Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 28:1
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Pro 28:1
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Christian boldness
In all ages courage has been regarded as a mark of honour and magnanimity, and cowardice has been considered a proof of pusillanimity and baseness. There is something base in cowardice. There is something noble in courage. A name descriptive of a virtue ought never to be applied to what is equivocal or culpable. Yet such is the native dignity of courage, such the value it ever commands, that in its most suspicious forms it possesses a charm which is almost irresistible. On the other hand, it is not for Christian men to judge of timidity as the world judges. There is much that the world accounts cowardly which we regard as noble and magnanimous. The real coward is the slave of his fear, and mankind are right in branding cowardice as vile and contemptible. The brave man is tranquil, firm, concentrated. He is the real master of what belongs to him, because he is master of himself. The text charges cowardice upon sin, and claims for holiness the honours of courage. There is nothing more wonderful in man than the moral faculty which we call conscience. But it may be injured and weakened. There is even the possibility that it may be destroyed. Among the instruments of torture with which conscience afflicts the soul of the sinner is fear. Sin is immediately followed by fear–by the fear of detection, of exposure, of punishment. Under a sense of sin the bravest man becomes a coward. Sin is more especially followed by a fear at the Divine displeasure. Sin is a thing of darkness. It shuns the light. When a man has sinned, his chief care is, that his sin should not be known to others. This becomes a supreme fear. Even when the sinner has no reason to fear man at all, he is not free from feelings of terror. Conscience allows them no peace. They are restless, unsettled, miserable. Changing the picture, the text presents the righteous as bold as a lion. The courage of the lion, though by no means a certain thing, has passed into a proverb, and the highest degree of intrepidity is implied by this comparison. We must not forget to make the distinction between physical and moral timidity. There is a timidity which is strictly a bodily infirmity. Where there is uprightness of conduct there is no place for fear. He who has done nothing to be ashamed of cannot dread detection and exposure. He who acts from principle, who does what he does in the fear of God, will not be afraid of the consequences of his actions, because he is well assured that all those consequences are in the hands of the great Disposer. In the discharge of duty the righteous are bold as a lion. Theirs is not presumption, for they are trusting on Him who is infinite. It is not desperation, for they can rely on innumerable promises. They present a bold front to the enemy; they feel their superiority. But before Him with whom they have to do, their Father in heaven, there is nought of self-confidence. Trusting in God, they cannot fail. They may bid farewell to doubt and insecurity. Their foundation is a rock; their hope is sure and steadfast. (J. G. Dowling, M.A.)
Sources of courage
The two ingredients that go into the composition of a good soldier are courage and good conduct. Here cowardice and courage are resolved into their first principles. All mankind are distinguished, by their proper characters, into two sorts–wicked and righteous. The wicked are of such base and timorous spirits that they are ready to run away from the least shadow of danger; being haunted with an ill-boding mind, they flee before the spectres of their own fancies. Every wicked man is not actually a coward, for that contradicts experience. There is a sort of valour which naturally springs out of the very temper of mens bodies, which is nothing else but a certain impetus, or brisk fermentation of the blood and spirits, and this is common to bad men as with good. By the term righteous the Scripture is wont to express all good men, because all instances of goodness are acts of righteousness, either to God, or to ourselves, or to our neighbours. Of this sort of men the proper character is bold as a lion. At least their righteousness tends to make them so. Illustrate this proposition: that wickedness naturally tends to dishearten and cowardize men, but righteousness and goodness to encourage and embolden them. The things which naturally contribute to make men courageous.
1. That they be free, and within their own command.
2. That they be well hardened to endure difficulties and inconveniences.
3. That they be well satisfied in the nature of their actions and undertakings.
4. That they have a hopeful prospect of being well seconded.
5. That they have a probable security of good success.
6. That they be borne up with the expectation of a glorious reward.
All these causes of courage are to be found in righteousness, and their direct contraries in a sinful and wicked course of life. (John Scott.)
Moral cowardice
This is a fact that may be accounted for on moral grounds. Conscience is the tormentor of the bad man.
1. Then the finest faculties of men may become terrible scourges.
2. Then no dependence is to be placed on the wicked in the time of danger.
3. Then the wicked are always making fools of themselves.
4. Then the wicked cannot bear the judgment of man; how can they endure the vengeance of God?
5. Then man may come to be regarded as the enemy of man. (J. Parker, D.D.)
The difference between the righteous and the wicked in respect of courage and confidence
Scarcely is there anything more consistent and regular in the course of natural productions than that fear and remorse are the offspring of guilt, and religious courage and undauntedness the attendants of integrity. The most striking instance may be found in the behaviour of our primitive parents.
I. Consider this case with respect to the wicked.
1. One reason why they are so liable to be alarmed and put into disorder is shame. Those who do evil wish to conceal their doings. Darkness is not only the principle from which evil deeds flow, but the proper region and retirement where they strive for ever to conceal them.
2. Another cause is fear. That fear gives wings to the transgressor is observed even to a proverb. They who sin can have no real peace or satisfaction of mind. Fear naturally arises from the apprehension of present or future ill. Some indeed there are who have so effectually dosed and qualified their consciences as to pass over a crime with as much indifference as they before committed it. But there is little tranquillity within, though outwardly they seem so airy and serene.
II. How the righteous man acquits himself. The upright man wants no refuge: as he is free from guile and deceit, so he is frank and open in his whole conversation. His integrity is dearer to him than the most pompous acquisitions, and the security of his soul than the gain of the universe. Through the perverse opposition of a censorious and malignant world, the most circumspect cannot always escape despiteful usage. But, confident in God, the good man maintains his ground, stands upon his defence, and is no more to be stormed by assault than perverted by interest. Innocence is the best armour he can put on. Since the difference appears so considerable and important, it cannot be a matter of doubt to any one that calls himself rational to which side his choice ought to be determined. (James Roe, M.A.)
Frights and securities
1. What continual frights those are subject to that go on in wicked ways! Guilt in the conscience makes men a terror to themselves, so that they are ready to flee when no man pursueth; like one that absconds for debt, who thinks every one he meets a bailiff. Though they pretend to be easy, there are secret fears which haunt them wherever they go, so that they fear where no present or imminent danger is. Those that have made God their enemy, and know it, cannot but see the whole creation at war with them, and therefore can have no true enjoyment of themselves, no confidence, no courage, but a fearful looking for of judgment. Sin makes men cowards.
2. What a holy security and serenity of mind those enjoy who keep conscience void of offence, and so keep themselves in the love of God. In the greatest dangers the righteous have a God of almighty power to trust to. Whatever difficulties they meet with in the way of their duty, they are not daunted by them. (Matthew Henry.)
Lion-like boldness of the righteous
The righteous are those who do right. Saxon of righteous is right wise. Before man had fallen the righteous were those who were conformed, in all respects, to the known will of God. Now, as fallen creatures, none can claim to be righteous, according to the strict requirements of the law. Some, however, may be spoken of, in a comparative sense, as righteous. The eleventh article says, We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith. A certain quality is ascribed to such persons: they are bold as a lion. This is a proverbial expression from ancient times.
I. Boldness is indispensable at the very beginning of the Christian course. Does it require no boldness to obey the gospel call? Let those answer who have gone through with the painful struggle which it costs before the mind can be brought to a decided stand.
II. Boldness is required in the discharge of the duties which must be met day by day. What bright examples of courage have been placed before us in the lives of the saints of God–Moses, Caleb and Joshua, David, Elijah, etc.; and in the history of the martyrs and confessors of the Church–e.g., Athanasius, Ridley, and Latimer. Those brave souls are now acting the same noble part who, in these days of blasphemy and rebuke, are not afraid to show favour to Gods children who may be under a cloud of reproach and trodden underfoot by the mighty. In more ordinary matters, the same boldness is indispensable.
III. the boldness of the righteous is manifested at the approach of death. There is something in human nature which instinctively shrinks back at the thought of dissolution. But when the righteous man actually draws near the border-line, the fear of death is gone. Then let us all cultivate the decision, the boldness, and the endurance, which our profession demands. (John N. Norton.)
Conscience
Pursuit and flight are in nature correlatives, and constitute an inseparable pair. A swift foot does not avail the man who is fleeing from himself. When they escape from man, God is the pursuer of the guilty. A reflector fixed in the human constitution points ever to its author, as the magnet points to its pole, whatever the windings of life may be. In effect, God is present in every human breast. Conscience within a man is one extremity of an electric wire whose other extremity is fastened to the judgment-seat. This apparatus brings the Judge and the criminal terribly near to each other. Conscience is in many respects the most wonderful element in the constitution of man. It is the point of closest contact and most intimate communion between us and the Father of our spirits. Thereby chiefly God apprehends us, thereby chiefly we apprehend God. Who shall settle the controversy between an unclean conscience and a just God? The question points, as John did, to the Lamb of God who taketh sin away. There is one Mediator between God and man. Terrors are sent as messages of mercy to arouse loiterers, and compel them to flee. It is better to be roughly awakened to safety than to perish asleep. (W. Arnot, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXVIII
The timidity of the wicked. Quick succession in the government
of a country is a punishment to the land. Of the poor who
oppress the poor. The upright poor man is preferable to the
wicked rich man. The unprofitable conduct of the usurer. The
prosperity of the righteous a cause of rejoicing. He is
blessed who fears always. A wicked ruler a curse. The murderer
generally execrated. The faithful man. The corrupt judge. The
foolishness of trusting in one’s own heart. The charitable man.
When the wicked are elevated, it is a public evil.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXVIII
Verse 1. The wicked flee] Every wicked man, however bold he may appear, is full of dreary apprehensions relative to both worlds. But the righteous has true courage, being conscious of his own innocence, and the approbation of his God. The unpitious fleeith. – Old MS. Bible. This word is often used for impious, wicked, ungodly; hence it appears that our word pity anciently meant piety or godliness.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The wicked flee when no man pursueth, because the conscience of their own guilt puts them into a continual expectation and dread of Gods judgments.
The righteous are bold; are courageous and resolute, having the witness of a good conscience, and the assurance of Divine favour and protection, and the supports and consolations of the Holy Ghost.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. A bad conscience makes mentimid; the righteous are alone truly bold (Pro 14:26;Psa 27:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The wicked flee when no man pursueth,…. Through the terrors of a guilty conscience, as in Cain and others; who fear where no immediate cause of fear is, are frightened with their own shadows; and as Gaal was with the shadow of the mountains, he took for an army of men, as his friend told him, Jud 9:36; they are chased with the sound of a shaken leaf, and fancy men are at their heels to destroy them, and therefore with all haste flee to some place of safety; see Le 26:17;
but the righteous are bold as a lion; which turns not away from any creature it meets with, nor mends its pace when it is pursued, but walks on intrepidly, and oftentimes lies down and sleeps in open places, and as securely as in woods and dens, being devoid of all fear; hence the heart of a valiant man is said to be as the heart of a lion,
2Sa 17:10; see Pr 30:30; so Pindar z compares a courageous man to a lion for boldness. Now righteous men are as bold as this creature, or more so; some of them have stopped the mouths of lions, and have dwelt securely in the midst of them, as righteous Daniel: and all righteous men are or may be as fearless as the lion; fear God they do, but have no reason to fear any other; and many of them are fearless of men, of their menaces and reproaches, or of anything they can do to them; since not only angels are their guardians, but God is on their side, and Christ has overcome the world for them: they are fearless of Satan and his principalities; they are delivered out of his hands; they know he is a coward, though a roaring lion, and when resisted will flee from thorn; yea, that he is a chained, conquered, enemy: and, though they are afraid of committing sin, yet are fearless of the damning power of it; Christ having bore their sins, made satisfaction for thong; for whose sake they are pardoned; and whose righteousness justifies and blood cleanses from all sin: they are fearless of death; its sting being removed, itself abolished as a penal evil, and become a blessing, and is the righteous man’s, gain: they are fearless of wrath to come; Christ having delivered them from it, and they being justified by his blood: they are courageous as the lion in fighting the Lord’s battles with sin, Satan, and the world, and in enduring hardiness as good soldiers of Christ; knowing their cause is good, that Christ is the Captain of their salvation, their spiritual armour is proved, and they are sure of victory and of a crown They are “confident” a as the lion, as the word may he rendered; they are confident of the love of God, of their interest in Christ, of the grace of God in their hearts, and that all things work together for their good; and that it is, and always will be, well with them, let things go how they will in the world, and so are secure. They are bold and undaunted, both before God and men; before God in prayer, knowing him to be their covenant God in Christ, having in view the blood and righteousness of Christ, and being assisted by his Spirit: and they are undaunted before men; if the righteous man is a minister of the word, he speaks it boldly, as it ought to be spoken, fearing the faces of none, knowing it to be the Gospel of Christ, the truth, as it is in him, and the power of God to salvation; and if a private Christian, he is a public professor of Christ, this word and ordinances, which he is not ashamed to own before all the world; in short, the righteous are bold in life and in death, and will be so in the day of judgment; and it is their righteousness which makes them so, from which they are denominated righteous, even not their own, but the righteousness of Christ.
z Isthm. 4. antistroph. 3. col. 1. v. 5. a “confiduat”, Mercerus, Gejerus, Trigurine version; “confidet, vel confidere solet”, Baynus; “confidit”, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 The godless flee without any one pursuing them;
But the righteous are bold like a lion.
We would misinterpret the sequence of the accents if we supposed that it denoted as obj.; it by no means takes as a parenthesis. belongs thus to as collective sing. (cf. e.g., Isa 16:4);
(Note: The Targum of Pro 28:1 is, in Bereschith rabba, c. 84, ; that lying before us is formed after the Peshito.)
in 1b, , as comprehensive or distributive (individualizing) singular, follows the plur. subject. One cannot, because the word is vocalized and not , regard as an attributive clause thereto (Ewald, like Jerome, quasi leo confidens ); but the article, denoting the idea of kind, does not certainly always follow . We say, indifferently, or , or , and always , not . In itself, indeed, may be used absolutely: he is confident, undismayed, of the lion as well as of the leviathan, Job 40:23. But it is suitable thus without any addition for the righteous, and and correspond to each other as predicates, in accordance with the parallelism; the accentuation is also here correct. The perf. denotes that which is uncaused, and yet follows: the godless flee, pursued by the terrible images that arise in their own wicked consciences, even when no external danger threatens. The fut. denotes that which continually happens: the righteous remains, even where external danger really threatens, bold and courageous, after the manner of a young, vigorous lion, because feeling himself strong in God, and assured of his safety through Him.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
See here, 1. What continual frights those are subject to that go on in wicked ways. Guilt in the conscience makes men a terror to themselves, so that they are ready to flee when none pursues; like one that absconds for debt, who thinks every one he meets a bailiff. Though they pretend to be easy, there are secret fears which haunt them wherever they go, so that they fear where no present or imminent danger is, Ps. liii. 5. Those that have made God their enemy, and know it, cannot but see the whole creation at war with them, and therefore can have no true enjoyment of themselves, no confidence, no courage, but a fearful looking for of judgment. Sin makes men cowards.
| Degeneres animos timor arguit– Fear argues a degenerate soul. VIRGIL. |
| Quos diri conscia facti mens habet attonitos– The consciousness of atrocious crimes astonishes and confounds. |
| JUVENAL. |
If they flee when none pursues, what will they do when they shall see God himself pursuing them with his armies? Job 20:24; Job 15:24. See Deu 28:25; Lev 26:36. 2. What a holy security and serenity of mind those enjoy who keep conscience void of offence and so keep themselves in the love of God: The righteous are bold as a lion, as a young lion; in the greatest dangers they have a God of almighty power to trust to. Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed. Whatever difficulties they meet with in the way of their duty, they are not daunted by them. None of those things move me.
| Hic murus aheneus esto, nil conscire sibi– Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence, Still to preserve thy conscious innocence. HOR. |
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ANXIETY OR ASSURANCE
(Proverbs 28)
Anxiety or Assurance
Verse 1 contrasts the anxiety of the wicked conscious of his sin with the assurance of the righteous, compare Num 32:23; Psa 53:5 with Psa 23:4-6; Psa 27:3; Isa 12:2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 28:1. For the transgression, etc. Or, In the rebellion. For this use of the word transgression in the sense of revolt, compare the verb employed in this sense in 2Ki. 1:1; also Exo. 23:21, etc. (Zckler). Zckler translates the last clause, through wise, prudent men, he (the prince) continueth long. Delitzsch reads, Through a man of wisdom, of knowledge, authority continues.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 28:1
COWARDICE AND COURAGE
I. This act of a wicked man reveals an unnatural condition. The sparrow flees to her nest when the hawk is on the wing, and the stag flees before the hunter or the hounds that are on his track. But neither bird nor beast is ever found fleeing in terror when it is not pursued. But bad men flee when they are not chased, and when there is nothing following them more substantial than their own shadow.
II. The cause of this unnatural action. There must be some influence at work somewhere which strikes this terror into the human spirit. There must be some hidden power which thus unnerves a man when he is out of the reach of any visible avenger, and causes him to tremble at the sound of his own footstep, or to see the reflection of the face of the man he has wronged in every human countenance that he meets. In the absence of all causes without we must look within, and there we find the pursuer. It is conscience that thus makes every wicked man a cowardthat voice within him which thus bears witness to the existence of a Divine law which he has broken, and to a Divine Lawgiver to whom he must render an account whether he escape human justice or not.
III. The hopeless nature of the act. The man who flees when none are pursuing reveals that he is engaged in an attempt to flee from himself, and this is an endeavour that will ever be fruitless. A man may quit the scene of his crime and go into a country where all around him is entirely different, but he will be painfully conscious that he is himself the same beingthat although he has changed everything outside himself he has preserved his identity. He can free his soul from his body and so flee from the world, but he cannot free himself from the consciousness of guilt and so break the tie that binds him and his sin together. For this flight from self is but another name for flight from Godfrom Him to whom alone the Psalmists words apply:Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall uphold me. (Psa. 139:7; Psa. 139:10.)
IV. The entirely contrary attitude of a righteous man reveals an entirely opposite relation to conscience and to God. The natural position of any creature in relation to the Creator is the position which he held when he was originally created. Man was then on such good terms with himself and in such conscious favour with God that he had no sense of fear and no desire to flee from the Divine presence. It was not until the first sin had been committed that Adam and his wife hid themselves, and fled when no man pursued. But there are descendants of Adam who, although they cannot pretend to sinlessness, have no guilty fear of God, and consequently are not afraid of man. The original and natural relation between them and their Father in heaven has been re-established by their acceptance of His conditions of reconciliation, and being now on the side of righteousness they have no reason to flee even when many pursue them, much less when they are alone with themselves and God. They can sing with the Psalmist, The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. (Psa. 27:1; Psa. 27:3.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Moses feared not the wrath of the king. Caleb and Joshua stood firm against the current of rebellion. Elijah dared Ahabs anger to his face. Nehemiah, in a time of peril, exclaimedShould such a man as I flee? The three confessors stood undaunted before the furious autocrat of Babylon. The Apostles boldness astonished 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.
The wicked is a very coward, and is afraid of everything; of God, because He is his enemy; of Satan, because he is his tormentor; of Gods 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 mans breast has become in a sense the mans saviour, by revealing the wrath to come before its coming.Arnot.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER 28
TEXT Pro. 28:1-9
1.
The wicked flee when no man pursueth; But the righteous are bold as a lion.
2.
For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof;
But by men of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged.
3.
A needy man that oppresseth the poor
Is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.
4.
They that forsake the law praise the wicked;
But such as keep the law contend with them.
5.
Evil men understand not justice;
But they that seek Jehovah understand all things.
6.
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity,
Than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.
7.
Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son;
But he that is a companion of gluttons shameth his father.
8.
He that augmenteth his substance by interest and increase,
Gathereth it for him that hath pity on the poor.
9.
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law,
Even his prayer is an abomination.
STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 28:1-9
1.
Cite outstanding Bible examples of righteous men who were as bold as lions (Pro. 28:1).
2.
What is the meaning of for in Pro. 28:2?
3.
What is the implied contrast in Pro. 28:2?
4.
Comment upon the comparison in Pro. 28:3.
5.
Who praise the wicked (Pro. 28:4)?
6.
What do the obedient do to the wicked (Pro. 28:4)?
7.
Do evil men ever get into the field of judging (Pro. 28:5)?
8.
Pro. 28:6 contrasts the honest ………….. with the perverse ………….. .
9.
What is the implied contrast in Pro. 28:7?
10.
What was Gods law to Israel about usury (Pro. 28:8)?
11.
What would be a modern example of one turning away his ear from hearing Gods law (Pro. 28:9)?
PARAPHRASE OF 28:1-9
1.
The wicked flee when no one is chasing them! But the godly are bold as lions!
2.
When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily; but with honest, sensible leaders there is stability.
3.
When a poor man oppresses those even poorer, he is like an unexpected flood sweeping away their last hope.
4.
To complain about the law is to praise wickedness. To obey the law is to fight evil.
5.
Evil men dont understand the importance of justice, but those who follow the Lord are much concerned about it.
6.
Better to be poor and honest than rich and a cheater.
7.
Young men who are wise obey the law; a son who is a member of a lawless gang is a shame to his father.
8.
Income from exploiting the poor will end up in the hands of someone who pities them.
9.
God doesnt listen to the prayers of men who flaunt the law.
COMMENTS ON 28:1-9
Pro. 28:1. Mischievous children and evil adults will often drop the wrong they are doing to run when they hear some sound even though it is not somebody pursuing them. House robbers seldom try to break into a home where there is a light on even though they recognize that probably nobody is therethere just might be. See Lev. 26:17 and Psa. 53:5 for fleeing when no man pursues. On the other hand (by way of contrast) the righteous have nothing to be ashamed of, and their courage causes them to stand right where they are. Noah was bold in a world of iniquity, for he was a preacher of righteousness in it (2Pe. 2:5) as well as an ark-builder (Heb. 11:7). Elijah was bold on Mt. Carmel (1Ki. 18:17-40). The apostles were bold when encountered by the authorities (Act. 5:27-29).
Pro. 28:2. When a nation was wicked, God brought an unrest that produced many turnovers in leadership (nobody remained in power for long), and in time the whole government collapsed and passed out of existence. The last clause shows that the opposite was true where men of understanding and knowledge were in power. Clarke: Nations, as nations, cannot be judged in a future world; therefore, God judges them here.
Pro. 28:3. The needy man of this verse picks on the man who is poorer than himself, and when he takes the only thing of value that this poorer man has, there is nothing left. On a sweeping rain: These are frequent in the East; and sometimes carry flocks, crops, and houses, away with them (Clarke).
Pro. 28:4. Other passages on the disobedient praising the wicked: Psa. 10:3; Rom. 1:32. They praise the wicked because they are their kind; If ye were of the world, the world would love its own (Joh. 15:19). An old saying: Birds of a feather flock together. Elijah said to the sinning nation, How long go ye limping between the two sides? (1Ki. 18:21). Micaiah always contended with wicked King Ahab (1Ki. 22:8). Malachi contended with the sinning nation of his day (Mal. 3:5-9). John the Baptist contended with the wicked Pharisees and Sadducees (Mat. 3:7). When Paul saw the wholesale idolatry of Athens, he contended with them (Act. 17:16-17). We are told not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but to reprove them (Eph. 5:11).
Pro. 28:5. An evil mans moral conception is perverted; he cannot distinguish between right and wrong; the light that was in him has become darkness (Pro. 29:7 (Pulpit Commentary). Compare Mat. 6:23 : If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is the darkness! On the righteous knowing discernment: If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know… (Joh. 7:17). While the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged, the spiritual judgeth all things (1Co. 2:14-15). The righteous by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil (Heb. 5:14). Paul prayed for the Philippians to have this discernment: And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that ye may approve the things that are excellent (Php. 1:9-10). That Gods enlightened people possess discernment, John affirmed, Ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things (1Jn. 2:20).
Pro. 28:6. The comparison is between a poor man who is honest and a rich man who is perverting his way. Pro. 16:8 affirms the same: Better is a little, with righteousness, Than great revenues with injustice. In other words righteousness and justice are more important in the sight of God than riches, even great riches. We are to seek righteousness first and foremost (Mat. 6:33). Pro. 19:1 also speaks of the poor who walk in their integrity (and praises them for it) and of those who pervert their ways. So does Pro. 28:18.
Pro. 28:7. This verse reflects that which is seen so often throughout the Bible; namely, that though all people live in the same world and are more or less exposed to the same things, some live right, and some dont. This is even true of ones offspring: a son may be a wise son, or he may be a companion of gluttons. This same contrast is seen in Pro. 29:3 : Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father; But he that keepeth company with harlots wasteth his substance (like the Prodigal Son).
Pro. 28:8. Of the wicked oppressing the poor to increase their own substance, Clarke exclaims, Oh, that the names of all those unfeeling, hard-hearted, consummate villains in the nation, who thus take advantage of their neighbours necessities to enrich themselves, were published at every market cross; and then the delinquents all sent to their brother savages in New Zealand! Other passages bearing out that such ill-gotten gain will in time get back where it belongs: Though he heap up silver as the dust, And prepare raiment as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, And the innocent shall divide the silver (Job. 27:16-17); The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous (Pro. 13:22); To the man that pleaseth him God giveth wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that pleaseth God (Ecc. 2:26).
Pro. 28:9. Of those who turn away their ears from hearing Gods Word, Zec. 7:11 says, They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. God refused to hear the prayers of many in Isaiahs day because of their disobedience: When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood (Isa. 1:15). The curse of God is upon all who turn their ears from His Word: Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words…it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city (Mat. 10:14-15). All religious acts by the disobedient are obnoxious to God: The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Jehovah (Pro. 15:8).
TEST QUESTIONS OVER 28:1-9
1.
Give Bible examples of righteous people who were bold (Pro. 28:1).
2.
Why does God judge nations here (Pro. 28:2)
3.
Comment upon sweeping rain from their weather pattern (Pro. 28:3).
4.
Why do those who forsake the law praise the wicked (Pro. 28:4)?
5.
Give Bible examples of the obedient contending with the wicked (Pro. 28:4).
6.
Comment upon those who seek Jehovah understanding all things (Pro. 28:5).
7.
The comparison in Pro. 28:6 is between what two classes?
8.
Show from Pro. 28:7 that all people do not react the same.
9.
Where does the wealth of the rich sometimes come from (Pro. 28:8)?
10.
Comment upon turning away ones ears from Gods law (Pro. 28:9).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXVIII
(1) The wicked flee when no man pursueth.Comp. the curse pronounced upon Israel for disobedience (Lev. 26:17; Lev. 26:36).
The righteous are bold as a lion.Comp. Lev. 26:8; 1Sa. 17:32, sqq.; Psa. 91:1, sqq.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. The wicked flee righteous are bold A sense of their own mis-doings makes men timorous, but conscious rectitude, with faith in God as the righteous ruler of the universe, gives strong confidence and a sense of security. “Conscience does make cowards of us all.” Shakspeare.
Lion , ( kephir,) a young lion, esteemed bolder or less discreet than an older one.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
A Collection Of Solomon’s Proverbs ( Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27 ).
Solomon’s presentation of The Book of Proverbs has followed the pattern of much Wisdom literature. This commenced with the initial heading detailing the details of the author and his purpose in writing (Pro 1:1-7), continued with a Prologue which laid the foundation for what was to follow (Pro 1:8 to Pro 9:18), and was then followed by the body of the work introduced by one or more subheadings. In Solomon’s case this main body comprises Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27. It is usually divided up into four parts:
1) Proverbs of Solomon (Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16), introduced by a subheading ‘The Proverbs Of Solomon’. This may possibly be divided into two sections, Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:21, and Pro 15:22 to Pro 22:16.
2) Words of the Wise (Pro 22:17 to Pro 24:22), introduced by an exhortation to hear the words of the wise. This is in a form comparable with exhortations in the Prologue, but there is no subheading in the text as we have it. It may rather therefore be seen as a third section of The Proverbs of Solomon, but with unusual characteristics.
3) Further Sayings of the Wise (Pro 24:23-34), introduced by the subheading, ‘these also are of the wise’.
4) Proverbs of Solomon copied out by the ‘Men of Hezekiah, King of Judah’ (Pro 25:1 to Pro 29:27), introduced by a specific heading.
The inclusion of the words of the wise within two sets of proverbs of Solomon, the first time without a subheading, suggests that we are to see the words of the wise and the sayings of the wise as also from Solomon, but based in each case more specifically on collections of Wisdom sayings known to him, which he himself, or his Scribes, had taken and altered up in order to conform them to his requirements thus making them finally his work. That does not necessarily mean that his proverbs in section 1 (Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16) were not based on other material. He would have obtained his material from many sources. But once again we are to see them as presented after alteration by his hand.
We should note, for example, the continual references to YHWH that occur throughout the text. Whatever material Solomon may have appropriated, he refashioned it in order to make it the wisdom of the God of Israel, of YHWH their covenant God. This approach of taking what was written by others and refashioning it, while at the same time introducing further ideas of his own, may be seen as following the pattern of modern scholars, each of whom takes the works of others, and then reinterprets them in his own words, whilst adding to them on the basis of his own thinking. The final product is then seen as their own thinking, aided by others. The only difference is that Solomon would have been far more willing to copy down word for word what others had said and written without giving acknowledgement.
Having said that we must not assume that Solomon simply copied them down unthinkingly. As the Prologue has made clear, he did not see himself as presenting some general form of Wisdom teaching. He saw what he wrote down as given by YHWH, and as being in the words of YHWH (Pro 2:6). And he saw it as based on YHWH’s eternal wisdom, His wisdom which had also been involved in the creation of heaven and earth (Pro 3:19-20; Pro 8:22-31). Thus he wants us to recognise that what now follows is not a series of general wisdom statements, but is a miscellany revealing the wisdom of YHWH, the wisdom that leads men into the paths of life.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Justification: The Journey to a Place of Rest ( Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27 ) In Proverbs 10-29 we find a new emphasis regarding our spiritual journey in life. We have heard the call of wisdom in the first nine chapters. Now we have to make the choice to follow the path of wisdom, or the path of the fool. It is our decision to pursue wisdom that will justify us before God. Thus, the underlying theme of Proverbs 10-29 is our justification before God the Father, while the final chapter brings us to a place of rest, which is the destination for man’s spiritual journey in life.
