II. Wisdom is to be preferred to wealth, because it had an existence before wealth.The world, with all its precious stones, and rich mines of gold and silver, is but of yesterday compared with wisdom. The mental and spiritual wealth of God was before matter; upon that wisdom—as we learn in this chapter—depended the existence of the material (vers. 22–32; chap. iii. 19, 20). Mental wealth is eternal, material wealth belongs only to time. Gold had a beginning, because the earth had a birthday, but wisdom is as old as God.
III. Wisdom is to be preferred to wealth, because it is an absolute necessity to man’s well-being, which gold is not.The first man, in his state of sinlessness, had no need of what men now call wealth, but wisdom—spiritual wisdom—was absolutely necessary to his continuation in a state of blessedness. Men need worldly, intellectual wisdom, even to make money. Many who inherit wealth lose it because they lack wisdom to use it rightly. But they can be blest without wealth, but not without the wisdom which leads to holiness. Wealth may bring pleasure with it, but to do so it must be united to true wisdom. Many who roll in riches have no pleasure in them; sometimes their very wealth adds to their unhappiness. Mental wealth enables men to extract some enjoyment from material wealth, but the riches of goodness makes gold and silver a means of increasing men’s happiness.
IV. Wisdom is to be preferred to wealth, because the latter may be destructive to character, and the former is its constructive power.Many men have been morally destroyed by their riches. But true wisdom is that by which a holy character is formed, the sustenance of the spiritual life. Riches may ruin; the wisdom which God gives to those who seek it at His hand can but bless.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 10. Thou canst not make as thy chief aim the acquisition of silver and that of true wisdom at one and the same time, for those aims mutually conflict, and each claims the whole man (Matt. vi. 24). To accept the one involves the rejection of the other as the chief portion. He who lives for money is void of wisdom (Luke xii. 16, 20), and is called in Scripture a “fool.”—Fausset.
Had it been said, Receive silver, who would not have held out his hand to receive it? Had it been said, Receive gold, who would not have been forward and glad with both his hands to have taken it? But it is instruction and not silver, wherein, lest a worldly heart be afraid that the taking of silver were forbidden him, the next words show the meaning, that is but instructionratherthan silver, as it is knowledgeratherthan gold. . . . He that seeketh gold and silver diggeth up much earth, but finds little of them, but he that receiveth instruction and knowledge, which are, indeed, of a golden nature, even in a little shall get and find much. Wherefore Clemens Alexandrinus saith, “It is in the soul that riches are, and they alone are riches whereof the soul alone is the treasure.”—Jermin.
The first warning uttered by this wisdom from above is the repetition of a former word. The repetition is not vain. Another stroke so soon on the same place indicates that he who strikes feels a peculiar hardness there. The love of money is a root of evil against which the Bible mercifully deals many a blow. There lies one of our deepest sores. Thanks be to God for touching it with “line upon line” of His healing Word. . . . A ship bearing a hundred emigrants has been driven from her course and wrecked on a desert island, far from the tracks of men. The passengers get safe ashore with all their stores. There is no way of escape, but there are means of subsistence. An ocean unvisited by ordinary voyagers circles round their prison, but they have seed, with a rich soil to receive, and a genial climate to ripen it. Ere any plan has been laid, or any operation begun, an exploring party returns to head quarters reporting the discovery of a gold mine. Thither instantly the whole company resort to dig. They acquire and accumulate heaps of gold. The people are quickly becoming rich. But the spring is past, and not a field has been cleared, not a grain of seed has been committed to the ground. The summer comes, and their wealth increases, but the store of food is small. In harvest they begin to discover that their stores of gold are worthless. A cart-load of it cannot satisfy a hungry child. When famine stares them in the face a suspicion shoots across their fainting hearts that their gold has cheated them. They loathe the bright betrayer. They rush to the woods, fell the trees, till the ground, and sow the seed. Alas! it is too late! Winter has come, and their seed rots in the soil. They die of want in the midst of their treasures. This earth is a little isle—eternity the ocean round it. On this shore we have been cast, like shipwrecked sailors. There is a living seed; there is an auspicious spring time; the sower may eat and live. But gold mines attract us; we spend our spring there—our summer there: winter overtakes us toiling there, with heaps of hoarded dust, but destitute of the bread of life.—Arnot.
Verse 11. First, because everything else without it is a curse, and with it just what is needed; second, because it is necessary to all beings, and even to God himself, as the spring of action; third, because it is glory and wealth in its very nature.—Miller.
Surely he that thinketh himself adorned with precious stones, showeth himself to be of less price than the stones are. To whom Clemens well applieth that saying of Apelles, who, when one of his scholars had painted Helena set out with muchgold, said unto him, “Alas, poor young man, when thou could’st not draw her fair thou hast made her rich.” for so, when many have neglected the jewel of the soul they seek to prank out the body with jewels.—Jermin.
The wisdom of goodness, or virtue. 1.Is absolutely and without any limitation good, absolutely and without any limitation useful and desirable.It alone can never be misapplied, can never be criminal. This we cannot pronounce of any other good. Riches may be a snare, honours a burden, even the endowments of the mind may be a snare to us. 2.It is far more unchangeable than the value of all other goods and endowments.The value of riches is regulated by our wants and the wants of the society in which we live. The value of honour changes according to the opinions, the usages, the political institutions of mankind. The value of sensual pleasure depends much on our constitution, age, and health. Even the value of mental endowments is subjection to vicissitudes. The value of true wisdom alone is invariably the same. 3.It is much more independent of station than any other good.Riches would cease to be riches if all men lived in abundance. Honour would lose much of its value if it gave us no precedence over others. A great proportion of the value of sensual and mental pleasures would be reduced to nothing if every man possessed them, and each in the same degree. But no man loses anything if another be virtuous likewise, but if all were virtuous all would infinitely profit thereby. 4.It has a pre-eminent value, by the effects it produces in us.It renders us: (1) much better, (2) more useful, (3) more happy. 5.It alone fits us for a better life.It passes for as much in heaven as it does upon earth, and much more. It alone assimilates us with God. What we call riches, power, and knowledge, are poverty, weakness, and darkness, with Him.—Zollikofer.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses12, 13.
Wisdom and Prudence.
