possibly be found. And those years are all too short.