Throughout Proverbs 10-29 we encounter hundreds of individual proverbs that appear to have no organized arrangement in which they are presented us. This is because in the journey of life, our encounters with the wise man and the fool appear to come in the same random order. However, God has placed all things in His divine order. When we read individual proverbs, they appear to be randomly assembled, but if we will step back and look at them as a whole or in groups, we can see an order. These proverbs are clearly grouped together by themes, such as a pure heart, the tongue, a long life, and wealth. In the same way, the circumstances that we face in our daily lives appear to have no particular order. We see very little of God’s hand in our lives in a single day, but when we step back and look as our lives over the months or years, we very clearly see God’s sovereign hand at working in our lives. We recognize that He is divinely orchestrating His purpose and plan for our lives. This is the way that the verses in the book of Proverbs are arranged.
We have seen that Proverbs 1-9, about one third of the book, is man’s call to follow the path of wisdom. Thus, about one third of the book of Proverbs is an introduction, or a preparation, for the rest of this book. Why is that so? We know that Solomon was chosen to be the successor to the throne at his birth. Therefore, he received many years of training under King David for this great task. Even today, we spent the first twenty years of our lives going to school and training for a profession, which is about one third of our lives. We spend the next two thirds of our lives building upon these twenty years of preparation. In our lives, we spend the first twenty years in preparation, the next twenty years sowing, and the last twenty years reaping what we have sown. This is why these years seem to be turning points in many people’s lives. This was the pattern in King Solomon’s life of preparation and growing in wisdom, and this is the pattern found in the book of Proverbs. It is important to note that a season of preparation is something that God has designed and instituted in the human life. He created every human being with the capacity to be shaped and molded through a training process. We often use the term “brainwashing” in a negative sense to refer to a person who has been programmed to think in a negative way; but proper training also reprograms the mind and prepares an individual for the tasks of life. Our human make-up of the spirit, soul, and body were designed to receive training before practical application and abundant living can be achieved.
Although we will study these proverbs, we will find ourselves falling short of fulfilling them in our everyday lives. None of us has walked flawlessly in obedience to any single proverb. Therefore, each individual proverb reveals God’s standard of righteousness, pointing us to Jesus, who alone fulfilled this divine standard in our behalf. In this sense, this collection of proverbs is a collection of redemptive proverbs, revealing our need for a Redeemer, who alone fulfilled every proverb.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Justification: Solomon’s First Collection Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16
2. Divine Service: Sayings of the Wise Pro 22:17 to Pro 24:34
3. Perseverance: Solomon’s Second Collection by Hezekiah Pro 25:1 to Pro 29:27
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Perseverance: Solomon’s Second Collection of Proverbs (126 Sayings) – Proverbs 25-29 are often called Solomon’s Second Collection of Proverbs. When we enter into chapters 25 and 29, we begin to notice a number of proverbs that deal with leaders of a nation. We now must learn that our actions ultimately affect our nation. We often find the underlying them of a section in its opening verses; and this is the case with this division in Proverbs. Pro 25:2-7 reveal how the king decrees by divine oracles (Pro 25:2-3), so that he might establish righteousness (Pro 25:4-5), so that everyone will walk humbly before the king and his decrees (Pro 25:6-7). Therefore, the proverbs in 25-29 are emphasizing how a king establishes justice in the land. Perhaps Solomon gathered this second group of proverbs separately from his first collection because he used them in specifically to establish righteousness and order in the land of Israel. This may the reason that many proverbs in this collection refer to rulers of a land (Pro 25:2-7; Pro 25:15; Pro 27:23-27; Pro 28:2; Pro 28:15-16; Pro 29:2; Pro 29:4; Pro 29:12; Pro 29:14; Pro 29:26). In fact, this collection of proverbs closes with two verses stating this very theme of how a king’s righteous judgment establishes the land (Pro 29:4; Pro 29:14).
The signposts found in the sayings of the wise (Pro 22:17 to Pro 24:34) and in Solomon’s second collection (25-29) tell us to continue in the fear of the Lord, to honor those in authority over us, and this will bring happiness into our lives as we continue on this journey. Note:
Pro 23:17, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.”
Pro 24:21, “My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:”
Pro 28:14, “Happy is the man that feareth alway : but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.”
Regarding the relationship of Proverbs 25-29 to our spiritual journey, we can group these proverbs under the phase called perseverance of the saints, in which God’s children have entered their divine calling and are in the process of fulfilling it in order to reach the final stage of glorification. The theme of leadership and the establishment of justice reveal our purpose for this season in our lives. God has put us on this path in order to establish righteousness in the land.
1. Proverbs About Relationships with Others Pro 25:1 to Pro 26:28
2. Proverbs About Misc. Activities Pro 27:1 to Pro 29:27
Characteristics of the Passage – A number of the proverbs found in the Solomon’s first collection (Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16) are repeated in this section of Solomon’s second collection (Pro 25:1 to Pro 29:27). The opening verse of this section tells us that these proverbs were copied out by Hezekiah about 250 years after Solomon wrote them. Perhaps Hezekiah’s men were unwilling to delete anything they found repeated in the second collection out of holy reverence for what they now considered divine Scriptures.
Many scholars observe differences between the characteristics and content of this second collection of proverbs and the first collection. They mention a number of examples: (1) Grammar – Some scholars suggest the first collection repeatedly uses several phrases that are not found in the second collection, such as “fountain of life (two times),” “tree of life (four times),” “snares of death (two times),” “hand in hand (two times),” and “shall not be unpunished (five times).” All agree that this does not provide a strong argument to suggest different authorships and dates between the two collections. (2) Content – Other scholars use the climate of the monarchy described within the two collections to conclude that they were written in different periods of Israel’s history. For example, during the time of Solomon, the political climate was one of peace and righteousness. Thus, we see within the first collection words that support the monarchy:
Pro 14:28, “In the multitude of people is the king’s honour: but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince.”
Pro 16:12, “It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.”
Pro 16:13, “Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.”
Pro 16:15, “In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.”
Pro 20:28, “Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy.”
A contrast can be made in the second collection, where we find descriptions of people who have been oppression by the king:
Pro 25:5, “Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.”
Pro 28:2, “For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged.”
Pro 28:15, “As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.”
Pro 28:16, “The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.”
Pro 29:2, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”
Pro 29:4, “The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it.”
Pro 29:12, “If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.”
Such verses about political oppression are missing in the first collection. They bring new and fresh insight into the failures of a monarchy system. Scholars suggest that this indicates a later date of writing than the first collection. However, as interesting as these suggestions appear, neither of the two gives strong enough support to conclude that there was more than one author of the first and second collections of proverbs. [132]
[132] W. J. Deane, S. T. Teylor-Taswell, and W. F. Adeney, Proverbs, in The Pulpit Commentary, e Eds.H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Excell (New York: Funk and Wagnalis Company, n.d.), x, xvi.
The Structure of the Passage – Nelson’s Teaching Outlines of the Bible groups the verses found in chapters 25-26 into subject matter related to various aspects of our relationships with people in society. [133] I have followed these sections with different titles.
[133] Nelson’s Teaching Outlines of the Bible (Thomas Nelson: Nashville: Thomas Nelson, c1986, 1997).
1. Introduction Pro 25:1
2. Wisdom in Dealing with Leaders Pro 25:2-7
3. Wisdom in Dealing with Relationships Pro 25:8-20
4. Wisdom in Dealing with Adversity Pro 25:21-24
5. Wisdom Regarding Self-Discipline Pro 25:25-28
6. Wisdom in Dealing with the Foolish Pro 26:1-12
7. Wisdom in Dealing with the Sluggard Pro 26:13-16
8. Wisdom in Dealing with the Liar Pro 26:17-28
The fact that Hezekiah grouped the proverbs in chapters 25-26 according to subject matter implies that he may have studied the proverbs of Solomon by topic as we often do today.
In addition, our relationships with those in our society help us to see the underlying theme of perseverance, knowing that the way we manage our relationships with others determines whether or not we are continuing in the path of wisdom by walking in love with others.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Pro 22:26-27 Third Saying (Tetrastitch) Pro 22:26 forms a single proverbial thought using four lines. This is called a tetrastitch.
Pro 22:26 Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.
Pro 22:27 Pro 22:28 Pro 22:28 Pro 22:28
Deu 19:14, “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.”
Deu 27:17, “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.”
Job 24:2, “Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.”
Scripture Reference – Note a similar proverb:
Pro 23:10, “Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Consequences of Impiety
v. 1. The wicked flee when no man pursueth, v. 2. For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof, v. 3. A poor man that oppresseth the poor, v. 4. They that forsake the Law praise the wicked, v. 5. Evil men understand not judgment, v. 6. Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, v. 7. Whoso keepeth the Law, v. 8. He that by usury and unjust gain, v. 9. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law, v. 10. Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, v. 11. The rich man, v. 12. When righteous men do rejoice, v. 13. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, v. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway, v. 15. As a roaring lion and a ranging bear, v. 16. The prince that wanteth understanding, v. 17. A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This chapter is still part of the Hezekiah collection, and not a new series by another author. It may be regarded as describing the various destinies of the powerful and the weak, the sinner and the righteous.
Pro 28:1
The wicked flee when no man pursueth. The unreasoning terror of the sinner arises partly from his uneasy conscience, which will not permit him to transgress without warning of consequences, and partly from the judgment of God, according to the threats denounced in Le 26:36, 37. A terrible picture of this instinctive fear is drawn in Job 15:20, etc; and Wis. 17:9, etc. There are numerous proverbs about unreasonable timidity, such as being afraid of one’s own shadow (see Erasmus, ‘Adag.,’ s.v. “Timiditas”). As the Eastern puts it, “The leaf cracked, and your servant fled;” and “Among ten men nine are women” (Lane). On the cowardice of sinners St. Chrysostom says well, “Such is the nature of sin, that it betrays while no one finds fault; it condemns whilst no one accuses; it makes the sinner a timid being, one that trembles at a sound; even as righteousness has the contrary effect How doth the wicked flee when no man pursueth? He hath that within which drives him on, an accuser in his own conscience, and this he carries about everywhere; and just as it would be impossible to flee from himself, so neither can he escape the persecutor within, but wherever he goeth he is scourged, and hath an incurable wound” (‘Hom. in Stat.,’ 8.3, Oxford transl.). But the righteous are hold as a lion. They are undismayed in the presence of danger, because their conscience is at rest, they know that God is on their side, and, whatever happens, they are safe in the everlasting arms (see Psa 91:1-16.). Thus David the shepherd boy quailed not before the giant (1Sa 17:32, etc.), remembering the promise in Le 26:7, 8. The heathen poet Horace could say of the upright man (‘Carm.,’ 3.3, 7)
“Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae.”
“Whoso feareth the Lord shall not fear nor be afraid; for he is his Hope” (Ecclesiasticus 31:14 (34), etc.). St. Gregory (‘Moral.,’ 31.55, “The lion is not afraid in the onset of beasts, because he knows well that he is stronger than them all. Whence the fearlessness of a righteous man is rightly compared to a lion, because, when he beholds any rising against him, he returns to the confidence of his mind, and knows that he overcomes all his adversaries because he loves him alone whom he cannot in any way lose against his will. For whoever seeks after outward things, which are taken from him even against his will, subjects himself of his own accord to outward fear. But unbroken virtue is the contempt of earthly desire, because the mind is both placed on high when it is raised above the meanest objects by the judgment of its hopes, and is the less affected by all adversities, the more safely it is fortified by being placed on things above” (Oxford transl.).
Pro 28:2
For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof. This implies that the wickedness of a nation is punished by frequent changes of rulers, who impose new laws, taxes, and other burdens, which greatly oppress the people; but regarding the antithesis in the second hemistich, we take the meaning to be that when iniquity, injustice, apostasy, and other evils abound, a country becomes the prey of pretenders and partisans striving for the supremacy. The history of the northern kingdom of Israel, especially in the disastrous period succeeding the death of Jeroboam II, affords proof of the truth of the statement (comp. Hos 8:4). Septuagint, “Owing to the sins of ungodly men, quarrels (, lawsuits) arise.” But by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged. “The state” is the stability, the settled condition of the country. The word is (ken), here a substantive, equivalent to “station,” “base.” Umbreit, Nowack, and others translate it, “justice,” “authority,” “order.” When a wise and religious man is at the helm of state, justice continues, lives, and works; such a man introduces an clement of enduring good into a land (comp. Pro 21:22; Ecc 9:15). The good kings Ass, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, and Hezekiah had long and prosperous reigns. Septuagint, “But a clever man () will quench them (quarrels).”
Pro 28:3
A poor man that oppresseth the poor. The words rendered “poor” are different. The former is rash, “needy,” the latter dal, “feeble” (see on Pro 10:15). Delitzsch notes that, in accordance with the accents in the Masoretic text, we should translate, “A poor man and an oppressor of the lowlya sweeping rain without bringing bread,” which would mean that a tyrant who oppresses the lowly bears the same relation to the poor that a devastating rain does to those whom it deprives of their food. But it is pretty certain that “the poor” and “the oppressor” designate the same person (though the vocalization is against it); hence the gnome refers to a usurper who, rising to power from poor estate, makes the very worst and most tyrannical ruler. Such a one has learned nothing from his former condition but callous indifference, and now seeks to exercise on others that power which once galled him. Thus among schoolboys it is found that the greatest bully is one who has himself been bullied; and needy revolutionists make the most rapacious and iniquitous demagogues. Of such tyrants the prophets complain (see Isa 5:8, etc.; Mic 2:2). Wordsworth refers, as an illustration, to Catiline and his fellow conspirators, who were moved by selfish interests to overthrow the commonwealth. Many modern commentators (e.g. Hitzig, Delitzsch, Nowack), in view of the present text, regarding the combination , and noting that elsewhere the oppressor and the poor are always introduced in opposition (comp. Pro 29:13), read , or consider as equivalent to itrosh, “the head,” in the signification of “master,” “ruler.” The gnome thus becomes concinnous, the ruler who ought to benefit his dependents, but injures them, corresponding to the rain which, instead of fertilizing, devastates the crops. The LXX. had a different reading, as it readers, “A bold man in his impieties ( ) calumniates the poor.” Is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food; literally, and not bread. A violent storm coming at seed time and washing away soil and seed, or happening at harvest time and destroying the ripe corn. Vulgate, Similis est imbri vehementi, in quo paratur fames. Ewald supposes that such proverbs as these and the following belong to the time of Jeroboam II, when the prosperity of the people induced luxury and arrogance, and was accompanied with much moral evil, oppression, and perversion of justice (‘Hist. of Israel,’ 3.126, Eng. transl.). The Bengalee compares the relation of the rich oppressor to the poor, not with the rainstorm, but with that of the carving knife to the pumpkin.
Pro 28:4
They that forsake the Law praise the wicked. This they do because they love iniquity, and like to see it extend its influence, and arm itself against the good, who are a standing reproach to them. St. Paul notes it as a mark of extreme wickedness that gross sinners “not only do the same iniquities, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom 1:32). Such as keep the Law contend with them; are angry with them. They are filled with righteous indignation; they cannot hold their peace when they see God’s Law outraged, and must have the offenders punished. The LXX. connects this verse with the latter part of the preceding, thus: “As an impetuous and profitless rain, thus those who forsake the Law praise ungodliness; but they who love the Law raise a wall around themselves.”
Pro 28:5
Evil men understand not judgment; or, what is right. An evil man’s moral conception is perverted, he cannot distinguish between right and wrong; the light that was in him has become darkness (comp. Pro 29:7). Many men, by giving themselves over to wickedness, awe judicially blinded, according to Joh 12:1-50 :89, 40. They who seek the Lord understand all things. These who do God’s will, seeking him in prayer, know what is morally right is every circumstance, have a right judgment in all things (comp. Ecc 8:5; 1Co 2:15). So 1Jn 2:20, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things;” and our Lord has (declared, “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine” (Joh 7:17).
Pro 28:6
This is almost the same as Pro 19:1, but varies a little in the second hemistich: than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. The Hebrew literally is, perverse of two ways; i.e. who, going one way, pretends to go another; the “two ways” being the evil which he really pursues, and the good which he feigns to follow. Delitzsch calls him “a double-going deceiver.” So Siracides imprecates, “Woe to the sinner that goeth two ways” (Ecc 2:12). “A double-minded man,” says St James (Jas 1:8), “is unstable in all his ways.” It is not the endeavouring to serve God and mammon at the same time that is meant, but putting on the appearance of religion to mask wicked designsin the present case in order to gain wealth. Septuagint, “A poor man walking in truth is better than a rich liar.”
Pro 28:7
Whoso keepeth the Law is a wise son. “Law” is torah, as Pro 28:4; but it seems here to include not only the Decalogue, but also the father’s instruction and commands. Such an obedient and prudent son brings honour and joy to a parent’s heart (see Pro 10:1; Pro 29:3). He that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father; literally, he that feedeth, hath fellowship with, gluttons (Pro 23:20). The son who herds with debauchers, and wastes his substance in riotous living, brings shame on, wounds, and insults, all connected with him. Such a one transgresses the Law and his father’s commands, and brings them into contempt (comp. Pro 27:11). Hence the antithesis of the two clauses. Septuagint, “He that cherishes debauchery ( ) dishonours his father.” occurs only in 2 Macc. 6:4, but is common in the New Testament; e.g. Eph 5:18; Tit 1:6.
Pro 28:8
He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance. “Usury” (neshek) is interest on money lent taken in money; “unjust gain” (tarbith) is interest taken in kind, as if a man, having lent a bushel of corn, exacted two bushels in return. All such transactions were forbidden by the Law of Moses, at any rate between Israelites (see Le 25:36, 37, “Thou shalt not give thy brother thy money upon usury (neshek), nor lend him thy victuals for increase [marbith, equivalent to tarbith, which is used in verse 36] “). Septuagint, , “With interest and usury.” (For censure of usury, see Psa 109:11; Eze 18:13; and, contrast Psa 15:5; Eze 18:8.) He shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. He shall never enjoy it himself, and shall fall into the hands of one who will hake a better use of it (see on Pro 22:16; and comp Pro 13:22; Job 27:16, etc.). In our Lord’s parable the pound is taken from one who made no good use of it and is given to a more profitable servant (Luk 19:24).
Pro 28:9
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law. He who refuses to hearken to and to practise the dictates of the Divine law (comp Pro 1:20. Even his prayer shall be abomination (comp. Pro 15:8, and note there). “God heareth not sinners” (Joh 9:31). Such a man’s prayer, if he does pray, is not hearty and sincere, and therefore, lacks the element which alone can make it acceptable. He will not resolve to forsake his favourite sin, even while paying outward worship to the God whoso Law he breaks: what wonder that the prophet so sternly denounces such offenders (Isa 1:11. etc.), and the psalmist cries with terrible rigour, “When he shall be judged, let him be condemned; and let his prayer become sin” (Psa 109:7)? St. Gregory (‘Moral.,’ 10.27), “Our heart blames us in offering up our prayers, when it calls to mind that it is set in opposition to the precepts of him whom it implores, and the prayer becomes abomination, when there is a ‘turning away’ from the control of the Law; in that wrily it is meet that a man should be a stranger to the favours of him to whose bidding he will not be subject.” And again (ibid; 18.9, 10), “If that which he bids we do, that which we ask we shall obtain. For with God both these two do of necessity match with one another exactly, that practice should be sustained by prayer, and prayer by practice” (Oxford transl.).
Pro 28:10
A tristich. Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way. It is doubtful whether physical danger or moral seduction is meant. The gnome is true in either case; he who mishads one who trusted him, and who, being simple and good, ought to have been respected and to have received better treatment, shall fall into the destruction which he prepared for the other (Pro 26:27). Taking the proverb in a moral sense, we find this truth: If the good man does ever yield to the temptations of the sinner, the latter does not reap the enjoyment which he expected from the other’s lapse, rather he is made twofold more the child of hell, he himself sinks the deeper and more hopelessly for playing the devil’s pert, while the just rises from hi. temporary fall morn humble, watchful, and guarded for the future. But the upright shall have good things in possession; or, shall inherit good (Pro 3:35). He shall be abundantly rewarded by God’s grace and protection, by the comfort of a conscience at rest, and by prosperity in his worldly concernsan adumbration of the eternal recompense awaiting him in the life to come. St. Jerome has changed the incidence of the gnome by inserting ejus, thus: Et simplices possidebunt bona ejus, which makes the meaning to be that the righteous shall be the instruments of retribution on the deceiver, whose riches shall pass over into their possession. But the Hebrew gives no countenance to this interpretation. Septuagint, “The transgressors shall pass by good things, and shall not enter into them,” where the translator has misunderstood the original.
Pro 28:11
The rich man is wise in his own conceit (comp. Pro 18:11). A rich man thinks so highly of his position, is so flattered by parasites, and deems himself placed so immeasurably above social inferiors, that he learns to consider himself possessed of other qualifications, even mental and intellectual gifts, with which wealth has no concern. This purse-proud arrogance which looks upon financial skill and sharpness in bargaining as true wisdom, is confined to no age or country. But the poor man that hath understanding searcheth him out (Pro 18:17). Wisdom is not to be bought with money. A poor man may be wise, his poverty probably making him a keener critic; and if he is brought into communication with this self-deluding plutocrat, he soon sees through him and recognizes his real value. Septuagint, “An intelligent poor man will condemn him.”
Pro 28:12
When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory (comp. Pro 29:2; Pro 11:10). “Rejoice,” rather triumph, as conquerors, right prevailing and wickedness being overcome. Then there is great show of joy, and, as the expression implies, men put on their festal garments to do honorer to the occasion: See the description of Solomon’s time (1Ki 4:20, 1Ki 4:25). If we take this verse in connection with Pro 28:2, we may see in it the triumph of order after a period of confusion and anarchy. Septuagint, “Through the help of righteous men great glory arises.” But when the wicked rise, a man is hidden (comp. Pro 28:28, where, however, the verb is different). The Authorized Version m, one that when the wicked rise to power, people have to hide themselves in order to escape danger to life and property. The verb is more literally rendered, “are searched for,” i.e. they have betaken themselves to hiding places, and have to be looked for; they fear oppression and injury, and venture no longer into the streets and open places. Vulgate,Regnantibus impiis ruinae hominum, “When evil men are m power, there is general ruin;” Septuagint, “In the places of the ungodly men are caught.” Other interpretations of the proverb have been suggested, though none is so satisfactory as that given above. Thus some take the searching out to mean testing, in the sense that evil times try men’s characters, and bring out their true nature (1Co 11:19). Others explain that, under the reign of the impious, men do not come forward to take part in public affairs, but retire sullenly into private life.
Pro 28:13
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. To cover one’s sins is either absolutely to disown them or to make excuses; a man who does this is never free from a burden of guilt, as the psalmist says, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me” (Psa 32:3, etc.). Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Confession alone without amendment, or what is called theologically satisfaction, does not win pardon and mercy. It is when the sinner acknowledges his transgression, and turns from it to newness of life, that God heals his backsliding, and turns away his auger and renews the tokens of his love (Hos 14:4). Confession is made to God, against whom all sin is committed (Jos 7:19; Job 31:33; 1Jn 1:8, etc.): and to man, if one has transgressed against him, or if he be in a position to give spiritual counsel. Thus the people confessed their sins before John the Baptist (Mat 3:6) and the apostles (Act 19:18; comp. Jas 5:16). Among the Jews, the high priest, acting as the mouthpiece of the people on the great Day of Atonement, confessed their iniquities, laying them on the scapegoat; and particular confession was also enjoined, and was part of the ritual accompanying a sacrifice for sin, by which legal purification was obtained (Num 5:6, Num 5:7, “When a man or woman shall commit any sin then they shall confess their sin which they have done;” so Le Num 5:5). And the very offering of a trespass offering was a public recognition of guilt, which was exhibited by the offerer laying his hand on the head of the victim (Le Pro 1:4). Such confession is spoken of strongly by Siracides, “Be not ashamed to confess thy sins, and force not the course of the river” (Ecc 4:1-16 :26); i.e. do not attempt the impossible task of trying to hide them. The LXX. has, “He who sets forth accounts i.e. blames himself) shall be loved.” Lesetre quotes Sedulius, ‘Carm. Pasch.,’ 4.76
“Magna est medicina fateri
Quod nocet abscondi; quoniam sua vulnera nutrit
Qui tegit, et plagam trepidat nudare medenti.”
“Mighty relief
T’ expose what rankles while ’tis hidden still.
He feeds who hides his wounds and shuns to show
His heart’s plague to the good physician.”
Pro 28:14
Happy is the man that feareth alway. Some have taken the fear mentioned to be the fear with which God is to be regarded. Thus Aben Ezra. But it is rather the fear of sin which is meantthat tender conscience and watchful heart which lead a man robe prepared for temptation and able to resist it when it arises. Such a one distrusts himself, takes heed lest he fall (1Co 10:12), and works out his salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12; comp. Pro 14:16). “Grow not thoughtless of retribution” (‘Pirke Aboth,’ 1.8). A horror of sin cannot be instilled too early into the young. Septuagint, “Happy is the man who piously ( ) fears all things.” St. Bernard (‘In Cant. Serm.,’ 54.9),” In veritate didici, nil aeque efficax esse ad gratiam promerendam, retinendam, recuperandam, quam si omni tempore coram Deo inveniaris non altum sapere, sed timere. Time ergo cum arriserit gratia, time cum abierit, time cum denuo revertetur; et hoc est semper pavidum esse.” He that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief; or, calamity (Pro 17:20). A man hardens his heart who attends not to the voice of conscience, the restraints of religion, the counsel of friends, the warnings of experience (comp. verse 26; Pro 29:1; Exo 8:15; Psa 95:8). This man scorns the grace of God, loses his protection, and must come to misery.
Pro 28:15
A wicked ruler over the poor people; a people weak and resourceless. To such a powerful tyrant is as fatal as a roaring lion or a hungry bear prowling in quest of food. The prophets compare evil rulers to ravenous lions (see Jer 4:7; Eze 19:6). They are like lions in strength and cruelty, like bears in craft and ferocity. Septuagint, “A hungry lion and a thirsty wolf is he, who, being poor, rules over an indigent nation.” The poverty of the subjects embitters the conduct of the ruler.
Pro 28:16
The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor; literally, and rich in oppression. Ewald, Delitzsch, Nowack, and others take the verse, not as a statement, but as a warning addressed to the ruler, as we have so many addressed to a son, and as the author of the Book of Wisdom calls upon the judges of the earth to listen to his admonitions. They therefore render thus: “O prince, void of understanding, but rich in oppression!” The wording and accentuation of the passage confirm this view. Caher renders, “A prince that wants understanding increases his exactions.” The want of intelligence makes a prince cruel and tyrannical and callous to suffering: not possessing the wisdom and prudence necessary for right government, he defrauds his subjects, treats them unjustly, and causes great misery. See the prophet’s denunciation of Shallum and Jehoiakim for these very crimes (Jer 22:13-19). Septuagint, “A king wanting revenues is a great oppresser ().” He that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days (Pro 15:27). The prince addressed is thus warned that his oppressive acts will be visited upon him judicially; that only a ruler who deals with his subjects liberally and equitably can attain to old age, and that his conduct will shorten his life. An early death is reckoned as a token of God’s indignation. The second hemistich Caher translates, “But he who hates lucre shall reign long.” Septuagint, “He who hateth iniquity shall live a long time.” (For “covetousness” (betsa), see on Pro 1:19.)
Pro 28:17
A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit. This should be, a man oppressed (Isa 38:14), burdened, with the blood of anyone. The wilful murderer, with his guilt upon his soul, flies in vain from remorse; his crime pursues him even to the grave. For inadvertent manslaughter the cities of refuge offered an asylum, but for deliberate murder there was no safe refuge, either from the stings of conscience or from the avenger of blood, but death. The homicide, like Cain (Gen 4:14), must be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. “Pit” (bor), some take to mean any hiding place, “a cave, or well;” but it is very commonly found in the sense of sepulchre (Psa 28:1; Isa 14:19, etc.), and is so explained here by most commentators. Let no man stay him. We had in Pro 24:11, etc; an injunction to save human life; but the case was quite different from this of wilful murder. Here it is directed that no one attempt to save him from the punishment which he has incurred, or to comfort him under the remorse which he suffers. Let him be left alone to meet the fate which he has merited. The LXX. gives a different idea to the gnome, “He who becomes bail for a man charged with murder shall be banished and shall not be in safety.” They add a verse which we shall meet again, almost in the same words (Pro 29:17,Pro 29:18), “Chasten thy son, and he will love thee, and will give honour to thy soul; he shall not obey a sinful nation.”
Pro 28:18
Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved. “Uprightly” (tamim); innocently, blamelessly (Psa 15:2). Vulgate, simpliciter; Septuagint, ; Aquila, Symmachus, . “He is helped (),” Septuagint. Things shall prosper with him; God will work with him, and save him in dangers temporal and spiritual. But he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. “He that is perverse of two ways,” or “in a double way,” as Pro 28:6. The man who is not straightforward, but vacillates between right and wrong, or pretends to be pursuing one path while he is really taking another, shall fall suddenly and without warning. means “all at once,” or “once for all,” and so that nothing else is possible, equivalent to penitus. Schultens quotes Virgil, ‘AEneid,’ 11.418
“Procubuit moriens et humum semel ore momordit.”
Septuagint, “He that walketh in crooked ways will be entangled.”