I. Wisdom and prudence are here represented as dwelling together in express unity of action.Elster remarks upon this passage: “Prudence denotes here right knowledge in special cases, in contrast with the more comprehensive idea of intelligence in general; the practical realisation of the higher principle of knowledge found in wisdom.” Prudence is as necessary to wisdom, as the hand is to the will. Prudence asks what is the best time, the best place, and the best manner in which to carry out what wisdom has designed. It has therefore been defined as “wisdom applied to practice.” Wisdom decrees that a certain word is to be spoken. Prudence decides upon the best time, place, and manner in which to say it. Prudence must always dwell with wisdom, if the designs of a wise man are to be brought to a successful issue. In all God’s plans both are always in operation. Consider their manifestation in the plan of redemption. The wisdom of God is manifested in the conception of plan. His prudence was shown in the choice of thetime,place,andmannerof the manifestation. 1. Thetimewas “the fulness of time” (Gal. iv. 4), when all the streams of human wisdom and greatness which had been flowing through the world for ages, had converged into one head and were seen to be powerless to accomplish the regeneration of the world. Then “God sent forth His Son.” 2. Theplaceof the manifestation. When the wisdom of a commander has decided that a battle must be fought, his prudence is called in to decide where it must take place, where all lawful advantage will be upon his side. Our world was chosen by Divine prudence as the scene of the battle between the powers of Good and Evil because, seeing that here the human race had beenmost shamefully defeated by the devil, it was most fitting that here the Prince of Darkness should be defeated by One in human form—that the victory should be won where the defeat had been sustained. 3.The manner in which, or the means by which, man’s redemption was accomplished.The life of the Incarnate Son of God was adapted to influence the hearts of men. His death for their sins was calculated as probably no other event could have been, to beget within them a love which is powerful enough to make them new creatures. The fact that millions of men and women have been thus born to a new life through the cross of Christ is a revelation of its adaptation to human needs, and a manifestation that Divine wisdom dwelt with Divine prudence in the plan of redemption; that in this, as in all His other workings, there is no exhibition of “sagacious counsels” (seeCritical Notes).
II. Divine wisdom and prudence act in union for the promotion of moral ends(verse 13). There is a wisdom and prudence which do not act in concert for this purpose, but for the very opposite. There is a manifestation of prudence choosing the best time, place, and method in which to work out an evil design. The plan of the tempter to ruin our first parents was a great display of united wisdom and prudence. Thetime,theplace,themeanschosen were all calculated to effect the purpose. But the wisdom and prudence of God unite to put down sin, to banish its evil influence from the universe. As we see the combination of wisdom and prudence in the Father’s plan of redemption, so we see them combined in every act and word of the Son of God while He was manifest in the flesh. The means He used to silence His enemies, to instruct His disciples, to enlighten the ignorant multitude, were all revelations of His Divine wisdom and prudence.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 12. That is, this spiritual light, which the very first proverb (ch. i. 2, 3) says is holiness; takes possession of anyintellect; dwells in it;nay,makes a dwelling in it;for holiness can dwell in nothing else; and that intellect, though it may be the very mind of God, is stirred up by nothing else todoall that is grand in its total history (verses 22–30). Satan, with such splendid intellect, what is he but the universe’s insanest fool? He toils for worse wages than anybody in the whole creation. But could wisdom get a lodging in that peerless intellect, what different results! She gets a lodging in our earthly faculties, and turns us about from sowing to our death, to a splendid harvest of eternal favour.—Miller.
Wisdom, in the most comprehensive aspect, is to be regarded as giving origin to all arts and sciences, by which human life is improved and adorned; as by her inventive skill developing all the varied appliances for the external comfort and well-being of mankind; as planning the “wondrous frame” of universal creation, which, with all its varied beauty, fills us, in the view with astonishment and delight; and conceiving, in the depths of eternity, the glorious scheme—a scheme “dark with brightness all along”—which secures the happiness of man for ever, and in which she appears in her noblest and most attractive display, the whole, from first to last, discovering “the manifold wisdom of God.”—Wardlaw.
In the first address of Wisdom (ch. i. 22–33), her words were stern and terrible. The first step in the Divine education is to proclaim “the terrors of the Lord,” but here she neither promises nor threatens, but, as if lost in contemplation, speaks of her own excellence. “Prudence.” The subtilty of the serpent, in itself neutral, but capable of being turned to good as well as evil. Wisdom, high and lofty, occupied with things heavenly and eternal, does not exclude, yea, rather,“dwells with” the practical tact and insight needed for the common life of men.—Plumptre.
Wisdom here beginneth to draw her own picture, and with her own pencil. . . . The force of the verse is, that Wisdom is there where there is a fitness of worth to entertain her.—Jermin.
I draw all into practice, and teach man to prove by their own experience, what is “that good, and holy, and acceptable will of God” (Rom. xii. 2).—Trapp.
All arts among men are the rays of Divine wisdom falling upon them. Whatsoever wisdom there is in the world, it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God.—Charnock.
Prudence is defined,wisdom applied to practice;so, wherever true wisdom is, it will lead to action. . . . The farther wisdom proceeds in man the more practical knowledge it gains, and, finding out the nature and properties of things, and the general course of Providence, it can contrive by new combinations to produce new results.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 13. To fear retribution is not to hate sin. In most cases it is to love it with the whole heart. It is a solemn suggestion that even thereligionof dark, unrenewed men is in its essence a love of their own sins. Instead of hating sin themselves, their grand regret is, that God hates it. If they could be convinced that the Judge would regard it as lightly as the culprit, the fear would collapse like steam under cold water, and all the religious machinery which it drove would stand still.—Arnot.
The godly avoid evil and do good—not merely from habit, education, the hope of reward, or the fear of punishment, but from hatred of evil and love of goodness.—Cartwright.
The affection of hatred as having sin for its object is spoken of in Scripture as no inconsiderable part of true religion. It is spoken of as that by which true religion may be known and distinguished.—Jon. Edwards.
Wisdom having shown where she dwelleth, she showeth likewise where she dwelleth not. . . . He that saith, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil,” is Himself the Lord that hateth evil. And, doubtless, every one should hate that which He hateth, whom all must love. Now, in an evil way, there be some ringleaders, and such are “pride, arrogancy, and the froward mouth,” for these draw many other after them. . . . And as for the Eternal Wisdom, how much He hateth them, His little regard of Himself showeth plainly and fully. For it was His hatred of Satan’s pride, reigning in wickedness, as well as His love to man captivated by it, that made Him to become man; yea, a worm, and no man, and by His humility to destroy pride, which He so greatly hated.—Jermin.
It is not only Divineholiness,observe, that “hates evil,” it is Divinewisdom.This conveys to us the important lesson that the will of God, along with his abhorrence of all that is opposed it, is founded in thebest of reasons.All that is evil is contrary to His own necessary perfection, and, consequently, to “the eternal fitness of things.”—Wardlaw.
As it is impossible to hate evil without loving good; and as hatred to evil will lead a man to abandon the evil way, and love to goodness will lead him to do what is right in the sight of God, under the influence of that Spirit which has given the hatred to evil, and the love to goodness; this implies the sum and substance of true religion, which is here termed the fear of the Lord.—Adam Clarke.
God’s people partake of the Divine nature, and so have God-like sympathies and antipathies (Rev. ii. 6). They not only leave sin, but loathe it, and are at deadly feud with it. They purge themselves—by this clean fear of God (Psa. xix. 7)—from all pollutions, not of flesh only, worldly lusts, and gross evils, but of spirit also, that lie more up in the heart of the country, as pride, arrogancy, etc.—Trapp.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses14–16.
The Source of True Power.
I. Moral wisdom is the strength of kings.“I have strength; by me kings rule.” There is a kind of strength in all wisdom. The serpent’s strength is in his subtlety. The strength of the kingdom of darkness consists in a kind of wisdom of which our Lord speaks, when He says, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Luke xvi. 8). Many kingdoms have been founded and governed upon the basis of merely human sagacity. But in all such government there are elements of weakness. The foundation of all lasting, true government is to be found only in moral wisdom, in other words, in holiness. That king or ruler will in the long-run have the firmest hold upon his subjects who is himself ruled by Divine wisdom. His strength will be found in the fact, that he rules himself before he attempts to rule others. His personal character will be his chief strength. Christ Himself is strong to rule, because He is pre-eminently the “Holy One.”
