Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
Seventh Address. Chap. Pro 4:1-9
Resuming, after the parenthesis (Pro 3:27-35) the style and tone of fatherly address of the preceding sections, the Teacher commends Wisdom to his scholars as his children, by the example of his own early education. Mr Horton happily remarks, “This chapter begins with a charming little piece of autobiography,” and quotes Wordsworth’s words,
“Wisdom doth live with children round her knees.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The words ye children indicate as usual a new section returning, after the break of Pro 3:27-35, to the old strain of fatherly counsel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 4:1
The instruction of a father.
A religious home
I. The love of a religious home. Two kinds of love for the offspring.
1. The natural love.
2. The spiritual love, which has respect to the spiritual being, relations, and interests of the children.
II. The training of a religious home.
1. The parents teaching is worth retaining.
2. The parents teaching is practical.
3. The parents teaching is quickening to all the powers, intellectual and moral.
III. The influence of a religious home.
1. The susceptibility of childhood.
2. The force of parental affection. Religious homes are the great want of the race. (David Thomas, D.D.)
Paternal exhortation
Doctrine and law form the staple of this appeal. By law understand direction, for life is an ever-bisecting course, and full of points that must bewilder inexperienced travellers. Do not venture upon great sea voyages without proper instruments and without being taught how to use them. So in life. Be enriched with doctrine or wisdom, and cultivate that tender filial spirit which gratefully yields itself to direction. It is at once wise and lovely for youth to consult the aged, and to avail themselves of accumulated experience. Any other spirit is vain, self-conceited, frivolous, and unworthy. Why should the father be anxious to instruct and direct the son? Because he has seen more of life, more of its mystery, its peril, its tragedy; therefore his heart yearns to preserve the young from danger. The fathers position is one of moral dignity and supreme benevolence. Having suffered himself, he would save his children from pain. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Attend to know understanding.
Knowing understanding
I. Young men have need often to be called upon to get true knowledge.
1. Because of their own backwardness to the work.
2. The impediments and diversions from attaining true wisdom.
3. There are many things to be believed, beyond the power of corrupted reason to find out.
4. There are many practical things to be learned, else they can never be done.
5. There are many faculties of the soul to be reformed.
6. There are many senses and members of the body to be directed to many particular actions, and each to its own.
Uses:
1. To blame young men that think their parents and teachers over-diligent.
2. To urge children to attend to their parents instructing them in piety.
3. To persuade parents and teachers not only to instruct, but also to incite to attention.
II. Every young man has need to be called on to look after true knowledge.
1. Because there is no disposition to this wisdom in the best by nature.
2. There is much averseness, because the principles of faith are above nature, and of practice against nature. (Francis Taylor, B.D.)
The invitation
I. Let our own children receive instructions. This charity must begin at home.
II. Let all young people take pains to get knowledge and grace. They are in the learning stage.
III. Let all who would receive instruction come with the disposition of children. Let prejudices be laid aside. Let them be dutiful, tractable, and self-diffident. (Matthew Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IV
The preceptor calls his pupils, and tells them how himself was
educated, 1-4;
specifies the teachings he received, 5-19;
and exhorts his pupil to persevere in well-doing, and to avoid
evil, 20-27.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Verse 1. Hear, ye children] Come, my pupils, and hear how a father instructed his child. Such as I received from my father I give to you, and they were the teachings of a wise and affectionate parent to his only son, a peculiar object of his regards, and also those of a fond mother.
He introduces the subject thus, to show that the teaching he received, and which he was about to give them, was the most excellent of its kind. By this he ensured their attention, and made his way to their heart. Teaching by precept is good; teaching by example is better; but teaching both by precept and example is best of all.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Of a father; of me your teacher, who have paternal authority over you, and affection to you.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1, 2. (Compare Pr1:8).
to knowin order toknow.
doctrinethe matter oflearning (Pr 1:5), such as hehad received (La 3:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father,…. Either of God their father, as Gersom interprets it; or rather of Solomon their father: and so he recommends his instruction from the relation he stood in to them; for, since he was their father, he would give them no bad instruction; and, since they were his children, they ought to receive it: by whom are meant, not his children in a natural sense, or the children of his body; but his disciples, such who applied to him for knowledge, and whom he undertook to learn;
and attend to know understanding; what would serve to enlighten, enlarge, improve, and inform their understandings; what would lead them into the knowledge and understanding of things divine and spiritual, and which would be worth knowing; and of having their understandings stored and enriched with.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He now confirms and explains the command to duty which he has placed at the beginning of the whole (Pro 1:8). This he does by his own example, for he relates from the history of his own youth, to the circle of disciples by whom he sees himself surrounded, what good doctrine his parents had taught him regarding the way of life:
1 Hear, ye sons, the instruction of a father,
And attend that ye may gain understanding;
2 For I give to you good doctrine,
Forsake not my direction!
3 For I was a son to my father,
A tender and only (son) in the sight of my mother.
4 And he instructed me, and said to me:
“Let thine heart hold fast my words:
Observe my commandments and live!”
That in the address comes here into the place of , hitherto used, externally denotes that in the progress of these discourses finds another application: the poet himself is so addressed by his father. Intentionally he does not say (cf. Pro 1:8): he does not mean the father of each individual among those addressed, but himself, who is a father in his relation to them as his disciples; and as he manifests towards them fatherly love, so also he can lay claim to paternal authority over them. is rightly vocalized, not . The words do not give the object of attention, but the design, the aim. The combination of ideas in (cf. Pro 1:2), which appears to us singular, loses its strangeness when we remember that means, according to its etymon, deposition or reception into the conscience and life. Regarding , apprehension, reception, lesson = doctrine, vid., Pro 1:5. is the perf., which denotes as fixed and finished what is just now being done, Gesenius, 126, 4. is here synonym of , Pro 1:8, and the contrary of , Pro 28:4. The relative factum in the perfect, designating the circumstances under which the event happened, regularly precedes the chief factum ; see under Gen 1:2. Superficially understood, the expression 3a would be a platitude; the author means that the natural legal relation was also confirming itself as a moral one. It was a relation of many-sided love, according to 3a: he was esteemed of his mother – , used of the reflex in the judgment, Gen 10:9, and of loving care, Gen 17:18, means this – as a tender child, and therefore tenderly to be protected ( as Gen 33:13), and as an only child, whether he were so in reality, or was only loved as if he were so. (Aq., Sym., Theod., ) may with reference to number also mean unice dilectus (lxx ); cf. Gen 22:2, (where the lxx translate , without therefore having before them). is maintained by all the versions; is not a variant.
(Note: In some editions is noted as Ker to , but erroneously and contrary to the express evidence of the Masora, which affirms that there are two passages in which we ought to read not , but , viz., Psa 80:3 and Pro 4:3.)
The instruction of the father begins with the jussive, which is pointed
(Note: The writing of – with the grave Metheg ( Gaja) and Kametz-Chatuph ( o ) is that of Ben Asher; on the other hand, with Cholem ( o ) and the permanent Metheg is that of Ben Naphtali; vid., Michlol 21a [under the verbal form 25], 30.)
to distinguish it from on account of the o . The lxx has incorrectly , as if the word were ; Symmachus has correctly . The imper. is, as Pro 7:2; Gen 20:7, more than ; the teacher seeks, along with the means, at the same time their object: Observe my commandments, and so become a partaker of life! The Syriac, however, adds and my instruction as the apple of thine eye, a clause borrowed from Pro 7:2.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Parental Instructions. | |
1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. 2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. 3 For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. 4 He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. 5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. 6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. 7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. 8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. 9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. 10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. 11 I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. 12 When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. 13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
Here we have,
I. The invitation which Solomon gives to his children to come and receive instruction from him (Pro 4:1; Pro 4:2): Hear, you children, the instruction of a father. That is, 1. “Let my own children, in the first place, receive and give good heed to those instructions which I set down for the use of others also.” Note, Magistrates and ministers, who are entrusted with the direction of larger societies, are concerned to take a more than ordinary care for the good instruction of their own families; from this duty their public work will by no means excuse them. This charity must begin at home, though it must not end there; for he that has not his children in subjection with all gravity, and does not take pains in their good education, how shall he do his duty as he ought to the church of God?1Ti 3:4; 1Ti 3:5. The children of those that are eminent for wisdom and public usefulness ought to improve in knowledge and grace in proportion to the advantages they derive from their relation to such parents. Yet it may be observed, to save both the credit and the comfort of those parents whose children do not answer the hopes that arose from their education, that Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was far from being either one of the wisest or one of the best. We have reason to think that thousands have got more good by Solomon’s proverbs than his own son did, to whom they seem to have been dedicated. 2. Let all young people, in the days of their childhood and youth, take pains to get knowledge and grace, for that is their learning age, and then their minds are formed and seasoned. He does not say, My children, but You children. We read but of one son that Solomon had of his own; but (would you think it?) he is willing to set up for a schoolmaster, and to teach other people’s children! for at that age there is most hope of success; the branch is easily bent when it is young and tender. 3. Let all that would receive instruction come with the disposition of children, though they be grown persons. Let all prejudices be laid aside, and the mind be as white paper. let them be dutiful, tractable, and self-diffident, and take the word as the word of a father, which comes both with authority and with affection. We must see it coming from God as our Father in heaven, to whom we pray, from whom we expect blessings, the Father of our spirits, to whom we ought to be in subjection, that we may live. We must look upon our teachers as our fathers, who love us and seek our welfare; and therefore though the instruction carry in it reproof and correction, for so the word signifies, yet we must bid it welcome. Now, (1.) To recommend it to us, we are told, not only that it is the instruction of a father, but that it is understanding, and therefore should be welcome to intelligent creatures. Religion has reason on its side, and we are taught it by fair reasoning. It is a law indeed (v. 2), but that law is founded upon doctrine, upon unquestionable principles of truth, upon good doctrine, which is not only faithful, but worthy of all acceptation. If we admit the doctrine, we cannot but submit to the law. (2.) To rivet it in us, we are directed to receive it as a gift, to attend to it with all diligence, to attend so as to know it, for otherwise we cannot do it, and not to forsake it by disowning the doctrine or disobeying the law.
II. The instructions he gives them. Observe,
1. How he came by these instructions; he had them from his parents, and teaches his children the same that they taught him, Pro 4:3; Pro 4:4. Observe, (1.) His parents loved him, and therefore taught him: I was my father’s son. David had many sons, but Solomon was his son indeed, as Isaac is called (Gen. xvii. 19) and for the same reason, because on him the covenant was entailed. He was his father’s darling, above any of his children. God had a special kindness for Solomon (the prophet called him Jedidiah, because the Lord loved him, 2 Sam. xii. 25), and for that reason David had a special kindness for him, for he was a man after God’s own heart. If parents may ever love one child better than another, it must not be till it plainly appears that God does so. He was tender, and only beloved, in the sight of his mother. Surely there was a manifest reason for making such a distinction when both the parents made it. Now we see how they showed their love; they catechised him, kept him to his book, and held him to a strict discipline. Though he was a prince, and heir-apparent to the crown, yet they did not let him live at large; nay, therefore they tutored him thus. And perhaps David was the more strict with Solomon in his education because he had seen the ill effects of an undue indulgence in Adonijah, whom he had not crossed in any thing (1 Kings i. 6), as also in Absalom. (2.) What his parents taught him he teaches others. Observe, [1.] When Solomon was grown up he not only remembered, but took a pleasure in repeating, the good lessons his parents taught him when he was a child. He did not forget them, so deep were the impressions they made upon him. He was not ashamed of them, such a high value had he for them, nor did he look upon them as the childish things, the mean things, which, when he became a man, a king, he should put away, as a disparagement to him; much less did he repeat them: as some wicked children have done, to ridicule them, and make his companions merry with them, priding himself that he had got clear from grave lessons and restraints. [2.] Though Solomon was a wise man himself, and divinely inspired, yet, when he was to teach wisdom, he did not think it below him to quote his father and to make use of his words. Those that would learn well, and teach well, in religion, must not affect new-found notions and new-coined phrases, so as to look with contempt upon the knowledge and language of their predecessors; if we must keep to the good old way, why should we scorn the good old words? Jer. vi. 16. [3.] Solomon, having been well educated by his parents, thought himself thereby obliged to give his children a good education, the same that his parents had given him; and this is one way in which we must requite our parents for the pains they took with us, even by showing piety at home, 1 Tim. v. 4. They taught us, not only that we might learn ourselves, but that we might teach our children, the good knowledge of God, Ps. lxxviii. 6. And we are false to a trust if we do not; for the sacred deposit of religious doctrine and law was lodged in our hands with a charge to transmit it pure and entire to those that shall come after us, 2 Tim. ii. 2. [4.] Solomon enforces his exhortations with the authority of his father David, a man famous in his generation upon all accounts. Be it taken notice of, to the honour of religion, that the wisest and best men in every age have been most zealous, not only for the practice of it themselves, but for the propagating of it to others; and we should therefore continue in the things which we have learned, knowing of whom we have learned them, 2 Tim. iii. 14.
2. What these instructions were, v. 4-13.
(1.) By way of precept and exhortation. David, in teaching his son, though he was a child of great capacity and quick apprehension, yet to show that he was in good earnest, and to affect his child the more with what he said, expressed himself with great warmth and importunity, and inculcated the same thing again and again. So children must be taught. Deut. vi. 7, Thou shalt whet them diligently upon thy children. David, though he was a man of public business, and had tutors for his son, took all this pains with him himself.
[1.] He recommends to him his Bible and his catechism, as the means, his father’s words (v. 4), the words of his mouth (v. 5), his sayings (v. 10), all the good lessons he had taught him; and perhaps he means particularly the book of Psalms, many of which were Maschils–psalms of instruction, and two of them are expressly said to be for Solomon. These, and all his other words, Solomon must have an eye to. First, He must hear and receive them (v. 10), diligently attend to them, and imbibe them, as the earth drinks in the rain that comes often upon it, Heb. vi. 7. God thus bespeaks our attention to his word: Hear, O my son! and receive my sayings. Secondly, He must hold fast the form of sound words which his father gave him (v. 4): Let thy heart retain my words; and except the word be hid in the heart, lodged in the will and affections, it will not be retained. Thirdly, He must govern himself by them: Keep my commandments, obey them, and that is the way to increase in the knowledge of them, John vii. 17. Fourthly, He must stick to them and abide by them: “Decline not from the words of my mouth (v. 5), as fearing they will be too great a check upon thee, but take fast hold of instruction (v. 13), as being resolved to keep thy hold and never let it go.” Those that have a good education, though they strive to shake it off, will find it hang about them a great while, and, if it do not, their case is very sad.
[2.] He recommends to him wisdom and understanding as the end to be aimed at in the use of these means; that wisdom which is the principal wisdom, get that. Quod caput est sapientia eam acquire sapientiam–Be sure to mind that branch of wisdom which is the top branch of it, and that is the fear of God, ch. i. 7. Junius and Tremellius. A principle of religion in the heart is the one thing needful; therefore, First, Get this wisdom, get this understanding, v. 5. And again, “Get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding, v. 7. Pray for it, take pains for it, give diligence in the use of all appointed means to attain it. Wait at wisdom’s gate, Prov. viii. 34. Get dominion over thy corruptions, which are thy follies: get possession of wise principles and the habits of wisdom. Get wisdom by experience, get it above all thy getting; be more in care and take more pains to get this than to get the wealth of this world; whatever thou forgettest, get this, reckon it a great achievement, and pursue it accordingly.” True wisdom is God’s gift, and yet we are here commanded to get it, because God gives it to those that labour for it; yet, after all, we must not say, Our might and the power of our hand have gotten us this wealth. Secondly, Forget her not (v. 5), forsake her not (v. 6), let her not go (v. 13), but keep her. Those that have got this wisdom must take heed of losing it again by returning to folly: it is indeed a good part, that shall not be taken from us; but then we must take heed lest we throw it from us, as those do that forget it first, and let it slip out of their minds, and then forsake it and turn out of its good ways. That good thing which is committed to us we must keep, and not let it drop, through carelessness, nor suffer it to be forced from us, nor suffer ourselves to be wheedled out of it; never let go such a jewel. Thirdly, Love her (v. 6), and embrace her (v. 8), as worldly men love their wealth and set their hearts upon it. Religion should be very dear to us, dearer than any thing in this world; and, if we cannot reach to be great masters of wisdom, yet let us be true lovers of it; and what grace we have let us embrace it with a sincere affection, as those that admire its beauty. Fourthly, “Exalt her, v. 8. Always keep up high thoughts of religion, and do all thou canst to bring it into reputation, and maintain the credit of it among men. Concur with God in his purpose, which is to magnify the law and make it honourable, and do what thou canst to serve that purpose.” Let Wisdom’s children not only justify her, but magnify her, and prefer her before that which is dearest to them in this world. In honouring those that fear the Lord, though they are low in the world, and in regarding a poor wise man, we exalt wisdom.
(2.) By way of motive and inducement thus to labour for wisdom, and submit to the guidance of it, consider, [1.] It is the main matter, and that which ought to be the chief and continual care of every man in this life (v. 7): Wisdom is the principal thing; other things which we are solicitous to get and keep are nothing to it. It is the whole of man, Eccl. xii. 13. It is that which recommends us to God, which beautifies the soul, which enables us to answer the end of our creation, to live to some good purpose in the world, and to get to heaven at last; and therefore it is the principal thing. [2.] It has reason and equity on its side (v. 11): “I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, and so it will be found to be at last. I have led thee, not in the crooked ways of carnal policy, which does wrong under colour of wisdom, but in right paths, agreeable to the eternal rules and reasons of good and evil.” The rectitude of the divine nature appears in the rectitude of all the divine laws. Observe, David not only taught his son by good instructions, but led him both by a good example and by applying general instructions to particular cases; so that nothing was wanting on his part to make him wise. [3.] It would be much for his own advantage: “If thou be wise and good, thou shalt be so for thyself.” First, “It will be thy life, thy comfort, thy happiness; it is what thou canst not live without:” Keep my commandments and live, v. 4. That of our Saviour agrees with this, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, Matt. xix. 17. It is upon pain of death, eternal death, and in prospect of life, eternal life, that we are required to be religious. “Receive wisdom’s sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many (v. 10), as many in this world as Infinite Wisdom sees fit, and in the other world thou shalt live that life the years of which shall never be numbered. Keep her therefore, whatever it cost thee, for she is thy life, v. 13. All thy satisfaction will be found in this;” and a soul without true wisdom and grace is really a dead soul. Secondly, “It will be thy guard and guide, thy convoy and conductor, through all the dangers and difficulties of thy journey through this wilderness. Love wisdom, and cleave to her, and she shall preserve thee, she shall keep thee (v. 6) from sin, the worst of evils, the worst of enemies; she shall keep thee from hurting thyself, and then none else can hurt thee.” As we say, “Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee;” so, “Keep thy wisdom, and thy wisdom will keep thee.” It will keep us from straits and stumbling-blocks in the management of ourselves and our affairs, v. 12. 1. That our steps be not straitened when we go, that we bring not ourselves into such straits as David was in, 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. Those that make God’s word their rule shall walk at liberty, and be at ease in themselves. 2. That our feet do not stumble when we run. If wise and good men be put upon sudden resolves, the certain rule of God’s word which they go by will keep them even then from stumbling upon any thing that may be pernicious. Integrity and uprightness will preserve us. Thirdly, “It will be thy honour and reputation (v. 8): Exalt wisdom (do thou but show thy good-will to her advancement) and though she needs not thy service she will abundantly recompense it, she shall promote thee, she shall bring thee to honour.” Solomon was to be a king, but his wisdom and virtue would be more his honour than his crown or purple; it was that for which all his neighbours had him so much in veneration; and no doubt, in his reign and David’s, wise and good men stood fairest for preferment. However, religion will, first or last, bring all those to honour that cordially embrace her; they shall be accepted of God, respected by all wise men, owned in the great day, and shall inherit everlasting glory. This he insists on (v. 9): “She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace in this world, shall recommend thee both to God and man, and in the other world a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee, a crown that shall never totter, a crown of glory that shall never wither.” That is the true honour which attends religion. Nobilitas sola est atique unica virtus–Virtue is the only nobility! David having thus recommended wisdom to his son, no marvel that when God bade him ask what he would he prayed, Lord, give me a wise and an understanding heart. We should make it appear by our prayers how well we are taught.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
THE PATHWAYS OF LIFE
(Pro 4:1-27),
Parental Instruction Exemplified
(Pro 4:1-4)
Verses 1-4, citing a splendid example, link together 3 generations as Solomon continues to instruct his children. He is teaching them good doctrine as commanded in Vs. 2 and Deu 6:6-7; and as he himself had been taught by a father and mother who loved him much, Vs. 3-4. Originating with God Himself and sanctioned by parent and grand-parents, it is commanded that these instructions be kept in the heart and faithfully obeyed, Vs. 1, 2, 4; Pro 1:8; Pro 2:1-5; Pro 3:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
WISDOM, THE PRINCIPAL THING
Proverbs 4
THE words of this chapter involve the wise counsel of an experienced father speaking to his children, and especially to his son. They present at once the prominent principles of true education, making a distinction, however, between mere learning and real wisdom. Its a chapter that the annual graduate should read. Yea, it is one that the under-graduate should patiently peruse.
To this moment, the name of Solomon stands without a human peer in wisdoms realm. The words of Solomon are still worth serious consideration.
There are people who imagine that the minister has no specific interest in the educational process, and that the Bible is no longer a worthy text-book. All such are but poorly informed.
The late Newell Dwight Hillis, in an address which he delivered before the Baptist Social Union of Chicago some years since, speaking to the subject of Protestantism and Popular Education, said, Goethe confessed that the German Universities and the German language were due to a Gospel preachers work, namely,that of Martin Luther. The intellectual impetus that has blessed Switzerland was received first of all from John Calvin, a Gospel preacher. At Bunker Hill, Rufus Choate affirmed that Roger Williams gave America her free institutions; while, as we know, Jonathan Edwards and John Harvard and the great Dr. Williams were to the educational dawn of New England what Washington and Jefferson and Adams were to independence and republican tendencies.
In spite of the drift in the direction of infidelity, it still remains a fact that the church functions prominently in education; and the true minister is the patron of the same. Thats why we speak to this subject. Thats why we are deeply interested in the suggestions of this chapter.
But the chapter itself raises some questions of real merit, and the rightful answers to these questions is of first moment. Chief among them is this:
WHAT IS WISDOM?
The answer to this question involves eliminations as well as definitions, negatives as well as affirmations.
Knowledge is not necessarily wisdom. There are a great many facts in the earth, the knowledge of which, do not render one wise, but foolish instead. There are many things to be known that are better never known. There are whole realms that the wise never explore, unless they do it from a missionary standpoint, for the simple reason that to know some things is temptation, sin, and folly of the foulest sort.
There is an impression, with the young especially, that they must see every phase of lifeits seamy sideas they call it, in order to be wise. There is an impression with even some older people that to gain information from every possible quarter is to strengthen oneself against ignorance which, in the judgment of many, is the mother of all crimes. But history disproves this opinion. Ignorance has been the brooding mother of black crimes, it is true; but intelligence, of a certain sort, has its rifer temptations still; and the shrewdest men, the men who have nosed into every secret of life, are the men whose sins are mightiest, and who, from the standpoint of God, are among the fools.
Artemas Ward is quoted as having said, It is better not to know so much than to know so many things that aint so; and if we may be permitted to paraphrase his thought, we would say, It is better not to know so much than to know so many things concerning which Satan is the great professor, the school-master, to bring us to sin. There is an education that only adds to ones inefficiency, and results in ones degradationand thats the education that combines learning with vicious living.
Rev. Cyrus Townsend Brady once gave to the public an instance of the same, publishing it in the Ladies Home Journal. He was a missionary in the great west on a train to make an appointment. A young divinity student came aboard. Brady said he was one of the ambitious kind of divinity students who wreck a parish or two when they begin, and finally drift upon the ecclesiastical bargain-counter. He was ready to argue about anything with anybody. A greasy, dilapidated-looking tramp came into the caboose at one of the stations at the end of a division, and presently engaged in a heated discussion with the young theologue on the disadvantages of education. He maintained the affirmativethat the less a man knew, and the less education he had, the happier he waswith much skill and adroitness, and routed the poor boy so effectively that he rose and went out on the platform to hide his chagrin, leaving the supposed tramp chuckling over his easy victory. The bishop had listened without saying a word, and when the student left, he turned to the man and inquired sharply: What college are you from, sir? Yale! answered the man without thinking. The thoughtless admission revealed the fact that the mans ability in argument was the product of knowledge; but his whole appearance proved that he was utterly without wisdom.
Neither is learning always wisdom. Learning is more akin to knowledge than it is to wisdom. In fact it is defined as gaining knowledge by study, investigation, observation or inquiry; to acquire by receiving instruction. But it does not follow that a man will be wise when he has finished the schools of learning, when he has taken the college course of four years or more, when he has gone abroad and sat under noted professors for special instruction in certain branches. Learning is one thing and wisdom is another.
To illustrate, Russell Conwell, in connection with the founding of Chicago University, delivered an address, in the course of which he told the story of a friend of his who graduated from school with the first honors, delivering the valedictory in Latin with all the polish and scholarship imaginable, and Conwell says, I said to myself, If he will only make me Secretary of the Treasury, or something like that, when he gets to be President, that is all I will ask.
But years passed by, and in an interior town in New England, while I was lecturing, a man came up to me and said, Do you remember me? At first I did not recognize him, and then visions of the White House appeared, and I said to him, as the volume of mighty enterprises in every land and visions of government passed away, Where are you now? He answered me, Over in that barrel factory, at the coopers trade. Now, said Conwell, no man can reverence the coopers trade more than I do, but why was this man at the coopers tradebecause learning was one thing and wisdom another!
The worst fool in the world is the educated fool, the man who comes out of the college filled with book learning, but having no practical knowledge of the earth upon which he lives, or the society through which he moves.
Selden, a scholar, surely of first attainments, affirmed, No man is wiser for his learning, and you know there is a Saxon proverb, No fool is a perfect fool until he learns Latin. I used to think I was a perfect fool, when trying to learn it!
Wisdom is useful information. At least so Solomon must have considered it, when he said, Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. * * Exalt her and she shall promote thee (Pro 4:7-8).
Wendell Phillips, in that wonderful address, delivered at Harvard, The Scholar in the Republic, quotes Gibbon as saying, We have two educations, one from teachers, and one we give ourselves, and remarks, This last is the real and only education of the massesone gotten from life, from affairs, from earning ones bread; necessity, the mother of invention; responsibility, that teaches productions and inspires respect for right. In this sense, he continues, the Fremont Campaign of 1856 taught Americans more than a hundred colleges, and John Browns pulpit at Harpers Ferry was equal to ten thousand ordinary Professor chairs, especially if those chairs were such as the President-chair of Columbia, used in defense of the legalized liquor traffic; or any of those institutions where skepticism permeates and poisons the whole atmosphere through which our children move. The parents of this time do well to remember that such mighty men as Phillips, and Wayland, and Mark Hopkins, and Timothy Dwight, were bred in better days, and in better institutions, though not so big! institutions that made wisdom the principal thing, and that defined wisdom as meaning first of all to know God, and the salvation that is in Jesus Christ, His Son.
This is what James meant when he said, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him (Jas 1:5).
No wonder Solomon said, Get wisdom * * forget it not * * Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee; love her, and she shall keep thee (Pro 4:5-6). And again,
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies; and all the things thou const desire are not to be compared unto her.
Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her; and happy is every one that retaineth her (Pro 3:13-18).
FOR WHOM IS THIS WISDOM INTENDED?
This fourth chapter of Proverbs begins, Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father and the words are Gods to an unwise world. If learning has been a partial mother and wisdom the lot of a few, it is not the great Fathers fault. He purposed it for all. He proffers it to all. Would that American Christianity might sit at the Masters feet in this matter and learn of Him! We have among us a philosophy that all men are born free and equal, which we work into eloquent Fourth of July orations; but when September comes and our schools open, this philosophy is largely forgotten and the practice of the ancients is prevalent.
Wisdom knows no station! Rome educated only her ruling classes. Greece had her schools, and so excellent were they that our modern systems have not shone her educated sons into oblivion; but they were schools for the elect only. The old world has never been quite willing to give the poor an equal chance at education. America has pioneered in that matter.
Matthew Arnold, when he was in this country, was charmed to find in a Boston Library a ragged newsboy who was reading The Life of George Washington. And Arnold said, Nothing I have seen in your country so impressed me as the presence of that ragged urchin in that library; the evident freedom he felt and the high degree of intelligence he evinced. I do not believe that there is a reading-room in all England where that boy, dressed as he was, would have been welcome. It is, I tell you, a sight that impresses a European not accustomed to your democratic ways. Aye, and it is also a sight that somewhat surprises the American, for it is not as common as the casual visitor would imagine. Our great civic centers have their thousands of children who cannot enter the public schools for want of clothing, books and other supplies, and, in many instances, for want of school room.
Joseph Cook said that if we are ever to elevate society, we must lay hold upon what the Southerners call the mud sill, and when that goes up, every tier above it will rise. The problem of popular education will never be solved, in keeping with Gods mind, until the poorest born may find it possiblemark you I say possibleto graduate from public school, academy, college and university.
Again, wisdom knows no sex.
Education is a very natural mother, in that she has been slow to see that the girl is the brothers equal. Sixty years ago, the individual who dared to affirm an equality of the sexes was reckoned a rebel against good customs. The spirit of the small boy, of whom Miss Esmen used to tell, has long characterized masculinity, and is not quite dead to-day. According to Miss Esmen, a neighbor lady was calling upon the mother of four sons, and in the course of their conversation, the visitor remarked to the mother, What a pity one of your children had not been a girl. Instantly the junior dropped his toys, and with his keen black eyes flashing the fire of anger, said, Id like to know whod a bin er. George wouldnt a bin er; Jack wouldnt a bin er; Tom wouldnt a bin er; and I wouldnt a bin er. I am sure he went to Congress, or at least was a delegate to the quadrennial conference of the Methodist church, and his constituency is to-day a majority of the masculine gender.
We long ago celebrated the 400th anniversary of our continents discovery, but only recently the centenniel of our first female seminary commencement. In 1894 the Young Ladies Academy of Philadelphia enjoyed that honor. Some time after, 1821, Mount Holyoke Seminary of South Haddley, Mass. was founded.
You will remember that incident in Hawthornes Marble Fawn, where the sculptor, Kenyon, in search of Hilda, walked out of Rome by way of the San Sabastino gate. Half an hour brought him to that spot where an excavation showed evidence of a buried building. At the mouth of this excavation Kenyon sat down to rest. He suddenly noticed that he was upon what seemed to be a shapeless fragment of stone largely concealed by the crumbled earth. But his practiced eye was soon aware of something artistic in this rude object, and presently he had dug out a headless figure of marble. Both arms were also broken at the elbow. By digging further he found the arms and put them in their place, and on further search, the head. Clearing from it the clinging soil, he set it upon the slender neck. Hawthorne says, The effect was magical. It immediately lighted up and vivified the whole figure, endowing it with personality, soul and intelligence, and lo! the Venus of the Tribune was before him, and her divinity was evident.
The divinity of woman has appeared to the eyes of man as a very discovery indeed, as a matchless immortality, since her rights to education have been regarded, and her higher mental and spiritual powers have come to their divinely appointed place.
So to the rich and poor, to male and female, Solomon speaks for God, saying, Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom (Pro 4:7).
WHAT ARE WISDOMS RESULTS?
Solomon says what most accept as true, that the first result is promotion.
Exalt her, and she shall promote thee (Pro 4:8). Promotion, the lifting of a man in the scale of life to a higher levelthat is what promotion means; that is what wisdom accomplishes.
Henry Wilson is an illustration. That noble vice-president was born in poverty and says himself, Want sat by my cradle. I know what it is to ask a mother for bread and cry because she had none to give. But Wilson determined, by the help of God, to be wise. He believed, with Solomon, that wisdom was the principal thing, and stored his mind with useful information, and wisdom proved herself faithful to him by his promotion.
President Alderman of Tulare University in an address made some years since, said, An educated man is one who has first of all, ability to behave himself properly; second, ability to use language with force and precision; third, open-mindedness to ideas; fourth, to get what he wants out of books; fifth, ability to observe closely, imagine vividly and reason accurately; sixth, ability to do some sort of work well and cheerfully. A man thus educated has more than learning; he has wisdom; and the results of it will be evidenced in all he undertakes.
William E. Gladstone was easily Englands first citizen while he lived. He was a man of good birth, tireless energy, open-mindedness, moral courage and Christian faith. Running through all of this, like the scarlet thread in the cordage of the English navy, was the persistent accumulation of workable information, until he came to be a veritable encyclopedia.
We re-call that some years ago the Ladies Home Journal told of a reception held in the great English hall, where Mr. and Mrs Gladstone were honored guests. A company of ladies were discussing together a troublesome question, and finally one said, Well, there is One above who knows all things; and sometime He can make it plain to us. Yes, yes! replied Mrs. Gladstone, William is in the gallery. He will be down in a minute and I am sure he can tell us all about it, and the dear, good woman, in her honest mistake, almost expressed a veritable truth, namelythat her husband knew everything.
Wisdom is the principal thing. Exalt her and she shall promote thee. The promotion here referred to, however, is not necessarily financial or even official. There are honors that far exceed office or opulencethe honors of great living, great thinking, great doing.
Ambassador Bryce, speaking before the Chicago University some years ago, said, The ardor with which the study of physical sciences is now being pursued for practical purposes must not make us forget that education has to do a great deal more than turn out a man to succeed in business. It must be admitted that big business is just now in the ascendant, but big business fails to be righteous when it ignores the finest sentiments of humanityunselfishness and true serviceableness. Earths monuments are not promotion. Wisdom brings to honor those who embrace her.
In fact, true honor is a direct product of wisdom. It is reported that when the students at Andover waited for their breakfast at the boarding house, and his associates stood chaffing each other, Joseph Cook would turn invariably to the big dictionary in the corner of the room, and learn the synonyms of a word, or search out its derivation. And Joseph Cook, the man of ready speech, remarkable diction, and splendid culture, was the consequence.
She shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her (Pro 4:8).
What shall I do to be forever known?
Thy duty ever.
This did many who yet sleep all unknown.
Oh, never, never.
Thinkest thou, perchance, that they remain unknown,
whom thou knowest not.
By angel trumpets in Heaven their praise is blown.
Divine their lot.
And, as a final result, a crown of glory.
She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee (Pro 4:9).
Nelson, commenting on Tit 2:6, said, Without education the powers of the mind are not free. If we are not free we are still the slaves of ignorance and prejudice, and cannot use the powers that God has given us. An angel may slumber in a block of marble, but it takes the chisel of the sculptor to bring it into view. Education is the chisel that releases the angel imprisoned in every human creature. But whether the angel when once released shall be a good or bad angel, an angel of light or an angel of darkness, will depend much on the kind of education. An Angelo could produce from the same block of marble a satyr or a seraph. It all depends upon the direction he gives the chisel. Education to be beneficial must be a true education; that is, it must include the moral element. False education awakens the powers without giving them direction. Then, when the life, misguided, takes the wrong direction it goes to the devil with the speed of the steam-engine, rather than, as in ignorance it might, at the pace of the stage-coach. Education alone does not insure moral safety. You will find accomplished scholars in State prison, and our defaulters were many of them men who spent their leisure in their elegant libraries. Many of the most brilliant and highly educated professional men it has been my fortune to meet perished ignominiously as drunkards. Education, then, must have the moral element, and it is an utter absurditythe very folly of cultureto say that we can have the moral element in infirm natures without the grace of God. The man who does not come into that crown of glory at the end, has lived all in vain. Worldly attainments or possessions are poor returns for the struggle of existence.
There is an old story, with which you are familiar, which brings us face to face with this thought. It is of Philip de Neri, a saint of the sixteenth century. A young Italian student, looking to the law as a profession, told the saint what his purpose in life was. Well, answered the saint, when you get through your course of study, what then? Then I shall take my doctors degree. And then? Well, then I shall have a number of difficult questions to manage and shall catch peoples notice by my eloquence, my learning, and my acuteness, and gain great reputation. And then? Why, then I shall be promoted to some high office, and shall make much money. And then? Then, then I shall die. Here Philip raised his voice and asked, And what then? Whereupon the young man was unable to answer and departed with down cast eyes.
Young men and women; believe in education! For its place in this land, praise God and the fathers who were faithful to Him. Believe in learning of the largest sort, and hold it ever as your personal regret that you might not have sat at the feet of still others of the great teachers of your time. But count all attainments of the intellect that look little or nothing beyond personal pleasure and temporary success, as little better than trash, and plead for that wisdom which gives promise of the good things of time, and the glory of eternity when your souls shall be glorified, your estate shall be that of the glorified, and your eternal habitation that city, of which it is written, The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof (Rev 21:23); for wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 4:2. Doctrine, Literally something received, handed over; the author so describes it because he received it from his father. The Septuagint and the Vulgate translate by donum, a gift.
Pro. 4:3. Tender and only, dearly-belovednot that Solomon was Bathshebas only son (1Ch. 3:5).
Pro. 4:4. Get, Heb. acquire or buyspare no cost. The repetition of the verb makes the injunction more imperative. Forget is a word in Hebrew that takes the preposition from. In the idea of forgetting there is naturally involved that of turning aside or away from the object to be remembered.
Pro. 4:6. Miller translates the last clause: Love her, and she shall stand sentry over thee.
Pro. 4:7. The first clause of this verse contains only four words, viz: Beginning, or principal thing; Wisdom; get wisdom Its terseness has led to various translations. Hitzig and others read: The highest thing is wisdom. Miller translates: As the height of wisdom, get wisdom. DelitzschThe beginning of wisdom is: Get wisdom. With, not to be taken in the sense of in connection with, but by means of, or at the price of.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPHPro. 4:1-4
THE RECIPROCAL DUTIES OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN
I. Parental Duty. He taught me. Solomon, and all children, hare many claims upon their parents to receive from them instruction in the revelation of God.