Pro 28:19
A variation of Pro 12:11. Shall have poverty enough. The new clause marks the antithesis more clearly than that above.
Pro 28:20
A faithful man shall abound with blessings. “Faithful,” as in Pro 20:6, one on whom one can depend, honest and upright. Septuagint, . The blessings signified are such as come from God and man. Men will utter his name with praise and benediction (comp. Job 29:8, etc.), and God will show his approval by sending material prosperity. He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent (comp. Pro 20:22, and note there; Pro 13:11; Pro 20:21; Pro 21:5). One who is only anxious to become quickly rich, and is unscrupulous as to means, cannot be “a faithful man,” and therefore cannot be blessed. Instead of “innocent,” many expositors render “unpunished” (as Pro 17:5), which better contrasts with the blessings mentioned in the first hemistich, though the two ideas are coordinate. On this haste of covetousness, Juvenal writes (‘Sat.,’ 14.173)
“Inde fere scelerum causae; nec plura venena
Miscuit aut ferro grassatur saepius ullum
Humanae mentis vitium, quam saeva cupido
Immodici census; nam dives qui fieri vult,
Et cito vult fieri. Sed quae reverentia legum,
Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari?“
The Septuagint waters down the gnome, “But the wicked shall not be unpunished.”
Pro 28:21
The first hemistich occurs a little fuller in Pro 24:23, referring there, as here, to the administration of justice. For for a piece of bread that man will transgress. Thus translated, this clause confirms the former, and says that a judge given to favouritism will swerve from right under the smallest temptation. But to bribe a judge with a morsel of bread seems an unlikely idea; and the gnome is of general application, “And for a morsel of bread a man [not ‘that man’] will transgress.” As some men in responsible positions are often swayed by low and unworthy considerations, so in social life a very insignificant cause is sufficient to warp the judgment of some persons, or draw them aside from the line of rectitude. (For “a piece of bread,” as denoting abject poverty or a thing of no value, see on Pro 6:26) The commentators cite Aul. Gell; ‘Noct. Att.,’ 1.15, “Frusto panis conduci potest vel uti taceat vel uti loquatur.” Septuagint, “He that regards not the persons of the just is not good; such a cue will sell a man for a morsel of bread.”
Pro 28:22
He that hasteth to be rich bath an evil eye (see Pro 28:20); better, the man of evil eye hasteth after riches. The man of evil eye (Pro 23:6) is the envious and covetous man; such a one tries to improve his position and raise himself speedily to the height of him whom he envies, and is quite unscrupulous as to the means which he uses to effect his purpose, and keeps all that he gains selfishly to himself. And yet he is really blind to his own best interests (comp Pro 20:21). And considereth not that poverty shall come upon him (comp. Pro 23:4, Pro 23:5). His grasping greed brings no blessing with it (Pro 11:25), excites others to defraud him, and in the end consigns him to merited poverty. The LXX. here reads somewhat differently, and translates, “An envious man hasteth to be rich, and knows not that the merciful man (chasid instead of cheser) will I,ave the mastery over him,” i.e. will take his wealth, as Pro 28:8. Proverbs concerning hastily gotten wealth have already been given. Here are a few more: Spanish, “Who would be rich in a year gets hanged in half a year;” Italian, “The river does not become swollen with clear water;” says a Scotch proverb, “Better a wee fire to warm as than a meikle fire to burn us.”
Pro 28:23
He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour. The word rendered “afterwards” (postea, Vulgate), (acharai), creates a difficulty. The suffix cannot be that of the first person singular, which would give no sense; hence most interpreters see in it a peculiar adverb attached to the following verb, “shall afterwards find.” Delitzsch. Lowenstein, end Nowack take it for a noun with the termination -ai, and translate, “a man that goeth backward,” “a backslider” (as Jer 7:24). Hence the translation will run, “He who reproveth a backsliding man,” i.e. one whom he sees to be turning away from God and duty. He shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue (comp. Pro 27:6; Pro 29:5). A faithful counsellor, who tells a man his faults, brings them home to his conscience, and checks him in his downward course, will be seen to be a true friend, and will be loved and respected both by the one whom he has warned and advised and by all who are well disposed. Jas 5:19, “If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him. let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and stroll hide a multitude of sins.” “Laudat adulator, sed non est verus amator.” The flatterer says only what is agreeable to the man whom he flatters, and thus makes him conceited and selfish and unable to see himself as he really is: the true friend says harsh things, but they are wholesome and tend to spiritual profit, and show more real affection than all the soft words of the fawning parasite. Septuagint, “He that reproveth a man’s ways shall have more thanks than he who flattereth with the tongue.”
Pro 28:24
Whoso robbeth his father or his mother (comp. Pro 19:26); taking from them what belongs to them. Septuagint, “He who casts off () father or mother.” And saith, It is no transgression. He salves his conscience by thinking all would be his ere long in the course of nature; or he uses the plea of Corban denounced by our Lord (Mar 7:11, etc.). The same is the companion of a destroyer (Pro 18:9); is no better than, stands in the position of, one who practises openly against his neighbour’s life and property. He is a thief, and fails in the simplest duty. Vulgate, particeps homicidae est. There may be an allusion to the guilt incurred by a witness in concealing his knowledge of a crime, which is denounced in Le Pro 5:1 (comp. Jdg 17:2).
Pro 28:25
He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife (Pro 15:18; Pro 29:22); literally, he that is of a wide soul. This may certainly denote pride (qui se jactat et dilatat, Vulgate), in which case the gnome says that one who thinks much of himself and despises others is the cause of quarrels and dissensions, occasioned by his struggles for pre-eminence and the ill feeling arising from his overbearing and supercilious conduct. Others, and rightly, take the wide soul to denote covetousness (comp. Pro 23:2; Isa 14:1-32; Hab 2:5). It is the man of insatiable desire, the grasping avaricious man, who excites quarrels and mars all peace, and in the end destroys himself. “Whence come wars,” asks St. James (Jas 4:1), “and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? Ye lust, and have act; ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war.” Septuagint, “An unbelieving [, Alexand. , insatiate] man judgeth rashly.” But he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat (Pro 11:25; Pro 16:20; Pro 29:25). The character here opposed to the covetous is that of the patient. God-fearing man, who is contented to do his duty, and leave the result in the Lord’s hands. This man shall be made fat, shall be comforted and largely blessed, while he who puts his hope in material things shall fall into calamity. Septuagint, “He who trusts in the Lord will be in his care ( ).”
Pro 28:26
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool (see Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21). What is here censured is that presumptuous confidence in one’s own thoughts, plans, and imaginations which leads a man to neglect both God’s inspirations and the counsel of others (comp. Pro 28:14; Pro 14:16). “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fail” (1Co 10:12). Septuagint, “Whoso trusteth to a bold heart, such a one is a fool.” Whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. This man looks outside himself for direction; be trusts in the wisdom which is from above; he walks in the fear of the Lord, and is saved from the dangers to which self-confidence exposes the fool. The best commentary on the gnome is Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord,”
Pro 28:27
He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack (see Pro 11:24, etc.; Pro 19:17). God in some way compensates what is spent in almsdeeds by shedding his blessing on the benevolent. “Der Geiz,” runs the German maxim, “sammlet sich arm, die Milde giebt sich reich,” “Charity gives itself rich; covetousness hoards itself poor” (Trench). “Alms,” said the rabbis, “are the salt of riches.” But he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse (Pro 11:26). The uncharitable man either turns away his eyes that he may not see the misery around him, or pretends not to notice it, lest his compassion should be claimed. The expression, “hiding the eyes,” occurs in Isa 1:15, “When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you.” The unmerciful man meets with the curses of those whom he has neglected to relieve when he had the power, and such curses are ratified and fulfilled because they are deserved, and Divine retribution attends them (see the opposite view, Isa 1:20). “Turn not away thine eye from the needy,” says the Son of Sirach, “and give him none occasion to curse thee; for if be curse thee in the bitterness of his soul, his prayer shall be heard of him that made him” (Ecclesiasticus 4:4, etc.; comp. Tobit 4:7). So in the ‘Didache,’ ch. 4; we have, , “Thou shalt not turn thyself from one in need.” Septuagint, “lie that turneth away his eye shall be in great distress;” Vulgate, Qui despicit deprecantem sustinebit penuriam.
Pro 28:28
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves (see Pro 28:12); Septuagint, “In the places of the ungodly the righteous groan.” But when they perish, the righteous increase (Pro 11:10; Pro 29:2, Pro 29:16). The overthrow of the ungodly adds to the prosperity of the righteous, removes an opposing element, and promotes their advancement in influence and numbers.
HOMILETICS
Pro 28:1
The cowardice of guilt and the courage of righteousness
I. THE COWARDICE OF GUILT. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth.”
1. This cowardice springs from a natural feeling of ill desert. “Conscience doth make cowards of us all.” Apart from all authoritative revelation, when no prophet of God is charging a man with his sin, an awful voice within clamours against his guilt and shakes the very foundations of his confidence. Though he has never breathed a word of his misdeed in the ear of a fellow man, though all the world is deceived into believing him to be innocent, he cannot silence that dread inner voice. In many cases it utterly unnerves a man, though outwardly he dwells in perfect security.
2. This cowardice is nourished by a perception of Divine justice. A person who knows the revealed will of God, and his wrath against sin, must be prepared to expect judgments of condemnation on guilt. Though the avenging hand is stayed, it may fall at any moment. The miserable guilty man is like one in the condemned cell under sentence of death, who does not know the day or hour of execution, but who trembles at every footfall lest it should be that of the messenger who summons him to his doom.
3. This cowardice gives rise to needless alarms. The murderer starts at the fall of a leafso utterly unstrung is he under the tremendous consciousness of guilt. Can any condition be more dreadful? Rather than endure this agony of apprehension, men, who were in no danger of being arrested, have confessed their crimes and given themselves up to justice. When we consider the relation of sin to God and to his judgments, it is foolish indeed to live in the cowardly shame of guilt. For there are peace and pardon for the penitent.
II. THE COURAGE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
1. This courage is based on a clean conscience.
(1) The feeling of innocence. Una can brave the lion and subdue its savage nature to her service because the panoply of her innocence is her perfect protection. The martyr can face the fury of the persecutor, strong in the consciousness of right and truth. It is painful to be wrongly accused, but a sensible man should learn to bear calumny when he knows that he is not guilty in the sight of God.
(2) The new experience of regeneration. One who has been redeemed by Christ and renewed by the Holy Spirit need not live in the perpetual fear of guilt and shame. He is forgiven and restored. He is like the prisoner who can walk boldly out of the jail with a royal pardon. Yet his confidence can never be the same as that of original innocence. It must always have a certain humility.
2. This courage is justified by experience. The true man does not find his boldness fail him. He is as safe as he feels himself. The first guarantee of success in any cause is a clear consciousness that we are in the right. In the end, right and truth must triumph. But if they meet with temporary defeat, their champion need fear no real evil. He now gives his life, as he has before given his strength, to the good cause. Whether be serves it by life or by death, he does nobly, and he need not fear that he will be deserted by God.
Pro 28:9
The prayer that is an abomination
God does not hear all prayer. There are even prayers that he rejects with wrath. The broken words of the penitent, the simple cry of the little child, and the ungrammatical sentences of the ignorant person may be all acceptable to God, while prayers faultless in form and impressive in utterance are flung back as insults to the Divine majesty. The first consideration is not as to the nature of the prayer, but as to the character of the supposed worshipper. The prayer that is an abomination is one which, however perfect it may appear to be in itself, comes from contaminated lips. We need to examine ourselves rather than to weigh our phrases.
I. THE CONDUCT THAT MAKES THE PRAYER AN ABOMINATION. This is the conduct of one “that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law.” Such conduct carries with it two, evil things.
1. Wilful error. The heathen who do not know the Law may well be dealt with leniently when they blunder into superstition, and even confuse their consciences with degraded forms of religion, for their error is involuntary. But when a man has an opportunity of coming to a knowledge of the truth, but rejects it in indolence or aversion, he is to blame for the wrong notions which would have been corrected but for his voluntary acceptance of darkness rather than light Devotion ought to be enlightened by instruction. The Bible should be read in public worship. Scripture truth is needed as a guide to prayer.
2. Deliberate disobedience. The turning aside from hearing the Law is not likely to spring from a mere reluctance to learn its doctrines. Behind this there lies a dislike to obeying its precepts, which reveals a stubborn self-will in opposition to the will of God. Now, such an evil state of the heart precludes all favour from Heaven.
II. THE REASON WHY THE PRAYER IS AN ABOMINATION. This may be looked for in two directions. It may lie in the prayer itself, or it may be found in the man who utters it.
1. A bad prayer is offered. If the worshipper is wilfully ignorant, he is to blame for asking for things which he would refrain from seeking when in a more enlightened condition. If he is self-willed and disobedient, he is guilty of asking amiss for what he may spend on his own lusts (Jas 4:3), instead of seeking what is in accordance with the will of God.
2. A prayer proceeds from sinful lips. There are moments of distress when the most undevout man would be glad of heavenly aid, if only it would come like the help given by Homer’s gods and goddesses to his heroes in their times of danger. There is no spiritual religion in the cry for help under such circumstances. If the soul is alienated from God, and there is no sign of penitence, the prayer for deliverance, though genuine and heartfelt, may well be rejected. But worse than this is the mock worship of one who would have the honour of being religious together with the profit of being sinful. There can be no true religion without right conduct. God looks to the behaviour of the life more than to the language of the prayer. He cares nothing for reverence in the temple if he sees wickedness in the market place.
Pro 28:10
The tempter
I. THE GREATEST SIN IS TEMPTING ANOTHER TO SIN. This is Satanic wickedness, following the example of the devil.
1. It is most guilty because it tends to increase wickedness. It is sowing evil seeds. It is bad enough to cultivate the deadly fruit in one’s own life, but to propagate it elsewhere is to be a source of trouble and manifold wickedness.
2. It is particularly guilty because it ruins souls. It is an attack upon other men. The tempter is a murderer. At least, he is an enemy who sows tares in his neighbours’ fields, and so brings trouble wantonly on others.
II. THIS SIN IS COMMITTED BY MEANS OF EVIL EXAMPLE. The tempter need not whisper enticing words, much less need he approach his victim in the attitude of “a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” It is enough that his conduct sets a pattern of wickedness. We are responsible for the examples we exhibit before the world. Most important in the presence of children, who are naturally imitative, and who take their patterns from the manners of the elder people among whom they live, the example of heads of families is peculiarly impressive. Therefore the guilt of such persons is grave indeed when their reckless wickedness drags poor children down to sin.
III. THIS SIN MAY BE SUCCESSFUL. It is possible to cause the righteous to go astray in an evil way.
1. This may happen with innocent children. They are naturally righteous; for “of such is the kingdom of heaven.” But they are not unassailable in their simplicity and early purity. The most awful fact in life is the corruption of childhood by the wickedness of older and stronger life.
2. It is possible with good men and women. To be good is not to be above temptation. Even Christ was tempted, though he resisted successfully. Therefore
(1) when a good man is led astray we have no proof that his goodness was a hypocritical pretence; and
(2) no one can be so secure in his consciousness of integrity as to afford to play with temptation and to beast of his own strength. There are joints in the thickest armour, and keen darts that find out the smallest weak places.
IV. THE SIN OF TEMPTING ANOTHER TO SIN WILL BRING RUIN ON THE TEMPTER. Of all sins this one cannot be let go unchecked and unpunished. For the sake of the victims who are threatened by it God will assuredly visit it with wrath. The tempter is a deadly serpent, whose horrible enticements only make its venom the more dangerous; and all the resources of righteousness must be put forth to crush and destroy such a pest. But no miraculous interference is needed to punish the sin of tempting. We have not to summon the Archangel Michael to fight the dangerous reptile. In the end it will turn its sting on itself. The tempter will fall into his own pit. He will alienate his victims, and he will make an enemy of all that is good. Friendless and helpless, he must perish in the hour of his need.
Pro 28:13, Pro 28:14
Confession
I. IT IS DANGEROUS FOR A MAN fro DENY HIS SIN.
1. It is false. If a man pretends to be virtuous when he knows that he is guilty, that man’s life is a lie. He lives in a continuous falsehood. Such a condition is rotten, turning his whole course into a delusion, and leading to a confused estimate of right and wrong. The very landmarks of righteousness are lost sight of in a fog of bewildering pretences.
2. It precludes forgiveness. God will only pardon the penitent, and penitence is impossible without an admission of guilt. Therefore the Divine covering of sin which will utterly bury it and allow of no ugly resurrection in a revival of old accusations, is hindered by the sinner’s foolish, cowardly attempt to cover it in his own way by a paltry concealment. The wretched rags that he draws over the foul thing will not really hide it, but they will prevent the massive shield of Divine forgiveness from being cast over it.
3. It confirms the sin. Sin is not destroyed by being covered. It is no more killed than the seed of a poison plant is killed when it is sown in the soil, and so temporarily buried out of sight. Driven hack to the secret chambers of the soul, the evil thing grows there and spreads its deadly influence. Confession would clear out the noxious malaria of guilt; concealment only shots it up to breed in the stifling atmosphere of its own corruption. Such a condition hardens the heart in wickedness.
II. IT IS HAPPY FOR A MAN TO CONFESS HIS SIN.
1. This confession must mean an earnest desire to be free from it. The man who conceals his sin keeps it while he covers it, and holds it tight even when he is denying it. But one who confesses his sin aright hates it though he admits it. Three things are here implied.
(1) He owns his guilt. Confession includes an admission both of the fact and of its evil character. He who confesses a sin must own that he did the deed, and that it is bad.
(2) He forsakes the sin. A right confession is accompanied by repentance. It is the very opposite of the brazen-faced guilt that glories in its shame, because it loathes what still it cannot but own.
(3) He first fears to sin again. He has learnt a wholesome lesson. He looks back in owning his guilt, and then forward in lear of repeating it.
2. Such confession will tie followed by God‘s forgiveness and a new joy to the penitent.
(1) God will forgive the penitent. He “shall have mercy.” Pride claims high desserts, but the humility of confession only seeks for mercy. It inspires the publican’s prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” Now, as God is waiting to be gracious and loves mercy, as soon as the obstruction of impenitence is removed, his grace is tree to flow in and heal the humbled soul.
(2) The penitent will experience a new joy. He will be happy even in his fear. He will “rejoice with trembling.” No longer living in the miserable fear of bring “found out,” the new fear that makes him trust his soul to God will be associated with the blessedness of forgiveness and the peace of a Divine protection.
Pro 28:20
A faithful man.
I. HIS CHARACTER. Nothing can be more grand than fidelity. When found in a man it is an image of the eternal constancy of God; it is like that Divine righteousness which the psalmist compared to the “everlasting hills”so firm, so enduring, so changeless. It would be well if this grand Old Testament grace were more prized and cultivated in the Christian Church. Let us consider it in some of its manifold aspects. What is the character of the faithful man?
1. He is true to himself. This fidelity must lie at the root of his fidelity to others. The faithful man must act out honestly what he feels to be demanded by his own inkier convictions.
2. He is true to his God. The man of God is faithful as well as trustful. Thus his faith has the two sides of passive submission and active loyalty. The primary duty to God must be observed before the secondary duty to man can be kept.
3. Are is true to his friend. This does not merely mean that he keeps his pledges. It also involves his regarding the welfare of his friend and coming to his aid in the hour of need, danger, and helpful service.
4. He is true to his wordone who “sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.” It is nothing that we keep our promises when they run along the lines of our own inclinations. The test is that they are equally honoured when they involve self-sacrifice.
5. He is true when unobserved. Faithful service is the opposite of eye service. The faithful man will do well, though he never expects to be called to account. Faithful work is that which never meets the eye, and yet is as well wrought as the most conspicuous work.
6. He is true in face of danger. Here is the test of fidelity. The faithful servant of Christ is one who will not forsake his Lord when persecution threatens him. The martyr is “faithful unto death” (Rev 2:10).
II. HIS FRUITFULNESS. He “abounds with blessings.” He is like Abraham, “the father of the faithful,” who was both blessed himself and a blessing to others (Gen 12:2).
1. He is a recipient of abundant blessings. It is a happy thing to be faithful even though fidelity be met with misunderstanding or persecution.
(1) Fidelity is itself a blessing. This grace is its own reward. To have grace to live a strong, true, noble life is to be one of God’s blessed sons, though no further reward be anticipated.
(2) Fidelity brings many earthly blessings. It may not secure worldly wealth, though generally integrity is a safer road to success in life than the crooked paths of dishonour. But it will secure peace, and in the long run it is likely to be recognized and rewarded with well-merited honour. To be accounted a faithful servant is to be crowned with better than Olympian garlands.
(3) Fidelity will be rewarded with heavenly favour. This is just the chief of Divine approvals singled out by Christ for his servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Mat 25:21).
2. He is a source of abundant blessings. One true, faithful soulwhat a tower of strength! what a treasury of help! what a haven of refuge! He is rich indeed who has a faithful friend. The faithful man can be relied on to help in time of need, when the faithless man, who perhaps is much stronger, deserts his trusting friend. Christ is faithful (2Th 3:3), and as such is a source of abundant blessings to his people. His fidelity is the ground of our faith.
Pro 28:26
The folly Of trusting one’s own heart
I. WHAT IT IS TO TRUST IN ONE‘S OWN HEART.
1. It is to trust in one‘s own wisdom. The heart here, as throughout the Bible, stands for the intellectual as well as the emotional nature. Therefore we may be said to trust in it when we lean to our own understanding (Pro 3:5) rather than seek counsel from God in prayer and the use of the Scriptures.
2. It is to trust in our own character. We may think highly of our own goodness and moral strength, and so venture into temptation needlessly or rush into difficult enterprises without counting the cost.
3. It is to trust in our own affections. Thus we are led to believe, like Peter, that our love to Christ will not fail (Mat 26:35).
4. It is to trust in our own energy. Thinking we can do more than we are capable of accomplishing, through over-estimating our mental or spiritual powers we unduly rely on our own resources.
II. HOW ONE IS TEMPTED TO TRUST IN ONE‘S OWN HEART.
1. Pride tempts. It is humiliating to own weakness. A high opinion of one’s own merits inevitably leads to a dangerous self-confidence.
2. Unbelief tempts. If men had more faith in God they would not be so content to rely on their own poor resources. It is the worldly spirit that leads to the limitation of view to human powers.
3. Self-will tempts. Men naturally desire to have their own will fulfilled. The less they look away from themselves, the more does it appear that they can do as they like. A selfish life tends to be a self-contained life.
III. WHY IT IS FOOLISH TO TRUST IN ONE‘S OWN HEART.
1. The heart is deceitful. “Deceitful above all things” (Jer 17:9). We do not know our own hearts. There are hidden weaknesses, unsuspected snares, unlooked for limits. Ignorance of our own inner selves makes the self-trust a confidence without foundation.
2. The heart is sinful. “Desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9). Too often he who trusts in his own heart trusts in an evil heart. Therefore he is likely to be led astray by his thoughts and desires. Until the heart is cleansed and renewed, the worst possible course is to trust it. On the contrary, it must be distrusted, resisted, restrained.
3. The heart is frail. Even when it has been freed from the dominion of sin, the heart of man is liable to fall. open to temptation, and in danger of yielding in the moment of trial.
IV. IN WHAT WAY ONE CAN AVOID TRUSTING IN HIS OWN HEART. It is not enough to see the danger and folly of this trust, for a man must have something to rest upon, and if the best foundation is unstable he will still build upon it rather than abandon himself to despair. Now, the cure for the tendency to trust in a wrong security is to be found in the possession of a better faith, a faith that is wise and safe. One great mischief of a man’s trusting in his own heart is that he is thus led to forsake God. The remedy is found in returning to the true ground of the soul’s confidence in God. He who thus trusts is wise.
1. God is true. Unlike the fickle heart, he is faithful and can always be trusted.
2. God is good. Therefore we should turn from the sinful heart to the holy and gracious God.
3. God is strong. The frail heart fails; the mighty God is a steadfast Rock.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Pro 28:1-5
Canons of moral truth
I. WICKEDNESS IS FEARFUL, GOODNESS IS COURAGEOUS. (Pro 28:1.) A good conscience is better than a thousand witnesses; an evil conscience unmans (Job 15:21). What passes by the name of courage is often the effect of fear of men; and that which is discountenanced as want of spirit may proceed from the profoundest reverence for God. We shall never find anything in the world more to be feared than the warring presence within our own breast. True courage is the knowledge that we are for the time at one with God. The light of his countenance is life, dispersing the darkest cloud, and calming the most turbulent tempest. An evil conscience is “the worm that dies not.”
II. POLITICS AND MORALS. (Pro 28:2.) Rebellion arising from the collision of party and personal interests must be very injurious to the well being of a small state. Rebellion can only be justified when there is not only the greatest wrong existing, but also the clearest possible prospect of success. If peoples in time of distress, instead of cursing and rising against their rulers, would patiently search into the causes of their grievances, a shorter way would often be found to redress. A certain unity of feeling is essential to the well being of a state. “When any of the four pillars of government are mainly shaken or weakened (which are religion, justice, counsel, and treasure), men had need to pray for fair weather” (Bacon).
III. THE ODIUM OF PETTY TYRANNY. (Pro 28:3.) There is nothing more detestable than the oppressive rule of an upstart. A base mind becomes more corrupt from hasty elevation, a narrow heart more cruel, as in the case of Robespierre and other historical examples. As with learning, so with power; the smatterers are the most ostentatious of their knowledge; those “dressed in a little brief authority” love to
“Play such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep.”
The Divine rule is strong in gentleness.
IV. THE SECRET OF MORAL SYMPATHY AND ANTIPATHY. (Pro 28:4.) Those that secretly love sin have pleasure in them that do it. “The world loveth its own.” It is fearful to sin; more fearful to delight in it; yet more to defend it (Bishop Hall). The pure heart has no “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.” We reveal or betray ourselves by our sympathies. The homely proverb says, “Like lips, like lettuce.” And the important lesson arises herethat we should dwell on the best and brightest examples, for the sake of their effect on our character; the eye becomes sunny as it gazes at the sun.
V. THE EFFECT OF VICE ON THE INTELLIGENCE. (Pro 28:5.) It is a most important principle that insight into intellectual relations of truth is affected by the mood of the heart. The clearest knowledge of the letter is here of no avail. “If any man shall do God’s will, he shall know of the doctrine.” The pure conscience conditions the bright intelligence. The understanding is darkened “because of the blindness of men’s heart;” and these call darkness light, and light darkness. Many things dark to reason are simplified to knowledge. The Divine mysteries are mysteries of love, and through love only may be known.J.
Pro 28:6-12
The moral quality of life
Nothing we can touch, no relation we can enter into or observe, but has its moral bearing. This, indeed, is the great lesson, in hundredfold iteration, of this book.
I. POVERTY WITH INNOCENCE, WEALTH WITH PERVERSITY. (Pro 28:6.) Whatever be the compensations of poverty in a lower point of view, most men would vote for riches if they had the opportunity at the price of all its inconveniences, and we need to be reminded that he who would sell his peace of conscience for wealth does but “gain a loss.” Better go to heaven in rags than to hell in embroidery. Better God than gold; better be poor and live, than rich and perish.
II. A MAN IS KNOWN BY THE COMPANY HE KEEPS. (Pro 28:7.) The first example is that of the man whose delight is in the Law, who is in fellowship with the truth, and who is therefore a companion “of all them that fear God and keep his precepts.” The second is that of one who keeps company with the dissipated, stains his name, and brings dishonour on his family. In society lie the greatest perils and the greatest safeguards. The Christian Church is the Divine society which aims at the true and holy ideal of living. As with books, so with men; the rule iskeep company only with the best.
III. ILL–GOTTEN WEALTH DWINDLES. (Pro 28:8.) Wealth is not his who gets it, but his who enjoys it. And if gotten by ill means, it cannot be enjoyed; and “Ill got, ill spent,” says the proverb. Wealth, diverted by force or fraud from its natural channels flows back by a law of economic gravitation. A man labours for himself with selfishness and wickedness, and the harvest falls into better hands; “not intending it of himself; but it is so done through God’s secret providence.”
IV. PRAYERS ARE VITIATED BY INJUSTICE. (Pro 28:9.) They are tainted by a horrible lie. In prayer the goodness, the moral perfection, of God is assumed; and prayer implies that the holy will ought to be done. Yet how great the contradiction between such prayers on the lips and the heart bent upon defeating that will! “Just reason that God shall refuse to hear him who refuses to hear God.” Without the “ceasing to do evil, and the learning to do well,” sacrifices are vain oblations, and incense is an abomination to God (Isa 1:11-15).
V. THE SEDUCER IS SELF–SEDUCED. (Pro 28:10.) So the snare of Balaam, laid for Israel, became the cause of his own ruin. If the retribution is not visible, it is a fact in the soul. Among the ingredients of remorse, none is more bitter than the recollection of having led youth and innocence astray. It is a sin most difficult of self-forgiveness. But the righteous inherit salvation. There is a real sense in which men should seek to realize the character of “just men that need no repentance.” There is no salvation in selfishnessnone which does not imply a regeneration of the social consciousness.
VI. POVERTY AND RICHES HAVE THEIR COMPENSATION. (Pro 28:11.) Confidence in riches begins in illusory self-confidence; and there is much to abet and foster it in the opinion of the multitude; for, as the old saying runs, “Rich men have no faults.” But the poor man, endued with sense and with religion, sees through these false estimates; knows that the rich feel misfortunes which pass over his own head; that they pay a tax of constant care and anxiety; and that it is ever better to fare hard with good men than to feast with bad.
