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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadRalph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 19:21 - 19:29
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Pro_19:21-29.
"There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. The desire of a man is his kindness; and a poor man is better than a liar. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil. A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again. Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware; and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge. He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devonreth iniquity. Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools."
The first of these verses contains a very important truth;-a truth which may occasion many crosses and pains in the present experience even of the children of God, but which, in the final winding-up of the entire system of His providential administration, will, on the retrospect, fill their minds with admiring satisfaction, their hearts with gratitude, and their lips with praise.
The words are susceptible of a more limited, and of a more enlarged, interpretation. By some they are understood as meaning no more than that human counsels succeed only to the extent to which God purposes they should;-that "all our ways" are entirely under His control; so that in no case can we go one step further than He permits.
This, however, is but a branch of a more general position;-namely, that while in the hearts of men there are "many devices,"-many desires, intentions, and resolutions,-many objects, with the plans and means of their attainment,-God has counsels of His own,-specific ends to work out;-and that not only shall these be accomplished in spite of the "devices" of men, but that these very "devices" shall be rendered subservient to their accomplishment-that all that is human shall be so directed and overruled, as to effect what is divine. Many and striking are the exemplifications of this in the records of inspired history:-and these records contain a specimen of the principles by which the divine administration of the government of the world is still, and shall to the end be, conducted. Look at the "device" which was in the hearts of Joseph's brethren:-"They said one to another, Behold this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, "Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams!" (See Gen_37:19-27) These words were uttered with a bitter sneer-with a "leer malign" upon their countenances, as their eyes glanced to each other, and their jealous and resentful pride kindled the more. They were devising, as they thought, the most effectual means for frustrating all that those dreams had seemed to import:-there should be an end of them now. And no doubt, had they fulfilled their present purpose, an end to them there had been. But so it was not to be. There were other "devices" suggested-"Shed no blood," said Reuben, "but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him;"-and then there was that of Judah-"What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him."* This their last "device" they thought as likely to be effectual in bringing his presumptuous dreams to nothing as their first. But what was the result?-"the counsel of the Lord, that stood." This act of theirs was the very means of accomplishing it. How speaks Joseph himself to them twenty years afterward?-" Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life."*1-And what were all the "devices" which were framed and executed by the "wicked generation" that "crucified the Lord of glory?" When they had taken their counsels, had got Judas successfully bribed, had got possession of their victim, and by intimidation of Pilate, had obtained his sentence of death, and had "nailed him to the tree;"-did they, by all this,-carried out by them in the freedom and the guilt of their lawless passions,-frustrate any purpose of heaven?" The counsel of the Lord, that stood:"-" Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," said Peter to them afterwards, ye "have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."*2 And thus it is in every event. Jehovah, the Universal Ruler, carries forward the designs of His providence, great and small, amidst, and by means of, the infinitely varying and crossing, the apparently conflicting, capricious, and random volitions and determinations of agents, who, all the while, feel themselves free, and who, in all that is necessary to moral responsibility, are free,-acting under no mechanical impulses or destinations of fatalism, but doing what they please, as disposition and motive influence them, without restraint and without compulsion!" Such knowledge is too wonderful for us." Every attempt to comprehend it quite overpowers us. It is one of those many things in the moral world, as there are many too in the physical, which make us feel the limitation of our faculties, and, if rightly considered and improved, may impress us with a becoming and salutary "humbleness of mind."
*1 Gen_45:5. rr
*2 Act_2:23.
I have said that the operation of tins truth may be often painful. We are naturally fond of our own "devices." We fancy them wise. We anticipate from them the most beneficial results; and we dwell on the anticipation with delight. But impediments come in the way. Obstacles present themselves, and sometimes from quarters whence we least expected them, and where their occurrence occasions us the bitterest disappointment. Our great difficulty then is to see the hand of God,-or to retain the firm conviction that "all things are of Him." Yet so assuredly it is. "Clouds and darkness" may be "round about him." This is the trial of our faith. There will be light in the end-all light-He will give us to see that "His counsel has stood," and that it has been well for us that our "devices" have not.
We must not, on the other hand, forget, that while God in mercy frustrates many of our "devices," that "His counsel may stand," it is sometimes a part of His counsel to chasten His people, both individually and socially, by allowing their "devices" and plans to succeed. He may frustrate the purpose of one, and give effect to the opposite purpose of another. In both ways He may chasten; or the one may be favour, and the other correction,-correction, such as may not be felt at the time, but felt in all its bitterness afterwards.