1. Parents are responsible for the existence of their children. They are the instrumental cause of their childs being in the world, of his being in that state of probation upon which hang such infinite possibilities.
2. The child is so absolutely ignorant of the life into which he comes. Unavoidable ignorance has always a claim upon knowledge, and the claim is assuredly increased in proportion as those who know and those who do not know are related to each other by a divinely constituted bond. I am a stranger in the earth is the claim which every child puts in as a reason why he should be instructed and taught in the way in which he should go. Hide not Gods commandments from me is the appeal which the childs ignorance makes to those who have had some experience in the world.
3. Children claim instruction because of their future relationship to others. The neglect of a childs education is a sin against more than himself. He will come, in his turn, to influence others. Upon his character will depend, in a great degree, the characters and eternal destinies of many in generations yet to come.
4. Children have a claim upon their parents because they belong to God. If a proprietor of land hands over to the cultivator a piece of virgin soil, he does not relinquish his own claim therebyhe demands that his property shall be restored to him increased in value by being brought under cultivation. The child is given to its parent by God in its undeveloped moral condition, but God retains his own inheritance in the gift. He looks for nurture, for cultivation; he demands from the parent such a fulfilment of parental duties as will ensure to Him that His gift shall grow of more and more worth in the moral universe. A day of reckoning on this matter will assuredly come. Solomon recognises the claim which children have upon their parents by recording his own parents conduct in relation to himself and by giving us an example of his own method of instructing his children.
II. Filial Duty. Hear, ye children. Parents have claims upon their children.
1. From the simple fact of the relationship. A good father claims the obedience of his son because he is that childs ordained guide and ruler. He is to his son Gods viceregent so long as his commands are in accordance with Gods law.
2. From their larger experience. They have trodden the path which the youth has yet to traverse, they have climbed the hill which rises yet before him, they have tested the worth of the things which will allure him. Their superior knowledge entitles them to say, Hear the instruction of a father.
3. From the self-denial which, as parents, they have exercised. All that a good mother and father have done and suffered in order to advance the welfare of their children, their toil and forbearing love, constitutes a powerful claim to their childrens grateful, reverential, attention and love. Solomon here gives an example of the honour in which every child should hold godly parents.
A PARENTS MOST PRECIOUS GIFT
Good Doctrine. Pro. 4:2.
1. Because without it there can be no good character. There can be no right feelings towards God unless there has been right teaching about Him. True views of God can only come from true doctrine concerning Him. Without a right view of God there is no motive power to form character. A man must know God as He is before he can begin to follow Him. There must be a true mirror to give a correct reflection.
2. Because if there is not the beginning of a good character, there will be an increasingly bad one. When men have no right doctrine concerning God, in other words, when they do not know Him as He is, they invariably make a God after their own conceptions. They bring God down to their level. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself (Psa. 50:21), has been the fatal mistake of men in all ages. If a man falls overboard from the deck of a vessel, he will not remain long at the level of his first fall. If he is not rescued he will sink to such a depth as will be out of all comparison with it. He will go lower and lower till his body finds the bottom of the ocean. Mans first fall from obedience to disobedience was a great fall, but he has not been content with this moral distance between himself and his Maker, he has tried to drag God down with him and thus has brutalised and demonised the divine that was still within him. In more than a material sense he has changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man (Rom. 1:23). This changing of the truth of God into a lie will always take place where there is an absence of right conceptions of God, and the result must always be the moral deterioration which Paul gives as the result in Rom. 1:26-32. There is as much relation between good or right doctrine and good and holy character as there is between good bread and pure water and a healthy body. Good bread will make good muscle and sinew, bad bread will not nourish the human frame. Pure water is indispensable to health, stagnant water will breed a hundred diseases. And mistaken views about God must be fruitful of soul disease. Results prove this to be the case. National and individual history prove the truth of it. By their fruits ye shall-know them (Mat. 7:20). As we can foretell what the quality of the harvest will be from the seed sown, so can we tell what has been the character of the seed from that which it brings forth.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 4:2. The common cry is Who will show us any good? and every man will lend both ears to a good bargain. The doctrine here delivered is good every way, whether you look to the author, matter, or effect of it.Trapp.
Gods commandments are not like the commandments of any other, which are directed to the benefit of the commanders: but Gods commandments do only bring good to him that is commanded. What is there so absurd, as to despise His commands who doth command that He may have matter for rewarding: for God doth not want our obedience, but we do want His commanding. Therefore it is said, As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master, and the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us, that is, until He command us something, and that, thou, O David, callest mercy.Jermin.
Good.
I. In itself. It is most majestic, as containing not trivial and common sentences, but high parables and extraordinary mysteries. It gives the highest direction in the greatest things.
II. It is good to us. Good for profit and pleasure. Good for soul and body (1Co. 15:2; Deu. 28:1). Good for this life and the life to come (1Ti. 4:8). Good when it pleaseth us (Psa. 119:7). Good when it crosseth us (Isa. 39:8).Francis Taylor.
Pro. 4:3. Noteworthy is the prominence given to the mothers share in the training of the child. Among the Israelites and the Egyptians alone of the nations of the old world, was the sons reverence for the mother placed side by side with that which he owed to his father.Plumptre.
Pro. 4:4. Training discipline, not foolish indulgence, is the truest evidence of affection to our tender and beloved ones (chap. Pro. 13:24; with 1Ki. 1:6).Bridges.
He taught me. The prayer of Solomon, at Gibeon, for wisdom, as the principal of Gods gifts, was suggested to him by his father David, just before his death. (See 1Ch. 28:9; 1Ch. 29:19).Wordsworth.
Here Solomon again commands the involuntary, because he has shown the steps to it. We cannot, of all other things in the world, live by a voluntary act, but we can keep watch over the commandments. I mean, we can, as it is a voluntary act, if God makes us willing. But we cannot live as a voluntary thing except through some form of anterior obedience.Miller.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER 4
TEXT Pro. 4:1-9
1.
Hear my sons, the instruction of a father,
And attend to know understanding:
2.
For I give you good doctrine;
Forsake ye not my law.
3.
For I was a son unto my father,
Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
4.
And he taught me, and said unto me:
Let thy heart retain my words;
Keep my commandments, and live;
5.
Get wisdom, get understanding;
Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth;
6.
Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee;
Love her, and she will keep thee.
7.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom;
Yea, with all thy getting get understanding.
8.
Exalt her, and she will promote thee;
She will bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her.
9.
She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace;
A crown of beauty will she deliver to thee.
STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 4:1-9
1.
Why the change from the usual son to sons in Pro. 4:1?
2.
What does doctrine mean?
3.
What does Pro. 4:3 show to be the way parents should feel concerning their children?
4.
What kind of parent is described in Pro. 4:4?
5.
How many times is get used in the book of Proverbs (Pro. 4:5)?
6.
Reword Pro. 4:6.
7.
Connect the thought of Pro. 4:7 with the author of Proverbs.
8.
What will wisdom do for its possessor (Pro. 4:8)?
9.
What was a chaplet (Pro. 4:9)?
PARAPHRASE OF 4:1-9
Pro. 4:1-6.
Young men, listen to me as you would to your father. Listen, and grow wise, for I speak the truthdont turn away. For I, too, was once a man, tenderly loved by my mother as an only child, and the companion of my father. He told me never to forget his words. If you follow them, he said, you will have a long and happy life. Learn to be wise, he said, and develop good judgment and common sense! I cannot over-emphasize this point. Cling to wisdomshe will protect you. Love hershe will guard you.
Pro. 4:7-9.
Determination to be wise is the first step toward becoming wise! And with your wisdom, develop common sense and good judgment. If you exalt wisdom, she will exalt you. Hold her fast and she will lead you to great honor; she will place a beautiful crown upon your head.
COMMENTS ON 4:1-9
Pro. 4:1. Only three times in the entire book does the author address his material to his sons (plural) instead of to his son (singular): here; Pro. 5:7; Pro. 7:24. No reason is easily discernible for the change at this and the other places. Hear is used many times in Proverbs as are instruction and understanding. Similar passages: My son, hear the instruction of thy father (Pro. 1:8); Come, ye children, hearken unto me (Psa. 34:11); Fathers…nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).
Pro. 4:2. Doctrine means teaching. The father is sure that his teaching is good, for he has been over the road, has experienced much, has observed a lot, and has come to sound and studied conclusions, and he has the welfare of his children at heart. For the most part children normally accept their parents teachings as good. Because what he was teaching was good, he insists that they not forsake his law.
Pro. 4:3. As Solomon instructs his own children, he recalls that he too was once a child, a son of his father David (who picked him to be his successor: 1Ki. 1:32-35) and tender and beloved in the sight of his mother (Bathsheba). Every grown-up should be able to look back upon his childhood days and feel this way about his parents. Our verse reminds us that those who are now fathers were once sons, and those who now teach were once taught.
Pro. 4:4. David took time to teach and prepare Solomon for the great task that was before him in life. Such a constant, several-years task takes a fathers time and attention, and it involves a recognition of divine responsibility and a desire to see ones son grow up to be what he ought to be. Fathers should be more than sires and material providers for their children: Fathers…nuture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4), The direct quotation begins in this verse, but it is debatable just where the quotation ends. Some say the quotation runs to the end of the chapter; some say through Pro. 4:9 (where the Hebrew paragraph ends). As a conjecture we would place the end quotation at the conclusion of Pro. 4:9. David urged Solomon to keep his teachings within his heart, and he assured him of life as a result. Pro. 7:1-2 is very similar: My son, keep my words, And lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live.
Pro. 4:5. Get is used many times in the book of Proverbs. In English we might make a play on words within this verse by saying, Get wisdom and understanding and forget not what I am teaching you. Good parents are ambitious for what their children will grow out to becomeactually more so than the children themselves at the time.
Pro. 4:6. That which we love, we do not forsake. Therefore, David called upon Solomon to love wisdom, forsake her not, and his promise was that wisdom would preserve and keep him. Wisdom would keep him from evil, from evil men, from evil women, from mistakes, from sorrows and disappointments, and from a sad ending. And it will do the same for each of us today! The forgetting in Pro. 4:5 would be unintentional while the forsaking in this verse could be done while realizing what one was doing.
Pro. 4:7. With all of thy getting of various things in life, be sure to get wisdom, and this Solomon did (1Ki. 4:29-34; 1Ki. 10:1-7). The New Testament would teach that the salvation of ones soul is the principal thing in life, but Proverbs, preceding the Christian age, makes wisdom the principal thing, and yet there need not be a clash, for wisdomtrue wisdomwill cause one to be saved: the wise man builds his house upon the rock of Christ (Mat. 7:24-25); a knowledge of Gods Word causes one to be wise unto salvation (2Ti. 3:15). But how does one go about getting wisdom? First of all it must be sought by prayer (Jas. 1:5; 1Ki. 3:5-12), and then man must constantly sit at the feet of the three great teachers. They are: (1) instruction (learning by listening to what others would teach usPro. 9:9); (2) observation (learning by keeping ones eyes open, learning from the experiences of othersPsa. 37:25; Pro. 24:30-34); and (3) experiencelearning from your own experiencesPhp. 4:10-12).
Pro. 4:8. The son would exalt wisdom, by making it his chief concern, and his love for wisdom is couched in the words, When thou dost embrace her. If he would exalt wisdom, wisdom would exalt him just as if he turned his back on wisdom, wisdom would turn her back upon him (Pro. 1:24-31). Learning cannot be over-emphasized unless one learns the wrong thing (Col. 2:8), unless one fails to add the other essentials to character-development (2Pe. 1:5-7), and unless one becomes conceited over his knowledge (Rom. 12:16). Knowledge is power; and it is truly astonishing to see what influence true learning has. Nothing is so universally respected (Clarke).
Pro. 4:9. Wisdom will (in time) give or deliver to ones head a chaplet (wreath or garland) of grace, a crown of beauty. Similar passages: Pro. 1:9; Pro. 3:22. These promotions and honors among men is the exalting referred to in Pro. 4:8.
TEST QUESTIONS OVER 4:1-9
1.
How many times does the author of Proverbs address his material to sons (plural) instead of to son (singular) (Pro. 4:1)?
2.
How does the father know that his teaching is good (Pro. 4:2)?
3.
Who were Solomons father and mother (Pro. 4:3)?
4.
What did David take time to do with reference to his Solomon (Pro. 4:4)?
5.
What word in Pro. 4:5 is used many times in Proverbs?
6.
What are some of the things David realized that wisdom would keep Solomon from (Pro. 4:6)?
7.
Does there have to be a clash between salvation and wisdom (Pro. 4:7)?
8.
What are mans 3 great teachers (Pro. 4:7)?
9.
What commandment concerning wisdom is found in Pro. 4:8?
10.
When will wisdom deliver chaplets and crowns to ones head (Pro. 4:9)?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
IV.
(g) Seventh Discourse:Recollections of his Fathers Instructions (Pro. 4:1 to Pro. 5:6).
(1) A father.That is, of me, your teacher.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
HORTATORY INTRODUCTION, Pro 4:1-4.
Repetition is an essential element in teaching. The wise preceptor repeats again and again the lessons of wisdom, varying them, however, in form, to keep up the interest. In order to this, he states here what kind of instructions he received from his parents, of which he shows his appreciation by remembering and repeating them.
1. Instruction Admonition. Pro 1:2.
Understanding Discernment; learn to discriminate between wisdom and folly, good and evil.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
A General Appeal To ‘Sons’ ( Pro 4:1-2 ).
The change from ‘my son’ to ‘sons’, which occurs only here as an opening address, may well have taken place because of Solomon’s reference in Pro 4:3 to himself as ‘the son of his father’ and ‘the only son of his mother’. He may well have wanted to avoid any implication that he was in general addressing his own son. It does, of course bring out that elsewhere ‘my son’ is to be seen as a composite term addressing a number of people. But that ‘sons’ can be seen as an equivalent to ‘my son’ comes out in its use elsewhere (Pro 7:24; Pro 8:32). It has been suggested that ‘sons’ is intended to indicate a line of descent (he will soon be speaking of his own descent) so that his wisdom is not to stop with ‘my son’, but to pass through the generations.
Pro 4:1-2
‘Hear, sons, the disciplinary instruction of a father,
And attend to know understanding,
For I give you good doctrine (teaching),
Do not forsake my law (torah).’
He calls as a ‘father’ on those whom he addresses as ‘sons’. As king he had a paternal relationship towards his subjects, and as wisdom teacher a paternal relationship towards his students. He will then compare this with his own relationship to his father David (that he is speaking biologically here comes out in his reference to his mother).
He calls on them to ‘hear’ his disciplinary instruction, and ‘attend’ to know understanding. This discourse may therefore originally have been given orally before being collected together in the Book of Proverbs, although not necessarily so because a writer can call on his readers to ‘hear him’. Certainly there are indications elsewhere that the instruction was in ‘book’ form (e.g. Pro 3:21, ‘do not let them depart from your eyes’). If we take these lines chiastically his desire was for them to understand his good teaching and respond to the disciplinary instruction of their father by not forgetting his torah.
The idea behind ‘disciplinary instruction’ is that it is instruction enforced, if necessary, by chastisement. This was seen as part of a father’s responsibility (as it was also revealed as YHWH’s gracious responsibility – Pro 3:11). But the main emphasis is on instruction and understanding. And what was to be understood was Solomon’s sound teaching and his ‘torah’, which was not to be forsaken. This was, of course, the ‘torah’ urged on him by his father when, at the commencement of his reign David urged on him to ‘keep the charge of YHWH your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments and his judgments and his testimonies, according to what was written in the Torah of Moses’ (1Ki 2:3) something which Solomon had made his own. It had thus become ‘my torah’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Prologue To The Book ( Pro 1:8 to Pro 9:18 ).
It was common throughout the 3rd to the 1st millenniums BC for collections of wisdom saying to have a prologue preparing for the ‘sayings’ that would follow. Those sayings would then be introduced by a subheading. Proverbs thus follows the usual precedent in having such a prologue in Pro 1:8 to Pro 9:18, followed by general sayings in Pro 10:1 ff headed by a subheading (Pro 10:1). It was also common for such a prologue to be addressed to ‘my son’, or similar, with constant references being made to ‘my son’ throughout the prologue. And this is interestingly a feature of Proverbs 1-9, where it occurs fifteen times. One difference, however, lies in the fact that the ‘son’ was usually named in other wisdom literature, something which does not occur in Proverbs. Indeed, in Proverbs ‘my son’ is sometimes replaced by ‘sons’ (Pro 4:1; Pro 5:7; Pro 7:24; Pro 8:32). It is addressed to whoever will hear and respond.
The Prologue consists of ten discourses, and divides into two. It commences with five discourses, each of which follows a similar pattern, an opening appeal followed by two further subsections, and closing with a contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous, the wise and the foolish. We can compare how there are five ‘books’ to the Torah, and five books of Psalms. Five is the covenant number. Each of the subsections is in the form of a chiasmus.
From chapter 6 onwards the pattern changes. Initially we find a description of three types, whom we could describe as the naive, the foolish, the wicked (Pro 6:1-19), and this is followed by Pro 6:20 to Pro 9:18 which are centred on the contrast between the seductive power of the strange woman, and the uplifting power of woman wisdom, all continually urging the young man to turn from the enticements of the world and choose wisdom.
The prologue may be analysed as follows;
The Five Discourses.
1). Discourse 1. Addressed To ‘My Son’. Those Who Seek To Walk In The Fear Of YHWH Will Listen To The Instruction Of Godly Authority, And Will Avoid The Enticements Of Sinners Motivated By Greed. Wisdom Is Then Depicted As Crying Out To Be Heard, Longing For Response, Promising Inculcation Of Her Own Spirit, And Warning Of The Consequences Of Refusal (Pro 1:8-33).
2). Discourse 2. Addressed To ‘My Son’. The Source Of True Wisdom Is YHWH, And Those Who Truly Seek Wisdom Will Find YHWH Himself, And He Will Then Reveal His Wisdom To Them. This Wisdom That God Gives Them Will Then Deliver Them From All Who Are Evil, Both From Men Who Have Abandoned The Right Way, And From The Enticements Of Immoral Women (Pro 2:1-22).
3). Discourse 3. Addressed To ‘My Son’. The Young Man Is To Trust In YHWH, To Fear YHWH And To Honour YHWH, And In View Of Their Great Value Is To Find YHWH’s Wisdom And Obtain Understanding Which Will Be His Protection And Will Through YHWH’s Chastening Activity Restore Him To Man’s First Estate. In View Of Them He Is To Observe A Series Of Practical Requirements Which Will Result In Blessing For The Wise (Pro 3:1-35).
4). Discourse 4. Addressed to ‘Sons’. Wisdom And Understanding Are To Be Sought And Cherished, For They Produce Spiritual Beauty, and Lead Those Who Respond Unto The Perfect Day (Pro 4:1-19).
5). Discourse 5. Addressed To ‘My Son’ (and later ‘Sons’). He Is To Avoid The Enticements Of The Strange Woman Whose Ways Lead To Death, And Rather Be Faithful To His True Wife (Pro 4:20 to Pro 5:23).
A Description Of Three Contrasting Failures.
6). Discourse 6. The Naive, The Fool And The Scorner Illustrated. The First Addressed To ‘My Son’ Is A Call To Avoid Acting As A Surety For Others, The Second Addressed To ‘You Sluggard’, Is A Call To Shake Off Laziness, And The Third, Unaddressed, Concerns A Worthless Person And A Troublemaker (Pro 6:1-19).
A Contrast Between The Strange Seductive Woman And The Pure Woman Wisdom.
Discourse 7. Addressed To ‘My Son’. He Is Urged To Observe The Commandment And The Torah Of Father And Mother, Avoiding The Enticement Of The Adulterous Woman, And Being Aware Of The Wrath Of The Deceived Husband (Pro 6:20-35).
Discourse 8. Addressed To ‘My Son’. After Appealing To Him To Observe His Words Solomon Vividly Describes The Wiles Of A Prostitute And Warns ‘Sons’ Against Her (Pro 7:1-27).
Discourse 9. The Call of Ms Wisdom As The One Who Seeks Response, Gives Men True Instruction, Ensures Good Government, Enriches Men Physically and Spiritually, Was Present With God During Creation, And Blesses Men And Brings Them Into Life So That They Find God’s Favour (Pro 8:1-36).
Discourse 10. The Appeal Of Woman Wisdom Contrasted With The Allure Of Woman Folly (Pro 9:1-18).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Path of Wisdom that Transforms the Heart (note the reference to the heart in Pro 4:4 ) – Pro 4:1-9 tells us how wisdom will transform our heart. In addition, Pro 4:10-19 tells us how wisdom renews our minds and Pro 4:20-27 tells us how wisdom directs our bodies. Thus, wisdom sanctifies our whole bodies to become like Jesus, our Saviour and Lord.
Whatever a man gives his attention to, his heart follows. Pro 12:27 tells us that the substance, or wealth, of a diligent man is precious.
Pro 12:27, “The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.”
Therefore, when we take great pains to search for wisdom (Pro 4:1-6), the treasure that we find becomes precious to us. This means that our heart becomes attached to this treasure.
The path of wisdom that transforms our heart is the path of searching always for the hidden treasures of wisdom that are found in God’s Word. This will transform our hearts to a place of exalting the wisdom that we find hidden in the Scriptures (Pro 4:7-8) above our own reasonings. These truths will become the most important things in our lives. In this experience, the grace and glory of God will emanate from our lives (Pro 4:9).
A close study of this passage of Scripture will reveal a progression of events in the transformation of our hearts. The words of wisdom are given to us (Pro 4:2) because of His great love for us (Pro 4:3). We are told to humble our hearts in order to receive these teachings (Pro 4:4). Allow these teachings to remain in our hearts (Pro 4:5). Then a love will develop in our hearts for the things of God (Pro 4:6). With this growing love for God’s Word, it will become the most important thing in our lives (Pro 4:7). We will begin to seek God’s Word first in our lives in all matters and situations. As God’s Word becomes our priority, we will exalt it above all other things (Pro 4:8). This practice will change our character until wisdom will grace our outward appearance as a crown of beauty (Pro 4:9).
Pro 4:1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
Pro 4:1
Many people do not grow up in a well-balanced home environment. A popular phrase used today for these types of homes is “dysfunctional.” Thankfully, God has made provision for this. As a Christian, we can sit at the feet of the Holy Bible, and as a father instructs his son, the Lord can instruct his children. God has a way of helping balance our lives. In the body of Christ, we can develop those types of family relationships in a health way, making up for what we are lacking in a family upbringing (1Ti 5:1-2). Being active in the body of Christ has helped me learn how to develop healthy, pure relationships with people.
1Ti 5:1-2, “Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father ; and the younger men as brethren ; The elder women as mothers ; the younger as sisters , with all purity.”
Pro 4:2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
Pro 4:2
Pro 4:3 For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
Pro 4:3
Pro 4:3 Comments – In the phrase “only beloved,” we see that a father gives his teachings to his son (Pro 4:2) because he loves his son (Pro 4:3). Note:
Pro 13:24, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”
Pro 4:4 He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.
Pro 4:4
Pro 4:4 Comments – We are taught how to find wisdom in Pro 2:1-7. We are to study God’s Word, keep it in our heart, pray for understanding and make this search for wisdom a priority in our lives. Therefore, in this passage, we are now told to get this wisdom and retain it in our heart.
In order to receive words of instruction we must humble our hearts.
Pro 4:3-4 Comments – David Instilled with His Son Solomon a Love for Wisdom – We see in this chapter how Solomon reflects upon his father’s teachings, “For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” (Pro 4:3-4) As King David taught his son wisdom, he not only instilled in his son divine truths, but also the passion to seek God for divine wisdom, as Solomon must have seen his father seek the Lord passionately. Not only did Solomon inherit good behavior from these teachings, but he also inherited a yearning for wisdom.
We also see evidence in Pro 4:3-4 that King David favored his son Solomon above his other sons. As he groomed him for the kingship, his other sons appear to be raised without discipline and training. We see immorality in Amnon, murder and rebellion in Absalom, and insurrection and pride in Adonijah. Solomon was corrected in the smallest of areas, while his brothers remained without discipline in their sins.
Pro 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
Pro 4:5
Pro 4:6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
Pro 4:6
Pro 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Pro 4:7
Illustration (1) God would not ask us to do something that He Himself was not willing to do. In Pro 4:7 He asks us to make wisdom the priority of our lives. Pro 8:22-31 tells us that wisdom was the first aspect of God’s acts in creating the heavens and the earth. Pro 8:22 says, “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.” Wisdom was God’s delight and He rejoiced in it (Pro 8:30).
Illustration (2) – As the love of God’s Word grows in our hearts the Word will become the highest priority in our lives. A good example of this is seen in the testimony of Kenneth Copeland, who once said that when his wife was dealing with a potentially deadly disease with her liver, he was praying in as many different ways about the situation as he knew how to pray, yet they were not getting results. They had stood upon healing Scriptures and spoken the Word of God. Then, they had consulted a doctor, who had recommended a medication that had severe side effects. The doctor had also told them that this problem was incurable, and that medication was the only solution, which would have to be taken for a lifetime. One day, the Lord spoke to him and said, “My Word says that wisdom is not a principal thing, it is the principal thing.” In the book of James, when you encounter trials, you are to count it all joy. This can take place when the first prayer that you are to pray is for wisdom. Kenneth Copeland said that he began to ask God for wisdom. The next day the Lord gave him a word of wisdom about the situation, and showed him what to do. He and his wife began to look in health food stores for the product in the drug that was to cure the problem, without having to take the drug, with all of its side effects. As he followed that leading from the Holy Spirit, a path began to become visible to them about what to do. They found a particular health food to eat that quickly corrected the problem, and his wife, Gloria, has not had that problem again. [66]
[66] Kenneth Copeland, Believer’s Voice of Victory (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fort Worth, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Pro 4:8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
Pro 4:8
1Sa 2:30, “Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed .”
Pro 4:9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
Pro 4:9
Pro 4:9, “She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.”
Comments We can imagine a woven turban as a similar headdress, which would represent a position of recognition or leadership in the oriental culture, thus giving honor and authority.
Comments Modern English versions use a variety of translations for the phrase “an ornament of grace.” The ASV translates it as “a chaplet of grace,” which is a garland or wreath worn on the head. Rotherham reads, “a wreath of beauth.” The RSV translates it as “a fair garland.” The YLT reads, “a graceful wreath.”
Pro 4:9 Comments – With divine wisdom gracing our lives, others will begin to notice this anointing. People of wisdom have a countenance about them that is attractive. The way they respond to people, the way they conduct themselves has an appeal about it.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Three Paths of Wisdom – Once we receive the call from wisdom in chapter 1, and are shown how to answer this call in chapter 2, and what blessings come as a result of answering the call of wisdom in chapter Pro 3:1-18, and the power of wisdom to establish our destinies (Pro 3:19-35), then take a journey of two destinies. We will first learn how wisdom transforms our lives and destines us to an abundant life (Pro 4:1-27), and then see how the rejection of wisdom will destine us to destruction (Pro 5:1 to Pro 7:27). This section will show us how wisdom is processed in our lives from the perspective of the spirit, the soul and the body of man. Wisdom will transform our hearts (Pro 4:1-9), renew our minds (Pro 4:10-19) and direct our bodies (Pro 4:20-27); or, as is stated in 1Th 5:23, wisdom sanctifies our whole spirit, soul, and body.
1Th 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Our heart must first embrace and exalt wisdom, then our minds can be renewed, and finally our bodies can be directed to follow God’s Word by our willingness to serve God rather than follow man. This is the progression of events that wisdom takes in the process of transformation our lives. Thus, wisdom is able to transform us into the image of a perfect man, who was created in the image of God.
In each of these three paths of wisdom for transforming our lives, a common procedure is repeated. Each path begins with a command to receive instruction and not to forget it (Pro 4:1-2; Pro 4:10; Pro 4:20).
Pro 4:1-2, “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.”
Pro 4:10, “Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.”
Pro 4:20, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.”
The Word of God must not only be received, it must be able to abide and take root in our lives in order to transform us. The procedures for doing this are found in chapter four and are simple for anyone to follow. Procedures are a way of life. For example, as a manager of Lighthouse Television, I have written an operations manual. This is a set of procedures for each department in the studio. When I hire someone, I teach that person the procedures for their department. God has also given to us procedures to follow in developing our lives spiritually, mentally and physically.
There is an outward manifestation in our lives when each of these processes takes effect. A person with a transformed heart (Pro 4:1-9) will manifest a “crown of glory” (Pro 4:9). In other words, this person will have a peace and anointing about him that others can see. For those who have a renewed mind (Pro 4:10-19), their lives reflect someone who is able to make wise decisions in which they do not stumble (Pro 4:12; Pro 4:18). Those who allow the Word of God to direct their bodies (Pro 4:20-27) will be manifest as those who live a long and health life (Pro 4:22). In contrast, people who are not walking with an outward peace and anointing, with the ability to make wise decision, and walking in a life of health reveal that they have not allowed God’s Word to enter their hearts and change their lives.
If we could find a parallel passage to Pro 4:1-27 in the New Testament it would be 2Pe 1:2-11 which tells us that through God’s Word we become partakers of His divine nature.
2Pe 1:3-4, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Transforming your heart (note Pro 4:4) Pro 4:1-9
2. Renewing your mind (note Pro 4:18) Pro 4:10-19
3. Directing your body (note Pro 4:22) Pro 4:20-27
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
God the Father’s Foreknowledge: Calling Us to Our Journey (Preparation for the Journey) Most scholars consider Proverbs 1-9 to be a discourse, or a tribute, to wisdom. This section serves as an introduction to Solomon’s collection of wise, pithy sayings that follows. This introductory material is a preparation for being able to understand the rest of the book. Its underlying emphasis is the divine calling that God gives to every human being. Therefore, we find the statement of wisdom “crying out,” “uttering her voice” and “calling” used repeatedly throughout this section of Proverbs.
In these first nine introductory chapters, wisdom is personified as a person speaking in the feminine gender. Just as an artist sketches an outline of a painting, then splashes colors upon the canvas, until a beautiful painting emerges, so in these chapters of Proverbs does wisdom begin to reveal itself verse by verse (as an artist reveals a picture color by color) until chapter 8, when wisdom is seen as an intimate part of God and His creation. Wisdom is personified as a person speaking because man would be incapable of understanding his experiences in life without divine wisdom being given to him. This impartation is done in the person of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom is personified as a woman because the Hebrew word translated as “wisdom” is in the feminine gender.
These chapters contrast the table of blessings (Pro 9:1-6) with the trap of death (Pro 1:17-19, Pro 9:18). The wise man chooses wisdom’s table of blessings. In contrast, the fool chooses the trap of death, supposing that it is a table of blessing. Studying this introduction is a necessary preparation for finding one’s way through the rest of the book of Proverbs. Thus, a drama immediately unfolds in the introduction, revealing to us how wisdom sets a man free, but the trap of death ensnares its victims in the strongholds of sin. These strongholds do not turn its captives loose until it completes its assignment of death. In contrast, wisdom leads a man into his rightful place of glory and honor above God’s creation (Pro 3:35, Pro 31:30), and into submission to his Creator.
This section of Proverbs is actually a call to follow the path of wisdom, in which wisdom presents his arguments for choosing the path of wisdom over the path of the fool. God calls mankind to righteousness in this present Church age through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that has been sent upon the earth, who convicts the world of sin righteousness and judgment (Joh 16:7-11); but prior to this age God called mankind to righteousness through wisdom, which testified from Creation (Rom 1:19-23), and from society. We see in these chapters that wisdom is a path that is to be diligently followed. Wisdom is a decision that is made on a daily basis, and these daily decisions will determine our destiny, both in this life and in the life to come. This book of wisdom contrasts the wise man with the fool throughout the book. As we will see in Proverbs, every decision that we make is either a wise decision, or a foolish one. Every decision affects our eternal destiny. This section begins with a call to follow wisdom (Pro 1:7-9), and ends by explaining how every human being decides between destinies, heaven or hell (Pro 9:1-18).
In the path of wisdom, there are many dangers. It is for this reason these nine chapters give us many warnings against the evil man and the adulteress, even before the real journey begins. The path of wisdom is narrow and easily missed. All of us have fallen off this path at one time or another in our lives. This book of Proverbs was written by King Solomon, considered the wisest person that has ever lived. Yet, even he fell off this path of wisdom because he allowed pride to blind his vision and dull his hearing. This gives us an indication of how narrow is this path to follow.
Pride is an attitude of the heart. It is the very reason that Solomon fell into idolatry. It is the root cause of every man’s failure. It comes clothed in many forms, such as false humility and it clothes itself in man-made titles of honour, such as “honorable, his lordship, his excellence, his grace, cardinal, pope, etc.” For example, the Pope in Rome carries the title of “His Holiness”. These nine chapters open and close with Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10, which reveal the secret of avoiding failure, which is caused by pride. We are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Pro 1:7 and Pro 9:10). This fear keeps us from falling off the path of wisdom.
This introductory material in Proverbs 1-9 makes up almost one third of the book. Why is this introduction to Proverbs so lengthy relative to the overall length of the book? It is because the preparation for our journey in life is also lengthy. Solomon was taught for many years before he took the throne as king of Israel. Good training takes time and a good education does not come quickly. The degree that a person receives a secular education usually determines the height of his career. In comparison, the degree that a person becomes rooted and grounded in the Word of God will determine the height of that person’s ministry. You must take the time to receive this introductory training in the first nine chapters of Proverbs before you are ready for the journey. The better we are able to understand the introduction of the book of Proverbs, the better we will be able to understand the rest of its teachings.
For hundreds of years in western civilization, a theological education was a part of a well-rounded education. All students learned the classical languages of Hebrew, Greek and Latin in order to study theological literature. The children of Israel were also to give each child a theological education. Solomon received such an education. Therefore, we can see this introduction to Proverbs as the theological training that everyone should go through in preparation for the journey in life.
One further note is worth mentioning about chapters 1-9. Upon reading, we must ask the question as to why this lengthy introduction in Proverbs spends so much time describing and warning the readers about the harlot. Perhaps because this is the one area that trapped and deceived Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived. This is the area that Solomon knows many of the young men he is training for leadership positions in the kingdom will be tempted. In addition, in a figurative sense, such spiritual adultery represents a believer who chooses to love the things of this world above his love for God.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Call of Wisdom to Young & Tender Pro 1:7-33
2. Answering Wisdom’s Call (A Hearing Heart) Pro 2:1-22
3. The Blessings of Wisdom Pro 3:1-35
4. Three Paths of Wisdom Pro 4:1-27
5. Three Paths of Destruction Pro 5:1 to Pro 6:11
6. Characteristics of the Evil People Pro 6:12 to Pro 7:27
7. Characteristics of Wisdom Pro 8:1-36
8. Wisdom’s Final Call (Food for the Journey) Pro 9:1-18
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Admonitions Concerning Wisdom
v. 1. Hear, ye children, v. 2. For I give you good doctrine, v. 3. For I was my father’s son, v. 4. He taught me also and said unto me, v. 5. Get wisdom, get understanding, v. 6. Forsake her not, v. 7. Wisdom is the principal thing, v. 8. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee, v. 9. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, v. 10. Hear, o my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many, v. 11. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, v. 12. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened, v. 13. Take fast hold of instruction,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Pro 4:1-27
7. Seventh admonitory discourse. We here enter upon the second group of admonitory discourses, as is indicated by the opening address, “my children,” and which occurs again in Pro 5:7 and Pro 7:24. This group extends to the end of Pro 7:1-27. Its prevailing tone is that of warning rather than of positive exhortations, which have been the rule hitherto. The general aim of the discourse before us, as of those preceding, is to exalt Wisdom, to exhibit her as a subject worthy of all earnest endeavour and sacrifice, but it is noticeable that the teacher introduces a fresh feature into his teaching or mode of instruction, in order to procure attention to, and acceptance of, his precepts on the part of his hearers. He has already spoken in his own name and with his own authority; he has brought forward Wisdom personified as making her appeal; he now adduces the authority of his own father’s advice to himself. But as the mode of emphasizing his admonitions varies, so Wisdom is many-sided, and the aspect under which she is now presented seems to be especially that of discipline and obedience. The keynote of the discourse seems to be struck in the word “instruction,” i.e. discipline, in the original, musar, thus recalling the admonition in Pro 1:8, “My son, hear the instruction of thy father.” Bohlius, in his ‘Ethica Sacra,’ disp. 6. p. 65, sqq; assigns “discipline” (musar) to this chapter; and Melancthon describes the admonitions of the chapter before us as “adhortationes ad studium obedientiae.” Discipline rising into obedience seems to be the predominant thought to which all others are made subordinate. The discourse is an enlargement or amplification of this aspect of Wisdom. In structure the discourse consists mainly of the father’s advice (Pro 1:4-19), preceded and followed by the teacher’s own admonitions in Pro 1:1-3 and Pro 1:20-27. The chief topics touched upon are
(1) the supreme importance of Wisdom as being “the principal thing” to be obtained before everything else (Pro 1:7-9);
(2) the two ways that lie open to the choice of youth, distinguished respectively as the way of light and the way of darkness (Pro 1:14-19); and
(3) the guarding of the heart with all diligence, as being the seat of conscience and the fountain of life in its moral sense (Pro 1:23-27). The first part of the discourse is characterized by exhortations accompanied by promises; the latter part takes the form of warning, and warning of an alarming nature. The harmony which exists between the allusions in the discourse and the facts recorded in the historical books of Samuel and Chronicles serves to indicate that we have before us, in substance at least, the advice which David gave to Solomon, and that the discourse is Solomonic. Compare especially Pro 1:3 with 1Ch 28:5 and 1Ch 22:9, and 1Ch 22:18 with the last words of David in 2Sa 23:4.