VII. “THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE THE VOICE OF GOD.” (Pro 28:12.) Whatever be the love of greatness and splendour, of rank and position, in the common mind, the people cannot but rejoice in good rulers, and be depressed under evil. A generous acclamation breaks from the popular heart when good men are raised to honour. “When Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in the king’s royal apparel, the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour; in every province a feast and a good day” (Est 8:15-17).J.
Pro 28:13, Pro 28:14
The inner conditions of peace and of misery
I. THE CONCEALMENT OF SIN. (Pro 28:13.) It is like a worm in the bud, preying upon the check and upon the heart. The deepest way of such concealment is when the sinner persuades himself that “he has no sin,” apologizing to himself, giving a false colour to his wrong. The sense of a dualism in our being unreconciled will not admit of peace and rest.
II. THE CONFESSION AND RENUNCIATION OF SIN. To admit the truth about ourselves, neither extenuating nor exaggerating our sin and fault; to allow the detecting and discriminating light of God’s judgment to fall clear and full on the conscience;this is what confession requires. But it must be completed by renunciation; otherwise it is mockery. To say
“We’re sorry and repent,
And then go on from day to day,
Just as we always went”
in the words of the child’s hymnis mere sentimentality and weakness. But never are these conditions fulfilled without a sense of the Divine pity striking into the heart. God is faithful and just to forgive our sins; and the conscience is assured that he is too just to permit the sinner who has become a sufferer from godly sorrow to be tormented by remorse one moment longer than is necessary for his healing.
III. THE TENDER CONSCIENCE. (Pro 28:14.) It is well with him whose heart is in the constant habit of reverential dependence upon God. His law for human conduct envelops all life from the greatest to the minutest matters. It is the atmosphere of the soul that we need to keep pure; it is the fellowship with the Spirit who is holiness that we need most jealously to guard.
IV. THE HARDENING OF THE HEART. (Pro 28:14.) Making light of sin leads to its repetition; repetition indurates the conscience. Disregard of the delicacies of the soul leads surely to a benumbed, and presently to a lost, sensibility. It is better to feel too keenly than not to feel at all; better the weak conscience than no conscience at all. He who presumes upon the mercy of God will have to reckon with his justice.J.
Pro 28:15, Pro 28:16
The wicked ruler
I. THE SIMILE. (Pro 28:15.) He is like a fierce and devouring beast. No pity softens his bosom; no justice regulates his conduct. Complaint provokes further exactions; resistance kindles him into fury. He looks upon his people, not as a flock to be tended, but to be preyed upon. He roars around them like the nightly bear about the fold. Such monsters have often appeared in history.
II. THE SOURCE OF OPPRESSION. It lies in the ignorance of the oppressor’s heartignorance of policy, of humanity, of Divine and eternal right. The great generalization, “They know not what they do,” covers, indeed, all kinds of sin, but does not exempt from guilt. Men might know better; but, without the practice of what we know, our light itself becomes darkness.
III. THE GOOD RULER. (Pro 28:16.) The trait that “he hates covetousness” may be made general; for false or perverted desire is the real motive of all such wickedness. “Lust and desire to have” gold, territory, power, etc; is selfish and cruel, and turns every man governed by it into a being more or less resembling the non-moral brute. Politics can never be excluded from Christianity; and the immense effect for good or evil of the acts of those in power is a reason why all good Christians should take a close interest in politics, and not permit any rank or station to be exempt from criticism.J.
Pro 28:17-22
Judgments on transgressors
I. THE VIOLENT MAN. (Pro 28:17.) His doom, here as elsewhere, is viewed as sudden; he hastes to Hadeslives not out half his days. The truth is general, reflecting the intuition of the moral order. And in accordance with that order it is that pity will be turned away from him that shows no pity. This is no argument for capital punishment, but it is an argument for such a treatment of criminals as will best deter from crime.
II. THE INSECURITY OF EVIL WAYS. (Pro 28:18.) Integrity is alone safe; and in one or other of his crooked ways the sinner will ultimately fall. The dangerous feat is tried once too often. Our interest is attracted to “the dangerous edge of things,” and we are astonished that men can stand upon it so often without falling. We do not see the result of the last and fatal attempt; or, seeing it, we do not surmise the previous successful attempts to defy the law of things. Scripture is right; but we do not know enough of events absolutely to verify its truths.
III. POVERTY AS A JUDGMENT. (Pro 28:19.) Here, again, we have a general truthan abstract from the great broad field of life’s facts. On the whole, there is no secret of abundance but industry; nor of poverty but idleness and indulgence in pleasure and amusement as a pursuit. Repose and pleasure are the illusions from which the stern voice of God, speaking through daily experience, is ever rousing us. Hardly any disease of body or of mind, any social evil, is there which may not be traced to self-indulgence and inertia.
IV. HASTE TO BE RICH. (Pro 28:20.) This temper is contrasted with that of the faithful man. There is a different scale of value in the two cases. The good man values things by the moral standard, the covetous man only by the standard of gold. The true way of looking at wealth is as an available means to all ends of health, wisdom, benevolence. These alone are rational ends; but they may be lost sight of in the passionate pursuit of the means. It was a thought deeply impressed on the ancient world that over-eagerness for riches must involve dishonesty. “No one quickly grows rich, being at the same time a just man,” says Menander. “For he who desires to become rich desires to become rich quickly. But what reverence for the laws? what fear or shame is there ever in the covetous man who hastes to be rich?” says Juvenal. To lessen our desires rather than to increase our means is the true wisdom of lifeto study to give account of our little rather than to make our little more.
V. RESPECT OF PERSONS IN JUDGMENT. (Pro 28:21, Pro 28:22.) The vice springs from some mean sourcefrom fear, covetousness, or obsequiousness. Cato used to say of Caelius the tribune, that he might be hired for a piece of bread to speak or hold his peace. To prefer interest to the truth, this is the fiery temptation in one form or other of us all. And the keeping back of a part of the truth may be as injurious to others as the utterance of direct falsehood. Any meanness harboured in the soul exposes to constant danger. Timidity may fall into worse sins than those it seeks to avoid. And in other ways extremes meet. While the haster to be rich casts an evil, envious eye on the property of others, he is blind to the menace of poverty from behind. In any case, poverty of soul follows from the constant drain of thought and energy towards things that “perish in the using.” How much need have all to beware of those passions which are the “thorns” that spring up and choke the good word of God in the heart!J.
Pro 28:23
Faithful counsel
I. To GIVE IT MAY REQUIRE THE HIGHEST MORAL COURAGE. It may be in the teeth of the interest of the adviser; it may turn a friend into an enemy; it may inflict a keen smart. Nothing but the highest regard to truth on the one hand, to love on the other, may be sufficient to nerve for the task.
II. THE TEMPORARY DISPLEASURE OF A FRIEND IS TO BE FACED RATHER THAN THAT HE SHOULD SUFFER LASTING EVIL. To save a soul from death, this is the great duty imposed by Christian love. And to that principle we must be true, whether we gain or lose a brother to our heart.
III. FLATTERY TURNS OUT TO BE BITTER, NEED COUNSEL HUMBLY RECEIVED EVER SWEET IN THE END. The former swelling our self-conceit, blinds us to both our advantage and our duty; lures us to folly and, perhaps, to ruin. The latter opens our eyes to ourselves and to our circumstances, and turns our foot from the precipice. We have reason to be thankful for the warning word that has saved us, and to bless the faithful heart which dictated it; reason ourselves to pray that we may miss no such opportunity of another’s salvation.J.
Pro 28:24, Pro 28:25
Sins of greed
I. THEY MAY LEAD TO UNNATURAL VICESEVEN THE ROBBERY OF PARENTS. (Pro 28:24.) The heart must be profoundly corrupted that can sacrifice filial affection on the shrine of the base lust for gain. Theft is not less but more a crime it committed against one’s own blood.
II. THEY LEAD TO STRIFE. (Pro 28:25.) They overcome the instinct for justice and social right, and the man becomes an oppressor and a murdererif not in act, in spirit and purposeof his kind. Wars and fightings come of the “lusts in our members.” It is confidence in the eternal Godhis gracious providence and goodness, which calms excessive desire, and fills the heart with peace and content. And the riches the soul thus gains are surer and more permanent than any treasures laid up on earth.J.
Pro 28:26
Folly and wisdom in the personal relation
I. THE PRINCIPLE OF FOLLY IS LIFE IN AND FOR SELF ALONE. The thought that is superior to counsel and comparison with other minds; the feeling which shuts out consideration and sympathy; the will which would act as if it knew no law but its own;these are manifestations of that folly which is at once immoral and irreligious.
II. PRACTICAL WISDOM WELL COMPARED TO A WALK. This is the rising in thought towards universal truth. It is governed by the pulse of charity in the soul; it moves towards all worthy Divine and human ends. In folly we advance to perdition, in aiming at our weal, in wisdom, renouncing self, we enter blessedness.J.
Pro 28:27, Pro 28:28
The life that breeds perpetual benediction.
I. THE KINDLY AND GENEROUS HEART“. (Pro 28:27.) This prompts the generous hand; gathers more than it sows; is not suffered to want any good thing. It stands out in bright colours and winning aspect against the dark background of the selfish, self-concentrated, hard hearted life Let us cultivate the open eye which drinks in the knowledge of all that concerns our fellows, and the open hand in harmony with it.
II. ITS WORTH IS HEIGHTENED BY CONTRAST. (Pro 28:28.) Men cower, their brows contract, their mien becomes depressed, their soul enslaved, their manhood unmanned, beneath the proud man’s oppression and the wicked’s scorn. Persecution drives the moral sunshine out of the world, and tends to depopulate its moral life. As the increase of goodness depends largely on sound social and political conditions, it must be an object of prayer and of endeavour with all good men to overthrow tyranny and abolish fraud, that “the fruits of righteousness may abound and increase on every hand.”J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Pro 28:1, Pro 28:13, Pro 28:25
(latter part)
The source of disturbance and the secret of security
We hardly need the pen of the wise man to assure us that
I. SIN MEANS DISTURBANCE TO OUR SOUL.
1. It is bad enough to be unfortunate; to suffer from privation or loss.
2. It is far worse to be guilty. We soon accommodate ourselves to our misfortunes; we readily adjust ourselves to our circumstances, even though these may be very narrow. But sin strikes deep, and its wound lasts long. Among other painful consequences it fills the soul with a tormenting fear.
(1) It dreads the pursuing penalty of God‘s ordaining. And it has reason to do so, for “evil pursueth sinners” (see homily on Pro 13:21). In accordance with Divine Law, suffering, sorrow, shame, death, are following in the track of iniquity, and, except there be merciful interposition, will lay their hand upon it.
(2) It dreads the pursuing penalty of man. More often than not sin is pursued by man, either by public taw or by private resentment; and he who has wronged his neighbour, either by fraud or force, has reason to expect arrest and punishment. It is well that it should be so. We have come lately to understand that it is our wisdom to abandon the heavy sentence which was seldom inflicted for the lighter one which is far more freely dispensed. The great thing in administering justice is to connect penalty with sin as closely as possible in the mind of those who are tempted to violate the law.
(3) It dreads penalty when there is no punishment at all. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth.” The murderer cannot, dare not, stay in the presence of the body he has slain. The thief turns aside from the officer who has no intention of apprehending him. He who has inflicted the greatest wrong that one man can do another shrinks from his neighbour’s eye long before his sin has been suspected. Sin fills the soul with a harassing, a tormenting, fear. The guilty heart imagines a hundred dangers before the hand of judgment is outstretched to seize, or even its pursuing feet are on the path of apprehension. We reckon badly indeed if we only count the actual and palpable inflictions of justice which evil pays; in that penalty must be included all the anxieties, the alarms, the quakings and shiverings of the soul, the abject and haunting terrors which agitate the soul before the chains are on the wrist or the prisoner is at the bar.
3. There are two alternatives open to guilt: (Pro 28:13.)
(1) It may try concealment; but this is a mistaken as well as a wrong course. It will “not prosper;” the time of concealment will be one of constant disquietude, and it will end in exposure and humiliation, for again and again it is seen that there is “nothing hidden which is not revealed.”
(2) It should adopt the course of confession and amendment; whoso does this “shall have mercy” of God, and will very likely indeed have mercy of man also. But even if not, the way of confession and of penalty is less hard and thorny than the path of sin and secrecy, of cowardice and terror. It is often true that while to bear punishment is tolerable, the miserable effort to escape it is absolutely intolerable.
II. RIGHTEOUSNESS MEANS SECURITY AND SERENITY. “The righteous are bold as a lion.” To the upright there are two sources of rest and strength.
1. The consciousness of integrity. He that knows and feels his purity, his innocency, has a fearless heart, and shows a brave front to the enemy. He does not fear that the shafts of falsehood will pierce his strong armour of truth and equity.
2. The favour of God. (Pro 28:25.) He “puts his trust in the Lord;” he commits his cause to the Righteous One; he is assured that God is on his side, and he “does not fear what man can do unto him.” “The Lord is his salvation; whom should he fear?” (see Psa 27:1-3; Psa 84:11, Psa 84:12).C.
Pro 28:4, Pro 28:5
The practice and effect of sin and righteousness
We have a double contrast here between the practice of the sinner and of the righteous man, and between the consequence of sin and of goodness upon the mind of the guilty and of the good.
I. THE PRACTICE OF SINFUL MEN. They “praise the wicked;” they “bless the covetous” (Psa 10:3).
1. It is a fact that they do so. We hear the voice of ungodliness lifted up in favour of what is utterly wrong in the sight of God; it is expressed in the language of the lips and in every form of literature. There is hardly an evil thing perpetrated by men which does not find its advocate in some quarter.
2. It is comprehensible that they would do so. And this for two reasons. The wicked, as such, have an interest in lowering the standard of public morals; the more they can reduce this. the less will be their own condemnation, and the higher they may hope to move in the society they affect. But perhaps the main account of it is found in
II. THE BLINDING INFLUENCE OF SIN. Those who break God’s Law praise those who are wicked and that which is unworthy, because they “understand not judgment” (Pro 28:5). It is the fearful and fatal effect of sin upon the soul to pervert the moral judgment, to deprave the conscience, to make men regard with a diminishing disapproval the wrongness of evil deeds, until they become absolutely indifferent to it, until they positively approve the actions which they once hated and denounced. Then the light that is in them is darkness, and how great and how sad that darkness is (see Mat 5:23)! Everything is seen in a false light; truth appears as falsehood, good as evil, wisdom as folly; and, on the other hand, all those miserable delusions which a sinful heart holds, and which are leading it down to death, appear as truth, and wrong and guilty actions appear as right, and lives which are dismal failures seem to be successes.
III. THE FUNCTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Their duty, or one of their duties, is to “contend with the wicked.” This was the office, the service, of righteous Noah, of Lot, of Elijah, of Daniel, of Nehemiah, of John the Baptist, of Paul; it has been the function of every true and loyal-hearted man placed in the midst of those who are opposing the will of God. Contention is not the highest, as it certainly is not the most inviting, duty we have to take in hand. But it is often very necessary, and is sometimes quite noble service.
1. We may have to contend with the flagrantly bad, to denounce violence, oppression, injustice, vice, profanity, etc.; or with the mere hypocrite, who is right in form but wrong in heart; or with those who are halfhearted, and who are practically opposing the truth and the kingdom of God.
2. We should be very sure of our ground before we take up the attitude and use the weapons of hostility.
3. We should oppose ourselves to those who are wrong in no spirit of animosity against men, but of hatred of all evil.
IV. THE EFFECT AND REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. “They that seek the Lord understand all things.” It is the most blessed effect of obedience that it elevates the doer; it purifies his heart, it clarifies his vision, it unlocks the door within which are rare treasures of immortal truth, it makes the soul to see and to rejoice in that to which it had been wholly blind. It unveils the living truth of God. It enables us:
1. To know ourselves as God knows us.
2. To understand our life as God intended us to regard it.
3. To appreciate the words and to recognize the will of the Divine Teacher.
4. To know him himself, “whom to know is life eternal.”C.
Pro 28:8
(See homily on Pro 28:20, Pro 28:22.)C.
Pro 28:9
(See homily on Pro 15:8.)C.
Pro 28:12, Pro 28:28
Hidden manhood
The two main truths here taught have been anticipated by a foregoing proverb, viz. the advantage to society of promoting the good; and the injury done by the advancement of the wicked (see Pro 11:10). But there is a truth suggested by the wise man’s language which does not elsewhere appear; he says that when the wicked rise “a man is hidden,” that “men hide themselves.” The fact here alluded to is clear enough; we have often read, or have frequently observed, that the best men retire to seclusion and inactivity when iniquity is on the throne, when unprincipled cleverness holds the reins; they will not serve under a sovereign whom they despise, or in circumstances which make office holding a disgrace, if not a danger. But beyond and beneath this fact the language is fitted to suggest to us that there is much of hidden manhood amongst us. We find it in
I. PREMATURE RETIREMENT. Not only under the conditions stated in the text, when the withdrawal of honorable men is necessary to the upright and the high-minded, but also under very different conditions. When men are allured by a desire for quietude and ease, or when they are disheartened by disappointment, or are disgusted by the slowness of their ascent to place and power, or when they underestimate their capacity and their opportunity, and they therefore lay down the weapon and leave the field. This is a serious loss. Then “a man is hidden;” a man is burying the wisdom of maturity, the large result of manifold experience, the gathered fruit of many years. He is hiding in his own home the cultured capacity he should be expending on the city, on the country of his birth.
II. UNDEVELOPED FACULTY. We do not know how often it happens that men are born with great capacities in their nature, and who live and die without manifesting them to the world. They fail to receive the education which would bring them forth, or they are confined within a range so narrow that they have no chance of showing what they could be and do. They “die with all their music in them;” they pass away, unknown, unproved, unfelt. That is expended upon unimportant trifles which might have directed the affairs of some great company, or guided the activities of some influential Church, or decided the course of some powerful nation. A “man is hidden,” and a community is left unenriched.
III. UNDISCIPLINED FORCE. When God gives to a human spirit a strong power of will, there is an imperative necessity that it should be wisely and rightly guided and controlled in youth. Faithfully disciplined, such a one becomes a most useful man, who will contribute largely to the advancement and happiness of the world. But if that discipline be withheld, and the clever, wilful boy be allowed to grow up into untrained and uncultured manhood, there will be a sad waste of power. He will be more likely than not to do harm rather than good to his generation; he may be a blight instead of a blessing. There is “a man hidden;” one who has it in him to be one of the highest and worthiest, but who, as it is, is lost or even worse than lost, to his contemporaries and his country.
IV. UNRESCUED WRONG. Even when we see humanity at its very worst, in its very foulness and baseness, we do well to feel that beneath the humiliating and pitiful exterior is a hidden manhood. It is the noble work of Christian beneficence to get down to this, to lay its kind and holy hand upon it, to raise and to restore it, to bring it into the sunshine of truth and love, to make it visible and even beautiful in the sight of God and in the estimate of man.C.
Pro 28:18
(See homily on Pro 11:30C.
Pro 28:19
(See homily on Pro 27:23.)C.
Pro 28:20, Pro 28:22
(and Pro 28:8)
Wealth or faithfulness? a sermon to young men
What shall the young man set before him as his goal when he stands face to face with active life? Shall he make up his mind to be rich, or shall he resolve that, whatever his circumstances may be, he will be counted among those who are faithful to their trust? Shall he fix his mind upon and find his heritage in a large estate or in an honourable and a useful life? Let such an inquirer consider
I. THE GRAVE DOUBT ABOUT WEALTH. To have sufficiency of money for a comfortable home, for education, for the furtherance of the cause of God, and for the relief of human want,this is certainly a very desirable thing. He who is facing the future may honestly desire to attain it, and he who has won it may well give God hearty thanks for the goodness which has placed this blessing in his power. But the mere acquisition of wealth, on which so many set their hearts, to which they devote their lives, and for which they sacrifice the best and highest things of all, ensures nothing at all of that which is valuable to a man who uses his reason and cares for his character. For who can be sure:
1. How it will be gained. There are temptations on every hand to gain money dishonestly or, if not fraudulently, by questionable means; by taking advantage of the weak and struggling in a way which, if it be not positively unjust, is inconsiderate and unkind. Of those who “make haste to be rich,” how very large a proportion fail to “be innocent” (Pro 28:20)! They either deviate from the straight line of perfect equity, or they wander into ways of rank injustice and shameful wrong. Who shall say whether the next aspirant will not be counted in their number? And what does it profit a man to gain a fortune and to lose his integrity?
2. How long it will stay. He “considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.” Few things are less certain than the duration of wealth. Who that has reached middle life has not frequently known of those that were supposed to be beyond the reach of misfortune being suddenly reduced or positively beggared (see Pro 23:5)?
3. How much it will do for its possessor. “He that hasteth hath an evil eye;” so far is he from being satisfied with his fortune, and from looking graciously and generously upon all his neighbours, rich and poor, that he looks enviously upon those that are wealthier than himself, proudly upon those that are less successful, and grudgingly upon those that are poor, lest they should want his aid and diminish his store.
4. Whither it will go. If dishonestly obtained, it is likely enough that wealth will soon meet with the penalty it deserves, and pass to another holder. It may go to him that will “pity the poor,” or it may get into the hands of “the fool,” who will squander it in some kind of folly (Ecc 2:18, Ecc 2:19, Ecc 2:21). There is, then, an utter uncertainty about riches. It may be that God has not intended a man to be rich, but to be happy in a very humble station (Pro 30:9); and a pertinacious endeavour to secure what God has not placed within reach must end in a wretched failure and a badly bruised spirit. To such as these the strong words of Paul are applicable (1Ti 6:9, 1Ti 6:10).
II. THE CERTAINTY ABOUT FAITHFULNESS. “A faithful man shall abound with blessings.” And there is no room for questioning it. Let a man be faithful to his convictions; let him be to God, his Father and his Saviour, what he knows in his heart he should be; let him be true and upright in all his relations with his fellow men, and he will be regulating his life by a sovereign principle which will “abound with blessings.” It will:
1. Build up a strong and noble character.
2. Establish an honourable reputation and win the confidence of men.
3. Secure as large a measure of peace and of happiness as is the lot of disciplined humanity.
4. Dispense much good of many kinds to those around, both in public and in domestic life.
5. Lead down to a peaceful end, and on to a glorious future. What wise man would endanger the loss of these priceless blessings for the uncertain and transient good of worldly wealth?C.
Pro 28:23
(See homily on Pro 27:5, Pro 27:6.)C.
Pro 28:24
Filial duty
These words may be taken not only as condemnatory of filial wrong, but as suggestive of filial obligation. We look first at
I. THREE FORMS OF FILIAL WRONG.
1. Culpable carelessness. Doing things or leaving them undone, so that the money of parents (which, perhaps, can ill be spared) is wasted.
2. Unconscientious appropriation. Which may ascend from picking out of the pet or taking from the cupboard up to a serious appropriation of property.
3. Unprincipled involvement. Either in the form of
(1) contracting debts which will have to be paid out of the father’s purse; or, what is still worse
(2) following an evil course of conduct which will discredit the family name and rob it of its honoured and prized reputation.
II. ITS GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD. They who do such things may justify them to their own minds; they may say to themselves, “It is no transgression; what is our parents’ is our own;” but this is not the light in which it shows to Heaven. It is not only the wise man. but the Son of God, who has affixed his solemn condemnation to filial shortcoming (Mat 15:5). Undutiful conduct toward parents is a very heinous sin.
1. It is in most distinct violation of the Divine command (Exo 20:12; Deu 27:16; Mat 19:19; Eph 6:1, Eph 6:2; Col 3:20).
2. It is a wrong done to those who, in virtue of their relationship, have the strongest claim upon us.
3. It is a sin against those who have spent on us the most patient, sacrificial love. To rob them to whom we owe more than we can owe any other human being is an aggravated offence indeed. It is well to consider
III. THE TRUE FILIAL FEELING. A true son, who realizes what is due to his parents, will not only shrink from taking the advantage which his father’s trustfulness places in his power, but he will consider how he may make some return for all that he has received at his parents’ hands. And he will understand that this is to be rendered by:
1. Responsive affection.
2. Prompt and cheerful obedience.
3. Ready acquiescence in those things which are beyond his reach; docility and submissiveness of spirit.
4. Practical willingness to share the burdens of the home. Thus he will lighten the labour and brighten the lives of those who were the first, and will perhaps be the longest, if not the last, W love him.C.
Pro 28:25
(latter part) and 26 (former part)
In whom to trust
They who look forward to human life from the sanguine standpoint of youth may see in it little to be afraid about; but they who have reached the latter end of it, and look back upon it, know how much there is in it to give ground for serious apprehension. It is they who are concerned for the young, and who are so devoutly solicitous that these should put their trust in that which will sustain them. There are three principles which are applicable.
I. SELF–RELIANCE IS BETTER THAN LEANING UPON OTHERS. To be kept from “the evil which is in the world” by the authority, or the counsel, or the entreaty of others is quite unsatisfactory in any but the very young. These human props will be taken away, and where, then, is our virtue?
II. MORAL PRINCIPLE IS BETTER THAN RIGHT DISPOSITION. It is well enough to inherit or to imbibe right inclinations, pure impulses, honourable feeling. But these may go down before the force of some one very strong temptation, or be (as indeed they often are) worn down and worn out by the droppings of hostile influences. Moral principle, well rooted in the soul, will stand the rough wind and still lift up its head to heaven.
III. TO TRUST IN GOD IS INCOMPARABLY WISER THAN RESTING IN OURSELVES,
1. To “trust in our own heart“ is great folly. For, on the one hand, we do not know what we may have to encounter. Possibly our life may be comparatively free from evil, material and moral; but perhaps it may not be so. There may be before us trials of the utmost severity, for which the very greatest endurance will be required; or there may be temptations of the severest kind, which will assail us with tremendous and overwhelming force; or there may be demanded of us high duties, large services of even heroic order, only to be rendered by a noble self-abnegation; or there may await us splendid opportunities, to be unequal to which would be a lifelong regret, to avail ourselves of which would crown us with joy and honour. And, on the other hand, we do know that, associated even with moral principle, there is some measure of human weakness. Every man has his vulnerable point; and to every man’s strength of mind and character there is a limit which is only too easily reached. Who of us would dare to say that he, of himself, however fortified he may be even by sound convictions as well as excellent inclinations, is strong enough to withstand any storm that may beat against him, to swim any current into which he may be cast, to rise to any height that he may be called upon to climb?
2. To trust in God is the true wisdom. For
(1) God is able to make us stand (Rom 14:4). He can make us to know “the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe.” We can “do all things in Christ who strengtheneth us.”
(2) He has promised to sustain and to enable us, if we do put our trust in him (Psa 32:10; Psa 125:1-5 :11; Isa 26:3; Isa 40:30, Isa 40:31; 2Ti 1:12). God has given us abundant reason to believe that, if we practically and devoutly trust in him, he will see us safely through every evil we may have to meet and master, and will guide us to his own home and glory.C.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
c) Against unscrupulous, unlawful dealing (especially of the rich with the poor)
Chap. 28
1The wicked flee when no man pursueth,
but the righteous are bold as a lion.
2In the rebellion of a land its princes become many,
but through wise, prudent men one (the prince) continueth long.
3A man who is poor and oppresseth the lowly
is (like) a rain flooding and (bringing) no food.
4They that forsake the law praise the wicked,
but they that keep the law contend with them.
5Evil men understand not judgment,
but they that seek Jehovah understand all.
6Better (is) a poor man that walketh in his uprightness,
than he that walketh in crooked ways and is rich.
7He that keepeth the law is a wise son,
but the companion of profligates causeth his father shame.
8He that increaseth his wealth by interest and usury
gathereth it for one that pitieth the poor.
9He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law,
even his prayer is an abomination.
10He that leadeth the righteous astray in an evil way,
in his own pit shall he fall;
but the upright shall inherit good.
11The rich man thinketh himself wise,
but a poor man that hath understanding searcheth him out.
12When righteous men exult there is great glory,
but when wicked men arise the people hide themselves.
13He that hideth his sins shall not prosper,
but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy.
14Happy is the man that feareth always;
but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into evil.
15A roaring lion and a ravening bear
is a wicked ruler over a poor people.
16O prince, poor in understanding and abounding in oppressions;
he that hateth unjust gain shall prolong his days!
17A man laden with the blood of a soul
fleeth to the pit; let them not detain him!
18He that walketh uprightly shall be delivered;
but he that walketh in crooked ways shall fall suddenly.
19He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread,
but he that followeth vanity shall have poverty enough.
20A faithful man aboundeth in blessings;
but he that hasteth to be rich shall not go unpunished.
21To have respect of persons is not good,
and (yet) for a piece of bread (many) a man will transgress.
22He that hath an evil eye hasteth after riches,
and knoweth not that want shall come upon him.
23He that reproveth a man shall afterward find favor
more than he that flattereth with his tongue.
24He that robbeth his father and his mother,
and saith it is no wrong,
he is companion to one that destroyeth.
25He that is of a covetous heart stirreth up strife,
but he that trusteth in Jehovah shall be richly rewarded.
26He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,
but he that walketh in -wisdom, shall be delivered.
27He that giveth to the poor (suffereth) no want,
but he that covereth his eyes hath abundance of curses.
28When wicked men rise men hide themselves,
but when they perish the righteous increase.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro 28:2. might perhaps be more correctly read as an Infinitive; Comp. Hitzig on this passage. As the words of the original Hebrew now stand, we can supply a subject for only the singular (the true prince); in like manner the in must be taken in the sense of when there is at hand; the however must be taken as an introduction to the concluding clause, like our then or so. In all this there is indeed the difficulty remaining that the participles and stand side by side without a copulaan anomaly that is hardly removed by referring to Pro 22:4 (Bertheau) And yet the construction thus brought out is, in spite of the manifold anomalies which it involves, after all better than, e.g. that of Umbreit, who takes as a substantive in the sense of right as dependent on ,or than Hitzigs violent emendation ( instead of ), the meaning resulting from which but through a man of understanding contention ceases, does not agree very well with the context. [The E. V. takes as a noun: the state thereof, etc. So H. and M. (the stability). N. without this specific rendering reaches the same result by finding for the verb shall prolong its days, or endure the subject it (the state) suggested in clause a. S. follows Umbreit. Btt. ( 935, ) regards the verb as furnishing an example of what he calls concrete impersonals, having a general subject one, a construction not uncommon, where reference is made to public offices or functions. This reaches Zs. result by a different path.A.]
