outlines and suggestive comments.
Moses “feared not the wrath of the king.” Caleb and Joshua stood firm against the current of rebellion. Elijah dared Ahab’s anger to his face. Nehemiah, in a time of peril, exclaimed—“Should such a man as I flee?” The three confessors stood undaunted before the furious autocrat of Babylon. The Apostles’boldnessastonished their enemies. Paul before the Roman governor, and even before Nero himself, witnessed a good confession. Athanasius before the Imperial Council of Heresy; Luther at the Diet of Worms, finely exemplified this lion-like boldness.—Bridges.
Thewickedis a very coward, and is afraid of everything; of God, because He is his enemy; of Satan, because he is his tormentor; of God’s creatures, because they, joining with their Maker, fight against him; of himself, because he bears about with him his own accuser and executioner. The godly man contrarily is afraid of nothing; not of God, because he knows Him his best friend, and will not hurt him; not of Satan, because he cannot hurt him; not of afflictions, because he knows they come from a loving God, and end in his good; not of the creatures, since, “the very stones in the field are in league with Him;” not of himself, since his conscience is at peace.—Bp. Hall.
Conscience within a man is one extremity of an electric wire, whose other extremity is fastened to the judgment-seat. . . . A man may be saved from death by seeing the reflection of his danger in a mirror, when the danger itself could not be directly seen. The executioner, with his weapon, is stealthily approaching through a corridor of the castle to the spot where the devoted invalid reclines. In his musings the captive has turned his vacant eye towards a mirror on the wall, and the faithful witness reveals the impending stroke in time to secure the escape of the victim. It is thus that the mirror in a man’s breast has become in a sense the man’s saviour, by revealing the wrath to come before its coming.—Arnot.
main homiletics of verse2.
The Penalty of Revolt.
As will be seen by a reference to theCritical Notes, the wordtransgressionwould be better translatedrebellion.The proverb then sets forth,
I. The disadvantages attendant on revolt against the existing government.Whether the rebellion be a lawful one or not—whether the ruler that is dethroned be a tyrant or a wise and just monarch, the result is very much the same. There will be many claimants to the vacant place, and many to support the claims of each aspirant. This is an effect which is almost certain to follow any uprooting of the existing order of things, whether the order be good or bad. If the crew of a vessel put their officers in irons, the difficulty will immediately arise as to who is to guide the vessel. If this is not speedily settled, the ship will be in danger of running upon the rocks while she is drifting on without a guide. It is the same with the vessel of the State. Manyjustifiable efforts to better the government of a country have broken down at this point—although there has been entire unity of feeling in favour of a change, there has been a great diversity of opinion as to who should inaugurate it and succeed those who have been deprived of authority. The confusion and insecurity which such a division has caused, has often made way for a return to the old condition of things, and the last state of the land has been worse than the first. But this can hardly be used as an argument against all revolt against existing abuses, but only as a strong incentive to try every other means before resorting to this last extremity.
II. That which makes revolt unnecessary, and consequently conduces to the peace of the commonwealth.Wisdom and prudence on the part of the monarch and his ministers (for the words may be referred to either) will avert such a calamity. That kingdom is highly blest in which the throne is filled with a worthy occupant, and surrounded by men of intellectual ability and moral worth, and therein lies its only real security. For every reasonable man knows that the reins of government must be held by some one, and there is generally a sufficient number of reasonable citizens in a nation to uphold an enlightened administrator of righteous laws, and to keep in check those turbulent spirits to be found everywhere, who, under the name of patriots, only advocate change to serve their own selfish ends.
outlines and suggestive comments.
“Let the children of Zion be joyful intheirKing.” The kingdom to which they belong hasoneKing; and a king whose reign is permanent as well as unparticipated. There are norival powersthere. If the princes of this world, in the plenitude of their presumption, take upon them to intrude themselves within the precincts of His sole jurisdiction, and to intermeddle with what does not belong to them, the subjects of the King of Zion must stand by His prerogative, resist the encroachment, and, at all risks as to this world, refuse obedience. In the spiritual kingdom of which they are subjects, Christ is the only Head; and His Word the only authoritative rule.
And there isno successionhere. He reigns over the house of Jacob for ever; “and of His kingdom there is no end.” Blessed be God for this! The sceptre of our King can never, even to the end, be wrested out of his hands; and Henever dies.He must reign, till all His people are saved with an everlasting salvation, and all His enemies are put under His feet.—Wardlaw.
main homiletics of verse3.
The Most Inexcusable Oppression.
I. Oppression from an unexpected quarter.Although poverty sometimes has a very hardening influence upon men, we do not often find it takes the form of oppression of their fellow-sufferers in poverty. On the contrary, the sympathy of one poor man for another is often the brightest spot in his character. But the ability to oppress implies some elevation of the oppressor over the oppressed, and therefore leads us rather to look for the heartless tyrant among those who have known poverty, but who are now in some degree raised above it. And even here we should hardly expect to find an oppressor of the poor. Such a man cannot plead ignorance of the miseries of poverty. We might expect that he would be full of sympathy for those into whose trials his own experience has so fitted him to enter. If we wanted a tender nurse for a wounded man we should expect to find one in him who has himself been wounded, and who knowswhat bodily pain is, and in a man who has himself been poor we ought to find the most patient and generous ruler and judge of the poor. Oppression from such a quarter is a painful surprise.
II. Oppression to an extreme degree.The oppressor of the proverb is one who has sinned against the knowledge furnished by his own experience, and is therefore a greater transgressor than one who sins without such experimental knowledge. If this barrier is not strong enough to restrain him, he is not likely to be hindered by any less powerful ones, and will therefore allow his cruel and unnatural passions to have full dominion over his conduct. And so it will come to pass that a man, who has been poor if he become an oppressor, will be a more terrible one than he who has always been rich and powerful. It may be regarded as a rule with few exceptions, that he who breaks through the most restraints in order to sin will go to the greatest lengths in it.
illustration.
