"A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward month. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually, he soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination until him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren."
The description with which this passage commences, of the character and end of unprincipled men, might possibly be suggested by what had just been said, of the tendency of idleness to lead into their society, and thus to vice, profligacy, and ruin; and it is introduced for the obvious purpose of warning all against such, and especially the young.
Of the "naughty person," "the wicked man," it is here said first, in general terms-he "walketh with a froward mouth." Walking is the Bible word for a man's daily course of conduct. A froward mouth is, as already noticed, a mouth under the influence of a froward, that is, a self-willed, rebellious spirit. It is a mouth that gives fearless and unrestrained utterance to the suggestions of such a spirit; that speaks its own words without regard to God or man.
In human nature, as in every other, there is an innate love of freedom. But alas! in human nature, as fallen, this principle, good in itself, has taken" a sadly perverse direction. It is too often the mere love of following, without restraint, our own inclinations. And while aversion to restraint is common to all, it is peculiarly strong in the bosoms of youth. They spurn at it. They wince and fret; are restive and turbulent; feel, when the rein of authority is imposed upon them, as if their proper liberty were abridged, and are envious of those who can indulge themselves in all they set their hearts upon, without coercion and without fear. They cherish a secret wish that the precepts of God's word were somewhat less rigid, or its denunciations against evil less awful, that so they might gratify their sinful inclinations in a similar way. There is, in the fearless indulgence of the libertine, an appearance of spirit and independence, of their want of which, when laughed at for their stiffness and precision, they are ashamed, and sigh impatiently for the breaking of the yoke. Ah! young friends, this is a mournful kind of shame. The freedom, not the want of it, is that for which the shame ought to be felt. It is that fearful liberty of which the Apostle speaks, when he says-" "When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness!" Rom_6:20.
Allow me to remind you, that the mouth is by no means always a true index of the heart. It is such an index indeed, as to the wickedness that is in it; but it is far from being so in regard to its happiness and peace. Ah! no. The mouth is many a time the cover, rather than the index, of what is in the heart. While the mouth pours out its arrogant and boastful impiety, as if the spirit were a stranger to fear and foreboding, let but some sudden accident, or disease, or danger, bring death and judgment and eternity near, and you may see the countenance of the braggadocio assume an ashy paleness, his lips quiver, and his fearless vauntings give way to silent trembling, or to the stifled groans or the loud exclamations of agony. The greatest boasters have often proved the greatest dastards. Look to Belshazzar.* "Wherefore all his perturbation? He knew not the meaning of the mysterious writing. For aught he knew, it might be an intimation of good. It was conscience, that sternly though silently, told him the contrary. It was conscience that made the mirthful and heaven-daring reveller a quaking coward,-turning in a moment his jovial festivity to consternation, and the laughter of profanity to the awe-struck silence of amazement and dread. It was this that made his eyes start from their sockets, and his knees to smite together. Was he then to be envied?-Ah! it is a dreadful liberty-the liberty to sin. It is a desperate, an ill-named and ill-omened courage that sets at defiance the God of heaven-that turns to scorn His restraints and His intimations of vengeance!
* Dan_5:5-6.
The next verse adds to the description of the "naughty person," the "wicked man:"-verse Pro_6:13. "He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers."
Different interpretations may be put upon these words-which are all allied to each other, and may be all found in real existence together. They may refer, first, to the clubs and cabals of the ungodly-with their slang language, and their secret signs, or, secondly, to the fact of all the members and all the powers of such men being made, jointly and severally, the instruments of evil, and that in every form and mode of their exercise, or, thirdly, to the multiform artfulness and duplicity-the "cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." This last is probably the true purport of the verse:-that they convey their meanings, and carry on their schemes, and promote their ends, in every sly, covert, unsuspected way. If at any time there is a risk in committing themselves by words, they keep to signs; "they wink with their eyes, they speak with their feet, they teach with their fingers." What an amount of evil may be thus communicated, and thus effected! Who can tell what mischief may be done by a wink of the eye? In that simplest and least perceived of motions, accompanied by a certain expression of the countenance, there may lurk falsehood, treachery, slander, suspicion, jealousy, alienation, revenge, murder, covetousness, lasciviousness, and a host more of the worst passions and purposes of the human heart. And there may fairly be included in the description all the signs and attitudes of hypocritical devotion; of sanctity assumed for selfish and secular ends-the bended knee, the lifted hand, the closed or the turned-up eye, the sanctimoniously shaken head, the ejaculated Amen!-with all the affected grimace of ostentatious and worldly-minded pharisaism.
The source of this evil is in the heart:-verse Pro_6:14. "Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord." Frowardness, as explained, is the spirit of scornful insubordination, and a pride in expressing and showing it. The devising of mischief may be against various descriptions of persons, and may be modified accordingly, in regard to the principles or passions by which it is dictated. It may be against the pious and the good, and may spring from malignity-from the innate hatred of God and holiness, dictating the wish to injure their reputation; to make them ridiculous; or otherwise to gratify, at their expense, the spirit of impiety. It may be against the prosperous, and may be dictated by envy. It may be against their enemies, real or imagined, and may be the effect of pique, resentment, avarice, or possibly mere sport; for, as the wise man elsewhere says, "It is a sport to a fool to do mischief." Devising mischief is a step beyond the doing of it, as opportunities may present themselves. It implies the setting of the wits to work in inventing and studying plans of evil, and the means of carrying them into effect. Of similar characters it is said by the Psalmist, "He deviseth mischief upon his bed"-devises by night, and executes by day.
The last of the particulars in this verse is that of having pleasure in the Satanic employment of fomenting alienation and strife: "He soweth discord." He delights in the horrid success of his artful insinuations, in the miserable harvest springing from his busy and often unsuspected seed-time: for he is "sowing discord" even when the seed he is scattering seems, to the credulous and ignorant, the seed of "righteousness and peace." It is not unlikely that to the arts of such mischiefmakers there may be an allusion in the thirteenth verse. And while by such means their envy is gratified, that is not always the limit of their aim. They sometimes have purposes of more substantial benefit to their selfish spirits. They fish in troubled waters:-first troubling them themselves, and then taking advantage of the disagreements they have stirred up from the muddy bottom of the heart's corruptions, to promote their own profit. But these disturbers of peace; these subverters of the delights and blessings of mutual love; these distillers of venom for the darts of the Wicked One; these froward inventors and workers of mischief-these "naughty persons," these "wicked men," are ultimately the authors of their own ruin-
Verse Pro_6:15. "Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy." Their calamity often comes, and comes suddenly, from men. When those who have unsuspiciously listened to their poisonous insinuations, and by means of them, have been led to suspect, and have come to be suspected by, their former associates and friends, happen to discover the malignity that has severed intimacy, and robbed them of mutual enjoyment, when they have got a clue by which to trace the mischief to its origin in the centre of the labyrinth of the intricate mazes of malice,-indignation is roused, and the author of the evils justly suffers by abandonment, or even by merited infliction of punishment, the due desert of his odious acts. And even should the mischiefs never be mended, and the source of them never be discovered so as to suffer at the hand of man, Gods displeasure is awake against him; and he shall experience the sudden lighting-down of the arm of divine vengeance. God may bear long with the wicked. But though the transgressor be tempted by His very forbearance to take encouragement in what is wrong-in the end, "suddenly shall he be broken, and that without remedy "-reaping from the seed he has sown a harvest of irremediable misery to his own soul.*
* Comp. 1Th_5:3. Psa_73:18-20. Ecc_8:11-13.
The "seven, things" enumerated in the following verses as the special objects of divine abhorrence, are naturally introduced in connexion with the general character of such men, in its leading features:-verses Pro_6:16-19. "These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren."
The language of the first of these verses is strong. The reduplication of the assertion is intended to impress the fearfulness of the evils. Let all lay the terms of reprobation to heart. There cannot but be unspeakable danger in indulging in aught that is "abomination to the Lord."
1. The first of the seven is pride-"a proud look." I have said pride. You must at once be sensible, that it is not the look merely that is meant, but the temper of mind which the look expresses-not the mere indication of the principle, but the principle itself. There may be much pride in the heart that is not indicated by haughtiness in the look, but covered from observation by the assumed air of humility and lowliness of spirit. In this case, the look is absent, but the thing is there; and is there in a doubly odious form. The "proud look" is to be interpreted as including pride of all kinds. There is, first of all, if I may use an expression that is really, in its terms, contradictory, religious pride. I have called it contradictory; because there never has been, never is, never can be, any pride in religion. Its very essence is humility. The pride of religion is of all things the most irreligious. You know what I mean-the pride of the Pharisee, when he stood in God's sanctuary before the very "beauty of holiness" and prayed, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are." That this pride of self-righteousness is an abomination in God's sight, his whole word tells us; and the verdict of Jesus, in the parable referred to, testifies in the plainest terms. There is the pride of high station and wealth, with its look of lofty supercilious disdain upon its inferiors. There is the pride of high spirit and false honour, of quick touchy resentment, that cannot brook an injurious act, word, or even glance, however passing and slight; whose eye of kindling and impetuous fire flashes on the offender, and whose revenge sighs for his prostration, and even, it may be, thirsts for his blood.
The face of God is set against this high-mindedness. He "resisteth the proud." He "knoweth them afar off." He "hath respect unto the lowly." And the lowliness which He respects must begin with Himself-with the acceptance of mercy, in the spirit of self-renunciation. There is no true humility in a sinner's spirit, till it is brought to this.
2. We have next in order, "a lying tongue." God is the God of truth. He "desireth truth in the inward parts." As in the former case, so here, a "lying tongue" must be understood as comprehensive of all the modes of wilfully conveying a false impression. This is the essence of a He; and it may be done in many ways. There are lying looks, and lying motions, as well as lying words. The "naughty person" who "winketh with his eyes, speaketh with his feet, teacheth with his fingers," may by the eye, by the feet, by the fingers, tell lies-tell them as really, as effectually, as guiltily, as if he uttered them with his tongue. The declarations of the divine displeasure against this sin are specially frequent and strong;* and in the outset of the Christian church, there was read to both believers and the world, a solemn and awful lesson of God's opposition to all deception and lying, in His judicially visiting Ananias and Sapphira with death for their selfish dissembling-a dissembling in which they sought the gratification of covetousness, and the desire of eclat for their liberality, by the sin of falsehood.
* See Psa_5:6; Psa_120:3-4; Hos_4:1-3; Joh_8:44; Rev_21:8; Rev_21:27.
3. Then we have-"hands that shed innocent blood." The first innocent blood shed on earth was the blood of a brother. At the second commencement of the human race, Jehovah, with obvious reference to this first murder, set a guard of threatened vengeance around the life of man. (Gen_9:5-6.)
Life may be taken-" innocent blood shed"-otherwise than directly by the armed hand. It is not the assassin alone, with his murderous knife that is intended. The judge is guilty who gives sentence against the innocent. The executioner, whose hands actually shed the blood, is not, in that case, the culprit, but he by whom the sentence was pronounced. The promoters of persecution are guilty, whether acting with legal form or without it:-if with it, only so much the worse. He, who, by cruel treatment, breaks another's heart, is guilty. When the broken heart brings its victim, by pining atrophy, to the grave, there can be no question to whose account that "innocent blood" must be placed. Remember, the Lord is the righteous "avenger of blood." He "maketh inquisition" for it. He will allow no blood-guiltiness to escape. The murderer was even to be dragged from His altar unto death.
4. The fourth in order, is one in which divine omniscience is implied for its detection-"a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations." "The thought of wickedness is sin." You may form, and even cherish, desires which it is not in your power to execute. Or even those which are in your power, so far as ability is concerned, you may, by uncontrollable circumstances, be prevented from executing. But God knows them all; and He will judge and avenge them, as if actually done.
This leads to the general reflection, that "the law is spiritual." The reflection applies to the immediately preceding particular, and indeed to them all.*
* Compare Mat_5:21-22; 1Jn_3:15.
5. The fifth is "feet that are swift in running to mischief." "Running to mischief" may mean, either running to do it, or running to see it. In either case we are supposed to enjoy it. "Feet that are swift" in carrying us to do it, are supposed to be the agents of a heart that has a relish for it. The one will be proportioned to the other. And the feet that are swift in "running to mischief," will be slow to works of benevolence, slow to the abodes of distress, slow to the house of God, slow to whatever is good.
6. "A false witness that speaketh lies," may be considered as having been already included in a former particular-the "lying tongue." But there is a peculiarity of guilt in falsehood when it is committed in witness-bearing-when it assumes the form of perjury. The cause of others is thus injuriously affected: it leads to a false decision; and therefore adds injustice to untruth: the judges, or the arbiters are deceived, troubled, wronged, by being frustrated in their solicitude to give a fair and equitable verdict. And, when an oath has actually been taken, there is the superadded guilt of blasphemy-the "taking of God's name," in the most heinous sense, "in vain."
There is a species of witness-bearing, in which a deep criminality is involved, that is too often little thought of-being "found false witnesses of God," 1Co_15:15. O! this is a fearful description of false-witnessing!-setting the seal of the God of truth to falsehood!-forging upon heaven! God keep from such guilt all his professed servants! It is at once the guilt of blood, and the guilt of making God a bar.
7. The last in this enumeration is, "he that soweth discord among brethren." There is here an emphatic addition to the language of verse fourteenth-"among brethren." In proportion to the loveliness of any scene, even in external nature, and the degree in which we are captivated by its beauties, are we offended by the man who defaces it-despoils it of its chief attractions, and spreads disorder and desolation where before every sense found its richest and sweetest gratification. So is it in the moral world. There is not on the face of the earth a scene of more engaging interest and delight, than a family all united in the bonds of nature's love, making each other's joys and sorrows their own; every heart beating in unison; every eye and every hand eager to anticipate each other's wants and wishes. And what is beautiful as a specimen of the affections of nature, is no less beautiful when the bond of union is "the love of the Spirit," the spiritual love by which the children of God are bound together in "the household of faith." The disturber of the harmony of a united family, or of a united church, is incomparably worse than the man who desolates the face of any earthly paradise. God is the God of love and peace. He delighteth in them. The prevalence of them among his people is honourable to his truth in the eyes of the world; and his eye rests on the scene with divine satisfaction.* Hateful, then, diabolical the man who seeks to introduce discord into such a scene of harmony-to embitter its joys, to destroy its benefits!
* Comp. Ps.133.
There are cases in which we cannot be responsible for the discord to which we give rise;-in which we are only its innocent occasion, not its guilty cause. The Saviour himself anticipates such discord, (Mat_10:34-36.) But neither he nor his truth is answerable for it. It arises from the opposition of the carnal minds of men to the principles of his kingdom. For this, these principles are not to blame. It is not the end Jesus or his servants had in view. "What they teach is fitted, when received, to knit all mankind in one blessed bond of peace, and purity, and joy. The Gospel alone can extirpate the evils here enumerated, and other evils of kindred nature. It produces humility, sincerity, regard for human life and happiness, holiness of heart, reverence for God's name, and that love which is "the bond of perfectness."
