V. The means by which the guests are brought in.They areinvited.There can be no compulsion in bringing men to the feast of Wisdom. No man can be compelled to partake of a feast. Persuasion can be used, and men can be induced to eat of it from a sense of need, but force is useless. A man may be placed at the board and kept there against his will, but the eating must ever be his own act. And so it is with the spiritual blessings which God has prepared for men. All the force that can be exercised is the force of persuasion. The first servants who went forth to invite men to the Gospel-feast were fully convinced that the weapon which they were to use was that ofpersuasion.“Now thenpray youin Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. v. 20). “Knowing the terrors of the Lord wepersuade men” (2 Cor. v. 11).
VI. The publicity and general nature of the invitation.“She crieth upon the highest places of the city.” On this head see Homiletics on chaps.i. 20, 21;viii. 2, 3.
VII. The different characters with whom Wisdom’s servants meet in giving her invitation.They meet with the wise and just man (ver. 9), and with the wicked, who are again classified as thesimple(ver. 4), and thescorners(ver. 7). There is often a great difference in things of the same class and kind. All the fruit upon a tree may be bad, but all may not be equally bad. So among sinners are men of different degrees of sinfulness. There are thesimple—those who are merely heedless of Divine teachings through a culpable ignorance and thoughtlessness, there are men so bad that theyscornall God’s invitations and set at nought His threatenings. This character is held up in Scripture as having reached the climax of iniquity, (See Homiletics on chap.i. 22). The just man (ver. 9), is here synonymous with the wise man. He only is a wise man who has a worthy end which he sets himself to attain, and who uses the best means to attain that end. Hence the good or just man is the only truly wise man. He lays hold of all the means within his reach to increase his godliness, to get power to enable him to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk with God, and thus shows himself to be a member of the kingdom of the good which is the kingdom of the wise. He must be ajustman, one who is upright in all his relations in life, one who will not knowingly leave undone his duty to his fellow-men. A man who is right in his relations towards God will not fail in his relations towards men. Simeon was adevoutman, therefore he was ajustman (Luke ii. 25), so was Cornelius (Acts x. 2, 22). But these wise men are not all equally wise, and none are so wise that theycannot increase in wisdom, and therefore Wisdom sends forth her invitations to all to the wise and just men as well as to the simple and the scorner.
VIII. The opposite effects of the invitation upon opposite characters.The scornerhatesit—the wise menlovesit (ver. 8). When the sun shines upon a diseased eye it produces a sense of discomfort, but the same light falling upon a healthy eye gives a sensation of pleasure. The opposite feelings are the results of opposite conditions. The different receptions which are given to God’s invitations arise from the different spiritual conditions of the men who hear them. The man who “loves darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil” is pained when he receives wisdom’s invitation, because the very invitation condemns him. It is a rebuke to him (verses 7 and 8) for continuing to reject the feast for husks, for preferring to spend “money upon that which is not bread and his labour upon that which satisfieth not.” Hence he who thus reproveth a scorner gets to himself shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot (verse 7). The preacher of the Gospel endures the shame of the cross when he delivers his message to such an one, but it meets with quite an opposite reception from the wise and just. A wise man because he is wise desires more wisdom. Those who know most about a good thing are those who desire to know more, and this desire prevents them from being offended with those who offer to give them more knowledge. Even if Wisdom’s invitation takes the form of arebuke(ver. 8), the wise man, considering that the end of the rebuke is to do him good, loves the ambassador of Wisdom who administers it. When a sick man receives severe treatment from a physician, he accepts it patiently because he bears in mind the end in view, viz., his restoration to health. And this is the light in which all wise men regard Divine reproof, whether it comes directly from Himself in the form of providential dispensations, or through the medium of the lips of one of His servants. The message which is a “savour of death” to the scorner, is a “savour of life” to them.
IX. If the invitation is effectual, there will be a forsaking and a fearing.“Forsake the foolish and live” (verse 6). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (verse 10). A forsaking of the wrong path must go before the entrance into the right one, and a fear that we may go wrong will help to keep us in the right way. A wholesome dread of God’s displeasure will lead a man to repentance, which is but another name for a change in life’s end, and aims, and purposes. A conviction that he has been going in the wrong direction will cause him to lend a willing ear to those who invite him to set out on the right path; and the acceptance of the invitation is the beginning of a life of true wisdom, because it is the beginning of the only safe and satisfying course of life.
X. Whatever reception is given to the invitations of Divine Wisdom, God is above all human approbation.“If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it” (verse 12). The sun will go on shining, whatever men think or say about it. All the approbation of all the world will not add to the glory of the light that rules the day, and if men were to find fault with the manner in which it dispensed its light and heat, it would still hold on its way “rejoicing, as a strong man to run a race.” The children of Wisdom, who accept the Divine invitation, and fall in with God’s way of saving them, do not make God their debtor in any way. He would still be the moral Sun of the universe, if all mankind were to turn a deaf ear to His invitation, and all the praise of all the good in Heaven and earth cannot add one ray to the moral glory of His being. The scorn of the scorner cannot harm the God whose revelation he scorns, any more than a man could injure the wind that blows upon him by beating it. If men disapprove of God’s way of governing the world, or of His conditions of salvation, it cannot harm the DivineBeing in any way. He is above all the approval or disapproval—all the rejection or acceptance of any finite creature. Eliphaz, the Temanite, spoke truly when he said, “Can a man be profitable to God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to Him that thou makest thy ways perfect?” (Job xxii. 2, 3). It therefore follows, as a matter of course, that the Divine plan of redemption has been devised solely out of regard to His creatures; that love is the only motive that prompts Him to multiply invitations and warnings; and that the sufferings which are entailed upon men by their rejection of His provisions spring from nothing selfish or arbitrary in the Divine character.
XI. The acceptance of the Divine invitation is an obedience to the lawful instinct of self-love.Self-love is often confounded with selfishness, but they are widely different. The principle of self-love is recognised as lawful and right throughout the Bible. God commands a man to love his neighbourashe loves himself, thereby laying down the principle that self-love is necessary and right. Our Saviour appeals to this Divinely-implanted instinct when He urges men to save their souls, because of the infiniteprofitwhich they will thereby gain (Mark viii. 36). And the fact that God has made self-love the standard whereby we are to measure our love to others, and that it is urged upon men as a motive by the Divine Son, at once places a great gulf between it and selfishness. Obedience to self-love leads men to obey Wisdom’s invitation and thus to become truly wise themselves. Self-love leads men to desire to make the best of their existence, and no man can do this unless he accepts the call to the feast which Wisdom has prepared. The Hebrew nation thought they could get profit to themselves apart from the acceptance of the Divine proposals. They persuaded themselves that they could do without God’s way of life, and that the feast which He had prepared could be neglected with impunity. But they found when too late they had done themselves an eternal wrong by “making light” of the call of the king’s servants. (See Matt. xxii. 14). But “Wisdom is justified of her children,” and although our Lord likens the men of that generation to children who neither dance to the sound of joyful music nor mourn to strains of lamentation (Luke vii. 31–35), there have always been some who have so regarded their real interest as to be willing guests of the Divine Inviter. Obeying His call they come into possession of a righteous character, the only attainment of real profit which can be gotten out of existence. It is the only end worth living for. The end of a true soldier’s existence is not thekeeping of his bodily life.That with him is quite a secondary consideration. Neither is it hishappiness.These things are nothing to him in comparison with the attainment of a character for bravery and fidelity to his trust. And so with every man in God’s universe. Not ease and comfort, nor fame or high position, butcharacteris that only which will make existence really profitable, which will make it a gain to life. Happiness will, of necessity, follow godliness, but it is not the thing to be aimed at. The attainment of the highest earthly fame, or the amassing of vast riches, will not necessarily make a man a good companion forhimself,and if he is not this, he has failed to draw true profit out of his existence. He may be a wise man according to men’s judgment, but if he has failed to consult his own true self-interest, he is a fool. A position in heaven would be nothing to such a man if he could obtain it. The blessedness of the heavenly world springs from the holy character of those who inhabit it, and this can be obtained only by listening to Wisdom’s voice, and so gaining that “fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy, which is understanding” (ver. 10). “If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself” (ver. 12); in other words—thou thyself shall reap the first and principal benefit.