This illustrative comparison is here most impressive. It is founded upon a phenomenon which I have frequently seen, and sometimes felt. A small black cloud traverses the sky in the latter part of summer or beginning of autumn, and pours down a flood of rain that sweeps all before it. The Arabs call itsale;we, a water-spout, or the bursting of a cloud. In the neighbourhood of Hermon I have witnessed it repeatedly, and was caught in one last year, which in five minutes flooded the whole mountain side, washed away the fallen olives—the food of the poor—overthrew stone walls, etc. Every summer threshing-floor along the line of its march was swept bare of all precious food. . . . And such is the oppression of a poor man that oppresseth the poor. These landlords, and sheiks, and emirs are generally poor, hungry, greedy, remorseless, and they come in successive swarms, each more ravenous than his predecessor. On a gigantic scale, every hungry pasha from the capital is such asale,sweeping over the distant provinces of the empire. Vast regions, formerly covered with golden harvests in their season, and swarming with people full of food and gladness, are now reduced to frightful deserts by their rapacity.—Thomson’s “The Land and the Book.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Woeful is the condition when necessity and imbecility meet together and encounter. For necessity hath no mercy, imbecility hath no help. When poverty oppresseth anyone, there is no measure in his oppressing another that is poor. He spares not to strip him naked who hath already no clothes on. He fears not to be a spoiler whom spoiling hath left nothing. For there is nothing that doth so harden the hart of man as his own need; and he hath little or no feeling of another’s misery, who feels the biting of his own. As the rain falls, so the earth bears it; and as oppression dealeth, so must the poor suffer it; for as the earth lieth under all, so doth he. The rich man is adashingrain upon him, and when he pleaseth, washeth away his means and succour from him . . but there is no suchsweepingrain unto him as when the oppressor is oppressed by poverty. . . . For he having nothing, takes all that he can get, and the hunger of his own distress so devoureth all, as that he leaveth no food.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verses4and5.
Lawkeepers and Lawbreakers.
I. A quick understanding in Divine things springs only from sympathy with Divine precepts.Spiritual truth can only be apprehended by a soul in love with what is good and true. A mere intellectual assent to certain moral propositions will not bring men to a real and intimate acquaintance with Divinerealities, for the revelation of God is not a mathematical problem which appeals only to the intellect, but a message to the consciences and affections of men.“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him”(Psa. xxv. 14). There must be spiritual sympathy before there can be spiritual perception, for sin puts out the eyes of the soul, and renders a man incapable of apprehending spiritual realities, as physical blindness makes him unable of seeing material objects. Hence our Lord madewillingness to do His Willthe one essential condition to knowledge concerning His teaching (John vii. 17).
II. Those who love and obey the Divine precepts contend with the wicked by their obedience.Love to God and obedience to Him are inseparable. The one is the necessary outcome of the other, so that “seekers after God” described in verse 5, and the “keepers of the law” mentioned in verse 4, are the same persons. The lives of such people are a more powerful reproof to the godless and wicked than any words which they can utter. The feathers of the arrow have their place and value in helping the arrow find its destination, but it is the steel point that penetrates the breast. So words of admonition fitly spoken have their worth, and are of some weight in contending with the wicked, but a constant life of obedience to God is more convincing and penetrating. So that ever true servant of God is fighting against the servants of sin by simply seeking to bring his life into conformity with His Master’s Will.
III. All neglect of God’s law is a commendation of sin.There are many men who would be ashamed openly to praise a wicked action who yet by their disregard of the Divine requirements encourage open transgressors. For there is no middle way here. Every man is on one side or the other, and all who are not contending with the wicked by obedience are countenancing their evil courses by their own forsaking of the law of God.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 4. “Forsaking;” simply evading or avoiding it, no matter on what pretence. Solomon strikes for the result. He scoffs at all apology. Do you, or do you not, obey direction? If you do not, the fact that you do not is all that is needed to mislead the looker-on, for, seizing upon that most villainous of all things,praising the wicked—a thing that scarce ruffians do, a thing that obscene seducers scarcely venture—he says, All disobedience does it. . . . But the lonely widow, going quietly to heaven, who has asked carefully the road, and has moved on as she was directed, the text suddenly arms with a sword and spear! She is a warrior! In her quiet walk she is smiting down the rivals of her King. And Solomon literally means it. The most effective army of the saints is the quiet group that dream of nothing but obedience.—Miller.
Verse 5. The natural man perceiveth not the things that belong to God, but the spiritual man discerneth all things. Albeit there is some light in the wicked man which is sufficient to make him inexcusable, yet he is always so blinded by natural ignorance and malice that both Christ and the Law to him are a mystery. Hence it cometh to pass that he neither fully seeth what is to be believed nor yet what is to be done, either generally in all sorts of actions, or particularly in the course of his calling or office.—Muffet.
Origen saith, “Of them who do not see, some are blind, and do not see because of their blindness; others are in darkness, and therefore do not see; but others do not see because they shut their eyes.” And this is which many times makes the evil man not understand judgment—he will not do judgment, and therefore will not understand it. But true also it is that wickedness is a great blinding of the understanding. For it turns away the eyes fromthe Son of Righteousness, and casteth also a black shadow before it. . . . But what do they not understand, that understand Him that understandeth all things? In all things that are required of them, they understand what is to be done by them; in all things that are taught them, they understand the truth of them. . . . They understand the judgment that shall be upon the wicked; they understand the reward that shall be to themselves; they understand in all things to do judgment to others; they are general scholars in their duties both to God and man.—Jermin.
He who makes wickedness his element, falls into the confusion of the moral conception; but he whose end is the one living God gains from that, in every situation of life, even amid the greatest difficulties, the sense of what is morally right. Similarly the apostle John (1 John ii. 20):“Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things:” i.e.,ye need to seek that knowledge which ye require, and which ye long after not without yourselves, but in the new Divine foundation of your personal life; from thence all that ye need for the growth of your spiritual life, and for the turning away from you of hostile influences, will come into your consciences.—Delitzsch.
For Homiletics on verse 6, see on chap.xix. 1, page 561; on verse 7, chap.x. 1, page 137; on verse 8, see the last remarks on chap.xiii. 22, page 331. On the subject of verse 9, see on chap.xv. 8 and 9, pages 407 and 408, and on verse 10, see on chap.xxvi. 27, page 721, etc.
main homiletics of verse11.
Wisdom is Wealth and Poverty.
I. Riches tend to produce self-deception.The power of riches to give external position and influence is almost unlimited. Wealth can bring its owners into the palaces of princes, and place them on an equal footing with men of talent and rank. It can surround a man with servants who will obey his nod, and with friends who will flatter him to his heart’s content. By means of riches a man can make his name famous in both hemispheres while he lives, and cause it to be remembered after he is dead. It is not therefore surprising that many men who possess this potent means of influence should be so dazzled by it as to be unable to see themselves apart from it, and should credit themselves withbeingmore than ordinary men, while the only difference is that theyhavemore. A rich man is always in danger of mistaking his wealth, which is but an appendage to his personality, for the wealth of wisdom, which is a part of oneself, and so of being the subject of the worst of all deception, viz.,self-deception.