Verse Pro_19:22. "The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar."-The meaning commonly affixed to this verse is probably the true one-that kindness is to be measured by the amount of a man's desires to do good, rather than by the amount of his ability. Any other principle of estimate would be most unfair in regard to a very numerous class of our fellow-men. There may be a great deal of genuine and generous kindness in the heart of a poor man, who has nothing beyond desires and wishes in his power. The heart may be full, when the hand is empty. In this respect, the Bible principle is that of the purest equity-" It is required according to what a man hath, and not according to that he hath not."
But let it be observed and remembered-" the desires of a man are not his kindness," when he has the ability to be practically kind, and confines himself to desires. No. In that case, there is the clearest of all evidence that the desire is not sincere;-mere profession, without reality-"love in word"-which is only another phrase for no love at all.*
* Comp. Jam_2:15-16.
While, therefore, there are cases in which we cheerfully, according to a common phrase, "take the will for the deed," knowing that there is a want of ability to do what the heart wishes,-there are other cases, in which we demand the deed as the only proof of the will,-the gift as the only evidence of the charity. The poor man, who is sincerely willing and desirous to serve us, had he but the power, is as much entitled to our lively and affectionate gratitude as if he had actually done us the service.
Such, in this connexion, seems to be the import of the second clause of the verse-"A poor man is better than a liar."-The liar is the hypocritical and empty promiser; the man of many words, but no deeds,-of large and flattering assurances, but no performance. The poor man, who is sincere in his kind desires, is "better"-better incomparably in himself, in the sterling principles of his character; and better to us, in the comfort and satisfaction imparted to our minds in our times of need,-than the man who talks as if his whole heart were love, but who proves by his conduct that his heart is all in his tongue, and that it is there only to teach it to lie;-the man who gives us to expect much, but from whom nothing is obtained; who turns out "a cloud without water;" or-to use the apt comparison of Job respecting his friends,-is like the "stream of the brooks" in the parched and burning desert, that rapidly passes away, and balks the eager anticipations of the thirsty and fainting caravan. The true sense, therefore, seems to be given by an interpreter and translator, who renders the verse freely-"The glory of a man is his beneficence; but better is the poor man than he that falsely professeth it."*1 This rendering indeed, of the former part of the verse proceeds on the supposition of "desire" meaning that which is the object of desire;-and so it is understood by others. An eminent critic renders-" That which is desirable, or praiseworthy, in a man, is his kindness or beneficence."*2 I prefer the sense we have before put on this part of the verse. And, from the whole, we should learn, first, to beware ourselves of all false, lying, hypocritical professions of kindness,-of which the sincerity is not evinced by the gift and act. The mouth and the purse are far from being always equally open. On the contrary, it is often where most is said that least is done; and where there are fewest words that most is got. Let us be of those who say little and do much, rather than of those who say much and do little. And we should further learn to be just to all, in our estimates of their "kindness." We are in great danger of forming our estimates, and cherishing our feelings of gratitude, according to the amount of relief or of benefit actually obtained and enjoyed by ourselves. Yet it is the "kindness" not the mere gift considered in itself, that should be the measure of our gratitude. When a man pinches himself to help us, but can do comparatively little, we are more indebted to him than to the man who may give largely, and yet hardly touch even his superfluity.
*1 Hodgson.
*2 Schulz.
There is another sense-closely connected with the one which the clause preceding suggests-in which "a poor man is better than a liar." Men may not only lie in their promises to give; they may lie as a means of getting. Now, it is better far that a man remain poor, than that he make rich by lying,-that is, by any false, deceptive, dishonourable means. Yes, ye upright poor, it is better-far, far better for your reputation, for your peace of conscience, for your trust in Providence, and even for the probabilities of your ultimately getting on in the world. On your "honest poverty" rests the smile of Heaven; and the very sense of your integrity places you in regard to respectability and happiness immeasurably above the man who is rich at the expense of truth.
Verse Pro_19:23. "The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil-Supplements, in any translation, generally indicate some degree of obscurity in the original. There is obscurity in the middle clause of this verse where our translators have supplied-he who hath it; a supplement which is sufficiently bold. The word for satisfied may be either the verb to be full, or the adjective full or filled. The word rendered "abide" may signify to pass the, night-to lie down-to rest.