XII. The consequence of the rejection of Wisdom’s invitation must be borneby him who rejects it.“If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.” If a man refuses to use the power which he possesses to walk, he will, in the course of time, lose the power of using his limbs. The man who will not listen to the promptings of self-love will stifle its voice. But though he may destroy self-love, he cannot destroy himself. That belongs to God alone. Man can make his existence into a terrible burden, can change that which God intended to be a blessing into a curse, and in this sense he can destroy himself—can “lose his soul;” but he must live still, and bear the consequence of his choice. We can burn up the most costly articles and reduce them to black ashes, but no power of man can annihilate a single particle of the ashes. They exist still in some form or another. So men, by scorning God’s invitations, can blacken and spoil the existence which God has given them, but they cannot annihilate themselves. They must live and bear the self-imposed burden.
illustration of verse3.
This may derive some illustration from a custom which Hasselquist noticed in Egypt, and which may seem to be ancient in that country. That it has been scarcely noticed by other travellers may arise from the fact that, although they may have seen the maidens on their way, they had not the means of knowing on what errand they were bound. He says that he saw a great number of women, who went about inviting people to a banquet in a singular, and without doubt, in a very ancient manner. They were about ten or twelve, covered with black veils, as is customary in that country. They were preceded by four eunuchs; after them, and on the side, were Moors, with their usual walking staves. As they were walking, they all joined in making a noise, which, he was told, signified their joy, but which he could not find resembled a joyful or pleasing sound.—Kitto.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 1. “House” among the Hebrews was an image of all well-being (Exod. i. 21). It means shelter. It means nurture. It means repose. It means the centre of all provision. It means the home of all convivial feasts. If Wisdom has built such a shelter for the lost, it means she has furnished for them every possible necessity. An Eastern house depended upon columns that were around a court. Samson put his hand upon such interior supports. If Wisdom “has hewed out her seven pillars,” It means that the provision she has made for the saints is absolutely secure. The very number “seven” betokens a perfect, because a sacred support; and we have but to ask upon what the Gospel rests in its eternal promises and in the righteousness of its Great Head, to settle the question as to these sacred pillars.—Miller.
The Holy Spirit—having described in the foregoing chapter the office and work of Christ, as Creator, in the world of nature—now proceeds to describe His office and work in the world of grace. Solomon, the son of David, and the builder of the holy house at Jerusalem, here describes the operation of His own Divine Antitype, the Essential Wisdom, in building His house. The Son of God, having existed from eternity with the Father, in the fulness of time became Incarnate, building for Himself a mystical body—the Church universal. . . . Wisdom’s seven pillars represent the perfection and universality of Christ’s work in both respects.—Wordsworth.
Pillars, and polished pillars. Anything is good enough to build a mud wall; but the church’s pillars are of marble, and those not rough but hewn; her safety is accompanied with beauty.—Trapp.
If Wisdom dwell anywhere, herself must build the house; if she set up the pillars, herself must hew them. Nothing can be meet to entertain her which is not her own work. Nothing can be fit for God’s residence, which isnot made fit by God’s influence.—Jermin.
In the preceding chapter, Wisdom represented herself as manifest in all the works of God in the natural world; all being constructed according to the counsels of an infinite understanding.Here,she represents herself as the greatpotentate,who was to rule all that she had constructed; and having an immensefamilyto provide for, had made an abundant provision, and calls all to partake of it.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 2. “She hath mingled her wine,” viz., with spices and other exhilarating ingredients, as was the custom in the East (Cant. viii. 2). Notwith waterwhich is the emblem of degeneracy. The wine mingled with aromatic spices is the exhilarating joy and comforts of the gospel (Isa. lv. 1, Matt. xxvi. 29).—Fausset.
Does Christ give us His own flesh and blood, to nourish and refresh our souls? what grace, what comfort, what privilege will He withhold? He is most willing to communicate this provision to us.—Lawson.
God’s favour and grace is always ready to be found when it is faithfully sought. Our faith can never make Him tardy in desiring that at the present which He cannot give till hereafter, or in being beforehand to demand that which His ability is behindhand to perform. The messengers say not in the Gospel, Be there at such a time, and in the meanwhile things shall be prepared, or, Go with me now, and dinner will be ready anon; but Come, for all things are now ready.—Dod.
Christ provideth for His the best of the best; “fat things full of marrow, wines on the lees” (Isa. xxv. 6); His own blood, which is drink indeed; besides that continual feast of a good conscience, whereat the holy angels saith Luther, are as cooks and butlers, and the blessed Trinity joyful guests. Mr. Latimer says that the assurance of salvation is the sweetmeats of this stately feast.—Trapp.
Without asking what the flesh and wine especially mean, they are figures of the manifold enjoyment which makes at oncestrongandhappy.—Delitzsch.
Verse 3. “Her maidens.” Sermons and providential strokes, the whole heraldry of the doctrine of salvation.—Miller.
Wisdom being personified as a feminine word, fitly has maidens as her ministers here. May there not also be an intimation (as Gregory and Bede suggest) of the naturalfeeblenessof the Apostles and other ministers of the Gospel who have their treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. iv. 7), and also of the tenderlovewhich the preachers of the Gospel must feel for the souls of those to whom they are sent? . . . The great Apostle of the Gentiles speaks of himself spiritually as anurseand amother.—Wordsworth.
She, together with her maids, crieth; she puts not off all the business to them, but hath a hand in it herself. “We are workers together with God,” saith Paul.—Trapp.
Verse 4. Ignorance is not a cause that should stay men from hearing the Word of God, but rather incite them to it. Their necessity doth require it, for who hath more need of eye-salve than they whose eyes are sore? And who have more need of guides than they who have lost their sight and are become blind? And especially when the way is difficult and full of danger.—Dod.
Verse 5. Not for the first time, in John vi., or on the night of the Last Supper, had bread and wine been made the symbols of fellowship with eternal life and truth.—Plumptre.