II. But the possessor of riches does not often deceive other people as to his real worth.Men around him may flatter him and treat him as if they thought him very wise and clever, but they are often despising him all the time, and oftentimes there are those about him who, although they are beneath him in rank and wealth, are far above him in sagacity and penetration, and can read his character and motives far better than he can himself. Wealth can do much for a man, but it cannot purchase for him the respect and esteem of even the poor man who “hath understanding,” and poverty has many drawbacks, but it is free from this one—it does not minister to human vanity.
III. A poor man who has moral and mental wealth is a greater blessing to the world than even a rich man who is wise and good.He can show the world that there are some things better than wealth, and that these better things are in no sense connected with it or dependent upon it. He can convince men that God is but a shadow and that riches of heart and mind are the substance, and he can demonstrate how much more lasting and satisfying is the influence gained by wisdom than that which is born of wealth.
outlines and suggestive comments.
The phrase“searches him out,”may be variously understood. He discerns his true character. He sees that wisdom and wealth do not always go together; that a full purse is quite compatible with an empty head. He sees, too, that a man’s wisdom is not to be estimated by his opinion of himself. He sees shallowness where the man himself fancies depth, and folly in what elates him with a vain consciousness of his own wisdom. He sees abundant reason for not making the rich man his oracle, or setting him up as his idol, or making his example the pattern for his imitation, merely for the number of his acres, or for the gold and silver in his coffers. He sees how prone men in general are to allow weight to counsel in proportion to the wealth of the counsellor. But the “understanding” which God has given him shows him the absurdity of this. He “searches out” the fallacy, and directs and exposes the imprudence and folly of sentiments and proposals, that are propounded and recommended by the wealthiest of the wealthy. And still further, taking “understanding” in its higher sense, as it is used in this Book as including a mind Divinely enlightened and under the influence of the fear of God and all the principles of true religion:—the poor man who has this, sees and knows that “a little with the fear of the Lord is better than the riches of many wicked;”—that “a good understanding have all they who do his commandments;”—that no folly can be more palpable and flagrant than the folly of “trusting in uncertain riches,”—”setting the eyes upon that which is not,” and neglecting provision for the soul and for eternity,—forfeiting the “unsearchable riches” provided by the mercy of God for sinners,—all the blessings, unspeakably precious, summed up in “life everlasting;”—spurning away the counsel that would put these in possession;—greedily coveting the treasures of the world that perish in the using, and rejecting the Divine offer of the treasures of immortality. The poor man who hath understanding—I can hardly say“searches out”the folly of this,—he discerns it by a kind of spiritual intuition.—Wardlaw.
The thought in verse 12 is the same as in chap.xi. 10. See Homiletics on page 206.
main homiletics of verse13.
Confession and Forgiveness.
I. Sin tends to produce shame.Even a child often tries to hide an act of disobedience to a good mother’s law, and this not from fear of punishment merely, but from an undefined sense of shame. And this feeling clings to all men through life who are not entirely hardened in iniquity. So long as the conscience is not entirely stifled, men try to hide their wrong actions from their fellow-men even when no human punishment would follow the discovery, and they even try to cover them from themselves by inventing excuses for them. They often endeavour to cloak their sin before their fellow-creatures by putting on the garb of special sanctity, and so add hypocrisy to their other transgressions, and they will try to palliate their guilt at the bar of their own conscience by lowering the standard of morality which God has set up within them, or by persuading themselves that He is a hard taskmaster, requiring them to render Him an unreasonable and a burdensome service. There are other motives which induce men to cover their sins besides this one of shame, and other methods by which they try to do it, but whatever impels them, and whatever means theyuse, the truth taught in the proverb is always verified, viz., that all such makeshifts are worse than useless.
II. The only prosperous method of dealing with sin.This method consists of two acts which God has joined together, and which man may not put asunder, because neither of the two by itself would give evidence that the sinner was fit to receive full absolution. If a manconfesseshis sin withoutforsakingit, he seems almost to aggravate his transgression, for he acknowledges that he sins knowing that it is sin, and that it is useless to pardon him to-day, because he will do the same thing to-morrow. And if heforsakeshis sin withoutconfessinghis guilt he shows that he does it from some other motive than abhorrence of evil. Certain sins are sometimes forsaken from expediency, or from self-righteous motives, but in such cases there is no guarantee that there will not be a return to them. Our Lord describes such when he speaks of the unclean spirit going out of a man, but returning to find an empty house—a soul with none of the newborn hopes and desires and aims which always come with true repentance—and of such He says that“the last estate of that man is worse than the first”(Luke xi. 26). But when hearty and sincere acknowledgement of sin is joined with earnest endeavour to forsake it, God sees a soul which will know how to value His pardon, and will find strength in it to fight against evil and finally to overcome it. And to such a soul it is given to know the“blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile”(Psa. xxxii. 1, 2).
outlines and suggestive comments.
There are various ways of endeavouring to cover sins. Bydenyingthem. A lie is a cover which men put over their sins to conceal them from others. They sin and deny the fact, they wrap up their crimes in falsehood. Thus Cain, Rachel, Joseph’s brethren, Peter, Ananias and Sapphira, endeavoured to hide their sins. Byextenuatingthem. Men plead excuses. The influence of others, the power of circumstances, the moral weakness of the constitution. Extenuation is a common cover. Byforgettingthem. They endeavour to sweep them from the memory by revelry and mirth, by sensuality, worldliness, and intemperance.—Dr. David Thomas.
A child of God will confess sin in particular; an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale; he will acknowledge he is a sinner in general, whereas David doth, as it were, point with his finger to the sore:“I have done this evil”(Psa. li. 4); he doth not say I have done evil, butthis evil.He points at his blood-guiltiness.—Watson.
Confession of sin will work a holy contrition and a godly sorrow in the heart (Psalm xxxviii. 18). Declaration doth breed compunction. Confession of sin is but the causing of sin to recoil on the conscience, which causeth blushing, and shame of face, and grief of heart. . . . Secret confession gives a great deal of glory to God. It gives glory to God’s justice. I do confess sin, and do confess God in justice may damn me for my sin. It gives glory to God’s mercy. I confess sin, yet mercy may save me. It gives glory to God’s omnisciency. In confessing sin I do confess that God knoweth my sin.—Christopher Love.
