今天让我们来思考神容许不敬虔的人兴盛的另一个原因，那是为了要借以显示出没有神的永恒是多么的可怕。司布真说：「与以前的兴盛相比，永恒的惩罚显得更为可怕。」兴盛而不敬虔的人那表面的快乐和风光，与他们最后被神抛弃的悲惨对照，更为可怖；正如明亮的闪电非但没有照亮四周，反而增加了周围的黑暗一样。

我相信你可能记得哈曼的故事，他为末底改预备了一个木架，结果自己却被挂在上面。木架的升起是刑罚最可怕的一幕：「把他挂在上面！」（帖七9）。就是这样，邪恶的人被高挂，好让所有的人都看到他们的衰败。

有一次，有一位讲员谈到他如何向一群年青人讲述路加福音十六章、富人和拉撒路的故事。他们是第一次听到这个故事。这位讲员读到拉撒路躺在门外，有狗舔他的疮，富人则在屋里享用丰富的食物时，他停下来问：「你们情愿做哪个人？富人还是拉撒路？」那些年青人异口同声的回答：「富人。」讲员继续读下去，讲完两个人死后富人如何受折磨，而拉撒路则被带到亚伯拉罕那里以后，他再问：「现在你们情愿做哪个人呢？」这一次，年青人就都安静和清醒地回应说：「拉撒路。」而这就是诗人安静地坐在神的圣所时所领悟到的真理。

Today we look at another reason why God allows the ungodly to flourish to illustrate by contrast the horror of an eternity without God. Spurgeon commented: "Eternal punishment will be all the more terrible in contrast with the former prosperity of those who are ripening for it." The seeming joy and splendour of the prosperous ungodly actually renders the effect of being cast aside by God more awful, just as vivid lightning does not brighten but intensifies the thick darkness around.

You will no doubt remember the story of Haman, who prepared a gallows for Mordecai but finished up by being hanged upon it himself. The ascent to the gallows was an essential ingredient in the terror of the sentence: "Hang him on it!" (Esth. 7:9). The wicked are raised high so that all might see how great is their fall.

A preacher tells how he read the story of the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16, to a group of young people who were hearing it for the first time. He stopped at the part where Lazarus lay at the gate, the dogs licking his sores, while the rich man ate in splendour in his house, and said: "Which would you rather be, the rich man or Lazarus?" With one voice the young people shouted: "The rich man." He then read on, and after telling the story of how both died and the rich man was in torment while Lazarus was carried to Abraham's side, he asked: "Now which would you rather be?" This time they responded more quietly and soberly "Lazarus." That is the truth the psalmist saw as he sat quietly in the sanctuary of God.