II. Without moral wisdom there can be no righteous government.“By me princes decree justice.” A man’s laws will be the outcome of his character. He will not make righteous laws unless he has himself submitted to moral rule. We are assured that all God’s decrees in relation to all His creatures are righteous, because we know Him to be altogether righteous. He was been declared by Him who knows Him best to be the “righteous Father” (John xvii. 25), therefore we know that only righteous laws can be decreed by Him. And it is only in proportion as rulers are influenced by Him, and partake of His character, that they rule in righteousness.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 14. Wisdom’s life is a thing of system. It has an assured result. It is the card-building of the spirit. One card supports another. It builds out with a declared dependence to the very end.—Miller.
The Son of God is a counsellor, as Isaiah calleth Him; for He is both of the privy council of His Father, and the adviser of His Church. Moreover, He hath strength in Him, being the arm of God to conquer sin, with hell and Satan, and is able to do whatsoever He will. Substance (sound wisdom, seeCritical Notes), or the being of things, is likewise His, for He causeth all creatures to be and subsist.—Muffet.
Direction how to act in all circumstances and on all occasions must come from wisdom: the foolish man can give no counsel, cannot show another how he is to act in the various changes and chances of life. The wise man alone can give this counsel, and he can give it only as continually receiving instruction from God: for this Divine Wisdom can say, substance, reality, essence, (seeCritical Noteson Sound Wisdom), all belong to me: I am the fountain whence all are derived. Man may be wise, and good, and prudent, and ingenious; but these he derives from me, and they aredependentlyin him. But in me all these are independently and essentially inherent.—Adam Clarke.
Many things are done, but not havingcounselfor the foundation of them, are weak and rotten and fall again to nothing. Many haveunderstandingwhat is to be done, and how to do it, but have notstrengthto effect it: again many havestrengthof effecting, but have notunderstandinghow to go about it. But the eternal wisdom hath all. It is no strength which by His strength is not supported, no understanding which by His understanding is not enlightened, no counselwhich by His counsel is not guided.—Jermin.
“Knowledge is power,” and knowledge in union with wisdom—the ability to use knowledge aright—multiplies the power. In proportion as there is “understanding” and “wisdom,” is there “strength”—moral and spiritual strength—strength to act and to suffer, todoand tobear.—Wardlaw.
Verses 15, 16. The chief monarchs of the world come unto their sceptres by the power and permission of the Son of God. Lawgivers and counsellors, by His direction and inspiration, give advice and invent politic laws. Inferior rulers keep their places, countenance, and authority by His assistance, whereunto they also rise by His secret disposing of matters. Finally, judges and justices who used to keep courts and sit on benches, do by Him, from Him, and for Him, pronounce sentence, handle matters of state, execute laws, and finally determine all cases.—Muffet.
Here is a Divine prophecy concerning Him who said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. xxiii. 18), and who has “on His head many crowns” (Rev. xix. 12), and “on his vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords” (Rev. xix. 16), and of whom it is written, “that by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (Col. i. 16, 17).—Wordsworth.
Kings are kings only as they are wise, that is, wise in the sense of holiness. It does not mean holiness as altogether distinct from virtue, but holiness as that moral right which belongs to all ranks of moral intelligences. The virtue that belongs to God, and the virtue that belongs to Gabriel, and the virtue that remains in man, and the virtue that is wrecked in hell, are not all different qualities of moral right, but are all identically the same. One moral quality inheres in all. Government being a moral work, the man that governs must have a moral heart. And, as there are no two sorts of virtue, he truly exercises his kingship just in proportion as he is holy,i.e.,in the language of this inspired book, just in proportion as he is spiritually wise.—Miller.
Every kingdom is a province of the universal empire of the “King of Kings.” Men may mix their own pride, folly, and self-will with this appointment. But God’s providential counter-working preserves the substantial blessing.—Bridges.
This language may be considered as implying 1. That human government, in all its branches, is the appointment of Divine wisdom. 2. That all who sustain positions of authority and power should set habitually under the influence of Divine wisdom. 3. That no authority can be rightly exercised, and no judicial process successfully carried out, without the direction of Wisdom. 4. That Divine wisdom exercises control over all human agents in the administration of public affairs.—Wardlaw.
“By me kings reign,” not as if men did behold that book, and accordingly frame their laws, but because it worketh in them when the laws which they make are righteous.—Hooker.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses17–21.
The Reward of Earnest Seekers.
I. The mutual love which exists between Wisdom and her children.There is always a mutual love between a true teacher and a diligent, receptive pupil, and the love on each side has a reflex influence on both master and pupil, and renders it more pleasant to teach, and more easy to learn. When a child loves his parent, and the parent is teaching the child, love oils the wheels of theintellectual powers, and furnishes a motive power to conquer the lesson. And when the parent feels that he is loved by his child and pupil, the love is a present reward. There is such a love between Christ and His disciples. Peter appealed to Christ’s consciousness of being loved by him when he said, “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee” (John xxi. 17). And Christ loves His pupils. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you” (John xv. 9, 13). This mutual love imparts patience on the one side and perseverance on the other. It was Christ’s “first love to us” that gave Him patience to “endure the cross and despise the shame” (Heb. xii. 2). And it is the responsive love of the disciple that enables Him to endure unto the end. It is the love that is born of the consciousness of being loved that stirs up to thediligent seekingof the latter clause of the verse, which expresses—
II. A certain success to the seekers of wisdom.In Holy Scripture earnest seeking and finding are complements of each other. The one does not exist without the other. Seeking ensures finding. Finding implies seeking. “If any man lackwisdom,let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not” (Jas. i. 5). God’s promise is absolute. It can only fail on one of three suppositions. 1. That when God made the promise He had no intention of keeping it, or—2. That unforeseen circumstances have since arisen which render Him unable to fulfil His word, or—3. That the conditions have not been fulfilled on the part of the seeker. We know that God’s holiness and omnipotence render the first two impossible, and therefore, whenever there is no finding, we are certain that there has been no real, earnest seeking. For the promise is limited by the condition, “they that seek me early, or earnestly.” If a traveller has a long journey to perform and many difficulties to overcome in the way, he shows his determination to arrive safely at his destination by setting out at early dawn. Those who are anxious to make a name, or a fortune, show their anxiety by rising early and sitting up late. There are degrees of earnestness in seekers after Divine wisdom as in all other seekers. But those whose seeking is the most earnest will receive the most abundant reward. The Syro-Phœnician woman who besought Christ to heal her daughter was a type of earnest seekers. She redoubled her efforts as the apparent difficulties increased. Sheasked,shesought,sheknocked.And she received not only what she sought, but a commendation from the Lord for her earnest seeking (Matt. xv. 28).