It is fearful for a man to bind two sins together when he is not able to bear the load of one. To act wickedness and then to cloak it, is for a man to wound himself and then go to the devil for a plaster. What man doth conceal God will not cancel. Iniquities strangled in silence will strangle the soul in heaviness. There are three degrees of felicity:—the first is, not to sin; the second, to know; the third, to acknowledge our offences. Let us, then, honour Him by confession whomwe have dishonoured by presumption. . . . Sinfulness is a sleep, confession a sign that we are waked. Men dream in their sleeps, but tell their dreams waking. In our sleep of security we lead a dreaming life, full of vile imaginations; but if we confess and speak our sins to God’s glory, and our own shame, it is a token that God’s Spirit hath wakened us. . . . This is true, though to some a paradox; the way to cover our sins is to uncover them.—T. Adams.
Sin is in a man at once the most familiar inmate and the greatest stranger. . . . Although he lives in it, because he lives in it, he is ignorant of it. Nothing is more widely diffused or more constantly near us than atmospheric air; yet few ever notice its existence and fewer consider its nature. Dust, and chaff, and feather, that sometimes float up and down in it, attract our regard more than the air in which they float; yet these are trifles that scarcely concern us, and in this we live, and move, and have our being. . . . Such, in this respect, is sin. It pervades humanity, but, in proportion to its profusion, men are blind to its presence. Because it is everywhere, we do not notice it anywhere. . . . But the chief effort of the alienated must ever be to cover his sins from the eye of God. . . . All the wiles of the tempter, and all the faculties of his slave, are devoted to the work of weaving a curtain thick enough to cover an unclean conscience from the eye of God. Anything and everything may go as a thread to the web; houses and lands, business and pleasure, family and friends, virtues and vices, blessings and cursings—a hideous miscellany of good and evil—constitute the material of the curtain; and the woven web is walked over and over again with love and hatred, joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, to thicken the wall without, and to deepen the darkness within, that the fool may be able, with some measure of comfort, to say “in his heart, No God.”—Arnot.
Sin and shifting came into this world together. Sin and Satan are alike in this, they cannot abide to appear in their own colour. . . . We must see our sin to confession, or we shall see it to our confusion. . . . No man was ever kept out of heaven for his confessed badness; many are for their supposed goodness.—Trapp.
St. Gregory speaketh, “He that covereth his sin, doth not hide himself from the Lord, but hideth the Lord from himself, and that which he doth, is that himself may not see God, who seeth all things, not that he be not seen.”—Jermin.
For Homiletics on verse 14 see on chaps.xii. 15, and onxiv. 16, pages 271 and 365.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses15–17.
Vice and Virtue in High Places.
I. A cruel ruler is on a level with the most cruel of the brute creation.The more power a man holds in his hand over the destinies of his fellow-creatures the greater is his responsibility, and the blacker is his crime if he abuses his opportunities of blessing them. In proportion to the unlimited character of his authority ought to be his care not to overstep the limits of the strictest justice, and he is bound to lean rather to the side of mercy than to severity. The less reason he has to fear any retaliation from those whom he rules, the more is he bound to mingle much gentleness and forbearance with his government, for it is the act of a coward to act towards the weak and defenceless as we should fear to act towards one who is our equal in strength. The man who can be capable of such cowardice no longer deserves the name of a man, but puts himself on alevel with those beasts of prey from whom we shrink in terror, knowing that in them there is no reason, or conscience, or pity to which we can appeal.
II. Incapacity in a ruler may work almost as much misery as cruelty.A mother may not be guilty of positive acts of cruelty towards her children, and yet they may suffer very keenly and very seriously from her unfitness to train their souls and her ignorance as to how to take care of their bodies. Her neglect may in the end bring consequences as fatal as the greatest severity would have done. This rule holds good wherever one human creature has others dependent upon him, and the more entire the dependence, the more miserable will be the results of his or her incapacity. In countries where rulers do not bear absolute sway, a“prince who wanteth understanding”is not so great a curse as where his will is the only or the supreme law, but the history of our own country contains instances of monarchs who, although they would have been harmless in private life, were, from lack of capacity to rule, very great oppressors of the people.
III. The curse which rests upon all such oppressors of their kind.Like Jehoram of old, they depart undesired (2 Chron. xxi. 20). The blood of their brothers crieth out for vengeance upon their heads, and no man puts forth a hand to arrest their doom. Even those who pity as well as blame, if they wish well to the body politic, feel it is a blessing when such tyrants are removed from the earth—when their power of doing violence to the rights of their fellow-creatures is at an end.“Let no man stay him”for the sake of those whom he leaves behind, and let no man hinder his departure for his own sake, for his continuance in his place upon the earth would but give him opportunity to add to his crimes, and thus increase the weight of his punishment. (For illustrations of this subject and additional Homiletics see on chap.xi. 17, page 220—alsopage 208.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 15. But these emblems were insufficient to represent the monstrous barbarities that have been often exercised by those that were at the head of the Roman empire in its pagan or antichristian state; and, therefore, Daniel and John represent them under the figure of monsters more dreadful than any that were ever beheld by the eyes of man (Jer. xxxi. 18, Daniel vii. 10, Rev. xiii.). The language of inspiration could not furnish out more terrible images for the devil himself, than those which have been used to represent the wickedness of tyrannical and persecuting powers. We ought to be thankful for the wounds that have been given to the beast with seven heads and two horns, and for the civil and religious liberties which we enjoy.—Lawson.
Verse 16. As want of understanding maketh a man an oppressor, so to be an oppressor showeth a want of understanding in him. But the special want at which the verse seems to aim is the greedy want of covetousness. For as a covetous man wanteth understanding, because he seeketh that so eagerly which he cannot keep, so a covetous prince wanteth understanding, because he seeketh that so earnestly which he hath already.—Jermin.
Verse 17. God’s jealous regard for the life of man was strongly expressed at the second outset of our world’s history; and expressed in terms of evident allusion to the early and awful violation of its sacredness in the antediluvian period:—“And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall hisblood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Gen. ix. 5, 6). For my own part, having examined the various principles of interpretation by which those who are for doing awayallcapital punishments have explained these words, I have not been able to satisfy myself with any one of them. They seem to be all forced and unnatural, and, on different critical grounds, inadmissible. I cannot but regard the language as bearing no fair and natural interpretation, but that which makes it a Divine requisition, on the part of man, ofblood for blood—that is, oflife for life;and as thus affording more than asanction,as laying down arequirement.Though I am far from conceiving that we are bound by Jewish criminal law, yet in the law regarding murder there is so evident an allusion to this original and universal injunction, and the language withal is so very pointed and emphatically reiterated, that I cannot go the length of those who would includemurderamong crimes to be punished with infliction short of death. When set beside the original and universal law it serves, by its very emphasis and peremptoriness, to confirm the ordinary interpretation of that charge to the second progenitors of our race as the just one, and to show, therefore, the universality of its obligation.—Wardlaw.
