Ralph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 9:1 - 9:18

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Ralph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 9:1 - 9:18


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:



LECTURE XVIII.



Pro_9:1-18.



"Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding. He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame; and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. A foolish woman is clamorous; she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call passengers who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell."



In this chapter Wisdom appears under an aspect entirely new. In the style of Eastern imagery, she is here brought before us, as erecting a house for the reception and entertainment of strangers, and inviting all to become her guests, and freely to partake of her royal provision-" Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars."



The frequency with which the number seven occurs, in special connexions, in Scripture, and the variety of the circumstances of its occurrence-from the seven days of the week, in the first recorded division of time in the beginning of Genesis, to the seven living creatures, the seven spirits of God, the seven candlesticks, the seven churches, the seven vials, the seven trumpets, the seven last plagues, of the Book of Revelation, have procured for it the common designation of the number of perfection. Of what, or whether of anything, the number may be specially symbolical, it would be quite out of place at present to inquire. All we need say is, that it is frequently used as a definite for an indefinite, conveying the notion of excellence and completeness. Thus it is evidently used here.



Of the "house" reared by wisdom, the "seven pillars, hewn out" arid decorated, evidently represent spaciousness, elegance, grandeur, stability. I have no doubt, that those who are fond of the system of spiritualizing, would find the distinct mystic symbol of something spiritual in each one of the pillars, and bring out of the seven a whole body of divinity. This, however, would not be exposition, but the mere play of a conjecturing fancy; and how excellent soever the truths exhibited, they would be educed from that which the Holy Spirit never meant to contain them. In which case, if the ingenuity that elicited them made hearers or readers marvel, the wonder should be, not at the wisdom but the folly of the discovery:-for ingenuity and wisdom are far from being always synonymous.



The house is evidently not a temple, (a common image for the Church, taken naturally from the temple at Jerusalem,) but a place of entertainment or festivity. This is clear. The second verse shows it-"She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table."



The blessings of religion-the great and precious blessings to which divine Wisdom specially invites,-are frequently sot forth under the image of a feast, of which God himself is the free provider.* These blessings of religion-or, if you will, (for it is the same thing in effect) the blessings of God's salvation, have been, in all ages, substantially the same,-the same in nature, the same in excellence, the same in enjoyment to the renewed and spiritual mind; they have, therefore, been always, with equal propriety, represented under the same emblems. That by the feast which divine Wisdom provides, these blessings are here intended, will not admit of a doubt in the minds of any accustomed to "compare spiritual things with spiritual." They are blessings comprehending all that sinners of mankind can need to make them truly and for ever happy. What are they?-Pardon of sin; "a new heart;" acceptance with God; peace of conscience; "joy in the Holy Ghost;" "good hope through grace;" all requisite supplies of divine influence; victory over death; resurrection from the grave; acquittal in judgment; and the full fruition of God for ever in knowledge, holiness, love, and joy;-these are the blessings to which men are by divine Wisdom invited.



* Isa_25:6; Mat_17:1-3; Luk_14:16-17; Rev_19:9.



In the words which follow, Wisdom is represented as joining her own inviting voice with that of her servants; just as God and Christ are represented as doing in other parts of Scripture:-verses Pro_9:3-5. "She hath sent forth her maidens; she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled."



As before, "the simple"-the inconsiderate, thoughtless, foolish, infatuated children of men are addressed.



The invitation is free. So it is throughout the Bible. The blessings of salvation are the gift of God. They are offered to sinners with the freeness of divine munificence. Not only may they be had without a price, but, if they are had at all, it must be without a price. This is one of their special peculiarities. In treating with our fellow-men, in the communication of good, we make distinctions. From some, who can afford it, we take an equivalent; from others, who cannot, we take none. We sell to the rich, we give to the poor. In the present case, there is no distinction. All are poor, All are alike poor; and he who presumes to bring what he imagines a price, of whatever kind, forfeits the blessings, and is "sent empty away." He who should come to the House of divine Wisdom, and refuse to enter and to partake of her feast unless some remuneration should be accepted, must be turned from the gate. The truth is, what men fancy a price is none. No sinner on earth has, or can have, any to give. And it is the very freeness with which divine blessings are offered, that constitutes their suitableness to our circumstances. If we vainly imagine that we can buy, there is nothing for us, but exclusion, starvation, and death.



The invitation too is universal; for all men, in regard to divine and spiritual things, are naturally inconsiderate and foolish; negligent and improvident of their best and highest interests. And it is earnest, repeated, importunate. Is not this wonderful? Ought not the earnestness and the importunity to be all on the other side? Should not we find men entreating God to bestow the blessings, not God entreating men to accept them? Wonderful? "No," we may answer, in the terms of the poor negro woman to the missionary, when he was magnifying the love of God in the gift of his Son, and naturally put the question, "Is not this wonderful?"-"No, Massa, it be just like him." It is in the true style of infinite benevolence. But is it not wonderful that sinners should refuse the invitation? It is not in one view, and it is in another. It is not, when we consider their depravity, and alienation from God. It is, when we think of their natural desire for happiness, and the manifest impossibility of the object of their desire being ever found, otherwise than by their acceptance of them.



Some do conceive that there is in the passage an allusion at least to the temple-the place where God, as the God of grace, dwelt between the cherubim; waited to be gracious; and dispensed, in virtue of the typical blood and incense, the blessings of His goodness.



We take the allusion more generally,-to the Church of God, which is often represented under the image of a spiritual building; by the erection of which, of its "living stones," and His whole procedure of founding, rearing, stablishing, and completing it, God's infinite wisdom is specially represented as made manifest:-" That now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."*



* Eph_3:10-11.



The foundation of this glorious structure may be said to have been laid by the hand of divine Wisdom in the first promise-which is the same thing as its being laid in Christ. Our penitent first parents, we have every reason to believe, together with their son the "righteous Abel," were the first "living stones" laid upon the divine foundation. And the building advanced gradually in succeeding ages, is still advancing, and in due time shall be perfected. It is into this "spiritual house" that sinners are graciously invited, to partake the blessings of salvation. I shrink not from the use of this mixed metaphor, which makes sinners at once the stones that compose the building and the guests that are invited into it; for the Apostle Peter has exemplified a similar anomaly, in making them at once the living stones and the officiating priests.* It is in the spiritual Church of God that the blessings of salvation are enjoyed. They who refuse to enter on divine invitation, can have "neither part nor lot" in them.



* 1Pe_2:4-5.



But a participation in the blessings to which Wisdom invites must be accompanied with the practical renunciation of sin and folly:-verse Pro_9:6. "Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding."



"Forsake the foolish;" that is, former associates, companions in thoughtlessness and sin. Ah! this is often one of a young man's chief difficulties. I need not indeed have restricted the observation to youth; for it is a difficulty to the ungodly at every period of life. And, when men have lived long, and have long maintained intimacies in irreligion, and profligacy, and in scorn of what is good, it may be questioned, in some cases at least, whether the difficulty lessens by age. How to leave such associates! How to bear their laugh, their sneer, their ridicule, their sarcastic insinuations, their alternate coaxing and bantering! How ever to look them in the face again!-The only difference between youth and age, in this respect, may be found perhaps in the circumstance, that youth is open, ingenuous, confiding, sanguine; while the old have had time to discover more of the heartlessness of those intimacies which have not their basis and their bond in right principle. Still, in both the one and the other, it requires a resolution such as divine grace alone can inspire and maintain. It is one of the cases to which our Lord refers, when, adverting to the difficulties to be overcome in entering on a religious life and profession, he says-" Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut too the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are.*1 Mark, however, my dear young friends, the connexion in the words before us-"Forsake the foolish, and live." It must be done, if you would live;-not only (although this also is true) if you would enjoy the present life, but if you would secure the life that never ends. The company in the house of Wisdom is of a different and opposite stamp. You cannot have a relish for both. The society, the pursuits, the practices of the foolish, will not at all amalgamate with those of the guests of Wisdom; of those who have been "made wise unto salvation"-the saints-the "excellent of the earth." It is here, in His spiritual Zion, that God delights to dwell; and he who enters must, in partaking of the provided blessings, delight to dwell with God.*2



*1 Luk_13:24-25.

*2 Psa_132:13-16.



When the foolish are forsaken, their ways are of course forsaken. It follows, "And go in the way of understanding"-the way of faith and love and holy obedience to God; the way which every man of sound understanding will choose, because the only way of present happiness, and the only way to unending bliss.



There appears a singular abruptness in the introduction here of verses Pro_9:7-9. "He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame; and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser; teach a just man, and he will increase in learning."



By some, these words are interpreted as cautions to the ministers of God's word and others, who, as the servants of heavenly Wisdom, may be employed in inviting sinners to the feast. They are conceived to signify that, in this important duty, prudence and discrimination require to be used, according to the varieties of character with which they have to deal. To address personal rebukes to the obstinate scoffer, and to repeat and urge them, may, in some cases, serve no other end than that of their being provoked to repay your zeal with abuse and insult, and, it may be, with calumny and slander; or you may even yourself be provoked, in the irritation and haste of an unguarded moment, to utter things of which they may take an ungenerous hold, and turn to their advantage in the most malicious and unmerciful way, to blast your character and mar your usefulness.



Perhaps, with still greater propriety, the verses may be expounded, as containing a similar caution to those who themselves comply with the admonition to "forsake the foolish." One of the most natural and powerful feelings in the bosoms of such persons, is a deep concern for their former associates, and intense heart-burdening solicitude to do them good. When they have themselves experienced the true and exquisite delight-a delight to which before their bosoms had been strangers,-which religion has introduced there, they are apt to feel as the youthful Reformer did, when, having found the truth, and the peace and joy imparted by it, he went forth to promulgate it, in the sanguine assurance that what was so self-evidently divine and excellent could not be resisted, but soon discovered to his mortification and sorrow, that "Old Adam was too strong for young Melancthon." Their experience may be like his, as their fond anticipations were. They may therefore, perhaps, be here warned to exercise discretion, lest their love should only he repaid with hatred, and their zeal with such injury as may prove, not distressing merely to their feelings, but prejudicial to their reputation and a hindrance in their efforts to do good.



But the verses may be, after all, but a simple statement of the way in which instruction and admonition do actually affect different persons. There are just two ways of it. They may have received wisely, with thankful affection to the reprover, and compliance with his counsel, on the one hand; or, on the other, foolishly, with scorn, resentment, and stubborn refusal. And in that cusp, verses eighth and ninth may be, not so much a direction or advice, as a particular mode of stating the fact, that the scorner does hate his reprover, while the wise man loves him. In which sense, the words connect beautifully-with the closing terms of the address in verse Pro_9:12-"If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it." That is, Since my counsels must be treated in the one or the other of two ways, mark the results of each: "If thou be wise"-that is, if thou act the part of wisdom, as here described^-" thou shalt be wise for thyself;" it shall turn out for thy good; it shall be for thine eternal benefit: "But if thou scornest"-that is, if thou act the part of the scorner, as here described, rejecting instruction and admonition, and repaying with despite and hatred the good intentions of your monitor,-"thou alone shalt bear it;" the fearful consequences will be thine own; thine own the loss, thine own the suffering, thine own the ruin. You have been warned; and your blood will be upon your own heads. Thus is it with all in whose ears the warnings and invitations of wisdom have been faithfully sounded. They must "bear their iniquity," in the forfeiture of good and the endurance of merited evil.



In the tenth and eleventh verses (Pro_9:10-11), we have the primary lesson of Wisdom repeated; and what is thus repeated is intended to be impressed, as of special importance-" The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased." *



* Comp. Pro_1:7, &c.



In the tenth verse (Pro_9:10), the word in the original rendered "the Holy" is in the plural number-"the Holies." Thus, in numerous other passages, plural terms are used in application to the one God. You may take another example,-Ecc_12:1, "Remember now thy Creator;" literally, "thy Creators." This use of plural terms, and that in union with verbs and adjectives in the singular, has been regarded, and justly, as arising from and indicating the doctrine of the Trinity. And to this correspond the threefold ascriptions of praise to Jehovah, and the threefold repetition of blessing in His name. An instance of the former we have in Isa_6:3, "Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory:"-and of the latter in Num_6:24-26, "Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee: Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."



Opposed to Wisdom (who, as formerly observed, is a female personage,) is "the foolish woman," described in verses Pro_9:13-15. "A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call passengers who go right on their ways."



The "foolish woman" might be understood, in all truth, of the "strange woman," with her enticements; against whom youth are so frequently and so earnestly warned in former passages of this book.



I am strongly inclined to interpret the passage of Folly as an allegorical personage set in contrast with Wisdom:-folly, under all the forms and phases which it assumes in the world; all being included under this personification that entices from the gates of that house where Wisdom receives and entertains her guests. The characteristics of this second personage are the reverse of those of Wisdom. They are ignorance, and thoughtless emptiness: what is wanting in solid and substantial ideas is made up by loud clamour and noisy importunity. She too hath builded her house. She too hath provided her entertainment. She too invites her guests. The houses are over against each other-on opposite sides of the way. Wisdom's is on the right hand; Folly's on the left.*1 They are thus in the vicinity of each other; it being the very purpose of Folly to prevent by her allurements those who pass by from entering the doors of Wisdom. Each addresses her invitations; and uses, but from very different motives, every art of persuasion. Folly presents all her captivating allurements to the lusts and passions of corrupt nature; and she shows her skill in seduction by holding out, in promise, the secret enjoyment of fm-bidden sweets:-verses Pro_9:16-17. "Whoso is simple let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." Alas! since the entrance of sin into the world, there has been amongst mankind a sadly strong and perverse propensity to aught that is forbidden-to taste what is laid under an interdict. The very interdiction draws towards it the wistful desires, and looks, and longings of the perverse and rebellious heart.*2



*1 Comp. Pro_9:1; Pro_9:3, with verse Pro_9:14. rr

*2 Comp. Rom_7:5; Rom_7:8.



There are pleasures in sin. It is from these that its temptations arise. And, alas! Folly has the heart of fallen man wholly on her side. No wonder that her guests are numerous. "Many there be who go in" by the gates of her voluptuous abode; stored as it is with all the variety and all the plenitude of vanity and sin. There are all the pleasures of the sensualist, and all the vanities of the giddy and the gay.-There are the pollutions of the libertine, and the dainties, and the wines, and the pastimes of those whose chosen end in life is to "eat, and drink, and be merry." There are the glittering honours of the ambitious, and the tempting wealth of the covetous. There is all that captivates the senses, all that fills the imagination, all that draws the desires, all that stirs the passions of the human heart unrenewed by converting grace.



But O my friends, my young friends especially, hear once more the accompanying caution. Hear once more the monitory voice of Wisdom; which is the voice of "the only wise God himself," and of all the wise and good among men. Mark it. He who does comply with the enticements of folly, "knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell."



"The dead are there." It is a truth that the guests in the house of Folly consist of the "dead in trespasses and sins "-the spiritually dead. But this does not seem to be the meaning of the expression here. The meaning is rather that the guests of Folly are murdered by her. She puts them all to death, and to the worst of deaths. She invites them to her house with witching and seductive smiles, and importunate eagerness. She holds out luring promises of unknown and untried but exquisite gratifications-"the stolen waters," and the "bread eaten in secret." But in those stolen waters there is deadly poison,-poison for which, in all her stores, she has no antidote; and her "pleasant bread" has its pleasantness only to the taste; it is bitterness and death within-"the dead are there!" She allures, that she may murder; and that both body and soul-for "Her guests are in the depths of hell." This is the end to which she brings them. Her house is the vestibule of Hell. The pleasures she offers are "but for a season." Behind her mansion of vice and vanity is the prison of everlasting despair. Her guests pass through the one into the other!



Reflect, then, ye reckless votaries of folly and sin; and pause, ye who may be under temptation to join them. Listen not to the voice of the seducer. Stop your ears. Turn away your eyes. Set not a foot upon the steps of her gateway. You would not willingly follow a man whom you knew, or even suspected, to be decoying you to shed your blood. You would not swallow poison for its sweetness, if you knew it to be poison, and were warned that, if you took it, you must soon expire in horrible convulsions. Yet in hearkening to the voice of Folly you are doing infinitely worse.



We invite you to the house and to the feast of Divine Wisdom. "The living are there." Her guests are instinct with a life that never dies. "They shall not be hurt of the second death:"-and while the votaries of Folly "are in the depths of hell," their place is in the "house of many mansions" above, amid "fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore!"-"Forsake the foolish, then, and live." Linger not a moment. Come to the decision. Halt not between two opinions. Stand not irresolute, midway between the abode of Wisdom and that of Folly. Turn in to the right, not to the left. And even if you have turned to the left; if your foot is on the step; if you have entered the porch; if you have even reached the innermost apartment of the mansion of Folly, and are revelling in the very loosest and wildest of her orgies;-we follow you with the words of Heavenly Wisdom. We shout in your ear-" The dead are there!" We call upon you still to escape for your life. Of the other house the door is still open; and "yet there is room!" Flee then from the one, and take refuge in the other. Think not that we speak to you only officially. We speak to you as your friends, in the full conviction of the truth of what we say-the truth of all that is alarming, and of all that is encouraging, of all that is damning, and of all that is saving in the word of God:-and we remind you again, in the words before us, "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it."