Pro 28:17.[The participle Btt. prefers an account of its peculiar vocalization to regard as a mutilated Pual part, deprived of its initial , and would therefore point ; so Pro 25:11, etc. See 994, 6, 10.A.]
Pro 28:18. is equivalent to in Pro 28:6.
Pro 28:23. a somewhat stronger form in its vowel elements than , used here as is elsewhere.
EXEGETICAL
1. Pro 28:1-5. Of the general contrast between the righteous and the ungodly (unscrupulous transgressors, men of violence).The wicked flee when no man pursueth. The wicked (singular) is on the ground of its collective, or more exactly its distributive meaning, subject of a plural verb; compare similar constructions, . Job 8:19; Isa 16:4; and also below, Pro 28:4 of the present chapter; 1Ti 2:15 ( ), etc. [See Ewald Lehrb. 309, a, and other grammars].But the righteous are bold as a lion. is to be explained as a relative clause and referred to the preceding as a lionwhich is confident, rests quietly in the consciousness of its superior strength and the security which results from it, see the same figure in Gen 49:9. [This seems to be needlessly artificial; according to a common Hebrew construction the verb may be a distributive singular after a plural, the righteous. See e.g. Green, 275, 6.A.]
Pro 28:2. In the rebellion of a land its princes become many. For this use of transgression in the sense of rebellion, revolt, comp. the verb employed in this sense in 2Ki 1:1; also Exo 23:21, etc. The allusion is plainly to the uprising of many petty chiefs or tyrants, or many pretenders to the throne, or usurpers opposing each other, in lands which, through revolt from the lawfully reigning house, have fallen a prey to political anarchy, as e.g. the Kingdom of Israel, especially in the period after Jeroboam II.,to which the author of the proverb now under consideration might very well have had special reference. [On account of the form of clause b we prefer, with Kamph., to understand the allusion to be to a rapid succession of half established kings, rather than to a number of competing claimants. Thomson, Land and Book, I., 498, cites an Arabic proverb: May Allah multiply your sheikhs! as embodying in its intense malediction a constant Oriental experience of fearful calamity. It is only incidentally illustrative of the proverb before us.A.]But through wise, prudent men he (the prince) continueth long. [See Critical notes.]
Pro 28:3. A man who is poor and oppresseth the poor. We are to think of some magistrate who is originally poor, an upstart, who seeks to enrich himself rapidly by oppression of his subjects. This man is in clause b very appropriately described as a rain that floods the sowed field or the fruitful district, and thus destroys the prosperous condition of the crops. [Here again, and more appropriately, Thomson (ubi supra) illustrates, both from natural and political experiences common in the East, the impressiveness of this proverb to an Oriental mind.A.]
Pro 28:4. They that forsake the law praise the wicked, i.e. for his success; comp. Psa 49:12; Psa 49:19; Psa 73:3; Psa 73:10; Psa 73:12.But they that keep the law (Pro 29:18) contend with him; lit., with them; comp. remarks above on Pro 28:1. For this verb, to contend or dispute, comp. Jer 50:24; Dan 11:10, etc.
Pro 28:5. Evil men (lit., men of evil, comp. remarks on Pro 6:23) do not understand judgment; their wickedness darkens their understanding likewise, which is especially the faculty for distinguishing between good and evil; comp. Pro 29:7. In contrast with them they who seek God understand everything, i. e. everything that relates to the investigation and determination of right; comp. Ecc 8:5.
2. Pro 28:6-12. Against wanton oppression of the poor by the rich.With Pro 28:6 compare the quite similar proverb Pro 19:1.Than he that walketh in crooked ways; lit., than one who is crooked in the two ways, or, than one who is perverse in a double way (the dual of the noun is used here as in Pro 28:18 [see Green, Gram. 203, 3]), i.e. one who unskilfully and way wardly passes from one way to another, one who, with divided heart, stands midway between the right path and the bypath of immorality; comp. Sir 2:12; Jam 1:6.
Pro 28:7. With clause a compare Pro 10:1; Pro 29:3.But the companion of profligates. For the verb , to cherish, to cultivate intercourse with some one, comp. Pro 13:20. For the term profligate or waster, comp. Pro 23:21.
Pro 28:8. He that increaseth his wealth by interest and usury. The interest and usury are so distinguished according to Lev 25:36-37, that the former denotes the annual revenue of a sum of money loaned out, the latter an exaction in other things, especially in natural products. The former is then fnus pecuniarium, the latter fnus naturale sive reale. [Here again Orientals, ancient and modern, have a peculiarly deep and painful experience of the enormities of usury.A.]He gathereth it for one that pitieth the poor, i.e. for an heir who will at length show himself more liberal and compassionate toward the poor; comp. Pro 13:22, and also Job 27:16-17. Mercerus, Ewald, Bertheau, Elster take the as an Infinitive of the intensive form: ad largiendum pauperibus, for bestowal upon the poor, to show himself merciful to the poor. But such an involuntary giving is a harsh idea, difficult to realize; and the meaning, to bestow, largiri, has elsewhere only in the Kal conj., the participle of which corresponds best with the general context before us.
Pro 28:9. Comp. Pro 15:8; and with clause a in particular Isa 13:15.
Pro 28:10. He that leadeth the righteous astray in an evil way. The evil way is unquestionably a way of sin and ungodliness, whether the be taken as a neuter substantive in the genitive (as in Pro 28:5; Pro 6:24), or, which is perhaps to be preferred here, as an adjective. With clause b compare Pro 26:27; with c, Pro 2:21. The pit in b is naturally the way of sin into which one betrays the upright, not as it is in itself, but in its ruinous issues to which he is finally brought. Comp. chap: Pro 11:6; Pro 11:8.
Pro 28:11. With a compare Pro 26:16.But a poor man that hath understanding searcheth him out; i.e. he sees through him, and accordingly knows his weaknesses, and therefore outstrips him in the struggle for true prosperity in life.
Pro 28:12. When righteous men exult (triumph). , lit., to rejoice, here expresses the idea of the victory of the good cause over its opposers, in which victory all the people (according to Pro 29:2) sympathize with great exultation. Hitzigs alteration is unnecessary ( into , suggested by the of the LXX): when righteous men are delivered.But when wicked men rise, come up, attain to power. Compare, with respect to this as well as the peoples anxious hiding themselves, Pro 28:28.
3. Pro 28:13-18. Against the secret service of sin, hardening of the heart, tyranny, and thirst for blood.With Pro 28:13 comp. Psa 32:1-5.
Pro 28:14. Happy is the man that feareth always, i.e. he who lives in a holy dread of transgressing the will of God by sins of any kind whatsoever; comp. 2Co 5:11; Php 2:12, etc. The antithesis to this man who feareth always is the confident, the carnally presumptuous, hardened in the service of sin; Pro 28:26 and also Pro 16:14.With b comp. Psa 95:8; Pro 17:20.
Pro 28:15. A roaring lion and a ravening bear. the ancient translators (LXX: ; Vulg. esuriens, etc.), already give with a substantial correctness, when they interpret it of the raging hunger or the blood-thirstiness of the bear; comp. Isa 29:8; Psa 107:9. Not so well Bertheau and Elster (following Kimchi, Levi, Cocceius, etc., [Gesen., Fuerst, E. V., H., S., while Luther, De W., K., N., M., Rd., etc., agree with our author]): a roaming, ranging bear,for which rendering neither Joe 2:9 nor Isa 23:4 can be adduced as decisive supports.
Pro 28:16. O prince poor in understanding (lit., in discernments) and abounding in oppression. This conception of the first clause as an animated appeal to a tyrant (Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, etc.), seems to correspond better with the second clause than Hitzigs view, according to which clause a is a nominative absolute, not to be resumed by a suffix in b, or than Stiers still more forced translation: A prince who lacks understandingso much more does he practice oppression, etc. [Luther, E. V., De W., H., N., M. make the general relation of the clauses antithetic, each clause having its normal subject and predicate, although H., e.g., admits the want of precision in the antithesis. K. agrees with Hitzigs abrupt sundering of the clauses; while S. makes the first a synecdochical clause, as to a prince, etc. Our authors rendering if animated is certainly unusual.A.]He that hateth unjust gain shall prolong his days. For the generalizing plural , which stands here quite as appropriately as e.g. Pro 3:18; Pro 27:16, the Kri unnecessarily calls for the singular . [So Btt., 702, ].
Pro 28:17. A man laden with the blood of a soul. For this participle, burdened, loaded (with the sense of guilt), comp. Isa 38:14. [The E. V. loses the passive form and force of the expression; so Luther and H.; while De W., K., N., S., M., W. agree with Z.A.]Fleeth to the pit, is restless and a fugitive (like Cain, Gen 4:14), even to the terrible destruction toward which he is hastening by Gods righteous decrees, and from which no human exertion is able to hold him back. Hence the warning exclamation at the end: let no one detain him, i.e. let no one attempt the impossible, after all to recover him who is irrecoverably lost!
Pro 28:18 forms an antithesis to the preceding verse, cast in a somewhat general form.He that walketh uprightly (comp. Psa 15:2; Mic 2:7) shall be delivered, but he that walketh in crooked ways shall fall suddenly. Comp. the perverse in a double way, in Pro 28:6. The suddenly, at once, points to the fact that the one or the other of the two perverse ways which the ungodly alternately pursues, must bring him at last to ruin.
4. Pro 28:19-28. Various warnings and cautions, directed mainly against avarice and violence.With Pro 28:19 comp. Pro 12:11.. is surfeited with poverty. A stronger and more direct antithesis to a than the is void of understanding in Pro 12:11 b.
Pro 28:20. A faithful man aboundeth in blessings. For the man of fidelities, comp. the similar expression in Pro 20:6; also 2Ki 12:16; 2Ki 22:7, etc.But he that hasteth to be rich, naturally, in unfaithful, dishonorable ways. Comp. 2Ki 20:21; 2Ki 21:5; and for the concluding phrase, 2Ki 4:29.
Pro 28:21. With a compare the somewhat more complete expression, Pro 24:23.And (yet) even for a piece of bread (many) a man will transgress. The morsel of bread (1Sa 2:36) probably stands here not as an example of a peculiarly insignificant bribe, but as the concrete designation of a trifle, a very slight value or advantage of any sort. Comp. A. Gellius, Noct. Att. I., 15, where Cato says in proverbial phrase of the tribune Clius, frusto panis conduci potest, vel ut taceat, vel ut loquatur [with a crust of bread he can be hired either to keep silence or to speak].
Pro 28:22. He that hath a covetous eye hasteth after riches, lit., with an evil eye, and therefore the envious; comp. Pro 23:6. For the idea of hastening after riches comp. Pro 20:21.And knoweth not that want shall come upon him.Instead of want (comp. Job 30:3 and a kindred term in Ecc 1:15) the LXX read (so likewise the Edit. Bomberg., 1525, and the Plantin., 1566). If this reading were original, then we must undoubtedly render in accordance with Pro 14:34; Pro 25:10; by shame, reproach. Yet the Masoretic reading also gives a good sense, as a comparison of Pro 6:11; Pro 23:5, and other passages that refer to the vanity and perishableness of riches teaches.
Pro 28:23. He that reproveth a man findeth afterward more favor, etc.Later, afterward, in the general sense, and not possibly with Aben Ezra, J. H. Michaelis, to be taken in the sense of after me, i.e., according to my precepts. With the flattering smoothness of the tongue in b compare Pro 29:5; Psa 5:10; Psa 140:4; Rom 3:13.
Pro 28:24. He that robbeth his father and his mother.Comp. Pro 19:26; also Mal 1:8; Mar 7:11 sq.; and for the expression companion of a destroyer in clause c, chapter Pro 18:9.
Pro 28:25. The covetous kindleth strife. is certainly not the proud (Vulg., Luther, Ewald, Bertheau, Elster [Gesen., Fuerst, De W., E. V., N., S., M.], etc.), but the man of large cupidity (comp. Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5), the avaricious and insatiable, (LXX, Umbreit, Stier, Hitzig [K., H.]). By his covetous grasping and his overreaching others, he kindles strife (comp. Pro 15:18; Pro 29:22), instead of living like the man who patiently trusts in the Lords help in peaceful quietness and with the prosperous development of his possessions as they multiply under the Divine blessing. For the expression shall be made fat, i.e., shall be richly rewarded, compare Pro 11:25; Pro 13:4.
Pro 28:26. He that trusteth in his own hearti.e., not he who relies on his own immediate feelings (Umbreit, Elster), but he who suffers himself to be guided solely by his own spirit (comp. Jer 30:21), by his own inconsiderate, defiant impulse to act, and therefore follows exclusively his own counsel (Pro 27:9). Comp. Hitzig and Stier on the passage.
Pro 28:27. He that giveth to the poor (suffereth) no want.For the sentiment comp. Pro 11:24; for the elliptical construction (the omission of the pronoun to him with the no want), Pro 27:7 b.He that covereth his eyes, i.e., turns them unsympathizingly away from such as need help, that he may not see their wretchedness; comp. Isa 1:15, as well as the similar expressions, Deu 31:17; 1Jn 3:17 ( ).Hath abundance of cursesof imprecations from the oppressed poor; the opposite, therefore, of Pro 28:20.
Pro 28:28. Comp. 12 b.But when they perish the righteous increase;i.e., the righteous who were before oppressed and chased away come out to view again on all sides and form once more a numerous and strong party. Comp. Pro 29:2; and also Pro 11:10; Pro 11:21.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
A peculiar religious complexion belongs not merely to the first half of the chapter, Pro 28:1-16 (as Hitzig asserts, who separates this portion from its older surroundings as a peculiar interpolation originating after the exile), but to the whole section, as is shown with reference to the second part, particularly by Pro 28:18; Pro 28:20; Pro 28:24-25. That which gives to the chapter its specifically religious character is, the repeated admonitions to hear and keep the Divine law (Pro 28:4; Pro 28:7; Pro 28:9), to seek Jehovah (Pro 28:5), to trust in Him, (Pro 28:25-26), to a walking in faithfulness (Pro 28:20), and in blamelessness or innocence (Pro 28:18), and therefore in a general consecration,to fear of Gods sacred anger (Pro 28:14); and also in no less degree the warnings against wanton and flattering suppression of the consciousness of sin (Pro 28:13; Pro 28:24), against a hardening in the service of sin (Pro 28:14), and against the betrayal of others into sin (Pro 28:10). Undoubtedly it is the desire to exhibit as the root of all evil and as a main radical form of ungodliness and lawlessness in general, the vice which is most sharply censured and opposed, that of covetousness, or the mighty rapacity of the wicked,and accordingly to warn against it in the most emphatic way,that led the compiler to accumulate just in the passage before us so many thoughts with respect to the religious relation of men to God. For beside these admonitory and warning proverbs which refer directly to this relation, the substance of the chapter is made up almost exclusively of warnings against wicked violence on the part of rulers in their dealing with the lowly (Pro 28:1; Pro 28:3; Pro 28:12; Pro 28:15-16; Pro 28:28), of rich with the poor (Pro 28:6; Pro 28:8; Pro 28:11; Pro 28:24), and of the covetous and greedy of gain in their relation to the inoffensive and unsuspecting (Pro 28:19-22; Pro 28:25-26). A logically developed progress of thought, it is true, is wanting; the combination is mixed of many colors, in the style of the strings of pearls in the gnomic poetry of the East, in which it is rather external than internal contacts and analogies that determine the concatenation of the several proverbs or groups of proverbs.
HOMILETIC AND PRACTICAL
Homily on the entire chapter. Of avarice as the foulest stain on the conscience, or as the mother of all vices (1Ti 6:10).Or, on walking in the fear of the Lord and a good conscience, and also on the chief dangers that threaten such a devout conscientious life.Comp. Stcker: On the second hinderance to the attainment of true wisdom: an evil, terrified, timorous conscience; its source and characteristics, as well as the remedies for it (in a similar style, Wohlfarth).
Pro 28:1 sq. Luther (marginal comment on Pro 28:1); Ones own conscience is more than a thousand witnesses.Cramer: An evil conscience makes timid (Job 15:21); but faith and a good conscience make the heart joyous, so that it is not terrified before death and the devil (Psa 91:7).[Arnot: No man pursueth; and yet a pursuer is on the track of the fugitive, otherwise he would not flee. When they escape from man, God is the pursuer of the guilty. By conscience chiefly God apprehends usthereby chiefly we apprehend God].Lange (on Pro 28:2): When subjects are oppressed and vexed, they are not to rebel or curse the authorities, but seek the causes of such judgments in themselves, turn and bring forth fruits meet for repentance.Von Gerlach (on Pro 28:5): To the understanding of the law there belongs a disposition to fear God, otherwise the clearest knowledge of the letter is of no avail; while men that fear God attain a sure comprehension of all.[Muffet: 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 is a mystery.Bridges: When knowledge stands in the stead of faith; when the man reasons instead of submitting to Divine teaching; knowledge abused becomes a positive hinderance to a correct understanding.]
Pro 28:6-12. Cramer (on Pro 28:6): As his riches do not help the rich man at all toward blessedness, so his poverty does not harm the poor in that direction.(On Pro 28:8): God often rewards even here kindness shown to the poor, though it may show itself first to the children of the benefactors.Wrtemberg Bible (on Pro 28:9): He that would be heard by God in his prayer must first hear God in His word and subject himself to its direction.[Bp. Hopkins: God stops His ears against their prayers who stop their ears against His law. And this is but equity with God.]Von Gerlach: Even the best that man can do becomes a sin to him when he does it with a disposition of disobedience to the Divine word.(On Pro 28:11): Trust in outward blessings easily brings with it false self-confidence, and it is very natural for the rich to wish to lay claim likewise to inward excellencies and advantages. The poor man standing by unconcerned and simple, nevertheless overlooks and searches him through, and by his very poverty has more of spiritual superiority.Starke (on Pro 28:12): A large proportion of subjects conform to the conduct of their superiors. Blessed is the land whose rulers govern piously and praiseworthily![Trapp (on Pro 28:10): Heaven is kept for the upright, and they for heaven; how then should they miss of it?]
Pro 28:13-19. Melanchthon (on Pro 28:13): As in all conversion repentance must be the first thing, i.e., recognition of transgression and guilt, combined with a sore change of disposition,so here confession of sin is demanded, and such a one as leads to sincere reformation of the feelings and conduct, like that of Paul, 1Co 15:9-10. For necessarily in confession of sin every evil purpose must be given up, because with persistence in these penitence is no true penitence.Comp. the Absolution-sermon on Pro 28:13 by Welcker (Sonntagsfeier, 1839): Be not ashamed to confess, for he only who confesses will obtain mercy, and no competitor is crowned except he strive lawfully.[Lawson: To endeavor to shelter ourselves under coverings that are not of Gods Spirit, is an additional provocation to the eyes of his glory.Trapp: Sin is a deformity that must be uncovered, or God will never cover it; see it we must to confession, or see it we shall to our confusion. No man was ever kept out of heaven for his confessed badness; many are for their supposed goodness.Arnot: Sin cast forth from the heart is harmless. It cannot then pollute the life; and it will not then remain an element of treasured wrath.Bates (on Pro 28:14): Blessed is the man who considers that Gods eyes are always upon him in order to judgment, and whose eyes are always upon God in order to acceptance.J. Howe: It is a very hopeful character upon you when you are really afraid lest a controversy should still depend, and not be taken up between God and you.J. Edwards: A saint is apt to be sensible of his spiritual dangers, jealous of himself, full of fear when he cannot see his way plain before him, afraid to be left alone, and to be at a distance from God.]Starke: Searing and hardening the heart is a heavy judgment. If thou wouldst not fall into it, then hear betimes the grace that knocks at thy door.(On Pro 28:18): There is only one way to eternal life; he that turns from that to the right or to the left, and would make himself sidepaths, will fall into ruin.Von Gerlach (on Pro 28:19): As a reward for his vain striving the simple receives only vanity.[Lawson (on Pro 28:17): The murderer of his neighbor is his own murderer.]
Pro 28:20 sq. [Lord Bacon (on Pro 28:21): In a judge facility of disposition is more pernicious than bribery; for it is not every one that offers a bribe, but there is scarcely a case wherein something may not be found to bias the mind of the judge, if he be a respecter of persons.]Cramer (on Pro 28:20-22): Striving after riches has become to many a one a cause of many sins; and these are the very tares which (according to Luk 8:14) choke the word of God.Tbingen Bible (on Pro 28:23): Speak the truth always, even though thou see that it is bitter. The future will show that thou still farest better with this than do shameful flatterers.(On Pro 28:24): To take any thing from parents the Spirit of God calls a theft, robbing the children of all prosperity and all blessing.[Flavel (on Pro 28:23): There is no better way to secure our own interest in any mans heart, than to fasten it in his conscience by our faithfulness, and by being willing to hazard it for Gods glory.South (on Pro 28:26): Of, all the fallacies and scurvy cheats put upon men by their trusting others, there are none so shameful, and indeed pernicious, as the baffles which men sustain by trusting themselves.]Geier (on Pro 28:26): In our own important affairs we should never rely upon ourselves alone, but ever hearken to others counsel. Does not even a physician in his sickness employ the counsel of other physicians?Wohlfarth: Trust not in thine heart, but in the Lord.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS.
The wise man is prosecuting the same subjects in this chapter as in the preceding. By various similitudes he teacheth the blessedness of wisdom’s ways, and the awful termination of a contrary conduct.
Pro 28:1-5 The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged. A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food. They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them. Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.
The sentiments contained in those verses, are all so plain as to require no comment. And nothing can be more happily chosen than in this way of parable, to shew the life of grace in its consequences, and the life of sin in its eventual ruin. The Reader will not fail, I hope, to perceive that what is said of seeking the Lord, as resulting from an understanding in all things, carries with it a correspondence to the same conduct as the praying seed of Jacob in all ages have adopted in seeking the Lord’s face in the Lord’s strength. Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life. And all his seed seek salvation in this way, and in none other. Psa 27:8 ; Joh 14:6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Plight of the Wicked, Etc.
Pro 28
Such flight is not so irrational as it may at first sight seem to be. Even here there is a deep philosophy. When wicked men flee, they suppose themselves to be fleeing from pursuers, and by so much they are acting in many cases irrationally; but in reality they are attempting the impossible task of fleeing from themselves. When a man is in a position of innocence he considers it impossible that any man can attack him. Such is the mystery of an innocent character; it is without suspicion, without fear, without apprehension of any kind; being good and true itself, it cannot imagine that others can be of a different quality; or if it admits the difference in theory it can never bring itself to suppose that such contrary quality can array itself in a hostile attitude against goodness. A blessed provision is this ministry of fear in the life of the bad man. He knows he ought to be pursued, and for that reason he cannot divest himself of the thought that he is being followed. Every rustling leaf is a pursuing avenger; every unusual noise is the assurance of impending judgment. All this is but a translation of the man’s inward state into outward and concrete form. Wickedness condemns itself; wickedness sentences itself to its own proper doom. If one might so say, this is the only consolation which lost souls can have, namely, that in being lost they are suffering the just reward of their deeds. This sense of justice done may help to mitigate what otherwise would be intolerable even in human prisons. What is said of the righteous is the necessary counterpart of the affirmation regarding the wicked. The righteous man is at one with God, and therefore he fears no controversy. To be in one’s place in the great system of things is to be lifted above fear. When the soul wanders from God it is without friends and without reasonable hope; it lives in tumultuous excitement; it exists in the intoxication of its vanities. The great lesson therefore is that men should avoid that which is wicked and cleave to that which is good. Such advice is supported by all the experience of mankind. It is important to notice that this is not a theological vagary, but a real and solemn fact in actual life. If wickedness were a theological term only, it might be left amongst unintelligible metaphysics, in reference to which strong-minded and practical men might not concern themselves. Wickedness, however, is not only metaphysical, having a profound and solemn spiritual aspect; it is a fact in life, a fruitful tree, whose quality can be at any moment tested, and having been tested the unanimous verdict of the world is that it is poisonous and deadly. But are righteous men in very deed as bold as lions? For a detailed answer to this inquiry we must look very much to the individual constitution of the men. Even some righteous souls have been wanting in courage. They may be courageous in great trials and straits, but in some instances they have failed to bear their testimony with sufficient emphasis in the presence of overruling and hostile forces. We shall know what men are when we see them under the cloud of the final judgment; an opening heaven and an opening hell will soon disclose the real quality of all souls. Until then, boasting is vain, and timidity may be misunderstood; men are what they are in the presence of the final test. The righteous can afford to wait.
“Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things” ( Pro 28:5 ).
Evil men do not understand what is right. How can they? Being wrong themselves, how can they appreciate right in others, or right in its own essence? “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” The effect of evil-doing upon the mind is to destroy the original power of understanding. It is in this direction that the divine complaint runs in the prophecies of Jeremiah “My people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.” On the other hand, “They that seek the Lord understand all things”: their whole intellectual level is heightened, their mental perceptions are quickened, their moral stature is elevated, and they are invested with a sensitive sympathy which knows things afar off, and can discern between qualities, however finely they may be shaded into one another. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” Not only are the good to be blessed with what are known as distinctively spiritual blessings; they are to receive mental illumination, they are to be intellectually strengthened, their natural sagacity is to be enlarged and quickened into a truer and keener penetration “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.” All knowledge does not come through the medium of formal learning, as, for example, by attending school, by reading books, and by passing critical examinations; there is a spiritual genius, a high, keen, responsive sympathy, which overpasses all the mere processes of intellectual acquirement and realises its results without toilsome labour. We have a right to expect divine inspiration, if we be in Christ, and if our souls be hidden in the Eternal God as in an inviolable refuge. If we live and move and have our being in God, we have a right to expect that every idea will bear the divine stamp, and that every aspiration will be but a return of the divine breathing “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things…. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” Here is a standard by which we may measure not morals only, but the highest form of intellectual life. Whatever is immoral is also intellectually untrue. There is no atheistic genius. What may appear to be such is only limited to letters, forms, mechanical forecasts; it does hot penetrate moral revelations and realities, it does not predict with truthfulness and precision moral qualities and issues. A good character is the basis of a great mind. It has not been uncustomary to elevate mind at the expense of morals, that is, to describe men as being intellectually great but morally feeble: there is of course a certain limited sense in which this distinction is valid; but in all higher senses, in all inclusive meanings, it is impossible to have a really brilliant mind apart from a really brilliant heart. The Apostle Paul describes the distinction In the Epistle to the Ephesians ( Eph 4:18 ), where he speaks thus: “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” Christian men should avoid all compliments to the head at the expense of the heart. Christian men are called upon to look first at moral conditions, and secondly at intellectual conditions. We are only just to the law of God in proportion as we elevate character above acquisition. On Christian men a great responsibility in this direction necessarily rests. On the other hand, the man whose heart is right can never neglect the culture of his mind. The very fact that his heart is right with God will lead him to quicken every faculty and power he possesses that he may the more perfectly comprehend the divine economy, and the more certainly know the purpose of God in all things outward and inward. The divine light fills the whole nature: it pours its glory on the mind and on the heart alike, and drives away all darkness from every recess of our complicated nature. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination” ( Pro 28:9 ).
This is a confirmation of chapter Pro 15:8 “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.” Here we have wicked men offering sacrifice as if they were religious, and as if they could separate character from ceremony. It is easy to conceive how wicked men would be only too glad to compound for their sins by paying for any number of sacrifices. God will not allow such a method of escape from moral responsibility. We cannot pay our way out of evil; we cannot ceremonialise ourselves into a state of righteousness before God. The sacrifice itself may be that which is literally prescribed in the law; it may be costly, it may be offered with great ostentation, but being offered by wicked hands it is worthless and abominable. A great doctrine is laid down in this text If men will not obey they cannot pray. The idea is that men persuade themselves that they can escape the obligations of the law, and make up for all such neglect by lengthening their prayers. The judgment of the divine word is against this mischievous misapprehension of duty. If we will not do the law we may offer our prayers, but they will fall back upon us unanswered, they will indeed increase our condemnation. Who can refuse to listen to a book thus bold in its distinctions, thus inclusive in its moral claims, thus lofty and holy in its judicial tone? The book exalts the law, for that is divine and eternal; and only oh the basis of obedience can prayer be associated with any rational hope of reply. Men have said unto God, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” On the other hand, men have professed to have done many mighty works in the name of Christ, and on that ground they have claimed to be admitted into the heavenly kingdom. But Jesus Christ inquires for obedience, insists upon obedience, magnifies obedience; he has no blessing for the disobedient soul, he has nothing but anger for those who set aside the statutes and commandments of God. The great law of the Old Testament and of the New, and of the eternal and unwritten Testament, is, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Here is a ground of accusation against the professing but unreal Christian. His prayers are not to be counted as amongst his merits or deserts; he is a disobedient man, he has turned away his ear from hearing the law, and is listening only to fables and tales and fictions, meant to excite and gratify his fancy; from the solemn, profound eternal law he has averted his ear, and therefore, though he pray with mighty eloquence, in his eloquence there will be nothing persuasive or availing: across his prayer God will write as with a finger of light the word “abominable,” and will return the prayer to the empty heart that pretended to offer it. Glorious is this testimony: a continual inspiration is this blessed assurance: if we have not received answers to our prayers let us go back and search our hearts diligently, for it may be we shall discover that the reason of our having had no answer is to be found in the fact that we turned away our ear from hearing the law. The reason of unanswered prayer is not in God, but in man.