III. What those find who find God.The reward promised to those who seek God is God Himself. In finding Him they find 1.The lasting riches of righteousness(vers. 18, 19). This a wealth which willlast.However great the satisfaction, however many the blessings which may flow from the riches of the earth, “passing away” is written upon all. Yea, long before the end of life the riches may “make themselves wings” (chap. xxiii. 5). Among many other qualities that make moral wealth incomparably superior to material wealth, not the least is itsdurability.(See onvers. 10, 11; also chap.iii. 15, 16.) 2.Guidance,ver. 20. (See on chap.iii. 6, etc.) 3.Reality in opposition to shadow,ver. 21. The hungry man who dreams that he is feasting experiences a kind of pleasure. But the feast is only in vision. There is no power in it to appease his hunger, or nourish his frame. But, if on awaking, he finds a table really spread with food, he then has the substance of that of which in his dreams he had only the shadow. Worldly men walk, the Psalmist tells us, in a “vain show,”i.e.,in an “image,” an “unreality” (Psa. xxxix. 6). “They walk,” says Spurgeon on this verse, “as if the mocking images were substantial, like travellers in a mirage, soon to be filled with disappointment and despair.” There are many who dream that they are being satisfied while they are morally asleep. But by and by they awake and find that they have been feeding on visions of the night, that they have been spending their money for “that which was notbread, and their labour for that which satisfieth not” (Isa. lv. 2). To all who are conscious of this soul-hunger, eternal wisdom here offers substantial heart satisfaction, “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 17. The philosopher could say, that if moral virtue could be seen with mortal eyes, she would stir up wonderful loves of herself in the hearts of the beholders. How much more, then, would “the wisdom of God in a mystery!” (1 Cor. ii. 7), that essential wisdom of God especially, the Lord Jesus, who is “altogether lovely,” “the desire of all nations.” “My love was crucified,” said Ignatius, who “loved not His life unto the death” (Rev. xii. 11). Neither was there any love lost, or can be, for “I love them that love me.” Men do not always reciprocate, or return love for love. David lost his love upon Absalom; Paul upon the Corinthians; but here is no such danger.—Trapp.
The characters whom Christ loves.Christ loves those who love Him.(1)Because He has done and suffered so much for their salvation.We naturally prize any object in proportion to the labour and expense which it cost us to obtain it. How highly, then, must Christ prize, how ineffably must He love His people. For this, among other reasons, His love for them must be greater in degree, and of a different kind from that which He entertains for the angels of light. (2)Because they are united to Him by strong and indissoluble ties.The expressions used to describe this union are the strongest that language can afford. The people of Christ are not only His brethren, His sisters, His bride, but His members, His body, and He consequently loves them as we love our members, as our souls love our bodies. (3)Because they possess His Spirit, and bear His image.Similarity of character tends to produce affection, and hence every being in the universe loves his own image when he discovers it. Especially does Christ love His own image in His creatures, because it essentially consists in holiness, which is of all things most pleasing to His Father and Himself. (4)Because they rejoice in and return His affection.It is the natural tendency of love to produce and increase love. Even those whom we have long loved become incomparably more dear when they begin to prize our love and to return it. If Christ so loved His people before they existed, and even while they were His enemies, as to lay down His life for their redemption, how inexpressibly dear must they be to Him after they become His friends.—Payson.
Seeking wisdom early implies 1. That it engages our first concern and endeavour, while matters of an inferior consideration are postponed. 2. The constant use of the proper means to obtain it. If we see one continually practising any art, we judge that it is his intention to be master of it. 3. The using them with spirt and vigour. The superficial and spiritless performance of duty is as faulty as the total omission.—Abernathy.
All fancy that they love God. But those who either do not seek God at all, or seek Him coldly, whilst they eagerly seek the vanities of the world, make it plain that they are led by the love of the world more than by the love of God.—Fausset.
It is His love to us that makes us to love Him; and, doubtless, He that loves us so as to make us to love Him, cannot but love us when we do love Him.—Jermin.
Seek early, as the Israelites went early in the morning to seek for manna (Exod. xvi. 21), and as students rise early in the morning and sit close to it to get knowledge. To seek the Lord early is to seek the Lord (1)firstly;(2)opportunely.There is a season wherein God may be found (Isa. lv. 6), and if you let this seasonslip, you may seek and miss Him. (3)Affectionately, earnestly(Isa. xxvi. 6). That prayer that sets the whole man a-work will work wonders in Heaven, in the heart, and in the earth. Earnest prayer, like Saul’s sword and Jonathan’s bow, never returns empty.—Brooks.
Verse 18. Spiritual riches are durable. 1. Because they are gotten without wronging any man. Temporal riches are often gotten by fraud and violence, and, therefore, are not lasting. The parties wronged use all means to recover their own, and God punishes unjust persons. Spiritual riches no man can challenge from us. 2. They are everlasting riches, and therefore durable. That must needs last long which lasts ever. These are true, not transitory riches, which often change their masters. They will swim out of the sea of this world with us, out of the shipwreck of death. Neither fire nor sword can take them from us.—Francis Taylor.
In the matters of rank and riches, the two strong cords by which the ambitious are led, the two reciprocally supporting rails on which the train of ambition ever runs,—even in these matters, that seem the peculiar province of an earthly crown, the Prince of Peace comes forth with long challenge and conspicuous rivalry. Titles of honour! their real glory depends on the height and purity of the foundation whence they flow. They have often been the gift of profligate princes, and the rewards of successful crime. And the best the fountain is low and muddy: the streams, if looked at in the light of day, are tinged and sluggish. Thus saith the Lord, “Honour is with me.” He who saith it is the King of Glory. To be adopted into the family of God,—to be the son or daughter of the Lord Almighty,—this is honour. High born! We are all low-born until we arebornagain, and then we are the children of a King.—Arnot.
Verse 20. Christ guides infallibly by—1.His Word.It is all truth. 2.His Spirit.Men mistake and think they are guided by God’s Spirit when they are guided by their own, or by a worse spirit. But certainly when Christ’s Spirit guides He guides aright. 3.His example.All other men have their failings, and must be followed no further than they follow Christ. He is the original copy; others are but blurred abstracts.—Francis Taylor.
“I lead in the way of righteousness,” which is to say, I got not my wealth by right and wrong, by wrench and wiles. My riches are not the riches of unrighteousness, the “mammon of iniquity” (Luke xvi. 9); but are honestly come by, and are therefore like to be “durable” (ver. 18). St. Jerome somewhere saith, that most rich men are either themselves bad men or the heirs of those that have been bad. It is reported of Nevessan, the lawyer, that he should say, “He that will not venture his body shall never be valiant; he that will not venture his soul never rich.” But Wisdom’s walk lies not any such way. God forbid, saith she, that I, or any of mine, should take of Satan, “from a thread even to a shoelatchet, lest he should say, I have made you rich” (Gen. xiv. 23).—Trapp.
Verse 21. The great “I AM” (Exod. iii. 14) is the only substantial reality to satisfy the disciples of Wisdom.—Fausset.
The followers of Christ shall be no losers by Him. They shall not inherit the wind, nor possess for their portion those unsubstantial things, of which it is said,they are not(chap. xxiii. 5), because they are not the true riches. It is not for want of riches to bestow, nor for want of love to His people, that He does not bestow upon every one of them crowns of gold and mines of precious metals.—Lawson.
