Why do the wicked prosper?

The reasons why the wicked prosper

The Scriptures make us understand that the good things in life such as prosperity, good health, etc. are from God. In fact, in the Bible, we have many examples of God blessing the righteous and god-fearing people with prosperity, long life, peace, etc. Examples are King Hezekiah, King Jehoshaphat, Jabez, etc. As for the wicked and sinners, there was no good thing written about them, rather, damnation and frightening curses. And it does not appear to the righteous that the wicked would by any means proper or stand the chance of prospering.

However, from observation, the wicked and sinners prosper just as the righteous. In fact, for the most part, the wicked prosper exceedingly, making the righteous envious. The prosperity of the wicked is a mystery that has baffled righteous people all across the ages up to this day. The righteous and god-fearing questions why the wicked and unbelievers and sinners prosper: ‘Why should the wicked who do not fear God prosper?’ These are some of the reasons why they prosper:

1. God grants them the power to prosper

The wicked and sinners prosper in life because God, the God of the righteous, has made it so. The Bible says, “… for he [God] maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45).” God is good to the wicked and sinners just as He is to the righteous person. And one way of showing that goodness is that He gives them the power to prosper just as He does for the righteous. Sometimes, God also allows them to enjoy certain blessings such as long life, good health, etc. until the day appointed for their punishment is come.

2. Both the wicked and the righteous are given equal chances to prosper

The Bible says that God makes the sun shine on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). The importance of rainfall and sunshine cannot be overemphasized. In times past, agriculture depended much on rainfall; it was the rain that brought prosperity to the land. But would any crop survive if it were raining all the time without a break of sunshine? Certainly not. More so, if the land experiences sunshine all the time without the regular occurrence of rainfall over a long period, the harvest will fail, livestock will die, and famine and poverty will become prevalent.

Therefore, the regular occurrence of rainfall and sunshine was very important to life and economic prosperity. Rainfall and sunshine in the context of Matthew 5:45 refer to resources and opportunities that man depends on to prosper in life. Since God allows sunshine and rainfall to come into the life of every man irrespective of his morality, whether righteous or wicked, then it stands to reason that God has made available to both the righteous and the sinner the resources and opportunities that bring prosperity and development.

Therefore, the wicked and sinners have equal opportunity to prosper as the righteous, for God does not deny the wicked what he needs to prosper. We can even see that God generously distributes intelligence, wisdom, talents, strength, land, opportunities, and natural resources to people and individuals with no consideration of their morality, whether they are righteous or sinful.

3. Prosperity is the only hope of the wicked

The wicked and sinners have no good prospects beyond this life. Their only prospect is their life on this earth and the best thing the wicked could hope for is prosperity. Consciously or unconsciously, they make the most of this life by striving harder towards attaining prosperity, for it is prosperity that enables them to buy and enjoy the better things of this life such as flashy cars, edifices, nice vacations, fame, etc.

Christians share their time between serving God and engaging in other relevant things in life such as their occupation, and they manage their time properly to fulfill their spiritual responsibility and to engage in other activities of life. However, it is not so with the wicked and sinner. Since the wicked do not acknowledge God, nor allot their time to Him, they can choose to allot all their time to work in a bid to make more money.

So while the Christian ceases to make money by taking a break from the job to serve his God, the wicked, unbelievers, and sinners are doing more overtime to expand their business and make more money. Frankly, quite a lot of rich folks out there see serving God as a waste of time; they would rather spend their time on the job which pays off in prosperity.

Since the happiness, comfort, and success of the wicked and unbelievers depend on financial prosperity, they are very dedicated to the things that bring them such prosperity. We can say that their occupation is their god; and normally, they reap the benefit of their dedication to their occupation in monetary terms.

4. Hard work pays

Certain good values such as hard work are not unique to Christians; the wicked and unbelievers can choose to be hardworking too and they will reap the profit thereof. The Bible says, “… for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7).” This principle is universal, it works for all, Christians and unbelievers alike. Therefore, when a person who does not fear God chooses to be hardworking and persevering in his business, normally, it translates to his success and his prosperity.

