That which is said of Jael is true of the strange woman. She brought forth soft words, but a hard nail; in her mouth was a gentle hammer, but in her hand a heavy one. Open force is more easily resisted, but that which is hid in the beginning with fair words in the end stingeth most cruelly.—Jermin.
“Flattery.” That constitutes the risk. If impenitence would tell the truth, or even if we would allow the truth, there would be no danger. But hers is an alien tongue in this,—that though we deliberately admit it is a cheat, we accept its flattery.—Miller.
Verse 26. A famine of bread followeth the gluttony of lust, and it is life itself that is destroyed by it. He that is thus brought to a morsel of bread on earth, shall be brought to a drop of water in hell, if repentance do not in time beg a gracious pardon for him. That man’s life is precious, the devil himself affirmeth, who seeketh to make it vile; he saith, who laboureth to destroy it, that “Skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job ii. 4). How unworthyvaluers are they therefore of their own lives who esteem them less than the devil does, and who makes them a prey to the adulteress, who as a lion hunteth after them.—Jermin.
Nothing is so bewitching as womanly enchantment. Nothingin esse,when it is base, is so contemptible. Nothing sweeps a man with such a perfect storm of influence. Nothing leaves him so perfectly defrauded and unpaid.—Miller.
Verses 27 and 28. “Fire” is a favourite emblem for wickedness. “Wickedness burneth as the fire” (Isa. ix. 18, see also Isa. lxv. 5). The (1)pain,, the (2)waste,the (3)growth,and the (4)small beginningsof sin are all instanced in the fire. “Bosom.” Here is just where sin is taken. Sin is not only the inward but the outward enemy, not only the coals in our bosom but the coals (or fierce tempting occasions) in the midst of which we walk.—Miller.
Sin and punishment are linked together by a chain of adamant. “The fire of lust kindles the fire of hell,” says Henry. He cannot afterwards plead the strength of the temptation. Why did he not avoid it? Who that knows how much tinder he carries about with him would wilfully light-up the sparks?—Bridges.
Perhaps such an one may think to tread upon coals, thereby to tread them out, but he will first tread the fire into his own feet: perhaps such an one may think to walk in the ways of lust, thereby to walk them out, but he will first walk out the strength of his body and means. The affections are the feet of man’s soul, and if they walk upon this fire they will be inflamed suddenly.—Jermin.
Verse 29. Though the plea of a sleepy conscience benot guilty,the sentence of God is,not innocent.It was for this wickedness that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; it was for it He brought the deluge of waters upon the world, and as it is observed, for no other sin do we read, that God is said to have repented to have made man, but for this.—Jermin.
Verse 30. Compared with an adulterer, a thief is not treated with so much ignominy. The laws of modern society have reversed the maxims of Solomon; and, to the dishonour of Christian nations, an adulterer, who steals what is most precious to a man, and what is irretrievable, is treated by the law with more lenity than a thief, who robs him of what is comparatively of little value and may be easily replaced.—Wordsworth.
Adultery is worse than theft. It is before us in the commandments as the greater sin (Exod. xx. 14, 15). 1. It is a far greater theft. 2. The provocation to theft is greater. What drives the one, wantonness draws the other. One may preserve his bodily life by his sin, the other destroys it. Hunger is a great provocation to evil (ch. xxx. 9). Necessity is a sore weapon.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 33. The three things here mentioned may be referred to three causes. The wound to the devil, the enemy of mankind, the dishonour to God, dishonoured by the adulterer, the reproach to sin, which is the true object of reproach. The devil woundeth out of malice, God dishonoureth in justice, sin reproacheth by nature; and where nature hath fastened the reproach or stain it is not any art that can take it out or wipe it away. He that giveth this good counsel was himself an example of what he writeth. As Jerome saith, Solomon, the sun of men, the treasure of God’s delights, the peculiar house of wisdom, blurred with the thick ink of dishonour, lost the light of his soul, the glory of his house, the sweet perfume of his name, by the love of a woman.—Jermin.
What an indelible blot is the matter of Uriah upon David still.—Trapp.
Verse 34. Howbeit he may not kill the adulterer, but if no law will relieve a man, yet let him know that he shall do himself no disservice by making God his chancellor.—Trapp.
Critical Notes.—2. Apple of the eye,the “pupil,” literally the “little man” of the eye, referring to the reflected image of a man seen in that organ.3. Bind them“refers to the rings with large signets, upon which maxims were inscribed” (Stuart).4. Kinswoman,rather, “an acquaintance, a familiar friend.”7. Simple,“inexperienced.”8. Went,“moved leisurely, sauntered.”9. In the black and dark night,literally, “in the apple,” or “pupil” of the night.10.Literally, “a woman, the attire of a harlot,” with no connecting word between, as though the woman were nothing but such a dress.Subtil,“guarded.” Wordsworth renders “her heart is like a walled fortress.”11. Stubborn,rather “boisterous, ungovernable.”14.The offerings here named are those of thanksgiving for blessings received. Of such offering, which, in accordance with the law (Lev. vii. 16), must be eaten by the second day, the guests partook, so that a rich feast is here offered to the young man under the garb of religious usage.16. With carved works,rather, “variegated coverlets of Egyptian linen.”20. The purse, etc.,indicating long delay;the day appointed,rather, “the day of the full moon.”22. Straightway.“The Hebrew implies that he had at first hesitated, until the fear of his to take the decisive step was overcome by evil appetite, and he now, with passionate promptness, formed the vile purpose and executed it at once, to cut off all further reflection. Here is evidently a stroke in the picture of the profoundest psychological truth”(Lange’s Commentary).The latter clause of the verse is literally, “and as fetters for the punishment of a fool.” It has been variously rendered. Many expositors read, “As the obstinate fool is suddenly caught and held fast by a trap lying in a forbidden path, so has the deceitful power of the adulteress caught the young man.”23.“Theliverstands here as representative of the vitals in general as in Lam. ii. 11, as in some instances the heart, or again, the reins” (Psa. xvi. 7; lxxiii. 21, etc.). According to Delitzsch, the liver is here made prominent as the seat of sensual desire. “Since the ancient Greeks, Arabians, and Persians, in fact, connected this idea with the organ under consideration, this view may be received as probably correct”(Lange’s Commentary).Knoweth not that it is for his life,i.e.“that his life is at stake.”