Indeed, tocomeand toeat;to come to Wisdom by attention is to eat of her instructions by receiving it into the soul.—Jermin.
The invitation isfree.So it is throughout the Bible. The blessings of salvation are the gift of God. They are offered to sinners with the freeness of Divine munificence. Not onlymaythey be had without a price, but if they are to be had at all itmustbewithout a price. This is one of their special peculiarities. In treating with our fellow-men in the communication of good, we make distinctions. From some, who can afford it, we take an equivalent; from others, who cannot, we take none. Wesellto the rich, wegiveto the poor. In the present case there is no distinction. All are poor. All are alike poor; and he who presumes to bring what he imagines a price, of whatever kind, forfeits the blessings, and is “sent empty away.” The invitation, too, isuniversal;for all men, in regard to divine and spiritual things, are naturally inconsiderate and foolish, negligent and improvident of their best and highest interests. And it isearnest, repeated, importunate.Is not this wonderful? Ought not the earnestness and the importunity to be all on the other side? Should not we find men entreating God to bestow the blessings, not God entreating men to accept them?Wonderful?“No,” we may answer in the terms of the Negro woman to the missionary when he put the question, “Is this not wonderful?” “No, Massa, it bejust like Him.” It is in the true style of infinite benevolence. But is it not wonderful that sinners should refuse the invitation? It is not in one view, and it is in another. It isnot,when we consider their depravity and alienation from God. Itis,when we think of their natural desire for happiness, and the manifest impossibility of the object of their desire being ever found, otherwise than by their acceptance of them.—Wardlaw.
Verse 7. The reproof given is duty discharged, and the retort in return is a fresh call to repentance for sin past, and a caution against sin to come.—Flavel.
Here caution is given how we tender reprehension to arrogant and scornful natures, whose manner it is to esteem it for contumely, and accordingly to return it.—Lord Bacon.
The three verses, 7–9, in their general preceptive form, seem somewhat to interrupt the continuity of the invitation which Wisdom utters. The order of thought is, however, this: “I speak to you, the simple, the open ones, for you have yet ears to hear; but from the scorner or evil-doer of such, I turn away.” The rules which govern human teachers, leading them to choose willing or fit disciples, are the laws also of the Divine Educator. So taken, the words are parallel to Matt. vii. 2, and find an illustration in the difference between our Lord’s teaching to His disciples and to them that were without.—Plumptre.
The passage is telling the consequences to the poor hardened man (seeCritical Notes). Man is not like a thermometer, raised or sunken by every breath, but he is the subject of a change which makes a difference in moral influences. Without that change, instruction hardens him. With that change, it moves him and makes him better. Without the change the thermometer is always sinking; with the change it is rising all the time. This teaching is had in all forms in the New Testament. John says, “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you” (1 John ii. 12); his plain implication being, that it would be useless to write except for the grace of forgiveness. We hear of a “savour of death unto death” (2 Cor. ii. 16); and Christ tells (John xv. 24) that “if He had not come among them, and done the works that none other man did, they had not had sin.”—Miller.
Verse 8. By which I do not understand that we are forbidden to preach to the impenitent, but that we are to contemplate two facts: first, that unless they are changed our preaching will make them worse, and, therefore, second, that though our preaching is a chosen instrument of the change itself, yet, if they arescorners—i.e.if they are what our Saviour calls “swine” (Matt. vii. 6), and He means by that, specially incorrigible—we are not to scatter our pearls to them. We are not to intrude religion upon scoffers.We are to withhold the good seed to some extent (yet with infinite compassion for all,) for what may more reasonably be hoped to be the good and honest ground (Mark iv. 8).—Miller.
We must distinguish between the ignorant and the wilful scorner. Paul “did it ignorantly, in unbelief” (1 Tim. i. 13). His countrymen deliberately refused the blessing, and shut themselves out from the free offers of salvation.—Bridges.
Verse 9.Instruction may be given with advantage to the wise.(1) No truly wise man will account it impossible to make accessions to his wisdom. Such a man is not wise in his own conceit (Rom. xii. 16). His entrance into this course is of too recent a date, and the efforts which he has made to gain wisdom too defective, to permit him to think his wisdom incapable of augmentation (John viii. 2). And (2) every wise man, whatever be the nature of his wisdom, will wish it to be increased as much as possible (Prov. xviii. 15). Hence (3), whatever instruction is given to him which is adapted to his character and circumstances, that is, which shows wherein he is defective, either in the end which he is pursuing, or in the manner of his pursuit, no matter by whom the instruction is given, he will account himself happy in having it, and will be the better for it.—Sketches of Sermons.
Verse 10. Men cannot begin to be wise except in holiness; unless it begins to be the fact that God is teaching a man, you cannot teach him.—Miller.
The heart that is touched with the loadstone of Divine love trembles still with godly fear.—Leighton.
This “knowledge of the holy” is the knowledge of all that is involved inhallowing God’s name;knowing experimentally all that tends to our sanctifying the Lord in our hearts and in life.—Fausset.
Some of the true wisdom is a nucleus, round which more will gather. A little island once formed in the bed of a great river, tends continually to increase. Everything adds to its bulk. The floods of winter deposit soil on it. The sun of summer covers it with herbage and consolidates its surface. Such is wisdom from above once settled in a soul. It makes all things work together for good to its possessor.—Arnot.
Verse 12. As we are not aware that the mass of the impenitent actually scoff at religion, we must look at this word, so often selected by Solomon, as meaning that practical scorn, by which men, who profess to respect the Gospel, show it the practical contempt of their worldliness.—Miller.
The principle involved in the parable of the talents (Matt. xxv.) is embodied in the first intimation. The talents are in the first instance not won by the servant, but given by the master. So wisdom is specifically the gift of God (James i. 5). Those servants who use the talents well, are permitted to retain for their own use both the original capital and all the profit that has sprung from it; whereas he who made no profit is not allowed to retain the capital. Thus the Giver acts in regard to the wisdom which it is His own to bestow. The wisdom, with all the benefit it brings, is your own. Every instance of wise acting is an accumulation made sure for your own benefit. It cannot be lost. It is like water to the earth. The drop of water that trembled on the green leaf, and glittered in the morning sun, seems to be lost when it glitters in the air unseen; but it is all in safe keeping. It is held in trust by the faithful atmosphere, and will distil as dew upon the ground again, when and where it is needed most. Thus will every exercise of wisdom, though fools think it is thrown away, return into your own bosom, when the day of need comes round. Equally sure is the law that the evil which you do survives and comes back upon yourself. The profane word, the impure thought, the unjust transaction, they are gone like thewind that whistled past, and you seem to have nothing more to do with them. Nay, but they have more do with you. Nothing is lost out of God’s world, physical or moral. When a piece of paper is consumed in the fire and vanishes in smoke, it seems to have returned to nothing. If it bore the only evidence of your guilt, you would be glad to see the last corner disappear before the officers of justice came in. All the world cannot restore that paper and read the dreaded lines again. The criminal breathes freely now no human tribunal can bring home his crime. But as the material of the paper remains undiminished in the mundane system, so the guilt which it recorded abides, held in solution, as it were, by the moral atmosphere which encircles the judgment-seat of God. Uniting with all of kindred essence that has been generated in your soul, it will be precipitated by a law, and when it falls, it will not miss the mark. Thou alone shalt bear it. Those who have not found refuge in the Sin-bearer must bear their own sin. Sins, like water, are not annihilated, although they go out of our sight. They fall with all their weight either on the sin-doer or on the Almighty Substitute. Alas for the man who is “alone” when the reckoning comes.—Arnot.