“He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough” ( Pro 28:19 ).
Land was given to be tilled. Land will do nothing for us except in reply to our own labour. We cannot leave even land to itself, trusting to nature to give us what we require for the satisfaction of our hunger and the clothing of our nakedness. Land is to be subdued, to be brought, as it were, into a state of obedience; it is to be tilled according to divine law, and is to be cultivated in a deeply religious spirit When men look upon the tillage of the land as so much drudgery, the land will seem to feel the contempt or neglect of those who cultivate it for merely selfish purposes. All work should be looked upon as religious and sacramental. There is no drudgery in work. It is true that work may be so treated as to become drudgery, and service may be degraded into servility, and industry may be debased into the labour of captivity: good men will reason from the other point, and say with thankfulness that the ground was cursed for man’s sake, that work is part of the great education of life, that without industry prayer is impossible, and that without attention success of the highest kind never can be attained. Life should be a continual call, not only upon the imagination but upon the reason; not only upon the reason but upon the conscience; and every day should be regarded as an opportunity for increasing not only the wealth of the hand but the better wealth of the soul. The great law of cause and effect, of reward and punishment, operates here again, as we have seen it in innumerable instances. Industry means plenty, indolence means “poverty enough.” We cannot be following both after vain persons and after our own proper work. We must choose between the two, and the earlier in life men make their choice the better for themselves. At some point in life discipline must take effect; it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth; if he will not bear it then, he will certainly be called upon to bear it afterwards. Vain persons will do nothing for us in the day of poverty; we shall cry unto them, but they will not heed; we shall supplicate them as with the solemnity and energy of prayer, and they will mock our intercessions. Vain persons and vain customs lead to vain issues. Why will not men consider this, and thoroughly believe it, so as to escape the lure and the snare spread for their captivity and overthrow?
“He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered” ( Pro 28:25-26 ).
The proud heart is always stirring up strife by struggling for pre-eminence, and the proud heart is often rewarded only with vexation and disappointment. Pride comes to no good in any sense or in any way. Pride of heart beclouds the intellect, turns aside the integrity of the understanding, and perverts even plain facts. From beginning to end the spirit of the Bible is against pride; not one word is ever said in its favour or commendation. On the other hand, humility is continually exalted, and meekness of soul is every day rewarded with some larger view of heaven. The proud man can never be contented. When he rises it is only to some pedestal from which he can see further wealth yet to be coveted, and further territory yet to be unrighteously claimed. When we trust in our own hearts we live in wicked isolation. We are not here in the presence of that self-dependence which comes as the result of a large reading of history and a large comparison of facts; we are not in the presence of real self-dependence, but in the presence and under the dominion of false pride. We are called upon to walk in wisdom, and to remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those who put their trust in God will not find in themselves an answer to the enigmas and mysteries of life, but will continually turn to heaven that the key may be given to them wherewith to unlock the stubborn gate. “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee”: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” All history has testified to the vanity of the heart trusting in itself. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof.” Peter trusted in his own heart when he said with loud boastfulness, “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.” We are not large enough to be self-complete. Everything within us testifies that our completeness is in another, and not in ourselves, yea, is in the Creator and not in the creature. “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.”
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXIV
OTHER PROVERBS OF SOLOMON AND THE APPENDICES
Pro 25:1-31:31
The title of the section, Pro 25:1-29:27 , is found in Pro 25:1 : “These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.” Perowne says,
This title is interesting as affording a proof that revival of literary activity accompanied the revival of religion and of national prosperity which marked the reign of Hezekiah. Hezekiah himself was a poet of no mean order (Isa 38:9-12 ); and “the men of Hezekiah” were doubtless a body of scribes engaged under the direction of the king in literary labors. But beside this, this brief title is one of those “fragments of history,” which, as Professor Sayce has shown, “have been illuminated by the progress of oriental research,” and “the importance and true significance of which can now be realized for the first time.” This title points, he thinks, to the existence of a royal library in Jerusalem, into which these proverbs, never before edited, were now gathered and “copied out” and similar to the libraries which are now known to have existed in the cities of Babylonia and Assyria. The vassalage of Judah to the king of Assyria in the reign of Ahaz had necessarily led to the introduction of Assyrian culture into Jerusalem. Ahaz himself had led the way. In the court of the palace he had erected a sundial, a copy of the gnomons which had been used for centuries in the civilized kingdoms of the Euphrates and the Tigris. But the erection of the sundial was not the only sign of Assyrian influence. The most striking feature of Assyrian and Babylonian culture was the libraries, where scribes were kept constantly employed, not only in writing and compiling new books, but in copying and re-editing older ones. The “men of Hezekiah” who “copied out” the proverbs of Solomon performed duties exactly similar to the royal scribes in Nineveh.
It would be a profitable exercise to note all the varieties of stanza, and to select a number of the most beautiful proverbs found in this section, and then compare Pro 25:7 with Luk 14:8-10 as an example of the New Testament elaboration of a proverb, but these matters must be left to the Bible student to be worked out for himself. The author recommends an earnest reading and careful study of this wonderful section of the proverbs of Solomon.
The collection of proverbs in Pro 30 is ascribed to a philosopher, or teacher, named Agur, the son of Jakeh, and is addressed by him to Ithiel and Ucal, presumably his scholars or disciples. The name Ithiel occurs again as that of a Benjamite in Neh 11:7 . Ucal as a proper name is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament. Horton says, Whoever Agur was, he had a certain marked individuality; he combined meditation on lofty questions of theology with a sound theory of practical life. He was able to give valuable admonitions about conduct. But his characteristic delight was to group together in quatrains visible illustrations of selected qualities or ideas.
The following is a brief analysis of Pro 30 :
The chapter, which is highly interesting and in some respects unique, on which account it may have been selected out of other similar literature for publication as an Appendix to this book, consists of a Title, or note of authorship (Pro 30:1 ), followed by a prologue, in which in a spirit of deep abasement, which is the spirit of true wisdom, the author confesses his own utter ignorance in view of the great questions which offer themselves for solution. The study of nature makes it clear that there is a God; but who can tell Who and What He is (Pro 30:2-4 )? Only by revelation can He be known; and in that revelation, held sacred from all admixture, man finds Him and is safe (Pro 30:5-6 ). To the God thus found and trusted the writer turns with a two-fold prayer that he may be in himself a real and true man; a prayer that in his earthly lot he may have the happy mean, removed from the temptations which belong to the extremes of poverty and riches (Pro 30:7-9 ). Then, after an isolated proverb of the familiar type (Pro 30:10 ), another peculiarity of this Collection, which may have been a further reason for its being appended to the Book of Proverbs, is introduced. A series of five “numerical proverbs,” or “quatrains,” as they have been called, groups of “four things,” with a single proverb inserted between the second and third groups (Pro 30:17 ), brings the Collection to a close with the exception of one final proverb at the end of the chapter (Pro 30:32-33 ). CAMBRIDGE BIBLE
It is very interesting to note in this chapter Agur’s prayer (Pro 30:7-9 ), the four insatiable things (Pro 30:15-16 ), the four inscrutable things (Pro 30:18-20 ), the four intolerable things (Pro 30:21-23 ), the four wise little things (Pro 30:24-28 ) and the four stately things (Pro 30:29-31 ), all of which have their lessons for us. There are several fine isolated proverbs here (Pro 30:10-11 ; Pro 30:14 ; Pro 30:17 ; Pro 30:32-33 ), each with its own lessons.
Pro 31:1-9 has King Lemuel for its author. This is just another name for Solomon. Taking the chapter as a whole, the following is a good, brief analysis:
1. Salutation (Pro 31:1 )
2. Maternal admonitions (Pro 31:2-9 ).
3. Characteristics of a worthy woman (Pro 31:10-31 ).
From the salutation we learn that King Lemuel was the author of Pro 31:1-9 which is the oracle taught him by his mother. This is a fine example of maternal influence. There can be no finer compliment to a good mother than the effect of her life and teaching finding expression in the conduct and writings of her children.
The maternal admonitions in Pro 31:2-9 are expressions of the desire of a true mother’s heart for her children. The warning here concerning strong drink with its results in the lives of kings and princes might be good advice for kings, princes, governors, and others in high positions today. It will be noted that the admonition here relative to strong drink is immediately connected with the admonition concerning women and it does not require an extensive observation now to see the pertinency of these warnings. These are twin evils and wherever you find one of them you find the other also. It is not to be understood that there is sanction here of strong drink as a beverage, but rather the medicinal use of it as in the case of Paul’s advice to Timothy to take a little wine for the stomach’s sake. It may also be noted here that righteous judgment is unjoined and this, too, is always in danger at the hands of those who indulge in strong drink.
The passage, Pro 31:10-31 , is an acrostic, or alphabetical poem, and a gem of literature. This passage is the picture of a worthy woman. In the Cambridge Bible we have this fine comment:
The picture here drawn of woman in her proper sphere of home, as a wife and a mother and the mistress of a household, stands out in bright relief against the dark sketches of woman degraded by impurity, or marred, by imperfections, which are to be found in earlier chapters of this Book (Pro 2:16-20 ; Pro 5:1-23 ; Pro 5:7 ; Pro 22:14 ; Pro 23:27-28 , and Pro 11:22 ; Pro 19:13 ; Pro 21:19 Corruptio optimi pessima. We have here woman occupying and adorning her rightful place, elevated by anticipation to the high estate to which the Gospel of Christ has restored her. It is an expansion of the earlier proverbs: “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord” (Pro 18:22 ). The ideal here set forth for the woman is fine and represents her at her best and most influential business, viz: that of making a home.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the title of the section, Proverbs 25:1-29:28, and of what is it a proof?
2. What are the varieties of stanza found in this section?
3. What kinds of parallelism are found in this passage?
4. Give ten of the most beautiful proverbs found in this section, showing their application.
5. What proverbs in this section are elaborated in a New Testament parable?
6. Who were Agur, Ithiel, and Ucal and what may be remarked especially of Agur?
7. Give a brief analysis of Pro 30 .
8. What is Agur’s prayer?
9. What are the four insatiable things according to Agur?
10. What are the four inscrutable things?
11. What are the four intolerable things?
12. What are the four wise little things?
13. What are the four stately things?
14. Who was King Lemuel?
15. Give a brief analysis of Pro 31 .
16. What do we learn from the salutation?
17. What are the maternal admonitions in Pro 31:2-9 and what do you think of them?
18. What can you say of the passage, Pro 31:10-31 ?
19. According to this passage what is the picture here of a worthy woman?
20. What do you think of the ideal here set forth for the woman?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Pro 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Ver. 1. The wicked fly when none pursueth. ] None but their own consciences. Facti sunt a corde suo fugitivi, as Tertullian hath it. Such a fearful fugitive was bloody Cain, who cried out, when there were yet few or none to pursue him, “Every man that meets me shall kill me.” Gen 4:14 Such were those cursed Canaanites that were chased by God’s hornet sent among them – that is, by the blood hounds of their own consciences. Jos 24:12 Such were those Syrians that, struck with a panic terror, fled for their lives, and left their rich camp for a booty to the Israelites. 2Ki 7:7 The shadow of the mountains seemed armed men to guilty Gaal. Jdg 9:36 The Burgundians, expecting a battle, thought long thistles were lances. God sends a faintness into the hearts of the wicked, and the sound of a shaken leaf frightens them. In arithmetic, of nothing comes nothing, yet they fear where no fear is. As Cardinal Crescentius feared a fancied devil walking in his chamber like a great mastiff a , and couching under his table as he was writing letters to Rome against the Protestants. b As Richard III thought he saw in his sleep various images like terrible devils, pulling and hauling at him, after he had, Joab-like, slain two men more righteous than him, his two innocent nephews. c As Charles IX of France, after the cruel massacre, could neither sleep nor wake without music to divert his self-accusing thoughts, so hotly was he haunted and followed with the furies of his own conscience. d As the Spanish fleet, in 1588, Venit, vidit, fugit, as the Zealanders thereupon stamped their new coin. e The Hollanders also stamped new money with this invincible armada, as the Spaniards in their pride had styled it, having this motto Impius fugit, nemine sequente, f The wicked fly when no man pursueth. I pity the loss of their souls, saith a reverend man, g that serve themselves as the Jesuit in Lancashire, followed by one that found his glove with a desire to restore it him, but pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience, leaps over a hedge, plunges into a gravel pit behind it unseen and unthought of, wherein he was drowned.
But the righteous is bold as a lion.
a A large, powerful dog with a large head, drooping ears and pendulous lips, valuable as a watch dog.
b Acts and Mon.
c Polyd. Virgil.
d Thuan.
e Carlton’s Remembrancer.
f Speed., 1206.
g Mr Sam. Ward.
h Tertul. in Apolog.
The wicked flee, &c. = A lawIess one flees. Illustrations: Adam (Gen 3:8); Joseph’s brethren (Gen 50:15); the Jews (Lev 26:36); Ahab (1Ki 21:20); Herod Antipas (Mat 14:2. Compare Pro 20:27); Felix (Act 24:25). Compare Eph 2:13.
the wicked = a lawless one. Hebrew. rasha’.
the righteous = righteous ones.
are bold as a lion. Illustrations: Moses (Exo 32:20); the prophet (1Ki 13:1-10); Elijah (1Ki 18:15, 1Ki 18:18; 2Ki 1:15); Azariah (2Ch 26:17, 2Ch 26:18); Nehemiah (Neh 6:11); Shadrach, &c. (Dan 3); Peter and John (Act 4:18, Act 4:20; Act 5:41, Act 5:42); Stephen (Act 7:51-60); Paul (Act 20:22-24).
bold = confident. Hebrew. batah. App-69.
Chapter 28
Twenty-eight:
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are as bold as a lion ( Pro 28:1 ).
The contrast of the wicked and the righteous. We had an awful lot of that early in the proverbs.
For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged ( Pro 28:2 ).
When the land is bad, there’s many changes of dynasties, governments. When evil existing. But a man of understanding and knowledge, the state, his position will be prolonged.
A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaves no food. They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them. Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things ( Pro 28:3-5 ).
This calls to mind the second chapter of Corinthians, First Corinthians, where Paul declares that, “The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them. They are spiritually discerned. But he which is spiritual understands all things, though he is not understood of men” ( 1Co 2:14-15 ). So evil men understand not the judgment, but they that seek the Lord, God gives to us an understanding, an oeidus, an intuitive knowledge of things.
Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich ( Pro 28:6 ).
An honest poor man much better than a perverse rich man.
Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous men will bring shame to his father. He that by usury and unjust gain increases his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor ( Pro 28:7-8 ).
God will take it away from you and distribute it among the poor.
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination ( Pro 28:9 ).
Prayer at some times in some places is an abomination. Now, we look at prayer as really the highest function of a Christian duty or experience. You know, a man in prayer, you see that as the highest form of the communion of a man with God. But it is possible that even our prayers can be an abomination. And if I if I’m not regarding the law of God, if I turn away my ear from obedience to the law of God, my prayers are useless. The Bible says that, “God’s hand is not short, that He cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that He cannot hear. But your sins have separated you from God” ( Isa 59:1-2 ).
The psalmist said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord hears me not when I pray” ( Psa 66:18 ). So my prayer becomes almost deceitful. It’s an abomination. I say, “Well, I know I’m not so good. I know I’m not doing what I should but, I still pray.” Well, hey, if your hands are filled with blood and you raise those bloody hands to God in prayer, God’s not going to hear you. Your sin has separated between you and God. It isn’t that God can’t hear you; He won’t hear you. So prayer becomes an abomination. It becomes a deceitful thing. I think, “Well, I’m not too bad because I still pray.” But yet my prayers are worthless. They’re an abomination.
Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession. The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out. When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy ( Pro 28:10-13 ).
A lot of people seeking to cover their sins. Try to cover your sin, you’re not going to prosper. “Be sure your sins will find you out” ( Num 32:23 ), God said. But whosoever will confess them and forsake them. In John we read, “If a man says he has no sin, he’s only deceiving himself, the truth is not in him. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” ( 1Jn 1:8-9 ). Just confess and forsake your sins. God will be merciful to you. And it shows you the folly of going on and trying to cover your sin. You’re not going to prosper. You’re not going to get away with it. The best thing as far as sin is the confession and the forsaking, because then you can have and find mercy. Until you confess and forsake, you’re going to have to answer for them.
Happy is the man that reverences always: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor ( Pro 28:14-16 ):
That is, the prince who lacks in understanding will be a great oppressor of the people.
but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days. A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; and let no man stop him. Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. He that tills his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that follows after vain persons shall have poverty enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. To have the respect of persons is not good: for, for a piece of bread that man will transgress ( Pro 28:16-21 ).
James rebukes us for having respect of persons in our assemblies. And he points out how that if a person comes in in rags, you have a tendency to push him off in the corner. But if a guy comes in flashing diamonds and everything else, “Oh, come on down here, take this place of honor.” He says, “Hey, you have respect of persons. That’s not good. God is no respecter of persons. And for us to have respect of persons is not good. A person who has the respect of persons, for a piece of bread he’ll transgress.”
He that hasteth to be rich ( Pro 28:22 )
The get-rich-quick schemes.
has an evil eye, and considers not that poverty shall come upon him ( Pro 28:22 ).
There are a lot of get-rich schemes, or I should say get-rich scams that are all over the place today. If you haste to be rich, you’re looking for a get-rich scam, you’re going to lose your shirt. So many people trying to go to Vegas to get rich quick. Because every once in a while, some person hits the jackpot down there. And when they hit the jackpot, they make news. The papers publish the fact that this guy hit the jackpot on the dollar machine; he’s won $287,000. And everybody around the country hears it. They don’t tell you about the 280,000 that went away from Las Vegas selling their watch to the service station attendant in Barstow to get enough gas to get home. For every one winner, there’s a thousand losers. He that hastes to get rich, he who’s looking for a get-rich scheme is going to end up in poverty.
He that rebukes a man, afterwards shall find more favor than he who flatters with a tongue ( Pro 28:23 ).
That is, he who rebukes a man, afterwards he’ll find more favor than the man who was flattered with his tongue.
Whoso robs his father or his mother, and says, It’s no transgression; the same is a companion of the destroyer. He that is of a proud heart stirs up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat ( Pro 28:24-25 ).
Oh, I love that. I’ve determined that we have an ungodly obsession with skinniness. I don’t find any scriptures that talks about the blessing of skinniness.
He that trusts in his own heart is a fool ( Pro 28:26 ):
Now that’s interesting, isn’t it? Why? Because the scripture tells us in Jeremiah that, “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked” ( Jer 17:9 ). You don’t really know it. So if you trust your own heart, you’re a fool.
but whoso walketh wisely shall be delivered. He that gives unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hides his eyes [that is, from the poor] shall have many a curse. When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase ( Pro 28:26-28 ). “
Pro 28:1
Pro 28:1
“The wicked flee when no man pursueth; But the righteous are bold as a lion.”
“Many of the proverbs in Proverbs 18-29 remind us of those in the 2major section of Proverbs (Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16), with their frequent contrasts of good and evil. In this verse the contrast is between a criminal whose guilty conscience compels him to flee and a righteous person who feels no such compulsion. “A rogue runs away when no one is chasing him, but just men are braver than lions.
Pro 28:1. Mischievous children and evil adults will often drop the wrong they are doing to run when they hear some sound even though it is not somebody pursuing them. House robbers seldom try to break into a home where there is a light on even though they recognize that probably nobody is there-there just might be. See Lev 26:17 and Psa 53:5 for fleeing when no man pursues. On the other hand (by way of contrast) the righteous have nothing to be ashamed of, and their courage causes them to stand right where they are. Noah was bold in a world of iniquity, for he was a preacher of righteousness in it (2Pe 2:5) as well as an ark-builder (Heb 11:7). Elijah was bold on Mt. Carmel (1Ki 18:17-40). The apostles were bold when encountered by the authorities (Act 5:27-29).
Verse Pro 28:2. “The transgression of a land” must be understood as the opposite of the “state shall be prolonged.” Then the proverb means that a multiplicity of princes is an evil, but men of understanding are a benefit.
Verse Pro 28:13. Like Psa 32:1-11, a remarkable revelation of how far these men saw into the very heart of truth concerning the attitude of God toward the sinner.
Verse Pro 28:14. The blessedness of caution. The peril of stubbornness.
Verse Pro 28:20. The man who makes fidelity the master principle will be rewarded. He who makes accumulation of wealth the master passion will be punished.
Verse 27. The latter part of this proverb describes an attitude which is very common, though popularly supposed not to be wrong. To hide the eyes means to refuse to see poverty. It is the sin of those who say they are too sensitive to visit the slums.
Proverbs 28
None are so cowardly as those who are carrying about a guilty conscience. They are terrified by their own thoughts and frightened by a shadow. The first verse contrasts them with the righteous.
28:1
Some men live in the continual dread of the consequences of their sin. But those who live to please God and walk rightly before men, are inspired with holy confidence and almost superhuman courage. When naturally weak and timid men and women were martyred for Christs sake they were bolder than a lion facing its foes. Contrast the army of the Syrians with Elisha the prophet (2Ki 7:6-7; 6:8-17).
28:2
The word transgression (kjv) in this verse bears the sense of rebellion against lawful authority. When a people refuse to acknowledge the powers that be as ordained of God, they are likely to be exposed to the evil schemes of various leaders, especially during a period of anarchy. Each ruler is jealous of the other, resulting in a period of lawless confusion.
In contrast to so unsettled a state, it is a happy land that is ruled by a wise and understanding governor who long occupies his seat of authority.
Among the Arabs, a dreadful malediction is implied in the words, May God multiply your sheiks. No people or country can prosper when exposed to frequent alterations in the executive power. The state of Judah, after the carrying away of Zedekiah, is an apt illustration of this, as is much of the history of the Judges.
28:3
Obscure men, when suddenly elevated to positions of trust and confidence, are likely to be far harder on those of their own former class than one born in a different station of life. They seem to have no pity or compassion, and may be compared to a sweeping rain, which instead of helping the crop to mature, washes away all the seed and leaves no food. The publicans of our Lords day exhibited this lack of feeling for the lower classes and were detested by the populace. They were members of the chosen race themselves and therefore hated and despised by the Roman power. Yet they served that very authority and used their positions as a means of oppressing their poor countrymen. See the protestation of Zaccheus, who declares he had not acted according to the ordinary custom (Luk 19:8).
28:4-5
It is natural that men who have themselves forsaken the law should praise those who follow in the same crooked path. When a man is always ready to excuse unrighteousness in others it generally reveals his own uneasy conscience. They who walk uprightly are able to convict those who do not because those with moral convictions are able to discern matters correctly.
Evil men are blind to true justice because of the iniquity of their own lives. Those who always put the Lord before them and live for His glory are enabled to understand everything-not in an unlimited sense, but everything pertaining to integrity of life and just judgment. See the Spirit-anointed ones of 1Jn 2:20, 27.
28:6
The honest poor may take comfort in Gods estimate of them. In His sight they are preferred far more than the perverse rich. Poverty is indeed a difficult trial and often involves much sorrow; but it is not to be compared to the unhappiness of the godless wealthy man who sows the wind to reap the whirlwind. Contrast Dives and Lazarus (Luk 16:19-31).
28:7
A father finds great joy when blessed with a careful, faithful son who seeks to keep the commandments of God and the laws of men for the Lords sake. Through his obedience he exhibits true intelligence. The father of a wild, reckless son who finds his companions among riotous men is put to shame by his sons evil behavior. How rich the grace that led the father in Luke 15 to go out to meet such a son while he was yet a great way off. It is a precious picture of the joy that fills the heavenly Fathers heart when one poor wanderer returns, whose wretched, sinful life has long shamed the God who created him.
28:8
Extortion and covetousness are alike detestable in the sight of God. Lending money out to get high interest may seem to be good business in the eyes of unprincipled men; but treasure so earned will not profit the owners. When taken away in the prime of their lives they will leave their riches to those who are concerned about the poor. See Gods word to the rich men of the last days (Jam 5:1-6). Note also Jer 17:11.
28:9
God has never promised to hear prayer if the heart is not upright before Him. The psalmist says, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me (Psa 66:18). The verse we are now considering attests this solemn fact. It is useless to look for answers to prayer when we refuse to obey what God has written for our instruction. He has revealed His holy will in His Word. Everything necessary for the believers instruction in righteousness is made known there. Where God is truly feared, His Word will have its due weight, and the obedient soul will order his life accordingly. When this is the case, prayer will be acceptable and will obtain a ready answer; but when the Word is refused or despised, what passes for prayer is but an abomination to the Lord. See Ezekiels message to the self-willed elders of Israel who came to inquire of Jehovah (Eze 20:1-3).
28:10
See note on Pro 26:27. To deliberately turn the steps of the righteous from the path of moral uprightness is to incur Gods displeasure in a most solemn and awful form. The Lord Jesus has said, Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea (Mat 18:6). How dreadful must be the iniquity in the heart of one who would willfully plot to turn any away from obeying the voice of the Lord! Yet many have so offended and been made to know the indignation of a holy God. He gives good things to the upright, but judgment to him who would lead them astray. Balaam was guilty of this heinous offense and his doom was swift and sure (Rev 2:14; Num 31:16).
28:11
Pride and conceit often accompany great wealth. Riches give the wealthy a certain sense of security and independence of God, an environment that is ruinous to the prideful soul. But understanding is of far more value than great possessions. The poor one who has discernment is superior to his well-to-do neighbor. It is not the great, the rich, the mighty, or the noble that God has chosen, but the poor of this world rich in faith (Jam 2:5). See 1Co 1:26-28 and the first clause of Pro 10:16.
28:12
See notes on Pro 11:10; 29:2; and verse 28 of this chapter. The triumph of the righteous inspires joy and confidence in those who are concerned about the stability and welfare of a state. But when the evildoers rule, there is fear and anxiety, which leads even trustworthy men to conceal themselves lest they become the objects of political hatred.
Long have men waited and groaned in pain for the coming triumph of the righteous One. His kingdom will be ushered in with great glory, when all the earth will come into blessing. Until then, the kingdoms of this world must be subject to uncertainties and overturnings because of the rejection of the true King. Sauls wretched reign is a figure of the present time; the reigns of David and Solomon picture the coming glorious reign of Christ.
28:13
The greatest mistake a soul can be guilty of is to attempt to cover sin and transgression. Yet men invariably avoid speaking out frankly with a confession of their true state and actions. It seems to be natural to fallen man (ever since the day that our first parents sought to hide their nakedness by fig-leaf aprons) to endeavor to cover his shame, hoping to avoid the just consequences of his sin. But Gods Word clearly reveals the fact that he who justifies himself will finally be condemned. It is the one who sides with God and condemns himself who is justified from all things.
Confession is the divinely-appointed method of securing a clear conscience, not confession to some human mediator, but to God Himself. It we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jn 1:9). The basis of our forgiveness is the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because in rich grace, He bore the sinners judgment on Calvary and shed His precious blood to put away sin, God can be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Rom 3:26).
Of course, confession does not mean a general acknowledgment of sinfulness and wickedness of life, uttered to ease the soul. True confession involves genuine repentance and self-judgment. Therefore we are told here that he who confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. The repentant man no longer hugs the chains that bind him but longs for full deliverance from them. He comes to God with real concern about his unholy ways, thoughts, and words, earnestly seeking grace to cease from them and to walk uprightly before the Lord. But he cannot do this in himself. Only when he rests in simple faith in the finished work of Christ and yields himself to God as one now alive from the dead is he able to rise above the sins that have blighted his life and almost damned his soul.
David most preciously portrays the change that comes over a man when he stops hiding his iniquities and comes out into the light of Gods presence confessing them before Him. Only then can one know the blessedness of transgressions forgiven and sins covered. See Psalm 32.
When a man attempts to cover his own sin, he adds to the dreadful list, for he is refusing to obey the command that goes out to all men everywhere calling on them to repent. But when God covers sin, it is done effectually and perfectly and will never be interfered with for eternity.
28:14
See note on Pro 23:17. This verse most appropriately follows the previous one. He who is forgiven and rejoices in that knowledge is now responsible to live in the fear of God. He who grows careless and prayerless, neglecting the Word of God and hardening his heart against discipline, will fall into grievous trouble and sorrow; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth (Heb 12:6).
He who always fears the Lord will be delivered from conceit and self-confidence. He will walk in obedience to Gods revealed will. Fearing no longer to be judged for his sins, he will fear lest he grieve the Holy Spirit of God within him and dishonor the name of His Savior and Lord. It was this healthy fear that protected Joseph when he was exposed to a temptation that would have overcome any who trusted in their own strength (Gen 39:9).
28:15-16
A wicked ruler does not acknowledge the higher Power that has permitted him to occupy his honored position. He only cares to gratify his personal inclinations, as Ahab when he unfairly took possession of the vineyard of Naboth (1 Kings 21). Oppressing the poor and failing to rule justly, such a prince is like a wild beast let loose among the populace.
Lacking true intelligence, he fails to see that the security of his throne is dependent on the welfare of his subjects; therefore he rules with a heavy hand until all hearts are alienated from him. Such conduct springs from covetousness and a desire for self-aggrandizement. He who hates this evil passion and refuses to be controlled by it ensures the stability of his house and prolongs his days. Contrast Saul and David. Also see notes on Pro 28:12.
28:17
The guilt of having willfully murdered or helped in the murder of an innocent man burdens the conscience with a fearful load that may drive one to suicide. This would be especially so in Israel. Unable to find a sheltering city of refuge, the guilty assassin would rather die by his own hand than meet the avenger. The traitor Judas fully exemplified this proverb.