Pro 4:1
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father. This exhortation is identical with that in Pro 1:8, except that the address, “ye children,” indicating a new departure, is now used instead of “my son,” which has been hitherto employed (see Pro 1:8; Pro 2:1; Pro 3:1, Pro 3:21), and “of thy father” is altered to “of a father.” The verb is the same, occurring here, of course, in the plural number. The appeal is evidently intended to rouse attention. Attention is especially necessary to secure a knowledge of Divine truth. Ye children (bhanim). This address occurs again twice in the second group of admonitory discoursesin Pro 5:7 and Pro 7:24, and also in the appeal of Wisdom personified in Pro 8:32, and, with these exceptions, nowhere else in the Proverbs. It is used by David, and it is possible that when the teacher penned these words he had in mind Psa 34:11, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” The similarity in the address serves to connect the teacher of wisdom with David, and thus to identify him with Solomon, while it also leads to the conclusion that the advice which follows in Psa 34:4-19 is in substance that which David had given his son. On “instruction,” see Psa 1:1-6 :8. Of a father (av). It is difficult, owing to the want of the pronominal suffix, to determine accurately whether the teacher is referring to himself or to his own father in the expression. The following verse
(2) would indicate that he is speaking of himself in his capacity as a teacher or instructor of youth. But it is quite possible that he may be referring to his own father, whose advice he had received, and which he is now about to lay before others in Psa 1:4 -19. Though attention to paternal advice in general, i.e. instruction given by any father to his children, is not intended here, still the passage may be regarded as embodying the principle that attention to parental advice is incumbent on children, and a disregard of it is the mark of ingratitude and depravity. Rabbi Levi understands the phrase as referring to our heavenly Father. Attend (hakshivu, hiph. imperative of kashav). On the force of this verb as signifying “earnest, absorbed attention,” see Pro 1:24. To know understanding (ladaath bina); i.e. in order that you may know or gain understanding. “The infinitive marks the design or object of the attention (cf. the Vulgate, ut sciatis). `The expression corresponds with ladaath khokmah in Pro 1:2, and just as this signifies “to appropriate to yourself wisdom,” so the one before us has the same force, and signifies the gaining or appropriation of understanding, i.e. the faculty of discernment or discrimination. Hitzig renders, “to know with the understanding;” i.e. to know intelligently, but this does not seem to be the meaning of the phrase.
Pro 4:2
For I give you good doctrine. This, while stating the reason for the exhortation in the previous verse, signifies that what the teacher has given and is giving, he has received from his father. I give; nathati, literally, “I gave,” is the kal perfect of nathan, “to give,” but the perfect is here used for the present, as denoting not only a past action, but one that is still continuing. Good doctrine (lekakh tov). The doctrine or instruction is “good,” not only intrinsically, but as to the source from which it was derived, and in its effects. Lekakh is, according to its root lakakh, “something which is received or taken.” From the standpoint of the teacher it is that instruction which he had received of his father. With respect to his hearers it is the instruction which is communicated to them, and which they receive (see on Pro 1:5). The LXX. renders, ; similarly the Vulgate, donum bonum, “a good gift.” Forsake ye not; al-taazovu, from azav, “to leave, forsake” (compare the corresponding phrase, al-tiltosh, from natash, “to leave, forsake,” in Pro 1:8). Law (torah); as in Pro 1:8.
Pro 4:3
For I was my father’s son. This is more than the mere statement of a physical fact. It indicates that the teacher was in the highest degree an object of endearment to his father, just as he states in the second hemistich that he held a unique position in the affection of his mother. `The statement agrees with the historical record. Solomon would be more than ordinarily dear to his father, as being a child of promise, as “the beloved of the Lord,” and as the son whom the Divine will had pointed as the successor to his throne, and the one on whom was to devolve the building of the temple (see 2Sa 7:12, 2Sa 7:13; 2Sa 12:24; 1Ch 22:9). Bertheau explains, “I also once stood in the relation to my (actual) father in which you stand to me your paternal instructor,” thus giving prominence rather to the consecution of the passage, and preparing the way for the reception of the father’s advice which is to follow. But this rather loses sight of what appears an important element in the instruction, that not only was it “good,” but that it was dictated by affection. The writer is fortifying and strengthening his instruction by the authority of his father, showing that what he was laying before others he had had placed before him; and as his father’s advice was the outcome of affection, so he addresses his hearers in the same spirit. Dathe and others connect “tender” rak) with “son” (ben), and render, “I was a son dear to my father.” So the LXX; which, however, understands “tender” in the sense of “tractable,” “obedient:” “For I was an obedient son to my father”a meaning which the word rak can only bear as indicating the susceptibility of the young to receive impressions. In general, rak means “tender,” “soft,” and has reference to the weakness and helplessness of the young; comp. Gen 33:13, “My lord knoweth that the children are tender (rakkim).“ Combined with yakhid, which follows, it signifies, in the passage before us, that the teacher was an object of tender care or love. The Vulgate tenellus, the diminutive of tener, as signifying “somewhat tender or delicate,” reproduces the idea of the Hebrew rak. In the word the teacher recalls his early lifo and the instruction in wisdom which he received in it. Only beloved; literally, only (yakhid), as “beloved” does not occur in the original. The Vulgate renders, unigenitus; Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, , i.e. “only begotten:” but this was not literally the fact, as Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, had other sons (2Sa 5:14; 1Ch 3:5). Both the Hebrew yakhid, “only,” and the Vulgate unigenitus, “only begotten,” consequently signify what is expressed by the LXX. , i.e. “beloved.” Solomon was so beloved of his mother as if he were an only child. So yakhid is used of Isaac in Gen 22:2, Gen 22:12 in the same way, since at the time that Isaac was so designated, Ishmael, the other son of Abraham, was still living. The word yakhid occurs in Psa 22:20, where it is rendered “darling,” and may possibly refer to Solomon. Jennings, in Psa 22:20, understands it, however, of the life besides which the psalmist has no otherunicam meam, as the Vulgate, i.e. “his only life” (cf. Psa 35:17; and for the word yakhid, see Jer 5:26; Amo 8:10; Zec 12:10). In the sight of my mother (liph’ne immi); literally, ad facies matris meae, or, before my mother; Vulgate, coram matre mea, i.e. in her estimation (cf. Gen 17:18). The mention of the mother is probably introduced here for the sake of poetic parallelism; cf. Pro 1:8 (Zockler).
Pro 4:4
From this verse to Pro 4:19 inclusive, the teacher quotes the instruction which he had received of his father. His object in doing so is to show that his own teaching was in harmony with it, and therefore worthy of attention. His precepts, admonitions, and warnings are not his only, but those of his father. Other examples of David’s instructions to Solomon are found in 1Ki 2:2; 1Ch 22:12, 1Ch 22:13; 1Ch 28:9. And he taught; i.e. his father, for vayyoreni is masculine. The LXX. renders, “They said and taught me ( ),” as if the precepts which follow were the combined teaching of David and Bathsheba. This variation is due to the mention of both parents in the preceding verse. Retain; yith’mok, kal future, used imperatively, of thamak, “to take hold of,” and metaphorically, as here, “to hold fast” (see Pro 3:18). The LXX. Renders , imperative of , “to fix firm.” Symmachus has , “give heed to.” And live; i.e. and thou shalt live, as the kal imperative, kh’yeh, from khayah, “to live,” has here the force of the future (cf. Vulgate, et vives). The meaning is, “And thou shalt enjoy a long and happy life.” Temporal life alone seems to be indicated, as in 1Ch 28:10 (cf. Pro 3:2). The Syriac addition, “And my law as the apple of thine eye,” is probably borrowed from Pro 7:2, where we meet with the mine admonition.
Pro 4:5
After the general exhortation given above, the father’s instruction becomes more specific, and deals with the acquirement of wisdom. This subject seems to be continued in Pro 4:13, where the second and concluding branch of the instruction begins, which consists mainly of warning, as the first part does with exhortation. We are thus furnished with an example how to teach. In our teaching it is not sufficient simply to point out what is to be done, but we must show what is to be avoided. Get wisdom, get understanding. The father urges the acquirement of wisdom in the same way and with the same importunity as the trader or merchant presses his goods upon buyers. Wisdom and understanding are put forward as objects of merchandise; for the verb kanah, from which the imperative k’neh, signifies not only “to acquire for one’s self,” or “to possess,” but especially “to buy.” The verb occurs again in the same sense in Pro 4:7, “Get [k’neh, i.e. buy] wisdom;” and in Pro 23:23, “Buy (k’neh) the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding” (cf. also Pro 15:22 : Pro 16:16; Pro 19:9, where we also meet with the same verb). The reiteration of the word “get,” as Umbreit remarks, is “an imitation of the exclamation of a merchant who is offering his wares.” The importunity of the father measures the value he sets upon wisdom as an inestimable treasure, a pearl of great price (see Pro 3:14). Forget it not, etc.; rather, forget not, neither turn from the words of my mouth,so Zockler, Delitzsch, Hodg; and others; Vulgate, ne obliviscaris, neque declines a verbis oris mei. There is no need to supply “it” after the verb al-tish’-kakh, “forget not,” as Holden states, and as appears in the Authorized Version, since shakakh is found with min (), “of” or “from,” in Psa 12:4 (5), “I forgot to eat (shakakh’ti meakol),” and the same construction may obtain here. The two verbs, “forget” and “decline from,” are not so very wide in meaning, since the former, shakakh, is to “leave” something from forgetfulness, and the latter, natah, rendered here “decline from,” is “to turn away” from something. The words of my mouth represent as it were the means by which wisdom may be purchased.
Pro 4:7
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. The older versions, such as the Alexandrian LXX. (the verse is omitted by the Vatican LXX.), Targum, and Syriac, agree in rendering this verse, “The beginning of wisdom is get wisdom,” which is equivalent to saying that the beginning of wisdom consists in the acquisition of wisdom, or, as Umbreit explains, “in the resolution to get wisdom.” That this rendering, which is adopted by Luther, Delitzsch, and Umbreit, may be correct appears from Pro 1:7 and Pro 9:10, where we have the same construction, only in inverted order. Seneca’s aphorism is conceived in much the same spirit: “Magna pars boni est velle fieri bonum””A large part of good is the wish to become good;” i.e. that the beginning of being good depends to a large extent upon the wish to become so. The objections to this rendering are:
(1) That it is difficult to see how the beginning of wisdom can be the acquisition of it.
(2) That elsewhere, as in Pro 1:7 and Pro 9:10, the beginning of wisdom is represented as the fear of the Lord.
(3) That it does not fall in well with the context or with the aim of the father’s teaching, which is to hold up wisdom as pre-eminently a blessing, as the most excellent and highest thing attainable. On the other hand, Hitzig, De Dieu, Doderlein, Zockler, render as in the Authorized Version, “Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom;” i.e. wisdom is the highest good, and therefore ought to be obtained. The word reshith is found with this signification in Pro 24:20; 1Sa 2:29; Job 40:19; Jer 49:35; Amo 6:1-6. And with all thy getting get understanding. This does not mean, as the Authorized Version seems to imply, that while you are acquiring other things, you are to acquire wisdom, but that wisdom is to be purchased with all you have acquired or gotten. “Getting” (kin’yon) is the purchase money. No price is too high to be paid for her, no sacrifice too great; cf. the parables of the hidden treasure and goodly pearl (Mat 13:44 : Luk 10:42), in both of which the man sold “all that he had” to obtain the prize. There is a play upon the words in the original (kin’yan’ki k’neh), which is preserved in our translation.
Pro 4:8
Exalt her, and she shall promote thee. The father here proceeds to point out some of the benefits which follow from the pursuit of Wisdom. Exalt her (sal’s’leah); Vulgate, arripe illam; LXX; ; Targum, dilige eam; Syriac, blandire illi; Arabic, circumsepi eam. The Hebrew, sal’s’leah, is the pilpel imperative of salal, “to lift up, exalt.” It is equivalent to the kal form. The pilpel form only occurs here, but the kal participle is met with in Pro 15:19, where it has the meaning of “to raise up as a causeway”. Gesenius renders, “exalt her,” sc. with praises. The meaning of the verb, as Delitzsch says, is to be determined, by the corresponding “she shall promote thee” (th’rom’mek), and this verb romem is
(1) to raise or make high;
(2) to exalt by bestowing honours upon one of low estate, i.e. raising them in general estimation; it is so used in 1Sa 2:7 by Hannah, in her song of thankfulness, “He (Jehovah) bringeth low and lifteth up (m’romem);”
(3) to extol by praises, as in Psa 30:2. The radical meaning of salal seems to be “to heap up,” as a road is prepared by embankments, and by the filling up of inequalities (cf. Isa 62:10). In this sense the passage before us is explained by Levi ben Gersom, “Prepare the way of Wisdom, and walk assiduously in it.” But the context, wherein the idea of buying is evidently used. favours Bottcher’s interpretation, “Hold it or her high in price, bid high for her as a purchaser who makes offer upon offer, to secure what he wants.” So Pi, in pretio habe. The LXX. rendering, “Circumvallate her, enclose her with a wall or hedge,” which is reproduced in the Arabic, circumsepi eam, “hedge her around,” seems out of place with the context. The Talmudists understand the verb as signifying “to examine closely,” “to scrutinize, meditate, or reflect” upon Wisdom constantly, just as the Roman, poet says, “Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna“”We exalt Wisdom when we follow her precepts,” i.e. when we esteem herthe idea which is presented to us in the Targum and Syriac cited above. The sentiment of the verse agrees with what Jehovah says in the message of the man of God to Eli, in 1Sa 2:30, “Them that honour me I will honour.” She shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. The LXX. reverses the order of ideas, “Honour her in order that she may embrace thee.” Embrace her; i.e. in a loving and affectionate manner, as a husband does his wife, or a son his mother. (For the verb khavak, see Pro 5:20 : So Pro 2:6; Pro 8:3.) There are only three other instances where this verb occurs in the pilel form, khibbek. Esteem and honour, the confidence of others, elevation to offices of trust and consequence, are some of the rewards with which Wisdom repays those who esteem and love her. Others follow in the next verse.
Pro 4:9
An ornament of grace (liv’yath khen). (On this, see Pro 1:9.) A crown of glory shall she deliver to thee; or, as margin, she shall compass thee with a crown of glory. Deliver. The verb miggen, piel, since the kal, magan, is not used. is, however, properly, “to give, or deliver,” as in Gen 14:20; Hos 11:8. That this is the meaning is clear from the corresponding “she shall give” (titten, but cf. nathan, “to give”). It is commonly found with an accusative and dative, but hero takes two accusatives. Both the LXX. and the Vulgate render, “With a crown of glory or delights shall she protect (, proteget) thee:” as if it were connected with magen, “a shield,” but a crown is not usually associated with protection or defence. “A crown of glory,” in the New Testament, is always associated with the everlasting honours of heaven, as in Heb 2:9; 2Ti 4:8; 1Pe 4:4; Rev 2:20. The meaning is here, “Wisdom shall confer on thee true dignity.”
Pro 4:10
Many commentators, e.g. Jerome, Bede, Ewald, Bertheau, and Hitzig, suppose that the father’s instruction closes in the preceding verse, but it seems more appropriate to consider the father as here passing to another branch of his instruction, which is to point out the way of wisdom, and so to prepare for his warnings which follow from Pro 4:14 to Pro 4:19. Receive; kakh, from lakah, “to receive” (on the force of this verb, see Pro 1:3). He who shows a delighter willingness in admitting the words of Wisdomfor such a character the father claims for his teaching, as we see from, the next verseshall receive a blessing. It is a sign of grace when any even show themselves open to listen to instruction; but it is a greater sign when this instruction is received with readiness and pleasure (Muffet). The years of thy life (sh’noth khayyim); literally, years of thy lives. The plural “lives” expresses the idea of life in the abstract. There is no absolute statement of a future life here, though by the Christian this idea may be indulged in on the ground of a fuller revelation. The promise is one that not only implies the prolongation of life, but also a life of prosperity and enjoyment. Shall be many; literally, shall be multiplied.
Pro 4:11
The perfects, I have taught and I have led, in the original seem to have here the absolute signification of the past. The father recalls the instruction which he has given in times past. So Delitzsch. But Gejerus gives them the combined force of the past and future, “I have taught and I will more fully teach,” and so with the other verb. The Vulgate renders, monstrabo, “I will show,” and ducam, “I will lead.” In the way of wisdom (b’derek khok’mah) may mean “in the way that leads to, or by which you come to Wisdom; I have taught you the manner in which Wisdom may be attained;” or “the way in which Wisdom walks” (Zockler). The ways of Wisdom are described in Pro 3:17 as “ways of pleasantness.” The next clause seems to indicate that the latter explanation is to be preferred. The (be) indicates the subject in which instruction has been given. In right paths (b’ma’g’le yosher); literally, in the paths of rectitude; i.e. of straightness, paths of which the characteristic is uprightness. (On “paths,” as signifying a carriageway, see Pro 2:9.) Instruction and direction have formed the two elements in the father’s teaching. These present us with a model of education. “To teach duty without truth is to teach practice without motive; to teach truth without duty is to teach motive without the practice to which it should lead” (Wardlaw).
Pro 4:12
In this verse the father depicts the benefits and advantages which shall follow from “receiving his words” (Pro 4:10), i.e. from attending to his counsels and imbibing the principles of wisdom. The whole course of life shall be freed from obstacles or impediments, from anxiety, perplexity, or difficulty, or from vacillation. When thou goest may refer to the daily walk, to the common and ordinary events or circumstances incidental to life, just as the corresponding when thou runnest may refer to cases of emergency when promptness and decisive action are called for. In both cases Wisdom, by inspiring unity of principle, gives freedom of movement; in ordinary cases it removes embarrassment and perplexity arising from conflicting interests drawing now in one direction, now in another, and in extraordinary cases it supplies a rule of conduct which prevents our falling into mistakes and errors. Or the verse may refer to the prosperity which shall attend all the undertakings of those who are in Wisdom’s ways, whether they advance slowly or rush forward with the impetuosity of youth, whether they act with deliberation or with haste. Shall not be straitened (lo-yetsar); i.e. shall not be narrowed or confined; Vulgate, non arctabuntur; LXX; , The future yetsar only occurs four times in the Scriptureshere, and Job 18:7; Job 20:22; Isa 49:19. It is usually derived from the root yatsar, which, however, is not found, cognate with tsur, “to straiten,” “to be narrow.“ Yetsar, however, always occurs in the passive sense, though an active signification is given it by the Rabbi Nathan ben Jechiel, quoted by Delitzsch, in loc; who renders, “Thou shall not need to bind together, or hedge up thy way.” The roots yatsar and tsur partake more or less of the idea of binding up, oppressing, putting into narrow and confined circumstances and limits. By the expression that “the steps are straitened” we may understand, therefore, that there is a want of freedom for their movements, and consequently that they are impeded or cramped. The Arabic expression. “to contract the feet,” signifies the diminishing of good fortune. Compare the similar expression in Job 18:7, “The steps of his strength shall be straitened.” The psalmist presents the idea of the verse under a different form, “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, so that my feet did not slip” (Psa 17:1-15 :36). Thou shalt not stumble; lo-thik-kashel, hiph. future. The niph. nikshal, equivalent to the kal kadshal, signifies properly “to totter,” “to sink down,” used of one about to fall. The primary idea, however, usually disregarded, of kashal, is “to totter in the ankles,” equivalent to the Latin talipedare. It occurs again in Pro 4:16, and is a different verb from “stumble” in Pro 3:23 (which see).
Pro 4:13
The short but urgent admonitions in this verse may be explained by the knowledge which the father has of the temptations to which youth is exposed and the liability of youth to fall into them, as well as by the fact that Instruction, or Wisdom, is the bestower of life. This latter conviction is the reason why he urges “taking fast hold” of Wisdom. The tenacious grasp with which the shipwrecked sinking sailor lays hold on any spar or plank floating near will illustrate the kind of grasp with which Wisdom is to be held. It is no less a virtue to keep and hold fast a good thing than to get it at the first beginning (Muffet). Instruction (musar), usually of a disciplinary nature (see Pro 1:3), here more particularly the instruction of the father, but in a wider sense wisdom generally, with which it is synonymous, as appears from the feminine, “let her not go, keep her,“ musar being masculine; or the feminines may refer back to “Wisdom” in Pro 4:11. So Mercerus and Buxtorf. For she is thy life (ki hi khayyeka); i.e. she brings life to thee. Wisdom is represented as the bestower of long life, in Pro 3:2, Pro 3:16, Pro 3:18. Just in proportion as Wisdom is retained and guarded, so is life secured, and so far as the hold upon her is lost, so are the hopes of life diminished. Life depends upon the observance of her precepts.
Pro 4:14
From admonition the father passes to warning. The connection with the preceding section is obvious. There are two ways diametrically oppositethe way of wisdom and the way of evil; the one the way of life, the other fraught with death, because a way of darkness and violence. As the father has dealt with the former, so now he deals with the latter. With these warnings we may also comp. Pro 1:10-15 and Pro 2:10-15, where much the same warning is given, and the way of the wicked is described in almost the same terms. The warning of the father takes a threefold form:
(1) enter not;
(2) go not;
(3) avoid.
In effect he says this is the only course to be adopted in order to keep a firm hold of Wisdom which he has counselled in the preceding verse (13). Enter not; al-tavo, from bo. “to come in,” “to enter,” i.e. do not even enter. The Vulgate renders, “Delight not in,” evidently from reading tove, which occurs in Pro 1:10. But our reading is to be preferred, as avah, “to acquiesce in,” from which tov’e, is not used with , here denoting place, but with . Go not (al-t’ashsher); i.e. do not walk in. The two verbs “to enter” (bo) and “to go” (ishsher) stand in the relation of entering and going oningressus and progressus. So Gejerus and Delitzsch. The piel ishsher, here used, is properly “to go straight on,” like the kal ashar, of which it is an intensive (cf. Pro 9:6). It is the bold, presumptuous walk, the stepping straight out of the evil, which is here indicated, and against this the father warns his son. The sense is, “If you have entered the way of the wicked, do not continue or persevere in it.” The other meanings of the verb ashar, viz. “to guide straight” (Pro 23:19), “to esteem happy and prosperous” (Pro 31:28), are not in place here, as they destroy the parallelism of thought, and on the same ground the LXX. and Syriac renderings, “envy not” and , are to be rejected. The wicked (ishaim), i.e. the godless (cf, Psa 1:1), is parallel with “evil men” (raim), i.e. the habitually wicked.
Pro 4:15
Avoid it; p’raehu, the kal imperative of para, properly, “to let go,” hence “to reject, or abhor.” (On the verb, see Pro 1:25, where it is rendered, “set at naught.”) The same verb also occurs in Pro 8:33; Pro 13:18; Pro 15:32. It; i.e. the way. The suffix of the verb in the original is feminine, “avoid her;” derek, “the way,” being common. Turn from it (s’teh mealayv). The original is a pregnant expression equivalent to “turn aside from it, so that you do not come to stand upon it.” The word mealayv, equivalent to the Latin desuper ea, has much the same force as the French de dessus and the Italian di sopra (Delitzsch). The verb satah is, as in the Authorized Version, “to turn, or go aside.” Pass away; avor, kal imperative of avar, “to pass over,” equivalent to Latin transire, here means “to pass on, or along,” “to go beyond,” like the German Ger weiter gehn. The counsel of the father is not only “turn aside from,” but “put the greatest possible distance between you and it.” The injunction, so absolutely stated, to have nothing to do with sin, is required, if not indeed prompted, by the knowledge of the fact that youth, confident in its own power of resistance, frequently indulges in the fatal mistake of imagining that it can dally with sin with impunity. The only course compatible with safety is to entirely avoid it.
Pro 4:16
This verse exhibits the extreme depravity and debasement into which “the wicked” (r’shaim) and “the evil” (raim) of Pro 4:14 have fallen. Their sins are not sins of frailty, but arise from premeditation and from their insatiable desire to commit wickedness. Sin has become to them a kind of second nature, and, unless they indulge in it, sleep is banished from their eyes. They sleep not; lo-yish’nu, future of yashan, “to fall asleep;” the future here being used for the present, as is frequently the case in the Proverbs, and denoting a permanent condition or habit. Unless they cause some to fall; i.e. “unless they have betrayed others into sin,” taking the verb in an ethical sense (Zockler), or, which is preferable, owing to verse 16a, unless they have done them some injury (Mercerus); Vulgate, nisi supplantaverint. For the Khetib yik’shulu, kal, which would mean “unless they have stumbled or fallen,” the Keri substitutes the hiph. yak’shihi “unless they have caused some to fall.” The hiph. is found without any object, as here, in 2Ch 25:8). (On the verb khasal, from which it is derived, see 2Ch 4:12.) With the statement of the verse we may compare David’s complaint of the persistent persecution of his enemies (Psa 59:15), “If they be not satisfied, then will they stay all night” (margin). A similar construction to the one before us occurs in Virgil: “Et si non aliqua nocuisses, mortuus esses“”And had you not, by some means or other done him an injury, you would have died” (‘Eclog.,’ 2Ch 3:15); cf. also Juvenal: “Ergo non aliter poterit dormire; quibusdam somnum rixa facit“”Therefore, not otherwise, would he have slept; contention to some produces sleep.” Hitzig rejects 2Ch 25:16 and 2Ch 25:17 against all manuscript authority.
Pro 4:17
For (ki, equivalent to the Greek ) is here explanatory. It serves not so much to introduce another independent statement, as one which accounts for the statement made in the preceding verse, that the wicked sleep not unless they have done mischief, i.e. it states the reason why they are so conditioned. There is no comparison expressed in the original, as the rendering adopted by Schultens and others implies, “For wickedness do they eat as bread, and violence do they drink as wine,” which is evidently based on Job 15:16, “Which drinketh up iniquity like water,” and Job 34:7, “Who drinketh up scorning like water.” The literal rendering is, for they eat the bread of wickedness, and the wine of violence do they drink. The bread of wickedness (lekhem resha) is not bread which consists in wickedness, but bread which is obtained by wickedness, just as the wine of violence (yiyin khamasim) is not the wine which produces violence, but the wine that is procured by violent dee,is. Their support, what they eat and drink, is obtained by wickedness and injustice. They live by wrong. For such expressions as “the bread of wickedness” and “the wine of violence,” cf. Deu 16:3, “the bread of affliction;” Psa 127:2, “the bread of sorrows;” and Amo 2:8, “the wine of the condemned.” There is a charade of tense in the verbs, the first being perfect, “they have eaten,” and the second future, “they shall drink,” which Delitzsch explains as representing the twofold actfirst eating the bread, and then washing it down with wine.
Pro 4:18
A contrast is drawn in this and the following verse between the path of the just and the way of the wicked. The former is, by an extremely beautiful image, likened to the light at dawn, which goes on increasing in brightness and intensity as the day advances, until at length it reaches its meridian splendour and glory. An exactly similar figure is found in David’s last words (2Sa 23:4). The path of the just; i.e. their moral course. As the shining light (k’or nogah); i.e. as the light of dawn. The word nogah, from nagah, “to shine,” is a noun, and properly signifies “brightness,” “shining.” “splendour.” It is used also to designate the dawn, the light of the sun when it first mounts the horizon, and sheds its beams over the landscape, as in Isa 9:3, “Kings (shall come) to the brightness (nogah) of thy rising;” and Isa 62:1, “Until the righteousness thereof go forth as the brightness (nogah)” (cf. 2Sa 23:4, where the same word also occurs). Michaelis and Schultens refer nogah to “the path,” and render, “The path of the just is splendid as the light.” So Dathe and others; and in this sense it was understood by the LXX; “The path of the just shall shine as the light shines.” The Vulgate renders, quasi lux splendens. That shineth more and more (holek vaor); literally, going and shininga common Hebrew idiom denoting progression or increase. The construction of the participle holek, from halak, “to go,” with the participle of another verb, is found in 1Sa 17:41, “The Philistine came nearer and nearer (holek v‘karev);” 1Sa 2:26. “The child Samuel grew on more and more (holek v’hadel)” (cf. 2Ch 17:12; Jon 1:11). Unto the perfect day (ad-n)kon hayyom); Vulgate, usque ad perfectam diem. The Hebrew, n’kon hayyom, corresponds to the Greek, , equivalent to “the high noon,” when the sun seems to stand still in the heavens. The figure, as Fleiseher remarks, is probably derived from the balance, the tongue of the balance of day, which before or after is inclined either to the right or the left, being at midday perfectly upright, and as it were firm. So kun, the unused kal, from which n’kon, the niph. participle, is derived, is “to stand upright,” and in hiph. “to be set,” “to stand firm,” “to be established,” and hence the expression might be rendered, “until the steady, or established day,” which, however, refers to the midday, or noon, and not to that point when day succeeds dawn, as Rosenmuller and Schultens on Hos 6:3 maintain. The comparison is not extended beyond the midday, because the wish of the father was to indicate the full knowledge which the just attain in God, and which can knew of no decline. A similar figure of gradual development is found in our Lord’s parable of the seed growing secretly (Mar 4:28), and is visible in Psa 84:7, “They grow from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” The verse illustrates the gradual growth and increase of the righteous in knowledge, holiness, and joy, all of which are inseparably connected in the career of such.
Pro 4:19
The way of the wicked is as darkness. In contrast with the path of the just is the way of the wicked, which is described as darkness itself: i.e. so deeply enveloped in gloom that the wicked are not able even to see the obstacles and impediments against which they stumble, and which are the cause of their ruin. It is a way dark throughouta via tenebrosa (Vulgate)terminating at length in “the blackness of darkness.” As light is emblematical of knowledge, holiness, and joy, so darkness represents ignorance, unholiness, and misery (see Isa 8:22). Darkness (aphelah); strictly, thick darkness, midnight gloom, the entire absence of light. It is the word used of the plague of “thick darkness” that settled over all the land of Egypt, even a darkness that “might be felt,” when the Egyptians “saw not one another, nor any arose from his place for three days” (Exo 10:21-23). It occurs again in Pro 7:9, “in the black and dark night.” In this darkness the wicked cannot help but stumble. Compare our Lord’s teaching, “But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him” (Joh 11:10; cf. Joh 12:36). The expression, they know not at what they stumble, carries with it the idea that they are so ignorant that they neither know wickedness as wickedness, nor do they apprehend the destruction which it involves. “Sins, however great and detestable they may be, are looked upon as trivial, or as not sins at all, when men get accustomed to them”. On “stumble” (kashal), see Pro 7:12; and on the destruction of the wicked implied in the stumbling, see Pro 1:27, seq; Pro 2:18-22; Pro 3:35.
Pro 4:20
The teacher here resumes his admonitions after thus citing the example of his father’s teaching, and showing how it resembled the tenor of his own precepts, which, upon such a consideration, were most worthy of attention.
Pro 4:21
Let them not depart from thine eyes; i.e. keep them constantly in view as the guide of the whole conduct. These words are a repetition of Pro 3:21, just as the latter part of the verse reproduces the thought of Pro 2:1. Depart. The hiph. yallizu is here used instead of the kal yaluzu of Pro 3:21, but has the same force. In the midst of thine heart; i.e. in its inmost recesses; there the words and sayings are to be guarded as a man guards a treasure stowed away in the inmost chambers of a house. The expression implies cherishing them with an internal affection. The terms of the verse may be illustrated by Deu 6:6, Deu 6:8, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontiers between thine eyes.”
Pro 4:22
They are life; i.e. they bring life (khayyim; the plural, as usual). Unto those that find them; i.e. to those who by effort get possession of and procure them; the verb matsa, to find, embodying the idea of activity. Health; mar’pe, derived from the root rapha, “to heal” (like riph’uth of Pro 3:8, which see), and hence rather “the means of health” than “health,” “healing,” or, as margin, “medicine,” “that which restores to health;” LXX; ; Vulgate, sanitas. The moral condition is regarded as enfeebled by sickness, from which it may be restored to health and soundness by the words of wisdom. The effect of these, however, is not only to restore to health, but to maintain in health. Their tendency is to promote “a sound mind in a sound body.” To their flesh; literally, to his flesh; the singular, b’saro, being used instead of the plural, which we should have expected, because what is said applies to each one of those who receive the precepts of wisdom. The all implies the completeness of the restoration; it is not confined to one part, but pervades the whole body.
Pro 4:23
Keep thy heart with all diligence; properly, above all things that have to be guarded, keep or guard thy heart. So Mercerus, Gescnius, Delitzsch, Zockler. This seems to be the right meaning of the phrase, mikkol-mish’mar, rendered in the Authorized Version “with all diligence,” mish’mar, from shamar, “to guard,” being the object of guarding; that which is to be guarded. It is as if the teacher said, “Guard riches, property, health, body, everything, in short, in which you have a legitimate interest, or which is advantageous; but before and above everything else, keep a guard on your heart.” The rabbins Jarehi, Ben Ezra, Rashi, however, give a different rendering, “From everything which is to be avoided (ab omni re cavenda) guard thy heart;” but the objection to this is that it ignores the radical meaning of the verb shamar, from which mish’mar is derived, as stated above, which is not that of avoiding, but of guarding. A third rendering is,” Keep thy heart with all keeping;” so the Vulgate, omni custodia serva cor tuum; and the LXX; ; on which the Authorized Version seems to be based. Another rendering, similar to the first, except that it gives mish’mar the active signification of guarding instead of the passive one of being kept or guarded, is, “Keep thy heart more than any other keeping (prae omni custodia).” Origen, ‘Hex.;’ Field. Again, Aquila and Theodotion render, “Keep thy heart by reason of every commandment ( ),” thus bringing into prominence the occasion and the obligation of keeping the heart, which is that we are so commanded. Heart (lev); here the affections and the moral consciousness. For out of it are the issues of life. The conjunction “for” introduces the reason. The fact here stated is that the moral conduct of life, its actions and proceedings, are determined by the condition of the heart. If the heart is pure, the life will be pure; if the heart is corrupt, the life will be corrupt. The heart is here compared with a fountain. The same idea which is affixed to it in its physical sense is also assigned to it in its ethical or moral sense. Physically, it is the central organ of the body; morally, it is the seat of the affections and the centre of the moral consciousness. From this moral centre flow forth “the issues of life;” i.e. the currents of the moral life take their rise in and flow forth from it, just as from the heart, physically considered, the blood is propelled and flows forth into the arterial system, by which it is conveyed to the remotest extremities of the body. And as the bodily health depends on the healthy action of the heart, so the moral health depends on and is influenced by the state in which this spring of all action is preserved. Issues; tots’aoth, from yatsar, “to go forth,” are the place from which anything goes forth, and hence a fountain. For “the issues of life,” the LXX. reads, , the Vulgate; exitus vitae. With this passage compare our Lord’s teaching.
Pro 4:24
The following admonitions of this chapter bear reference to the outward conduct of life. They continue the subject of Pro 4:23 by showing how the guarding of the heart is to be done. There is the most; intimate connection between the heart as the fountain of the moral life and of the conduct of life, which, though determined by the condition of the heart, in its turn reacts upon the heart as the moral centre, and keeps it pure. Thus the subject is treated from its two sides. On Pro 4:24 and Pro 4:25 Hitzig remarks that they “warn against an arbitrary perverting of the moral judgment into which evil passions so easily betray, and admonish not to give misdirection to thought within the department of morality.” A froward mouth, and perverse lips; literally, perverseness of mouth and waywardness of lips (ikk’shuth peh vulzuth s’phathayim). “Perversity of mouth” is fraudulent, deceitful speech; that which twists, distorts, perverts, or misrepresents what is true, and hence falsehood (Pro 4:24; Pro 6:12; Pro 19:1). The of the LXX; i.e. the “tortuous mouth,” in a metaphorical sense. The phrase is very similar in meaning with the parallel “waywardness of lips,” which means speech which turns aside from what is true and right, the noun lazuth being derived from lazah, or luz, “to bend aside.” The tongue is the unruly member (Jas 3:2). Speech is the index of the mind (Lapide). Vigilance over the heart is vigilance over the mouth, inasmuch as “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Mat 12:34). The admonition may have a twofold application, and may mean either do not indulge in this kind of speech yourself, exercise an unremitting jealousy over every propensity to it; or have no dealings with those who are guilty of it, as in Psa 101:5.
Pro 4:25
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids lock straight before thee. “To look right on“ and “to look straight before one” is to fix the eyes steadily and unswervingly upon an object before them, not to allow the gaze to deflect either to the right hand or to the left. As a noun, the word nokakh, rendered “right on,” signifies what is straight in front of one; adverbially, it has the same meaning as that given in the Authorized Version. The corresponding “before” (neged) is substantively the side of any object which is opposite one, and as a preposition is equivalent to “before,” “in the presence of,” like the Latin coram. The versions (LXX; Syriac, Targum) take nokakh in the sense of “right things:” “Let thine eyes look at right things;” contemplate them, aim at justice and equity. This meaning is given to the cognate adjective nakoakh in Pro 8:9; Pro 24:26; Isa 26:10; Isa 30:10; Isa 59:14; but in the Proverbs the word nokakh only occurs twice (here and verse 21), either as an adverb, “right on,” “straightforwardly,” or as a preposition, “before.” Look straight. Gesenius takes this verb yashar in hiph; “to make straight,” as used elliptically: “Let thine eyelids direct a way before thee;” but the meaning is the same as “Let them look straight before thee.” The Syriac, Gejerus, and Holden render, “Let thine eyelids direct thy way before thee;” i.e. do nothing rashly, but everything with premeditation; examine thy conduct, and see that it is right. The verb yashar has this meaning, “to direct,” in Pro 3:6; Pro 11:5, but it is here used intransitively (Mercerus). Eyelids (aph’appim); so called from their fluttering, rapid motion, here used by way of poetic parallelism with “eyes.” What the command inculcates is simplicity of aim or principle, singleness of motive. The moral gaze is to be steadily fixed, because if it wanders indolently, lasciviously, aimlessly, it imperils the purity of the soul. This verse may be understood, as Zockler, as containing a command levelled against dishonest practices. The man who intends to cheat his neighbour looks this way and that how he may deceive him. Such an interpretation may be maintained on the ground that the former verse is directed against falsehood in speech; this against falsehood in action. But the former view is preferable. If you wish to keep the heart, you must be guided by simplicity of aim; look not aside either to the one hand or to the other, lest you may be led astray by the seductions and temptations which imperil the onward and upward progress of the soul. The passage reminds us of the “single eye” (), “simple,” i.e. intent on heaven and God, of Mat 6:22.