A man’s self is not that which he is for a short time and space, but that which he is for continuance, indeed for an endless continuance. And therefore that which we are in this life is not ourselves, but that which we shall be, that is ourselves. So that whosoever is wise for that time is wise for himself, and for that time we shall be wise if we be made so by the instruction of Eternal Wisdom.—Jermin.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses13–18.
The Feast of Folly.
That which strikes one upon reading this description is the analogy and the contrast which it presents to the feast of Wisdom.I. Its analogies.1.Both appeal to elements in the nature of man.Man is a compound, a complex being. He possesses a moral nature, a conscience, which can be satisfied only with moral truth and goodness, to which Wisdom appeals with her wine and bread of God’s revelation, and whose cravings they alone are able to appease. And he has sinful inclinations and passions which hanker after forbidden things, to which Folly appeals when she sets forth the attractions of her “stolen waters” and her “bread eaten in secret” (verse 17). God’s wisdom and love are shown in appealing to the first, and Satan’s cunning and malice are manifested in the adaptation of his appeal to the second. 2.Both invite the same kind of character,viz., the “simple,” the inexperienced, those who have not tasted the sweets of godly living, yet “know not” from experience that the “dead” are in the house of Folly, that “her guests are in the depths of hell” (verse 18). Two potters may be desirous of possessing the same lump of clay in order to fashion it each one after his own desire. It is now a shapeless mass, but they know its yielding and pliable nature renders it capable of assuming any form, of taking any impress, which they may please to impart to it. The inexperienced in the experimental knowledge of good and evil are very much like potter’s clay; and here Wisdom and Folly, God and the devil, holiness and sin, stand side by side bidding for the clay, the one desiring to fashion out of it a “vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use” (2 Tim. ii. 21), and the other anxious to make it a “vessel of wrath fitted to destruction” (Rom. ix. 22). 3.Both invite to the feasts through those who possess powers of persuasion.Though in the first Wisdom herself does not go forth, but sends her maidens,and in the second the woman herself goes out into the streets, yet they both belong to the sex which is, by common consent, allowed to be most skilled in the art of persuasion. History is full of instances of their power to influence for good and evil. There have been many Lady Macbeths, both in public and private life, and many “handmaidens of the Lord” whose influence has been as mighty on the side of good. Both Wisdom and Folly possess ambassadors whose persuasive powers are mighty. 4.They utter their invitations in the same places.Wisdom “crieth upon the high places of the city” (ver. 3). Folly “sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city” (ver. 14). They both give invitations where they are most likely to obtain guests. In the places where many congregate are found the greatest variety of characters and those who have the most varied wants, and as in such places those who have wares of any kind to sell are sure of finding some to purchase, so the ambassadors of Divine wisdom and the emissaries of evil are certain, where the multitudes are gathered together to find some to listen to their respective voices. 5.Both use the same words of invitation, and offer the same inducements.A feast is promised in both cases,i.e.,both inviters promise satisfaction—enjoyment—to their guests. If a man coins bad money he must make it look as near as possible like the gold or he would not get anyone to accept it. It is only afterwards that his dupe finds that it lacks the ring of real gold. So the tempter to evil must make the advantages he professes to dispense look as much like real good as he possibly can. The false friend will often-times adopt the phraseology of the true, and will never be wanting in arguments to win his victim. The incarnate wisdom of God reminded His disciples that they might, in this respect and in others, learn something from the “children of this world,” who, in some matters, “are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Luke xvi. 8). 6.Both make the invitation wide and free.“Whoso” is the word used by both. The kingdom of darkness, as well as the kingdom of light, is willing to gather of “every kind” (Matt. xiii. 47). The only condition is “Enter in and partake of the banquet prepared.”
II. The Contrasts.1.In the character of the inviters.In the one case they are “maidens,” emblematical (as we saw in considering the first feast) of purity; in the other she who invites is evidently a bold and wanton woman, identical with the one described in chapters v. and vii. (compare v. 6, vii. 11, 12, with verses 13, 14). Each one who invites is an embodiment of the principles ruling in the house to which she invites; each one sets forth in her own deportment what will be the result of accepting the respective invitations. So that, although the words used may be similar, the simple might be warned from the difference in aspect and demeanour of those who use them. 2.In the place to which the simple are invited.“In the former case,” says Zöckler, “it is to a splendid palace with its columns, to a holy temple of God; in the latter to a common house, a harlot’s abode, built over an entrance to the abyss of hell.” The first invitation is to the abode of a righteous king, where law, and order, and peace reign; the second is to an abode of lawlessness and self-seeking, and consequently of incessant strife and misery. Those who dwell in the first are ever magnifying the favour by which they were permitted to enter; the inhabitants of the latter are eternally cursing those by whose persuasions their feet were turned into the path which leads to death. 3.Wisdom invites to what is her own; Folly invites to that which belongs to another.Wisdom hath killedherbeasts and mingledherwine; she cries, “Come, and eat ofmybread” (verses 2, 5). Folly saith to her victim, “stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (verse 17). The first is therefore a lawful meal: its dainties may be enjoyed with a full sense that there is no wrong done to oneself, or to any other creature in the universe, by participating in it. It may be eaten publicly; there is no reason for concealment—no sense of shame. Butthe guests of Folly are all wronging themselves, and wronging God, and wronging their fellow-men by sitting down at her table. And they feel that it is so even when the waters taste the sweetest, and the bread the most pleasant. Hence their banquet is a secret one, “for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret” (Ephes. v. 12). Hence they “love darkness rather than light;” they “hate the light, lest their deeds should be reproved” (John iii. 20, 21). 4.The contrast in the results.There are poisonous fruits which are pleasant to the taste, but which lead to sickness and death. And there are bitter herbs which are not palatable, but which bring healing to the frame. Some of Wisdom’s dishes are seasoned with reproof and rebuke (verse 8), but the outcome of listening to her call is an increase of wisdom and a lengthening of days and years (verses 9–11). The feast of Folly is sweetened with “flattery” (chap. ii. 16, vii. 21). The lips of the tempter “drop as an honey-comb” (chap. v. 2), but there is a deadly poison in the dish. Eating of her food brings a man down into a devil; the bread and wine of Wisdom nourishes and strengthens him until he becomes “equal unto the angels of God” (Luke xx. 26).
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verses 1–18. The prototypical relation of the contents of this chapter to our Lord’s parables founded on banquets (Matt. xxii. 1–14, Luke xiv. 16–24) is evident, and therefore its special importance to the doctrines of the call of salvation.—Lange’s Commentary.