28:18
It is not the salvation of the soul that is contemplated in this verse. None can blot out past sin and be justified before God by walking uprightly. We have already noticed this in our comments on 28:13. This verse refers to the practical day by day living in the grace of our salvation. The one who clings to the Lord with determination, walking uprightly before Him, will be saved from much failure and sorrow that he would otherwise have to endure if following his own desires. He who refuses the correction of the Word of God and independently pursues his own course, walking in the pride and self-sufficiency of his heart, will have a sudden fall. His perverseness will result in unexpected disaster. How many a saint has proven this to his sorrow! Unfortunately we are slow to learn from what God Himself has revealed or from the failures of others! Among the prophets, Daniel and Jonah stand out in vivid contrast as illustrations of the two statements in this couplet.
28:19
See notes on 28:7 and 12:11. In the original Hebrew there is a striking parallelism in the two parts of this proverb. Muenscher translates this verse as, He who tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread; but he who followeth vain persons shall be satisfied with poverty. The one, by diligence, will be filled with what is necessary for his growth; the other, because of his folly and neglect, will be filled with sorrow and be as needy as his neighbor is wealthy. It is not chance that makes one prosper, while the other fails. It is simply the difference between patient, faithful adherence to duty and the abandoning of self-control to follow after what is worthless. The two classes are everywhere around us.
They also are found in the spiritual realm. Two young men confess Christ. From the day of his conversion, one conscientiously separates himself from the world in its various forms and devotes himself to faithful cultivation of the fields of Scripture. As a result he grows in grace and in knowledge. His soul, fed and satisfied with bread, has that which he can share with the needy souls around him. The other, having the same opportunities, compromises with the world, follows after its vain company, neglects his Bible, and becomes spiritually starved. At last he breaks down entirely in his discipleship and never amounts to anything for God. It is a serious question if he ever was saved at all. People wonder at the difference between the two; but there is nothing perplexing to the man of God who notices their respective lifestyles. A semi-worldly person never develops into a Timothy. It is the faithful, uncompromising young man who becomes a power for God and is satisfied with good things.
28:20
A faithful man is not likely to accumulate vast wealth in a this world. He will be rich in heavenly treasure and will abound with blessings even in a worldly sense; for he who acts for God can count on God to act for him. However, if the getting of riches is made his lifes goal he will not be acquitted when called to account for his methods and thorny practices. Fraudulent schemes may seem to triumph over diligent perseverance, but the end result will prove the value of diligence and the worthlessness of deception. To become rich quickly is almost certain evidence of injustice somewhere. The Christian should avoid such a course. It is far better to be comparatively poor, but to maintain a good conscience, than to make haste to be wealthy and lose the sense of communion with God. See Isaiahs message to the conscienceless capitalists of his day. They seemed to know as much as money-lovers today about the advantages to themselves of monopolizing business (Isa 5:8-10). See notes on Pro 23:4; 22:1,16; 27:24; 28:22.
28:21
See notes on Pro 18:5. Dishonest and thoroughly unprincipled, he who displays prejudice in his judgment, looks only to his own gain. He will defeat the purposes of justice for the merest trifle if it is for his apparent advantage. The false prophetesses of the scattered Israelites were showing bias in their messages for pieces of bread when Ezekiel was commanded to prophesy against them (Eze 13:17-19).
28:22
See notes on 20:21 and verse 20 of this chapter. An evil eye (kjv) is a covetous eye and shows the condition of the heart. A covetous man, eager to be rich, forgets the sure calamities that are certain to overtake him in Gods righteous government. Ponder Mic 6:12 and Mat 19:23-24.
28:23
See notes on Pro 19:25; 20:19; 26:28; 27:6. For the moment, the flatterer may please the object of his praise; but one who faithfully reproves a wrongdoer will be more valued when there has been time for reflection. No kindness is done for a person when his faults are glossed over, and he is made to feel comfortable in his sin. He who goes to a wrongdoer, meekly and in the fear of the Lord, desiring him to consider his unholy ways, may arouse anger and indignation at first; but time and conscience are on his side. The end result will be that he will be appreciated more than the flatterer. Peter could write of our beloved brother Paul after the searching ordeal he underwent in Antioch (2Pe 3:15).
28:24
See notes on Pro 19:13, 26. This proverb speaks of the youth who, feeling he is entitled to his parents possessions, spends all on himself. He has no sense of responsibility for their well-being and when questioned as to his duty he boldly declares his innocence. This youth is acting like a criminal who destroys what belongs to others. The Pharisees, with all their religiousness, were violating the letter and spirit of this word by their Corban law (Mar 7:11).
28:25-26
See notes on Pro 13:10 and 18:12. A proud man readily stirs up conflict. Haughty and self-confident, he boldly antagonizes more dependable people, giving them no rest until he has his own way. He has never learned the lesson of no confidence in the flesh. By his unbending spirit and questionable behavior, he causes an indescribable amount of damage among the people of God. He is sharply contrasted with the one who has learned from Jesus, who is meek and lowly in heart. The spiritually-minded man can be trusted with prosperity and exemplifies in his life the fact that he is devoted to the Lord. God alone knows the human heart and rewards a man according to his conduct (Jer 17:9-10, niv). A man who walks humbly will walk wisely and will be delivered from many snares. See the Lords estimate of the heart as portrayed in Joh 2:23,25.
28:27
See notes on Pro 14:21; 21:13; and verse 8 above. One of the evidences of the intervention of God in the affairs of men, is that he who has pity on the needy never loses by doing so. But he who refuses to notice their sad condition and hoards all his possessions for himself, finds grief and anguish in the end. God makes Himself responsible to repay with interest all that is given to the poor. They are left in this world to test the hearts of those in more fortunate circumstances. A blessing is on the philanthropic; a curse is on the man who has no heart for the poor and thinks only of his own enjoyment while allowing others to suffer. See the rich young ruler (Luk 18:18-27). Compare with 11:25.
28:28
See 28:12. When evil men are in power, nothing is secure, and men of peace and quietness hide, dreading to be noticed publicly. But when the unrighteous are overthrown, the upright are everywhere visibly increased, having confidence in the safety of their households and goods. See the condition of the Israelites in the days of the Philistine domination, and their altered estate when Jonathan overthrew their wicked oppressors (1Sa 13:6; 14:22).
Pro 28:14
(with 1Jn 4:18)
Fear has a place in the Gospel; may we but find it. Indeed, it is an old remark that every natural principle of our minds, every true inborn feeling in these hearts of ours-desire, affection, devotion, even anger, even indignation, hatred itself-has an object assigned to it-is not to be crushed and trampled out, only to be redirected-in that new and latest utterance of God to His creatures which is the Gospel of grace and salvation. So it is, certainly, with fear. The object of fear may be either a thing or a person.
I. We fear a thing which, being possible, is also undesirable or dreadful. We do not fear that which is impossible; we do not fear that which is pleasant or neutral. Our Prayer-book, commenting in the catechism upon the Lord’s Prayer, bids us call three things evil, not pain, not sickness, hot loss, not bereavement, not even natural death, but just these only: (1) sin and wickedness; (2) our ghostly enemy; (3) everlasting death. These three things then are the proper objects of Gospel fear.
II. The fear of God as a Person, even the dread of God as a Person, is essentially of a high order. To feel that there is One above me, a living Being, to whom I am accountable, if it be but as my Judge, to whom I am something, if it be but as a malefactor and a victim-there is something elevating in the very conception. But this, if it stop here, is the religion of nature, of fallen nature, of the thing made and corrupted crouching beneath the hand of its Maker. This mere dread, though it is a higher thing than indifference, is no part of the Gospel. From this kind of fear the convinced man, if he yields himself to Christ’s teaching, will pass on into a higher. Of all love, that is the most beautiful which is the gradual produce of the godliest fear. It springs not out of the forgetfulness, but out of the experience, of what I am and of what God is. It is no sentimental dream, no highly coloured fancy, no one-sided view of God’s revelation; it takes in all the truth, and is founded upon a rock.
C. J. Vaughan, Last Words at Doncaster, p. 19.
References: Pro 28:14-28.-R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 272. Pro 28:20-22.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 227.
Pro 28:26
I. We may take these words of the Book of Proverbs as a warning to seek self-knowledge. And, as a first step to self-knowledge, they bid us beware of trusting our own heart, or we shall but see ourselves, in a high moral sense, to be “fools” at last. But it may be asked, Is not the heart God’s creation and God’s gift? Did He not plant eyes in it and give to it; light and discernment to guide our ways? Why must a man who trusts his own heart be a fool? (1) Because our hearts-that is, we ourselves-are ignorant of ourselves. If we knew ourselves, we should not trust ourselves; we do so because we do not know what we are. (2) Not only is the heart ignorant of itself, but it deceives itself. Ignorance is the danger of unawakened minds, self-deceit of the awakened. (3) Another reason why to trust our own hearts is a note of folly is because they flatter us. Self-flattery imposes upon us with the conceit of our own excellence.
II. If this be so, if we be our own deceivers, what securities shall we take against our own hearts? Out of many we can now take only two. (1) The greatest security against deceiving ourselves by trusting our own hearts is a careful information of conscience. A knowledge of sin in itself would interpret to us the true moral character of our own conduct and all its intricate parts of thought, word, and deed. Another benefit of this early information of conscience is that we should be preserved from the stunning and deadening insensibility which early sins bring upon us. No words too strong can be found to urge on parents and guides of children to begin the information of the conscience as early as the information of the reason. (2) The other security is the only one which remains to those who have never enjoyed the first, and that is to take the judgment of some other person instead of trusting in themselves. We advise others better than ourselves; so would they us again. How little do we lay to heart who he is that would fain stop our ears against all advisers. And the man who takes counsel of nobody is his easy prey.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 92.
References: Pro 29:15.-New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses. p. 164. Pro 29:1.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 359; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 84; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 174. Pro 29:1-11.-R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 285. Pro 29:12-18.-Ibid., p. 297. Pro 29:15.-Outline Sermons to Children, p. 77.
CHAPTER 28 Warnings and Instructions Continued
The wicked is a coward; the righteous man, because he trusteth in the Lord and knows the Lord is on his side, is as bold as a lion. It is the conscience which makes a coward of the wicked man.
This chapter has many sharp contrasts and important warnings and exhortations. We point out a few. Those who forsake the law, turn their backs upon the revelation of God, refuse obedience to Him, praise the wicked, they make common cause with them. Those who keep the law, obey Gods Word, are contenders for the faith Pro 28:4. Evil men are blind, but with seeking the Lord comes understanding, the blind eyes are opened Pro 28:5. A wise son is he who keepeth the law; such was Solomon till he plunged into apostasy and darkness Pro 28:7. Then in the ninth verse is another pithy saying. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. It is the same truth as stated in Psa 66:18, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
An important message is contained in Pro 28:13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Every attempt to cover up sin is a failure. How much of this is done today, not merely the covering of individual sins, but the denial of sin itself. The modern theology useth much ingenious argumentation which tries to make out of sin something else; speaks of it as a mere defect, as if it were some kind of a taint in the blood, a hereditary and therefore unavoidable weakness, something for which man is not responsible. All these inventions, which sweep aside the declarations of the infallible Word of God, are covering up. No mercy can there be for those who deny sin and sins. The fig leaves must be torn away with which man still tries to cover his nakedness. There must be confession, repentance, self-judgment and then of course trust in Him who died for the ungodly.
The next proverb Pro 28:14 contains a beatitude. Happy–or blessed–is the man that feareth always. He who has found forgiveness is sheltered by the precious blood, walks in newness of life and in godly fear all the day long.
We mention Pro 28:25 and Pro 28:26 : Trust in the LORD brings blessing; and he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.
wicked: Lev 26:17, Lev 26:36, Deu 28:7, Deu 28:25, 2Ki 7:6, 2Ki 7:7, 2Ki 7:15, Psa 53:5, Isa 7:2, Jer 20:4
the righteous: Exo 11:8, Psa 27:1, Psa 27:2, Psa 46:2, Psa 46:3, Psa 112:7, Isa 26:3, Isa 26:4, Dan 3:16-18, Dan 6:10, Dan 6:11, Act 4:13, Act 14:3, 1Th 2:2
Reciprocal: Gen 4:14 – driven Gen 31:36 – was wroth Gen 50:15 – Joseph Exo 24:18 – went into Jos 7:12 – the children Jdg 7:21 – all the host 1Sa 17:11 – dismayed 1Sa 17:48 – David hasted 2Sa 17:10 – heart 1Ki 1:49 – General 1Ki 12:18 – flee to Jerusalem 1Ki 18:2 – went to show 1Ch 12:8 – whose faces Neh 6:11 – Should such Job 11:15 – thou shalt be Job 18:11 – to his feet Psa 14:5 – were Psa 73:19 – they are Psa 91:5 – Thou Isa 30:17 – thousand Isa 33:14 – sinners Jer 49:5 – I will Dan 3:18 – be it Mat 10:26 – Fear Mat 14:4 – General Joh 7:26 – he speaketh Joh 18:4 – Whom Act 4:11 – you Act 13:46 – waxed Act 16:37 – They have Act 23:1 – earnestly Rom 10:20 – very bold
Divine Contrasts
Pro 28:1-27
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We have another one of Solomon’s messages which God gave to him. We will bring out several statements in the beginning of the chapter.
1. A contrast in consciences. Pro 28:1 : “The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion.” Our minds immediately go to a self-accusing conscience on the part of the wicked. When a man is sinful he is afraid almost of his own shadow. He is continually imagining that some power of darkness is about to overwhelm him or that some law of the righteous is about to overtake him.
We remember the story of Hood’s poem, how the schoolmaster had slain a man for his money. When he went down the next day, he could not resist looking at the place where he had buried the man. It seemed to him that the corpse stared him in the face. Because of his guilty conscience, he took the body of the dead and threw it into a pond. Just as he was drawn to the place where the man was murdered, it now seemed to his vision as though the pond had turned to blood. Thus, he fretted for twenty years being pursued by his crime.
Finally, he could retain himself no longer but returned to the scene of murder. There he sat calling the boys and girls who were en route to school, to his side. As the children gathered around him, he told them tinder the semblance of a dream, everything in detail of his slaughter of the years past.
On the contrary, the righteous are bold as a lion. Their consciences are clean. There is nothing to cause them to tremble. They walk in peace by day, and rest in peace by night.
2. A contrast in the attitude toward the poor. “A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.” Who is there who has not seen the ravage of devastating floods sweeping everything before it? We have seen a cyclone that left the ground barren of crop, of house, and of tree. Such is the state of the one who oppresseth the poor. He sweeps on without pity. The righteous, however, love the poor and seek to preserve them.
3. A contrast between law-breakers and law-keepers. Men who break the law and forsake it, praise the wicked. Their delight is in those who are alike rebellious. They will not seek to overthrow the wicked, but rather to sustain them. On the other hand, one who keeps the Law will contend against those who break it. They will seek to establish, as well as to sustain the laws of the land, as well as the Laws of God.
4. A contrast between the rich and the poor. Better is a poor man that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.” Society may exalt the rich even though they be rich through perverseness, but God only exalts those who are upright. A poor man who is righteous receiveth honor from God, while the rich man who is evil, will be brought low.
5. A contrast in filial, and unfaithful sons. A wise son keepeth the law, and is in obedience to his father as well as to his country. The young man who rejects the law and also rejects his father; who seeks the companionship of the wicked, who follows in the ways of the ungodly, and of the riotous, loses that sense of honor towards his father, and towards his mother, which is the mark of a wise son.
There is something about sin that robs a youth of every filial sense of honor and responsibility. We have seen young men who went the gates with the wicked; these same young men had no sense of shame, and home to them lost all its charms. They would forget their father, and neglect their mother.
Two young men who spent their nights in riotous living returned to the bedside of their mother who was dying. They entered their home with a mien and manner that was altogether contrary to the throbbings of true sons.
One young man, we knew, who, finding his mother dead, stole into the room where the undertaker was embalming the body. As the undertaker turned his face the young man carried to his lips a flask of alcohol, which the undertaker was using to embalm his dead mother, and drank it. When we preached the mother’s funeral sermon, the young man was drunk and debauched.
How different is the son who is obedient. He is a wise son, a consolation and a comrade to his parents and the joy of the community in which he lives.
Thus we could go on, the contrast between the true and the false; the wicked and the righteous, the just and the unjust, are mentioned in many places in the Book of Proverbs. God grant that each of us may learn to know the Lord, and to walk in His ways.
A young man or a young woman, ever so delightful in the days of their childhood, and ever so innocent, if they reject the ways of the Lord, and enter into the paths of the wicked, will soon become debased. Every time we see a man wallowing in the mire, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, let us think of him as he once was, the innocent child or babe in his mother’s arms. How terrible is the ravage of sin.
I. WHEREIN PRAYER BECOMES AN ABOMINATION (Pro 28:9)
Our Scripture says, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” There are some who imagine that the wicked can pray, and that his prayers will ascend to God. This verse, however, is very plain. It tells us not only that the prayer of a law rejecter is unheard; it says that his prayer is an abomination. How can he, who tramples under feet the Laws of God, seek audience with God?
If we regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear us. Unclean hands do not go with prayerful lips. In the Book of Isaiah there is the story of the ungodly spreading forth their hands unto God, but God said, “I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.”
If we want audience with God we must wash, and be clean. We must put away every evil of our doings. We must learn to be obedient; we must seek judgment, and relieve the oppressed. He who prays unto God must not only come with a righteous talk, but with a righteous motive. If we ask, that we may consume it upon our own lusts, further our own ambitions, exalt our own names, God will close His ears to our cry.
We must learn that prayer depends, in its effectiveness, upon the spiritual life of the one who prays. We do not plead our own worth, for we come to God the Father, in the Name and worth of our Lord. However, when we draw nigh unto God, we must cleanse our hands and purify our hearts.
II. WHEN SIN BECOMES A BOOMERANG (Pro 28:10)
“Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit.”
1. “He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.” It is a positive statement of scripture that “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Somehow or other God brings our own sins back upon our own heads. We seek to harm another, to malign his good name, to drag him down in the mire of the swine herd, and the first thing we know, somebody arises to do the same unto us, If we lead another into sin, we will be led into sin. If we rob another we shall be robbed. This is the Law that clearly sets forth one phase of the retribution of sin. Sin’s punishment is not merely that which is sent from God, but that which the sinner brings upon himself. He, as it were, kindles his own fire, gathers his own firewood, and tortures his own soul.
2. “He that doeth good unto others, shall find that good is done unto him.” If we love, we shall be loved. If we stretch out our hands to the poor, they in turn will lay themselves out for us. God above takes note of every righteous deed, but so also do men below take notice. God has said, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.”
Where is he who does not wish to lay up a goodly inheritance against the days which are to come? This may be done by using the unrighteous mammon to make unto ourselves friends, to. welcome us into everlasting habitations. If we sow thorns, we reap thorns. If we sow briers, we reap briers. On the other hand, if we sow good seed, we will reap good fruit. If we sow seeds of kindness, we will reap acts of kindness.
III. A DIVINE ANALOGY (Pro 28:13)
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
1. What man covers, God uncovers. There is an unchangeable law in the Word of God. It is this, “Be sure your sins will find you out.” Achan sought to hide his sins. He took some Babylonian garments, some wedges of gold and of silver and hid them in his tent. Israel did not know, but God knew; and God caused Achan to be discovered.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, they sought to cover their naked selves with the fig leaves. God cried out to them and said, “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” They sought to cover their sins.
When Cain slew his brother, God said unto Cain, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.”
Think you that he who covers his sin shall prosper? That cannot be. God will not permit it. Sin will out. Though the wicked take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth, even there God will find them and bring their sins to light. Everything we do is naked, open, and uncovered unto Him with whom we have to do.
God has in His Books the record of every sin, and of every crime. Let us therefore no longer seek to hide our unrighteous acts.
2. What man uncovereth, God covers. The second half of our verse says, “but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Thank God there is a robe, even the robe of the slain Lamb, that God gives to the sinner.
When Adam and Eve sought to hide themselves in the trees of the Garden, and cover their shame with fig leaves, God went out and slew a beast of the field and brought the robe of the slain beast with which to cover the two sinners. Thus will He cover us, with His robe of righteousness.
How wonderful it is that we may stand before Him clothed in white raiment, pure and white. How wonderful that the great multitude which John saw in Heaven, had “washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”
God forbid that any of us should ever try to cover our sins, and then, with the spirit of the hypocrite, seek to approach God. Let us rather confess and forsake our sins and then come before the Father in the righteousness of Christ.
IV. THE HARDENED HEART (Pro 28:14)
Our key verse says: “Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” Here is a most striking contrast. The contrast is between the happy man, and the hardhearted man.
1. There is a sword that cuts two ways. This sword is the Sword of the Spirit. It cuts even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We have always contended that the Word of God received and accepted, is a savor of life, unto life; but that the Word of God refused and rejected, becomes a savor of death, unto death.
When a sinner hears the gospel call and hardens his own heart, God will still further harden it. Four times Pharaoh hardened his own heart. After that, God did harden his heart. It is simply impossible for any man to reject Jesus Christ without suffering dire consequences.
There is a wonderful verse in the Book of Romans which says, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
It is true that the man who despises the riches of God’s goodness, and forbearance, and hardens his impenitent heart will fall into mischief.
He who refuses to hear the voice of his conscience, will soon discover that that voice has fallen asleep. The man who kept the toll bridge at the first during the night watch awoke quickly from his sleep whenever some one rang the bell. However, as from month to month, he did not immediately arise, the ringing of the bell soon ceased to awaken him.
On the other hand, the man who fears, is always called happy. That man will have an ear open to the voice of God. He will have a life obedient to every call. As he hears and observes God, he will draw nearer and nearer unto Him. It is written that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. Obedience always brings a blessing. The hardening of the hearts always brings a curse.
Let us number ourselves among those who fear God always. That does not mean that we will be afraid of God, but rather afraid to disobey Him. It does mean that we will hold God in honor. It does mean that, as we enter into His presence, we say, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” Such a one will find himself numbered among God’s holiest and His best. He will be happy, singing and making melody in his heart unto the Lord..
V. THE GLORY OF FAITHFUL SERVICE (Pro 28:19-20)
Here is a wonderful contrast between the man who tills his land, and the man who follows after vain persons. “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.”
1. The tiller of the soil. Think you that there can be a harvest, merely by the sowing of seed? The land must be plowed. It must be cultivated, tilled. The man who expects the harvest, must be diligent in his toil. If we would rejoice in the gathering of our grain, we must be faithful in the sowing of our seed, and in the caring for the ground.
There is a Scripture which describes the sluggard. His land was soon overgrown with briers. His fences fell down. This is what we have in mind. In one of the parables, spoken by our Lord, there was one who took his pound and wrapped it in a napkin. When his lord came, his servant had no increase. Then Christ said, Take away his pound and give it to him, that hath ten pounds. The same lessons were presented with the man with one talent.
It is not enough for us to be called unto service, we must serve. The soldier must endure hardness, and be ready for the fray, if he expects to win in the honors of the conquest. One of the greatest sins on the part of the young people, is that of “do nothing.” If we want to eat bread we must till the land. If on the other hand, we give ourselves to pleasure, following after vain persons, and walking in the ways of the world, we will soon discover that every spiritual development is dwindling, and we are poor indeed.
2. The faithful man. Pro 28:20 says, “A faithful man shall abound with blessings.” We read, “It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” God does not demand that we be smart, and brilliant, and gifted. He does command that we be faithful. If we stand always true to what we have, God will increase our gifts. Therefore, if we expect God to give us greater gifts, we must use the ones we have. This is true in every phase of life.
We remember reading of a young man who entered public life as a carpenter. A judge hired him to build a fence. He builded it with such care and carefulness, with such exactness and integrity, that the judge asked him to build a house, and so it went. The young man soon became a master builder. He was faithful in all that he undertook. Let anyone who hastens to be rich, and in his haste does unfaithful service, running over his work to the loss of his employer, let him know that he shall not be innocent. He will soon lose out.
We have heard that two men worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. Both of them were employed as section hands The one truly worked for the Union Pacific Railroad; the other worked for the few dollars he was to receive. The one was faithful to the railroad, and the other was faithful to his pocketbook. The one sought from every viewpoint the welfare of the Railroad, the other would quit when the whistle blew, unmindful of the needs of his company. Forty years passed by. The first man was president of the Union Pacific, and the other was still a section hand.
VI. THEY THAT WILL BE RICH (Pro 28:21-22)
Our twenty-second verse says, “He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.” There are some people who live wholly for this world. They are seeking to be rich, to be popular, to obtain honor and the applause of man. They do not carefully consider how they may do any of these things, in honor. They are ready to get rich in any way, just so they succeed. If they use an evil eye in order to accomplish their task, evil will overtake them. Let us bring before the young people three New Testament commands.
1. Love not the world. In the first place, no one should haste to be rich. If he does, he is a lover of money, and the love of money is the root of all evil. The child of God is told to avoid these things. Why should we haste to be rich? Why should we seek the things which are temporal? God tells us to love not the world.
2. Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth. The emphasis in this verse may be placed on the word “yourselves.” Of course we should lay up treasures in Heaven.
At any rate, it is all right to make money, provided we follow God’s rule which reads, “Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” The sin of seeking to be rich is found in the hoarding of riches, in the laying them up for ourselves. In other words, what Christ said, being rich toward yourselves.
3. Look not at the things which are seen. This is the third admonition. The believer is to have his eyes fixed on the things above, on the unseen things. He is to run the race looking unto Jesus. If we set our hearts on the things which are seen, we are setting them upon the things which perish. Everything of this earth is but for a day. The things down here are the temporal. The things of God are Eternal.
God grant that we may live, looking for that Blessed Hope, and not looking toward Sodom. Lot saw that the plains toward Sodom were well watered and he pitched in that direction. He looked for the things that were seen, and had poverty enough; for everything which he laid up in Sodom, went up in smoke. On the other hand, Abraham looked for a city whose Builder and Maker is God, and the heirs of Abraham are still enjoying the promises of God, and will one of these days enter in unto the possessions which God gave to their forefathers.
VII. THE SELF TRUSTFUL (Pro 28:25-27)
We have the story of a proud heart, in Pro 28:25. This heart is contrasted with the trusting heart, in the same verse. In Pro 28:26 we have the life of one who puts his trust in himself. He is called a fool. In the same verse, there is another who walketh wisely and is delivered. In Pro 28:27 we have the life that giveth unto the poor, contrasted with the life that hideth his eyes away from the poor. In each of these verses the underlying thought is the sin of self-trust, and self-enlargement, as set over against Divine trust, and Divine enlargement.
1. It is not in man to order his own steps. We are babes, we know not what shall be. We may with proud heart trust in ourselves, but if we do we are trusting in the arm of flesh. We are weak. We are incapable of reading what shall be. We do not know the obstacles which lie ahead, neither the power of Satan who combateth our every step. For this cause we need to lift the hand of our weakness up, that it may be clasped with the hand of His power. In our impotence, we must lean upon His potency. In our nothingness, we must cling to His mightiness. If we try to order our own steps, we will be sure to fall. The fact is that God tells every man that if he trusteth in his own heart he is a fool.
2. It is necessary to trust in the Lord, and lean not to our own understanding. This is the message of Pro 3:5, Pro 3:6. We may have gone to school, or to college, and we may think we know a great deal, but we know nothing yet, as we should know it. If, in our ways we acknowledge Him, He will direct our paths. If on the other hand, we are wise in our own eyes, we will fall by the way.
3. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help. The whole conception of the life, that is lived apart from God, is, first, self-trust, and secondly, a trust in the powers of men. What we cannot do we vainly imagine that others can do for us; thus we make unholy alliances. We go down into the world for help. We place our stay in horses, and our trust in chariots. We think because they are many and because the horsemen are very strong that they will give us victory.
For this cause we look not to the Holy One, neither seek we the Lord. This is often nationally true as well as in-dividually true. Our own country is in danger of placing her trust in her own wisdom and strength. She is in danger of looking to her army, and men of war, and airships, and to alliances with other nations.
When will we come to the place where we discover that our only hope is in God? Jesus Christ said, “Oh, that Israel had harkened unto Me I would have fed her with the finest of the wheat.”
The child often thinks he knows more than the parent. The parent often thinks he knows more than God. Let us rather fall upon our faces and confess our ignorance and helplessness and inability. God, with one word, can do more in a moment, than we can through much speaking, do in a year. If we think that we of our own selves can do anything, we will soon wake up to the fact that we are a fool.
AN ILLUSTRATION
“Pride is a virtue. Pride is also a vice. Without pride as a principle a man cannot be virtuous. The pride that is a vice is the overvaluing of oneself for some real or imagined superiority, producing haughty bearing and arrogance of mariner. It is related of the French family of the Duke de Levis that they have a picture of their pedigree, in which Noah is represented going into the ark and carrying a. small trunk, on which is written, ‘Papers belonging to the Levis family.’ There are many men whose reputation hangs upon their having had a grandfather, and the only thing they do is talk about their noble ancestry.
‘What is pride? A whizzing rocket
That would emulate a star.’
Solomon says, ‘Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.’ When once a philosopher was asked what the great God was doing, he replied, ‘His whole employment is to lift up the humble and to cast down the proud.’
Pride is the offspring of want of merit, Humility is the child of wisdom. Solomon says, ‘Before honor is humility’, and Christ says, ‘He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.’
The stalks of wheat that hold up their heads so high are empty-headed, and those which hang down their heads modestly are full of precious grain. The people who hold their heads so high do so because they have not sense enough to weigh them down.”
Pro 28:1. The wicked flee when no man pursueth Because a consciousness of their guilt excites in them a continual expectation and dread of Gods judgments; but the righteous are bold as a lion Are courageous and resolute, having the testimony of a good conscience, and assurance of the divine favour and protection, and the supports and consolations of the Holy Ghost.