Here is no yawning vacuum, but a grand object to give interest to life, to fill up every vacancy in the heart—perfect happiness. All that we could add from the world would only make us poorer, by diminishing that enjoymentof God for the loss of which there is no compensation. There is one point—only one—in the universe where we can look up and cry with the saintly Martyn, “With Thee there is no disappointment.”—Bridges.
“I will fill their treasures.” This is a great promise. It is made in a kingly style. There is no limit. It will take much to fill these treasures, for the capacity of the human spirit is very large. God moulded man after His own image, and when the creature is empty, nothing short of His Maker will fill him again. Although a man should gain the whole world, his appetite should not be perceptibly diminished. The void would be as great and the craving as keen as ever. Handfuls are gotten on the ground, but a soulful is not to be had except in Christ. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete (i.e.,full) in Him.”—Arnot.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses22–31.
The Personal Wisdom of God.
I. The antiquity of the Personal Wisdom of God.Wisdom in the abstract must have existed before the creation of the world, because the world bears marks of wisdom. There must have been in Solomon the wisdom to design the temple before it took the form of beauty which made it so famous. There is skill hidden in the artist’s mind before it is manifested upon his canvas—the very existence of the picture proves the pre-existent skill. The world is a temple of large proportions, the beauty of which man can but copy afar off, and its existence proves the pre-existence of wisdom resident in a pre-existent person. As the world bears evident marks of great antiquity it proclaims an All-wise Cause which must necessarily be older still. There is no person known to the human race who claimed to have an existence before the world except Jesus Christ. He claimed—and it is claimed for Him by those who bore witness to Him—to have been before the world was, and to have been conscious of His divinity before the foundation of the world. He claims to have been possessor of “a glory with the Father before the world was” (John xvii. 5), a glory which included intellectual and moral wisdom. And the claim of His apostle concerning the pre-existence of the “Word of God” is most unmistakable (John i. 3). The existence of other and inferior “sons of God” before the creation of this world is implied in Scripture (Job. xxxviii. 7), but we have no direct revelation concerning them. We feel that we could not apply to them, or to any creature, the words of the text, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way,” etc. But, in the light of the New Testament revelation, if we give them a personal application, we must apply them to the Son of God, the Eternal Word, and to Him alone. The words point to an existencedistinct fromGod. “I was by Him,” and “I was with Him.” And yet the intimate relationship and fellowship described does not expressinferiority,but finds its fulfilment only in Him who not only “was in the beginning with God,” but who “was God.” (On this subject seenote.)
II. The Personal Wisdom of God the delight of the Eternal Father.“I was daily His delight” (verse 30). (1) Likeness in character is a foundation of delight. A man who is godly delights to see his own godly character reflected in his son. The recognition of moral likeness in the uncreated Son gave delight to the Eternal Father. Nothing gives God so much joy asgoodness. Hence His joy in His only-begotten Son. (2) Equality of nature is a source of delight to the good and true. Fellowship with an equal gives joy. Christ, when on earth, ever claimed this equality with the Father. He claimed aneternityof being.“Before Abraham was, I am” (Exod. iii. 14; John viii. 58).Omniscienceis claimed for Him, and He gave evidence that He possessed it. “He knew what was in man” (John ii. 25). “And Jesus knowing their thoughts,” etc. (Matt. ix. 4).Divine energy.“My Father worketh hitherto and I work” (John v. 17).Independent existence.“As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John v. 26).Holiness.“Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (John viii. 46).Almighty power.“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. xxviii. 18). In the eternal ages, before the creation of the world, the Father looked upon this “brightness of His glory and express image of His person” (Heb. i. 3), and this Divine Equal gave joy to the uncreated God (Isa. xlii. 1).
III. The delight of the Personal Wisdom of God in the creation of the home of man.“Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth” (verse 31). The artist has joy in the thought of his completed work while it is in progress. He joys in that whichis notas yet in outward form, but whichis,in the completeness within his mind. The architect, who sees day by day the building being reared which he knows will be the wonder of coming ages and the means of yielding comfort to thousands, rejoices in the thought of the blessing that is to come out of his work. He experiences an emotion, with which a stranger cannot intermeddle (Prov. xiv. 10). And so Eternal Wisdom is here represented as regarding the future home of man. He saw its adaptability to the wants of the creatures who were to inhabit it—its inexhaustible resources for the supply of all man’s physical and many of his intellectual wants, and the thought of the missions to whose happiness the earth’s riches and beauties would minister throughout the ages gave Him joy. The best natures among human-kind delight when they are able to produce what will increase the happiness of their fellow-creatures. The poet rejoices when he feels that his thought will cheer the hearts of other men. The inventor is glad when he has made a discovery which he knows will be a boon to his race. And so the Eternal Wisdom of God looked with joy upon the earth which He had called into being for the habitation of the race whom He was about to create. The joy that would be theirs gave Him joy when He looked upon creation with their eyes.
IV. The special delight of Personal Wisdom in man himself.“My delights were with the sons of men.” 1.His delight in man would arise from the fact that he was a creature different from all pre-existing creatures.Man is a link between mind and matter. He is a compound of the animal and the angel, of the dust of the earth and the breath of God. The material creation was called into being before man. The angelic and spiritual creatures existed before man. Man was, as it were, the clasp which united the two, and his unique character, we may well believe, made him a special object of interest to his Creator. New combinations give joy to those who, by combining forces, or material, or thoughts for the first time, bring about a new thing in the earth. They create a power or an idea which would not have existed if these elements had remained separate. Man, as he came originally from the hand of God, was such a perfectly balanced compound of mind and matter, of body and spirit, that his Creator had joy in the contemplation of His work, and declared it to be “very good” (Gen. i. 31). If we apply the words of the text to the second person of the Godhead, we know, from Scripture testimony, that He was the Creator of man, for “without Him was not anything made that was made.” He is as rich in invention as He is in goodness. 2.The delight of Christ would be especially with men, because in His own nature God and man would meet in an eternal combination.The commander who can pluck victory out of the jaws of defeat, by the combination of certain forces not yet brought upon the field with others which have been already defeated, is allowed to give evidence of the highest military skill. The statesman who, anticipating the defeat ofone measure, reserved another method of tactics in the background which he knew would ensure an ultimate success, and who used the very means by which he had been defeated as a lever to establish a better law and a more lasting benefit, would be considered to display ability of the first degree, and to be a benefactor of his race. And the contemplation of such a victory beforehand must be an occupation of the deepest interest to the mind which originates the plan and carries it into action. Christ is, beyond all comparison, the leader of men. He saw beforehand that human nature would be defeated in its first conflict with evil. He knew that Satan would enter in and spoil this new principality of God. But He had already made preparation for this defeat, and He purposed, by means of the very human nature which would be thus defeated, in combination with His own divinity, to spoil the spoiler and lead captivity captive. By the eternal union of His own nature with the human He purposed to place man on a firmer standing ground, and gain for him the power of an endless life. Christ becoming the head of the race has defeated sin in the human nature that was itself defeated, and the grace which He has thus imparted to man has lifted him to a higher level than that in which he was created. And if the first edition of man, which was “of the earth, earthy” (1 Cor. xv. 47), gave joy to his Creator, how much more must He have rejoiced in the prospect of that second edition which was to be made after His own likeness, and to be the reward of “the travail of His soul” (Isa. liii. 11), although even then He knew at what a cost this work would be accomplished (1 Pet. i. 20).