Verse 13. “Clamorous,” that is, so bustling as to allow no time for repentance (see 5, 6), like Cardinal Mazarin, of whom it was said that the devil would never let him rest. The sinner is so hurried along in the changes of life, as apparently to unsettle any attempted reformation. “Knows nothing;” an expression grandly doctrinal. The impenitent is blankly dark. Eccles. vi. 5 represents the perishing as like an untimely birth. “He hath not seen the sun, nor known anything.” “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. ii. 14). “Where can Wisdom be found?“ says the inspired man (Job xxviii. 14–22). “The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me.” The woman of folly is blankly ignorant; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and if she had not the beginning, then mental light, if she have any, must be but as “darkness” (Matt. vi. 23).—Miller.
A foolish woman is clamorous, and hath many words, but they are words only, for she knoweth nothing; the folly of sin is clamorous, and maketh many promises of pleasure and contentment, but they are promises only, and she performeth nothing.—Jermin.
Verse 15. Her chief aim is to secure the godly, or those inclined to become so; for she is secure as to others, and therefore takes no great trouble in their case.—Fausset.
Even the highway of God, though a path of safety, is beset with temptation Satan is so angry with none as with thosewho are going right on.—Bridges.
Verse 16. Wisdom sets up her school to instruct the ignorant: Folly sets up her school next door to defeat the designs of Wisdom. Thus the saying of the satirist appears to be verified:—
“Wherever God erects a house of prayer,The devil surely builds a chapel there;And it is found, upon examination,The latter has the larger congregation.”—Defoe.
—Adam Clark.
Folly does not invite the scorners,because she is secure of them, but only the “simple,”i.e.,those who are such in the judgment of the Holy Spirit. Scripture expresses not what she says in outward words, but what is the reality. Whosoever turns in to her is a simpleton.Cartwrighttakes it that she calls the pious “simple.” Verse 15 favours this.—Fausset.
Verse 17. Folly shows her skill in seduction by holding out, in promise, the secret enjoyment of forbidden sweets. Alas! since the entrance of sin into the world, there has been perverse propensity to aught that is forbidden, to taste what is laid under an interdict. The very interdiction draws towards it the wistful desires, and looks, and longings of the perverse and rebellious heart.—Wardlaw.
The power of sin lies in its pleasure. If stolen waters were not sweet, none would steal the waters. This is part of the mystery in which our being is involved by the fall. It is one of the most fearful features of the case. Our appetite is diseased. . . . Oh, for the new tastes of a new nature! “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.” When a soul has tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, the foolish woman beckons you toward her stolen waters, and praises their sweetness in vain. The new appetite drives out the old.—Arnot.
Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell.—Trapp.
Indirect ways best please flesh and blood. “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence” (Rom. vii. 8). We take this from our first parents, a greedy desire to eat of the forbidden fruit. All the other trees in the garden, although the fruit were as good, would not satisfy them. . . . Such is the corruption of our nature, that we like best what God likes worst.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 18. Of course “he knows not.” If the sinner only knew that he were already dead, he might wake up with a bound to the work of his salvation.—Miller.
All sinful joys are dammed up with abut.They have a worm that crops them, nay, gnaws asunder their very root, though they shoot up more hastily and spread more spaciously than Jonah’s gourd. . . . When all the prophecies of ill success have been held as Cassandra’s riddles, when all the contrary minds of afflictions, all the threatened storms of God’s wrath could not dishearten the sinner’s voyage to these Netherlands, here is abutthat shipwrecks all; the very mouth of a bottomless pit, not shallower than hell itself. . . . As man hath hissic,so God hath Hissed.—T. Adams.
We here enter upon the second main division of the Book of Proverbs, which is composed of a number of distinct propositions or maxims, having but little connection with each other and answering to the modern signification of the word proverb. Wordsworth here remarks that “the Proverbs of the present chapter are exemplifications in detail of the principles, practices, and results of the two ways of life displayed in the foregoing chapters which constitute the prologue.”
Critical Notes.—1. Heaviness,“grief.”3. The soul of the righteous,literally, “the spirit of the righteous.”But He casteth away, etc.Zöckler and Delitzsch have read, “but the craving of the wicked He disappointeth.” Miller thus translates the whole verse: “Jehovah will not starve the righteous appetite, but the craving of the wicked He will thrust away.”4. Dealeth,rather, “worketh.”6.Zöckler and most commentators translate the second clause of this verse, “the mouth of the wicked hideth or covereth violence or iniquity.” Stuart reads, “the mouth of the wicked concealeth injury.” Miller adheres nearly to the Authorised Version, and understands it to mean that “wrong shuts up all chance of feast and comfort.” It will be observed, that this latter reading renders the clause antithetical to the former part of the verse, which is not the case with the other renderings.9. Be known,i.e.,“be made known,” or discovered.11.For second clause, see on verse 6.14. Lay up,literally, “conceal,”i.e.,“husband the knowledge and understanding which they possess for the right time and place, do not squander it in unreasonable talk or babbling” (Zöckler).Near destruction,rather,is anear destruction,i.e.,“is a quickly destroying agency” (Lange’s Commentary).16. Labour,i.e.,“the gain,” “the reward of labour.”Fruit,“gain,” antithetical to the subject of the first clause.17.Not,He is in the way,but “Heisthe way.”Erreth,causeth others to err.18.Not,with lying lips,but “is of lying lips.” “The meaning of this second clause does not stand in the relation of an antithesis to the preceding, but in that of a climax, adding a worse case to one not so bad. If one conceals his hatred within himself, he becomes a malignant flatterer; but if he gives expression to it in slander, abuse, and base detraction, then, as a genuine fool, he brings upon himself the greatest injury” (Zöckler).22.Delitzsch and Zöckler read the second clause, “and labour addeth nothing thereto,”i.e.,“God’s blessing is in itself all in all, and makes right without any effort.” Stuart and Miller translate as the Authorised Version, and the former understands it to signify that “sorrow shall not necessarily increase by riches when it is Jehovah Himself who bestows them.”25.“Whenthe whirlwind passeth, the wicked is no more.”29.“Jehovah’s way is a fortress to the upright, butit is destructionto the workers of iniquity.”31. Cut out,“rooted out.”
main homiletics of verse1.
Parental Grief and Gladness.