Pro 4:26
Ponder the path of thy feet; properly, make straight or level the path of thy feet. The command carries on the idea of the previous verse. Simplicity of aim in the moral life is to be accompanied by attention to the moral conduct. The sense is, remove every obstacle which may impede or render insecure the way of moral life, and thus avoid every false step. The meaning “to ponder,” i.e. “to weigh,” seems to be given to the verb palles, piel of the unused palas here used only in Psa 58:3 and possibly in Pro 5:21. Its ordinary signification is “to make level, or even,” as in Isa 26:7; Isa 40:12; and Pro 5:6. The LXX. keeps this in view in rendering, “Make straight paths for thy feet” (cf. Heb 12:13). The Authorized Version would mean, “Weigh your conduct as in a balance; before acting, consider the consequences and nature of the act.” The second clause, and let all thy ways be established, is in effect only a repetition of the preceding thought, since it signifies, “See that thy conduct is correct; let all thy ways be definite and fixed.” The marginal reading. “And all thy ways shall be ordered aright.” gives the literal rendering to the tense; yikkonu being the future hiph. of kun, “to be established,” “to stand firm.” This would express the result of giving heed to one’s conduct.
Pro 4:27
This verse, with which the teacher closes this discourse, is very closely connected with Pro 4:26, which it more fully explains. The command is the parallel of Pro 4:25. As in Pro 4:25, the gaze is to be concentrated. So here the feet are not to deflect nor turn aside to byways. Nothing is to be permitted to draw one off from the right way, neither adversity, nor prosperity, nor anything which can possess the power of temptation (Bayne and Wardlaw). Remove thy foot from evil. A fuller expression than “depart from evil,” of Pro 3:7. Both the LXX. and the Vulgate add, “For the Lord knows the ways which are on thy right hand; but they are perverse which are on thy left. He shall make thy paths straight, and shall advance thy ways in peace.”
HOMILETICS
Pro 4:1-4
A family heirloom
I. DIVINE WISDOM IS THE BEST OF FAMILY HEIRLOOMS. Solomon transmits to his son the instruction which he has received from his father. Thus he aims at making it an old household treasure. He also hands down royal power, great possessions, national fame. But wisdom is to him an inheritance more precious than all other things. The rest may go rather than that the entail shall be cut off this most prized part of the family estate. It would be well if fathers and sons had a similar opinion of the best of treasures. One labours to leave heavy legacies in his will; another aims at securing good posts for his sons; a third is proud of the unsullied family honour; but many forget that which alone secures true welfare here and eternal life hereafter. It is beautiful to see this heirloom of piety carefully guarded in the cottage of the poor; but it is more interesting to see those who might be drawn aside to lower pursuitsas, alas! Solomon was in his later dayssetting the same treasure before their family as the most valuable of all possessions.
II. DIVINE WISDOM WILL NOT REMAIN AS A FAMILY HEIRLOOM WITHOUT SPECIAL CARE IN RETAINING AND TRANSMITTING IT. The estate descends from father to son by laws of inheritance or by testamentary directions. The bodily likeness, the mental characteristic, the genius, the defect, the disease, often come down through successive generations. But religion is not found in the blood; no law of inheritance will secure the succession to Divine wisdom; you cannot ensure that your son will be pious by any clause in your will. This family heirloom will pass out of the household unless it is most carefully guarded. Bad sons may follow good fathers. The religion of our parents is no guarantee of our own spiritual state, nor does our religion contain within it the promise and potency of our children’s faith.
III. DIVINE WISDOM MAY BE TRANSMITTED AS A FAMILY HEIRLOOM THROUGH INSTRUCTION AND EXAMPLE. We cannot absolutely secure the inheritance because we have to deal with that most ungovernable of all elements, the free will of souls. But failure is often to be attributed to defective instruction. Home culture has been neglected, while public ministry has been most assiduous; or there has been a harsh, unwise restraint which has provoked a rebound of licence. On the whole, we may hope that good, sound home training will not be in vain. This involves two elements.
1. Instruction. There must be positive, definite teaching. We must not rely on the general influence of a wholesome Christian atmosphere, on casual words and passing advice, etc. Wisdom involves knowledge; religion depends on faith; and faith follows “hearing.” It is most important that the main elements of the Christian truth should be understood and remembered by children. It is not enough to tell them to love Christ. They must know him if they are to trust and follow him.
2. Example Without this instruction is futile. Our deeds then give the lie to our words. Instruction is the light to show the way; example, the impulse to urge us to walk in it. Succession in genius is rare. The two Plinys, the two Pitts, the two Mills, are exceptional instances. But by right instruction and example we have much more reason to expect a succession in piety, because genius must be born in a man, but the wisdom of godliness is offered to all who will seek it.
Pro 4:9
A coronation
Wisdom is here represented as standing forth with garlands and crowns, rewarding her votary. The whole picture suggested to us by this brief verse may be taken as illustrative of the blessed experience of the people of God.
I. THE CROWNING AUTHORITY. It is ridiculous to offer a crown except with the right and power to make the coronation effective. It was held that no one could be an emperor in the “holy Roman empire” of the Middle Ages unless he had been crowned by the pope, as Charles the Great had been crowned. In our picture we have a greater than the highest ecclesiastic. The Wisdom of God, ideally personified, offers crowns and garlands with her own hands. It is really an act of God. God’s wisdom is subsequently revealed in Christ who bestows the best blessings on his people. Coronation from such an authority must be effective.
II. THE SUBJECT CROWNED. He is the votary of Wisdom, and it is on account of his allegiance to his heavenly mistress that he receives his honour. Solomon seems to be referring directly to himself (Pro 4:8). If so, it is the more remarkable that the most magnificent king of Israel should set less value on his regal dignity than on his fidelity to Wisdom. Even Solomon is here crowned, not because he is David’s son and sits on the throne of a great nation, but because he is a loyal servant of Wisdom. The same honour is open to all who follow the same course. Wisdom, Divine truth, the knowledge of God, the following of Christthese things are the true grounds for honour; not birth, rank, power, or wealth.
III. THE ACT OF CORONATION. Wisdom stands forth and crowns her votary. She does it spontaneously. The pursuit of Divine Wisdom brings honour. Here we see that there is more than bare deliverance from ruin for the people of God. They are invited to receive honours from above. This happens in a measure upon earth in the elevation of character, the loftiness of the whole course of life, and perhaps even the worthy reputation of a true Christian. Yet we must remember that the coronation is not the world’s admiration, but God’s approval. This will be perfected in heaven when the saints who have borne the cross on earth will receive their crownsonly to cast them at the feet of the Lord through whose grace alone they have won them (Rev 4:10).
IV. THE NATURE OF THE CROWNS. There is a garland as well as a crown.
1. A recognition of victory. A simple wreath has little inherent worth. But it is a token of victory. It is nobler to wear a true conqueror’s wreath than an idle monarch’s diadem. The pursuit of Divine Wisdom leads to victory over sin and the world.
2. A possession of wealth and honour. After the victor’s wreath comes the regal crown. Observe how it is constructed.
(1) Gold of truth.
(2) Precious stones of heavenly experience. Precious stones are symbolical of celestial structures (Rev 21:18-21). The follower of Wisdom has the heavenly mind; he minds spiritual things.
(3) Pearls of purity. True wisdom leads to holiness.
Pro 4:12
A free course
Religion is looked upon too much in the light of a restraint, and the Christian is often regarded by the world as hampered and shackled by irksome bonds. But the very opposite is suggested by the words of our text. We see the servant of Divine Wisdom running with freedom on his course, and at the same time carefully guarded from misadventure.
I. THE TRUTH OF GOD GIVES LIBERTY. Christ promised that the truth should make men free (Joh 8:32).
1. The liberty of knowledge. Ignorance is a bondage, because the ignorant man does not know how to shape his course. He is like a traveller lost in the African bush. Physical knowledge gives a certain liberty of action. Knowledge of nature helps the man of science to act where the layman would be helpless. The engineer’s knowledge of his machine enables him to work it. When we know the way of peace and safety we can freely and fearlessly run in it.
2. The liberty of obedience. The wisdom of the Proverbs is practical; it is intimately connected with the fear of God. It implies more than knowledge in its followers; it requires also submission and obedience. Now, when we are in rebellion against the Law and will of God, we are continually arrested by his opposing action. But when we delight to do his will we are perfectly free. There is no liberty so great as that which comes from harmony between our wills and the will of God. We desire the very things that God commands; it must follow that we are free to seek them. Then of a certainty God will give us our heart’s desire.
II. THE TRUTH OF GOD SECURES SAFETY. The follower of Divine Wisdom will not stumble.
1. He will not run in the way of danger. The narrow path is the safe path. There are gins and snares in the broad road. Though the way of life may be rugged, it is not like the flowery path of sin, in the beauty of which a deadly serpent hides.
2. God will remove the greatest impediments out of his path. He is in the King’s highway. Even this road may lead over steep places and through difficult passes. But still, as it is maintained by its Lord, it cannot be left to fall into the state of an impassable road in a neglected country. God is with his people while they are treading the path of righteousness, and he will prepare their way for them.
3. There will be light to see the difficulties of the way. It is possible to stumble even on the high road. Christian men have fallen. We need to be prepared to face the difficulties which will surely meet us even while we are pursuing the Christian course. Now, God’s truth is a lamp to guide us over such difficulties (Psa 119:105). With the light of heavenly wisdom we safely pass them.
4. There will be help at hand. Christ is with his people on their pilgrimage. Like Peter sinking in the waves, they may cry, “Lord, save me: I perish!” and they will be delivered. “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe” (Psa 119:117).
Pro 4:13
Holding fast
I. THE NECESSITY OF HOLDING FAST. This is to be in regard to instruction in Divine wisdom. There are difficulties in keeping to the truth of God.
1. The knowledge of it is an attainment. It is not innate; it does not come by inevitable experience; it is not received without conscious effort. What has been won may be lost. That which is not naturally a part of our being may be detached from us.
2. The truth is spiritual. Therefore it belongs to a different region from that of everyday experience in the world, and it is in danger of being thrust aside by the rude demands of material facts. The rush and roar of outward life drown the whispers of the “still, small voice.”
3. It is morally exacting. God’s instruction concerns our conduct, and that in a way not always agreeable to ourselves. It urges us with lofty mandates, it seeks to regulate our lives by great principles. But weakness shrinks and self-will rebels against such a yoke. Therefore unless we held fast to the instruction, we shall soon lose it. Mere negligence is enough to imperil the choice possession. By simple indifference we may let slip the truth of God (Heb 2:1).
II. HOW WE MAY HOLD FAST.
1. Attention must be directed. As we have a certain command of our thoughts in the power of fixing attention on certain topics in preference to others, we can turn our minds towards Divine truth by a voluntary movement. External aids are here of use. The reading of the Bible is most helpful, not merely to obtain fresh truth, but to impress and revive the truth we already know. The ordinances of public worship are also designed with this end in view. The Christian preacher has not merely to instruct the ignorant and to lead those who know some truth to higher regions of revelation. A great part of his work consists in impressing upon men what they already know, and aiding them to hold it fast. None of these means of directing attention are sufficient without the addition of personal prayer and meditation.
2. Truth must be realized in practice. There is no better way of holding fast to instruction than by obeying it. The greatest truths are vague ideas till we commence to put them in practice. We hold best those truths which we follow most closely in life.
III. THE ADVANTAGE OF HOLDING FAST. It is our duty to hold the truth which God has revealed to us, and to attend to the commandments which he has sent us. But it is also for our own soul’s profit. This is a matter of life and death. Divine truth is not a mere luxury for the leisured classes. It is a necessary of life.
1. This truth is a guide from the way of ruin. God speaks words of the utmost moment to warn us from continuing in the old course of sin, and to show us the way of salvation.
2. It is an immediate source of life. God gives his Spirit through his truth, and the Spirit of God is the quickening power of our souls. Thus God’s truth is the soul’s food. To lose it is to starve. To hold it fast is to secure eternal life. The words that Christ speaks to us are spirit and life (Joh 6:63).
Pro 4:14, Pro 4:15
Bad company
I. THE DUTY OF AVOIDING BAD COMPANY. We are all more or less unconsciously affected by the tone of the society we frequent. Even the strongest, most independent spirit cannot wholly fortify himself against this influence. As water wears the hardest rock, the constant friction of social intercourse makes itself felt in course of time upon the most resolute character. We are naturally gregarious. Without knowing it, nay, even while protesting against it, we are carried away with the current through which our course lies. Salmon swim up against the stream; but men prefer to float with the stream. Hence the great reason for choosing society of good character. It is most essential that young men just entering business in a great city should bear this in mind. The class of companions they choose will very largely affect the whole future course of their lives. Christians are called to come out from the world; but our Lord showed his wisdom, as much as his kindliness, in instituting the Church as a fellowship of his people. Thus he sought to use the social influences of mankind in favour of purity and truth as a set off against the strong current of a corrupt worldly society. It is always dangerous to be cut off from these good influences. Emigrants and others who go to the colonies and to foreign countries should be on their guard against the peculiar dangers of their isolated situation. Many a young man has been ruined for life by going friendless to a distant country, and there falling a prey to the corruptions of bad company.
II. DIFFICULTIES IN THE APPLICATION OF THIS DUTY. The early Church, seeing idolatrous rites associated with almost every political and social engagement, withdrew very considerably from public life. The logical outcome of her conduct was monasticism. We have not her peculiar difficulties to contend with. Yet the mere thought of avoiding bad company might lead us to a similar course unless we weighed well other considerations of duty. Thus there are Christians who eschew all connection with national affairs because they hold that politics are closely wrapped up with worldly and wicked practices. But if the worst is true, it is rather our duty to seek to mend matters. Since we must have government, we should see that this is of the best possible character. If all the good people forsake it, they hand the government of the nation over to the wicked, and thereby tacitly sanction bad government. So if they put a ban on all amusement, they indirectly degrade every kind of amusement, and increase the temptation of the great mass of people, who naturally seek some sort of recreation, and will have the bad if they do not get the good. We must remember also that our Lord was accused of keeping the worst of company, and that he did this deliberately for the good of those with whom he bad intercourse. We are not to be Pharisees, proud separatists, but brothers of all men, who are our fellow sinners. The important point is the motive with which men enter bad company. If this be to discharge some duty, or to benefit those who are visited, it is pure, and may be expected to ward off harm. If it be done carelessly and for selfish pleasure, there is danger in it.
Pro 4:18
The path of the just.
I. A SHINING LIGHT.
1. It has all the great leading characteristics suggested by light, viz. truth, purity, joy, life. Perhaps the leading idea is that of holy gladness. This is to be enjoyed here on earth in those pleasant ways and paths of peace through which Wisdom leads her votaries. The Christian may be a martyr, but he need not be a victim of melancholy.
2. It is open to the day. They who do evil love the darkness that hides their deeds. “The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.” Goodness fears no exposure. Cato had no fear of his neighbours looking into his garden. Daniel could afford to let his habits be public.
3. It is bright with reflected Divine light. Here is the source of the brightness like that of the dawn that reflects the sun’s beams. Christ shines on the soul, and it brightens under his love as the dark hills and darker valleys take on the colours of life before the rising sun.
4. It is always giving out light around it. It is a shining light, a glistening light; not mere colour, but radiance. The true Christian is a light of the world; it is his duty to let his light shine to the glory of God.
II. A GROWING LIGHT. We must not stumble at that word “just,” as though it removed the whole subject to lofty regions far beyond all possible attainments of ours. The just man in the Old Testament, like the saint in the New Testament, is not necessarily a person of fully ripened perfection, but one whose course and aim and tendency are towards righteousness. Such a man will begin with many imperfections. His course, however, will be one of growing brightness. Unless there is growth there must be death. The stagnant Christian is the dead Christian, soon to become the corrupt Christian. It is for our encouragement that we may expect growth if we employ the right means. There is growth in personal piety. Every victory over sin is so much new light gained. There is growth in grace. The richest stores of God’s grace are in the future. There is ever “more to follow,” and the best wine is reserved for the last. There is growth in knowledge. The light of truth is a growing light. What we know not now we shall know hereafter. “Now we see as in a mirror darkly, but then face to face.” There is growth in joy and peace. The best fruits of Christian blessedness take time to ripen. The young Christian is disappointed at finding them green and acid. Time must mellow them. Now, this growth is gradual like the dawn, so that the Christian is carried on from stage to stage. But the rate is not uniform. With some there is a long twilight. With others the day hastens on with tropical speed. tie who has most of Christ will find his dawn spread most rapidly.
III. A LIGHT THAT LEADS TO PERFECT DAY. All that we now see is but the dull, chill twilight. It may be a cheerful dawn, but it is not to be compared with the rich splendour of the noon. The Christian progress is not to cease till it reaches perfection. It is far from that as yet. With some of us but a few grey streaks have as yet broken out of the old sad night. But all Christians may have the same glad hope of the full and perfect day. Heaven will be the coincidence of ripened character with perfected blessedness. And this day has no afternoon. There are no lengthening shadows to sadden us with threats of the chill evening and the dread darkness, lot “there is no night there.” A greater than Joshua arrests the sun at the meridian. Or rather there will be no need of the sun, because we shall be beyond this world of successive changes in the life eternal of that new Jerusalem, where it is ever day, because “the Lord God is the Light thereof.”
Pro 4:19
The way of darkness
The way of sin is in all respects one of darkness. It is dark in its origin, dark in its course, and dark in its end.
I. THE WAY OF SIN STARTS FROM A DARK ORIGIN.
1. Ignorance. Most criminals are deplorably ignorant. Vicious men are generally men whose mental cultivation has been neglected by others or by themselves. Ignorance of Divine truth leads the way to wickedness. The first preventative of evil is the religious teaching of children.
2. Inherited tendencies to evil. These awful consequences of a parent’s sin are a dark heritage which heavily handicaps the child from the first.
3. Satanic influences. Temptations are all dark in their origin. Evil suggestions come up from the pit of darkness.
4. The lower nature. When a man gives way to sin he sacrifices his higher to his lower self. He sinks from the sunlit mountain heights of purity to gloomy depths of baser living.
II. THE WAY OF SIN PURSUES A DARK COURSE. It is a road that runs through sombre passes, like some of those Welsh paths far in the heart of the mountains, on which the sun never shines. This is worse than the Valley of the Shadow of Death, for in the fearful path of sin there is no guiding hand and no protecting staff. The darkness of this course is exhaled from the evil committed upon it.
1. Perverted conscience. Sin distorts a man’s thoughts, blinds his eyes to the highest truth, raises a mist about the old landmarks of right and wrong, and plunges the soul into a stupor of moral indifference. From neglecting to follow the light of God, the sinner comes at last to be incapable of beholding it.
2. Spiritual desertion. God’s Spirit will not always strive with the sons of men (Gen 6:3). There comes a time when God leaves the self-abandoned soul to its own devices. Then, indeed, a darkness as of winter midnight sinks upon the lost being.
3. Corrupt conduct. Following the way of evil, the sinner continues to blacken it with the guilt of his own misdeeds. He plunges into the spiritual darkness of wicked livingthe degradation, the loss of the joy and purity of heavenly light that sin always induces.
III. THE WAY OF SIN ISSUES IN A DARK END. The sinner cannot see his way upon it, and therefore he is sure to stumble. Bruised and confused, he may still persist in his sombre career. But he has no prospect of light beyond. There are no Beulah heights for him at the further end of the gloomy valley. His night of sin will be followed by no dawn of blessed light. He presses on only to deeper and yet deeper darkness. If he will not return there is nothing before him but the darkness of death. The one way of escape is backwardsto retrace his steps in humble penitence. Then, indeed, he may see the welcome light of his Father’s home, and even earlier the Light of the world, the Saviour who has come out into the darkness to lead him back to God. For the sinner who persists in his evil course there can be no better prospect than that described by Byron in his poem on “Darkness”
“The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless
A lump of deatha chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirred within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropped
They slept on the abyss without a surge
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expired before;
The winds were withered in the stagnant air.
And the clouds perished; Darkness had no need
Of aid from themshe was the Universe.”
Pro 4:23
On guard
I. WHAT IS TO BE KEPT. The heart. In the Bible the “heart” represents what we call the “head” as well as the affections and conscience to which we confine the word “heart;” i.e. it stands for the whole inner nature, the life of thought, feeling, and will. This is the “Town of Mansoul,” and it has the various constituents of a town.
1. Entrance gates. The soul is always receiving thoughts and impulses from without. It is important to see that no adulterated article, no poison, no subject of infectious disease comes in. Debased, false, and immoral impressions must be warded off.
2. Ways of exit. The broad river bears on her bosom argosies from the busy city to many a distant port. Let us see that the cargo is of good wares, in good measure, honestly realizing professions, containing no injurious things. Some hearts export only sham products, some deadly poisons. Deeds, words, even smiles and glances carrying thought and influences out of the soul must be carefully guarded.
3. Internal thoroughfares. The town is a network of streets and passages. Busy thoughts run to and fro in the heart. Let the traffic be orderly, the road well preserved, lest pure thoughts should be smirched with the mire of an unwholesome mental habit.
4. Storehouses. Memory has her treasuries, warehouses, granaries. Let us see that they are not crowded with rubbish, left in disorder, made fever nests by the corruption of any unhealthy contents. Nourishing truths and beautiful ideas should stock them.
5. Factories. In the heart we weave fine webs of fancysee that the pattern has the beauty of holiness; there, too, we forge great engines for future worksee that they are constructed on safe and serviceable principles.
6. Halls of amusement. Let them be places of recreation, not of dissipation.
7. Shrines for worship. See that no idol takes the place of the true God, no hypocrisy does service for the incense of spiritual prayer and praise.
8. Graveyards of dead hopes and loves; keep them beautiful with flowers of tender memory. Are there also graves of dead sins? Plant weeping willows of penitence over them.
II. WHY IT IS TO BE KEPT.
1. For its own sake. The heart is the centre of the life; the soul is the true being, the self. To care for the health of the body while the soul is diseased and dying in sin is like sending for the builder to repair the house, but leaving the sick inmate to perish without attention. “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul”life, heart?
2. For its fruits. “Out of it are the issues of life.” In proportion as the heart is vigorous or feeble, healthy or diseased, all the organs of the body work well or ill. Take care of the heart first, cultivate right principles, see that the affections are set on things above, and then the practice of the details of morals will follow almost as a matter of course. It is a mistake to put casuistry in the forefront of moral teaching. The result of doing so is to weaken conscience, to confuse the sense of right and wrong. Let the condition of the heart be the first concern; see that truth, justice, purity, charity, are enshrined there. Let the love of God and the love of man be well cultivated, and the spiritual directory will be greatly simplified. But it is not even enough to cultivate right principles. Deeper than these is the life. Below the particular actions come general principles; beneath these lie the character, the life, the heart of all. The fundamental requisite is not to do this or that deed, nor to cherish one or another principle, but to possess the life eternal in the heart, out of which pure blood will flow through main arteries of principles to the most remote and minute and intricate capillaries of conduct.
III. HOW IT IS TO BE KEPT.
1. Pure. Let us see that the heart above all things is cleansed from sin and kept holy. We cannot do this for ourselves. But we can go to the fountain that is opened for uncleanness, and there wash and be clean. The blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, not only removes guilt, but purges out the corruption and power of evil. By faith in Christ and the indwelling of the Divine Spirit that is a consequence of faith, the heart can be cleansed and preserved in purity.
2. True. The Christian is to be a servant of God. Let him be loyalfrank, too, and ingenuous and simple.
3. Tender. One has well said that we want “tough skins and tender hearts.” There is much in the world to harden them. Let us seek to have them soft to receive Divine influences and to feel human compassions. The heart must be kept, not as a prisoner under hard restraint, nor like the jewels at the Tower, in useless seclusion; but like a garden, well weeded, but also sown with good seed and bearing fruit and flowers. Keep the heart thus by watchfulness, by self-control (the New Testament “temperance”), by prayer, above all by entrusting it to the keeping of God. Feeling that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” knowing how powerful are the temptations of the world, we may well despair of keeping the heart pure and safe. God meets us in our helplessness, and offers to keep it for us if we will put our trust and love in him. “My son, give me thy heart.”
Pro 4:25-27
Spiritual drilling
The whole man must be drilled into form and disciplined into orderly action, just as the whole armour of God is necessary for the protection of the soldier of Christ. It is not enough for safety to wear a helmet while the breast is exposed, nor to bare the head while the lees are covered; and it is not enough for service that part of our nature is trained to obedience. We must seek to have all in right order.
I. THE HEART. This must be guarded most sedulously, and before all else. We cannot have our actions right in the sight of God while the heart is perverted. The attempt to secure this only ends in hypocrisy. The first duty of the soldier is loyalty. The first duty of the Christian is fidelity. Nevertheless, though the fountain must be pure if the stream is to be pure, its purity will not secure the water against subsequent defilement. It is not enough to think of the state of the heart, we must also consider the course of our actions. A pseudo-spirituality ends in indifference to morals, and even in positive immorality. St. Paul did not think his work done when he had laid the foundation of the Christian character. He sought the “edification,” the “building up,” of it by detailed and earnest instruction in Christian morals.
II. THE LIPS. The first and most ready expression of the state of the heart is in our conversation. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Now, it is important to remember that we are responsible for our words. For “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Mat 12:36). Words are deeds. They carry influence and linger in memories and are transmitted from one to another long after the speaker has forgotten them.
III. THE EYES. The eye is one of the chief gateways of knowledge. According to the objects on which we fix it, the class of our knowledge will be determined. It is the guide in our actions. Now, it is requisite that the Christian have:
1. A straight and “single” sight (see Mat 6:22), looking only at the truth, with no stray glances at the innumerable deceptions of low self-interest.
2. A long sight, looking at the end of the racethe Celestial City, neither allured by the fascinations of Vanity Fair nor distracted by the horrors of the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
3. An upward gaze fixed on God and Christ rather than on worldly loss or gain.
IV. THE FEET. All the life leads on to the outgoings of activity. The ultimate question isIn what way are we going? Here the requisite is that the feet should go straight on. There are many ways of wrong, only one of right; hence the breadth of the former and the narrowness of the latter. We must especially avoid the error of falling into extremes. While shunning the track to the left let us see that we do not go off on that to the right. The path of duty is between these extremes. Yet the way to find it is not by seeking for a mean and so only accepting a compromise, but by aiming at the true and the right and pressing straight on to them irrespective of all conflicting influences.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Pro 4:1-13
The tradition of piety
The writer, here and in Pro 5:7 and Pro 7:24, addresses his audience as children, thinking of himself as a son, who had been the object of fatherly counsels and warnings in his youth. He would hand on the torch of wisdom, the tradition of piety, to the next generation.
I. PIETY SHOULD BE A FAMILY TRADITION. (Pro 7:1-3.) Handed down from father to son and grandson, or from mother to daughter and grandchild, from Lois to Eunice, till it dwells in Timothy also (2Ti 1:5). Tradition in every form is, perhaps, the strongest governing power over the minds of men in every department of life.
II. EARLY INSTRUCTION WILL BE RETAINED, RECALLED, AND REPRODUCED. As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined; or, as Horace says so beautifully, “The cask will long preserve the odour with which when fresh it was imbued” (‘Ep.,’ 1.2. 69). Every higher effort of the intellect rests on memory. Our later life is for the most part the reproduction in other forms of the deep impressions of childhood.
III. THE CONTENTS OF THIS TRADITION ARE SIMPLE, YET PROFOUND. (Pro 7:4-9.) They are summed up in “the one thing needful.” In opposition to the cynical maxim, “Get money, honestly if you can, but by all means get money,” or the refrain of “Property, property” (Tennyson’s ‘Northern Farmer’), the teacher rings the exhortation out, like an old chime, “Get wisdom, get understanding.”
IV. THE STYLE OR FORM OF THE TRADITION.
1. It is iterative. It may even seem to modern ears monotonous. But this form is peculiarly part of the habit of the stationary East. Thought is not so much expansive, travelling from a centre to a wide periphery; it swings, like a pendulum, between two extremes. Generally, for all, the best life wisdom must be these iterations, “Line upon line, precept upon precept” or stare super antiquas viasa recurrence to well worn paths.
2. It has variety of expression with unbroken unity of thought.
(1) In reference to the object of pursuit. “Wisdom” is the leading word; but this is exchanged for “training” and “insight” (Pro 7:1); “doctrine” and “law” (Pro 7:2); “words” and “commandments” (Pro 7:4); the same word often recurs.
(2) In reference to the active effort of the mind itself. This is presented as “hearing” and “attending” (Pro 7:1); “not forsaking” (Pro 7:2); “holding fast in the heart,” and “guarding” (Pro 7:4); “getting” and “not turning from” (Pro 7:5); “not forsaking” and “loving” (Pro 7:6); “holding her high” and “embracing her” (Pro 7:8); “receiving words” and “adhering to instruction” (Pro 7:10, Pro 7:13).
(3) In reference to the accompanying promise. “Thou shalt live” (Pro 7:4); “She shall guard thee;” “protect thee” (Pro 7:6); “exalt thee; bring thee to honour” (Pro 7:8); “give to thy head a chaplet of delight;” “hold out to thee a splendid crown” (Pro 7:9); “many years of life” (Pro 7:10); “Thy steps shall not be hindered” (Pro 7:12); “Thou shalt not stumble” (Pro 7:12); “She is thy life” (Pro 7:13).
V. THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS METHOD OF TEACHING.
1. It is simple, intelligible to all.
2. Of universal adaptation. Easily remembered by the young, impossible to forget in age.
3. It admits of infinite illustration from experience. It is a sketch or outline, given to the pupil; he fills it in and colours it as life progresses.J.
Pro 4:14-19
The two paths
I. LIFE UNDER THE IMAGE OF A PATH. It is a leading biblical image. There is much suggestion in it.
1. Life, like a path, has a starting point, a direction, and an end.
2. We have a choice of paths before us. The high road may image holy tradition and custom, the bypaths the choice of caprice or personal aberration.
3. It is only safe to follow beaten tracks. What we call “striking out an original course” may be conceited folly. “Gangin’ our ain gait” is a dubious expression.
4. The selection of the path must be determined by whither we desire to arrive.
5. We are ever drawing near to some end. It alone can disclose the prudence or the folly of our choice.
II. THE PATH OF THE WICKED. (Pro 4:14-17, Pro 4:19.)
1. Religion passionately warns against it. The language of iteration is the very language of urgency and passion. What a force there is in the mere repetition of the cry, “Fire! fire! fire!” or in the warning of the mother to the little one against some dangerous object, “Don’t go near it; keep away; go further off!” Just so does Divine Wisdom deal with us children of a larger growth. Again and again she clamours, “Enter not; go not; shun it; pass not over; turn away; pass by!” (Pro 4:14, Pro 4:15). This throbbing earnestness, this emotion of the Bible, gives it its hold on man; and should be shared by every teacher.
2. Religion describes it in powerful invective (Pro 4:16, Pro 4:17).
(1) The sleepless malice of the wicked. A common figure for the intense activity of the mind. As David had a sleepless ambition to build a temple for Jehovah; as the trophies of Marathon suffered not the glory-loving Themistocles to sleep; as care, or glowing study, or eager planning, breaks our nightly rest;so the evil have no repose from their dark cupidities and pernicious schemes.
(2) They are nourished by evil (Pro 4:17). To “eat bread and drink wine” is a Hebrew metaphor for living (Amo 2:8; Amo 7:12). In a similar way, the “bread of misery” and the “wine of punishment” are spoken of (Deu 16:3; Psa 127:2; Amo 2:8). They live upon villainy, as we might say. It is the root of their being. It is horrible, but true, that a man may, as it were, draw life and energy out of a perverted consciousness, as the drunkard cannot live without the alcohol which is killing him.
III. THE PATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. (Pro 4:18.) There is a change of figure; for the image of the path, the image of the advancing light of morning is substituted.
1. Light as an image of moral goodness. It is universal, Suggests itself to and strikes the fancy of all It associates with it the images of beauty, of joy, of expansion, of futurity, of infinity.
2. The growth of light from dawn to noon as an image of moral progress. This is true of knowledge and of practice. The good man travels out of dimmer perceptions and out of doubts, into clear convictions of reason. At first he realizes little; his will is weak and untrained. But keeping his eyes upon the ideal of the good, true, and beautiful, he embodies more and more of it in conduct. As the sun rests not (to speak and think in the dialect of poetry) till it “stands” (see the Hebrew) in high noon, so the righteous is ever advancing towards the goal of a life in perfect unity with God.
3. The safety of the light is an image of the course of the righteous. Translated into distinctively Christian thought, this is following Christ (Joh 11:9, Joh 11:10).
4. The image serves to throw into contrast the course of the wicked. “Thick darkness” represents their mind and way. It is ignorant, full of peril, yet they are unconscious of it. Instead of growth and progress, their doom is sudden extinction (comp. Pro 1:27, sqq.; Pro 2:18, Pro 2:22; Pro 3:35).J.
Pro 4:20-22
Self-preservation
The instinct of self-preservation is the very root of all our activity. “Every individual existence strives to remain what it is,” and would defend its integrity from all attack.
I. THE INSTINCT IS RECOGNIZED. As it must be by all genuine teachers. It is a fact, and cannot be properly ignored; a Divine fact, and ought not to be obscured. It includes
(1) the desire to live, the sense of life’s sweetness;
(2) the desire for health and happiness.
II. THE INSTINCT IS DIRECTED. It needs direction; for all instinct is in itself blind, and men, in seeking health and happiness, ignorantly and viciously purchase disease and death.
III. THERE IS NO SECRET OF SELF–PRESERVATION BUT (IN THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE SENSE) GODLINESS. This teaches the renunciation of the immediate for the further and lasting good. A paradox is here involved, a seeming contradiction containing a unity. To lose life is to gain it; to gain it, to lose it. For in true conduct there is ever a denial of the lower contained in the affirmation of the higher, and in evil conduct vice versa (compare on this section, Pro 3:2, Pro 3:8, Pro 3:13, Pro 3:16; Pro 4:13).J.
Pro 4:23-27
The heart and its issues
I. LIFE CENTRED IN THE HEART. (Pro 4:23.) Physically, we know this is so. It is a self-acting pump, a fountain of vital force. All the physical activities are derived from it. Spiritually, it is so. The connection of the heart with emotion is recognized in all languages. It is feeling in the widest sense that makes us what we are.
II. THE HEART MUST BE, THEREFORE, THE PECULIAR OBJECT OF OUR SOLICITUDE. (Pro 4:23.) The sentiments, to put it in another form, are the important elements in character. These lie so close to opinion, that we commonly say either “I feel” or “I think” in expressing our opinions. To instil right sentiments about the important points of behaviour, the relation of the sexes, business, honour, truth, loyalty, is the great work of moral education, and here lies its immense value as distinguished from the gymnastic of the intellect.
III. THE EXTERNAL ORGANS MUST AT THE SAME TIME BE DISCIPLINED. (Pro 4:24-27.) Education must not be one-sided. The heart supplies the organs and channels of activity; but these again react upon the heart. The impulses of feeling are in themselves formless; it is the definite organs which give to them peculiar shape and determination. Hence the organs themselves must be trained to receive true impressions and to give them back.
1. The mouththe lips. They are to be corrected of every “crooked,” false expression. What wonderful variety of expression is the mouth capable offirmness, laxity, tenderness, scorn, love, irony, hate! In controlling the mouth we do something to control the heart. Its contents must be purified from falsehood, coarseness, foolish jesting, malicious gossip, all of which tell upon the central consciousness, and disturb and obscure it.
2. The eyes. (Pro 4:25.) They are to be trained to a direct and straightforward expression. The leer of lust, the oblique glance of cunning expressed on the faces of others, or the clear honest light beaming from the eyes of the pure and open-hearted, not only mirror the heart, but remind how the heart may be reached by the self-discipline of the eye.
3. The feet. (Pro 4:26.) In like manner, they are to be trained to a straightforward walk. Even in moments of relaxation ’tis well to have an object for a walk. The mind needs self-direction and discipline even in its pleasures; otherwise it becomes dissolute, and waywardly falls into evil through sheer laxity in the spring of wilt.
(1) Action and reaction, between the inward and the outward world, expression and impression, constitute a great law of our spiritual activity.
(2) Hence self-discipline and moral education should be founded on the recognition of it. We must work from the centre to the periphery, and back again from every point of the periphery to the centre of life.J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Pro 4:1-13
The solicitude of the wise father: a sermon to parents and children
In these verses we have a peep into the royal house at Jerusalem while David was on the throne. And we have such a glimpse as we should expect to gain. We see the devout man extremely solicitous that his son should walk in the ways of Divine and heavenly wisdom. David, like the rest of human parents, and more than most of them, was under
I. A STRONG TEMPTATION TO MAKE A FALSE ESTIMATE. So near to us is this present passing world, so powerfully do its interests appeal to us, so strong is the hold which it gains over our senses and our imagination, that we are apt to overestimate altogether its claims and its worth. And this in proportion to the height of the dignity, the measure of the power, the extent of the fortune, to which we have attained. David, as a man subject to all human passions, would be particularly tempted to weigh the worldly advantages of his favourite son, and estimate them very carefully and very highly. He would be in danger of consideringnot exclusively, but excessivelywhat would be the extent of his kingly rule, what the revenue he would be able to collect, what the influence he would wield over neighbouring powers, what the authority he would exercise over his own people, etc. And in the thick throng of these mundane considerations there would be no small risk of other and higher things being lost sight of. So with other if not with all parents. There is a constant danger of worldly anxieties about our children absorbing, or at any rate obscuring, the deeper and worthier solicitudes. But in the case of the devout; monarch of Israel there was, as there should be with us all
II. A WISE DISCERNMENT. David was profoundly convinced that “wisdom is the principal thing” (Pro 4:7), that everything is of inferior value to that. He saw clearly and felt strongly that he must induce his son Solomon to walk in the fear of the Lord, or even his brilliant prospects would come to nothing. For he knew:
1. That the fear of God was the living principle most likely to lead to temporal prosperity: he had proved that in the elevation of his own “house” and the rejection of that of Saul.
2. That no possible successes of an earthly kind would compensate for the loss of character: his own hour of disastrous folly had shown him that (2Sa 11:27).