Note on the Relation of the Son of God to the Father.(Verses 22–30, John i. 1). On this subject Dr. John Brown says, “That the Son is essentially and eternally related to the Father, in some real sense, as Father and Son; but that whiledistinctin person (for ‘the Word was with God’), He is neitherposteriorto Him in time (for ‘in the beginning was the Word’), norinferiorto Him in nature (for ‘the Word was God’), norseparatefrom Him in being (for ‘the same was in the beginning with God’), butOne Godheadwith the Father;” this would seem to come as near to the full testimony of Scripture on this mysterious subject as can be reached by our finite understanding, without darkening counsel with words without knowledge.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 22. “The beginning of His way” evidently means the commencement of creation, when Jehovah set out in His course of creative and consequently of providential manifestation of His eternal perfections.Whenthis was we cannot tell. We may know the age of our own world, at least according to its present constitution. Butwhenthe universe was brought into being, and whether by one omnipotentfiat,or at successive and widely varying periods, it is beyond our power to ascertain. One thing we know for a certainly revealed fact, that there were angelic creatures in existence previous to the reduction of our globe to order and to the creation of man upon it. These holy intelligences contemplated the six days of work of Divine wisdom and power in this part of the universe with benevolent transport. “The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” How many other creatures, and of what descriptions—how many other worlds, and how peopled, might have existed before man and his earthly residence we are unable to affirm. When men, indeed, begin to talk of its being absurd to suppose the universe so recent as to have been only coeval with our own globe, or our own system, they forget themselves. They do not speak considerately nor philosophically. There is no lapse of ages or any point of measurement in eternity. . . . Beginning is as inconsistent with the idea of eternity as termination is. Go as far back as imagination, or as numbers heaped on numbers, can carry you, there still remains the previouseternity, during which our speculative and presumptuous minds may wonder that Divine power had not been put forth.—Wardlaw.
Verse 23. It was in the last times, that the Eternal Wisdom was set forth unto us, but it wasfrom everlasting,that He was set up to be a king over us. It was in the fulness of time that He offered Himself for us, but it was from the beginning that He was anointed to be priest unto us. It was upon the earth that His gracious lips taught us, but it was before the earth was that He was ordained to be a prophet for us. It is in Him that all are chosen who come unto eternity, and He Himself was chosen from eternity. From everlasting he was set up our King, to set us up an everlasting kingdom. From the beginning was He anointed our priest, to anoint us in a priesthood that shall never end. Before the earth was, He was ordained our prophet, to order our feet in that way which shall bring us from earth to heaven; He was chosen that we might be the chosen people of God.—Jermin.
Verse 24. The order of creation corresponds to that which we find in Genesis i. Still more striking is the resemblance with the thoughts and language of the book of Job, chap. xxii., xxvi., xxxviii. A world of waters, “great deeps” lying in darkness—this was the picture of the remotest time of which man could form any conception, and yet the co-existence of the uncreated wisdom with the eternal Jehovah was before that.—Plumptre.
At the period referred to here, creation was not yet actually framed and executed, it was only framed and planned; the whole being at once, in all its magnificence and in all its minuteness, before the eye of the omniscient mind, in its almostinfinitecomplexity, extent, and variety, yet without the slightest approach to confusion! All there, in one vast and complicated, yet simple idea!—Wardlaw.
Verse 27. God’s “setting a compass upon the face of the deep” seems to refer to His circumscribing the earth when in its fluid state, assigning to it its spherical form, and fixing the laws by which that form should be constantly maintained. I think it probable that this refers to the earth in the state in which it is described previous to the beginning of the six days’ work, by which it was reduced to order, and fitted for and stocked with inhabitants. How was the fluid element held together in the spherical form? The answer is, God “set a compass upon the face of the deep, saying, This be thy just circumference, O World!” By the power of gravitation, affecting every particle, drawing it to the common centre, the equilibrium was maintained, the globular form effected and kept; which may here be meant by the poetical conception of sweeping a circle from the centre, and defining the spherical limits of the world of waters.—Wardlaw.
Verse 29. Though great be the noise of the roaring of the sea, great the inconstancy of the tumbling waves, great the looseness of the flowing waters; yet the voice of God’s decree is easily heard by them, constant is their obedience unto God’s commandment, firmly do they keep the bounds of His law. But in the noise of our disorders, little is God’s Word heard by us, in the lightness of our hearts, much is the will of God slighted, in the looseness of our lives every way doth a careless regard of God’s law spread itself, which could not but drown us in a sea of God’s wrath, did not He who was when the bounds of the sea were decreed, purchase by the red sea of His blood a gracious pardon for us. . . . Fitly is God said to appoint the foundations of the earth only; for that alone founded the whole earth, no more was needful for it. But how little doth God’s appointment prevail with man, a little piece of earth. How often are God’s purposes in the means of salvation disappointed by him. To lay firm thefoundations of grace in man’s heart, the Eternal Wisdom, who was when the foundations of the earth were appointed, came down from Heaven, and here was pleased to work out His life thereby to accomplish the work of our redemption. And shall not this, then, make us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling?—Jermin.
Verse 30. To Wisdom the work was no laborious task. She “sported,” as it were, in the exuberance of her strength and might.—Plumptre.
Verse 31. What was it that here attracted His interest? Man had been created in the image of God—free to stand or fall. This freedom was the perfection of his nature. His fall was permitted as the mysterious means of his higher elevation. His ruin was overruled for his greater security. Thishabitable earthwas to be the grand theatre of the work that should fill the whole creation with wonder and joy. Here the serpent’s head was to be visibly bruised, the kingdom of Satan to be destroyed, “precious spoil to be divided with the strong” (Isa. liii. 12). Here was the Church to be framed, as the manifestation of His glory, the mirror of His Divine perfections (Ephes. iii. 10, 21). Considering the infinite cost at which He was to accomplish this work, the wonder is that He should haveenduredit; a greater wonder that, ere one atom of the creation was formed—ere the first blossom had been put forth in Paradise, he should haverejoicedin it.—Bridges.
Of all earthly creatures, Christ delights most in men. 1. Because man is the chief of God’s creatures upon earth, made after God’s image, and for whom all the rest were made. 2. Because He took on Him the nature of men, and not of angels (Heb. ii. 16). 3. He conversed most familiarly with men when He was incarnate. Men only had reason and wisdom to delight in Christ’s company, and to give Him occasion to delight in theirs. 4. Because He gave His life for them, that they might live with Him for ever. It seems, then, that He took great delight in them, and means to do so for ever.—Francis Taylor.