From these significations of the different words, various have been the senses affixed to the clause. "The full" has been understood of those who are full of prosperity and the pride which it engenders; and by an alteration in the connexion of the words in the latter part of the verse, it has been made to declare of him, that "he shall lie down in it, and that he shall be visited with evil." But this interpretation, like one or two others, does not seem at all natural or satisfactory.
To myself it appears, that, taking the word for "satisfied" more literally as meaning full or filled, and the word for abide as signifying rest, or passing the night in quietness and peace-the verse might be rendered-" The fear of the Lord is unto fife; and he who is filled with it shall rest; he shall not be visited with evil." The sense is thus not materially different from that of our received version.
The idea is the delightful one of felt security-tranquil, settled repose and serenity of spirit, from confidence in God's wisdom, faithfulness, and power, and an assured sense of His love. While in person, in family, and in substance, the fearer of God is not exempt from trials: while he has sufferings, and feels them, and they are not, in themselves, to him more than to others, "joyous, but grievous"-yet in them "he is not visited with evil;" for that is not really evil, which is the divinely ordained means of his greatest good. He knows-" that cannot hurt which comes from God." He knows that there is not a power in the universe that can "visit him with evil," independently of God's will;-for "if God be for him, who can be against him?" And if the "evil" that comes, comes under the direction of His will, the gracious nature of the purpose for which it is sent, changes, in the estimation of the sufferer, its very character-transmuting it into good:-temporal privation being spiritual acquisition; the pains of the body, the health of the soul; the sufferings of time, the preparatives for eternity. Thus-" the fear of the Lord is unto life"-tending to the enjoyment of the present life; and, springing as it does from the faith of divine truth, to the final attainment of "life everlasting."
Verse Pro_19:24. "A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again." It is agreed among critics, that the word translated bosom ought to be rendered, according to its more direct and literal signification-dish.* And, so understood, it is hardly possible to conceive a stronger or more graphic description of the sluggard:-he "droppeth his hand into the dish, it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth."-Indolent, lazy men are generally fond enough of their meat; but they like their ease even better. They would fain make the two compatible, and have their meat without the trouble of taking it. O! if it would but just drop into their mouth! You have here the poor yawning wretch at his meal. It is quite a toil to him. Having got a mouthful, he lets his hand drop heavily into the dish; and, while his jaws go lazily about the process of mastication, it is long before he can be at the trouble to raise it again with another. It is literally with him, according to the proverb-"Slow at meat-slow at work."
* See 2Ki_21:13; 2Ch_35:13.
But there is a general sentiment under the particular figure. The sentiment is, that indolence, growing upon its miserable subject, comes to feel even the very slightest exertion, however necessary, an insufferable annoyance. A good may be within immediate reach-quite at hand-the smallest possible trouble may obtain it; yet it will remain unsecured. The opportunity will pass. He will yawn, and wish, and resolve, but do nothing-still saying "time enough!"-till it is gone; and then, having yawned out his ineffective wishes, he will, in the same spirit of listlessness, yawn out again his unavailing regrets. Or perhaps he may fall back on fatalism-a system most congenial to the spirit of sloth, and find out that it was not ordained that he should have the thing!
Verse Pro_19:25. "Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware; and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge." Observe here-1. There is an intended contrast, in the two clauses of the verse, between smiting and reproving; the one signifying the severity of punitive discipline, the other simply verbal admonition and rebuke. The former required in the case of the froward "scorner;" the latter only in the case of the "man of understanding."-2. The scorner and the simple, in the first clause, are understood by some of the same person:-" Smite a scorner, and the infatuated man will beware." * The "scorner," however, in other parts of this book, as we have more than once seen, is distinguished by the very fact of his incorrigibility in his selfwilled frowardness: "A reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool." It is much more likely that by "the simple" we are to understand, not the "scorner" himself, but those who are in danger of being brought under his influence, and corrupted by his example. They are those-the young especially-who are not yet hackneyed in evil; who have not yet learned to "mock at sin," but who are exposed to the peril of the wayward and hardened "scorner's" power over them. Although we would be far from laying down the principle that any man should be punished beyond his desert for the sake of others;-that a heavier infliction should be laid upon him than his crime will at all justify, merely that the in terrorem example may have the more powerful effect; yet it is a perfectly legitimate motive for the infliction, promptly and firmly, of such punishment as is deserved, that others may be warned, and may be dissuaded from similar courses; or, in the language of our criminal courts, "maybe deterred from such crimes in all time coming." To go beyond desert, would be unjust; it would be injuring one man for the benefit of others; it would be "doing evil, that good might come." But that the warning of others is a legitimate end in the infliction of merited punishment, is universally admitted; and it has the sanction of God's word. * Simplicity, when taken as at all meaning what is evil, signifies inconsideration-heedlessness. "The simple will beware"-literally "will be cunning"-means their being put on their guard, so as to apply a caution as artful to repel seduction as the guile employed to seduce them.-3. While the punishment of the "scorner" benefits others, the reproof of the wise man benefits himself. He takes it in good part, and profits by it.