3. That no circumstantial misfortunes could fatally injure a man who was right at heart with God: his own experience had illustrated that truth (Psa 41:12). We shall be wise if we come to the same conclusions. Like David, we shall see that the outward and the visible, though they may be far more attractive and voiceful, are yet of far inferior account to the inward and the spiritual. We shall care immeasurably more for our children that they shall be wise in soul than prosperous in estate, “all glorious within” than magnificent without; we shall be tar more solicitous to see them “getting wisdom” (Pro 4:5) than “making money,” “retaining the words” of truth (Pro 4:4) than gaining or keeping possession of lands and houses.
III. THE WAY OF WISDOM TOWARD THE YOUNG. If we, as parents, would walk wisely, so that we may attain our heart’s desire concerning the children of our love and of our charge, we shall act as David didwe shall commend the truth God has taught us
(1) with all affectionateness of manner (Pro 4:3);
(2) with all earnestness of spirit (Pro 4:4, Pro 4:10, Pro 4:11);
(3) with all fulness of exposition.
There is a strain of parental tenderness of tone and energy of manner, as well as great fulness of utterance here. The same thought is presented, is repeated, is pressed on the reason and the conscience. David evidently yearned, strove, persisted with patient and resolute zeal, that he might convince and inspire his son with the sacred truths he held so dear.
He represented heavenly wisdom, the truth of God, as
(1) the thing of surpassing intrinsic excellency (Pro 4:7);
(2) a thing to be pursued in preference to other fascinations (Pro 4:5-7);
(3) a thing to be cherished and held to the heart (Pro 4:6);
(4) a thing to be highly honoured before men (Pro 4:8);
(5) a thing to be retained at all costs (Pro 4:13);
(6) a friend that would repay all attentionsthat would guard and shield from evil (Pro 4:6, Pro 4:12), that would lead to honour and esteem (Pro 4:8, Pro 4:9), that would prolong life (Pro 4:10), that would lead in that way which is the path of life itself (Pro 4:13).
1. To parents, the lesson of the text is
(1) discern the one supremely precious thing to be commended to the heart of youth; and
(2) commend it graciously, earnestly, fully.
2. To sons and daughters, it is
(1) remember all the sacred solicitude that has been expended on you; and
(2) fulfil the desire of your parents’ hearts. “My son, know the God of your father” (see Pro 4:1); this is “good doctrine” (Pro 4:2); it is “your life” (Pro 4:13).C.
Pro 4:14-17, Pro 4:19
The prudence of piety
We may say concerning piety or virtuethe wisdom which is from God includes boththat the essence of it is in right feeling, in loving him who is the Holy One and that which is the right and admirable thing, and in hating that which is evil and base; that the proof of it is in right actingin going those things and those only which are good and honourable, which God’s Word and our own conscience approve; and that the prudence of it is in these two things which are implied in our text.
I. CHERISHING A WHOLESOME HORROR OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. There is an insensibility and an ignorance which passes for courage, and gets a credit which is not its due. Those who do not take the trouble to know what the issues of any line of conduct are, and who go fearlessly forward, are not brave; they are only blind. We ought to know all we can learn of the consequences of our behaviour, of the end in which the path we are treading terminates. The prudent man wilt see and shrink from the consequences of evil; and if he open his eyes or consult those who can tell him, he will find that they are simply disastrous.
1. For sin is mischievous in its spirit; it gloats over the ruin which it works; it finds a horrible delight in doing harm to human souls (Pro 4:16, Pro 4:17).
2. And it succeeds in its shameful design. It does “mischief;” it makes men “to fall.” It causes spiritual decline, decay, corruptionthe worst of all mischief; it leads purity, sobriety, honesty, truthfulness, reverence, love, to fall down into the ruinous depths of lasciviousness, intemperance, dishonesty, falsehood, profanity, hard-heartedness.
3. It leads down to a darkness and a death of which it did not dream (Pro 4:19). It sinks into that awful soul-blindness in which the “eye is evil,” in which the very “light is darkness” (Mat 6:23), in which the moral judgment, all perverted, leads astray. “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” Their powers of moral distinction are gone; they are “altogether gone astray.” Piety, virtue, may well in godly prudence shrink with wholesome horror from this.
II. CAREFUL AVOIDANCE OF THE WAY OF THE WICKED, and so of the path of temptation.
1. True it is that we must be often found in perilous places at the call of daily duty.
2. True that at the invitation of mercy we shall sometimes be found there.
3. But it is also true that the wise will not needlessly expose themselves to the assaults of sin. They will refrain from so doing both because
(1) we are not sure of the measure of our own strength; there may be some very weak places in our armour, ill-fortified parts in our character; most men are weaker than they know, somewhere. And also because
(2) we do not know the full strength of temptation. Full often sin proves to have an unimagined force, an unsuspected skill. The full strength of the allurements and enticements of evil perhaps no man knows. The number of the slain that lie on the spiritual battlefield tells with a mournful eloquence that thousands of the children of men have overestimated their own resisting power, or underestimated the insidiousness, or the fascination, or the force of the foe. Therefore, if duty does not demand it, nor mercy plead for it, shun the dangerous path, “enter not into the way of it avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away” (Pro 4:14, Pro 4:15) Let it be considered that this is a Divine injunction; therefore let there be no hesitation about obeying. There is nothing unmanly or ignoble in prudence. It is not a virtue to be anywise ashamed of. There is ample scope for the utmost heroism of spirit and of life without exposing our young hearts to evils the very nature of which we may not know, the force of which we cannot measure, and from the consequences of which we might never be able to escape.C.
Pro 4:18, Pro 4:19
Darkness and light
We have two perfect contrasts in these two versesthe path of the just and the way of the wicked; the one is very closely connected with light and the other with darkness.
I. SIN AND DARKNESS. (Pro 4:19.) We may say that:
1. Sin is darkness. It is
(1) the ignorance of the mind; it is
(2) the error of the heartit is the soul’s supreme mistake, misreading, misunderstanding every one and everything from the highest to the lowest.
2. Sin spreads darkness
(1) over the soul of the sinner himself, blinding his eyes, distorting his vision, confusing his perceptions;
(2) over the souls of others, leading them into the darkness of folly, superstition, wrong doing.
3. Sin leads to the ruin which attends darkness; it ends in making the sinner blind to the true character of his own transgressions: “They know not at what they stumble;” blind, also, to the final issue of his guilt: they know not into what they stumbleinto what a “blackness of darkness.”
II. WISDOM AND LIGHT. (Pro 4:18.) By “the just” in this verse we understand not particularly the man who is equitable in his dealings with his fellows, but the good and wise manthe man who, in the fear of God, seeks to act with rectitude in all his relations. This man is closely associated with the light.
1. Knowledge is light, and heavenly wisdom is the truest and best knowledgethat of God, and of the human soul, and of the path of eternal life.
2. That which reveals is light, and heavenly wisdom is the best and most beneficent revealing power. The wise, the “just” man is “making manifest” (see Eph 5:13) the highest, the most far-reaching, deep-descending truths. He does this
(1) by his direct endeavour to instruct;
(2) unconsciously, by the influence of his life. “The life is the light of men” in our case as in his who was “the Life made manifest.”
3. The light of the just man grows ever stronger and more illuminating: it “shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” With added opportunities of inquiry and acquisition, with multiplied privileges, with more of Divine discipline, with increase of power resulting from the exercise of spiritual faculty, there is
(1) growing light within, burning more steadily and lustrously; and
(2) advancing influence for good which flows forth in wider, deeper, and larger streams.C.
Pro 4:20-27
The course of wisdom
In these verses we may trace the course of wisdom from the beginning to its full development. We have
I. ITS BEGINNING IS THE SOUL. (Pro 4:20.) It commences in attention. When a man “inclines his ear unto the sayings of Wisdom,” when he eagerly listens to what God says to him, when he is a disciple sitting at the feet of the great Teacher, he has taken an important step in the heavenward course. The “grace of God” is upon him (Act 13:43).
II. ITS ESTABLISHMENT IN THE SOUL. (Pro 4:21, latter clause.) When the counsels of the Wise One are once fairly and fully welcomed to the soul, so that they may be said to be “in the midst of thine heart,” then it may be said that the decisive point is turned. When there is the “cherishing of a cordial attachment;” when we say, “How love I thy Law!” when our heart is given to the truth of God because given to him, the gracious Lord of truth;then wisdom is established within our soul.
III. THE NEED FOR HOLY VIGILANCE CONCERNING ITS MAINTENANCE. (Pro 4:23; see homily infra. Pro 4:26, first clause.)
IV. ONE OF ITS MANIFESTATIONS. (Pro 4:24.) It will show itself in clean lips; it will put far away the froward and perverse mouth. Its utterances will be pure, temperate, reverent. The child of folly is detected by his foolish, vain, culpable expressions. His “speech bewrayeth him.” “By his words he is condemned.” The son of wisdom is known by his blamelessness in this particular; by his words he is justified (Mat 12:36, Mat 12:37; Eph 4:29; Jas 1:26).
V. RESOLUTENESS IN THE RIGHT PATH. (Pro 4:27.) There must be no “turning again to folly” (Psa 85:8); no turning to the right or left into either main highways of vice and open sin, or any byways of error and ill-doing. Even the pleasant path that seems to skirt the King’s highway so closely that at any time we may return thereto, is a danger to be avoided. The road that leads off from that highway of holiness by ever so small an angle is a road that finds its way at last to a “City of Destruction.” The best preservative from the perilous wandering is here indicated; it is
VI. STEADFAST GAZE UPON THE GOAL. (Pro 4:25.) Look right on to the goal in front; be so intent on reaching that, and on attaining to the prize which awaits the winner, that there will be no temptation to depart from the straight course. We keep a straighter path by fixing our eye on the object toward which we walk than by watching the steps we take; how much more so than by looking about us on every hand! Our heavenly wisdom is to be looking “right on,” “straight before us,” unto Jesus, the Leader and Perfecter of the faith (Heb 12:2).
VII. ITS ISSUE. It issues in life and health (Pro 4:22, Pro 4:23). Long life was promised to the wise and holy under the old dispensation; now we look confidently forward, as the issue of heavenly wisdom, to
(1) a blessed life below, of spiritual wholeness, and
(2) everlasting life beyond, where the inhabitants are never sick (Isa 33:24).C.
Pro 4:23
Man’s chief treasure
“Keep thy heart above all keeping” (marginal reading). Evidently there is a precious treasure which, as the disciples of Wisdom, we are charged to keep. We ask
I. WHAT ARE THE CHIEF TREASURES WE HAVE IN CHARGE? These are threefold.
1. That which belongs to us, but which is entirely without usour money, our houses, our lands, our shares, our ships, our precious documents, our “valuables.”
2. That which is more closely related to us, but is still outside ourselvesour bodily frame, the tabernacle of our spirit, and, with this, our physical health and strength; the clear eye, the healthy brain, the strong nerve.
3. Our own very selvesthat spiritual nature in virtue of which we are said to be “created in the image of God” (Gen 1:27). These are the treasures we may “keep.”
II. WHICH IS THE ONE OF SUPREME VALUE, AND WHY? “Keep thy heart above all keeping.” That which is nearest ourselves must be of more value to us than that which is further from us. To keep our temporal estate is to preserve that which is precious, but which is not ourselves. To maintain our health is most desirable, but our body is only our temporary home and organ; it is something we can lose and yet ourselves be. But our heart, that is our own very self. God made us, not to have, but to be, living souls: that in us, that of us which thinks, loves, hopes, worships, rejoices in the spiritual and the Divine, that is ourself, and to keep that must be the supreme duty; that is to be kept beyond all keeping. But the wise man says there is a special reason why we should keep our heart beyond all keeping; he says, “for out of it are the issues of life.” In other words, a well guarded heart is the spring and source of all that is best in human life.
1. The holy thoughts and pure feelings and kind purposes which flow therefrom are, in themselves, a large part and the very best part of human life.
2. A well guarded heart will prove the source of a well regulated lifeof a life of honesty, virtue, peaceableness, sobriety; and these will ensure prosperity, esteem, joy.
3. A well regulated heart will conduct to the life immortal in the heavenly land: this is the most blessed “issue” of all. With whatsoever anxiety, vigilance, diligence, we guard our temporal interests, or even our health and our mortal life, with far greater anxiety, far more eager vigilance, far more unremitting diligence, should we guard our heartits purity, its tenderness, its devotion.
III. WHAT ARE OUR FORCES OF DEFENCE? Wherewith shall we keep these hearts of ours? What are the forces at our command? They are these.
1. The power of introspection. We can interrogate and examine our own souls, and see how we stand, what need there is for penitence and for renewal.
2. The power of self-regulation. We can acquire healthful habits, pass regulative resolutions which will
(1) keep us away from temptation, and
(2) take us where our souls will be nourished and strengthened in things Divine.
3. The power of the Divine Spirit. We can ask and gain the “might [which comes from] his Spirit in the inner man.”C.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Pro 4:1. Hear, ye children Solomon here proposes himself as an example of docility; but in such a manner, that he refers all the advantages of his education to the early impressions which he received from his father and his mother under the blessing of Divine wisdom. He makes this appear by all his attachment; tender and respectful as it was, and by his sincere regard to his parents, particularly to his mother, to whose eulogy he has consecrated almost the whole 31st chapter. The principal instructions in the present chapter are these; that parents ought to take the utmost care to instruct their children diligently, and the higher their station the more accurate should their education be. Above all things, the excellence of wisdom, holiness, and virtue, is to be inculcated. See on Pro 4:7. Next to this they are to be cautioned against evil company, as the bane of youth; the wretchedness of their life who live wickedly, and the happiness, comfort, and satisfaction, of theirs who live piously and virtuously, are to be represented, Pro 4:14-19. Next they are to be taught how necessary it is to be constant in reading good books, especially the scriptures, Pro 4:21 and to have an upright heart, sincerely disposed to follow such directions. Watchfulness also over the senses is commanded, as necessary to preserve the affections from being corrupted.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Second Group of Admonitory or Gnomic Discourses
Pro 4:1 to Pro 7:27
7. Report of the teacher of wisdom concerning the good counsels in favor of piety, and the warnings against vice, which were given him in his youth by his father
Pro 4:1-27
1Hearken, ye children, to a fathers instruction,
and attend to know understanding:
2for I give you good doctrine;
forsake not my law.
3For I was also a son to my father;
a tender and only (son) for my mother;
4and he taught me and said to me:
Let thine heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments and thou shalt live!
5Get wisdom, get understanding;
forget not, turn not from the words of my mouth!
6Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee;
love her and she shall keep thee.
7The highest thing is wisdom; get wisdom,
and with all that thou hast gotten get understanding!
8Esteem her and she will exalt thee,
will bring thee honor if thou dost embrace her.
9She will put upon thine head a graceful garland,
a glorious crown will she bestow upon thee.
10Hearken, my son, and receive my sayings;
and the years of thy life shall be many.
11In the way of wisdom have I taught thee,
I have guided thee in right paths.
12When thou goest thy step shall not be straitened,
and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble.
13Hold fast upon instruction; let not go;
keep her, for she is thy life.
14Into the path of the wicked enter thou not,
and walk not in the way of the evil.
15Avoid it, enter not upon it;
turn from it, and pass away.
16For they sleep not unless they sin;
their sleep is taken away unless they have caused (others) to fall;
17for they eat the bread of wickedness,
and the wine of violence do they drink.
18But the path of the just is like the light of dawn,
that groweth in brightness till the perfect day.
19The way of the wicked is as darkness,
they know not at what they stumble.
20My son, attend to my words,
incline thine ear to my sayings.
21Let them not depart from thine eyes:
keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22For they are life to those who find them,
and to their whole body health.
23Above all that is to be guarded keep thy heart,
for out of it flow the currents of life.
24Put away from thee perverseness of mouth,
and waywardness of lips put far from thee.
25Thine eyes should look straight forward,
and thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26Make straight the path of thy foot
and let all thy ways be established.
27Turn not to the right or to the left,
remove thy foot from evil!
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro 4:2. [, an affirmative perfect (Btt. 947, f.), anticipating a sure result, and so confirming confidence; not merely have I already given, etc.; it will always be found true. See like instances in Pro 4:11.A.].
Pro 4:10. [A masculine verb agreeing with a fem. subject, the more readily because the verb precedes. The same thing recurs in Pro 4:25; in Pro 5:2; Pro 7:11; Pro 10:21; Pro 10:32; Pro 15:7 : Pro 16:3; Pro 18:6.A.]
Pro 4:13. The fem. suffix in refers strictly to [ being masculine], which idea, on account of its close relationship, could be easily substituted for (comp. Pro 1:3; Pro 15:33), and all the more readily because this idea was constantly before the poets mind as the main subject of his discourse. Like anomalies in the gender of suffixes may be found, e.g., in Isa 3:16, Jdg 21:21. [To emphasize the injunction the form of the verb is expanded from the simple by doubling the middle radical by Dagesh forte dirimens, and by attaching the suffix in its fullest form. See Btt. 500, 12; 1042, b, 1043, 6.A.].
Pro 4:14. [Fuerst takes in its more common causative and therefore transitive sense, supplying as its object ; he reaches, however, the same result. The third declarative use of the Piel we have not found given here by any modern commentator.A.].
Pro 4:16. [For the form given in the Kthibh , see Green, 88, Btt. 367, .A .]
Pro 4:20. [The paragogic Imperative usually and naturally takes its place at the beginning of the clause; here, and in Pro 4:1 follows its object as well as the vocative . Btt. 960, c.A.].
Pro 4:21. fut. Hiphil from with a doubling of the first radical, as in from . [Verb treated like a verb ,Green, 160,1; Btt., 1147, B. 3.A.].
Pro 4:25. [Holden makes an object and not an adverbial modifierbehold that which is right. This can hardly be reconciled with the strict meaning of . For the peculiar , in which the first radical retains fully its consonant character, resisting quiescence, see Stuart, 69, 2; Green, 150, 1; Btt., 458, a, 498,12.A.]
EXEGETICAL
1. The address to the sons, i.e., the pupils or hearers of the teacher of wisdom, in the plural number, appearing for the first time in Pro 4:1, and then recurring twice afterward, in Pro 5:7 and Pro 7:24 (as well as in one later instance, in the discourse of the personified Wisdom, Pro 8:32) announces the beginning of a new and larger series of proverbial discourses. This extends to the end of chap. 7, and is characterized by a preponderance of warning, and also by the clear and minute delineation of the by-paths of folly and vice which are to be avoided, that now takes the place of the tone, hitherto predominant, of positive appeals to strive after wisdom and the fear of God. A starting point for these admonitory discourses is furnished by the communication made in the preceding chapter, concerning the good instructions which the author as a child had had urged upon his notice by his father. The negative or admonitory import of these teachings of the father is now more fully developed in the discourses, some longer, some shorter, of the next three chapters. And among these special prominence is given to sins against chastity, which had not, it is true, been expressly named by the father, but still must now come under consideration as involving dangers especially seductive and ruinous for the son, as he grew up from boyhood to youth. To these therefore the poet reverts no less than three times in the course of the admonitions which he attaches to his account of the precepts of his father as given in chap. 4. (viz., Pro 5:3 sq.; Pro 6:24 sq.; Pro 7:5 sq). And in each instance the transition is made in a peculiarly natural way, and with a far more complete delineation of the repulsive details than had been earlier given on a similar occasion (Pro 3:16-19). Of the older expositors e.g., Egard, J. Lange, Starke, and of the more recent Elster are in favor of extending the fathers admonition from Pro 4:4 to the end of this chapter. In favor of these limits may be adduced especially the fact that Pro 4:26-27 form a peculiarly appropriate conclusion for the fathers discourse,far more so not only than Pro 4:9 (with which Jerome, Bede, Lavater, the Wrtemberg Bible, and most commentators of modern times, e.g., Ewald, Bertheau, Hitzig, [Muenscher, Kamph.] would close the discourse) but also than Pro 4:20, (to which point e.g., Umbreit would extend it). Against those who would regard Pro 5:1-6 as also belonging to the fathers address (Hansen, Delitzsch) we have the substance of these verses, which, at least from Pro 4:3 onward, seem no longer appropriate to an admonition addressed to a boy still tender (see Pro 4:3); we have besides the still more weighty fact that chap. 5 forms an indivisible whole, from which the first six verses can plainly not be separated, on account of the reference to them contained in Pro 4:8. It is furthermore by no means necessary that the address ye sons (Pro 5:7) should stand at the very commencement of the discourse where the poet resumes it. In reply to Hitzig who, for the sake of restoring a symmetrical relation of numbers, in the present chapter once more pronounces certain verses spurious (Pro 4:16-17; Pro 4:27), see the special remarks on these verses.
2. Pro 4:1-3. Hearken, ye children. It seems quite certain that this address, occurring only here and in Pro 5:7 and Pro 7:24, is occasioned by the fact, that the author designed to represent himself in and after Pro 4:4 as himself a son and the object of his fathers counsels and warnings. The aim was to present the example of the one son plainly before the many sons; for this is the relation in which the teacher of wisdom conceives of his hearers or readers. For this reason again he does not say, my sons, but ye sons, ye children, here as well as in Pro 5:7.To a fathers correction, i.e., to the instruction of a man who is your spiritual father; not to the instruction of your several fathers. For, just as in Pro 1:8, the author does not intend in the first line to exhort to obedience to parents, but simply to obedience in general.To learn understanding. The here corresponds with in the superscription, Pro 1:2, and is therefore to be similarly understood. Hitzigs idea to know with the understanding is evidently needlessly artificial.
Pro 4:2. For good doctrine, etc. , something received, handed over (see on Pro 1:5); the author here describes his doctrine in this way because he himself received the substance of it from his father. The LXX here translate the word outright by (Vulg. donum).
Pro 4:3. For I also was a son to my father, i.e., I also once stood in the relation to my (actual) father, in which you stand to me, your paternal instructor, (Bertheau). [Muensch. less forcibly makes temporal: when I was, etc.]A tender and only (son) to my mother, strictly, before my mother, in her sight; comp. Gen 17:18. The mention of the mother is probably occasioned here, as in Pro 1:8, by the poetic parallelism; for in what follows it does not occur again.Tender, , not equivalent, as sometimes, to susceptible of impressions, tractable, as the LXX conceive in translating it by ; but the expression, in connection with , an only one (comp. Gen 22:2), indicates that the child has been to his parents an object of tender care; comp. Gen 33:13, where Jacob speaks of the tenderness of his children. Furthermore the LXX, doubtless in remembrance of the fact that Solomon, according to 1Ch 3:5, was not the only son of his mother, renders by (beloved). That several ancient manuscripts and versions have substituted for , , the sons of my mother, doubtless rests upon the same consideration. The earlier exegesis in general thought far too definitely of Solomon as the only speaking subject in the whole collection of proverbs, and therefore imagined itself obliged in every allusion to a father or a mother of the poet, to think specifically of David and Bathsheba. This is also the explanation of the fact that the LXX in the verse following exchanged the singular, he taught me and said, for a plural ( ), and accordingly represented all that follows as instruction proceeding from both parents.
3. Pro 4:4-9. Let thine heart hold fast my words. The fathers instruction begins quite in the same style as all the other admonitions in this first main division of the Book of Proverbs. At the end of Pro 4:4 the Syrian Version adds the words and my law as the apple of thine eye, which is, however, plainly a supplementary gloss from Pro 7:2, in which passage also the expression occurs, keep my commandments and thou shalt live, Bertheau regards the addition as original here also, in order thus to do away with the peculiarity of three members in Pro 4:4 (which is surrounded by nothing but distichs), and to make of the three clauses four. But the triple structure owes its origin simply to the fact that the first member, as an introductory formula for the following discourse, must necessarily be made to stand outside the series of clauses which are otherwise always arranged in pairs.
Pro 4:5. Get wisdom, get understanding, literally, buy wisdom, buy understanding. The doubling of the verb makes the demand more vehement; as Umbreit explains it, an imitation of the exclamation of a merchant who is offering his wares.Forget not, turn not from the words of my mouth. The zeugma appears only in the translation, not in the original, since the verb elsewhere, e.g., Psa 102:5, is found construed with . In the idea of forgetting there is naturally involved a turning aside or away from the object.
Pro 4:7. The highest thing is wisdom. This is the interpretation to be here given, with Hitzig (following Mercer, De Dieu and some older expositors), to the expression . It is usually rendered The beginning of wisdom, [e.g. by the LXX, Vulg., Luther] and the following clauses, get wisdom, etc. are taken as the designation of that in which the beginning of wisdom consists, viz., in the resolution to get wisdom (Umbreit), or in the instant observance of the admonition which relates to this (comp. Elster on this passage [and also Kamph.]). But as the beginning of wisdom the fear of God is every where else designated (see Obs. on Pro 1:7); and for the absolute use of in the sense of prstantissimum, summum (the highest, most excellent thing) we may compare on the one hand Job 29:25, and on the other Gen 1:1.And with all that thou hast gotten get understanding. The beautiful verbal correspondence in the Hebrew phrase is well indicated in the above rendering [in which the ambiguity of the E. V. is avoided; with is not to be taken in the sense of in connection with, but with the expenditure of, or at the price of,German um or fr]. For the thought comp. Pro 3:14 sq.
Pro 4:8. Esteem her. The verb which occurs only here,the Pilel of ,might possibly, as an intensive formed from this verb, which as is well known signifies to heap up, to build a way by mounds and embankments, express the idea of enclosing with a wall, of a firm surrounding and enclosure. So the LXX understood it, translating by ; so also the Chald., Syr., Vulg., and several modern interpreters, e.g., Bertheau,all of whom find expressed in the word the idea of a loving clasp and embrace. It is however probably simpler and more in accordance with the sense of in the parallel clause to take the word, as Aben Ezra, Luther, and most modern interpreters do, in the sense of to exalt, esteem; [So H., M., N., St. agreeing with the E. V.]. With this conception also the second clause best agrees, for in this there is added to the exhortation to prize and honor wisdom, the other admonition to love her.If thou dost embrace her. Wisdom here appears personified as a loved one or wife, whom one lovingly draws to him, and embraces; comp. Pro 5:20; Ecc 3:5.
Pro 4:9. She will put upon thy head a graceful wreath. Comp. Pro 1:9.Will she bestow upon thee. The rare verb which again in Hos 11:8 stands parallel with , according to this passage and Gen 14:20 undoubtedly signifies to offer, to give, to present some one with something (construed with two accusatives). The old translations took it sometimes in the sense of protecting (LXX ; Vulg.; proteget te; so the Syriac), as though it were a denominative from , shield. With this, however, the glorious crown does not correspond, which is evidently introduced as an ornament, and not as a protection and defence.
4. Pro 4:10-19. The father instructs his son concerning the way of wisdom (Pro 4:11; Pro 4:18) in which he should walk, in contrast with the ruinous path of impiety (Pro 4:14; Pro 4:19).So shall the years of thy life be many. Comp. Pro 3:2. [Wordsworth says This word is plural in the original, as in Pro 3:2, as if Solomon would comprehend the future life with the present, and add Eternity to Time. He forgets that the abstract idea of life is never expressed by the singular of this noun except as its slat. constr. is used in formulas of adjuration, e.g., Gen 45:15-16; 1Sa 1:26, etc. See Lexicons generally, and Btt. 697, 2, 689, B. a. A.]
Pro 4:11. In the way of wisdom, i.e., not in the way to wisdom, but in the way in which Wisdom walks, here also again as it were personified,a way which is lovely and peaceful (according to Pro 3:17), a way with right paths (lit., paths of straightness, comp. Pro 2:9; Pro 2:12) as the 2d member and the following verse describe it (comp. Job 18:7).[Pro 4:12. The peculiar significance of such promises to an inhabitant of Palestine, see illustrated, e.g., in Hacketts Illustrations of Scripture, p. 20.A.].
Pro 4:13. Hold fast upon instruction; let not go; keep her; she is thy life, as the bestower of long life; Pro 3:2; Pro 3:16; Pro 3:18; see below, Pro 4:23.
Pro 4:14. And walk not, etc. properly, to go straight on, here used of the bold, arrogant walk of the presumptuous; comp. Pro 9:6; Pro 23:19. To translate by do not pronounce happy (comp. Pro 3:18) as the LXX, Vulg., and Syr. propose, contradicts the parallelism with enter not in the first member.
Pro 4:15. Avoid it. On to abhor, reject, comp. Pro 1:25.Turn from it and pass away,i.e., even if thou hast entered upon it () still turn aside from it and choose another way, which carries thee by the ruinous end of that one.
Pro 4:16-17. For they cannot sleep unless they sin, etc. Hitzig thinks that in this reference to the energy of the wicked in sinning there can be found no appropriate ground for the warning in Pro 4:15; he therefore declares Pro 4:16-17 a spurious interpolation, and at the same time inverts the order of the two following verses, i.e., makes the 19th the 18th; he then connects the , for, the only genuine fragment remaining of Pro 4:16, immediately with the etc., of Pro 4:18 (19); For. the way of the wicked is as midnight, etc. Since however no ancient MSS. or translation exhibits anything that favors this emendation, and since a certain irregular movement, an abandonment of that order of ideas which would seem simpler and more obvious, corresponds in general with the style of our author (comp. Pro 1:16 sq.; Pro 3:3 sq.; Pro 8:4 sq.), we may fairly disregard so violent a treatment. Besides, the substance of Pro 4:16-17, so far forth as they depict the way of the wicked as a restless, cruel and abominable course of procedure, is plainly quite pertinent as the foundation of a warning against this way. And that subsequently the concluding description of this way as a way of darkness (Pro 4:19) is not introduced until after the contrasted representation of the way of the pious (Pro 4:18), is an arrangement favorable to the general rhetorical effect of the whole, like several which we have already found, especially in Pro 3:34-35, and also at the end of chapters 1 and 2Unless they have caused (others) to fall, i.e., unless they have betrayed into sin; the objectviz., others, in generaldoes not need to be here distinctly expressed. For the Hiphil , which should be the reading here according to the Kri, in the ethical sense of causing to stumble in the way of truth and uprightness, comp. especially Mal 2:8, where the causing to fall is brought into even closer connection than in our passage with the idea of turning from the way. [The Kthibh would require the translation they have stumbled, i.e., (figuratively) sinned].For they eat bread of wickedness, and wine of violence do they drink. Against the translation of Schultens, Muentinghe, Umbreit, Elster, [Kamphausen]: for wickedness do they eat as bread, and violence do they drink as wine (comp. Job 15:16; Job 34:7), may be adduced the position of the words, which should rather stand somewhat in this wayfor they have eaten wickedness as bread for themselvesif designed to convey the meaning of a mere comparison. The expressions bread of wickedness, wine of violent deeds, plainly conveying a stronger meaning, remind us of the bread of affliction, Deu 16:3; of the bread of sorrows, Psa 127:2, and likewise of the wine of the condemned () Amo 2:8.
Pro 4:18-19. Like the light of dawn that groweth in brightness till the perfect day, literally, that grows and brightens (familiar Hebrew idiom, as in Jdg 4:24; Est 9:4; comp. Ewald, Lehrb. 280 b.) even to the establishing of the day. (const. state of the part. Niphal of ) lit., the established, the (apparently) stationary position of the sun at noon (comp. the Greek , which however the LXX do not here employ). For , used of the brightness of the rising sun, comp. Isa 60:3; Isa 62:1 . The comparison of the path, i.e., the moral course, of the just with the light of the rising sun, bright and ever brightening, is most appropriate. If the whole path is light, a bright, clear knowledge of salvation, illumination by the heavenly light of divine revelation (comp. Pro 6:23; Pro 28:5; Isa 2:5, etc.) there can naturally be no idea of stumbling and falling suggested (comp. Joh 11:9-10); rather will he who walks in this way attain more and more to perfect clearness in the inward state of his heart and conscience, and therewith also in increasing measure to outward prosperity.The way of the wicked is as darkness, the exact opposite to that of the righteous. strictly thick darkness, midnight gloom. The degree of this darkness and its evil consequences for him who walks in it, the 2d clause clearly depicts; comp. Joh 11:9-10, and for the general subject, the previous delineation of the sudden destruction of the ungodly, Pro 1:27 sq.; also Pro 2:18; Pro 2:22; Pro 3:35.
5. Pro 4:20-27. The fathers admonition closes with an urgent warning to the son against forgetting this counsel, with a special reference to the ruinous consequences which such a forgetting will ensure.Let them not depart from thine eyes. The meaning is depart, escape, just as in Pro 3:21. Bertheaus interpretation is needlessly artificial,let them not withdraw them (3 Plur. without a definite subject), i.e., let them not be withdrawn.
Pro 4:22., For they are life to those who find them: comp. Pro 3:2; Pro 3:16; Pro 4:13; and especially for the use of find in the sense of to attain or to be blessed with anything, see Pro 3:13; Pro 8:35.And to their whole body health. Comp. Pro 3:8, where is found instead of the of our passage.
Pro 4:23. Above all that is to be guarded keep thy heart. literally, more than every object of watching, for this is beyond all question the sense of , and not, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi take it, a thing against which one must guard, which would not correspond with the radical meaning of . The heart as the chief object of moral watchfulness, is plainly nothing but the conscience, the pure moral consciousness of man, the , 1Ti 1:5; 1Ti 1:19; 1Pe 3:16. So Hitzig, with unquestionable correctness, referring to Psa 51:10; Job 27:6; 1Sa 25:31.For out of it (flow) currents of life. Lit., issues of life Bertheau) i.e., of life in the physico-organic as well as in the ethical sense; of life so far forth as it manifests itself in the normal course and movement of the functions of the bodily organism, just as also in the full development of the spiritual powers and their working upon external nature. Comp. remarks on Pro 2:8 sq. Hitzig also, who translates not quite appropriately by paths of life, admits the fact that the expression rests upon the recognition of the heart as the seat and fountain of the blood, and therefore also as the central home of the entire life of the physical being (in accordance with Lev 17:11; Deu 12:23; and in opposition to Bertheau, who denies this reference). So also Umbreit, except that he, with a view somewhat partial and obscure, conceives of the heart as the seat of the sensibilities, and the life that flows from it as the general sensation of being. [All vital principles are lodged there, and only such as are good and holy will give you pleasure. The exercises of religion will be pleasant when they are natural, and flow easily out of their own fountain. John Howe, Delighting in God.A.]
Pro 4:24. Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, etc. Following the first clause of Pro 4:23 the 24th and 25th verses warn against an arbitrary perverting of the moral judgment, into which evil passions so easily betray, and admonish not to give a misdirection to thought (the acies animi) within the department of morality (Hitzig).Let thine eyes look straight forward, etc. A prohibition not of an indolent gazing about (Bertheau), but of the false and evil look of the self-seeking, who does not intend honorable dealing with his neighbor, but seeks in all his course and dealing to outwit, to deceive and overpower him; comp. Pro 6:13; Pro 10:10; Pro 16:30; Sir 27:25; Mat 6:23.
Pro 4:26. Make straight the path of thy foot. plainly something that is possible only in connection with eyes that look straight forward and and correctly; this is therefore the necessary practical consequence of the course commended in the preceding verse. He only who is from the heart honorable and upright is able also in the individual forms of his moral action to avoid every false step.Let all thy ways be established. does not mean let them be sure (Berth.), but let them be definite, fixed, which can be the case only with a course rightly regulated, straightforward, and sure; comp. Psa 119:133; Heb 12:13. The latter passage plainly contains an allusion to our verse, the first member of which according to the LXX reads: .
Pro 4:27. Turn not to the right or to the left, keep thy foot far from evil. This fuller explanation of that fixedness and certainty of the way which is demanded in Pro 4:26 completes the fathers admonition in a way altogether appropriate, and is therefore neither to be declared, with Hitzig, a spurious addition, nor is it, in agreement with Bertheau, to be deprived of its position and meaning as a concluding appeal, by receiving into the text as genuine the two verses which appear after it in the LXX (and Vulgate): , . , . These two verses, whose substance appears to be a mere repetition from Pro 4:26-27, seem to owe their origin to the design to secure here again, as in the preceding section (Pro 4:10-19) a full decade of verses. In opposition to this view, arbitrary and theoretical, that the structure of the paragraphs or strophes in the chapters before us is uniformly equal, i.e., always consisting of ten versesa view to which even Bertheau attaches much importancesee, above, the Exeget. Notes on chap. 3, No. 1.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The counsel given by the pious and wise father to his son begins with the appeal to him to hold fast his words (Pro 4:4), and ends with an earnest warning against a course made insecure and dangerous by disregard of these words (Pro 4:20-27). Obedience to the word of revealed truth as transmitted within the community of the children of God, and bequeathed by parents to their sons,this is the general statement of the import of the demands of this chapter as a whole, so far forth as it may be reduced to a single brief expression. It is essentially, as Melancthon says, adhortationes ad studium obedienti et ad diligentiam regendi disciplinam, that are contained in this passage. The whole is a chapter on the right (Christian) training of children, an exhibition of the nature of that chief manifestation of the Hhokmah [practical wisdom], which in the general superscription of the book (Pro 1:3; comp. Pro 1:7) was designated as or discipline.1 To this chief end, the holding his son to discipline, to obedience, and the cherishing of his wholesome words and teachings, all the other prominent ideas which find expression in the fathers discourse are made subservient; the exhibition of wisdom as he one costly jewel, whose acquisition is above every other, and if necessary, at the cost of all other possessions, to be sought and secured (Pro 4:5-9; comp. Mat 13:44-46); the emphatic admonition to be subject to discipline, and lot to let it go. even because it is the life of the true and obedient child of God (Pro 4:13); the clear delineation of the two paths; the way of darkness in which the ungodly walk, and the way of light in which the pious and wise are found Pro 4:14-19); the counsel to guard with all diligence not merely the word of truth received into the heart (Pro 4:20-22; comp. the Jam 1:18), but also the heart itself, as the seat of the conscience, and the source of all life and prosperity (Pro 4:23); and finally the commendation of a life of honor and integrity, without turning to the right hand or to the left, as the salutary result of that inward disposition which is both pure and sure (Pro 4:24-27). That a pure heart, i.e., one purified by the grace of God, and with this a firm heart, i.e., one firmly rooted in truth as its ground, is the source and common fountain for the successful development of all the main activities and functions of human life, those belonging to the sphere of sense, as well as to the psychical and spiritual realms, and that this must more and more manifest itself as such a centre of the personality, sending forth light and life;this thought, expressed in Pro 4:23 in a way peculiarly vigorous and suggestive, unquestionably presents the most profound, comprehensive and controlling truth, that the father, in the course of his counsels and warnings, gives to his son, standing before the portal of the school of life, to be borne with him on his way (comp. the advice of Tobias to his son: Tob 4:6).Yet we must also mark as one of the most noteworthy of the fundamental ideas of this discourse, the designation, contained in Pro 4:7, of wisdom as the chief thing, which is to be sought above all things else, and to be prized above all possessions and treasures. Yet this passage probably requires a different conception and application from that which is usually found,so far forth as the thought which has already been expressed, e.g., above, in Pro 2:3 sq., that one must practise wisdom to become wise (comp. Melanchthon on this passage; Starke, and of recent writers, especially Elster), probably does not correspond with the true import of ; the expression being designed rather to serve for the designation of wisdom as the highest end of all human counsel and action.
