There is an evil still worse than the selfish love of contradiction or contest, bad as this is in itself and its consequences. Unrighteousness is ungodly.
“He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the righteous, even they both are abomination to Jehovah,
Wherefore [is there] a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing [he is] void of sense (or, hath no heart)?
The friend loveth at all times and is a brother born for adversity.
A man void of sense striketh hands, becoming surety for his friend.
He loveth transgression that loveth a quarrel: he that raiseth high his gate seeketh destruction.
He that hath a perverse heart findeth no good; and he that shifteth about with his tongue falleth into evil.
He that begetteth a fool [doeth it] to his sorrow; and the father of a vile [man] hath no joy” (vers. 15-21).
On either side the guilt described in ver. 15 is grievous in Jehovah's eyes. Not only is it sympathy with evil men and heartlessness as to the righteous, but direct antagonism to every principle of divine government. For men are put to the test in this life by the concrete facts of the wicked man here and the righteous there. To judge only in the abstract is to deceive oneself, injure others, and be an abomination to Jehovah on both sides.
Jehovah is a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy, even when man is under law. Thus He does not fail to put purchase-money in a fool's hand. How kind to the unthankful and the indifferent, the infatuated and evil! To what purpose is it but that such may acquire wisdom? Seeing he is devoid of sense draws out his pity. What folly to frustrate all goodness by slighting Him who alone is good, and trusting the old serpent, the evil one!
Fine is the description of the friend and precious just as far as it is realized. He loves at all times: sad the blank of not having one uncapricious and constant, whatever the changes of this passing scene, nearer still of a brother born for adversity, where the strain is greatest! None fills up the sketch to perfection but our Lord Jesus, Who indeed in His infiniteness went beyond what lips can utter or heart conceive.
Man's capacity and resources are so limited, and the changes of human life so frequent and fast, that it would be hard to name a more dangerous error than a rash pledge or suretyship. Grace no doubt is free to lose indefinitely for another, but not thereby to dishonor the Lord by one's own debt, or to injure others whether one's family or strangers. This were indeed to play the part of a senseless man, not of a brother born for adversity.
How blind men are to their own spirit that love a quarrel under the plea of faithfulness to truth, right, or custom! He loves transgression that loves a quarrel, says the word. It betrays itself in little and outward things, and stops not of ending in the ditch. Near akin to it is the aspiring spirit which seeks self-exaltation, or, as is here the figure, raiseth high his gate. In God's sight it is to seek destruction. So was the angel that, inflated with pride, fell, and became the Devil.
Again, it is the just lot of him who has a perverse heart, so that, as he looks for evil, he finds no good; and he whose tongue shifts about in like perversity is doomed to fall into real evil. God is not mocked by bad thoughts or words; and he that indulges in either will surely have to eat the bitter fruit of his own ways.
Solomon had not to look beyond his father's house or his own in order to prove the truth of ver. 21. Jehovah took pleasure in the families of His people. So we read in a well-known Song of degrees, “Lo, children are an inheritance from Jehovah, the fruit of the womb a reward. As arrows in a mighty man's hand, so are the children of youth. Happy the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gate.” Yet did David taste of bitter sorrow when he set his heart overmuch on them. What irony in the issue of him whom he called “Father of peace,” who rose up as a vain and unscrupulous pretender against himself and to his own destruction? Nor was he by any means the only one that yielded a crop of sin and shame and blood. Yes, “he that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a vile man hath no joy.” Whether the father of such a one be prince or pauper makes little difference, save that the eminence of degree makes the grief more conspicuous and perhaps more poignant. Only he who is begotten of God has life everlasting.