Did our Saviour, before His incarnation, rejoice in the habitable parts of the earth, and delight in visiting and blessing the sons of men? Then we may be certain that He still does so; for He is, yesterday, to-day, and for ever, the same. Still, He prefers earth to heaven; still, His chief delights are with the sons of men; and while, as man, He intercedes for them in Heaven, He still, as God, visits our world, to meet with and bless His people. . . . And how great will be our Saviour’s happiness after the final consummation of all things! . . . If He loved, and rejoiced, and delighted in them before they knew and loved Him, how will He love and rejoice in them, when He sees them surrounding His throne, perfectly resembling Himself in body and soul, loving Him with unutterable love, contemplating Him with ineffable delight, and praising Him as their deliverer from sin, and death, and hell, as the author of all their everlasting glory and felicity.—Payson.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses32–36.
Exhortation founded on Human Obligations to Divine Wisdom.
I. Because Christ, the Eternal Wisdom, has manifested His sympathy with man, we are under obligations to come into sympathy with Him.A man who has manifested his sympathy with, and delight in, another’s welfare by most substantial acts of benevolence and self-denial, has taken the most reasonable method of awakening an answering sympathy in the breast of him whom he has thus regarded. And the obligation on the part of the recipient isincreased in proportion to the amount of self-sacrifice undergone on his behalf. If such a benefactor desires and asks for the friendship of him whom he has befriended, it would seem impossible that such an appeal could be made in vain. The eternal wisdom of God has gone to the utmost of even His infinite capacity of self-denial to show His delight in, and regard for the human race. This, coupled with His eternal existence and His almighty power, is here made the basis for an exhortation to men to listen to His words, “Now, therefore, hearken unto me, O ye children!”
II. Those who are thus drawn into sympathy with Eternal Wisdom come under conditions of life.Here is a repetition of an oft-repeated truth of revelation, that life and God’s favour are inseparable—identical (ver. 35). We can see shadows of this truth in the intercourse of men with their fellow-creatures. If a poor outcast child, surrounded by influences of evil to which he must yield if left to fight them single-handed, is lifted out of his degradation into a godly home, the favour of the friend who thus raises him changes his miserable existence into something worth calling life in comparison. The child who, by wilfulness, has forfeited the favour of a good parent, feels his entire existence clouded, but forgiveness through reconciliation brings light and life back to his life. How much more is it so when we come into sympathy with Christ by hearkening to His voice and taking His yoke, and are by Him lifted out of a life of bondage to sin into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
III. Those who refuse thus to come into sympathy with Eternal Wisdom are self-destroyers, because they are God-haters.He who refuses to drink of the Fountain of Life, must, of necessity, be left to soul-death. There is nothing that gives more sorrow to a human being than to know that the evil from which he is suffering is self-inflicted. If a man loses his sight through a wound which he receives from another, although he feels his blindness to be a terrible calamity, it lacks the element of bitterness which would be added to it if it had been brought about by his own wilfulness. The man who loses a limb in lawful battle looks upon his loss as an honour, because it was inevitable. But his feeling would be very different if he knew that he had been crippled for life by his own folly. It will be the main ingredient in the bitter cup of those who disregard the invitations of Divine Wisdom that they are moral suicides. The consciousness of this is a perpetual hell to the human spirit. And the mere neglect is sufficient to give the death-blow. It is not necessary to be in positive opposition to God and goodness. Not to listen is to refuse. Not to wait on God is to sin against Him—is to despise the provisions of His mercy.
illustration of verse34.
Hovering about the avenues of a royal residence, there are in Eastern as well as in other countries, always to be seen groups of people, some of whom are attracted by the impulse of curiosity, others by the hope of obtaining some mark of royal favour. The assiduity and perseverance requisite for succeeding in their suit, and waiting the propitious moment of presenting themselves in the presence of their sovereign, is not, as may be easily supposed, at all times consistent with personal ease and convenience, and, accordingly, here and there may be observed individuals seated upon a stone, or reclining upon the grass, in anxious expectation for the appearance of the sovereign on his way to daily exercise. To sit at the gates of a king is a custom of great antiquity.—Paxton’s Illustrations of Scripture.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 32. O sweet courtesy! as if it were but a small matter that the Eternal Wisdom should become our Master, and teach us as His scholars; or that, being our Lord, He should teach us as His servants; or that, being God, He should teach us as men; yet greater is His love, and, as a FatherHe teacheth us as His children. And well may He call us His children, for it is He that teacheth us who, by adoption, hath made us to be His children, which by hearkening unto Him we show ourselves to be.—Jermin.
Verse 34. Uriah watched at David’s gate as a token of service (2 Sam. xi. 9). Lazarus watched at Dives’ gate as a token of dependence (Luke xvi. 20). Courtiers at royal entrances for smiles of favour. Let the sinner do all these things.—Miller.
Not watching awhile, and then going away if they be not let in presently, but waiting patiently till they be let in. Not only taking occasion of learning offered, but waiting to find occasions, as petitioners wait on great men till their causes be ended.—Francis Taylor.
Wisdom here appears as a sovereign, separate and secluded, in the style of Oriental monarchs, so that only those know anything of her who diligently keep watch at her doors. Wisdom, who is universal in her call and invitation (verses 1–3), yet, in the course of communication in order to test the fidelity of her admirers, veils herself at times in a mysterious darknesss, and reveals herself only to those who never intermit their search (Matt. vii. 7).—Von Gerlach, in Lange’s Commentary.
There ought to be an expectation raised in us that the vital savour diffused in and by the Word may reach us; and many are ruined for not expecting it—not waiting at the posts of Wisdom’s door.—John Howe.
Verse 35. 1.Natural lifeis found by it, not in regard to the beginning of it, but in regard of the comfort and continuance. 2.Spiritual life,or the life of grace. Wisdom is the life of the soul, and what were the world worth if there were no light? 3.Eternal life,or the life of glory. This is indeed the life that Christ, the wisdom of God, died to purchase for us, and lived among us to show us the way to it.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 36. Doing without is a stupid misery; but hating wisdom is an insane marvel.—Miller.
Not to love and earnestly seek Wisdom is tosin against her.To disregard her is tohateher, and is virtually, though unconsciously, to love death; for it is loving things, which as being opposed to wisdom, bring with them death.—Fausset.
What meaneth thisallwhere one would think there could be none? Can there be an all to hate Him who loveth all that is? But if it were not so, why do so many resist His holy will, despise His heavenly laws, rebel against His sacred pleasure? Are not these effects of hatred? Besides, so doth He challenge theallof our affection, as not to hate all things for His sake, is to hate Him. Now they that hate Him, which can they love? Surely it must needs bedeath,because in all things else He is. But that is the fruit of sin, and they that love the tree must needs love the fruit also. But to whom do we speak these things, or why do we speak them? Where shall we find open ears, or seeing eyes, when now almost men care not whom they look after, so that they do not look after themselves?—Jermin.
A child or an idiot may kindle a fire which all the city cannot quench. In spite of their utmost efforts, it might destroy both the homes of the poor and the palaces of majesty. So a sinner, though he cannot do the least good, can do the greatest evil. The Almighty only can save him, but he can destroy himself.—Arnot.