Even the heathen judged this awful transgressor to be under the Divine vengeance (Acts xxviii. 4). The death therefore of the murderer is an imperative obligation. It is miscalled philanthropy that protests against all capital punishments. Shall man pretend to be more merciful than God? Pity is misplaced here. The murderer therefore of his brother is his own murderer.—Bridges.
This is not directly an admonition against that which is immoral; it may also be a declaration of that which is impossible.—Delitzsch.
The subjects of the next six verses have all been treated before. For Homiletics on verse 18, see on chaps.x. 9, andxi. 3, pages 153 and 195. Verse 19 is almost a verbal repetition of chap.xii. 11, see page 266. On the main subject of verses 20 and 22, see on chaps.xiii. 11andxxi. 5, pages 306 and 609. On verse 21, see on chap.xvii. 23, page 524, and on verse 23 chap.xxvii. 5 and 6, page 728.
main homiletics of verse24.
Robbing Parents.
I. A parent’s sacred rights.A father and mother, if they are worthy of the name, have a very strong claim upon their children’s consideration. Their children owe them obedience in their childhood, and reverent and loving regard when they have reached manhood. If their parents arerich,their possessions are to be held as peculiarly sacred. “A feeling,” says Wardlaw, “should attach to it somewhat like that which attaches toholy things—things pertaining to God and His service. The violation oftheirproperty should be felt to be a description ofsacrilege.” On the other hand, if the parents arepoor,their children are certainly bound to help to support them, and so in some measure to repay to them the expense of their own bringing up. Christ puts this duty to parents before that of giving even to the support of Church ordinances, and severely condemns the Pharisees and Scribes for inculcating opposite teaching (Mark vii. 11).
II. The character of the child who violates these rights.There are, alas, many sons and daughters who, instead of rendering more honour to their parents than to other people give themless,and instead of showing more regardto their parents’ rights than to those of a stranger, seem to ignore the fact that they owe anything to them. In the matter of money, those who would not touch the possession of any other person will sometimes appropriate what belongs to their parents, and say, “It is no transgression;” or if they do not go quite so far as this, do not hesitate to live upon them when they ought to be earning their own living, or to incur debts which they know their parents will discharge. He who is guilty of any of these negative or positive transgressions “robs,” his father and his mother, and his character is given here. Although he may not be openly a vicious man—although he may seem to be much less blameworthy than the man who openly violates the law of the land, he is here put on a level with him. The sin in the sight of God is as great, and there is in such a man the capability of developing into an open transgressor, for he who can violate such holy demands of duty, and trample upon the rights of such a sacred relationship, only wants the motive and opportunity to commit actions which would at once class him among the criminals of society.
outlines and suggestive comments.
“But if any widow have children or nephews, let them first learn to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents” (1 Tim. v. 4). It is observable, children’s kindness to their parents is termedpietyorgodliness,because it is a part thereof, and very acceptable to God. Besides, it is called arequitingthem, intimating that it is not an act ofgrace,but ofjustice.—Swinnock.
To say that we did not look upon a thing to be a transgression will be no just excuse for any piece of conduct that we might have known to be criminal. It will only shew us to be so depraved that even our minds and our consciences are defiled.—Lawson.
For Homiletics on the first clause of verse 25, see on chap.xiii. 10, page 305.
main homiletics of verse26,and last clause of verse25.
Self-Confidence.
I. He that trusts in his own heart is a fool, because he refused to profit by the experience of others.If a man who has made a perilous voyage declares at the end of it that he has found his compass utterly untrustworthy, we should count him a madman who would set out upon a similar expedition with the same faulty guide; and if he went down in mid-ocean to rise no more, we should certainly say that it was his own fault. To trust to a guide which another man has proved to be unworthy of confidence when so much was at stake, would be universally condemned as obstinate foolhardiness. Yet this is what men do in the voyage of life. The testimony of most men who, rejecting the guidance of a higher wisdom, have shaped their lives according to their own ideas and inclinations, has been at the end that they have trusted a guide that has misled them. Solomon himself steered a good deal of his life by this deceiving compass, and at the end confessed that he had acted foolishly in so doing (Eccles. i. 2). It may be that the words of our text were the expression of his own bitter experience on the subject, and that he is here counselling others to avoid the error into which he had fallen.
II. He is a wise man who seeks guidance from God because he trusts in One who has proved Himself worthy of confidence.He who has declared that the human heart“is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”(Jer. xvii. 9) has offered Himself as the object of man’s trust and as His infallible guide. Millions of the human family have assented to the truth ofthe Divine statement, and have testified to the blessedness of submission to Divine guidance, and have been manifestly delivered by their submission from the bondage of evil, and elevated into a region of moral purity and freedom to which other men are strangers. They are living proofs that He who exhorts men to trust in Him is not a deceiver, but can justify the demands He makes upon our confidence and submission. Human experience has set its seal to the inspired word:—“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit”(Jer. xvii. 7–8). Surely, then, he is a wise man who makes the trial for himself.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Theheart,indeed, has instrumentality to save us. We musttrusteverything to that. But it is theheartdwelt in by Christ. He that takes his heart and confides it to the Son of Man, receives for it an altered life, and will be able totrustthatheartthustrustedto Christ as the instrument in the battle of deliverance.—Miller.
Though the mariner sees not the pole-star, yet the needle of his compass, which points to it, tells him which way he sails. Thus the heart that is touched with the loadstone of Divine love, trembling with godly fear, and yet still looking towards God with fixed believing, interprets the fear by the love in the fear, and tells the soul that its course is heavenward towards the haven of eternal rest.—Leighton.