Note on the Signification of the “Strange Woman” of this Chapter, and of many kindred Passages in the Book.—Although most modern commentators attach no other meaning to this woman than that which would occur to the general reader, there are some who, as will be seen from the comments, agree with most of the early expositors in attaching to the representation an ideal meaning also. Wordsworth, referring to the original meaning of the wordmashal,or proverb (seepreface), says, “By a consideration of the proper meaning of this wordmashal,used in the title of the book, and by reflecting on the use made of it in the Gospels, we are led to recognise in the Proverbs or Parables of Solomon not only moral apothegms for practical use in daily life, but to ponder deeply upon them as having also a typical character and inner spiritual significance concerning heavenly doctrines of supernatural truth, and as preparing the way for the evangelical teaching of the Divine Solomon, Jesus Christ, in parables on the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Following out this principle of interpretation, he continues, “As in Solomon’s delineation of Wisdom we recognised Christ, so in the portraiture of the ‘strange woman,’ who is set in striking contrast to Wisdom in this book, we must learn to see something more than at first meets the eye. Doubtless we must hold fast the literal interpretation, and must strenuously contend for it; . . . but in the gaudy and garish attire and alluring cozenage of the strange woman we may see a representation of the seductive arts with which the teachers of unsound doctrine, repugnant to the truth of Christ, endeavour to charm, captivate, and ensnare unwary souls, and to steal them away from Him. There is a harlotry of the intellect—there is an adultery of the soul, and this harlotry and adultery are not less dangerous and deadly than the grossest sins and foulest abominations. Indeed they are more perilous, because they present themselves in a more specious and attractive form.” Hengstenberg, commenting on Eccles. vii. 26, says, “There are strong grounds for thinking that the woman of the Proverbs is the personification of heathenish folly, putting on the airs of wisdom and penetrating into the territory of the Israelites. . . . The key to Prov. ii. 16, 17, is Jeremiah iii. 4–20. In Prov. v. the evil woman must needs be regarded as an ideal person, because of the opposition in which she is set to thegoodwoman, Wisdom. If Wisdom in chap. vii. 4, 5 is an ideal person, her opponent must be also. . . . In chap. ix. again, the evil woman is put in contrast with Wisdom; . . . the explanation is, in fact, plainly given in verse 13. Last of all, in chap xxii. 14, we read, ‘the mouth of a foreigner is a deep pit,’ etc. That the writer here treats of false doctrine is clear from the mention of the mouth. Nahum iii. 4, presents an analogous instance of such a personification. . . . To the woman here, corresponds in Rev. ii. 20: ‘the woman Jezebel,’ a symbolical person.” Miller, as will be seen in the suggestive comments on chap.ii. 16, looks upon this woman as an emblem ofimpenitence.
The following comment is by Professor Plumptre: “The strange woman, the ‘stranger,’ may mean simply the adulteress, as the ‘strange gods’ the ‘strangers’ (Deut. xxxii. 16; Jer. iii. 13), are those to whom Israel, forsaking her true husband, offered an adulterous worship. But in both cases there is implied also some idea of a foreign origin, as of one who by birth isoutside the covenant of Israel. In the second word used, this meaning is still stronger. It is the word used of the strange wives of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 1–8), and of those of the Jews who returned from Babylon (Ezra x.), of Ruth, as a Moabitess (Ruth ii. 10), of heathen invaders (Isa. ii. 6). Whatever form the sin here referred to had assumed before the monarchy (and the Book of Judges testifies to its frequency), the intercourse with Phœnicians and other nations under Solomon had a strong tendency to increase it. The king’s example would naturally be followed, and it probably became a fashion to have foreign wives and concubines. At first it would seem this was accomplished by some show of proselytism. The women made a profession of conformity to the religion of their masters. But the old leaven breaks out. They sin and ‘forget the covenant of their God.’ The worship of other gods, a worship in itself sensual and ending in the foulest sin, leads the way to a life of harlotry. Other causes may have led to the same result. The stringent laws of the Mosaic code may have deterred the women of Israel from that sin, and led to a higher standard of purity than prevailed among other nations. Lidonian and Tyrian women came, like the Asiatic hetaeræ at Athens, at once with greater importunity and with new arts and fascinations to which the home-born were strangers.”
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses1–4.
The Source of True Life, etc.
I. The true life of man depends upon his relation to the Word of God.“Keep my commandments, and live” (verse 2). The life which is given to man upon his entrance into this world is not life in its highest sense, but an existence in which he is to obtain life. “It is not all of life to live.” Those who do not keep God’s commandments are living existences, but in the moral signification of the word they aredead.It was said by the highest authority—by the Son of God Himself—that “it had been good for Judas Iscariot if he had not been born” (Matt. xxvi. 24). Existence is not a blessing, oftentimes a curse, unless a man is “born again,” “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John i. 13). Christ taught the same truth when He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke iv. 4). Man is not flesh and blood only, he has not a mere animal existence, but moral capabilities and needs, which must be nourished by the thoughts of God. If this is not done, he has no life worth the name.
II. The relation that a man should have to the Word of God is like that which a rich man has to his banked money.“Lay up my commandments with thee.” The best place for money which the merchant wishes to use constantly is a safe bank, from which he can draw out at any time of need. So the Word of God must be laid up in the mind ready for constant use. The Word of God must “dwell in us” (Col. iii. 16). It must be stored up to furnish us with encouragement and admonition in the unceasing warfare with temptation which we are called upon to wage. It must be at hand at the moment of need.
III. It is to be guarded with the same care as the eye is guarded by the eyelid.“As the apple of thine eye.” The eye is carefully protected by nature because it is the organ of a most precious sense—of a sense of which we stand in the greatest need—without which we walk through the world in darkness. The revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures is the only light which enlightens us amid the darkness of ignorance and mystery by which we are surrounded. Without it all our future would be darkness indeed. Hence its preciousness, and hence the value we ought to set upon it.
IV. It is to hold to us a relation like that of a pure, and tender, and beloved sister.“Say unto Wisdom, Thou art my sister.” The Word of God is the highest wisdom. The relationship of brother and sister, where it is what God intended it to be, is a very tender and pure relationship, involving willingness to undergo self-denial for the sake of her who is loved, to listen to her advice, to seek her welfare. In this light we must regard the wisdom of God as revealed in the Word of God if existence is to becomelifeto us. We must exercise self-denial for her sake. “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in Thy word” (Psa. cxix. 147).
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 2. As God would have us keep His law as the apple of our eye, so He keeps His people (Deut. xxxii. 10), in answer to their prayer, as the apple of His eye (Zech. ii. 8). We guard the eye as our most precious and tender member from hurt, and prize it most dearly. As we guard the pupil of the eye from the least mote, which is sufficient to hurt it, so God’s law is so tender and holy a thing that the least violation of it in thought, word, or deed, is sin; and we are so to keep the law as to avoid any violation of it. The law resembles the pupil of the eye also in its being spiritually the organ of light, without which we should be in utter darkness.—Fausset.
The instruction of the Word is the same to the soul which the eye is to the body. For as the body without the sight of the eye runneth upon many things that hurt it, and falleth at every little stumbling-block, so the soul most fearfully runneth into sins if it want the light and direction of the Word.—Muffet.
Man are off and on in their promises: they are also slow and slack in their performances. But it is otherwise here: the very “entrance of Thy Word giveth light” (Psa. cxix. 130), and the very onset of obedience giveth life. It is but “Hear,and your soul shall live” (Isa. lv. 3). Sin is homogeneous, all of a kind, though not all of the same degree. As the least pebble is a stone as well as the hugest rock, and as the drop of a bucket is water as well as the main ocean, hence the least sins are in Scripture reproached by the names of the greatest. Malice is called manslaughter, lust, adultery, etc. Concupiscence is condemned by the law; even the first motions of sin, though they never come to consent (Rom. vii. 7). Inward bleeding may kill a man. The law of God is spiritual, though we be carnal. And as the sunshine shows us atoms and motes that till then we discerned not, so doth the law discover and censure smallest failings. It must therefore be kept curiously, even “as the apple of the eye,” that cannot be touched, but will be distempered. Careful we must be, even in the punctilios of duty. Men will not lightly lose the least ends of gold.—Trapp.