HOMILETIC AND PRACTICAL
Homily on the entire chapter: The two paths in which youth can walk,that of obedience and that of vice (or the way of wisdom and that of folly; the way of light and that of darkness; comp. the minute picture of the two ways in the Ep. Barnab, 1820).Educational Sermon: The fundamental principles of a truly Christian education of children, exhibited according to the standard of the counsels of a sage of the Old Testament to his Song of Solomon 1 st principle: True wisdom (which is equivalent to the fear of God) the highest end of all regulations adopted in the educational action of parents (Pro 4:4-9); 2d principle: As means to this end, an earnest insisting both upon the reward of walking in the light, and upon the punishment for walking in darkness (Pro 4:10-19); 3d principle: Results to be anticipated simply from this, that Gods word be received and cherished in a susceptible and good heart (Pro 4:20-27).Comp. Stcker: Warning against evil companionship: 1) the simple command that one must avoid evil company (Pro 4:1-19); 2) the way in which this can be done (Pro 4:20-27).Starke: How David admonishes Solomon: 1) to the reception f wisdom (413); 2) to the avoidance of impiety (1419); 3) to the practice of piety (2027).
Pro 4:4-9. Starke:Should the case arise, that one must lose either true wisdom or all temporal good, forego rather the latter; for wisdom is better than gold (Pro 16:16; Mat 19:29). Honor, accomplishments, graces, esteem, each man desires for himself. If thou wouldst attain this wish of thine, then seek wisdom; she gloriously rewards her admirers.[Pro 4:4. Bridges:This heart-keeping is the path of life. Goulburn:Endeavor to make your heart a little sanctuary, in which you may continually realize the presence of God, and from which unhallowed thoughts and even vain thoughts must carefully be excluded.]Berleb. Bible:The two conditions of the Christian life: 1) its commencement, the seeking and finding of wisdom (Pro 4:7, according to the common interpretation); 2) its continuance, dependent upon preserving wisdom, and thereby being preserved, advanced, and brought to honor by it (Pro 4:8-9).[Pro 4:7. Trapp: Make religion thy business: other things do by the by].
Pro 4:10-19. Hasius: To set ones foot in the way of good is ofttimes not so difficult as to go vigorously forward in it. The power of temptation is great; the tinder of vice is naturally in us; even a little spark can kindle it.Zeltner: Impossible as it is that a stone fall into the water and remain dry, so impossible is it that a lover of evil company be not betrayed, Sir 13:7; 1Co 15:33.[Pro 4:18. Arnot: The sun is an emblem not of the justified, but of the justifier. Christ alone is the source of light: Christians are only its reflectors. The just are those whom the Sun of righteousness shines upon; when they come beneath His healing beams, their darkness flies away. They who once were darkness are light now, but it is in the Lord.]Starke: The pious can avoid the snares of destruction through the light of the Holy Spirit; but the ungodly stumble in darkness and fall into the pits of death. As one from darkness walks on in darkness, so from light into light (Pro 4:18; comp. Pro 12:28; Psa 84:7; Job 5:12-14).Berleb. Bible: The soul in its conversion to God must 1) hear His word; 2) receive the influence of this word, and by it be directed to the way of truth; 3) be guided by God in this way; 4) under Gods guidance and protection learn so to run in this way that it shall nowhere stumble nor fall.[Pro 4:19. Emmons: Sinners are in such darkness that they are insensible to the objects that are leading them to ruin; thus they stumble a) at the great deceiver; b) at one another; c) at Divine Providence; d) at their common employments; e) at the nature and tendency of their religious performances; f) at the preaching they hear; g) at the blindness of their own hearts.]
Pro 4:20-27. J. Lange:The inner spiritual life begins with the heart. As is the heart so are all its issues; for from the heart proceed evil thoughts, etc., Mat 15:19; Mat 12:35.Berleb. Bible: The heart must keep the doctrine, and the doctrine the heart. Both are so intimately connected that neither can be without the other. Nature herself in the natural heart shows with what care we must keep the spiritual (ethical) heart. In this we can never be too precise, too sharp, or too careful. If we guard our house, much more must the heart be guarded; the watches must there be doubled, etc.In this all the duties of a door-keeper combine, reminding us who goes in and out, what sort of thoughts enter into the heart, what sort of desires go out, etc. Self-denial is the best means to such a keeping of the heart. It must stand as porter before the hearts door; and the cross and the patience of Christ is the best door of the heart, well preserved with bolts and bars against all intrusion or violence.Saurin (sermon on Pro 4:26):On the needful attention which each should give to his ways.Calwer Handb.:Threefold counsel in regard to the way and means of continuing in the right path: 1) give good heed to thy heart; 2) put away a perverse mouth (Pro 4:24); 3) let thine eyes look straightforward (Pro 4:25-27).Von Gerlach:The first and most immediate thing proceeding from the heart is words, then deeds. Let the former be above all things truthful and sincere; the latter circumspect, well considered, and then executed with certainty and confidence (Pro 4:26-27). Comp. Rom 14:23; and Senecas well known maxim: Quod dubitas, ne feceris.[Arnot: We cry to God in the words of David, Create in me a clean heart, and He answers back by the mouth of Davids son, Keep thy heart. Keep it with the keeping of heaven above, and of the earth beneath,Gods keeping bespoken in prayer, and mans keeping applied in watchful effort.
Pro 4:27. Trapp: Keep the kings highway: keep within Gods precincts, and ye keep under His protection.Bridges: Though to keep the heart be Gods work, it is mans agency. Our efforts are His instrumentality.]
Footnotes:
[1]In this particular, Bohlius certainly took the correct view, that in his otherwise remarkable classification of the contents of the first nine chapters according to the seven principia ethices divin deductiva (Daath, Binah, Sechel, Tuschijah, Musar, Msimmah, Ormah), he assigns to the 4th chapter the Musar (or the colligata informatio, as he explains the term). See Ethica Sacra, Disp. VI., p. 65 sq.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS.
This chapter hath much the same tendency as the former. It contains an exhortation to the pursuit of wisdom. And towards the close of the Chapter the sad effects of a contrary study is pointed out in strong characters.
Pro 4:1-2 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
There is but little variety in what is here said by way of enforcing what is taught, unless it be the consideration arising from the repetition of the request. But the tenderness of the Father is brought in by way of intimating both the expediency of the precept, and the real regard with which it is accompanied. And who can overlook, while reading it, the solicitude and love of God our Father, whose endearments are held forth to us under the sweet image of the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. 2Co 1:3 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 4:5-7
I mean to follow Solomon’s directions, ‘get learning, get understanding’. I find earlier days are gone by I find that I can have no enjoyment in the world but continual drinking of knowledge.
Keats to John Taylor (1818).
References. IV. 7. J. T. Bramston, Sermons to Boys, p. 152. A. E. Dunning, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. 1895, p. 12. U. Thomas, Ibid. vol. liii. 1898, p. 163. IV. 10, 11. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 117. 10-19. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Esther, IV. Job, Proverbs, etc., p. 96. IV. 12. Ibid. p. 101. IV. 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv. No. 1418. J. S. Maver, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. 1898, p. 318. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 119. IV. 14, 15. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 344. “Plain Sermons” by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. v. p. 208. IV. 18. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 141. G. Body, The Life of Justification, p. 175. J. Hamilton, Faith in God, p. 324. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Esther, Job, Proverbs, etc., p. 108. IV. 18,19. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 121. IV. 23. Spurgeon Sermons, vol. iv. No. 179. J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 213. W. G. Elmslie, British Weekly Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 465. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Esther, Job, Proverbs, etc., p. 116. E. Meyrick Goulburn, Three Counsels of the Divine Master, vol. i. p. 245. H. Harris, Short Sermons, vol. i. p. 202. “Plain Sermons” by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. ix. p. 324. IV. 23-27. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 124.
The Keeping of the Heart
Pro 4:23
I. How is this law of life to be obeyed? How is the heart to be kept?
If we are going to keep our hearts we must have disciplined imaginations. The relation between the two is of the most intimate nature. Now what is the work of the imagination? The imagination does this. It takes of abstract things and presents them in concrete forms to the heart. It takes of ideas and turns them into pictures; and by presenting these ideas like pictures or images to the heart, it provokes in the heart certain feelings. If the pictures appeal to fear, they produce in the heart the spirit of revulsion. If the pictures appeal to that which the heart delights in, it appeals in the form of attractions.
A disciplined imagination is the condition of a heart rightly regulated and of a life rightly shaped.
II. I believe myself that it is impossible to explain the phenomenon of our spiritual lives unless you recognize the fact that there is an organized power of evil that acts upon us from without. Whatever theological difficulties there may be in apprehending this truth I could not explain the facts of my own spiritual experience unless I knew there was some power without me that had power to stir thought within me; because continually these things that come to my imagination and propose themselves to my heart have not been self-sought, they have come upon me entirely without my own will; it is as if I had been walking in a road, and a pistol shot comes to me and I feel its effect immediately within; immediately the imagination is stirred into such activity with such persistency, with such fascination, that which whilst to my highest self it is a positive agony, it is yet to my lower nature a positive thing of delight.
III. I must, in some way or another, get master of my imagination; and as I beat down my body into subjection I must bring my imagination into subjection. How are you going to do it?
1. Pray about it.
2. Take care what you read.
3. Do everything that you can that will supply to the imagination wholesome food.
There is only one way of really getting the peace of the imagination; and that is by living with the eyes of the imagination continually gazing upon the vision of the beautiful.
G. Body, Christian World Pulpit, vol. LXXIII. 1908, p. 196.
Pro 4:23
Ruskin says: ‘For all of us, the question is not at all to ascertain how much or how little corruption there is in human nature; but to ascertain whether, out of all the mass of that nature, we are of the sheep or the goat breed; whether we are people of upright heart, being shot at, or people of crooked heart, shooting. And, of all the texts bearing on the subject, this, which is a quite simple and practical order, is the one you have chiefly to hold in mind. “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”‘
Ethics of the Dust, p. 101.
References. IV. 25. B. Wilberforce, The Hope that is in Me, p. 39. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiv. No. 2058. IV. 26. R. Flint, Sermons and Addresses, p. 67. H. Davenport, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiv. 1903, p. 374. V. 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi. No. 667. V. 11-13. H. Ward Beecher, Sermons (4th Series), p. 481. V. 15. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 130. V. 21, 22. Ibid. p. 134. V. 22. Jesse Brett, The Soul’s Escape, p. 33. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Esther, Job, Proverbs, etc., p. 123. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi. No. 915. VI. 6. E. Fowle, Plain Preaching to Poor People (1st Series), p. 15. VI. 16-19. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 136. VI. 20-23. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xli. No. 2406; see also Twelve Sermons to Young Men, p. 145. VI. 20-24. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 138. VI. 22. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 1017. VII. 6. J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 3. VIII. 1, 14, 22, 23, 29, 30. W. Alexander, The Great Question, p. 3. VIII. 10, 13. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 143. VIII. 14. W. Alexander, The Great Question, p. 46. VIII. 15. E. W. Bullinger, By Me Kings Reign, Sermon. J. Andrew, The Dundee Pulpit, 1872, p. 169. VIII. 17. A. G. Deedes, Church Times, 1900, vol. xliv. p. 103. VIII. 18. C. Silvester Horne, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. 1897, p. 406. VIII. 18, 21. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 146. VIII. 21. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Esther, Job, Proverbs, etc., p. 130. VIII. 22-31. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 148. VIII. 30, 31. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Esther, Job, Proverbs, etc., p. 136. VIII. 31. G. W. Herbert, Notes of Sermons, p. 252.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
A Parental Exhortation
Pro 4
Still the paternal exhortation proceeds with more and more rhetorical dignity. Doctrine and law form the staple of this appeal. By “law” understand “direction,” for life is an ever-bisecting course, and full of points that must bewilder inexperienced travellers. Do not venture upon great sea voyages without proper instruments and without being taught how to use them. So in life. Be enriched with doctrine or wisdom, and cultivate that tender filial spirit which gratefully yields itself to direction. It is at once wise and lovely for youth to consult the aged, and to avail themselves of accumulated experience. Any other spirit is vain, self-conceited, frivolous, and unworthy. Why should the father be anxious to instruct and direct the son? Because he has seen more of life, more of its mystery, its peril, its tragedy; therefore his heart yearns to preserve the young from danger. The father’s position is one of moral dignity and supreme benevolence. Having suffered himself, he would save his children from pain.
“For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live” ( Pro 4:3-4 ).
Solomon knew youth because he had himself been young. He knew also the advantage of instruction, for he himself had enjoyed it. Thus one generation may benefit another, and increase its years by preventing a repetition of its errors. We save a man’s time by saving him from mistakes, and thus we actually add to the length of his life. It is to-day that men may compress centuries within the span of the allotted term: if we were wise we, though so modern, would be the true patriarchs of history. What wisdom is stored for us! How easy now is the ascent to the temple of understanding! Every father can leave his son the fortune of a noble example. That is more than gold, more than acres, more than fame. Here it is that virtue has its splendid opportunity! Men may have been looking in the wrong direction for a heritage for their children. Let that heritage be a vivid recollection of a home sanctified by prayer, a life devoted to good doing, an example of industry and justice, a spirit of hopefulness and charity, and that memory will be an inheritance and a refuge in life’s most painful hours. The man in the text was an only son, and therefore was in a trying position; yet his father and his mother were wise, so they enriched him with wisdom, and kept not from him the advantages of discipline. Fools are they who ruin their children under the hypocrisy of being kind to them. In after years the victims of such kindness will be the justest and bitterest of its critics.
“Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not: neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life” ( Pro 4:5-13 ).
The figure of merchandise is still maintained. Work, plan, seek, toil, are the watchwords of true zeal in this matter. It is as if the youth were face to face with many attractions say, beauty, wealth, ease, pleasure, and the like, and whilst he is estimating their claims the father exhorts him, saying, Get wisdom, get understanding; do not be deceived; insist upon having the brightest treasure, and on no account be victimised by men who would urge you to sacrifice future satisfaction to immediate gratification. How full of wisdom is the exhortation “Love her, and she shall keep thee:” that is a law of the widest application: it is true in every department of life; true of art, of learning, of friendship, of service; to love is to be loved. If any man love me, I will manifest myself to him. The tenacious memory is lodged in the heart, and not in the intellect Fall in love with wisdom; make a heart-idol of her; dream of her charms, invite her to yield her treasures, seek her daily companionship, long for her, hail her with delight, yea, in every way devote to her the undivided passion of the heart. “Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.” The wise man will come to honour amongst his fellow-men as soon as he has had time to show how truly wise he is. He can wait He will not contend with clamour and madness; he will not compete with selfishness as if the rivalry were honourable: he will teach, observe, pray, and wait, knowing that his time will come, and that his influence will be recognised. With no mean reward will he be burdened. Great and lustrous are his honours: “She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.” God withholds not heaven from those who make good use of earth. A crown of righteousness is laid up for the faithful. Crown and throne are familiar objects in the outlook of the godly. Nothing less will satisfy their holy ambition. Even on earth true wisdom always comes to the throne at last. “A drachm of this wisdom is worth a pound of wit.” The Greeks expressed “learned” and “good” by one word ( ), so true honour even amongst men is synonymous with true wisdom and true virtue.
“Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away” ( Pro 4:14-15 ).
The exhortation continues to reveal the depth and reality of the personal experience of the speaker: he will not have his son so much as enter into the path of the wicked; the young man is not to come even inside the gate; on no account is he to make an experimental visit merely for the sake of forming an opinion as to the danger and loathsomeness of sin. The only safety is by keeping strictly outside, and running away from it with the eagerest haste. In every variety of manner the wise man cautions his son. The young man has to avoid the evil way, to pass not by it; but to turn from it, and pass away. Both the active and the passive courses are thus enjoined; not only is the evil way to be avoided, but it has to be turned away from, the back and not the face has to be turned towards it, nor is there to be any loitering, but the feet are instantly to move in a precisely opposite direction, so that, when the tempter comes from his hidden place to seduce the wayfarer, he may find that the young traveller is no longer on the scene. We are not to halt between two opinions, nor to dally or compromise, or to adopt any middle course whatever, when the question is a moral one; but with definiteness, simplicity, and courage we are to elect the right and to persevere, even though the way lie up difficult mountains or across dreary sands. The moment we set a door ajar the enemy will enter. If the voice loses one tone of emphasis in repelling his approaches the enemy will note the change and immediately take advantage of it.
“For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence” ( Pro 4:16-17 ).
The counsellor knows the nature of those with whom he has to deal, for he has seen into their very motive, and understood their evil passion in all its sweep and fury. He says that bad men sleep not except they have done mischief. The expression is very forcible, meaning that evil-doing has become second nature to them, and until they have done some evil it is impossible for them to lie down with any sense of comfort. By “the bread of wickedness,” referred to in the seventeenth verse, we are to understand the bread which has been acquired wickedly. There is no sweetness in all the house of the bad man; upon his head is written “wickedness,” and upon his wine is written “violence.” When wicked people cannot accomplish their evil purposes, it is as if they had deprived the body of bread and wine, so that a kind of illness takes place in the mind, and they go to bed, not to sleep, but to spend a weary night of self-accusation and poignant regret. We know what it is for a man of business to spend an industrious yet unprofitable day, and how unsettling it is to the mind to return from such fruitless occupation to seek rest It is precisely so with the wicked they are described as going about their business with great eagerness, they are determined to bring some people into mischief and misery; but at the end of the day, when they find that their purpose has failed of effect, sleep is driven from their eyelids, and disappointment begins to gnaw their hearts. From all this we may infer the quality of inspiration under which they labour. They are the servants of the devil. He is a cruel taskmaster. When his slaves return at night to tell him that their day’s work has been a failure, he afflicts them with sleeplessness and torments them with self-contempt.
‘But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” ( Pro 4:18 ).
Observe that the word “path” occurs in both instances under which it is shown that life is comparable to a journey. The distinction of the path of the just is that more and more light shines upon it, revealing not only the path itself, but all surrounding objects of interest and loveliness. The idea of light is always associated with the way of Christian progress. According to Psalm xxvii., the Lord is the light of the righteous. Jehovah was the guiding sun of the Psalmists. In Isaiah lx. the Church is exhorted thus, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” She had been as in the darkness of Sheol, and now she is led forth into all the glory of morning. God himself is the sun of righteousness, and he comes upon thee as “the light of the morning, even a morning without clouds.” We are to understand that the just man sees God more and more clearly as life unfolds the mystery of its purposes. Providence reveals God. History is one of the temples in which he resides. Personal experience is the medium which he selects for the continual expansion of his light and truth. Paul speaks of the “marvellous light” of the gospel. God himself is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. Not only have we this revelation of the divine nature, but we have a standard by which to test our own spiritual progress. If we love light, then are we the children of the day, but if we tarry for the darkness, that under its concealment we may carry out our purposes, whatever may be our intellectual gifts or our social advantages, we are children of the night, unclaimed and unapproved by the God of glory. The more we love light the more light we shall have. “Light, more light,” must not be the poet’s cry alone, but the desire of every heart which believes that God’s light is infinite, and that we should be entrusted with more of it if we were faithful to the degree in which we are already enlightened.
“The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble” ( Pro 4:19 ).
This is the direct contrast. Men cannot both leave the light and yet be in it. To leave the light is to go into the prison of darkness, and to live the dwindling life of deprivation and disablement. Our life was made for the light, and therefore without light we shall die. A cruel thing it is to deprive a plant of light; how infinitely more cruel to shut out the light of God’s truth from the soul that was made to enjoy it. Other men cannot shut that light out from us, how bitterly soever they may be opposed to our Christian sympathy; only man can exclude the light from himself. Books, ordinances, and all manner of public opportunities may be taken away from us, and thereby great loss may be inflicted upon the spiritual life; but even under disadvantages so discouraging the soul can silently commune with God, and through intense and loving prayer can invoke his presence and support. Only suicide is possible in the spiritual life. No other hand can take that life from us; but, alas! we have power not only to grieve the Spirit, but to quench the Spirit, and thus to bring ourselves under the pitiless and boundless dominion of darkness. Light is the enemy of wickedness, and darkness, in a sense, may be said to be the friend of it. Bad men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. They dread the rising of the sun; they fear even the unexpected flash of an artificial light, knowing that: wherever light comes it will reveal them in an attitude of shame, or in quest of some forbidden object. They make a kind of heaven of their darkness. It is indeed their only security. Yet what can be taken away so quickly as darkness? Go into the darkest chamber, and by one stroke of the hand every corner of that chamber may be illuminated, for darkness seems to fly away as if in fear; it is a ghost which is more easily terrified than it can terrify others. The policy of the bad man is a policy of darkness that is to say, it is impossible to tell what his real object is, or to find out what he is doing in his concealment, or to work in him any degree of frankness and transparency; he is a man of dark counsels of deep designs, of unrevealed plots and treasons, in very deed a child of darkness and a servile worshipper at its altar. The darkness comes stumbling, and in the case of the wicked a stumbling that cannot be explained, for verily they know not at what they stumble. There is but one light of the world “As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
“My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil” ( Pro 4:20-27 ).
The earnestness of the counsellor is indisputable. Why does he thus wrestle with his son? Why not utter to him a word or two, and pass on? Surely there must be something dependent on obedience and disobedience. It is this after-thing that gives its true point and value to the exhortation. When the husbandman is urged to sow his seed, it is not merely that he may do a day’s work, but that he may provide a harvest. The act of sowing does not terminate in itself; it means bread for the eater, and seed for other sowers in other days. Obedience to wise directions means exactly what is said in the 22nd verse, “Life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” We admire the counsel which exhorts to temperance, and to cleanliness, and to self-control in all its aspects, because we are assured that such a course of discipline ends in health and vigour. Precisely so with counsels of a higher range; they are not merely fine sentiments, admitting of poetical expression and illustration, they bear immediately upon spiritual health, manliness, and completeness of development Hence their importance, and hence the eagerness with which the young soul is plied by the man of manifold personal experience. He entreated that his words should ever be kept before the eyes, that they should be stored in the very midst of the young man’s heart. About the young man’s “heart” the wise counsellor was specially careful. “Keep thy heart with all diligence;” keep thy heart above all things that are to be prized. The heart would seem to be the true seat of character, “for out of it are the issues of life.” “Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life.” So deeply impressed were the ancients with the part that was played by the heart in the development of life, that they seemed almost to fear lest God himself should besiege it with temptation. “Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: let me not eat of their dainties.” Observe how the whole life seems to be touched by this exhortation. The heart is to be kept; a froward mouth is to be put away; perverse lips are to be kept at an infinite distance; the eyes are to look right on, the eyelids are to look straight before; the path of the feet is to be pondered; the foot is to be removed from evil. Compare with this the exhortation given by the apostle in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where he exhorts Christians to take unto them the whole armour of God. The whole life is to be guarded and protected because no man is stronger than his weakest point, and we may actually be weakest where we suppose ourselves to be strongest. It is possible to be careful about the mouth, and yet to allow the eye wide and perilous liberty. Alas, we can practise wickedness in silence! The eye can be enjoying a very harvest of evil whilst the mouth is fast closed, and not one sign is given by speech that the soul is rioting at the table of the devil. Who can keep his eyes aright? Who cannot open them, even in prayer, that he may feast them on some forbidden object whilst his lips are uttering holy words? “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” It is of infinite consequence that we should direct our exertions to the right point, otherwise our lives may be spent in mere frivolity under the guise of great industry and faithfulness. We may be watching at the wrong gate, or we may suppose that only certain gates are to be closed and that others may be left open without danger. There is to be proportion in our discipline. Cobwebs will not keep burglars out. It is not the front door only that needs to be attended to, but the gate at the back, or the little window in some obscure part of the house. When the enemy comes as a house-breaker, he does not seek for the strongest part of the castle, but for its very weakest parts. “See that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” It is not the red coat that saves the soldier from being wounded, but the armour that is underneath it. Not our nominal respectability but our real piety is the safeguard of the character. We are called upon to accept all these exhortations as words uttered by a father. That is to say, they are not judicial words harsh, arbitrary, disciplinary words; they are not lofty, military, haughty words; even when they are sternest they are gentle, even when they impose the severest exertions their meaning is to bring the character to blossoming and fruitfulness. Hence the counsellor is always called father, and the counselled one is always addressed as son; we have to picture a benignant, gracious, gentle patriarch giving some young and inexperienced stripling the benefit of his stores of memory, and of pleasant or painful experience. The picture is thus charged with pathos. Alas! it is hardly possible to be wise in youth, otherwise with what interest should we listen to those who, from under their grey hairs and wrinkled faces, tell us what they have seen of the malignity of the enemy, the bitterness of evil-doing, and the joy which never fails to attach to the doing of things that are right and wise. And old men ought to be one of the very safeguards of society. An old teacher should be the most honoured of men, for he speaks not only speculatively and theoretically, but experimentally and practically, and he can show a proof of every wise word which his experience entitles him to utter. Let us listen to this gracious speaker in the Proverbs, for again and again he says, “My son, my son, my son.”
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XX
THE INSTRUCTION OF WISDOM (CONTINUED)
Pro 4:1-7:27
The addresses found in Pro 4:1-9:18 are fatherly admonitions. The main thought, or theme, of Pro 4:1-9 is, “Wisdom the principal thing.” There is an interesting bid of autobiography in this section. Solomon gives here the relation he sustained to his father and mother, and also the parental source of his instruction. It is the picture of parents with the children gathered about them for instruction. On this Wordsworth has beautifully said, “Wisdom doth live with children round her knees.”
“Sons” in verse I, means the pupils of the teacher who commends wisdom to them as his children, by the example of his own early education. Verse 3 suggests that Solomon was a true son, i.e., he was true in filial reverence and obedience; that he stood alone in the choice of God for the messianic line, and therefore he was first in the estimation of his father. Compare 1Ch 29:1 and note the bearing of this statement on the authorship of this part of the book. The things here promised to those who possess wisdom are found in Pro 4:6 ; Pro 4:8-9 and are preservation, promotion, and honor. The parallelism in these verses is synonymous, the second line in each repeating in different words the meaning of the first. The theme of Pro 4:10-19 is, “The ways of wisdom and folly,” or the ways of righteousness and wickedness contrasted. Pro 4:12 refers to the widening of the steps, an Oriental figure, for the bold and free movements of one in prosperity, versus the straightening of one in adversity, the straightening of them which represents the strained and timid actions of one in adversity. Compare Pro 4:12 and Psa 18:36 . Pro 4:17 , taken literally, means that evil men procure their bread and wine by wickedness and violence or, taken figuratively, means that wickedness and violence are to them as meat and drink. Compare Job 15:16 ; Job 34:7 ; Joh 4:34 .
There is a special contrast in Pro 4:18-19 between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked; one is light and the other is darkness. The parallelism here is integral, or progressive.
The theme of 4:20-27 is, “Keeping the heart and the life and looking straight ahead.” The key verse of this passage is Pro 4:23 : Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life; which reminds us of Mat 15:19 : “For out of the heart cometh evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, railings.”
“Thou shalt not commit adultery” or the seventh commandment, would be a good title for Pro 5 , and there are two parts of this chapter, viz: The unholy passion to be shunned (Pro 5:1-14 ) in contrast with the holy love to be cherished (Pro 5:15-23 ). There are some most striking figures of speech in Pro 5:3-4 , and Pro 5:15-21 of this chapter. In Pro 5:3-4 , we have pictured the seductions of the harlot and the bitter end of those who are caught by her wiles; in Pro 5:15-21 we have pictured the folly of free love over against the love for the one woman, with a fatherly exhortation to faithfulness in the marriage relation.
The picture of the latter end of an unfaithful life is seen in Pro 5:9-14 ; Pro 5:22-23 . Then come regrets, heartaches, slavery to sin, and final destruction.
The various evils against which there is found warning in Pro 6 are as follows: (1) surety (Pro 6:1-5 ); (2) the sluggard (Pro 6:6-11 ); (3) the worthless man (Pro 6:12-19 ); (4) the evil woman (Pro 6:20-35 ).
On Pro 6:1-5 Perowne says,
The frequent mention of suretyship in this book, and the strong terms of warning and reprobation in which it is invariably spoken of, accord well with what we should suppose to be the condition of society in the reign of Solomon. In earlier and simpler times it was enough for the Law to forbid usury of interest for a loan of money to be exacted by one Israelite from another; and raiment given as a pledge or security for a debt was to be returned before night-fall to be the owner’s covering in his sleep (Exo 22:25-27 ; Lev 25:35-38 ). With the development, however, of commerce and the growth of luxury under Solomon, money-lending transactions, whether for speculation in trade, or for personal gratification, had come to be among the grave dangers that beset the path of youth. Accordingly, though the writer of Ecclessiasticus contents himself with laying down restrictions to the exercise of suretyship, and even goes the length of telling us that “An honest man is surety for his neighbor” (Sirach 8:13; Sirach 29:14-20), our writer here, with a truer insight, has no quarter for it, but condemns it unsparingly on every mention of it (Pro 7:1-5 ; Pro 11:15 ; Pro 17:18 ; Pro 22:26-27 ; Pro 27:13 ). Even the generous impulse of youth to incur risk at the call of friendship must yield to the dictates, cold and calculating though they seem, of bitter experience.
There is a warning here, as elsewhere in this book, against all kinds of suretyship. (Compare Pro 11:15 ; Pro 17:18 ; Pro 20:16 ; Pro 22:26-27 ; Pro 27:13 ). The method of escape here seems to be that the surety is to use all diligence to get a release from his obligation before it comes due, otherwise there would be no mercy for him. He would have to pay it.
There are advice and warning to the sluggard in Pro 6:6-11 . He is advised to go to the ant and learn of her ways so he might take the wise course. He is warned of his coming poverty if he gives over to the sluggard’s habits of sleeping when he should be at his work early and late. This reminds us of another well-known proverb: Early to bed and early to rise, Makes one healthy, wealthy, and wise.
In Pro 6:12-19 we have a description of the worthless man, his end and what God abominates in him. He is here described as having a perverse mouth, winking with his eyes, speaking (or shuffling) with his feet, making signs with his fingers, devising evil, and sowing discord. His end is sudden destruction and that without remedy. There are seven things which God abominates in him, Pro 6:16-19 , as follows: There are six things which Jehovah hateth; Yea, seven which are an abomination unto him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood; A heart that deviseth wicked purposes, Feet that are swift in running to mischief, A false witness that uttereth lies, And he that soweth discord among brethren.
The section on the evil woman (Pro 6:20-35 ) is introduced by an appeal to the holy memories and sanctions of the family in order to give weight to an earnest warning against the sin which destroys the purity and saps the foundations of family life. There is a reference here, most likely, to the passage found in Deu 6:4-9 , which was construed literally by the Jews and therefore gave rise to the formal exhibition of the law in their phylacteries (see “phylactery” in Bible dictionary). Of course, the meaning here, just as in the Deuteronomy passage, is that they should use all diligence in teaching and keeping the law.
The tricks of the evil woman are described in this section (Pro 6:24-35 ), the effect of her life upon her dupes is given, the sin of adultery is compared with stealing and the wound upon the husband is also described. Her tricks are flattery, artificial beauty and, like Jezebel trying to captivate Jehu, she paints her eyelids (2Ki 9:30 ). The effect of her life upon her dupes is want in temporal life and loss of manhood, which is here called “precious life.” Like a man with fire in his bosom or coals of fire under his feet, the man who commits adultery shall not be unpunished. Stealing to satisfy hunger is regarded as a light offense, compared to this awful sin which always inflicts an incurable wound upon the husband. This they now call “The Eternal Triangle,” but it seems more correct to call it “The Infemal Triangle.” No greater offense can be committed against God and the home than the sin dealt with in this paragraph.
The subject of Pro 7 is the same as that of the preceding section, “The Evil Woman,” and is introduced by an earnest call to obedient attention which is followed by a graphic description of the tempter and her victims, as a drama enacted before the eyes.
The description of this woman here fits modern instances, and there are the most solemn warnings here against this sin. This description of her wiles and the final results of such a course are so clear that there is hardly any need for comment. A simple, attentive reading of this chapter is sufficient on each point suggested.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the style and tone of the addresses found in Pro 4:1-9:18 ?
2. What is the main thought, or theme, of Pro 4:1-9 ?
3. What is interesting bit of autobiography in this section, and what the words of Wordsworth in point?
4. What is the meaning of “eons” in Pro 4:1 , what is the meaning of Pro 4:3 , and what does wisdom here promise to them that possess her?
5. What is the theme of Pro 4:10-19 ?
6. What is the force of the figure in Pro 4:12 , what is the interpretation of Pro 4:17 , and what is the special contrast of Pro 4:18-19 ?
7. What is the theme of Pro 4:20-27 , and what is the key verse of this passage?
8. What commandment might be the title of Pro 5 , and what are the two sections of this chapter with their respective themes?
9. What are some of the most striking figures of speech in this chapter, and what is the picture here given of old age when such an evil course of life is pursued?
10. What are the various evils against which there is found warning in Pro 6 ?
11. What biblical times does the passage, Pro 6:1-5 , portray, what is the warning here against security debts, and, according to this passage, when once involved, how to escape?
12. What is the advice and warning to the sluggard in Pro 6:6-11 ?
13. What is the description of the worthless man, what is his end and what does God abominate in him?
14. How is the section on the evil woman (Pro 6:20-35 ) introduced and what is the reference in Pro 6:20-22 ?
15. What are the tricks of the evil woman described in this section (Pro 6:24-35 ), what is the effect of her life upon her dupes, how does the sin of adultery compare with stealing and how is the wound upon the husband here described?
16. What is the subject of Pro 7 and how is it introduced?
17. How does the description of this woman here fit modern instances and what are the most solemn warnings of this chapter against this sins? (Pro 8:1-9 -18).
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Pro 4:1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
Ver. 1. Hear, ye children. ] Audite senem, iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt: Hear me, now an old man, O ye youths, whom old men once gladly heard, when I was but a youth. With this speech Augustus pacified his mutinous army: –
“ Aspice, vultus
Ecce meos, utinamque oculos in pectore posses
Inserere, et patrias intus deprendere curas.” a
“Behold my looks; and oh that thou couldst see
Mine anxious thoughts and careful heart for thee!”
a Sol Phaetonti, apud Ovid. Met.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Proverbs Chapter 4
Much depends on the way in which instruction is given. We see its perfection in the great Teacher as depicted opening His mission in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luk 4:16-22 ). There He had been brought up, and there He read a prophecy which beyond doubt applied to Him alone, as soon appeared; and all bore Him witness and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of His mouth. Alas! they clashed with the will of man, and roused implacable anger, which showed itself even then murderously. But wisdom is justified of her children, whatever self-will may do or say. Let us then pursue the scripture before us.
“Hear, ye sons, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding; for I give you good doctrine: forsake ye not my law. For I was a son to my father, tender and an only one in the sight of my mother. And he taught me and said to me, Let thy heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom, get understanding; forget not neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee; love her, and she shall preserve thee. The beginning of wisdom [is], Get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thy head a garland of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.” vv. 1-9.
The form chosen is that of a father, not of a legislator. It is not therefore even a catechism of the “ten words,” but parental instruction; and attention is called in order to intelligence or discernment. The same Spirit who took His part in creation, who gave skill for the glory of Jehovah, who wrought in all that was good and great and holy, would here engage the young heart to hear. For He assuredly has good doctrine to give, and would guard against forsaking His law or teaching. The instrument employed can speak of the loving care bestowed on his own early days, when he was “a son to his father, tender and only beloved in the sight of his mother.” The affections are thus recalled to awaken the new duties. It was not only that the teacher had himself been taught, but that he did so appealed touchingly. “Let thy heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live.”
It is not language or letters or science, but that education of which the fear of Jehovah is the foundation. It supposes neither a state of innocence, such as once was, nor a prohibitory test when fallen man thought himself quite able to do all that Jehovah spoke against the evil he was prone to. Mercy, divine mercy, deigned to supply what neither the individual nor the race possessed. It is true that man has a conscience; he knows good and evil, but only as a sinful creature, not doing the good that he would, but doing the evil that he would not – a truly miserable state, from which redemption alone furnishes an adequate deliverance in the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
This deliverance, we all recognize, is not the subject handled here, but the instruction that is addressed to subject hearts, like the rest of the Old Testament, within the ancient people of God. But now it is for the Christian to profit by it to the uttermost, for “all things are ours.” The Book does not give the exalted Head nor the heavenly glory we are to share with Him as members of His body, nor the duties which flow from that relationship; but it does reveal divine wisdom for a saint here below, first in general moral principles (Proverbs 1-9), then in the greatest affluence of details to Pro 29 , with a fitting close in Pro 30 and 31.