* Schultens.
Verse Pro_19:26. "He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach." On reading this verse, we are ready to start, and to exclaim-A son "that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother!" Can such a monster exist? Can there be one who thus resists the strongest impulses, and belies the tenderest claims of his nature?-Would that the character existed only in fancy! It was a reality in Solomon's time; it is a reality in ours. Amongst the black and base characters, of which catalogues are at times given in the word of God, "without natural affection" is one. It is not the mere waywardness and passion of childhood that is meant in this description. Oh! it is something incomparably worse than that! We have here before us a youth, who has fallen into habits of profligacy-who casts off parental restraint, as unworthy the regard of a lad of spirit; who, for the gratification of his foolish extravagancies and his expensive vices, "wastes his father," making free, in every way in which he can lay his hand on it, with his substance, reckless if he should bring both him and the family to poverty;-who "chases away his mother," driving her from him, when, even with the tears of maternal love she would expostulate and plead with him; caring for nothing but coercion, and taking advantage of her known inability to use it; scorning her tears-it may be her widowed tears,-tears with which tears of kindred sympathy have ceased to flow, and whose tender pleadings there is now no sterner authority to enforce!-Such youths, alas! the fatal power of evil has made;-and such youths "cause shame, and bring reproach." They are a scandal to their parents and their families; and a nuisance to society:-and their doom is reprobation and ignominy, as the merited consequence to themselves. The youth who can so use a mother-is "fit for treasons." There is not a crime in the whole catalogue of infamy, of which I cannot suppose him capable; nor is there any symptom more sadly portentous, of a life of crime, and a death of shame and misery.
* See Deu_13:11; Deu_21:21.
In the verse we have what may be regarded as the extreme of the evil. It is evidently susceptible of many intermediate degrees: and they are all bad.-Of what Solomon calls "wasting a father" some youths are apt to form a very false idea of the wickedness. The circumstance of its being their father's property they are appropriating and squandering, makes them think of their conduct with comparative lightness. Yet if wrong is to be measured by the amount of obligation to the party wronged, in what case can the crime be more atrocious than in that of a son robbing a father?-And let every child and every young person hearing me beware-as they value their own peace of mind, the approbation and esteem of men, and the favour of God,-of acting such a part as would send one pang to the heart, or draw one tear of bitterness to the eye, of the mother that bare them. O! knew you but a tithe of what you owe to that maternal fondness that watched and wept over your cradle; would you appreciate the meltings, the solicitudes, the fears, the hopes, the sorrows, the joys of a mother's bosom,-affection for that mother would be the last of the affections that could take leave of your hardening heart; its warm drops the last that the iron hand of vice could wring out of it.