Whoever trusts another for his guide must do it upon account of two qualifications to be found in him:—1. That he isableto direct and lead him. 2. That he alsofaithfully willgive the best directions. . . . There are two things which may make a trustfoolish:—1. Thevalueof the thing which we commit to a trust. 2. Theundue qualificationsof the person towhose trustwe commit it. In both respects the confidence reposed by men in their own hearts is exceedingfoolish.I.The honour of God is entrusted.So far as the manifestation of God’s honour depends upon the homage of His obedient creatures, so far is it at the mercy of our actions, which are at the command of theheart,as the motion of the wheels follows the disposition of the spring. God is never disobeyed but He is also dishonoured. II.Man trusts his heart with his happiness in this world, and this is two-fold—spiritual and temporal.III.He entrusts his heart with the eternal concernment of his soul hereafter.. . . The heart of man will also be found to have eminently these two ill qualities utterly unfitted for such a trust. I.It is weak, and so cannot make good a trust.Its weakness is twofold. 1. In point ofapprehensionit cannot perceive and understand certainly what is good. 2. In point ofelection,it cannotchooseandembraceit. II.The heart is deceitful, and so will not make good its trust.. . . The delusions of the heart may be reduced to three sorts. 1. Such as relate to thecommission of sin.2. Such as relate to theperformance of duty.3. Such as relate to a man’sconversion,orchange of his spiritual estate.. . . The heart if it does not findsins small,has this notable faculty, that it can make them so . . . and in duty is willing to take up with the outside and superficies of things, and . . . it will persuade him that he is converted from a state of sin, when perhaps he is only converted fromone sintoanother;and that he has changed hisheartwhen he has only changed hisvice.—South.
On the subject of verse 27, see on chap.xi. 24–26, page 234, and on chap.xiv. 31, page 389. The subject of verse 28 has been treated in chap.xi. 10, page 206.
Critical Notes.—4. He that receiveth gifts.Zöckler translates this,“a man of taxes.”7. Considereth.Literallyknoweth.Zöckler and Delitzsch translate the latter clause,“the godless discern, or understand not, knowledge.”8. Bring a city,etc., literally,“set a city on fire.”9.The second clause should rather be“he rageth and laugheth(i.e.,the fool),and there is no rest.”10.Delitzsch translates this verse:“Men of blood hate the guiltless and the upright; they seek his soul.”11. His mind.Ratherhis wrath.Keepeth it till afterward.Ratherrestraineth it, keeps it in the background.13. The deceitful.Rather“the usurer.” A man of usury is only a more concrete expression for a rich man and this is the corresponding termin chap. xxii. 2 (Zöckler).18. Vision.Rather“Revelation.”“The word denotes prophetic prediction, the revelation of God by His seers (1 Sam. ix. 9); the chief function of these consisted in their watching over the vigorous fulfilling of the law, or in the enforcement of the claims of the law” (Zöckler).19. Doth not answer.Rather“there is not an answer,”that is in action, by obedience. Delitzsch translates“does not conform thereto.”21. A son,etc. There are many different translations of this verse, but the general verdict of scholars seems to favour the English rendering. Luther translates the verse,“If a servant is tenderly treated from youth up, he will accordingly become a squire.”24. He heareth cursing.Ratherthe curse, i.e.,according to Zöckler, “the curse which according to the law (Lev. v. 1. sq.) marks a theft as an offence demanding a heavy penalty.” Delitzsch translates“he hateth the oath,”and explains it “as that of the judge who adjures the partner of the thief by God to tell the truth.” (See also Lev. v. 1.)
main homiletics of verse1.
Reproof and Destruction.
I. An act of benevolence which is often resented.When a child is reproved, and if need be chastised, for playing with the fire or neglecting its lessons, all reasonable people see that it is a kind act, and the child itself, when it has grown wiser, acknowledges that the reproof, even if it took the form of punishment, was an act of true benevolence, for it has saved him from bodily suffering or from intellectual loss. But it is probable that at the time the reproof was administered it was received with resentment, and the parent or friend who administered it was looked upon as an enemy. And it is so generally with men in relation to the reproofs of God, whether they come direct in the shape of providential chastisements or indirectly in the rebukes of His servants. God can have but one aim in reproving His creatures, and that is to save them from the pain which follows sin, and to increase their capabilities of happiness by bringing them under His Divine training. But this effort of God is often resisted, and man in the act of resistance is here and elsewhere likened to the ox which refuses to obey his master. He “hardens his neck” against the yoke of Divine reproof. Repentant Ephraim acknowledges that under Divine chastisement he was“as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke”(Jer. xxxi. 18); he resisted the efforts of his God to bring him into subjection to His wise rule, and into harmony with His benevolent purposes concerning him. The ox who does nothing but browse is living the lowest form of life which a brute can live—he eats, and sleeps, and fattens for the knife. But if his master leads him from his pasture, and harnesses him to the plough, he thereby makes him a co-worker with himself; the beast now helps to raise the corn which not only feeds himself, but feeds men also, and thus, by coming under the yoke, he becomes a more useful and valuable creature. But as he is only a brute, he is not to be blamed if he prefers the lower life to the higher. As it is with the ox and his master, so it is with the sinner and God. The godless man is content to live upon a level with the lowest level of brute life—to satisfy his bodily appetites, to eat and drink, and die and leave undeveloped all his capacities for spiritual growth and blessedness. But God would make him a co-worker with Himself in lifting him to a higher level and in making him a more useful and blessed creature. But men often resist this benevolent intention, and resent this check upon their self-will.
II. The resistance to many acts of benevolence bringing one act of judgment.It must at last be decided whose will is to be the law of the universe—that of rebellious men or that of the Holy God; and though the Divine longsuffering is so exceedingly great, He must, in the interests of His creatures, assert His right to their obedience. This He did in the case of His chosen people—after centuries of resisted reproof sudden and irremediable destruction came upon the nation, and those who, like the Jews, will not come under the yoke of God, must sooner or later feel His rod. If they will not be His children they must be treated as rebellious subjects. On this subject see also on chap.vi. 12–19, page 81.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Such was thedestructionof the old world, and of the cities of the plain, longhardenedagainst the forbearance of God. Pharaoh grew more stubborn under the rod, and rushed madly upon hissuddenruin. Eli’s sons “hearkened not unto the voice of their father, and in one day died both of them.” Ahab,often reprovedby the godly prophet,hardened his neck,and “the bow, drawn at a venture,” received its commission. How must Judas have steeled his heart against his Master’sreproof!Onward he rushed, “that he might go to his own place.”—Bridges.
Sins repeated and reiterated are much greater than sins once committed. . . . As in numbers, one in the first place stands but for a single one, in the second place ten, in the third place for a hundred, so here, each repetition is a great aggravation. It is one thing to fall into the water, another thing to lie there; it is the latter that drowns men.—Swinnock.