Thus the exhortation is, “Get wisdom, get understanding; forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.” Obedience, heart obedience, is sought. Could Jehovah be content with anything short of it? Could one of His people desire otherwise? Undoubtedly self-will is the great and constant hindrance; and the enemy would excite it, and shut out God by the objects without and the passions within. All the deeper is the need of instruction, and in the varied way just indicated, which divine goodness here supplies. Here we have a father’s authority urged, and the responsibility of sons claimed. This was always true for man here below, as the law long after recognized; and it holds good now that we are no longer under guidance as children.
They were not to forsake wisdom, which has preservative power to “love her, and she shall keep thee.” The beginning of wisdom, as we are forcibly told, is to “get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding.” Those who are of God pass through a world of evil and need wisdom from above to keep them; for it is a wilderness where is no way, save that which grace provides for faith. Suffering there will be for Christ’s sake as well as for righteousness: but “exalt her [not self], and she shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her, and she shall give to thy head a garland of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.” How sure will all this be in due time! David in his earlier days was a fine example. He went at his father’s bidding in no pride or naughtiness of heart; and as he exalted wisdom in the fear of Jehovah, so was he promoted, and, embracing her, was brought to honour. He behaved himself wisely, so that his enemy was compelled to own him blessed – that he should both do great things and still prevail. Yet was he tried beyond most.
The way of wisdom is next contrasted with that of the wicked; and here the exhortation is individualized.
“Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be multiplied. I will teach thee in the way of wisdom; I will lead thee in the paths of uprightness. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go; keep her, for she is thy life. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil [men]; avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause [some] to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is as the shining light going on and brightening to the perfect day. The way of the wicked [is I as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” vv. 10-19.
It is not by the sight of the eyes nor by the activity of the mind, nor even by the cultivation of the affections, that the wisdom here commended comes. “Hear, and thy soul shall live,” said Isaiah; and so the Apostle, “Faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” No doubt the coming of the Son of God brought this truth and every other into an evidence before unknown. But the principle ever applied. Whoever obtained a good report, obtained it by faith; and faith rests on God’s Word, as Christ is the main Object of it all, however much be corrective or disciplinary. Hence the word here is, “Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be multiplied.” Nor is there uncertainty when Jehovah furnishes the means. “I will teach thee in the way of wisdom, I will lead thee in the paths of uprightness.” The happy result is assured to such as believe that it is from Him, and doubt not His interest in His people and their blessing. “When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.” Nevertheless, earnestness of purpose is called for, and fidelity of heart. “Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go; keep her, for she is thy life.”
Only we have to add that now the door of mercy is opened to those who have weighed money for that which is not bread. and earnings for that which satisfieth not – yea, have been children of folly, and have wallowed in sin. Grace can meet the deepest need, and Christ brings to God the most dark and distant. See wisdom in Luk 7 , justified of all her children, eminently in one who might have been deemed hopelessly corrupt. But is anything too hard for the Lord? He assuredly and openly vindicated the persistent soul who hid herself behind His love that owned hers coming by faith. Indeed it was faith which produced that love, and saved her, as He bade her go in peace, which His blood would make unfailing and unbreakable, all in due time.
But we have the opposite way not less clearly for warning – the way where one turns off from God and wanders anywhere else. “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil [men]; avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” How urgent and importunate the voice of divine goodness and love! And it is none too loud, but most requisite; for the calls, and ties, and snares are many and manifold. But the word is unmistakably plain and pointed. And what a picture follows, of the zeal on the side of evil! “For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause [some] to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.” It is their life, nourishment, and joy, if joy it can be called, to mislead, injure, and destroy. But on the other hand, “the path of the righteous is as the shining light going on and brightening to the perfect day.” How we can bless God that Christ is this way; and there is but One in, but not of, this world; for He is the true light. “But the way of the wicked is as darkness,” and this so profound, and they so blind, that “they know not at what they stumble.” Grace alone calls and keeps by faith.
The 4th chapter concludes with a renewed call to heed a father’s words clothed with the authority of Jehovah.
“My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thy heart. For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart more than all thou guardest; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, and corruption of lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and be all thy ways well ordered. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; remove thy foot from evil.” vv. 20-27.
As parental affection in the fear of Him who deigns to teach young no less than old would bring lessons of wisdom before the child, the listening ear, the attentive mind, cannot be dispensed with. Personal respect, however due, is not enough; the ears, the eyes, and above all, the heart, have their part to do. Such training is to be kept “in the midst” of the heart. What else is to be compared with what has Christ for its source, character, object, and aim? “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” No wonder then that it can be added, “for they are life to those that find them and health to all their flesh”; or, as the Apostle says to his genuine son Timothy, “godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation.” No doubt too Christianity has given immense accession to the truth by the coming of the Son of God. For “without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: he who was manifested in flesh, was justified in spirit, was seen of angels, was preached among Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in glory.” Yes, the secret of piety is in Him thus known as He is; and all else is but a fair show in the flesh, which flickers for a moment before it is extinguished forever.
Hence the call to “keep thy heart more than all thou guardest.” The utmost vigilance is needed and due; “for out of it are the issues of life.” Scripture ever and truly views the heart as the moral centre on which all outward conduct and walk depend. Hence the Lord in Luk 8 speaks of those who in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience; as in Joh 15 He said, “If ye abide in me. and my words abide in you. Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done to you.” This indeed is piety: to abide in Him who is life and salvation and peace, to have His words, yea not only obeyed but constantly cherished, with prayers going up and answers coming down accordingly. No wonder then that His Father is glorified, much fruit borne, and the Lord Jesus not ashamed to own such as His disciples.
But there is meanwhile evil still allowed to go on around; and what is so trying, it is in our nature, the old man. That it was crucified with Christ in order that the body of sin might be annulled, so that we might no longer be slaves to sin, is our blessed knowledge by faith. This is no real reason that we should deny the existence of that evil thing in us but the best and most powerful ground why sin should not “reign” in our mortal body. For we are not under law but under grace. Hence, though this knowledge could not then be possessed, yet then as now the word is, “Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, and corruption of lips put far from thee.” The Epistle of James is the plain proof of the importance attached to this, and yet more pressed, if possible, than of old; but how deplorable the unbelief that stood in doubt of its inspired authority and exceeding value in its own sphere! Nor did the Lord Himself slight the same need and danger when He taught – nor the great Apostle of the uncircumcision any more than those of the circumcision.
There is another call quite as urgent. “Let thine eyes look right on, and thine eyelids look straight before thee.” Christ ever was the object of faith, and He is now revealed as the way, no less than the truth and the life. But, morally speaking, the eye is of great moment, the state of our spiritual vision. As Christ gives us eyes who were born blind, so only He makes and keeps our vision clear. “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when it is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness” (Luk 11:34 , Luk 11:35 ). Let us not forget the searching word. Christ guides safely but by the single eye.
Nor are we left without direction in detail. “Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be well-ordered.” Negligence is no more of faith than haste; and we slip in both ways through lack of dependence and attention to the Word of God.
The path of Christ is narrow, but direct through this world to Himself in glory. The saints were ever called to walk with God before their eyes; and His will is now declared thus to honour the Son. Hence, “Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.” For evil lies on both sides.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
children = sons.
instruction = correction, or admonition.
know understanding = learn discernment.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 4
Continuing to his son.
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend that you might know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, don’t forsake my law. For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother ( Pro 4:1-3 ).
So Solomon now is speaking of his father David and of his mother Bathsheba. “Tender and beloved in the sight of his mother.”
Now he taught me ( Pro 4:4 )
Now this would be David, his father.
He taught me also, and said unto me, Let your heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. Now get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all of thy getting get understanding ( Pro 4:4-7 ).
Now you know, there are certain people who have a lot of knowledge but they’re fools. They don’t know how to use their knowledge. They don’t have wisdom. If there is to be a choice made between wisdom and knowledge, it’s better to choose wisdom. It’s like the mother who told her child, “Honey, when you don’t got an education, you got to use your brains.” And wisdom is really preferable to knowledge. For unless you have wisdom, knowledge can be dangerous. Knowledge can destroy. Wisdom is the principal thing, which is actually the correct application of knowledge. It’s knowing what to do with what you know. Understanding.
So here is David talking to Solomon. “Now look, son, wisdom is the principal thing. So get wisdom. And with all of your getting get understanding.” Oh, to have an understanding heart. Oh, to have a heart that is filled with wisdom. Fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom, where it starts.
Concerning wisdom:
Exalt her, and she will promote you: she shall bring you to honor, when you do when you embrace her. She shall give to your head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory will she deliver to you. Hear, O my son ( Pro 4:8-10 ),
It seems like Solomon picks it up here again.
receive my sayings; and the years of your life will be many. For I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in the right paths. When you go, your steps shall not be straitened; and when you run, you will not stumble. Take hold of instruction; [grip her] don’t let her go: keep her; for she is your life. Enter not into the path of the wicked, do not go in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, run from it. For they sleep not, unless they have done some mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they’ve caused someone to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and they drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day ( Pro 4:10-18 ).
So here is the contrast. The wicked who go in darkness and who cannot sleep until they’ve done their mischief and so forth, in contrast to the path of the just, which is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Beautiful.
The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. My son, attend to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life ( Pro 4:19-23 ).
Here, I think, is perhaps the key. Keeping our hearts with all diligence. Now the Bible speaks of the soul, the emotions of man, conscious level, but it speaks also of the heart of man, which is always considered one level deeper. “Out of the abundance of the heart,” the scriptures said, “the mouth speaks” ( Mat 12:34 ). “It is not which goes into a man’s mouth that defiles a man but that which comes out” ( Mat 15:11 ). Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And out of the heart there issue you know all of these things. So the heart is considered as sort of the center of the volitional part of man, the will of man. There is a difference made in the scripture with the believing in your mind and the believing in your heart. “That if thou shall confess with thy mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and believe in your heart” ( Rom 10:9 ). What you believe in your heart affects the way you live, what you believe in your mind can pass by and have no effect upon the way you live. But when it’s down deep within your heart, then there is the effect upon your life. We must keep our hearts with all diligence, because it is out of the heart that the issues of life spring forth.
Put away from you a froward mouth [a perverse mouth], perverse lips put far from thee. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Don’t turn to the right or to the left: but remove your foot from evil ( Pro 4:24-27 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Pro 4:1-10
Pro 4:1-9
“In this chapter, there are three hortatory discourses (Pro 4:1-9; Pro 4:10-19, and Pro 4:20-27), exactly similar to the ones in Proverbs 2 and Proverbs 3. The subject is the praise of Wisdom, and the description of the blessings which she confers. These are labeled the sixth, seventh and eighth discourses by Walls, but the sixth is called the “seventh” by Deane. We do not consider these divisions either very clearly marked or very important.
THE SIXTH DISCOURSE
Pro 4:1-9
“Hear, my son, the instructions of a father,
And attend to know understanding:
For I give you good doctrine;
Forsake ye not my law.
For I was a son unto my father,
Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
And he taught me, and said unto me:
Let thy heart retain my words;
Keep my commandments, and live;
Get wisdom, get understanding;
Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth;
Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee;
Love her, and she will keep thee.
Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom;
Yea, with all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she will promote thee;
She will bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her.
She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace;
A crown of beauty will she deliver to thee.”
In spite of the fact of these verses being delivered in the form of a father’s instructions to a son, “The entire chapter may be read (and should be read) as though God was speaking to all men everywhere.
“Forsake ye not my law” (Pro 4:2). Deane reminds us that, “The word law here, as also in Pro 1:8, is from the Hebrew [~Torah],” which is the technical word for the Pentateuch, or the Law of Moses. The marginal alternative reading counsel should be ignored. The proof of this is found in the reference here, in Pro 4:3-4, by Solomon, the author of these lines, to the instructions which his father David had given him, a sample of which may be read in 1Ch 22:12-13, where the Law of Moses is clearly stated to be precisely that doctrine that Solomon here professes to be delivering to his own son. Therefore, we can find no agreement with Tate’s remark that, “The authority mentioned here is the discipline of the teacher.” No! The true authority of these words is that of God Himself as revealed to Moses in the Pentateuch.
“My father … he taught me” (Pro 4:3-4). “These words underline the great Old Testament principle that truth and history are maintained through the family, and our own age could well re-learn this lesson.
“With all thy getting get understanding” (Pro 4:7). Kidner’s comment is, “What it takes is not brains or opportunity, but decision. We might add that persistence and determination are also involved; and as James Moffatt’s Translation of the Bible, 1929, translated it, “At any cost get knowledge.”
We should exercise care, however, to remember the Biblical revelation of what knowledge, or wisdom, really is. It is not merely what some would call a good education. The true wisdom is to know Christ (1Co 1:30) and to obey him. This type of wisdom does not come in the form of university degrees, but from the faithful obedience of humble and contrite hearts.
Pro 4:1. Only three times in the entire book does the author address his material to his sons (plural) instead of to his son (singular): here; Pro 5:7; Pro 7:24. No reason is easily discernible for the change at this and the other places. Hear is used many times in Proverbs as are instruction and understanding. Similar passages: My son, hear the instruction of thy father (Pro 1:8); Come, ye children, hearken unto me (Psa 34:11); Fathers…nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4).
Pro 4:2. Doctrine means teaching. The father is sure that his teaching is good, for he has been over the road, has experienced much, has observed a lot, and has come to sound and studied conclusions, and he has the welfare of his children at heart. For the most part children normally accept their parents teachings as good. Because what he was teaching was good, he insists that they not forsake his law.
Pro 4:3. As Solomon instructs his own children, he recalls that he too was once a child, a son of his father David (who picked him to be his successor: 1Ki 1:32-35) and tender and beloved in the sight of his mother (Bathsheba). Every grown-up should be able to look back upon his childhood days and feel this way about his parents. Our verse reminds us that those who are now fathers were once sons, and those who now teach were once taught.
Pro 4:4. David took time to teach and prepare Solomon for the great task that was before him in life. Such a constant, several-years task takes a fathers time and attention, and it involves a recognition of divine responsibility and a desire to see ones son grow up to be what he ought to be. Fathers should be more than sires and material providers for their children: Fathers…nuture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4), The direct quotation begins in this verse, but it is debatable just where the quotation ends. Some say the quotation runs to the end of the chapter; some say through Pro 4:9 (where the Hebrew paragraph ends). As a conjecture we would place the end quotation at the conclusion of Pro 4:9. David urged Solomon to keep his teachings within his heart, and he assured him of life as a result. Pro 7:1-2 is very similar: My son, keep my words, And lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live.
Pro 4:5. Get is used many times in the book of Proverbs. In English we might make a play on words within this verse by saying, Get wisdom and understanding and forget not what I am teaching you. Good parents are ambitious for what their children will grow out to become-actually more so than the children themselves at the time.
Pro 4:6. That which we love, we do not forsake. Therefore, David called upon Solomon to love wisdom, forsake her not, and his promise was that wisdom would preserve and keep him. Wisdom would keep him from evil, from evil men, from evil women, from mistakes, from sorrows and disappointments, and from a sad ending. And it will do the same for each of us today! The forgetting in Pro 4:5 would be unintentional while the forsaking in this verse could be done while realizing what one was doing.
Pro 4:7. With all of thy getting of various things in life, be sure to get wisdom, and this Solomon did (1Ki 4:29-34; 1Ki 10:1-7). The New Testament would teach that the salvation of ones soul is the principal thing in life, but Proverbs, preceding the Christian age, makes wisdom the principal thing, and yet there need not be a clash, for wisdom-true wisdom-will cause one to be saved: the wise man builds his house upon the rock of Christ (Mat 7:24-25); a knowledge of Gods Word causes one to be wise unto salvation (2Ti 3:15). But how does one go about getting wisdom? First of all it must be sought by prayer (Jas 1:5; 1Ki 3:5-12), and then man must constantly sit at the feet of the three great teachers. They are: (1) instruction (learning by listening to what others would teach us-Pro 9:9); (2) observation (learning by keeping ones eyes open, learning from the experiences of others-Psa 37:25; Pro 24:30-34); and (3) experience-learning from your own experiences-Php 4:10-12).
Pro 4:8. The son would exalt wisdom, by making it his chief concern, and his love for wisdom is couched in the words, When thou dost embrace her. If he would exalt wisdom, wisdom would exalt him just as if he turned his back on wisdom, wisdom would turn her back upon him (Pro 1:24-31). Learning cannot be over-emphasized unless one learns the wrong thing (Col 2:8), unless one fails to add the other essentials to character-development (2Pe 1:5-7), and unless one becomes conceited over his knowledge (Rom 12:16). Knowledge is power; and it is truly astonishing to see what influence true learning has. Nothing is so universally respected (Clarke).
Pro 4:9. Wisdom will (in time) give or deliver to ones head a chaplet (wreath or garland) of grace, a crown of beauty. Similar passages: Pro 1:9; Pro 3:22. These promotions and honors among men is the exalting referred to in Pro 4:8.
Pro 4:10. If our conjecture is right, the direct quotation of Davids words to Solomon ended with Pro 4:9, in which case we return to this verse in Solomons words to his son. Just as Solomon had received the sayings of his father and had passed some of them on in Pro 4:4-9, so now he calls upon his son to receive his sayings. While his son Rehoboam did not demonstrate wisdom in 1Ki 12:13-14, he was probably wise as a rule. Honoring ones parents by listening to them and doing as they teach carry the promise of length of life: here and in Exo 20:12; Eph 6:1-3; Pro 3:2. Wisdom itself can be the means of lengthening ones life just as folly can shorten it. The promise of God can of itself lengthen it just as disobedience to His will can nullify the promise. But so can sin enter into the length of ones life: Vice and intemperance impair the health and shorten the days of the wicked; while true religion, sobriety, and temperance prolong them. The principal part of our diseases spring from indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions. Religion excites to industry, promotes sober habits, destroys evil passions, and harmonizes the soul; and thus, by preventing many diseases, necessarily prolongs life (Clarke).
STUDY QUESTIONS – Pro 4:1-10
1. Why the change from the usual son to sons in Pro 4:1?
2. What does doctrine mean?
3. What does Pro 4:3 show to be the way parents should feel concerning their children?
4. What kind of parent is described in Pro 4:4?
5. How many times is get used in the book of Proverbs (Pro 4:5)?
6. Reword Pro 4:6.
7. Connect the thought of Pro 4:7 with the author of Proverbs.
8. What will wisdom do for its possessor (Pro 4:8)?
9. What was a chaplet (Pro 4:9)?
10. Tie Pro 4:10 in with the first commandment of the Ten Commandments that contains a promise.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In this chapter there are three addresses. The first is of the nature of personal testimony (verses Pro 4:1-9). The next two are exhortations to fidelity (verses Pro 4:10-27). The father urges his own experience. In verses Pro 4:3-9 he repeats what his father had said to him, and he declares (verses Pro 4:1-2) that it was good. This personal experience lends urgency to his exhortations to his son. Then, conscious of the temptations which ever beset the path of the young, the father urges the son to be obedient. Temptation must be avoided completely. Finally, the father contrasts the path of the righteous with that of the wicked. The former is like the dawn, which increases in brightness to high noon. The latter is like consistent darkness and constant stumbling.
Again, in a second address, fidelity is urged in terms which indicate the necessity for complete devotion. There must be attention, followed by intention. Wisdom in the heart, persistent looking straight ahead, and untiring caution are necessary to fidelity.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Counsels of Experience.
Pro 3:27-35; Pro 4:1-9
Here are many duties! Be generous! Of course we must discriminate-to whom it is due; and we must be prudent-when it is in the power of thine hand, Pro 3:27. Moreover, be prompt, Pro 3:28. Dont stir up strife or take a mean advantage, Pro 3:29-30. In the presence of the prosperity of the violent and evil man, repress envy and recall Psa 37:1-40.
The word translated secret in Pro 3:32 should be rendered friendship. See Psa 25:14. Remember that Jesus calls us into this sacred inner circle, Joh 15:15. Count on God blessing your home-life, Pro 3:33. Be lowly and claim your great inheritance, Pro 3:34-35. See Mat 5:3.
We are next admitted into an ancient Hebrew home, Pro 4:1-9. We can hear the old patriarch advising his son, with deep and fond anxiety, that he should make the best of his life. What a difference would come over the land if fathers spoke more often like this! But to speak thus needs a background of noble living.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Proverbs 4
Solomons early training is touchingly alluded to in the first four verses of this chapter.
4:1-4
As his mothers only son, Solomon was tenderly loved and cared for; as the object of his fathers heart, he had been carefully instructed in the law of the Lord, and had profited by it.
The unhappy history of Solomons half-brother Adonijah shows how indebted Solomon was to his mothers counsel and his fathers instruction. David had never intervened in Adonijahs activities by asking him, Why hast thou done so? (1Ki 1:6) The value of parental discipline cannot be overestimated. To be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is a blessing beyond appreciation. It is sad that David treated these two sons so differently! But it is the responsibility of the children that is dwelt on in these verses rather than that of the parents. Solomon, despite his aberrations, knew well the value of wise and godly instruction.
4:5-7
The soul not only needs knowledge, but the wisdom and intelligence to use it correctly. This is the principal lesson Solomon impresses on the young. Wisdom will preserve from folly and guard those who truly love her.
4:8-9
In the previous chapter it is stated that shame shall be the promotion of fools (35). Even in this evil world wisdom leads to honor and true promotion. But among the children of God how valuable is a man of wisdom! Mere knowledge may inflate pride and render its possessor contemptible; but the word of wisdom is always in season. Even though it is often rejected, it is at least appreciated. Often the unspiritual mans conscience assents to the wisdom even though he may be determined to refuse it.
4:10-12
The book of Ecclesiastes, as noted in our introductory chapter, portrays the wrong paths into which the royal writer had wandered. He temporarily forsook the Word which had been the guide of his youth and selfishly sought his own pleasures. It is not necessary to follow him in paths of folly to learn their end. The book of Proverbs marks out right paths-the way of wisdom. All who walk in these paths will find their steps unhindered and will be able to run without stumbling.
4:13-17
The principle in these verses is of prime importance and cannot be repeated too often. The child of God is called to separation from all evildoers. He who knows what is in the darkness has described their unholy ways. We are called to holiness and are to avoid the evildoers path. To trifle with them is most harmful and will greatly hinder spiritual progress. The true pilot may not know every rock or reef, but his wisdom consists in taking the safe channel. So the Christian need not make himself aware of all the evils of the day, but simply take the safe path as described in verses 18-19.
4:18-19
There is a marked difference between the two paths presented in these verses. The path of the righteous leads upward to that city lit by the glory of God where the Lamb is the only lamp needed. This way shines brighter and brighter as the uncreated glory from Heaven illumines it with splendor. Who would not cry, Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his (Num 23:10)? A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory is at the end of that path.
How great the contrast when we turn to the way of the lawless. As their road nears the pit of woe, darkness begins to envelop it. Even the light of nature and revelation are obscured so that men stumble on blindly without knowing what causes them to fall. The end we well know-eternal banishment from the presence of God. With two such paths from which to choose we do well to heed the admonition of verses 20-22.
4:20-22
The Spirit of Christ in the psalmist could say, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psa 119:11). The heart controlled by Scripture assures a walk in the truth. God desires truth and wisdom to control our innermost being. This is when the words of knowledge indeed become life and health to the one who keeps them.
4:23
This verse displays a scientific knowledge and accuracy far beyond Solomons times. Harveys great discovery of the circulation of the blood revolutionized medical thought. Yet here it is calmly taken for granted and used to illustrate a spiritual truth. The heart is the center of the physical system out of which flow the issues of life. The heart, or soul, is also the moral and spiritual center. It must be jealously guarded so only that which is edifying comes forth.
4:24
The mouth and heart are intimately connected for out of the hearts abundance the mouth speaks (Mat 12:34). A perverse mouth indicates one who is not in subjection to God. When Gods Word has its place in the soul, the lips reveal it.
4:25-27
It is not only the mouth that shows the state of the heart. The feet likewise will walk according to the condition of the soul. Forgetting the things behind, we are exhorted to press on to the prize of the calling of God on high. The eye should be fixed on the goal, looking straight ahead. For us, this goal is Christ. The plowman cuts a straight furrow when his eye is on a distant point directly before him. In the same way the Christians path will be true when the eye of the heart is fixed on the Lord Jesus in glory. But this involves earnestly establishing ones ways in accordance with the truth. Evil is to be judged and departed from, the foot turning neither to the right nor the left. Once the mind of God is known it is to be faithfully acted on, irrespective of self-interest or the unenlightened thoughts of others.
To walk with God means to be misjudged and misunderstood by those who are ignorant of the power of God and the value of His truth. But if one has Gods approval the opinion of others should not influence him. The Christian need only be concerned with implicitly obeying Gods Word.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Pro 4:5
I. Solomon himself received wisdom from Divine inspiration. Now no supernatural supply of wisdom can be vouchsafed to us. There is no limit to the moral improvement which God’s Spirit may work in our hearts; there is no saying how much kinder, gentler, purer, truer, humbler, better, He may make us. But it is a fact of most assured experience, that not even the Holy Ghost gives to many of the very best of our race the worldly tact, and shrewdness, and long-headedness, which many of the very worst inherited by their birth. It is not that wisdom which Solomon bids us get, but something far different; something far better-longer lasting, and yet within the reach of all.
II. There is worldly wisdom, and there is heavenly wisdom. The first not everyone can have in any shining measure, and it is vain to bid anyone get it. The second all may have. It is choosing things above, because they are best and most enduring. It is ranging one’s self in the great battle on God’s side, which you do every time you resolutely do right and refuse to do wrong. This better wisdom is of the heart rather than of the head. It lies rather in the moral choice of good and right, than in the mere intellectual discernment of it, however clear. It is seeing with the head what is good, yea, what is best; and then with all the heart choosing that and cleaving to it.
III. This wisdom is a possession which may be “got,” as Solomon calls it; got, though we had it not to start with, as mere head wisdom could never be; and is a possession which may be cultivated in a sense in which mere intellectual gifts could never be cultivated. The third Person in the Godhead, the Blessed and Holy Spirit, in sober earnest will help you if you try.
A. K. H. B., Towards the Sunset, p. 45.
Pro 4:7
I. There must be reality in our knowledge. It must be the real knowledge of real things. We must be sure that we, in the first instance, take it in as accurately as possible. We must not bridge over to ourselves difficulties, whether little or great, or take a leap over them, leaving a part behind us that is not sound or solid.
II. There is no such thing as useless knowledge, and the knowledge of theory is a greater thing than the knowledge of practice; to express it otherwise, the knowledge of principles is beyond, and greater than, and more important than, the doing of things however well without understanding them. However real may be the knowledge that you gain of any number of details, it is only by understanding principles that you can hope to make any use of details which shall advance or strengthen any single good cause.
III. The power to use knowledge must come from something outside the knowledge itself. The mind may be stored with facts, and with true theories and with many a wise observation; but after all it is only by considering, reflecting, observing, that we can turn what we have already acquired to good account for ourselves or for others. Such wisdom is “above and beyond our studies.” For it is beyond all that wisdom which is from above, which the Father gives to them that ask Him.
Archbishop Benson, Boy Life: Sundays in Wellington College, p. 19.
I. The world gives the name of wisdom to many higher and lower manifestations of intellectual foresight and practical sense, but Scripture sees in it nothing save one single law of life: “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”
II. Some one may say, Is any knowledge worth the attainment, save the one knowledge which is wisdom? The answer is, To the true Christian every school will be a school of Christ. On the ample leaf of knowledge, whether it be rich with the secrets of nature or with the spoils of time, we will read no name save the name of God. To seek for knowledge where it is possible is the clear duty of man; to win it is the gift of God. Knowledge apart from wisdom is like a vestibule dissevered from its temple, but it may on the other hand be the worthy vestibule of that sacred shrine. Knowledge is a vain thing only when it is sought out of unworthy motives and applied to selfish ends; but it becomes noble and glorious when it is desired solely for man’s benefit and consecrated wholly to God’s praise.
F. W. Farrar, The Silence and Voice of God, p. 119.
References: Pro 4:7.-J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 49; J. R. Lumby, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 222. Pro 4:8.-C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical, p. 169; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 248. Pro 4:10, Pro 4:11.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 161.
Pro 4:13
We come into the real school-life when we have left school. Duty is twofold: duty to do, duty to endure. We have the tasks of the school to do, and the discipline of the school to bear. And the more honest we are in the first, the braver shall we be for the second.
I. We have duties to perform. Not what you do, but how you do it, is the test. And small things, done as to the Lord and not to men, grow golden and precious with the stamp of honest stewardship. Our manhood is truly developed only as we make life real, and we only make life real in proportion as we take each duty, great or small, and make it great by principle, and sacred because we do it unto God.
II. Nor are these duties of our school-life restricted by the bounds of our activities; they enter into the region of endurance and challenge patience as well as principle; the fortitude which can bear as well as the courage that can achieve. Christianity is tested as much or more by the meekness with which the discipline is borne as by the energy with which the task is done. Not in the romance that wakes the poet’s lyre, or the adventure that upstirs a nation’s wonder, and the brunt that kindles man’s acclaim, is true life only to be shown, and noble guerdon to be won; but in the constancy which carries principle along each quiet path of duty, doing the unnoticed deed for Christ’s sake only, carrying the load to the grave’s brink through weal or woe in His one name.
A. Mursell, Catholic Sermons, vol. ii., p. 25.
References: Pro 4:13.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1418; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 163.
Pro 4:14-15
One chief cause of the wickedness which is everywhere seen in the world-and in which, alas! each of us has more or less his share-is our curiosity to have some fellowship with darkness, some experience of sin, to know what the pleasures of sin are like.
I. This delusion arises from Satan’s craft, the father of lies, who knows well that if he can get us once to sin, he can easily make us sin twice and thrice, till at length we are taken captive at his will. He sees that curiosity is man’s great and first snare, as it was in Paradise; and he knows if he can but force a way into his heart, by this chief and exciting temptation, those temptations of other kinds which follow in life will easily prevail over us; and on the other hand, that if we resist the beginnings of sin, there is every prospect, through God’s grace, that we shall continue in a religious way.
II. “Enter not into the path of the wicked,” etc.: (1) Because it is hardly possible to delay our flight, without rendering flight impossible. (2) If we allow evil thoughts to be present to us, we shall make ourselves familiar with them. Our great security against sin lies in being shocked at it. (3) There is another wretched effect of sinning once, which sometimes takes place; not only the sinning that once itself, but being so seduced by it as forthwith to continue in the commission of it ever afterwards, without seeking for arguments to meet our conscience withal! from a mere brutish, headstrong, infatuate greediness after its bad pleasures. (4) It is always the tendency and the end of sinning at length to enslave us to itself.
III. “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” Heaven and hell are at war for us and against us, yet we trifle and let life go on at random. We treat sin, not as an enemy to be feared, abhorred, and shunned, but as a misfortune and a weakness; we do not pity and shun sinful men, but we enter into their path so far as to keep company with them, and next, being tempted to copy them, we fall almost without an effort. Be not thus deceived and overcome by an evil heart of unbelief. Make up your minds to take God for your portion, and pray to Him for grace to enable you so to do.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. v., p. 208.
References: Pro 4:14, Pro 4:15.-J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. viii., p. 63. Pro 4:14-27.-R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 138.
Pro 4:18
To understand somewhat the force of this divinely beautiful sentence, we must call to mind that our condition in this world in the sight of Almighty God is very frequently spoken of as that of travellers on their journey; and our life altogether is represented as a way-a path-a progress. The text is a kind of parable setting before us the thoughts of travellers setting out on a journey very early in the morning, when there is a faint streak of light in the eastern sky; at first quite faint, but by degrees it grows brighter and brighter, till at last the sun rises above the horizon, and the “perfect day” begins.
I. The sincere and humble penitent is comforted by being told that the path of the just is as the glimmering light of the morning dawn; that he has no right at present to expect much light or aid; that if he can be satisfied with that imperfect, and what the world esteems “poor,” instruction which the Church Apostolic has ever ventured to give to her penitent children, then by degrees we shall be led on through the strict path of discipline to higher knowledge, and shall, perhaps, enjoy that comfort which, for the present at least, he acknowledges he has no title to.
II. It is a great comfort to the sincerely penitent Christian to be told to go on in his path as having but little light, because he is thereby convinced that he must not venture to trust to himself and his own guidance.
III. It is a comfort to the sincere and reflecting Christian to remember, that at the best we are but in a kind of morning twilight; the wisest of men, whatever he may fancy, sees into the mysteries of Divine truth “but as through a glass darkly,” and by reflection, as St. Paul says. To those who here walk by faith, not by sight, is offered the blessed hope and promise beyond the grave of seeing their Saviour face to face, of knowing as they are known, in that perfect day, towards which the path of the just, though here dim and difficult, yet shineth more and more.
IV. There is in this verse a very solemn caution. If our life be not one of habitual improvement, if we are contented to go on month after month, and year after year, much as we used to be, then surely it cannot be affirmed to us that our path is shining more and more towards the perfection of light and holiness; and then surely we have reason to fear that we shall not in the end attain to the resurrection of the just, shall not be numbered with God’s saints in glory everlasting.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times” vol. ii., p. 141.
References: Pro 4:18.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 213; W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 286; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 1. Pro 4:18, Pro 4:19.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 166.
Pro 4:23
I. The meaning which a reader of the English only would affix to these words, amounts to this-that on the state of the heart depends the character of the man. The issues of life, the various ends at which a man is landed, the total of what he is in principle or feeling, the value at which Omniscience would sum him up-this depends not on external circumstances, but on his heart. Purify, then, and elevate that heart, keep it above all keeping, as a tender plant to be nursed and guarded in an unkindly soil.
II. If we give to these words an interpretation which accords more exactly with the force of the original, they will then mean, that from the heart is the fountain or source of life in the sense of happiness. In this sense the words mean that contentment and happiness in this life depend upon the heart, not upon external circumstances. (1) Observe the difference between the man who is blessed with a cheerful and hopeful heart, and the one who has a desponding and complaining heart-not the heart-sickness only which comes of hope deferred, but the heart-jaundice which turns hope itself into despair. While the cheerful heart can find happiness even under circumstances the most depressing, the complaining heart will turn even the most encouraging into misery. (2) Look at the dependence of happiness on tenderness and kindness of heart. Is it too much to say that the man of hard and cruel heart is in the end far more cruel to himself than he can be to anyone else? In himself he tears out by the roots the plant of happiness and dries up at its very springs the “fountain of life.”
III. Let the issues of life, which are said to spring from the heart, be those of eternal life, and then the words will mean, that on the state of the heart depends the salvation of the soul.
A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 193.
I. Inasmuch as “out of the heart are the issues of life” it is important to keep the reservoir full. It is bad enough to have an empty head, but an empty heart is worse still. For, other things being equal, a man’s force in the world is just in proportion to the fulness of his heart.
II. Strive with all diligence to keep the heart pure. A full reservoir is not enough; the water must be clean. If the heart be not pure, you may be certain the thoughts will not be pure, nor the conversation, nor the life.
III. Keep your heart tranquil; seek to have a soul calm and peaceful and at rest. You are all but certain to meet with troubles. Most likely some of you will get sadly knocked about in the world, you will meet with reverses and disappointments, but a heart that is fixed on God can bear all these things with equanimity.
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 213.
References: Pro 4:23.- Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 179; Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. ix., p. 324; E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion, p. 218; J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 205; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 191; R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 132; Forsyth Hamilton, Pulpit Parables, p. 24.
Pro 4:24-27
First the fountain, then the streams; first the heart and then the life-course. The issues of life are manifold: three of their main channels are mapped out here-the “lips,” the “eyes,” and the “feet.”
I. A froward mouth. The form of the precept, “put it away,” reveals the secret of our birth. The evil is there at the first in every one. He who is free of it was born free. When a man would erect a temple to God within his own body the first effort of the builder is to clear the rubbish away. Of the tilings from the heart that need to be put away, the first, in the order of nature, is the froward mouth. Words offer the first and readiest egress for evil.
II. The next outlet from the fountain is by the eyes. The precept is quaint in its cast-“let thine eyes look right on”-and yet its meaning is not difficult. Let the heart’s aim be simple and righteous. Both in appearance and in reality let your path be a straightforward one.
III. The last of these issues is by the feet. Ponder, therefore, their path. The best time to ponder any path, is not at the end, nor even at the middle, but at the beginning of it. The right place for weighing the worth of any course is on this side of its beginning. By the word of God paths and actions will be weighed in the judgment. By the word of God, therefore, let paths and actions, great or small, be pondered now.
W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 171.
Reference: Pro 4:24-27.-J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iii., p. 190.
Pro 4:25
The rule of life, the comfort of life, the strength of life, the life of life, is, first to have an object, and then to live up to that object steadily and unquestioningly. A distinct, sufficient purpose, and a determined pursuit, give reality to life and make the man.
I. The primary thing, then, is to have an object in life which will be (1) worthy of our being; (2) suited to our character; (3) attractive to our tastes. For if it fail in any one of these three things, it will not long be our goal. To fulfil these three conditions, there can only be four things in which an object can be found-victory, usefulness, eternity, Christ.
II. There are three snares which beset and entangle the feet of a man, who has resolved to live for some great end. (1) Retrospection. Do not look back. Do not look back at past attainments, for they are nothing. Do not look back at old sins, for they are gone. The Christian religion is to cut off the guilty past, and to separate a man from himself, and from his own history. (2) Introspection. Do not look in. A great many people waste a great deal of time to no profit, but rather to much discouragement, and much hindrance to their spiritual advancement, by pulling their own hearts to pieces. (3) Circumspection. Do not look around at circumstances. They are mere accidents. Looking at the waves and listening to the wind, Peter sank. A wrestler must never let his eyes drop. A racer must never look away from the winning-post, nor the ploughman from the end of the furrow, nor the helmsman from his needle’s point. Thousands of things are coming and going every day at our sides. But what are they all? They roll on the surface, but they cannot touch the deeper thing below. They dart, meteor-like, but my star is fixed.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 12th series, p. 117.