5. The wicked have many means to prosperity

Righteous people prosper; yes, but they have to prosper in God’s way; hence the righteous are restricted to only fair and legit means of making money. The righteous man, whether he is an employer or an employee, would have to deal fairly and honestly with others in doing business. More so, the righteous should not engage in illegitimate businesses, nor practice ungodliness in the name of making money; by so doing, God would bless him to prosper.

It is not so with the wicked; the wicked have many doors or paths or means to prosperity. Since no fear of God is in the wicked, they can choose to use fair and legit means to proper, or they can choose to use foul means to prosper, or they can choose to use a combination of both fair and foul means to prosper; they choose whichever of these three they deem fit. Many prosperous wicked people and unbelievers make their riches through:

• Exploitation: They exploit just anyone they see fit to exploit, especially, the poor and the needy to either prosper or increase their prosperity.
• Bribery and corruption: They bribe their way into high offices and positions in government and companies to receive huge salaries. Also, when the wicked assume high office, they take advantage of their office to collect bribes and extort money from others to prosper.
• Lottery and gambling
• Adult entertainment: pornography, prostitution, x modeling, etc. are easy ways of coming into great wealth and prosperity and there are millions of unbelievers and sinners who have tapped into this industry and are well-to-do.
• Worldly music.
• Drug trafficking and sale.
• Embezzlement, etc.

In short, the wicked would do whatever it takes to come into great riches without considering the morality of it but the righteous do not do any of these evil things because of the fear of God.

6. God allows the wicked to prosper to test the righteous

The faith of the righteous should stand the test of time. Sometimes, God allows the righteous to go through the trials of suffering, whereas, He makes the wicked prosper; this he does to test the faith of the righteous. It was God who let His righteous servant Job go through trials and temptation at the hands of the devil. The devil reduced Job to abject poverty and plagued him with diseases to make him suffer.

Guess what, when Job became poor, he became concerned about the prosperity of the wicked and he complained about it, saying, “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? … ¹³ They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. (Job 21:7-16 ESV)”

However, Job’s faith in the Lord was not moved; he stood and did not soil his integrity. Whenever the wicked prospers, the faith of the righteous is put to the test whether they would faithfully follow the Lord and the path of righteousness or they would backslide to join the ranks of the wicked and sinners.

One man of God called Asaph nearly failed this test; if it was not for God who intervened and saved him, he would have apostatized. During his time, Asaph saw the prosperity of the wicked and it hurt him so much to see that the wicked, who do not fear God, were prospering.

This led him to regret being a righteous man, thinking that all his endeavors to pursue the course of righteousness were in vain, for he would have prospered by far if he had been a wicked man. At some point, Asaph wanted to apostatize. But God intervened and revealed to him the end of the wicked. When Asaph saw and understood what sore damnation awaits the wicked, he repented. (Reference: Psalm 73)

7. Sometimes, the devil influences their prosperity

When Moses went to Pharaoh and did a miracle of turning his staff into a snake, Pharaoh had his magicians do a similar miracle. It tells us that the devil can do certain things that God does, and among such things is giving prosperity. Remember that the devil once told Jesus that the kingdoms of the world and their splendor were his and that he could give them to anyone of his choice. Satan can offer prosperity to anyone who bows to him or serves the agenda of corrupting the world and destroying the lives of men.  

Sometimes, the large sums of profit made by businesses and business owners make Christians envious of their success. Sometimes, turns out that what we know about them is not all there is to their success. In a competitive world like ours where businesses and business owners are continuously fighting for attention, dominance, and profits, many are those who resort to occultism or consult pagan deities of prosperity for help to stay in business and make huge profits.

The devil pays those who are serving his agenda with bountiful prosperity in a way that makes Christians jealous. The influence of the devil explains why secular music and secular movies, which are designed to corrupt and mislead the world, have record sales and bring lots of money to those who produce them.

All that glitters is not gold. Sometimes, the wicked and unbelievers go to any extent to squeeze money from the hand of the devil through money rituals; and for the most part, these money rituals require human blood – the blood of innocent people. In their quest for prosperity, the wicked go to the length of exchanging the lives of their children, parents, loved ones, and other innocent people they can easily abduct for money rituals.  

Conclusion

After the bliss, the fame, the fun, the riches, etc. the wicked will, finally, be condemned to hell to suffer throughout eternity. The prosperity of the wicked is more of a tiny consolation of the damnation that awaits them after death.