In some bodies, as trees, etc., there is life without sense, which are things animated, but not so much with a soul as with a kind of animation; even as the wicked have some kind of knowledge from grace, but are not animated by it. Or rather the wicked do not live, indeed, for life consisteth in action, and how can he be said truly to live whose words are dead? But keep God’s commandments, and live indeed, live cheerfully with the comfort of this life, which makes life to be life; live happily in the life of glory hereafter, which is the end for which this life is lent us.—Jermin.
Verse 4. Since, O youth, thou delightest in the intimacy of fair maidens, lo! here is by far the loveliest one, Wisdom.—Cartwright.
Wisdom has been represented as a wife, and here she is called a sister. As Didymus says (inCatenâ,p. 104), “Wisdom is called a mother, a sister, and a wife.” She is a mother, because, through her, we are children of Christ; she is a wife, because, by union with her, we ourselves become parents of that which is good; she is our sister, because our love to her is chaste and holy, and because she, as well as ourselves, is the offspring of God. Such is the love of Christ, who is the true Wisdom, and who is all in all to the soul. Compare His own words, applied to every faithful and obedient soul: “The same is my brother, and my sister, and mother” (Mark iii. 35). “Do thou love the true faith with sisterly love, it shall keep thee from the impure love of the strange women of false doctrine” (Bede).—Wordsworth.
Holiness is positive. Sin is negative. The one is to love God, and also our neighbour. The other is not to love God or our neighbour. The one showsitself in a positive delight in the abstract holiness; the other not in a positive delight in the opposite, viz., in an abstract sin, but a delight in women, a delight in money, a delight in praise, a delight in everything except moral purity, and therefore a delight in things which are innocent when in limits, and that are only guilty when the soul is let in upon them without curb of superior affection. If a man calls Wisdom his kinswoman, then he may love wine or love without moral danger.—Miller.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses5–27.
A Picture Drawn from Life.
The woman depicted here has been before us twice before. (See on chap.ii. 16–19andvi. 24.) We will therefore confine ourselves in this chapter to the picture of her dupe. He fully justifies his right to the title here given to him, viz., “a young man void of understanding.”
I. Because he did not wait for temptation to seek him, but went where he knew it would meet him.Those who carry gunpowder upon their persons ought never to go into a blacksmith’s forge, ought never even to approach the door lest some sparks fall upon them. How much more foolish is he who, knowing that there is a tendency to sin within him, seeks out the place where the spark will be fanned into a flame. This young man is found “near the corner” of the house of his temptress, “he went the way to her house.”
II. He goes to ruin with his eyes wide open.The woman’s character is plainly written upon her dress and upon her face. There is no pretence at disguise. She boasts of her infidelity to her husband. Yet he yields to her invitation; yet he believes her professions of attachment to himself. The most silly fish that swims will not bite if the steel hook gleams through the bait, but this simpleton takes the hook without any bait. The ox resists when he feels that he is being driven to death, but this fool goes deliberately to the house of death. He walks into the snare which he knows has been the death of myriads of his fellow creatures. The remedy for this folly is found invers. 1–4.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verses 5–27. From the earlier and copious warnings against adultery the one now before us is distinguished by the fact, that while chapter v. contrasted the blessings of conjugal fidelity and chaste marital love with unregulated sexual indulgence, and chapter vi. 20–35 particularly urged a contending against the inner roots and germs of the sin of unchastity, our passage dwells with special fulness upon the temptations from without to the transgression of the sixth commandment. It also sets for the folly and the ruinous consequences of yielding to such temptations, by presenting an instructive living example. . . . Aside from the fact that it is nocturnal rambling that delivers the thoughtless idle youth into the hands of temptation (verse 9), and aside from the other significant feature that after the first brief and feeble opposition, he throws himself suddenly and with the full energy of passion into his self-sought ruin (verse 22, comp. James i. 15), we have to notice here chiefly the important part played by the luxurious and savoury feast of the adulteress, as a co-operating factor in the allurement of the self-indulgent youth (verse 14 seq.). It is surely not a feature purely incidental, without deeper significance or design, that this meal is referred to as preceding the central or chief sin; for, that the tickling of the palate with stimulating eats and drinks prepares the way for lust is an old and universalobservation (comp. Exod. xxxii. 6, 1 Cor. x. 17, as also similar passages from the classical authors).—Lange’s Commentary.
Apart from the external blandishments which are portrayed in this passage, there belongs to them a power of internal deception the most fallacious and insinuating—and this not merely because of their strength, and of their fitness to engross the whole man when once they take possession of him, and so to shut out all reflection and seriousness—those counteractives to evil passions; but because of their alliance with, and the affinity which they bear to, the kindly and benevolent and good feelings of our nature. As the poet says—himself a wild and wayward, and most dangerously seductive writer—the transition is a most natural one, from “loving much to loving wrong.” Let all such affections be sedulously kept at bay, and the occasions of them shunned and fled from, rather than hazarded and tampered with. Let them never be wilfully encountered, or presumptuously braved and bid defiance to, lest the victory be theirs; and no sooner do they win the heart than they war against the soul.—Chalmers.
Verse 5. This woman not only represents the harlot and the adulteress literally, but it is also a figure of whatever seduces the soul from God, whether in morals or religion, and whether in doctrine and practice, or in religious worship.—Wordsworth.
Strange,indeed, if she alienate us from the very God that made her, and stir the jealousy of the very Being that gives us our power to love her. (Hosea ii. 8.)—Miller.
Verse 6. God is ever at His window, His casement is always open to see what thou dost.—Jermin.
Verse 8. Circumstances which give an occasion to sin are to be noticed and avoided. They who love danger fall into it. The youth (as verse 21 shows) did not go with the intention of defiling himself with the “strange woman,” but to flatter his own vanity by seeing and talking with her, and hearing her flatteries. It is madness to play with Satan’s edged tools.—Faussett.
The beginning of the sad end.The loitering evening walk, the unseasonable hour (Job xxiv. 15; Rom. xiii. 12, 13); the vacant mind. “The house was empty,” and therefore ready for the reception of the tempter (Matt. xii. 44, 45), and soon altogether in his possession. How valuable are self-discipline, self-control, constant employment, active energy of pursuit, as preservatives under the Divine blessing from fearful danger.—Bridges.
Verses 7–9. The first character appears on the scene, young, “simple” in the bad sense of the word;opento all impressions of evil, empty-headed and empty-hearted; lounging near the place of ill-repute, not as yet deliberately purposing to sin, but placing himself in the way of it; wandering idly to see one of whose beauty he has heard, and this at a time when the pure in heart would seek their home. It is impossible not to see a certain symbolic meaning in this picture of the gathering gloom. Night is falling over the young man’s life as the shadows deepen.—Plumptre.
Verse 9. He thought to obscure himself, but Solomon saw him; how much more God, before whom night will convert itself into noon, and silence prove a speaking evidence. Foolish men think to hide themselves from God, by hiding God from themselves.—Trapp.
Verse 10. A careless sinner shall not need to go far tomeetwith temptation. The first woman met with it almost as soon as she was made, and who meets not everywhere with the woman Temptation?—Jermin.