On the subject of verse 2, see on chap.xi. 10, page 206. On verse 3, see on chap.x. 1, page 137, and on chap.v. 1–20, page 68. The subject of verse 4 has been treated on page 472, in the homiletics on chap.xvi. 10–15, and that of verse 5 in the homiletics on chap.xxvi. 23–28, page 721.
main homiletics of verse6.
A Snare and a Song.
I. Sin deceives men.If a man digs a pit for the purpose of entrapping a victim, his great aim is to make the path over it as inviting as possible and entirely to hide from sight the snare which he has laid, for, as Solomon tells us elsewhere,“Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird”(chap. i. 17). So when the great deceiver of men tries to lead them into sin, he makes the way of transgression look very inviting, and persuades his victim that some great gain is to be gotten by the sin. He hides from view the pit of misery that lies at the end of every path of disobedience to God. He did not let Adam and Eve see beforehand the bitter consequences of breaking the Divine command or he would not have succeeded in accomplishing their downfall. And he does not let the young man whom he persuades to rob his master see the felon’s cell beyond, or his persuasions would be ineffectual. His great aim is to make men believe there is security where there is danger—a solid rock where there is a yawning pit—probable gain where there is certain loss. Seeing that sin is against the sinner’s own interests, and that there is in every man an instinct of self-preservation, we must conclude that if transgressors were notensnared,Satan could take the captive no other way.
II. Righteousness gladdens men.God, who is the Fountain and Source ofall the joy in the universe, made man for happiness. This is the portion which He intended all His creatures to possess, and which they forfeit by their own act and deed. Before sin entered our world, song was man’s natural employment—it was as natural for him to rejoice in God’s love as it was to breathe God’s air. And in proportion as sin is banished from the human soul, and the right relation between it and God is re-established, joy and gladness re-enter the heart. The indissoluble connection which is found everywhere between righteousness of life and peace of mind is a revelation of the character of the Being who sits upon the throne of the universe, and although the song of the righteous in this world is not an unbroken one, and they have sorrow as well as joy, they are hastening to a world where“God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more sorrow or crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away”(Rev. xxi. 4).
outlines and suggestive comments.
Or, a cord, viz., to strangle his joy with—to check and choke all his comforts. In the midst of his mirth he hath many a secret gripe, and little knows the world where the shoe pinches him. Every fowl that hath a seemly feather hath not the sweetest flesh, nor doth every tree that bringeth a goodly leaf bear good fruit. Glass giveth a clearer sound than silver, and many things glitter besides gold. The wicked man's jollity may wet the mouth, but not warm the heart—smooth the brow, but not fill the breast. . . . But though Saul could not be merry without a fiddler, Ahab without Naboth’s vineyard, Haman without Mordecai’s courtesy, yet a righteous man can be merry without all these.—Trapp.
For Homiletics on verse 7 see on chap.xiv. 31, page 389, and on chap.xxiv. 11, 12, page 680.
main homiletics of verse8.
The Citizen’s Enemy and the Citizen’s Friend.
I. A scornful man is a social calamity.A scorner is a man who has a great opinion of his own wisdom and ability, and a very low one of all who oppose him. From his self-constructed elevation he looks down upon those who refuse to obey him, and counts them his inferiors simply because they do so. This is a perilous course to pursue even when only individual interests are at stake, but when the scornful man holds the welfare of others in his hand, the disastrous effects of his conduct are more widely spread. When he is the only person who suffers from over-estimating himself and underrating the strength of his opponents the issue is hardly to be regretted, but Solomon here has in his mind a public man who brings ruin upon many besides himself by his proud disdain of their foes, and by his refusal to recognise a common danger. Goliath was such a man. As the representative and champion of the Philistines he over-estimated the value of his physical strength, and set too low an estimate upon the unseen power arrayed against him, and his scorn of his enemies brought a great calamity upon his nation. A scornful man brings the heaviest calamity upon a people when he scoffs at the power of God and persuades his followers to set at nought His demands and threatenings. This was the great crime of many of Solomon’s successors on the throne, and of the false prophets of Judah and Israel, and hence the sentence passed upon them and upon those who listened to them:“Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord God . . . Judgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuges of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding places,”etc. (Isa. xxviii. 14–22).
II. A wise man is a social blessing.We have before seen (see on chap.xiv. 15-18, page 364) that it is one of the characteristics of a wise man that he recognises the presence of moral danger in relation to himself, and the same may be said concerning danger of every kind, not only as regards himself, but others also. Therecognitionof danger is quite distinct from thefearof it; indeed those who are most quick to discern it have generally the most courage to meet it and the most wisdom to avert it. Scornful men generally have nothing but scorn wherewith to meet a foe, but the man who is truly wise can afford to acknowledge the strength of his enemies because he is fully prepared to meet them. If he seek to turn away the wrath of man by persuasion, he will be able to back his persuasion by wise reasoning, and if he strive to avert the wrath of God he will endeavour to bring those for whom he intercedes to such a state of mind as will render them fit to appreciate Divine pardon. But if he cannot do this his own character will give effect to his prayers, and as in the case of Moses and the children of Israel, God will spare many sinners for the sake of one righteous man.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Surely it waswisdomin the king and people of Nineveh, instead ofbringing their city into a snare by scornfulrebellion, to avert by timely humiliation the impending destruction (Jonah iii. 5–10). Let the people be gathered; let the ministers of the Lord gird themselves to their work of weeping and accepted pleaders for the land (Joel ii. 17). Surely “except the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant” of these powerful intercessors, “we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. i. 9). Praised be God! The voice is yet heard—“Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it” (Ib.lxv. 8). The salt of the earth preserves it from corruption (Matt. v. 13). Shall not we, then, honour thesewise menwith reverential gratitude—“My father—my father! the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof?” . . . Moses—Exod. xxxii. 10–14; Deut. ix. 8–20; Ps. cvi. 23; Aaron—Num. xvi. 48; Phinehas—Num. xxv. 11; Ps. cvi. 30. Elijah—1 Kings xviii. 42–45; James v. 16, 18; Jer. xviii. 20; Dan. ix. 3–20; Amos vii. 1–6. The righteous remnant—Isa. i. 9, vi. 13. Comp. Gen. xviii. 32; Job xxii. 30; Jer. v. 1; Ezek. xxii. 30, 31. Contrast Ezek. xiii. 5.—Bridges.
For Homiletics on the subject of verse 9, see on chaps.xxiii. 9andxxvi. 3–11, pages 665 and 716.
main homiletics of verse10.
Soul-Seekers and Soul-Haters.