The generalisation of the first nine chapters here descends into particular applications. The chemist dilates upon the power and excellence of certain elements, and then illustrates what he has affirmed by showing their action in particular cases. Solomon has dwelt long upon the general blessings which will flow from listening to the counsels of Divine Wisdom, and he now shows some particular instances of it. He begins with its effect in the family. Consider—
I. How the author here speaks from personal experience.1.In his relation to his father.Men in positions of far less importance than that which David held are solicitous that their sons should possess such a character and such mental qualifications as will enable them to fulfil the duties which they will bequeath to them at their own departure from the world. The owner of a large estate, if he has a right sense of his own responsibilities, desires that his heir should be one who will exercise his stewardship wisely and generously. The head of a mercantile firm hopes that the son who is to succeed to his position will be prudent and far-seeing, and possess an aptitude for business. If a monarch is what he ought to be, and feels how very great is his power for good or evil, it will be a matter of the deepest anxiety to him that the son who is one day to sit upon the throne should be one who will discharge his weighty duties wisely and well. David was such a monarch, and we can well imagine how great was his solicitude that his well-beloved son Solomon should possess such gifts and graces as would enable him worthily to fulfil the high position he would one day be called to occupy. And, from what we know of Solomon’s youth and early manhood, we have every reason to believe that he was such a son as gladdened his father’s heart. In the wonderful seventy-second Psalm—which, although it has its entire fulfilment only in the “greater than Solomon,” refers, doubtless, in the first instance, to the great king—we have a glimpse of David’s desires and hopes concerning him. He begins with a prayer for him: “Give the king Thy judgments, O God, and Thy righteousness unto the king’s son” (verse 1). And then he gives utterance to the hopes which he cherished concerning his prosperous and beneficent reign—hopes which, alas! would havebeen sadly dimmed could he have foreseen the cloud which overshadowed Solomon’s later days, but which were founded in the evidences which he gave of youthful piety and devotion. Solomon knew that he had been the gladness of his father’s heart, because he had been a “wise son,” and therefore he spoke from experience when he uttered the first clause of this proverb. But he spoke no less from experience when he gave utterance to the opposite truth. Solomon was a father as well as a son, and he speaks 2.In his relation to his son.Rehoboam’s youth and manhood—for he was a man long before his father’s death—were not, we may fairly conclude, of such a character as to give his father much joy, but was such as to awaken the gravest fears concerning his conduct when he should become absolute master of the kingdom. We well know how these fears were justified by his conduct on his accession to the throne. The great crime of David’s life had been committed before Solomon’s birth, and had, therefore, had no bad influence upon him, but the sins of his own old age were a bad example to set before his son, and could not have been without their evil influence. From what we read of Rehoboam, we can but conclude that he had been a “foolish” son, and that Solomon’s heart was heavy with sadness concerning him when he penned these words. These thoughts suggest a lesson which parents should deeply ponder, viz.,that whether parents shall have gladness or grief in their children depends not so much upon the excellence of their words as upon the godliness of their lives.Solomon uttered thousands of moral precepts, but had he uttered as many more, they would not have had much effect upon Rehoboam. What his son needed more than wise sayings was the power of a godly life. This must ever accompany moral teaching: nay, it must go before it, for a child can receive impressions from a holy example before it is old enough to appreciate abstract teaching. A parent’s wisesayingswill never do a child any good unless there are correspondentdoings. A good example is the best education. Consider—
II. How very much our joy and sorrow in this world depend upon our relationships.In proportion as the wise are related to the foolish or to the wise, will be their grief or their gladness. Distant relationships are not very effective in this way, but near relationships are powerful in proportion to their nearness. And the relation of parent to child is in some respects nearer than any other—nearer, perhaps, even than that of husband and wife. Our children are a part of ourselves, and what they are makes or mars our lives. How much does that little pronoun “my” carry with it! To hear thatanyyoung man has disgraced his manhood and thrown away his opportunities is an occasion of sadness to us. This is increased if he is the son of anyone we have known and loved. But if good parents have to reflect that “my” son has become a reprobate, how bitter is their sorrow. But when the folly is not so great as this there may still be much “heaviness” in a parent’s heart. “Wise” and “foolish” are relative terms. A good father’s joy is proportionate to his son’s goodness, for we understand wisdom and folly here to stand for the wisdom of goodness and the folly of sin, and a very little amount of wickedness will make a good mother’s heart heavy.Let children then learn from this text to reflect how much power to give joy or sorrow rests with them, and to act accordingly;andlet parents, considering how entirely their future happiness or misery will depend upon the character of their children, begin to train them, both by example and precept, from their tenderest years.(On this subject see also Homiletics on chap.iv. 1–4.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
The future may be imperative. We prefer this view. “Leta wise son make a glad father.” If a man has a good son, let it be his one all-sufficient gratification. . . . Men toil for their children, and give themselves pain in their behalf to an extent absolutely heroic, considering how they abnegate self, but to an extent altogether disproportioned, as between their temporal and eternal warfare. This is one way we destroy our children. If their temporal inheritance is threatened, we are all on thorns; but if they are doing well or ill in piety, we give it but little notice. The verb, therefore, as an imperative, means most. “Leta foolish son be the grief of his mother,” that is, an unconverted son. He may be all smiles and amiableness, and the father’s business may be doing well, but if he is a fool, spiritually, it should be his mother’s grief. And then follow the reasons—(For) “treasures of wickedness profit nothing,” etc.—Miller.
Perhaps this first sentence may have been placed in the front to point to the value of a godly education in the personal, social, national influence, connected both with time and eternity.—Bridges.
The father is specially said to be gladdened by a wise son as he is of a more severe nature, and not so likely to form a partial estimate, and therefore not so easily gladdened as the mother; so that it is the stronger praise of the wise son to say that not only the mother, but also the father, is gladdened by him. On the other hand, the mother is apt, through fondness, to ignore the errors of her son, and even to encourage them by indulgent connivance. The wise man admonishes here that she is laying up “heaviness” in store for herself.—Fausset.
After the previous general description of Wisdom, Solomon begins with what is uppermost in his own mind, What would be the character of his successor? What would become of his throne, his wealth, his people, after himself? See his melancholy forebodings in Proverbs xvii. 2–21, 25; xix. 13; Eccles. ii. 18, etc. Solomon has one son, and he is Rehoboam. This thought lies underneath many of the sayings in the Proverbs.—Wordsworth.
Every son should be an Abner, that is, his father’s light, and every daughter an Abigail, her father’s joy. Eve promised herself much in her Cain, and David did the like in his Absalom. But they were both deceived. Samuel succeeds Eli in his cross, though not in his sin. Virtue is not, as lands, inheritable. Let parents labour to mend by education what they have marred by propagation.—Trapp.
Do you hear this, young man? It is in your power to make your father glad, and God expects you to do it. Here is an object for your ambition, here is an investment that will ensure an immediate return. Come now, make your choice. Whether you will try to please these fools who banter you here, or to gladden your father’s heart that is yearning for you there? . . . These companions that come between you and him—what have they done for you, and what would they do for you to-morrow, if you were in distress? They have never lost a night’s rest by watching at your sick bed, and never will. But your father what has he done, and yet will do? The command of God is that you gladden your father and not grieve him. Your conscience countersigns that command now. Obey.—Arnot.
main homiletics of verse2.
The Comparative Value of Righteousness and Riches.