Verse 14. Though I indulge in amours, do not think I am averse to the worship of God; nay, I offerliberally to Him: He is now therefore appeased, and will not mind venial offences.—Cartwright.
It is of course possible that the worship of Israel had so degenerated as to lose for the popular conscience all religious significance; but the hypothesis stated above (seenoteat the beginning of the chapter), affords a simpler explanation. She who speaks is a foreigner who, under a show of conformity to the religion of Israel, still retains her old notions, and a feast-day is nothing to her but a time of self-indulgence, which she may invite another to share with her. If we assume, as probable, that these harlots of Jerusalem were mainly of Phœnician origin, the connection of their worship with their sin would be but the continuation of their originalcultus.—Plumptre.
An awful portraiture of the mystery of iniquity. It is applicable also to corrupt churches, especially to the spiritual harlot described by St. John in the Apocalypse. She professes zeal for God’s house and service, while she is offending Him by heretical doctrine, and insulting Him by the fascinations of idolatrous worship, with which she beguiles unwary souls to commit spiritual fornication with her. (See Rev. xvii. 1–5; xviii. 9.) As Bede says, following in the steps of Basil and others: All the description which is here given is true, in a literal sense, of the meretricious allurements of an adulteress; but it is to be interpreted also spiritually. False doctrine tricks herself out with the embellishments of worldly rhetoric and spurious philosophy, and is ever lurking at the corners of the streets, to allure and deceive the simple, and to caress them with her embraces; and she makes religious professions. She has her couch adorned with heathen embroidery, and yet sprinkles with the odours of spiritual virtues; but Christ says of her in the Apocalypse, “I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into the great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds” (Rev. ii. 22).—Wordsworth.
The immoral devotionist.1. The absurd conduct of those who indulge in immorality, and think to compound with God for so doing, by paying Him outward forms of worship. 2. All external observances vain and useless unless they are accompanied with purity of heart, and real goodness of life. True religion is an end, and all external observances are only means leading to that end. (See Micah. vi. 5.) Agreeably to this St. Paul assures us that the end of the Christian revelation is to teach men to “live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus ii. 12). And Christ assures us that no ceremonious method of atonement without practical goodness will entitle us to the rewards of Christianity (Matt. vii. 21). All duties enjoined by God can be enjoined by Him only for the good they do us. “Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise is profitable to himself?” (Job xxii. 2). And in which way can we possibly conceive how an immoral man can reap any benefit from the mere forms and ceremonies of religion? Is there any reason to think that God will accept this religious flattery instead of purity of life? No, rather it is an aggravation of his crimes. (See Isa. i. 11.)—N. Ball.
Verse 15. O how diligent is wickedness, thinking that thing never done soon enough which is too soon done at any time! O how diligent a helper is Satan of wickedness, administering all opportunities for it! And, therefore, as the harlot seeketh diligently, so she findeth readily. Which is the shame of religion in many that profess it, and who are so slow in the performance of religious duties, as if they were both servants and masters, and had the commandments of God at their own command, to do them at their pleasure; which is a great reason that they are so ill observed. But if they would use their own diligence, they should find God much more diligent to give a blessing to it.—Jermin.
Verse 16. Her coverings of tapestry could not cover her naughtiness, hercarved work could not embellish her own deformed work, her white Egyptian linen could not make white her black Egyptian soul.—Jermin.
Verse 17. This might have minded the young man that he was going to his grave, for the bodies of the dead were so perfumed. Such a meditation would much have rebated his edge—cooled his courage.—Trapp.
Verse 18. But what if death draw the curtains, and look in the while? If death do not, yet guilt will.—Trapp.
Verse 19. Instead of saying, “Myhusband,” she contemptuously calls him “thegoodman,” as though he were unconnected with her.—Fausset.
Man may not be at home, but God is always at home, whose house is the world: man may be gone a far journey, but God’s journey is at once to be everywhere; His farthest off, to be present always. . . . She talketh that the goodman was not at home, but the good woman was not at home either; she saith that her husband was gone a far journey, but she herself was gone much farther from her duty. If she had been at home, to have heard her conscience the home reprover of wickedness, the goodman, though not at home, had not been so much wronged; if she had not gone far from her covenant, her husband, though gone far, had still been near and present in her heart.—Jermin.
Our hearts must be guarded against the admission of sin by stronger motives than the fear of detection and disgrace, for artful solicitors to evil will easily baffle such restraints as these. Joseph might have expected his master’s favour by complying with the wishes of his mistress, but the motive that induced him to decline her company was irresistible,—“How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”—Lawson.
Verse 22. He goeth to the slaughter when he thinketh he goeth to the pasture; or as those oxen brought forth by Jupiter’s priests, with garlands unto the gates, but it was for a slain sacrifice (Acts xiv. 13).—Trapp.
The butcher’s yard would show the meaning of this first similitude. In every sort of way the ox may be coaxed, and apparently to no purpose. But though he may stand, ox-like, like a rock, yet the experienced herdman knows that he will suddenly start in. This is his nature. One inch may cost a hurricane of blows; but at a dash, as the butcher expects, he will suddenly rush in to his doom.—Miller.
Verse 25. Cut off the beginnings of desire. The first trickling of the crevasse is the manageable, and therefore, more culpable, period of the difficulty.—Miller.
Verse 26. As Solomon himself subsequently was (Neh. xiii. 26). So Samson and David previously. It is better to learn by the awful example of others than by our own suffering. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.—Fausset.
The house of the harlot had been compared before to the grave, to the world of the dead; now it is likened to a battle-field strewn with the corpses of armed men. The word speaks rather of the multitude than of the individual strength of those who have perished.—Plumptre.
In a figurative sense, some of the greatest teachers of Christendom have been seduced by the allurements of heresy, and have been cast down from their place in the firmament of the Church, like stars falling from heaven.—Wordsworth.
The valour of men hath oft been slaved by the wiles of a woman. Witness many of your greatest martialists, who conquered countries, and were vanquished of vices. The Persian kings commanded the whole world, and were commanded by their concubines.—Trapp.
The secret thought that one can saunter toward her house (verse 8), andat any time turn back, is cruelly met by most discouraging examples. The whole passage is the more impressive, if we consider it as a warning against confidence in strength, and particularly grand, if we mark the second clause. . . . All men are strong, and strong in the most substantial sense. All men, saved, are princes (Rev. i. 6); and they are offered the second place in God’s kingdom (Isa. lxi. 7.) All men are bone of Christ’s bone; all men are born with a birthright to be kings and priests, if they choose to be, and brothers of Emmanuel.—Miller.