Sin is a self-injury.There are three facts implied in these words: Firstly,That man is capable of sinning.This capability distinguishes man from the brute, and belongs to all moral beings. . . . It is our glory that wecansin; it is our disgrace and ruin that we do so. Secondly,That sin is something directed against God.All the laws of man’s being—physical, organic, intellectual, and moral—are God’s laws, and violating of them is rebellion against heaven. Thirdly,That sin against God is a wrong done to our nature.This istrue of all sin, physical as well as spiritual. We cannot violate the laws of physical health, without losing at the same time something of the life, elasticity, and vigour of the mind. That sin injures the soul admits of no debate: it is a patent fact written on every page of history, and proclaimed by the deep consciousness of humanity. From this unquestionable fact we may fairly deduce three general truths. I.That God’s laws are essentially connected with the constitution of man.From this fact two things follow. (1.) That all sin is unnatural. (2.) That an evasion of the penalties of sin is beyond the power of the creature. II.That God’s laws are the expression of benevolence.We wrong our souls by not keeping God’s laws. Obedience to them is happiness. The voice of all Divine prohibitions is, “Do thyself no harm,” the voice of all Divine injunctions is, “Rejoice evermore.” We infer from thisfact—III.That God’s laws should be studiously obeyed.(1.) Right requires it. All God’s laws are righteously binding upon the subject, and disobedience is a crime. (2.) Expediency requires it. A life of sin is a life of folly, for it must ever be a life of misery.—Dr. David Thomas.
Verses 30–36. I. From the beginning, the welfare of man engaged the complacent regard of God our Saviour. He derived delight from thematerialcreation because it was to be subservient to man. II. We may therefore expect that all His communications and intercourse with us would be made to harmonise with our welfare also. We are warranted in expecting that all His communication with us will harmonise with the wants of our nature—that the means will be adapted to the end. Accordingly verses 35 and 36 imply that so perfect is that adaptation between the provisions of mercy and the necessity of man, that he who rejects them wrongs his own soul, that who receives them receives life. III. May we not infer that, even of this habitable part, He would rejoice in some spots more than in others, especially in such as are set apart for the diffusion of His truth and the promotion of His designs.—Dr. J. Harris.
Critical Notes.—1. Wisdom,in the plural, as in chap. i. 20, to express excellence and dignity.2. She hath mingled her wine.Some commentators understand the mingling to be with water, others with spices; both were customary among ancient Orientals.7.Latter clause. Most commentators translate, “he that rebuketh the wicked, it is his dishonour,” or, “it is a dishonor to him,”i.e., to the wicked man.10. The Holy,generally understood to stand in apposition to Jehovah.13. A foolish woman,rather, “the woman of folly,” an exact opposition of the personified wisdom of the former part of the chapter.Clamorous,“violently excited” (Zöckler).15.Who go right on their ways. “Who are going straightforward in their paths” (Stuart).
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses1–12.
Wisdom’s Feast.
I. The home to which Divine Wisdom invites her guests is one which has cost time and labour in the preparation.“Wisdom hathbuildedher house.” The building of anything implies the expenditure of time and labour. When the eagle builds her nest and prepares a house for her yet unborn young she spends much time in her work and bestows much labour upon it. In the building of a house for human habitation, whether it be a palace or a cottage,time and care, and thought and labour must be given to the building. And so it is in mental building; when thoughts are to be gathered together and fashioned into a book, the gathering and the building involves the expenditure of mental labour, and of many hours and days, and sometimes years, before the work is completed. And God has not departed from this rule in the works which He has wrought for the benefit of His creatures. The house which He has built for the habitation of man was not brought into its present form all at once. God did not create the heavens and the earth in one day or in a short period of time. We read that “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is” (Exod. xx. 2), and the record of the rocks confirms the testimony of revelation that the preparation of the earth for man was a work of time. In creation Divine Wisdom “builded her house.” And what is true of creation is true also of redemption. The incarnation of the Son of God took place in the days of Tiberius Cæsar, but the process of building the plan of redemption had been going on for ages. In the Mosaic dispensation it was seen in outline. Its sacrifices were shadows of the house which God intended hereafter to build in the human nature of the man Christ Jesus. The temple of Herod was forty-six years in building (John ii. 20), but the temple of God was in course of preparation for more than forty-six generations before it was brought to completion in “the Word made flesh” (See Hebrews, chap. ix).
II. That which has been long in preparation is strong and enduring in character.It hath “seven pillars.” The snow-flake is not long in being formed, and it is not long in duration. The bubble upon the stream is built in an instant, and passes away as quickly. But the coral island has taken many years, and cost a million lives, to build it, and now it stands a rock in the midst of the ocean, and has become the home of man. All that is strong and lasting in the world has taken time in its formation. So is it in the refuge where that is found which will satisfy the soul of man. It was long ere it was completed, but it is a lasting edifice, built upon a sure foundation (Heb. vi. 18, 19).
III. The house which Wisdom has builded contains that which will satisfy human need.The soul-blessings which God offers to men are often compared to a feast (Isa. xxv. 6; Matt. xxii. 4). Here Wisdom is spoken of as having “killed her beasts, mingled her wine, furnished her table.” 1.It is plain that the human spirit needs a feast from the fact that God has spread the board.When the Lord Jesus furnished a table in the wilderness for the multitude it was to supply a manifest need. It was to meet Israel’s need that God fed them with manna in the wilderness. Man’s spiritual nature must starve without the feast which God’s wisdom has prepared. The existence of the feast proves the existence of the need. 2.This feast is of the best quality.The man who prepares a feast for his guests prepares of his best. The feast prepared by a poor man will be the best at his command; the banquet of a king will be such as befits his rank and resources. The banquet to which Divine Wisdom invites her guests is furnished with the most costly provisions that even God has to give. Christ, who declares Himself to be meat and drink to the spirit of man (John vi. 51, 54, 56) is the best gift that God can bestow upon man—the best food that Heaven could furnish. 3.Wisdom’s feast is one in which there is variety.There isflesh,wineandbread(verses 2 and 5). The feasts of the rich and great consist of many different dishes, and the variety adds to the enjoyment of the guests. God has provided many different kinds of food to satisfy our bodily appetite. Although they are all adapted to the same end, viz., to the nourishment of the body, the difference in the composition and flavour adds much to man’s enjoyment. The human spirit, like the human body, craves a variety in its food, and God has satisfied that craving. The revelation of God in Christ (in other words, the Gospel) reveals a great variety of spiritual truths upon which the spiritual nature of man can feed. There arethings “new and old” in the Gospel treasury (Matt. xiii. 52). And new revelations of life and immortality will be brought to light throughout the coming ages, and the feeling of those who partake of the royal banquet will be like that of the ruler of the feast at Cana: “Thou hast kept the good wine until now” (John ii. 10).
IV. Those who invite to Wisdom’s feast must be pure in character.The sending forth of “maidens” seems to convey this idea. Maidenhood is a type of purity. The character of the inviter must be in keeping with the nature of the invitation. If a man gives an invitation to the Gospel-feast, he will find that those whom he invites will look at the invitation through the glass of his character, and unless it is one through which the invitation can be favourably viewed, there will be little hope of his words proving effectual. Character and doctrine are inseparable. God intends the first to be a recommendation of the last. The invitation to “Come,” from the lips of the Lord Jesus, was mighty in its power, because the purity of His teaching was equalled by the purity of His life. The great power of the invitation to Wisdom’s feast in the mouths of the first Christian teachers sprang from the character of those who gave the invitation (see 2 Cor. i. 2).