Pro 28:2. By a man of understanding the stateshall be prolonged. Who can value the Samuels in Israel; the Gracchuses in Rome; the Walpoles, the Chathams in England? In Lord Chathams time it was said, We have a Pitt in England that will hold all France. When counsel is denied to a nation, it is a sad mark of Gods highest displeasure against a guilty people. Per hominem, peritum, incolumitas reflorescet.SCHULTENS. The safety of a nation revives and flourishes by a man of wisdom and experience.
Pro 28:4. They that forsake the law praise the wicked, by openly espousing their cause. See the term law defined in Psalms 1 and Psa 119:1.
Pro 28:10. Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray. This is the foulest crime that a man can commit, because the sins of religious professors are very much noticed. They cause the wicked to rejoice, they discourage man from becoming righteous, and they highly provoke the Lord. He who leads a good man to intemperance, and what is worse, he who in the time of persecution, causes him to leave the truth, shall surely receive a sevenfold punishment. Read the miserable deaths of those who persecuted the church, as recorded by Eusebius, Lactantius, and other fathers, and then say, what awaits sins of so gross a kind.
Pro 28:13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. He daily tells a thousand lies to cover a single crime. These are all an additional canker and rust to his sins. His countenance droops, the worm gnaws within; and Gods correcting rod, in one way or other, will give a reverse to his health and peace. When a man has sinned, it is best to be simple, and to fall into the hands of the Lord by a repentance attended with fruits. Happy then is the man that feareth always.
Pro 28:17. A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit. Jos. Kimchi expounds this of an oppressor, who causes the death of another by hunger or cruelty; a wretch who shall descend to gehenna. Then the hard-hearted man, who slowly kills another mans body, shall destroy himself both body and soul.
Pro 28:24. Whoso robbeth his father or his mother. Then, oh young man, keep at a distance from taverns, from gamesters, from harlots, that you may not be tempted to commit so great a sin. By doing wrong to your parents, you leave the paths of life and health, to associate with destroyers.
Pro 28:26. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. He does not know his heart. He is ignorant that it is deceitful and desperately wicked. The voluptuous heart will revel in sin, the covetous will thirst for gold, the vindictive heart will burn with revenge. How many, feeling the smart and anguish of their sin, have made vows, oaths, and promises, that they would never repeat the fault. After awhile the pain has been removed, and the old heart went the old way; they forgot the promise, and repeated the sin. We ought to know that it is not vows but grace which saves the soul; yea, grace which trembles at the smallest sin, and runs to God for preservation. Oh how we should pray and wrestle and strive sooner than yield; for then our folly would be the sport of fools. And how should we be able to look to God, or meet the eyes of his church?
Second Division, Proverbs 28 f.In general character this division resembles Section II., consisting chiefly of antithetic couplets.
Pro 28:2 b. The text is uncertain, and various renderings are possible. The translation state is very doubtful. If MT be retained, connect the word for state with the preceding, and translate by men of understanding who know what is right it is prolonged. LXX reads Through the sin of the ungodly disputes arise, but a prudent man quenches them, possibly the original text.
Pro 28:3. A needy man: so MT, but the thought is not in keeping with the conception of the poor in Pr. or in the OT. We should probably read a wicked man who, etc. (LXX), or possibly a rich man who, etc. The simile seems to be that of a heavy unseasonable rain which floods and destroys the crops.
Pro 28:12. cf. Pro 28:10 f.hide themselves: lit. (cf. mg.) are sought out (cf. Pro 28:28).
Pro 28:13. The ethical conditions of forgiveness are noteworthy, and reflect the standpoint of the prophetic teaching (cf. Hos 14:2-4, Isa 1:16-18, Psa 32:5, Mat 21:31 f.).
Pro 28:16. The prince: perhaps a gloss due to a mistaken connexion with Pro 28:15.
Pro 28:17. Corrupt. Lit. A man oppressed by the blood of any person will flee to pit, do not lay hold of him, which yields no sense. LXX has he that is surety for a man charged with murder shall be a fugitive without safety. There is possibly some reference to the ancient law of the blood feud.
Pro 28:18. at once: impossible. The change of one letter gives into the pit.
Pro 28:19. cf. Pro 12:11.
IF we HAVE SEEN in chapter 27 the blessing of God and refuge in the sanctuary, chapter 28, a fourth section. brings our feet abruptly back to the wilderness path, where walk and ways must be tested by the crucible of trial. These tests are particularly stern, the more so because of the widespread departure from the revelation of God in Hezekiah’s days. which we have seen to be so similar to “the last days” of the history of the church on earth.
“The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are hold as a lion.”
A bad conscience of course breeds cowardice. and fleeing is to be expected on the part of a wicked man. It does not follow that all fear is the result of a bad conscience: nevertheless a believer should learn to never give in to fear: faith gives courage to stand as boldly as a lion. Why should we even resemble a wicked man by acting in the timidity of fear? “God hath not given us the spirit of fear. but of power. and of love, and of a sound mind” (2Ti 1:7). When tempted to hide in the temple. Nehemiah firmly replied. “Should such a man as I flee?… I will not go in” (Neh 6:11).
“For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged.”
When evil is able to gain the upper hand in any nation, among the people themselves, there will he many princes, with no true authority properly maintained: they may rise and fall rapidly and many will be clamoring for the highest places. Conscience will not make them flee, as in verse 1, because evil has become popular. On the other hand, one man of understanding and knowledge, maintaining authority, is able to prolong the peace and welfare of a nation – if the nation will submit to his authority. This will be pre-eminently true when the Lord Jesus reigns: but meanwhile there are tests in all these varying conditions among nations. The Christian is to discern all these principles and to know how to act in whatever condition prevails: he is not here to change world conditions, nor national conditions: but neither is he to he ignorant of them.
“A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.”
A poor man who had learned through his adversity, if placed in any authority could be as a refreshing rain, producing food: but if not having learned to bow to the will of God he is likely to take most unseemly advantage of his position to exalt himself and cruelly oppress those for whom he should have special sympathy. Like rain driven by a fierce wind this will devastate rather than produce. The antichrist will have this revolting character (Psa 55:12-14) just as Saul raised to the throne persecuted David.
“They that forsake the late praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.”
Let the spirit of disobedience to God once take possession of a man and he will eventually commend the most wicked doers. Do our hearts not tremble then at the thought of treating carelessly even the least of God’s commandments? This is no justification of a hard, legal spirit; but an insistence that God has a right to my utter obedience. Moreover, the obedient child of God will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Eph 5:11).
“Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things.”
The solid, sober principles of governmental judgment are a foreign language to an evil man, because he has no intention of bowing to God’s judgment. A spirit of disobedience will not humbly accept the consequences of wrong doing; but one who seeks to avoid such judgment, will by this means only in the end increase its severity. “But he that is spiritual judgeth (or discerneth) all things” (1Co 2:15). Having the mind of Christ by virtue of the indwelling Spirit of God, the believer may understand the significance of every matter of moral importance, for the Spirit of God produces true self-judgment and dependence upon the Living God.
“Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.”
So simple and elementary an observation needs no explanation, but it does need serious attention, for these things are too easily forgotten when the lure of riches exerts its baneful influence upon the mind. Ten thousand times rather be poor than to resort to crooked ways to gain wealth.
“Whoso keepth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father.”
If this is so in natural relationships, how much more so spiritually! An obedient child of God is wise; but if disobedient, and engaging in wrong companionships, the shame of this will reflect upon his Father in Heaven.
“He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.”
The ways of God are equal, when man’s ways are not. Man may use his wits to take dishonest advantage of another – legal as it may be, – whether in lending money at a high interest, or other means not thoroughly honorable; but in the end he will lose it, whether before or at death. Then another may use it in compassion toward the poor. At least God will pity the poor, and greed will have its just recompense.
“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”
If a child coolly refuses to be subject to his parent, yet asks for everything he wants, is this not so brazen an attitude that his parent would refuse his demands? In God’s sight such prayer is “abomination” that is it has the character of idolatry.
‘If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psa 66:18).
“Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.”
Evil does not stand still: if one harbors it, as in verse 9, he is likely to go further, and treacherously influence others who are not so inclined until drawn by subtle words. But the tempter here is criminally guilty, and God will bring his evil upon his own head. See how Absalom craftily influenced the men of Israel against his own father, then led them in rebellion. His end was swift and dreadful (2Sa 15:1-37; 2Sa 16:1-23; 2Sa 17:1-29; 2Sa 18:1-33). Such men, using others as tools for their own gain, eventually end with nothing in their possession; while the upright “have good things” as a permanent possession. Luk 16:12 provides an excellent comment along this line. “If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” Only true faithfulness in the use of our present means (God’s property) will result in our being entrusted with what is permanently our own.
“A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out” (New Trans.).
It is one of the strange follies of man to consider that his wealth is attributable to his own superiority to others; or that his wealth makes him superior to others; while, if he were wise, he would only be humbled in appreciation of the grace of God that had so prospered him. Few indeed there are who evidence this latter attitude; but if one is wise in his own eyes, a poor man of understanding is able to so speak to his conscience as to deeply unsettle his self – confidence. May God give to us such wisdom as this. How perfectly we see this in our Lord’s dealings with the Pharisees, who trusted in themselves and despised other men. See Luk 16:14-31.
“When the righteous triumph, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, men conceal themselves” (New Trans.).
In any sphere of government this is true: where righteous men are in power, there is peace, joy, and no fear: but if the wicked rise, fear and apprehension permeates the entire atmosphere.
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but who-so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
This is an unalterable, Divine principle, applicable in the first place to the salvation of the soul, and just as applicable to the conduct of a believer. If a sinner deceitfully covers up his guilt, he can expect no mercy from God, no prospering, but eternal judgment. If he honestly confesses his sins, having faith in the blessed Son of God, then mercy forgives him, and for eternity. On the other hand, if one is a true believer, but walks in disobedience to God, seeking to cover up his wrongdoing, God will not allow him to prosper in his Christian path: he will suffer. But if he honestly confesses his wrongs to his God and Father, then he will prove the sweetness of God’s mercy as his present experience.
“Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” When there has been true confession, this sobers the soul to watch seriously against the many snares that evil sets. This is godly fear,-not terror, but a sensible guarding of oneself from further danger. If this is habitual with us, we shall be happy. But a callous, proud attitude of indifference to spiritual danger will lead to disaster. This will always follow the deceitful covering of our own sins. for the pride that resists confession will harden more and more. Let its beware of it.
“As a roaring lion and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.”
If this hardened character is seen in a ruler. how dreadful the results will be! Not only is God dishonored and his own conscience badly abused, but he is as a destroying beast toward the poor: at their expense he and his rich friends will seek their gain.
“The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.”
In tracing the sequence here, it is clear that a want of understanding stems from the stubbornness that refuses to confess sin before God. This attitude in anyone who holds any place of authority will make him “a great oppressor.” For evil will not stand still, but if indulged, will go onward to greater lengths.
“A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him.”
Oppression too often ends in murder. The steps we have seen here are displayed in all their naked horror in the history of man’s callous treatment of the Lord Jesus, and culminating in violence to his blood. This cool, calculated blood-guiltiness will find no forgiveness. On the other hand, for those who in ignorance “knew not what they did,” there was definite possibility of forgiveness, as Saul of Tarsus surely experienced. But only the pit awaits those, whose character being formed by hatred of God, have committed themselves to absolute rejection of the blessed Son of God. It is the spirit of the willful man-slayer: “let no man stay him.” His case is utterly with-out hope.
“Whoso walketh uprightly shall be delivered: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.”
He whose heart is upright will walk uprightly; and he need have no fear whatever of the dangers that threaten the perverter, who ought to be prepared to expect dire results from his abuse of the kindness of God.
“He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.”
Honest work will follow an upright walk, and God has decreed that this is the true means of prospering. But if one chooses lazy, vain companions, he is choosing poverty. How true is this spiritually! Laxity, self-indulgence, wrong companions will cause spiritual decay, stagnation, poverty.
“A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.”
The first was true of Abraham, whose faith depended on God, and in calm, faithful continuance, he gradually increased. abounding with blessings. Lot on the other hand, hasted to be rich, his eyes fascinated with the well watered plain of Jordan, and drawn by the glitter of Sodom. He lost all his possessions, his end pathetically dismal. What recollections must have pierced his soul with grief as he ended his days!
“To hare respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.”
The man who shows favoritism to any person is not to be trusted: he will transgress for any trifling thing. How important to do nothing by partiality, but to be thoroughly fair and honorable in every matter of judgment.
Or, if we take a little different viewpoint of the verse, it is not good to have respect of persons because the flesh cannot be trusted: a man will transgress for the smallest reason: let us therefore give no man a place of dignity such as really belongs to the Lord alone.
“He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.”
An evil eye is the opposite of a single eye (Mat 6:22-23), which indicates simple, straight-forward honesty. But a man grasping after riches is devious and crooked in his ways, and his eye will betray him. He is not thoroughly honest and careful in his dealings. But neither does he seriously consider that he is defeating his own ends. Grasping eagerly for riches, he is inviting poverty! Let the believer take this to heart.
“He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favor than he that flattereth with his tongue.”
It may not he easy for us to rebuke wrong in a kind, gentle, faithful way; and we cannot expect that it will be taken kindly at first, but the long-range results will be valuable. On the other hand, one who flatters a wrong doer may be considered very kind and considerate at first, but his friendship will not long be desired, for he cannot be trusted. Yet let us always carefully distinguish between mere criticism and true faithfulness.
“Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith: It is no transgression: the same is the companion of a destroyer.”
In this section the evil effects of self-centeredness are laid bare – perversity, vain companionship, hasting to be rich, favoritism toward some, flattery; and now a shameful mistreatment of parents. How grossly ungrateful that a young man should rob those who have cared and provided for him from his youth, – and his own flesh and blood. He is a companion of a destroyer, for this is the very principle of destruction, the destruction of proper solid relationship, the destruction of the very blessings upon which for years he has been dependent. And yet his moral sense is so warped that he considers it not transgression: he excuses himself for this wickedness because of his relationship to his parents. They are not likely to press legal charges against him. This attitude is warned against by Paul in writing to servants: “They that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit” (1Ti 6:2).
“He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat.”
Man’s self-importance is like a wild beast that cannot be restrained from its destroying effects: it will stir up resentment and contention, which among the people of God is disastrous. Putting one’s trust in the Lord is the opposite of pride of heart, for confidence in God means no confidence in the flesh. The result is being “made fat”, a term implying spiritual prosperity.
“He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.”
If in the previous verse the damage done by the proud heart is stressed, this goes further in designating the man’s character as a fool. Solemn denunciation! Yet it is the Word of God that so speaks. A man’s own heart is manifestly utterly untrustworthy, and that man who trusts it is worse than ignorant. A wise walk is put in contrast to this, for this will deliver from the snares and pitfalls into which the ignorant easily fall.
“He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.”
A liberal spirit is only a normal product of faith: the Lord cares for the poor, and faith in Him will show the same attitude. Moreover, the Lord will see that the giver is not impoverished by his kindness: he shall not lack. But a cold, selfish spirit that looks the other way when real need presents itself, will reap its proper reward in “many a curse.”
“When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.”
History itself is sufficient comment on these matters, and the believer has but to consider them also in connection with spiritual associations.
28:1 The wicked {a} flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
(a) Because their own conscience accuses them.
D. Instructive Contrasts chs. 28-29
Most of the proverbs in this section are couplets, and most of them set forth a truth by means of a contrast.
CHAPTER 29
AN ASPECT OF ATONEMENT
“He that hideth his transgressions shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy.”- Pro 28:13
“Happy is the man that feareth alway but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.”- Pro 28:14
“The fear of the Lord tendeth to life, and he that hath it shall abide satisfied. He shall not be visited with evil.”- Pro 19:23
“By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.”- Pro 16:6
THE Hebrew word which is used for the idea of atonement is one which originally signifies to cover. Sin is a hideous sore, a shocking deformity, which must be hidden from the eyes of men, and much more from the holy eyes of God. Thus the Old Testament speaks about a Robe of Righteousness which is to be thrown over the ulcerated and leprous body of sin. Apart from this covering, the disease is seen working out its sure and terrible results. “A man that is laden with the blood of any person shall flee unto the pit: let no man stay him,” {Pro 28:17} and though blood-guiltiness appears to us the worst of sins, all sin is alike in its issue; every sinner may be seen by seeing eyes “fleeing unto the pit,” and no man can stay him or deliver him. Or, to vary the image, the sinful man is exposed to the violence of justice, which beats like a storm upon all unprotected heads; he needs to be covered; he needs some shelter, some hiding place, or he must be swept away.
But the objection which immediately occurs to us is this: what is the use of covering sin if the sin itself remains? The disease is not cured because a decent garment is drawn over the suffering part; indeed, it is not hard to conceive a case in which the covering might aggravate the mischief. If the idea of covering is to be of any service, it must be cleared from all misconception; there is a kind of hiding which may be ruinous, a garment which may drive the disease inward and hasten its deadly operation, a covert from the storm which may crush and stifle the person whom it professes to protect. “He that covereth his transgressions,” in that way, “shall not prosper.” Every attempt to conceal from God or from man or from oneself that one is diseased with sin is ineffectual: every lame excuse which seeks to palliate the guilt; every hypocritical pretense that the thing done has not been done, or that it is not what men usually suppose it to be; every ingenious argumentation which seeks to represent sin as something other than sin, as a mere defect or taint in the blood, as a hereditary and unavoidable weakness, as an aberration of the mind for which one is not responsible, or as a merely conventional and artificial offence, -all such attempts at hiding must be failures, “covering” of that kind can be no atonement. Quite the reverse; this trifling with conscience, this deluded self-righteousness, is the worst possible aggravation of the sin. Hidden in that way, though it be, as it were, in the bowels of the earth, sin becomes a poisonous gas, more noxious for confinement, and liable to break out in awful and devastating explosions.
The covering of sin which is spoken of in Pro 16:6 is of a very different and of a quite particular kind. Combining this verse with the others at the head of the chapter, we may observe that every effectual “covering” of sin in Gods sight involves three elements, -confession, forsaking, and a changed practice.
First, there is confession. This appears on the face of it to be a paradox: the only way of covering sin is to uncover it. But it is strictly true. We must make a clean breast of it; we must acknowledge its full extent and enormity; we must spare the patient ear of God no detail of our guilt. The foul, explosive gases must be let out into the open, since every attempt to confine them increases their destructive power. The running sore must be exposed to the Physicians eye, since every rag put over it to hide it becomes steeped in its defiling tides. It is true, confession is a painful and a weary task: it is like removing a heap of dust and refuse by spadefuls, -each bit as it is disturbed fills the atmosphere with choking particles and noisome smells; worse and worse is revealed the farther we go. We came to confess a single fault, and we found that it was but a broken shard lying on the foul and pestilential heap. Confession leads to confession, discovery to discovery. It is terribly humiliating. “Am I then so bad as this?” is the horrified cry as each candid admission shows only more and worse that must be admitted. True confession can never be made into a priests ear, – to men we can only confess the wrongs which we have done to men; but true confession is the awful tale of what we have done to God, against whom only we have sinned and done evil in His sight. It is sometimes urged that confession to a priest gives the penitent relief: possibly, but it is a false relief; since the eye of the priest is not omniscient, the sinner confesses only what he chooses, brings the broken shard, and receives absolution for that in lieu of removing the whole heap of abominations that underlie. When we have gone as far as we can in laying ourselves bare to man, there remain vast untraversed tracts of our life and our mind which are reserved; “Private road” is written on all the approaches, and trespassers are invariably prosecuted. It is only to God that a real confession can be made, because we know that to Him all is necessarily evident; with Him no subterfuges avail; he traverses those untraversed tracts; there are no private roads from which He is excluded; He knoweth our thoughts afar off.
The first step in the “covering” of sin is to realize this. If our sins are to be really covered they must first be laid bare; we must frankly own that all things are open to Him with whom we have to do; we must get away from the priests and into the hands of the High Priest; we must abjure the confessional and bring God Himself into the secret places of our hearts to search us and try us and see if there be any evil way in us. The reserve, and the veilings, which every individual cannot but maintain between himself and all other individuals, must be torn away, in full and absolute confession to God Himself.
Secondly. There is a confession, especially that fostered by the habit of confessing to priests, which is unaccompanied by any forsaking of the evil, or any departing from iniquity in general. Many times have men gone to their priests to receive absolution beforehand for the sin which they intended to commit; or they have postponed their confession to their, deathbeds, when there will be, as they suppose, no further sins to turn from. Confession of that kind is devoid of all significance; it covers no sins, it really only aggravates them. No confession is of the least avail-and indeed no real confession can be made to God at all-unless the heart turns away from the evil which is confessed, and actually departs at once, so far as it knows and is able, from all iniquity.
The glib language of confession has been and is a deadly snare to multitudes. How easy it is to say, or even to musically chant, “We have done that we ought not to have done; we have left undone that which we ought to have done.” There is no pain in such a confession if we once distinctly admit that it is a normal and natural state of mind for us to be in, and that as we say it today, so we shall say it tomorrow, and again the next day to the end. But real confession is so painful, and even heartrending, because it is only of value when we begin from that moment onwards “to do what we ought to do, and to leave undone what we ought not to do.” It is well for us, perhaps, to confess mot so much sin in the abstract as our own particular transgressions. Sin is too shadowy a monster for us to definitely avoid and forsake; like death, its kinsman, -Death of whom Milton says:-
“What seemed his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.”
Sin is formless, vague, impalpable. But our own individual transgressions can be fixed and defined: bringing ourselves to the test of the Law, we can say particularly, “This practice of mine is condemned, this habit of mine is sinful, this point of my character is evil, this reticence, this indolence, this reluctance, in confessing Christ and in serving His cause, is all wrong; “and then we can definitely turn our back on the practice or the habit, we can distinctly get rid of the blot in our character, we can fly this guilty silence, rouse ourselves from our selfish indolence. “We live to greatness like what we have been”; and it is this act of the will, this resolute purpose, this loathing what once you loved, and turning towards that which once you ignored, it is, in a word, the twin process of repentance and conversion, that constitutes the second act in this “covering” of sin. Not, of course, that in a moment the tyranny of old habits can be broken, or the virtue of new activities acquired; but “the forsaking” and “the departing from” are instantaneous exertions of the will. Zaccheus, directly the Lord speaks to him, stands forth, and breaks with his sins, renounces his extortions, resolving to make amends for the past and enters on a new line of conduct, promising to give the half of his goods to the poor. That is the essential seal of every true confession: “Whoso confesseth and forsaketh” his transgressions.
Thirdly. This has led us to see that the confession of sins and the conversion from them must issue in a positive practice of mercy and truth, in order to make the process of which we are speaking complete: “By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for.”
It is this part of the “covering” which is so easily, so frequently, and so fatally overlooked. It is supposed that sins can be hidden without being removed, and that the covering of what is called imputed righteousness will serve instead of the covering of actual righteousness. To argue against this view theoretically is at the present day happily quite superfluous: but it is still necessary to contend against its subtle practical effects. There is no verity more wholesome and more needed than the one contained in this proverb. Sin may be summed up in two clauses: it is the Want of Mercy and it is the Want of Truth. All our ill-conduct to our fellow-men comes from the cruelty and hardness of our selfish nature. Lust and greed and ambition are the outcome of pitilessness: we injure the weak and ruin the helpless, and trample on our competitors, and stamp out the poor; our eye does not pity. Again, all our offence against God is insincerity or wilful lying. We are false to ourselves, we are false to one another, and so we become false to the unseen verities, and false to God. When a human spirit denies the spiritual world and the spiritual Cause which can alone account for it, is it not what Plato used to call “a lie in the soul”? It is the deep inward and vital contradiction of consciousness; it is equivalent to saying, “I am not I,” or, “That which is, is not.”
Now, when we have lived in sin, without mercy or without truth, or without both; when our life up to a certain point has been a flagrant selfishness of absolute indifference to our fellows, or a flagrant lie denying Him in whom we live and move and have our being; or when as is so often the fact, the selfishness and the falseness have gone together, an inextricable and mutually dependent pair of evils, there can be no real covering of the sin, unless selfishness gives place to mercy and falsehood to truth. No verbal confession can possibly avail, no turning from the past iniquities, however genuine for the time, can have any permanent significance, unless the change is a reality, an obvious, living, and working fact. If a man supposes that he has become religious, but remains cruel and selfish, pitiless, unmerciful to his fellow-men, depend upon it that mans religion is vain; the atonement in which he trusts is a fiction, and avails no more than the hecatombs which Carthage offered to Melcarth availed to gain a victory over Rome. If a man counts himself saved, but remains radically untrue, false in his speech, insincere in his professions, careless in his thought about God, unjust in his opinions about men and the world, he is certainly under a lamentable delusion. Though he has, as he thinks, believed, he has not believed to the saving of his soul; though he has undergone a change, he has changed from one lie to another, and is in no way better off. It is by mercy and truth that iniquity can be covered.
Now it will be generally admitted that we do not take the course which has just been described unless we have the fear of God before our eyes. Nothing but the thought of His holiness and the awe which it inspires, and in some cases even, nothing but the absolute terror of Him who can by no means clear the guilty, moves the heart of man to confession, turns him away from his sins, or inclines him to mercy and truth. When the fear of God is removed from mens eyes they not only continue in sin, but they quickly come to believe that they have no sins to confess; for indeed when God is put out of the question that is in a certain sense true. It is a mere fact of observation, confirmed not by many changing experiences of humanity, that it is “by the fear of the Lord men depart from iniquity”; and it is very significant to notice how many of those who have entirely put away the fear of the Lord from their own eyes have strongly advocated keeping it before the eyes of others as the most convenient and economical police resource. Many fervent free-thinkers are thankful that their opinions are only held by a minority, and have no wish to see the whole of society committed to the cult which they would have us believe in all that their own religious nature requires.
But supposing that any one of us is led into the position of confession and conversion and amendment which is described in these Proverbs: what follows? That person, says the text, “shall obtain mercy.” The gracious Father immediately, unconditionally, and absolutely pardons. This is the burden of the Old Testament, and it is certainly not repealed by the New. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” “Repent, and be converted,” said St. Peter to the crowd at Pentecost, “that your sins may be blotted out.” The New Testament is indeed on this point the louder and the clearer echo of the Old. The New Testament explains that saying which sounds so strange in the mouth of a perfectly just and Holy God, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake.” {Isa 43:25} Human theologies have imagined obstacles in the way, but God never admitted them for a moment. Clear as the truth that the soul which sins should die was the promise that the soul which turned from its sin, and did that which is righteous in the eyes of the Lord, should live. No earthly father, frankly and unconditionally forgiving his penitent, sobbing child, could be so prompt, so eager as God. While the prodigal is yet a great way off the Father runs to meet him, and hides all his broken confessions in the rush of His embrace.
But we hesitate to admit and rejoice in this grand truth because of an uneasy fear that it is ignoring what is called the Atonement of Christ. It is a very proper hesitation, so long as we settle it within ourselves that these sweet and beautiful utterances of the Old Testament cannot possibly be limited or reversed by that Gospel which came to give effect and fulfillment to them. Is not the solution of any difficulty that has occurred to us to be found here? The sacrifice and the work of Christ create in the human soul those conditions which we have been considering. He came to give repentance unto Israel. It is His patient love in bearing all our infirmities and sins, His mysterious self-offering on the Cross, that can effectually bring us to confession, conversion, and amendment. Our hearts may have been as hard as the nether millstone, but at the Cross they are broken and melted. No stern denunciation of sin has ever moved our stubbornness; but as we realize what sin did to Him, when He became sin for us, the fear of the Lord falls upon us, we tremble, and cry, What shall we do to be saved? Then again, it is His perfect holiness, the beauty of those “stainless years He passed beneath the Syrian blue,” which wakes in us the hankering desire for purity and goodness, and makes us turn with a genuine disgust from the sins which must seem so loathsome in His sight. His “neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more,” gives us a more burning hatred of sin than all the self-righteous censures and condemnation of the Pharisees. It is in the pages of the Gospels that we have first understood what concrete goodness is; it has risen upon our night like a clear, liquid star, and the passion of it has entered into our souls. And then, finally, it is the Risen Lord, unto whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, that can really transform our nature, flood our heart with love, and fill our mind with truth, so that, in the language of the proverb, mercy and truth may atone for iniquity.
Is it not because Christ by His coming, by His living, by His dying, by His risen power, produces in the believer repentance and confession of sins, conversion and departing from sin, regeneration and actual holiness, that we say He has covered our sins? What meaning can be attached to Atonement apart from its effects? And in what other way, we may ask, could He really give us such a covering or atonement, than by creating in us a clean heart and renewing a right spirit within us? Sometimes, by a not unnatural confusion of language, we speak of the sacrificial death of our Lord as if it, apart from the effects produced in the believing heart, were in itself the Atonement. But that is not the language of the New Testament, which employs the idea of reconciliation where the Old Testament would employ the idea of atoning; and clearly there can be no reconciliation accomplished between man and God until, not only God is reconciled to man, but man also is reconciled to God. And it is when we come to observe more accurately the language of the New Testament that this statement of the Proverbs is seen to be no contradiction, but an anticipation, of it. Only the regenerate soul, that in which the graces of the Christ-life, mercy and truth, have been implanted by Christ, is really reconciled with God, i.e., effectually atoned. And though the framer of the proverb had but a dim conception of the way m which the Son of God would come to regenerate human hearts and make them in harmony with the Father, yet he saw clearly what Christians have too often overlooked, and expressed tersely what theology has too often obscured, that every effectual Atonement must include in itself the actual, moral regeneration of the sinner. And further, whoever wrote the verse which stands at the head of our chapter understood what many preachers of the Gospel have left in perplexing obscurity, that God would necessarily, from His very nature, provide the offering and the sacrifice on the ground of which every repentant soul that turns to Him could be immediately and freely forgiven.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary