Ralph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 21:14 - 21:20

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Ralph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 21:14 - 21:20


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:



LECTURE LXVI.



Pro_21:14-20.



"A gift in secret pacifieth anger; and a reward in the bosom strong wrath. It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright. It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman. There is treasure to be desired, and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up."



In the first of these verses, we have a subject which, under various aspects, has been repeatedly before us.*-The offer on one side, and the reception on the other, of any "gift" that wears the form of a bribe, be it for the perversion of judgment-the tempting of a judge or an arbitrator to give a decision contrary to conscientious conviction,-or for the securing of an office, whether the office be of the lowest or of the highest description,-a place at a municipal Board, or a seat in the British Parliament,-deserves unqualified reprobation. It is well when corruption of this kind is sifted, detected, exposed, and publicly disgraced and put down. There are cases, however, in which "gifts" may be bestowed in perfect good faith, and for the most desirable ends,-when they may bo lawful, proper, and even necessary. The case supposed in this verse, seems to be that in which we have been guilty of something provoking, by which the anger of our neighbour has been stirred;-in which the offence taken has been well-founded; although the anger may not, in its degree at least, be justifiable. In such a case, submission, confession, apology, are manifestly due from us: and "a gift" may be an accompanying token of our sincerity in making it, and of our respect for the party offended.



* Pro_17:8; Pro_18:16; Pro_19:6.



When, however, such a "gift" is bestowed, it must, in order to its answering its end, be bestowed discreetly-not in any such way as is calculated to produce the impression of selfishness, or vanity, or a mercenary spirit, on the part of him who receives it. It must, therefore, be "a gift in secret;" not ostentatious; not such as to bring credit to ourselves, and attach meanness to the other party,-credit to us for generosity,-meanness to him for selfish cupidity. There may be cases, indeed, in which the offence has been public, and in which the gift may be a public acknowledgment and public reparation. In such cases, publicity may be called for. But there must nothing be done that either implies on our part, or seems to impute on the other, aught that is hypocritical or dishonourable. All must be open and ingenuous,-all in "simplicity and godly sincerity."



"Have gifts," says a judicious writer, "such a powerful influence to disarm resentment? Then let no man plead, in apology for the fury of his passions, that he is not able to conquer them. If money can conquer them, shall reason, and the fear of God, and the command of Christ, be too weak to bridle them? Surely the commandments of God our Saviour have too little authority with us, if they have less influence upon our spirits than gold and jewels have upon the spirits of almost all men."



Verse Pro_21:15. "It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity." You will perceive, that, without the supplement, the antithesis in this verse is by no means direct and pointed. Other renderings accordingly have been given. As the following:-



1. "The doing of what is right is joy to the just; but destruction (is joy) to the workers of iniquity:"-the righteous, that is, delight in doing good, but the wicked in working mischief and ruin. The one resembles God, "who loveth righteousness and judgment, and of whose goodness the earth is full;" and Christ, who "with righteousness judges the poor, and reproves with equity for the meek of the earth;" who "went about doing good." The other resembles Satan, who "was a murderer from the beginning;" whose work of delight is to tempt and to destroy; "who hath his name Apollyon."



2. "It is joy to the just to do right; but vexation" (distress, trouble) "to the workers of iniquity." Such is Boothroyd's rendering; and it agrees with the French. The righteous find their happiness in the ways of God,-in doing the thing that is right. So far from true religion-practical godliness-being a source to them of irksome melancholy, it is their "joy." But to the wicked it is irksome. The principle of goodness or of godliness being absent from the heart, all conformity to precept is against the grain with them. They may do what is right from compulsion, from considerations of interest, or from the constraint of conscience and fear; but pleasure in it they have none-no "joy." And hence it is that amongst ungodly, worldly men, the impression and saying are so prevalent, that religion is melancholy. "While the heart continues at enmity with God, all outward conformity to the will and worship of God can be nothing better than vexation,-harassing and fretting to the spirit, and drawing forth the exclamation, What a weariness is it! The joy of religious and virtuous practice can only be felt, where there is the inward power of religious and virtuous principle. It is a joy that can only be known by the experience of the new heart; and by the new heart it is felt to be the only joy worthy of the name. But the heart that is still a stranger to the love must be still a stranger to the joy; and the whole life of the good man must appear a life of bondage. The man who has no ear for music would regard the ecstasies of a Handel as ridiculous; but such ecstasies are not on that account the less real.



3. There is still a third sense, of which the words, without supplement, are susceptible,-a sense I have not seen given, but which appears to me to have as fair a claim to be the true one as either of those mentioned:-"The doing, or executing of judgment is joy to the just, but destruction to the workers of iniquity." The just, when, judgment is done, have no cause to fear:-it comes not upon them: "only with their eyes they behold, and see the reward of the wicked;" and they experience "joy," when it is just judgment that is executed, inasmuch as it promotes the safety and the happiness of society. And the "doing of judgment" by the Judge of all, which is ever according to perfect rectitude, is "joy to the just," as it brings glory to His name, and clears the moral universe of temptation and misery. But to "the workers of iniquity," the execution of judgment is anything but "joy." It is destruction; and the thought and anticipation of it, whether from man or from God, can engender only distress and fear. And the day of final judgment, while it shall be a day of "joy" to the just, will be the day of complete and irremediable "destruction" to the wicked.*



* Luther renders-"It is to the righteous a joy to do what is right; but to the wicked a terror."



Verse Pro_21:16. "The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead."-While the preceding verse has reference to the "workers of iniquity" generally, and represents the execution of judgment as their "destruction;" this verse relates apparently to apostates from the right way-"the Way of understanding;" those who for a time have walked in that way, under a profession of religion, and have abandoned it. Such there have been in every age; and of such it is here said, "they shall remain in the congregation of the dead." The word so rendered happens to be in some other places of the Old Testament translated giants-with doubtful propriety, for in the first of its occurrences (Gen_14:5.) it is the name of a people, the "Rephaim." It is the same word that is translated giants in Deu_2:11; Deu_2:20; Jos_12:4; Jos_13:2; Jos_17:15;-but it is disputed whether it should not in these instances retain its appellative signification. Supposing this-still the people were a gigantic race; and from this, apparently, has arisen the confounding of the word used in our text with that rendered giants in the fourth verse of the sixth chapter of Genesis. But the words are not at all the same:-and the word in the last-cited passage has been the subject of a large amount of critical discussion and variety of conjecture. But from the obvious fact of the Nephilim (called giants in the account of the antediluvian world) being men of signally desperate wickedness as well as of vast stature and power, it has been concluded that the abode of the giants came to bo a designation for the place of future punishment, or some region of it;-and it has been imagined that this is what is meant here by "the congregation of the giants." There is, however, in all this more of conjecture and fancy than of certainty. The same word is rendered "dead"*1 in several other places. I shall not trouble you with the etymologies of the original word, from which the sense of "dead" is made out. It will be enough to remark, that here, as in the other passages referred to, it must be understood as meaning the wicked dead. This is clear from the very nature of the thing; and it is confirmed by the connexion of the 18th verse in the second chapter with the verse which follows. The "congregation of the dead," then, means the assembly of those who were spiritually dead here, and who, having departed out of this world, are suffering, in the world to come, that "second death" which is "the wages of sin." In all such connexions there is included under the idea of death that of destruction in general.*2



*1 See for example, Pro_2:18; Pro_9:18. rr

*2 Comp. Pro_8:34-36.



I have said that "the man who wanders out of the way of understanding" has special reference to apostasy from a religious profession and course. The verse may bo interpreted as expressing the increasing hardness, the consequent comparative hopelessness, and the final and irremediable misery, of such characters. This is no strange doctrine in the word of God. It is taught and impressed everywhere.* Let professors, then, beware of backsliding. Having entered on "the way of understanding," let them beware of the infatuation of "wandering out of it." O let nothing entice, nothing intimidate you! Keep the way which conscience and experience tell you is the right way. Keep it to the end. Set your faces as a flint. "Press toward the mark, for the prize of your high calling." Let neither the world, the devil, nor the flesh, prevail. "Be faithful unto death, and your Lord will give you the crown of life."



* Comp. Heb_10:26-31; 2Pe_2:20-21.



Verse Pro_21:17. "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich." The sentiment here is similar to that in various preceding passages of the Book. In the nature of things, and as evinced by experience, the tendency of extravagance in living is to poverty and its accompanying miseries. How should it be otherwise? Money is squandered, debt is incurred, credit is lost, the divine blessing is forfeited-that blessing which can alone secure prosperity. The man who follows such a course "shall not be rich"-neither rich for time nor for eternity.-It is not necessary to interpret "pleasure" here as signifying directly vicious pleasure, or criminal indulgence. On the margin it is rendered "sport:" and when connected with the latter member of the verse, the whole may be considered as including the pleasures of the table, luxurious refinements, costly establishments, foolish pastimes, and all the modes of what the men of the world call "enjoying life" even apart from the profligacy of voluptuousness.



Verse Pro_21:18. "The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright." This is evidently intended to express the regard of Jehovah to his people; a sentiment which pervades His word, and is to them full of consolation and delight, while it is a lesson of solemn alarm to the ungodly.*1 The words may be interpreted in two senses, which, however, are closely connected:-First, when the wicked form purposes of evil against the righteous, God frequently makes these evil purposes return upon themselves, and involve themselves in the very mischief they meant for his people.-Secondly, when the wicked stand in the way of the best interests of the righteous, and their general well-being,-that is, of what God sees to be truly best for them,-He will sacrifice the one to the other. The words of God by the prophet, may throw light on the phraseology of the verse before us:-"For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life," Isa_43:3-4. How was Egypt "a ransom?"-not in the strict and proper sense of the word: but when Israel was to be delivered, and Egypt, the oppressor, stood in the way, the deliverance was effected at the cost of Egypt,-by plagues on her people and land, and the destruction of her armies. Thus, in aftertimes was the army of Sennacherib sacrificed for the deliverance of good king Hezekiah and his people, when, in the time of their perplexity and peril, they cried unto the Lord. Thus did the plots of the wicked Haman for the destruction of Mordecai and the Jews come back upon himself. In the end, all "the wicked" that have opposed "the righteous," and done what they could to frustrate their salvation, shall become, for their sakes, the victims of the divine displeasure.*2



*1 Comp. Psa. 11; Psa_34:6-7; Psa_34:15-16; Psa_37:12-18. rr

*2 See Mat_25:41-45.



Verse Pro_21:19. "It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman." We had the sentiment before us in last Lecture; and I only now observe, that it is still more strongly expressed here than even there. There the unfortunate victim of female passion and fretfulness and clamour, retires to the house-top. But here, even the house-top is too near. He is off to "the wilderness"-as far away as possible. The roof of the house is not a sufficient separation. He still hears the din. He is still too much within reach of the scourge of the tongue; he flees the house altogether. "The wilderness," with all its discomforts and all its dangers, is better. The yelling of its savage beasts is not so frightful as that from which he escapes.



But let me repeat that the cases that call for pity are far from being all on one side. Are there no unreasonable, passionate, discontented, fretful, savage, brutal husbands? Alas, how many! I do believe the number of suffering wives is greater than that of suffering husbands. "A contentious woman," says an authority from whom I have this morning quoted already*-"is not worse than a tyrannizing husband. A man may more easily make his escape from the presence of a scold, than a woman from the face of a brutal tyrant; and the delicacy of her mind makes her more susceptible of melancholy impressions from bad usage, than persons of the other sex ordinarily are." This witness is true. Ah! how many gentle and affectionate spirits-how many women who are only prevented from being the very best of wives by the treatment they receive, by the felt impossibility of pleasing an unreasonable, conciliating a proud and passionate, or reclaiming an intemperate and faithless husband,-have pined out their days in wretchedness, and sunk, broken-hearted, into the grave! O! when husband and wife dwell together in love and peace,-amid the calm yet exquisite joys of domestic life,-how grateful they should be! They possess the best of earthly boons that heaven bestows. They drink of the purest and sweetest spring of pleasure opened to men in passing on to the world of eternity. Let them drink with humble and thankful cheerfulness, feeling their dependence, owning their obligations, even while they never forget the uncertainty and necessary shortness of all that pertains to time,-never forget that every connubial union must, sooner or later, be dissolved; and holding themselves in readiness for parting even while they arc in the full enjoyment of their earthly happiness. That happiness is crowned and perfected, when on the tie of nature there is superinduced the bond of grace; and there is thus an everlasting as well as a temporary union. Let this be the aim-and may this be the happiness-of every wedded pair in this assembly!



* Dr. Lawson.



Verse Pro_21:20. "There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up." There is an evident correspondence between this verse and verse seventeenth. They may be regarded either as contrasts or as counterparts to each other. "The wise" and the righteous are in this book the same,-wisdom consisting specially in "the fear of the Lord;" and on the same principle, "the foolish" and the wicked are the same. The verse has clearly a reference to temporal things. The "treasure" is earthly treasure; the "oil," that of worldly prosperity and abundance. When the treasure is called "treasure to be desired," it seems to be designed to mark the difference between the treasure that is gotten by industry, prudence, frugality, and justice; and that which is gotten by unrighteousness, fraud, and oppression;-between the treasure in the house of "the wise" and the treasure in the house of "the foolish." The former alone is "treasure to be desired," as being obtained rightly and used rightly; and as being obtained by the divine blessing and enjoyed with it. The "treasure" and the "oil" may in themselves be the same. But of everything earthly there is an adventitious as well as an intrinsic value. The "treasure" which is obtained and enjoyed otherwise than we have described, is not "to be desired." A man is better with nothing than with "treasure" gotten wickedly-gotten by a lying tongue-gotten by theft or robbery-gotten by oppressive grinding of the faces of the poor-gotten as a bribe for evil-gotten in any way that sets conscience and God against its owner;-and better far with nothing than with "treasure" in the use of which God and the claims of benevolence are forgotten; in the use of which, a man seeks as his solo end to gratify self, and is thus "treasuring up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."



"But a foolish man spendeth it up." This may either mean that the foolish man spendeth up his own treasure; so that whatever he acquires is speedily, through his own mismanagement, or extravagance, or abuse, consumed and gone;-or that the wise man has a fool for his successor-to whom his treasures go, and by whom they are soon exhausted:-"Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity."-Ecc_2:18-19.



How true the closing words of this passage-"This is also vanity!" "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!"-is the text of the book; and this is only one of its many illustrations and proofs. In "the dwelling of the wise" there are treasures infinitely more precious than any this world can furnish;-treasures of spiritual blessing,-unsearchable riches-riches that "perish not in the using." He is rich in possession, and rich in hope, rich in time and rich for eternity. "The Wise" and "The Foolish" shall divide mankind at last. To which of the two assemblies would you belong? You may to either. It depends upon your own choice. God says-"Ye fools, when will ye be wise?" He shuts up none to final privation and suffering, but those who voluntarily and pertinaciously shut themselves up to folly. The gospel is the wisdom of God for our salvation; and it is our wisdom to receive it.