References: Pro 4:27.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 467. Pro 5:1-23.-R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 148. Pro 5:8.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vi., p. 332. Pro 5:11.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 667. Pro 5:11-13.-H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 4th series, p. 481. Pro 5:15.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 179. Pro 5:16.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii. p. 191. Pro 5:21.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 183. Pro 5:22.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 915; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 25. Pro 6:1-11.-R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 159. Pro 6:9.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 63. Pro 6:10, Pro 6:11.-S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. vi., p. 405. Pro 6:11.-Preacher’s Monthly vol. vii., p. 191. Pro 6:16-19.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 188. Pro 6:20.-F. Wagstaff, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 332. Pro 6:20-24.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series p. 190. Pro 6:22.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1017; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 184.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 4
1. Solomons training (Pro 4:1-9)
2. Hear, O my son: Receive my sayings (Pro 4:10-19)
3. My son, attend to my words. (Pro 4:20-27)
Pro 4:1-9. This passage shows the early training which Solomon received and he passeth on the instructions. It is said that these verses formed a model for many Puritan homes in England and the Scotland of the covenant. He was the beloved one, his fathers true son. Note the different exhortation, about wisdom: Forget it not; forsake her not; love her; exalt her. Then the promises: She shall preserve thee; she shall keep thee; she shall promote thee; she gives honor; an ornament of grace for the head and a crown of glory. If we take wisdom and make it the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, what blessed food for the soul we will enjoy!
Pro 4:10-19. Here we find instructions for Solomon and all the godly with the corresponding promises. Then there is the warning concerning the path of the wicked and a contrast between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.
But the way of the righteous is as the dawn of light
That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
This is a blessed statement. As soon as we accept the true wisdom, the Lord Jesus Christ, we enter upon a way which faceth the east, the sunrise. The light of the coming dawn illumines that path, and at some time the perfect day will break when all shadows flee away.
Pro 4:20-27. Instructions to receive and to obey the words of wisdom are the contents of this address. The eye is never to be taken off from the words of the Lord; they are to be kept in the midst of the heart. How important to listen to such counsel, even for us His children:
Keep thy heart with all diligence;
For out of it are the issues of life.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
ye: Pro 1:8, Pro 6:20-23, Psa 34:11, 1Th 2:11, 1Th 2:12
attend: Pro 2:1-5, Pro 5:1, Pro 7:4, Pro 8:32-36, Pro 19:20, Pro 22:17, Heb 2:1
Reciprocal: Gen 49:2 – hearken Deu 4:9 – teach them Deu 11:19 – General Job 33:33 – hearken Psa 32:8 – instruct Psa 49:3 – mouth Psa 119:9 – shall Pro 5:7 – Hear Pro 7:24 – O Pro 8:33 – Hear Pro 13:1 – wise Pro 23:15 – My son Jer 35:8 – General Eph 6:4 – but Col 3:21 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Sacred Exhortations
Pro 4:1-27
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
It is well, now and then, to step aside and consider what God has to say to young men and women; as well as to consider what He says to their fathers and mothers. The home must ever remain the greatest bulwark of the State. The church has realized the need of saving the youth of the land, in its great effort through its Sunday Schools.
1. Let us first, however, briefly observe the obligations of the father. The Scripture at the head of this study begins like this: “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
If this Divine injunction were obeyed there would be but little difficulty in seeing the children truly saved. The difficulty with children usually lies with the parents, and not infrequently with the father.
2. Let us, next, observe the obligations of the mother. A mother holds a very close contact with her children. She is with them from morning till night. She watches over them. She discovers their frailties, and also their better qualities. It is not difficult for her to lead them in the way of life, and light, and love.
The verse in Pro 31:1-31 has always gripped us: “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed.” God give us mothers like the one described in this remarkable chapter.
3. The obligations of children to their parents. God’s Word is very definite in its instruction to boys and girls. It says: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” The Bible, however, demands more than a legal obedience. It adds: “Honour thy father and mother; which is the first Commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.”
In my 65th year, I still feel much of the same feeling toward my father who is alive at 91 (since deceased-Pub.), that I felt in the days of my boyhood. It has never passed away, and I know it never will.
4. Let us consider something of the model young man. Timothy is described in the Bible as Paul’s dearly beloved son. When Paul addresses him as such, he says: “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”
Somehow it seems to us that what was true of Timothy is true of us all. Surely there are few stalwart and faithful children who did not have the same kind of parents at least on one side.
We delight in seeing young men and young women who are possessed of an unfeigned faith. We delight to see them clothed in the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Timothy was a young man who fled from youthful lusts, and who followed righteousness, and faith, and charity, and peace. We trust that everyone who studies this lesson will prove himself of the same quality.
5. Let us observe a young man who was an example to others. Sometimes youths are timid to assert themselves; especially in the presence of those who are older than they Paul, however, wrote to the young man, Timothy, saying, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers.” Somehow we feel this is written to all young people.
I. THE GLORY OF OBEDIENCE (Pro 4:1-4)
1. Giving ear to instruction. To us there is something very significant in the opening words of our text: “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father.” The words suggest the value of a father’s superior wisdom and knowledge. The father is, of course, older than his child, and years tend to wisdom.
God knew this when He said, “Children, obey your parents.” He knew it when He said, Bring up your children in the way that they should go. It is not safe to leave youth to their own way and will. They need guidance. Therefore, how necessary it is for children to give ear to what they hear from their parents.
2. Attending to know understanding. A babe comes into the world in utter ignorance. He must be taught, as he grows from babehood into childhood, and from childhood into youth. He therefore should give himself to know understanding. He must apply himself. He must give attention to reading, to study, to observation of everything about him. He must apply himself with all diligence to the task of improvement, otherwise he will see others surpassing him in knowledge and preparation for life.
3. He must seek for good doctrine. It is not enough for him to give attention to instruction. He must also have a good instructor. His father must give him good doctrine, and good law. Herein we see that the greatest responsibility lies in parenthood; and yet, the child must be a willing listener, an apt scholar, and quick to obey instruction.
4. Solomon’s father and mother. Here is a beautiful touch. The wise man says, “For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.” “He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.”
David was a very busy man with the affairs of the kingdom, and yet he took time to instruct his son. The mother also loved her child and covered him with protection and tender consideration. Oh, that parents would give due heed to their responsibilities and opportunities!
II. A CALL TO INTEGRITY (Pro 4:5-6)
1. The danger of declining from the words of parental instruction. How often have we seen young men and young women refusing to walk under the guiding hand of a real father and mother. They would rather listen to the enticing words of the evil one. They would rather follow the instruction of the wicked who are always in waiting to carry the youth away from the paths of rectitude.
We remember, as a lad, how a man under our father’s employ did everything he knew how to teach us to wander, and to go into sin. There were also groups of other boys of our own age who were always on hand to lead us astray. We can thank God that He led us in those crises into obedience to our own parents. We thank God that they had the knack to secure our confidence, and to hold our affection.
2. The danger of forsaking the good for the bad. David foresaw this for Solomon. Solomon foresaw it for his own children. There is something in the human heart that seems to prefer the evil to the good, the paths of sin to the ways of righteousness. Some one has said that we are as prone to do evil as sparks are to fly upward. Our natures are poisoned by inbred sin.
If a father or a mother imagines that children, left to their own impulses, will choose the better way, they should consider their propensities to evil.
The youths, themselves, should be taught the danger of yielding to their own inward desires. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. If we walk in the sight of our eyes, and in the ways of our hearts, we will be sure to fall by the way. There must be within us a power to say No. There must be a crucifixion of the flesh and of its lustings.
The danger of drifting is too great for any young man or young woman to be left a prey to their own natures.
III. AN EXHORTATION TO EMBRACE THE GOOD (Pro 4:7-9)
1. “Therefore get wisdom: * * get understanding.” There should be instilled into every young life the thought of reaching out for the good, of acquiring the best. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. Understanding is very vital. Therefore, with all of thy getting, get understanding.
It may be difficult for young people to acknowledge that they do not know everything. The flesh desires to follow self-confidence. The ego is very strong in all. We think that we can do it. The true parent will try to instill into the mind of the child the need of accumulation, of growth, of getting. They must hold before their children that there are many things to be obtained-things higher up, and further on.
2. “Exalt her * * embrace her.” These words, culled from Pro 4:8, are written to create ideals, to instill high conceptions. If the wisdom which cometh down from above is supreme, then this wisdom should be exalted, and should be embraced. If the wisdom which cometh down from above leads to honor, to a long life, and to everything that promotes righteousness, then the youth should stretch every nerve to attain her.
The young man or the young woman delights in games with the thought of winning. He delights in contests at school with prizes in view. Teach him that he is in a race for an honor, a glory, and a crown that will not only outshine ail other things but which will endure forever.
Instruct him to become enthusiastic in the reach for the upper realms, where God’s good things await him. Life should be set before him as something that is filled with possibilities that are far above and beyond the lowlands of natural affections. If it is a matter of fun to win in a trivial game, a passing race, how much more should the higher, holier, and more abiding things of life appeal.
IV. AVERTING THE DANGERS OF YOUTH (Pro 4:10-13)
1. Does holy living pay? This is a question that often comes to the mind of the young. The enemy is always painting roseate pictures of sinful and worldly living. He promises all kinds of fleshly enjoyment, and that without damage.
God steps on the scene and gives full warning of the results of feeding the flesh. He demonstrates the folly of following in the ways of wickedness. He says, “The wages of sin is death.” Then He turns the picture around and tells us that long life will be given to those who receive His wisdom, and who walk in His sayings.
For our part, we trust the words of the Lord, and believe that all God promises is true. We believe it not alone because God says this or that, but also because our observations, during the years have proved every word to be true. We have seen with our own eyes the tragic ending of those who have followed after sin. We have seen the wreckage, beheld the heartaches, and have watched with sorrow the tragedies of lives that went after sin. Alas, alas, how pitiable is the end of the wicked! How terrible is the harvest of those who sow to the flesh!
On the other hand, we have observed the life and the fruitage of men who, from their youth, have walked in wisdom and sobriety. We have seen those who refused every call of the evil one, and chose to follow God in the days of their youth. We have seen their happy homes, their delightful families, their hairs whitening into a good old age; and we have said, “All that God wrote is true.”
2. May sin and sorrow be averted? We often ask, what is the chance of living without being engulfed in the woes of the wicked? We are in a world of sin and shame: may we be kept from its ravages? We are dwelling in darkness: may we yet walk in light?
With others falling all around us, may we walk safely on our way? With other homes broken, hearts blasted, hopes blighted, may we yet have the light of life, and of joy, and peace?
As we have weighed these things we have truly found that while all of us are heirs of others’ sins, yet much of life’s miseries are self-engendered. If we walk in Wisdom, and Understanding that is Divinely given, we shall have long life; our steps will not be straightened; we shall not stumble when we run.
V. A TRIPLE WARNING (Pro 4:14-15)
1. The first warning “Enter not.” Satan’s placards are many, and they are attractively gotten up. The devil is a great advertiser. Take the pictures of the cigarette that emblazon every highway. They are so pictured as to “catch” the unwary. Young women predominate, as though they were all devotees of the weed. The billboards picture the cigarette as the harbinger of health and happiness. The billboards even show athletes as smokers of this or that brand. So the story goes. The movie is made a place of great attractiveness; the race track, the drinking saloon, the dance hall, all are made scenes of beauty.
Against all of this God writes: “Enter not.”
2. The second warning: “Go not.” We think of the first Psalm: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”
Think you that one can play with fire and not be burned? Think you that one can go in the way of sinners, and not be led into sin. We will always partake of the nature and the ways of those with whom we associate. We will, day by day, grow into the likeness of the ones with whom we have comradeship.
3. The third warning: “Pass not by it.” God. the Spirit, seems to be warning the young man and the young woman that there is danger not only in entering in, and in going in the way, but that it is dangerous to pass by. The only safe course for any of us, is to “Avoid it”; to “Pass not by it”; to “Turn from it”; to “Pass away.”
For this cause we have made it a rule of our life not to attend any function where there is evil. We have refused to watch others dance, play cards, drink, etc. We have taken, not only now, but in our youth, a definite and positive stand against any fellowship with evil.
Yes, we might have had the strength to withstand temptation; however, we never gave ourselves the opportunity to be tempted when we could avoid it.
What has been the result? Instead of lessening our joys and peace and happinesses, we believe we have greatly augmented them.
VI. A SOLEMN COMPASSION (Pro 4:18-19)
1. Here is a message of accumulative blessing.” The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
First, we have some one walking in the light. “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” Here is a path that is marked with blessed fellowship. It is a way of joy. It is a walk of illumination.
Second, we have some one walking in an ever-increasing light. There is but one assurance for an ever-increasing light, and that is to walk in the way that leads toward the light. It will get brighter then, day by day, because each day we are getting nearer to the light.
Third, there is some one walking toward a perfect day. That day is to be realized when we reach Heaven. There is such a place and there is such a condition-“the perfect day.”
2. Here is a message of accumulative evil.” The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” They first entered into the way of the wicked, then they went down the way; then they passed into darkness; and then they stumbled and fell.
The sinner hopes in vain for that brighter day. Around his next shore line, there is always another day of deepening misery and disappointment. He is moving on into that place where the blackness of darkness is reserved forever and ever.
VII. SEVEN FINAL ADMONITIONS (Pro 4:23-27)
1. “Keep thy heart with all diligence.” The heart is vital to every functioning of physical life. It is also vital to the issues of spiritual life.
Our text says, “For out of it are the issues of life.” We say the heart pumps the blood throughout the body to sustain its life. God says that the heart not only gives out blood, but that from it flows the “issues” of life. So the heart is both a physical organ, but it also stands for the seat of good or of evil.
2. “Put away from thee a froward mouth.” With this we will include, “And perverse lips put far from thee.” Out of the mouth proceedeth both the evil and the good. The tongue may be set on fire of hell, and it may be the source of blessing. Let us remember that our conversation is in Heaven. Let us put, therefore, a watch upon our lips.
3. “Let thine eyes look right on.” And, “Let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” If we look to the right and to the left, we will be turning in that direction. If we look behind us, we will be in danger of becoming satisfied with past attainments. We must let our eyes look right on, and move on our way, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
4. “Ponder the path of thy feet.” Our mothers used to tell us to look before we stepped. We must ponder our path and ask whither it leadeth us. We must not go on until we know where we are going. There is too much of blindness to what lies ahead, in the world today. Let us cultivate looking far past the present scene.
5. “Let all thy ways be established.” We do not want to rush into untried and uncommanded paths. We must not be looking for paths that present thrills. We must have ways that are established, fixed. We must never walk in every wind of doctrine, and cunning craftiness of men.
6. “Turn not to the right hand nor to the left.” An established way does not permit of varied bypaths. When we turn aside to try new things we must leave the beaten track. We know that bypaths may be made attractive at the junction of the way: however, at the next bend of the road they will surely lead to some pond of discord, or to some hill of despair.
7. “Remove thy foot from evil.” If we have taken one in the wrong way, we must be quick to remove our foot. The path of evil may be portrayed as the quickest path to the good. But it is never so. Evil never leads to anything that spells peace, or plenty, or to any righteous way.
AN ILLUSTRATION
In line with the general trend of this study, both parents and children need to watch that little member, the tongue.
I saw a terrible fire some time ago, or rather, I saw the reflection of it in the sky; the heavens were crimsoned with it. It burned a large manufactory to the ground, and the firemen had hard work to save the buildings which surrounded it. They poured streams of water on it from fifteen engines; but it licked it up, and would have its course till the walls gave way. That terrible fire was kindled by a farthing rushlight. In America the Indians strike a spark from a flint and steel, and set fire to the dry grass, and the flames spread till they sweep like a roaring torrent over the prairies as large as England, and men and cattle have to flee for their lives. “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire.” A few rash words will set a family, and even a nation, by the ears. Half the lawsuits and half the wars have been brought about by the tongue. Husband and wife have separated forever, children have forsaken their homes, bosom-friends have become bitter foes-all on account of fiery arrows shot by this powerful little member.-Biblical Encyclopedia.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
These chapters begin with reminiscence. A father is reciting to a son the precepts taught him by his father in his youth, and which cover chapter four. Chapter five is a warning against the evil woman. Chapter six deals with suretyship, indolence, malice and violence, while chapter seven returns to the theme of chapter five.
In the first-named chapter occurs the beautiful illustration of Hebrew rhythm to which attention was called in Lesson 1; and following it we find in Pro 4:18 and Pro 4:23, two of as off-quoted texts as are in the whole book.
The just man, as usual in the Bible, is he who is justified by faith and walks with God in a holy obedience. On him the Sun of Righteousness shines. His new life is at first like the morning light, a struggle between the darkness and the dawn. Ere long the doubt vanishes, and morning is unequivocally declared. The counterpart is fitted to overawe the boldest heart, The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble. The thought is that the darkness is in them and they carry it, an evil heart of unbelief, wherever they go.
As to the other text, notice the fountain the heart (Pro 4:23), and then the stream the mouth, the eyes, the feet (Pro 4:24-27). The heart is kept by prayer and the Word of God, and then the life issuing from it is what it ought to be. The speech is pure, and true and potent. There are no secret longings and side glances after forbidden things, and the steps in matters of business, society, and the home are all ordered of the Lord. (Compare Christs words Mat 15:18-20.) FAMILY JOYS
We have spoken of chapter five as a warning against the evil woman, which is true of its first half; but the reader will observe how the warning is accentuated by the contrast of the pure and happy home life in the second half, beginning at Pro 5:15. The former is a clark back ground to bring out the latters beauty. The keynote of the first half is remove far from her. She is deceitful (Pro 5:3-4), unstable (Pro 5:6) and cruel (Pro 5:9). To associate with her means waste of property and health (Pro 5:8-9), and at the last remorse (Pro 5:12-14).
The home in comparison is a pure and well-guarded well (Pro 5:15). Read Pro 5:16-17 in the Revised Version, and observe a husbands duty toward his wife (Pro 5:18). Let him avoid biting words, neglect, unnecessary absences and the like. And as Paul says (Eph 5:33), let the wife see that she reverence her husband.
The suretyship against which we are warned (Pro 6:1-5) is of the inconsiderate kind. That imprudent assumption of such obligations leaving out of account the moral unreliableness of the man involved. The advice is to get the quickest release possible (Pro 6:3-5). It does not mean that we should not kindly and prudently help a neighbor in financial need, if we can.
The mother of Pro 6:20-24 must be one who knows God, for it is the instilling of His Word only in the heart of her child that can produce the results indicated. Observe it is a grown son here referred to as keeping his mothers law.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the general subjects treated in these chapters?
2. Quote and explain Pro 6:18.
3. What possible evidence is there in this lesson of our Lords acquaintance with Proverbs?
4. What does this lesson teach about conjugal love? About parental authority? About suretyship?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Pro 4:1-3. Hear, &c., the instruction of a father Of me, who have paternal authority over you, and great affection for you. For I give you, good doctrine Not vain or foolish, much less false or pernicious counsels, but such as are true and profitable. Forsake ye not my law Gods law or commands delivered to you by my mouth. For I was my fathers son In a special sense, his best beloved son, and designed to be his successor on the throne; tender and only beloved, &c. Young and tender in years, and capable of any impressions, and tenderly educated. Houbigant renders the verse, For I was the principal son of my father, the only beloved of my mother. These circumstances are mentioned to show the necessity and great benefit of wholesome instruction, which his royal parents would not neglect, no, not in his tender years; and thereby to prepare and excite his hearers or readers, by his example, to receive instruction.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 4:1. Hear, ye children, a Hebraism, equivalent to wash, cleanse, and purify your ears. A grateful son here recites the domestic piety of an illustrious father. David talked much with his children on religious subjects. But Solomon, wiser than all his brothers, was his beloved son, and shared more of his fathers favours. David made religion the first object of paternal tuition; for it was in his eyes far before the throne, and all worldly good. Our Lord also has taught us that it is the one thing needful; yea, the good part which shall not be taken away. David well understood the importance of religion, and therefore pressed it on the minds of his family by a daily sweetness of instruction. And it is no small truth to say, that every father has it more or less in his power to do the same.
Pro 4:7. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. We cannot succeed in teaching children, but by the dint of repetition; on which account these injunctions so often vibrate on our ears, and mostly under some new and engaging aspects.
Pro 4:8. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee. The most illustrious characters that have adorned human nature, have risen to distinction by their learning, their virtues, or their eloquence. In the church, what else distinguished Origen, Tertullian, Augustine, and Chrysostom. Every nation has a cloud of characters which confirm the maxim of the text. It was God that inspired them; for the son of Sirach says well, Unless thy wisdom be with a man, he shall be nothing regarded.
Pro 4:16. They sleep not, except they have done mischief. Where can we find an empty house in Europe with the windows unbroken? What a proof of the fall of man, and of the need of wisdom!
Pro 4:18. The path of the first is as the shining light. The word noggah, has a special reference to the rising of the sun. Isa 60:3; Isa 62:1. Or rather, to the sun of righteousness who rises on the church. Mal 4:2. Good men walk in the light of his countenance. Solomon gives the more weight to his instruction by contrasting the ways of the wicked with the path of the just, which shineth more and more to the perfect day. Divine purity and every grace encreases more and more in the heart, till we attain the fulness of God; and the practice of righteousness, connected with all the christian temper, encreases till the whole character is absorbed in the meridian lustre of evangelical glory, and eternal felicity.
Pro 4:23. Keep thy heart with all diligence. The reference is to the keeping of a city or a castle against a besieging army. The consequences are worthy of the caution. The moral caution is against vain and idle thoughts. Now, to say the least of vain and wandering thoughts, they are attended with the loss of time. But if our actions are either always good or bad, our thoughts must be so too, for they are the spring of action: we sip either honey or poison from every object with which our thoughts converse. Hence also we are every moment either pleasing or displeasing to God in regard to the propensity of the heart. After a vain thought is once indulged, a habit of friendship and intimacy is contracted between the mind and the object of its desire; and if this be a base object, the heart is criminated by its attachment, and we should blush if men could read our thoughts: how much more then have we cause to be ashamed before God who reads the heart. But vain thoughts steal away the heavenly fire from the altar of the heart, and kindle unholy fires; or the desire of riches shoots up and chokes the good seed. They disqualify the soul for religious duties, fetter the feet with weakness, and deprive the soul of confidence in prayer. Let us therefore keep the heart, by setting God before us, by efforts of habitual devotion, and by suppressing vain injections on their first appearance. Then the evils will prompt us to prayer, and induce us to fill up life with useful employment.
Pro 4:26. Ponder the path of thy feet. We should ask ourselves in every weighty matter, What may the issues be of such a word? How may unfriendly persons turn it? What may the issues be of such an action, or of such a procedure? How may it operate on my conscience, on my connections, or on the public mind? We are to ponder our path, and to walk straight forward in the good way. We must live according to reason and revelation; for the more our heart and life are conformed to the will of our Maker, the more of every kind of happiness will fall to our lot.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a {a} father, and attend to know understanding.
(a) He speaks this as a preacher and minister which is as a father to the people, Pro 2:8.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
6. Teaching the love of Wisdom 4:1-9
"This chapter is comprised of three discourses on the value of wisdom, each including the motifs of instruction, exhortation, command, and motivation." [Note: Ross, p. 922.]
The first section of verses in this chapter shows how parents can pass along the love of wisdom: mainly by personal influence. Solomon’s instruction here was very positive. Rather than saying, "Don’t do this and that!" which he did elsewhere (cf. Pro 3:27-31), he wanted his sons to realize that by heeding his counsel they could find the best life possible. This father structured formal times of instruction for his sons. His is not a bad example for other fathers to follow.
The Hebrew word translated "instruction" (Pro 4:2) can also mean "law" (cf. Pro 3:1). Normally those who keep God’s commandments live (Pro 4:4), but there are exceptions. [Note: R. B. Y. Scott, Proverbs-Ecclesiastes, p. 52.] Nonetheless this is good motivation. One writer paraphrased Pro 4:7 a as follows: "What it takes is not brains or opportunity, but decision. Do you want it? Come and get it." [Note: Ibid., p. 67.] The second half of this verse probably means, "Be willing to part with anything else you may have to get understanding."
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER 5
EDUCATION: THE CHILDS THOUGHT OF THE PARENT
“Wisdom doth live with children round her knees.” – Wordsworth.
“He taught me, and said unto me,” etc. Pro 4:4
THIS chapter begins with a charming little piece of autobiography. Unhappily the writer is unknown. That it was not Solomon is plain from the fact that an only son is speaking, and we know from 1Ch 3:5 that Solomon was not an only son of his mother. But the naivet and beauty of the confession are the same, whoever was the speaker. The grateful memories of a fathers teaching and of a mothers tenderness give point and force to the exhortations. “Do I urge upon you, young people, the claims of Wisdom?” the author seems to say. “Well, I speak from experience. My parents taught me her wholesome and pleasant ways. Though I was an only son, they did not by a selfish indulgence allow me to be spoiled. They made me bear the yoke in my youth, and now I live to thank them for it.”
There is a great temptation to spoil art only child, a temptation which few are able to resist. Parents can deny themselves everything for their idol, except the pleasure of making the child a despot; they can endure any pain for their despot, except the pain of resisting him and instructing him. And accordingly they have sometimes to experience the shame and anguish of their childrens curses, like that Carthaginian mother, of whom it is related that her son, a convicted criminal, passing to execution, requested that he might whisper something to her, and, coming near, bit off her ear, saying that it was his revenge because she had brought him up so badly. Very different are the feelings of our author; he owes much to his parents, and is eager to acknowledge what he owes. God has no kinder gift to give us than a hallowed home, the memory of lessons from the lips of father and mother, the early impressions of virtue and wisdom, the sacred streams which rise from that fountainhead, and that alone, and run freshening and singing and broadening all through our lives.
With this happy example of good home influence before our eyes, we will come to consider briefly two points which are suggested by it: first, the importance of these early impressions; second, the main features of the discipline presented in the chapter.
I. Not without reason has a great cardinal of the Roman Church said that if he may have the children up to the age of five, he will not mind in whose hand they may be afterwards; for it is almost impossible to exaggerate the permanent effects of those first tendencies impressed on the soul before the intellect is developed, and while the soft, plastic nature of the child is not yet determined in any particular direction. Things which we learn we can more or less unlearn, but things which are blended with the elements of our composition, made parts of us before we are conscious of our own personality, defy the hand of time and the power of conscious effort to eradicate them.
John Paton, that noble missionary to the New Hebrides, has given us a vivid picture of his early home. It was a plain lowland cottage, with its “hut and hen,” and between the two a small chamber with a diminutive window shedding diminutive light on the scene. To this room the children saw the father retire oftentimes a day, and shut to the door; they would occasionally hear the pathetic pleadings of the voice that prayed, and they learnt to slip past the door on tiptoe. They got to understand whence came that happy light upon their fathers face: they recognized it as a reflection from the Divine presence, in the consciousness of which he lived.
Let a child draw his first breath in a house which possesses a sanctuary like that; let him come to know by his quick childish perceptions that there is in his home a ladder set up from earth to heaven, and that the angels of God go up and down on it; let him feel the Divine atmosphere in his face, the air all suffused with heavenly light, the sweetness and the calm which prevail in a place where a constant communion is maintained, -and in after years he will be aware of voices which call and hands which reach out to him from his childhood, connecting him with heaven, and even the most convincing negations of unbelief will be powerless to shake the faith which is deep as the springs of his life.
We learn to love, not because we are taught to love, but by some contagious influence of example or by some indescribable attraction of beauty. Our first love to Wisdom, or, to use our modern phrase, Religion, is won from us by living with those that love her. She stole in upon us and captured us without any overpowering arguments; she was beautiful and we felt that those whom we loved were constantly taken and held by her beauty. Just reflect upon this subtle and wonderful truth. If my infancy is spent among those whose main thought is “to get” riches, I acquire imperceptibly the love of money. I cannot rationally explain my love; but it seems to me in after life a truism, that money is the principal thing; I look with blank incredulity upon one who questions this ingrained truth. But if in infancy I live with those whose love is wholly centered upon Religion, who cherish her with unaffected ardor and respond to her claims with kindling emotion, I may in after life be seduced from her holy ways for awhile, but I am always haunted by the feeling that I have left my first love, I am restless and uneasy until I can win back that “old bride-look of earlier days.”
Yes, that old bride-look – for religion may be so presented to the childs heart as to appear for ever the bride elect of the soul, from whose queenly love promotion may be expected, whose sweet embraces bring a dower of honor, whose beautiful fingers twine a chaplet of grace for the head and set a crown of glory on the brow. {Pro 4:8-9}
The affections are elicited, and often permanently fixed, before the understanding has come into play. If the childs heart is surrendered to God, and molded by heavenly wisdom, the man will walk securely; a certain trend will be given to all his thoughts; a certain instinctive desire for righteousness will be engrafted in his nature; and an instinctive aversion will lead him to decline the way of the wicked. {Pro 4:14}
The first thing, then, is to give our children an atmosphere to grow up in; to cultivate their affections, and set their hearts on the things eternal; to make them associate the ideas of wealth and honor, of beauty and glory, not with material possessions, but with the treasures and rewards of Wisdom.
II. But now comes the question: What is to be the definite teaching of the child? For it is an unfailing mark of the parents who themselves are holy that they are impelled to give clear and memorable instruction to their children. And this is where the great and constant difficulty emerges. If the hallowed example would suffice we might count the task comparatively easy. But some day the understanding will begin to assert itself; the desire to question, to criticize, to prove, will awake. And then, unless the truths of the heart have been applied to the conscience in such a way as to satisfy the reason, there may come the desolate time in which, while the habits of practical life remain pure, and the unconscious influence of early training continues to be effective, the mind is shaken by doubt, and the hope of the soul is shrouded in a murky cloud.
Now the answer to this question may, for the Christian, be briefly given, Bring your children to Christ, teach them to recognize in Him their Savior, and to accept Him as their present Lord and gracious Friend. But this all-inclusive answer will not suffer by a little expansion on the lines which are laid down in the chapter before us. When Christ is made unto us Wisdom, the contents of Wisdom are not altered, they are only brought within our reach and made effectual in us. Bringing our children to Christ will not merely consist in teaching them the doctrine of salvation, but it will include showing them in detail what salvation is, and the method of its realization.
The first object in the home life is to enable children to realize what salvation is. It is easy to dilate on an external heaven and hell, but it is not so easy to demonstrate that salvation is an inward state, resulting from a spiritual change.
It is very strange that Judaism should ever have sunk into a formal religion of outward observance, when its own Wisdom was so explicit on this point: “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” {Pro 4:20-23} The Greek version, which was very generally used in our Lords time, had a beautiful variation of this last clause: “In order that thy fountains may not fail thee, guard them in the heart.” It was after all but a new emphasis on the old teaching of the book of Proverbs when Jesus taught the necessity of heart purity, and when He showed that out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, and all the things which defile a man. {Mat 15:19} Yet this lesson of inwardness has always been the most difficult of all to learn. Christianity itself has always been declining from it and falling into the easier but futile ways of externalism; and even Christian homes have usually failed in their influence on the young chiefly because their religious observances have fallen into formalism, and while the outward conduct has been regulated, the inner springs of action have not been touched.
All conduct is the outcome of hidden fountains. All words are the expression of thoughts. The first thing and the main thing is that the hidden fountains of thought and feeling be pure. The source of all our trouble is the bitterness of heart, the envious feeling, the sudden outbreak of corrupt desire. A merely outward salvation would be of no avail; a change of place, a magic formula, a conventional pardon, could not touch the root of the mischief. “I wish you would change my heart,” said the chief Sekomi to Livingstone. “Give me medicine to change it, for it is proud, proud and angry, angry always.” He would not hear of the New Testament way of changing the heart; he wanted an outward, mechanical way-and that way was not to be found. The child at first thinks in the same way. Heaven is a place to go to, not a state to be in. Hell is an outward punishment to fly from, not an inward condition of the soul. The child has to learn that searching truth which Milton tried to teach, when he described Satan in Paradise, –
” within him hell He brings, and round about him, nor from hell
One step, no more than from himself, can fly
By change of place
Which way I fly is hell, cries the miserable being,”
“myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep, a lower deep,
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.”
We are tempted in dealing with children to train them only in outward habits, and to forget the inward sources which are always gathering and forming; hence we often teach them to avoid the lie on the tongue, to put away from them the froward mouth and perverse lips, {Pro 4:24} and yet leave them with the lies in the soul, the deep inward unveracities which are their ruin. We often succeed in bringing them up as respectable and decorous members of society, and yet leave them a prey to secret sins; they are tormented by covetousness which is idolatry, by impurity, and by all kinds of envious and malignant passions.
There is something even ghastly in the very virtues which are sometimes displayed in a highly civilized society like ours. We perceive what appear to be virtues, but we are haunted by an uncomfortable misgiving that they are virtues only in appearance; they seem to have no connection with the heart; they never seem to bubble up from irrepressible fountains; they do not overflow. There is charity, but it is the charity only of the subscription list; there is pity, but it is the pity only of conventional humanitarianism; there is the cold correctness of conduct, or the formal accuracy of speech, but the purity seems to be prudery because it is only a concession, to the conventional sentiments of the hour, and the truthfulness seems to be a lie because its very exactness seems to come, not from springs of truth, but only from an artificial habit.
We are frequently bound to notice a religion of a similar kind. It is purely mimetic. It is explained on the same principle as the assimilation of the colors of animals to the colors of their environment. It is the unconscious and hypocritical instinct of self-preservation in a presumably religious society, where not to seem religious would involve a loss of caste. It may be regarded then as the first essential lesson which is to be impressed on the mind of a child, -the lesson coming next after the unconscious influences of example, and before all dogmatic religious teaching, -that righteousness is the condition of salvation, righteousness of the heart; that the outward seeming goes for nothing at all, but that God with a clear and quiet eye gazes down into the hidden depths, and considers whether the fountains there are pure and perennial.
The second thing to be explained and enforced is singleness of heart, directness and consistency of aim; by which alone the inward life can be shaped to virtuous ends: “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Make level the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left.” {Pro 4:25-27} As our Lord puts it, If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. This precept has frequently been given in the interests of worldly wisdom: The boy is told that if he means to get on he must concentrate his thoughts and refuse to let any of the seductions around him divert his attention. Singleness of eye may be the most ruinous of evils-if a man has only a single eye to his own advantage, and pursues nothing but his own pleasure. The precept is given here however in the interests of heavenly wisdom, and there is much to be said for the view that only the truly religious mind can be quite single-eyed. Selfishness, though it seems to be an undivided aim, is really a manifold of tumultuous and conflicting passions. He only, strictly speaking, has one desire, whose one desire is God. The way of wisdom is, after all, the only way which has no bifurcations. The man who has a single eye to his own interest may find before long that he has missed the way: he pushes eagerly on, but he flounders ever deeper in the mire; for though he did not turn to the right hand nor to the left, he never all the time removed his foot from evil. {Pro 4:27} The right life then is a steady progress undiverted by the alluring sights and sounds which appeal to the senses. “Look not round about thee,” says Ecclesiasticus, {Sir 9:7} “in the streets of the city, neither wander thou in the solitary places thereof.” We are to learn that the way goes through Vanity Fair, but admits of no divergences into its tempting booths or down its alluring alleys; the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the vainglory of life, are not to distract the mind which has but one purpose in view. The path is to be kept level; {Pro 4:26} as we should say, an even tenor is to be preserved; we are to follow the plain unexciting path of duty, the beaten track of sober rightness. For while it is the mark of all unhallowed ways that they plunge up and down from despondency to wild elation, from giddy raptures to heartstricken depression, it is the sure sign of Gods hand in our life when the paths are made level. {Pro 5:21} Ah those tempting ways, on which shine the false lights of imagined duty, of refined selfishness, or of gilded sensuality. Surely it is the result of Wisdom, the gift of Gods grace, to keep the eyes “looking right on.”
But it is time to sum up. Here is a great contrast between those whose early training has been vicious or neglected, and those who have been “taught in the way of wisdom, led in paths of uprightness.” It is a contrast which should constantly be present to the eyes of parents with a warning and an encouragement. The unfortunate child whose infancy was passed in the midst of baleful example, whose heart received no instruction from parents lips, grows up like one stumbling in the dark, and the darkness deepens as he advances; observers cannot tell-he himself cannot tell-what it is at which he stumbles. {Pro 4:19} There is the old ingrained vice which comes out again and again after every attempted reformation; there is the old shuffling habit; there is the old unhallowed set of the thoughts and the tastes; there is the old incurable pharisaism, with its tendency to shift all blame on to other peoples shoulders. It is all like the damp in the walls of an ill-built house. In dry weather there are only the stains, but those stains are the prophecy of what will be again when the wet weather returns. The corrupt ways have become a second nature; they are as sleep and food to the wretched creature; to abstain from iniquity creates the restlessness of insomnia; if he has not been spreading an influence of evil and leading others astray, he feels as if he had been deprived of his daily food, and he is consumed with a fiery thirst. {Pro 4:16-17} Even when such a one is genuinely born again, the old hideous habits will appear like seams in the character; and temptations will send the flush along the tell-tale scars.
On the other hand, the life which starts from the sweet examples of a hallowed home, and all its timely chastisements and discipline, presents a most entrancing history. At first there is much which is difficult to bear, much against which the flesh revolts. The influences of purity are cold like the early dawn, and the young childs spirit shrinks and shivers; but with every step along the leveled road the light broadens and the air becomes warmer, -the dawn shines more and more unto the perfect day. {Pro 4:18 margin} As the character forms, as the habits become fixed, as the power of resistance increases, a settled strength and a lasting peace gladden the life. The rays of heavenly wisdom not only shine on the face, but suffuse the very texture of the being, so that the whole body is full of light. Eventually it begins to appear that truth and purity, pity and charity, have become instinctive. Like a well-disciplined army, they spring at once into the ranks, and are ready for service even on a surprise. The graces of holy living come welling up from those untainted inner springs, and, be the surroundings ever so dry, the fountains fail not. The habit of single-eyed devotion to right avails even where there is no time for reflection; more and more the seductions of the senses lose their point of attack in this disciplined spirit. There is a freedom in the gait, for holiness has ceased to be a toilsome calculation, -the steps of the spiritual man are not straitened. There is a swiftness in all action, -the feet are shod with a joyous and confident preparation, for the fear of stumbling is gone. {Pro 4:12}
With daily growing gratitude and veneration does such a one look back upon the early home of piety and tenderness.