I. Wealth when lawfully gotten is profitless for many very important things.Death is mentioned in the text, it has no power over that in any form.1.Wealth will not deliver you from the daily dying, which is the lot of all men.It has been said that as soon as we are born we begin to die, and we know that it is certain that as soon as men have attained their prime, their outward man perisheth day by day (2 Cor. iv. 16). The richest man cannot purchase exception from this law with all his wealth. 2.Neither can wealth prevent the death which we call premature.Man of vast fortunes are often brought down to an early grave; the seeds of disease within them hasten the operation of the law of death which has passed upon the whole human race. A galloping consumption cannot be held in check even withgoldenreins. 3.Treasures of wealth will not insure a man against sudden death.The morning finds the rich man looking over his vast acres, or counting up his dividends, and saying “I have much good laid up for many years;” and before the sun sets another has entered into possession of all his riches. 4.Lawfully-gotten wealth will not only not deliver from premature death, but may sometimes bring it on.Wealth is very apt to produce very mistaken views in a man’s mind. When he has amassed a large portion of this world’s goods, and is in a condition of moral bankruptcy, he is very prone to imagine that he is secure in the enjoyment of all that he has acquired, and that nothing can come between his riches and himself. Then God may read him a lesson by saying, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luke xii. 20). Had the man in the parable been a poor man he would not have died so soon; his wealth not only could not deliver him from death, but it hastened his end. And many men walking in his footsteps have been brought to their graves in a similar manner and for a similar reason even when the wealth has been honestly gained. We have no reason to think that the rich fool amassed his riches dishonestly; his sin consisted, not in hishavingriches, but in histrustingin them.
II. If treasure gotten by honest toil is profitless to deliver from death and other evils, how much less will the “treasures of wickedness,” i.e., ill-gotten wealth, be profitable to work such a deliverance.The means used to obtain it were opposed to the law of righteousness, which does rule in the universe notwithstanding all the apparent exceptions, and it is as foolish for a man to expect to derive real profit from it as it would be for a man to expect to construct a pyramid which would stand upon its apex. The latter would not be more contrary to natural law than the former is to spiritual law. And treasures of wickedness are not simplyprofitless,they bring the man who has them under the curse of the Righteous Ruler of the world. They not only bring noprofitbut they bring greatloss.No man can make an unlawful bargain or commit any other dishonest act to gain money without bringing a blight upon his spiritual nature, without entailing upon himself moral death. And if the acquirement of “the treasures of wickedness” must subject a man to this greatest calamity, how impossible is it that they can be profitable to deliver from any lesser evil.
III. Righteousness, on the other hand—1.Has often delivered from bodily death.All the extraordinary deliverances from death recorded in the Bible took place in connection with righteousness, thereby showing us that righteousness is stronger than death. Enoch did not see death because he was a righteous man. Noah and his family were exempted from the premature death which overtook the rest of the world for the same reason. All the resurrections from the dead were wrought either through the instrumentality of righteous men or by the immediate action of the righteous Son of God. 2.Does deliver always from the curse of bodily death.Death is the penalty of sin; it is therefore a curse. We read that “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. xv. 56). But “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal. iii. 13). We are justified by His righteousness if we appropriate it by faith (Rom. iii. 21–26), and thus obtainthe “victory” over death “through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. xv. 57). Here arelativerighteousness delivers from thecondemnationof death. But this is the foundation of apersonalandactualrighteousness of character which delivers fromspiritual death now, and will one day deliver thebodyfrom the grave. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. viii. 10, 11). Here Paul argues from the greater spiritual deliverance to the lesser bodily one, and shows how, in all senses, “righteousness delivers from death.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
The proverb means the treasures of an unsaved man. . . . The highest opulence of the dead sinner is of no possible profit: but the righteousness of the saved sinner, even without any opulence at all, is a fortune; for, like the “charm of the lamp,” it makes for him everlasting blessedness.—Miller.
A man may seem toprofitby them, and to come up wonderfully for a time. But what was the profit of Naboth’s vineyard to Ahab, when in his ivory palace he was withering under the curse of God? (1 Kings xxi. 4–24 with xxii. 39). What was the profit of the thirty pieces of silver to Judas? Instead ofdelivering from death,their intolerable sting plunged him into death eternal (Matt. xxvii. 5).—Bridges.
Righteousness delivereth from death, to wit, in the time of vengeance; for uprightness is that mark of election and life which the Lord, spying in any when He plagueth the wicked for their transgressions, spareth them, and preserveth them from destruction. Thus, although the righteousness of the just person deserveth nothing at God’s hands, neither is any cause of man’s preservation or salvation, yet it serveth as a sovereign treacle to preserve the evil-doer from that deadly plague, which is sent from the Lord to destroy the disobedient, and as a letter of passport to safe-conduct the faithful person in perilous times, and to protect him from all dangers.—Muffet.
Observe—I. The excellency of these comforts in themselves.They aretreasures—that is, heaps of outward good things. The word includeth amultitude,for one or two will not make a treasure; and amultitude of precious things,for a heap of sand, or coals, or dust, is not a treasure: but of silver or gold, or some excellent earthly things. It is here in the plural, treasures, noting the greatest confluence of worldly comforts.II. The impiety of the owners.They are treasures of wickedness. The purchaser got them by sinful practices. They were brought into his house slyly at some back door. He was both the receiver and the thief. Treasures of wickedness, because gotten by wicked ways, and employed to wicked ends. There is an English proverb which too many Englishmen have made good, “That which is got over the devil’s back is usually spent under the devil’s belly.” When sin is the parent that begets riches it many times hath this recompense, that they are wholly at its service and command.III. The vanity of those treasures:they profit nothing. They are unable to cheer the mind, to cure the diseases of the body, much less to heal the wounds of the soul, or to bribe the flames of hell. Alas! they are so far from profiting, that they are infinitely prejudicial. Such powder-masters are blown up with their own ware. These loads sink the bearer into the unquenchable lake. Aristotle tells us of the sea-mew, or sea-eagle, that she will often seize on her prey, though it be more than she can bear, and falleth down headlong with it into the deep, and so perisheth. This fowl is a fit emblem of the unrighteousperson, for he graspeth those heavy possessions which press him down into the pit of perdition. “They that will be rich (that resolve on it, whether God will or no, and by any means, whether right or wrong), fall into temptations, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” (1 Tim. vi. 9). Men that scrape an estate together unjustly are frequently said in the Word of God to get it in haste, because such will not stay God’s time, nor wait in His way till He send them wealth, but must have it presently, and care not though it be unrighteously. Fair and softly goes far. None thrive so well as those that stay God’s leisure, and expect wealth in His way. . . . 1.Be righteous in thy works or actions.Deal with men as one that in all hath to do with God. If thou art a Christian, thou art a law to thyself; thou hast not only a law without thee (the Word of God), but a law within thee, and so darest not transgress. Thy double hedge may well prevent thy wandering. . . . Be righteous in buying. . . . Take heed lest thou layest out thy money to purchase endless misery. Some have bought places to bury their bodies in, but more have bought those commodities which have swallowed up their souls. Injustice in buying is a canker which will eat up and waste the most durable wares. In buying, do not work either upon the ignorance or the poverty of the seller. Be righteous in selling. Be careful, while thou sellest thy wares to men, that thou dost not sell thy soul to Satan. Be righteous in thesubstanceof what thou sellest, and that in regard of its quality and quantity. God can see the rottenness of thy stuffs, and heart too, under thy false glosses, and for all thy false lights. Be righteous in regard to the quantity. They wrong themselves most who wrong others of their right. The jealous God is very punctual in this particular (Lev. xix. 35, 36). 2.Be righteous in thy words and expressions, as well as in thy works.The Christian’s tongue should be his heart’s interpreter, and reveal its mind and meaning; and the Christian’s hand should justify his tongue, by turning his words into deeds. The burgess of the New Jerusalem is known by this livery: “He walketh uprightly, worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart; he sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not” (Psa. xv. 2, 4). His speech is the natural and genuine offspring of his heart; there is a great resemblance between the child and the parent. There is a symmetry between his hand and his tongue; he is slow to promise, not hasty to enter into bonds, but being once engaged, he will be sure to perform.—Swinnock.