Critical Notes.—Places of the paths“in the midst of the highways.” “These ways are roads, solitary paths, not streets in the city, and the delineation proceeds in such an order as to exhibit Wisdom; first, in verse 2, as a preacher in the open country, in grove and field, on mountains and plains, and then in verse 3, to describe her public harangues in the cities, and in the tumult of the multitudes” (Zöckler).3. At the entrance of its doors,i.e.“standing on the further side of the gateway” (Zöckler) “at the entrance of the avenues” (Stuart).4.The Hebrew words for men are different in the two clauses, “the first signifies men of high position, the second men of the common sort” (Psa. xlix. 2) (Fausset).5. Wisdom.This is a different word from the one used in verse 1, and may be translated “subtilty,” or “prudence,” and though it is here used in a good sense, may, when the context requires it, be translated “artful cunning.”6. Excellent,literally “princely,” generally rendered “plain,” “evident,” “obvious.”7. Mouth,lit. “palate.”Speak,literally “meditate;” the word originally meant “mutter,” and grew to mean “meditate,” because what a man meditates deeply he generally mutters about (Miller).8. Froward,literally “distorted,” or “crooked.”9.“Right to the man of understanding, and plain to them that have attained knowledge” (Zöckler). “To the men of understanding they are all to the point” (Delitzsch).11. Rubies,“pearls.”12. Dwell withor “inhabit.”Witty inventions,“skilful plans” (Stuart), “sagacious counsels” (Zöckler).14. Sound wisdom,the same word as in chap. ii. 7 (seenotethere). Stuart reads here, “As for me, my might is understanding;” Delitzch, “Mine is counsel and promotion.”17. Early,i.e., “earnestly” (see on ch.i. 28).18. Durable.Zöckler thinks this rather signifies “growing.”21. Inherit substance,“abundance.”22. Jehovah possessed me.The signification of this verb has been the subject of much discussion; ancient expositors, believing Wisdom here to be the eternal Son of God, deemed it necessary to reject the translation of the Septuagint, etc., who rendered itcreated, as the text then became an argument with Arians against the eternal co-existence of the Son. But most modern commentators, whatever view they take of the signification of “Wisdom,” agree in rejecting the reading of the Authorised Version. The majority render it, “created;” Delitzch reads, “brought me forth;” Wordsworth and Miller, “got possession of,” or “acquired.” Wordsworth says, “The word occurs about eighty times in the Old Testament, and in only four places beside the present it is translated ’possess;’ viz., Gen. xiv. 19–22; Psa. cxxxix. 13; Jer. xxxii. 15; Zech. xi. 5; in the last two it may well have the sense of getting, and in the former of creating.”23. Set up,Stuart, Miller, and early expositors render “anointed;” Delitzch and Zöckler prefer the Authorised rendering.26. Earth, etc.,“the land and the plains, or the beginning of the dust of the earth.”27. Set a compass, etc.,“marked out a circle,”i.e.,“when He fixed the vault of heaven, which rests on the face of the ocean.”30. As one brought up,“as director of His work,” or, “as a builder at His side.”36. Sinneth against,“misseth,” so Stuart, Delitzsch, and Miller.
Notes on the Personification of Wisdom.—There has been great discussion among expositors as to who, or what, is to be understood by this personification. Many modern and all ancient expositors consider that it refers exclusively to the Divine Word, the Eternal Son of God, others understand it as relating entirely to an attribute of the Divine nature. There is a middle view, which is thus put by Dr. John Harris in his sermon on verses 30–36: “Others, again reply that it refers exclusively to neither—but partly to that wisdom which begins in the fear of the Lord, partly to the Divine attribute of wisdom, and partly to the Son of God, the second person in the Godhead.” We cannot do better than give the views of a few eminent expositors and writers. Delitzsch thus comments on verse 22: “Wisdom takes now a new departure in establishing her right to be heard and to be obeyed and loved by men. As the Divine King in Psa. ii. opposes to His adversaries the self-testimony: ‘I will speak concerning a decree! Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee;’ so Wisdomhere unfolds her Divine patent of nobility; she originates with God before all creatures, and it the object of God’s love and joy, as she also has the object of her love and joy on God’s earth, and especially among the sons of men. (See his translation of the verb in this verse—Critical Notes). Wisdom is not God, but is God’s; she has personal existence in the Logos of the New Testament, but is not herself the Logos; she is the world idea, which, once projected, is objective to God, and not as a dead form, but as a living spiritual image; she is the archetype of the world, which originating from God, stands before God, the world of the idea which forms the medium between the Godhead and the world of actual existence, the communicated spiritual power in the origination and the completion of the world as God designed it to be. This wisdom the poet here personifies; he does not speak of the personal Logos, but the further progress of the revelation points to her actual personification in the Logos. And since to her the poet attributes an existence preceding the creation of the world, he thereby declares her to be eternal, for to be before the world is to be before time. For if he places her at the head of the creatures, as the first of them, so therewith he does not seek to make her a creature of this world having its commencement in time; he connects her origination with the origination of the creature only on this account, because thatà priorirefers and tends to the latter; the power which was before heaven and earth were, and which operated at the creation of the earth and of the heavens, cannot certainly fall under the category of the creatures around and above us.” Wordsworth, in accordance with the principle of interpretation set forth in the note at the beginning of chapter vii. says, “We should be taking a very low, unworthy, and inadequate view of the present and following magnificent and sublime chapters. . . . If we did not behold Him who is essential wisdom, the co-eternal Son of God, and recognise here a representation of His attributes and prerogative.” The arguments in favour of this view are thus summed up by Fausset: “Wisdom is here personal Wisdom—the Son of God. For many personal predicates are attributed to Him: thus,subsistence by or with God,in verse 30; just as John i. 1 saith, ‘The Word was with God,’ which cannot be said of a mere attribute. Moreover, the mode of subsistence imparted isgeneration, verse 22, 24, 25 (seeCritical Notes). In verse 22 God is said to havepossessedoracquiredwisdom, not bycreation(Psa. civ. 24), nor by adoption, as Deut. xxxii. 6, Psa. lxxiv. 2, but bygeneration.The same verb is used by Eve of her firstborn (Gen. iv. 1). Moreover, other attributes are assigned to Wisdom, as if she were not an attribute but a person—‘counsel,’ ‘strength,’ etc. Also, she has the feelings of a person (verse 17): ‘I love them that love me.’ She does the acts of a person. She enables kings to rule, and invests them with authority (verses 15, 16). She takes part in creation, as one brought up, ornursed, in the bosom of the Father, as the only-begotten of His love (John i. 18). She cries aloud as a person (verses 1–4), and her ‘lips’ and ‘mouth’ are mentioned (verses 6, 7). She is thedelightof the Father, and she in turn delights in men (verses 30, 31), answering to the rapturous delight into which the Father breaks forth concerning Messiah (Isa. xliii. 1; Matt. iii. 17, xvii. 5; Eph. i. 6). She builds a house, prepares a feast, and sends forth her maidens to invite the guests (ch. ix. 1–3). All which admirably applies to Messiah, who builds the Church, as His house, upon Himself the rock (Matt. xvi. 8, etc.), and invites all to the Gospel feast (Luke xiv. 16, etc.). He is Wisdom itself absolute, and as the Archetype, from Him wisdom imparted flows to others. As such, He invites us to learn wisdom from Him who is its source, ‘counsel’ and ‘sound wisdom’ (ver. 14), are in Him as attributes are in their subject, and as effects are in their cause. The parallel (ch. i. 20, 23), ‘I will pour out my spirit unto you’ (see John vii. 38), conforms the personal view. The same truth is confirmed by the reproof (ch. i. 24), ‘Because I have called,’ etc., compared with Christ’s own words (Matt. xi. 28, etc.) So Christ is called the Wisdom of God (Col. ii. 3). As Wisdom here saith ‘I was set up,’ or ‘anointed from everlasting,’ so the Father saith of Messiah, ‘I have set’ or ‘anointed my king’ etc. (Psa. ii. 6). As in verse 24, Wisdom is said to be ‘brought forth’ orbegottenby God before the world, and to have beenby Him in creating all things(verses 27–30), so Messiah is called the ‘Son of God,’ and is said to have beenwith God in the beginning, and to havemade all things(John. i. 1–3) and to have been begotten before every creature (Col. i. 15–17); and Hisgoings forthare said, in Mic. v. 2,to have been from of old, from everlasting.” The argument for the opposite view is thus stated by Dr. Wardlaw: “The objections to its meaning Christ, or the Word, are, to my mind, quite insuperable. For example: (1) The passage is not so applied in any part of the New Testament. I do not adduce this consideration as anydirect objectionto the interpretation in question. I mean no more than this, that from its not being so explained there, we are relieved from anynecessityof so explaining it. Such necessity, then, being thus precluded, the direct objections may be allowed to have their full force. Observe, then (2), Wisdom here is afemale personage.All along this is the case. Now, under such a view, the Scripture nowhere else, in any of their figurative representations of ‘the Christ,’ ever thus describe or introduce Him. The application, on this account, appears to be exceedingly unnatural. (3) Wisdom does not appear intended as apersonaldesignation, inasmuch as it is associated with various other terms, of synonymous, at least, of corresponding import (verse 1, chap. iii. 19, 20). Were it meant for apersonaldesignation, like theLogosorWordin the beginning of John’s Gospel, this would hardly have been admissible. (4) That the whole is bold and strikingpersonificationof the attribute of Wisdom, as subsisting in the Deity, appears further from whatshe is represented as saying in verse 12: ‘I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.’ Here Wisdom is associated with prudence; and the import of the association is, that Wisdom directs to the best ends, and to the choice of the best means for their attainment; andprudence,ordiscretion,teaches to shun whatever might, in any way or degree, interfere with and impede, or mar their accomplishment. This is precisely what wisdom, as an attribute or quality, does. And it is worthy of remark, that this association of wisdom with prudence, is introduced by the Apostle as characterising the greatest of the Divine inventions and works—that of our redemption. Wisdom was associated with prudence in framing and perfecting that wonderful scheme (Ephes. i. 7, 8). (5) It is very true that there are many things here, especially in the latter part of the chapter—indeed through the whole—that are, in a very interesting and striking manner, applicable to the Divine Messiah. But this is no more than might have been anticipated, that things which are true of aDivine attributeshould be susceptible of application to aDivine person.” We quote, in conclusion, the remarks of Dr. Aiken, the American editor and translator of this portion of Lange’s Commentary: “The error in our English exegetical and theological literature with respect to our passage has been, we think, the attempt to force upon it more of distinctness and precision in the revelation of the mysteries of the Divine Nature than is disclosed by a fair exegesis. . . . If it be not unworthy of the Holy Spirit to employ a bold and graphic personification, many things in this chapter may be said of and by the personified Wisdom which these authors regard as triumphantly proving that we have here the pre-existent Christ, the Son of God. . . . We can, to say the least, go no farther than our author has done in discovering here the foreshadowings of the doctrine of the Logos. We are inclined to prefer the still more guarded statements,e.g.,of Dr. Pye Smyth (Scripture Testimony to the Messiah), that this beautiful picture cannot be satisfactorily proved to be a designed description of the Saviour’s person; or that of Dr. John Harris (Sermon on chap. viii. 30–36): ‘At all events, while, on the one hand, none candemonstratethat Christ is here directly intended, on the other, none can prove that He is not contemplated; and perhaps both will admit that, under certain conditions, language such as that in our text may be justifiably applied to Him. One of these conditions is, that the language be not employedargumentatively,or inproofof anything related to Christ, but only for the purpose of illustration; and another is, that when so employed, it be only adduced to illustrate such views of the Son of God as are already established by such other parts of Scripture as are admitted by the partiesaddressed.’ ”
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses1–3.
The Nature of Wisdom’s Call.
Even if we reject the direct Messianic interpretation of this chapter, and understand Wisdom here to be only a poetical personification of an abstract attribute of God, it would be impossible, we think, for any minister of the New Testament to teach from it, and not find his way to Him who was “in the beginning with God” (John i. 2), to the Christ who is the “Wisdom of God” (1 Cor. i. 24), “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. ii. 3). To say the least, the language is admirably adapted to set forth the Incarnate Son, the Saviour of the world. The introductory paragraph revealsthe intense desire of Wisdom to win disciples.
I. From her taking the initiative.Wisdom addresses man first. When two persons have become estranged by the wrong-doing of one, he who is in the wrong will be slow to find his way back to the other to acknowledge his fault. Because he is in the wrong he may conclude, and in many cases would rightly conclude, that an advance on his side would be useless. But an advance from him who is in the right would be more likely to be successful; such a course of conduct on his part would carry with it a powerful magnetic force to draw the offender back, and would be a most convincing proof of the desire of him who had been rightly offended to effect a reconciliation. And if the offence had been committed, not once, but many times, the reluctance of the offender to face his offended friend would be increased in proportion to the number of times the act had been repeated, and if, notwithstanding these repeated offences, advances should continue to be made from the other side, the desire for reconciliation would be made more and more manifest. Wisdom is here representedin this light, and God in Christ did take the initiative in “reconciling the world unto Himself” (1 Cor. v. 19). The Incarnate Wisdomcameto men because men would not, and could not, by reason of their moral inability, come to Him first. In proportion to the distance men wander from God do they feel the impossibility of returning to Him unless they can receive from Him some encouragement to do so. This encouragement they have in the fact that “the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost” (Matt. xviii. 11), that, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. v. 8).
II. From the variety of places where Wisdom’s voice is heard(verses 2 and 3). If a man has goods to sell, he seeks those places where he will be most likely to find buyers; if he has thoughts which he wishes to make public, he goes where he will find the most hearers. The pilot has wisdom which he wants to sell the less experienced ship-master, and he runs his cutter out into the highway of the channel. He is found at “the entrance of the gates” of the water-ways, at the mouths of the rivers; he places himself in the way of those who need his wisdom, and who will pay a good price for his skill. In proportion to a man’s earnestness to obtain a market, or a hearing, will be his endeavour to seek out the places where he will most likely succeed. Wisdom is here represented as frequenting the most conspicuous places, the most crowded thoroughfares, to find buyers for that spiritual instruction which is to be had “without money and without price” (Isa. lv. 1). Christ was found imparting the treasures of His wisdom wherever men would listen to His words. He “went up into a mountain and taught” (Matt. v. 1). He was found in the streets of the cities, in the temple, at the publican’s feast (Luke v. 27), in a boat on the shore of the lake. When multitudes were gathered at Jerusalem at the feasts, He was among them (John vii. 14 and 37). At other times “He went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. ix. 35). And thus He revealed His intense desire to give unto men those words which He declares to be “spirit and life” (John vi. 63).
III. From the earnest tone of her call.“Doth not Wisdomcry.” When the voice of Christ was heard upon earth it was in no indifferent tone He addressed His hearers. He was “moved with compassion” towards the multitudes who followed Him (Matt. xiv. 14). On the “great day of the feast He stood andcried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink” (John vii. 37). With what earnestness must He have uttered His lament over Jerusalem: “If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace” (Luke xix. 42). A man’s tone is more or less earnest to us in proportion as he gives proof that he is willing to follow up words by deeds. Judged in this light, how earnest must the call of Christ to men sound when they consider that He was willing to face Gethsemane and Calvary to give effect to His words. On this subject see also Homiletics on chap.i. 20, 21.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 1. She crieth by the written word, by ministers, and by the dealings of Providence. Instead of the clandestine whisper of the adulteress in the dark, Wisdom “puts forth her voice” openly in the day, and in a style suitable to every capacity, so that all are left without excuse if they reject her, preferring darkness to light.—Fausset.
The eternal Son of God gathers, plants, builds His church by a voicei.e.,His Word. All true teachers of the Word are crying voices through which Christ calls. Out of Christ’s school is no true wisdom. So long as Christ’s wisdom is still speaking outside thee it avails thee nothing; but when thou allowest it to dwell in thee it is thy light and life.—Egard.
We cannot promulgate as doctrine, but we think the last day will show that wisdom plied every art; that what was, “all things working together for good” in behalf of the believer, was something analogous in tendency in the instance of the sinner; that if the sinner thought his lot defeated repentance, he was mistaken; or that, could he have fared otherwise, his chances would have been improved: all this was largely error; moreover, that he will be held accountable at last for quite the opposite, and punished for a life singularly favoured and frequently adapted as the very best to lead him to salvation.—Miller.
In her ministers, who are criers by office, and must be earnest (Isa. lviii. 1). See an instance in holy Bradford. “I beseech you,” saith he, “I pray you with hand, pen, tongue, and mind, in Christ, through Christ, for Christ, for His name, blood, mercy, power, and truth’s sake, my most entirely beloved that you admit no doubting of God’s final mercies towards you.” Here was a lusty crier indeed.—Trapp.
This form of interrogation, which expects as its answer an assenting and emphatic “yes, truly,” points to the fact clearly brought to view in all that has preceded, that Wisdom bears an unceasing witness in her own behalf in the life of men.—Zöckler.
Verse 2. “Standeth” implies assiduous perseverance. Instead of taking her stand in dark places, in a corner, like the harlot (chap. vii. 9), she “standeth” in the top of high places.—Fausset.
Wisdom is representing as haunting all human paths. Folly lives upon them, too. Wisdom does not claim them as her own; Folly does. Wisdom has but one path. And she haunts every other to turn men out of such diverse journeyings into the one great track of holiness and truth.—Miller.
Verse 3. Thereby intending (1) to reach the whole concourse of the lost, and (2) to make human life at these great rallying places of men, speak its own lessons, and utter the loudest warnings against the soul’s impenitence.—Miller.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses4–9.
God’s Speech Meeting Man’s Need.
I. Divine Wisdom has spoken because God’s silence would be human death.When a man is lying in prison awaiting the execution of the extreme penalty of the law, after he has petitioned the monarch for a reprieve, the silence of the monarch is a permission that the sentence is to be carried out. His silence is a death-knell to the criminal who has asked for pardon. It is an anticipation of the steel of the executioner, of the rope of the hangman. He longs for the word that would bring pardon. There isdeathin thesilence.In the history of men’s lives there are many other instances when the silence of those whom they desire to speak embitters their life. There are many who keep silence whose speech would fall upon the heart of those who long for it, as the dew and gentle rain falls upon the parched earth. A word or a letter would be like a new lease of life, but the silence brings a sorrow which is akin to death, which perchance is the death of all that makes life to be desired. A parent who has no word from his absent son goes down in sorrow to the grave. Jacob was thus going down mourning when the words of Joseph reached him. Then “his spirit revived” (Gen. xlv. 27), and the aged, sorrowful patriarch renewed his youth. The life of man—all that is worth calling life—depends upon God’s breaking the silence between earth and heaven. His silence is that which is most dreaded by thosewho have heard His voice. Hence their prayer is, “Be notsilentunto me; let, if Thou be silent unto me, I becomelike them that go down into the pit” (Psa. xxviii. 1). If a man had been left without any communication from God, he must have remained spiritually dead throughout his term of probation. For he is by nature what is called in Scripture, “carnally-minded,” which “is death” (Rom. viii. 5). Every man, if left to himself, forms habits of thinking and of acting that cause him “to be tied and bound with the chain of his sins.” And if God had not spoken he must have remained in this condition, which is spiritual death. Therefore, God has broken this silence with an “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead” (Ephes. v. 14). The nations were walking in the darkness and the shadow of death when the “light shined” upon them (Luke i. 79), in the person of Him who is the Word and the Wisdom of God, who, Himself, declared “The words that I speak untoyou, they are spirit, and they arelife;” “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John vi. 63, x. 10).
II. Human nature needs the voice of Divine Wisdom because the soul cannot rest upon uncertainties(verses 6–8). If a man is in the dark upon any subject, he is in a condition of unrest; there is a desire within him to rise from the state of probability to one of certainty. If a boy works a sum and does not know how to prove that it is right, he does not feel that satisfaction at having completed his task that he would do if he could demonstrate that the answer was correct. After all his labour he has only arrived at a may-be. So the result of all efforts of man’s unaided reasonings concerning himself and his destiny was but a sum unproved. There was no certainty after ages of labourious conjecture. There might be a future life and immortality, but it could not be positively affirmed. Although the summight be rightthere was a possibility that it was wrong. The world by wisdom arrived at no certain conclusions in relation to the Divine character and the chief end of man, and uttered but an uncertain sound on the life beyond the grave. “How can man be just with God?” “If a man die shall he live again?” were never fully and triumphantly answered until the Incarnate Word stood by His own empty grave and said, “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John xx. 17). He brought “rest” to the weary and heavy laden (Matt. xi. 28), because His words were truth, and plainness, and certainty (see verses 6–8); before they had been only error, or obscurity, or conjecture.
III. The wisdom of God is appreciated by those who have realised its adaptation to human needs.(Ver. 9.) There is a twofold knowledge, or “understanding,” of Divine truth, as there is of much else with which we are acquainted. There is an acquaintance with the general facts of Divine revelation—a theoretical understanding of its suitableness to the needs of men, and there is a knowledge which arises from an experience of its adaptation to our personal need—a practical understanding which springs from having received a personal benefit. The chemist knows that a certain drug possesses qualities adapted to cure a particular malady, but if he comes to experience its efficacy in the cure of the disease in his own body, he has a knowledge which far surpasses the merely theoretical. It is then “plain” to him from an experimental understanding. The wisdom of God in the abstract, or in the personal Logos, is allowed by many to be adapted to the spiritual needs of the human race. They see the philosophy of the plan of salvation in the general, but its wonderful adaptation and “rightness” is only fully revealed when they have “found” the “knowledge” by an experimental reception of Christ into their own hearts. To him that thus “understands” all is “plain.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 4. Christ offers Himself as a Saviour to all the human race.I. The most awakening truth in all the Bible.It is commonly thought that preaching the holy law is the most awakening truth in the Bible, and, indeed, I believe this is the most ordinary means which God makes use of. And yet to me there is something far more awakening in the sight of a Divine Saviour freely offering Himself to every one of the human race. . . . Does it not show that all men are lost—that a dreadful hell is before them? Would the Saviour call so loud and so long if there was no hell?II. The most comforting truth in the Bible.If there were no other text in the whole Bible to encourage sinners to come freely to Christ, this one alone might persuade them. Christ speaks to the human race. Instead of writing down every name He puts all together in one word, which includes every man, woman, and child.III. The most condemning truth in all the Bible.If Christ be freely offered to all men, then it is plain that those who live and die without accepting Christ shall meet with the doom of those who refuse the Son of God.—McCheyne.