There appears to be a connexion between this verse and that which follows-"Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge." In regard to the young, who have, under parental tuition, received "the words of knowledge,"-the knowledge that teaches them the "fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom," and lays them under the restraints, the salutary restraints, of the divine law,-not unfrequently does it happen, that the delusive reasonings and sophistical plausibilities of scepticism and infidelity,-supporting as they do a system that has many recommendations to the carnal mind, and aiming at the unsettling and subversion of that which, though it has the secret sanction of conscience, is far from palatable to the natural inclinations of the heart,-serve to undermine the influence, and to loosen the hold, of better lessons. The lies of systems of error, like the first lie itself, have generally in them something fascinating,-something that the wayward heart likes, and which gives a deceptive colouring and speciousness to the arguments by which they are maintained. They are agreeable and insinuating. Their advocates season them with wit, and impart to them the aspect of great liberality of spirit and freedom from restraint,-a restraint which is represented, tauntingly, as unmanly, and fit only for the nursery and the leading-strings of childhood. This is all very taking and bewitching to young, inconsiderate, and hardly settled minds. When such principles enter, and get hold of the passions, and through the passions bribe and corrupt the understanding, restraint is thrown off-timidly, it may be, at first, but with a growing scorn and boldness;-the reins are cast on the necks of the passions; a course of self-indulgence, in every way that vice and fancy dictate, is pursued; the family patrimony is invaded and squandered; a mother's tenderness,-the tenderness of remonstrance and tears, is indignantly resisted;-he "wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother."-I am fully persuaded, that in by far the greater number of cases, the principles of action are corrupted before the principles of belief; that the first thing is, the "putting away of a good conscience" by temptation to sin, and then the "making shipwreck of faith." Enticements are held out, in various ways, to that which is evil. The evil is done. The conscience is for the time ill at ease. But the evil is sweet, and it is repeated. Conscience drives its stings still more tormentingly into the bosom. The fretfulness and sullenness of self-dissatisfaction ensue. But conscience gets gradually seared. The emollients of selffluttering error are applied to its wounds. The principles are accommodated to the practice. He who began in vice ends in infidelity. And the final result is, a course of wild and ungovernable licentiousness. Mark, then, ye youth, the counsel now before you; the counsel of human experience,-the counsel of compassionate kindness,-the counsel of divine authority:-"Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge." Cease. If you have ventured to open your ear, shut it now; and open it to "the words of knowledge"-the words of divine instruction.
Verse Pro_19:28. "An ungodly witness scorneth judgment; and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity."-Observe here-that the designation "an ungodly witness" is, on the margin, "a witness of Belial." Sons of Belial is a common appellation of impious and unprincipled men. "A witness of Belial," or "an ungodly witness"-is not, I think, to be understood, in this connexion, of a witness called to give evidence in a cause, between parties, before magistrates or arbitrators. The two parts of the verse, taken together, appear to contain a very apt description of the characters of those alluded to in the previous verse-by whose "instruction" the youth are made "to err from the words of knowledge;" men, who, instead of witnessing for God, witness for Belial-that is for wickedness and folly personified; all whose conversation is on the side of evil,-their testimony, by word and act, favourable to it, and unfavourable to goodness, and to the great concentration and prototype of all goodness. The verse, then, contains the character of those from whose counsel the young are warned to cease. They are men who vaunt themselves of their freedom from the restraints of law and justice,-laugh at scruples of conscience,-cast away the cords of authority,-set at nought threatened judgments; their "mouth devoureth iniquity,"-opening wide to receive, and greedily and voraciously swallowing down the pleasures of sin and of the world. And the closing verse presents a warning to flee their counsel-verse Pro_19:29. "Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools." "Judgments" are not merely temporal chastisements-those visitations of Heaven which sometimes overtake the God-defying sinner even in the present life:-they are to be understood more especially of those final and fearful "judgments" which are denounced from heaven against all the workers of iniquity-the "scorners" and the "fools."-"Scorners" are those who tempt and seduce; and "fools" are those who listen and yield to their seducing temptations, and follow them in their evil courses. The former shall be "beaten with many stripes." But the latter shall not escape. Having cast in their lot with them here, they must lay their account with sharing it too hereafter. And both the one and the other shall suffer according to the amount of light and privilege they have respectively enjoyed. O how powerfully does all this recommend and enforce the advice-or rather the authoritative though gracious injunction-"Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge!" Cease-as you would avoid the judgments and the stripes of offended holiness and omnipotence. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!"
In conclusion-Let all, young and old, remember, that there is one point, in regard to which, let what devices soever be in their hearts, "the counsel of the Lord-that shall stand." God has fixed the way of a sinner's salvation. He has made it known in His word. There you find His counsel in this matter,-the first of all to you, both in order and in importance. It stands there, the unchanging counsel of the unchanging God. He can never depart from it. It is framed in adaptation to the glory of His own character and government, and to the exigencies of man's condition. It admits not of alteration. It cannot be improved; it must not be modified. As the counsel of God for a certain end, it is the only counsel by which that end can be answered. "BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED, THROUGH FAITH"-faith in Christ-faith in the righteousness and atonement of a divine Saviour. This-and this alone is the counsel of God, for your salvation.