Wickedness is in itself a treasure laid up against the day of wrath; and as that profiteth nothing, so neither do the treasures of wickedness. For as he that setteth himself to any employment, perhaps may lose one way and get another, but if, in the general upshot and confusion, he finds his estate to be bettered, then is his employment said to be profitable; so in the treasures of wickedness, there may be gain of wealth, honour, pleasure, and loss of credit, quiet, comfort, but in the conclusion the loss will be most grievous, and therefore profitable they cannot be.—Jermin.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses3, 4.
Divine and Human Providence.
I. A general rule. God supplies all the needs of His children(verse 3). We take the word soul here to mean what it often does in the Old Testament, viz., thebodily life,and, therefore, understand the promise to be similar to that in Psalm xxxiii. 19, etc. God’s special providential care is over the righteous.This we should have expected if this and like promises did not exist. The animal creation, as a rule, care and provide for their own offspring. There are men and women who have fallen so low as not to care for the well-being of those dependent on them, but wherever there is any virtue left in human beings it will certainly manifest itself in making some efforts to secure from want those who are nearly related to them and dependent upon them. God has laid it as a charge upon His creatures to care for the bodily wants of their children, and He has implanted within men and women an instinct which is generally strong enough to lead them to do it. It is an apostolic sentence—“If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. v. 8). God has taught us that the righteous are bound to Him by a closer tie than we are bound to each other by flesh and blood relationships. “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,” said Christ, “the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt. xii. 50). He was more nearly related to His disciples than to those of His brethren who did not believe on Him. They were Christ’s “own” (John xiii. 1) in a sense in which other men were not, and He provided for their necessities because they held this special relation to Him. God has a general care for all that He has made. He cares for the life of the tiniest wild flower, and feeds it with light and moisture according to its need. “He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry” (Psalm cxlvii. 9). He maketh His sun to shine and His rain to fall upon the fields of the unjust, and is kind to the unthankful and the evil (Luke vi. 35). Then it follows from necessity that He, theRighteous Father,will not suffer the souls of the “righteous” to famish. When ordinary means will not meet their need, He will employ special means to do so. There are many instances upon record in the history of God’s Church in which, the supply not being obtainable within the ordinary working of His providence, He has gone into the region of the supernatural for sustenance for His children.
II. Special exceptions to this rule.If we understand these words as referring to the bodily life, we must admit that there have been exceptions to it. Some of God’s children have suffered from want, some have starved to death in dungeonsbecausethey have been righteous. But these special exceptions have been for special ends. Solomon’s father, when he was haunted by Saul, was doubtless often in want of food, but this severe discipline fitted him for the position he was afterwards to occupy as the King of Israel. Paul tells us that he was often “in hunger and thirst, in fastings, in cold and nakedness” (2 Cor. xi. 27), but he likewise tells us that he “gloried in tribulation,” because it “worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope,” etc. (Rom. v. 3, 4). Whenever there are partial or entire exceptions to this rule, we may rest assured that those who are the subjects of the exceptions have their material loss more than made up to them.
III. Special relationship to God will not secure exception from want unless the necessary conditions are fulfilled.“He,” whether saint or sinner, “becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand” (ver. 4). If a godly man is not diligent in business, he will come to want as certainly as an ungodly one. God’s children are not exempt from the working of the natural and providential laws of the world in which they live. If they transgress any physical law, they must pay the penalty. The disregard of such law is a “tempting of the Lord their God” (Matt. iv. 5–7). And what is true of physical laws is true of providential laws. If a husbandman is ever so prayerful and trustful, he will not have a crop in harvest unless he works hard in the days of ploughing and sowing. And the most spiritually-minded tradesman will not earn a living unless he gives due attention to his business. “God’s promises were never made to ferry our laziness” (Beecher). It is sheer presumption to expect Godto give us our daily bread if we neglect to do all within our power to earn it. Even in Paradise nature would not yield her treasure without diligence on the part of man. Adam was to “till the ground,” to “dress and keep” the Garden of Eden (Gen. ii. 5–15). And this dependence of success upon diligence is—1. Good for the man himself. He has bodily and mental powers which cannot be developed without constant exercise. 2. Good for others. A man who does not bring all his powers into play defrauds society of the benefit it might receive from his latent abilities.
IV. When the conditions of growing rich are fulfilled by unrighteous men, the wealth attained by diligence shall be taken away by justice.Riches and poverty are comparative terms; it is certainly not true that every diligent man makes a fortune; probably Solomon means no more than that diligence always brings some amount of reward. However that may be, we must put the declaration “The hand of the diligent maketh rich” side by side with that in the preceding verse, “He casteth away the substance of the wicked.” The professional thief exercises a diligence which is not surpassed by many honest men, if by any. He deals with no slack hand, and he generally succeeds in getting rich for a time. But if he isdiligent,the detective officer isvigilant,and the substance he has gathered will one day be scattered by the hand of justice. And there are many unprofessional thieves in the world who gain their riches by means quite as unlawful as their professional brethren, although they sail under other colours. Substance thus obtained is as surely marked by God for scattering as that of the housebreaker or highwayman, although He sometimes delays long the apprehension of the culprit. Against all such the sentence has gone forth, “Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown; yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and He shall also blow upon them and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble” (Isa. xl. 24). There are three reasons why wealth, which has been gathered by unrighteous diligence, should be scattered. 1.Such unrighteous dealing is a sin against God.It is a defiance of the eighth and tenth commandments, for all men who get rich unlawfully must both covet and steal. When God’s “thou shalt not” is thus disregarded, we may be certain that He will vindicate His right to give laws to His creatures. 2.It is a sin against man.Such a man’s diligence must have caused much misery to many of his fellow-creatures. Men cannot satisfy lawless desires without bringing unhappiness to others. 3.Wealth unlawfully gained is sure to be made an instrument of oppression.Wealth always gives some amount of power, and he who has trampled on the rights of others to get riches will be sure to use them for their oppression when he has obtained them. Verse 4 may be applied spiritually. If material good cannot be obtained without diligence, most assuredly spiritual blessings cannot (2 Pet. i. 5, 10, etc.). It is as necessary for the spiritual powers to be kept in constant exercise, if they are to be healthy and strong, as it is for the body or the mind. The needs of others as well as our own demand diligence in spiritual things. And whatever exceptions there may be in the rule in relation to material good, this higher wealth will always be in proportion to the diligent use of means.