They are called to repentance, they are called to the remission of their sins; they may and must repent, and they, by repentance, are sure of pardon for all their sins. The good angels have not sinned, the bad angels cannot repent; it ismanthat hath done the one, it ismanthat must do the other.—Jermin.
“O men.” Some render it, “O ye eminent men,” (seeCritical Notes), whether for greatness of birth, wealth, or learning. But “the world by wisdom knows not God” (1 Cor. i. 21); and “not many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (verse 26). And yet they shall not want for calling, if that would do it. But all to little purpose, for most part. They that lay their heads upon down pillows cannot so easily hear noises. “The sons of men,”i.e.,to the meaner sorts of people. These, usually, like little fishes, bite more than bigger. “The poor are gospelised,” saith our Saviour. Smyrna was the poorest, but the best of the seven churches.—Trapp.
Several ways whereby God addresses Himself to men.How different the method which God uses towards therationalfrom that which He uses towards thematerialworld. In the world of matter God has not only fixed and prescribed certain laws according to which the course of nature shall proceed, but He is Himself the sole and immediate executor of those laws. . . . It is to Himself that He has set those laws, and it is by Himself that they are executed. But He does not deal so with the world ofspirits.He does not here execute the laws oflove,as He does there the laws ofmotion.He contents Himself to prescribe laws, to make rational applications, tospeakto spirits. He speaks to them because they arerational,and can understand what He says, and He doesbutspeak to them because they arefree.And this He does in several ways. 1.By the natural and necessary order and connection of things.God, as being the Author of nature, is also the author of that connection that results from it between some actions and that good and evil that follows upon them, and which must therefore not be considered as mere natural consequences, but as a kind of rewards and punishments annexed to them by the Supreme Lawgiver, God having declared by them, as by a natural sanction, that ’tis His will and pleasure that those actions which are attended with good consequences should be done, and that those which are attended with evil consequences should be avoided. Not that the law has its obligation from thesanction,but these natural sanctions aresignsanddeclarationsof the will of God. 2.By sensible pleasure and pain.A thing which everybody feels, but which few reflect upon, yet there is a voice of God in it. Fordoes not God, by the frequent and daily return of these impressions, continually put us in mind of the nature and capacity of our souls, that we are thinking beings, and beings capable of happiness and misery, which because we actually feel in several degrees, and in several kinds, we may justly think ourselves capable of in more, though how far, and in what variety, it be past our comprehension exactly to define. 3.By that inward joy which attends the good, and by that inward trouble and uneasiness which attends the bad state of the soul.This is a matter of universal experience. It is God that raineth this pleasure or this pain in us, and that thus differently rewards or punishes the souls of men, and thus, out of His infinite love, is pleased to do the office of a private monitor to every particular man, by smiling upon him when he does well, and by frowning upon him when he does ill, that so he may have a mark todiscern,and an encouragement todohis duty.—John Norris.
Verse 5. A man may be acutely shrewd and yet be a fool, and that in the very highest sense. Nor is this a mere mystic sense. He must be a fool actually, and of the very plainest kind, who gives the whole labour of a life, for example, to increase his eternal agonies.—Miller.
Theheartis frequently used, simply for the mind or seat of intellect as well as for the affections; so that “an understanding heart” might mean nothing different from anintelligentmind. At the same time, since the state of the heart affects to such a degree the exercise of the judgment, “an understanding heart” may signify a heart freed from the influence of those corrupt affections and passions by which the understanding is perverted, and its vision marred and destroyed.—Wardlaw.
Verse 6. The discoveries of Wisdom relate to things of the highest possibleexcellence; such as the existence, character, works, and ways of God; the soul; eternity; the way of salvation—the means of eternal life. And they are, on all subjects, “right.” They could not, indeed, be excellent themselves, how excellent soever in dignity and importance the subjects to which they are related, unless they were “right.” But all her instructions are so. They aretruein what regardsdoctrine,and “holy, just, and good” in what regardsconductorduty.There is truth without any mixture of error, and rectitude without any alloy of evil.—Wardlaw.
Right for each man’s purposes and occasions. The Scriptures are so penned that every man may think they speak of him and his affairs. In all God’s commands there is so much rectitude and good reason, could we but see it, that if God did not command them, yet it were our best way to practise them.—Trapp.
The teaching is nottrifling,though addressed totriflers.“Right things”—things which are calculated to correct your false notions, and set straight your crooked ways.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 9. If aught in God’s Word does not seem to us right, it is because we, so far, have not found true knowledge. “To those who have bloodshot eyes, white seems red” (Lyra). He who would have the sealed book opened to him must ask it of the Lamb who opens the book (Rev. v. 4–9).—Fausset.
The first part of this verse wears very much the aspect of atruism.But it is not said, “They are plain to him that understandeththem;” but simply to him that “understandeth.” It seems to signify, who has the understanding necessary to the apprehension of Divine truth—spiritual discernment. “He who is spiritualdiscerneth all things.” “They are all plain” to him whothusunderstandeth. It may further be observed, how very much depends, in the prosecution of any science, for correct and easy apprehension of its progressive development to the mind, on the clear comprehension of itselementary principles.The very clearest and plainest demonstrations, inany department of philosophy, will fail to be followed and to carry conviction—will leave the mind only in wonder and bewildering confusion, unless there is a full and correct acquaintance with principles or elements, or a willingness to apply the mind to its attainment. So in Divine science. There are, in regard to the discoveries of the Divine Word, certain primary principles, which all who are taught of God know, and which they hold as principles of explanation for all that the Word reveals. They whoarethus “taught of God,” perceive with increasing fulness the truth, the rectitude, the unalloyed excellence of all the dictates of Divine wisdom. All is “plain”—all “right.” The darkness that brooded over the mind is dissipated. They “have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things” (1 John ii. 20).—Wardlaw.
When a man gets the knowledge of himself, then he sees all thethreateningsof God to beright. When he obtains the knowledge of God in Christ, then he finds that all thepromisesof God areright—yea and amen.—Adam Clarke.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses10, 11.
Wisdom Better Than Wealth.
I. Wisdom is to be preferred to wealth because it belongs to a higher sphere.The wisdom by which men succeed in finding gold and silver reveals the superiority of mind over matter. The apparatus of the miner or digger reveals that his thought, by which he is enabled to find the precious metal, is more than the metal itself. The precious stones which the merchant gains by trading are inferior to the wisdom he puts in operation to gain them, even though it is a wisdom which is only devoted to gaining money. The mental power which he puts forth shows that he is possessed of intelligence, which, belonging to the region of mind, belongs to a higher sphere than material wealth. When the wisdom is that spoken of in the text, the wisdom which springs from the very Fountain of goodness, it is not only preferable because it is the offspring of mind, but because it belongs to the higher region of spiritual purity.