I. A proof of the unnatural condition of the human family.When we look at a human body we see that every limb and organism belonging to it ministers to the well-being of the whole frame, and thus to the comfort of theliving soul that inhabits it. This we recognise to be a natural and fitting state of things—just what we should have expected to find before experience. If in any human body we at any time see the hand inflicting injury upon the head, or any one member causing discomfort to another, we conclude, and with reason, that some disturbance of the natural condition has taken place—that there is physical disease in some bodily organism, or moral disease in the spirit that animates the body. So our human instincts and our reason force us to the conclusion that the natural relation of the members of the great body of humanity is one in which “each for all and all for each” should be the rule of action. That it is not so, can but strike all thinking men and women as a terrible incongruity. That most men not merely regard their human brethren with indifference, but that many actually hate and seek to injure their fellow-creatures is surely an evidence that some fatal moral distemper has laid hold of the race. And the evidence becomes stronger when we consider the truth of the first assertion in the proverb—that not only do bloodthirsty men seek to injure other men in general, but that the objects of their especial malignity are the upright—those who have given them no provocation, but whose desire and aim it is to bless their human brothers and sisters.
II. An example in renewed men of what human brotherhood ought to be.Notwithstanding the great amount of self-seeking and enmity that is found in the world, there always has been found a small minority who have been seekers of the good of others, and in whom love to their human brethren has been the keynote of existence. And this love has been felt, and this seeking has been active, in behalf of those who hated them, and sought to do them ill. All such members of the human family are doing their part towards restoring men to the condition of peace and goodwill in which their Creator intended them to live, and help us to form some idea of what earth would have been if sin had never entered it. It is true they would then have had no opportunity of loving their enemies, and of doing good to those who hate them, but the love which “seeketh not her own” would have found free scope for her activities in going out towards those animated by the same spirit of love and would never have had to sorrow over efforts to seek and save that have been apparently fruitless. All just men who are seekers of the well-being of others, and especially those who seek the good of their enemies, are followers of that Just One who was hated by the bloodthirsty of His day, and who sought their souls while they sought His life. The history of the martyr Church in all ages has been the history of the “bloodthirsty hating the upright,” and of the just treading in the footsteps of their Divine Master, and “seeking the souls” of their persecutors.
outlines and suggestive comments.
These words may mean—and probablydomean—that the upright, in opposition to the blood-thirsty by whom the just is hated, “seek his soul,”—that is, the soul or life of the object of the hatred—of the just or the upright. Of the Lord Himself it is said—“He loveth the righteous.” And in this all His people resemble Him. It is one of their characteristic distinctions. They pray for the upright, and endeavour, by all means in their power, to preserve them from the deadly machinations of their persecutors. The amount of love requiredofGod’s peopletowardsGod’s people is that they be ready to “lay down their lives for the brethren.” And if “forthe brethren”—how much more forthe Just One.—Wardlaw.
The just seek his soul. As Paul did of his countrymen the Jews, of whom five times he received forty stripes save one (2 Cor. xi. 24); as the disciplesdid of those spiteful Pharisees that had causelessly accused them (Matt. xv. 2–12); as that martyr Master Saunders did: “My lord,” said he to Bishop Bonner, “you seek my blood, and you shall have it. I pray God you may be so baptized in it as hereafter you may loathe blood-sucking, and so become a better man.”—Trapp.
On the subject of verse 11 see on chap.x. 19–21, page 168.
main homiletics of verse12.
A Moral Cancer in a King’s Court.
I. A man in authority should be a discerner of character.The man whose bodily sight is defective is not fit to be entrusted with the destinies of others in any case in which clear vision is needed. A purblind seaman would not be the man to stand upon the bridge of a vessel and direct its movements, nor would a general unable to distinguish friends from foes be a safe person to whom to entrust the guidance of an army in the field. And a man is manifestly in the wrong place if he is a ruler over others and is not a discerner of character.
II. A man in authority should be the possessor of a character.A ruler may be a good man himself and yet be imposed upon by others, but as a rule a lover of truth is a discerner of truth, and an honest man will detect the false ring of the liar’s words. But if a man is himself a liar, he will instinctively shrink from contact with true men, and true men will not care to hold intercourse with him, or to serve him, and so he must necessarily gather round him servants who are like himself. Such processes of attraction and repulsion are always going on in the world, in all departments of government, in the family, in the factory, and in the court. The servants are generally what the master is, and the courtiers reflect the character of the monarch.
III. It is therefore indispensable to the moral purity of any community that its head be first a good man and then an able man.Moral excellence is before all other things needful, but it is not the only thing needful. A good man is not always a keen discerner of character, although his goodness will strengthen his power of discernment, but he whorulesmen should possess in an uncommon degree the power ofreadingthem as well as that of setting them a good example in his own life.
outlines and suggestive comments.
He that carrieth Satan in his ear is no less blameworthy than he which carrieth him in his tongue. Untruths are cherished and fostered, as it were, by those who are too light of belief. But this credulity is especially to be shunned by rulers in church, commonwealth, or private families; for all the inferiors commonly follow the example of the superiors. . . . It may indeed sometimes fall out that an Obadiah may lurk in Ahab’s court, but this is rare, and commonly the sway goeth another way. Who were Saul’s courtiers but Doeg and such backbiters?—Muffett.
How wise was David’s determination—both as the sovereign of his people and therulerof his house—to discountenance lies, and uphold the cause of faithful men! (Ps. ci. 2–7).—Bridges.
It is natural, when we think of Solomon’s own situation as king of Israel, to expect to find some of his maxims of proverbial wisdom bearing special reference to the character and conduct of men in power. And so it is. When, moreover, we think of the wisdom withwhich, at the outset of his reign, and at his own earnest request, he was divinely endowed, we as naturally anticipate a correspondence between the maxims and the character. Nor are we disappointed. The maxims are not those of the selfishness of power,—not those of arbitrary despotism or the sovereignty of royal will; nor are they those of an artful, intriguing, Machiavellian policy. They are sound and liberal, and based on the great principle of the public good being the end of all government—the principle that kings reign, not for themselves, but for their people; while, in all their administration, they ought to be swayed and regulated by the laws of an authority higher than their own, by a regard to the Will of God as their rule, and the Glory of God, to which all else must ever be subordinate, as their supreme aim. But we must not forget, that the Book of Proverbs forms part of the canon of Inspired Scripture; that it does not contain, therefore, the mere dictates of human wisdom, how extraordinary soever that wisdom was; that “a greater than Solomon is here.”—Wardlaw.