The preservative power of wisdom is next shown in guarding from moral perils, whether of iniquity or of corruption.
“For wisdom shall enter into thy heart and knowledge be pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall watch over thee, understanding shall keep thee:—to deliver thee from the way of evil, from the man that speaketh froward things; [from those] who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice to do evil-delight in the frowardness of evil; who in their paths are crooked, and pervert in their course—to deliver thee from the strange woman, from the stranger who flattereth with her words; who forsaketh the friend of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead; none that go unto her return again, nor attain unto the paths of life;-that thou mayest walk in the way of the good and keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the treacherous shall be plucked out of it” (vers. 10-22).
How admirable is the wisdom Jehovah gives the heart! and not less on the negative or dark side than on the positive; especially where the knowledge that accompanies it is pleasant to the soul. Discretion and discernment follow with vigilance against an evil world. Violence and greed are not the only dangers, but the way of evil through deceitful speech. Silence is not always golden; but “the tongue of the just is choice silver” (Prov. 10:2020The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. (Proverbs 10:20)); or as the N. T. exhorts, “let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt.” How powerful is the soft and pure answer, not only to turn away wrath, but to check heat and pride and will! It is dangerous to hear froward things; it is wicked to speak them. How soon after this the paths of uprightness are forsaken to walk in the ways of darkness! Evil words allowed lead to a walk which God's light never illumines. How sad the descent in rejoicing to do evil! Delighting in the frowardness, or deceits of evil! It is to glory in the worst shame. How crooked in their paths and perverse in their course! Truly their judgment is just.
But the discretion that flows from wisdom is no less efficacious to guard from “the strange woman” (16), and her flattering words, where lust reigns, not love, and selfish passion, not true affection and tender regard. Debauchery is all that could be expected from her that forsakes the guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
We do not hear the glad tidings of grace in this book. There is no gospel call throughout. It addresses those who are under the law and the covenant, whoever else may profit by it. If it is very excellent for any man that has ears, and those who know most of grace and heavenly privilege will most prize it, its voice direct is to the ancient people of God, to Israel. For them all flows simply and easily. There is no strain of a single sentence or word, no need of accommodation, no lending it a sense which it does not truly contain or convey. In it therefore “Jehovah” appears regularly, and “Elohim” rarely used has its exceptional force.
By the way, remark how the notion of various writers here or any where indicated by such designations is the shallowest of dreams. It may afford pleasant pastime to men who, not knowing God (or, at least, beguiled and blinded by such), find in its cultivation a field for imagination and ingenuity without truth, conscience, or love, a mere linguistic or intellectual tour de force whetted by the keen will to damage and deface every landmark of divine authority.
It is evident that corruption, especially when it takes the form of the violation of a holy relationship is as hateful to God as it is destructive to man. See how Babylon and its counterpart is spoken of and dealt with in the Revelation. So here it is said that “her house inclineth unto death, and her path unto the dead.” This Israel as a people had to prove, before Christendom existed to follow the fatal wake. It is no less true of individuals. “None that go unto her (the corrupting woman) return again, nor attain unto the paths of life.”
Wisdom then from Jehovah it is that ensures discretion to walk in the way of the good and to keep the paths of the righteous. So were led the faithful of old; but how much brighter is the light of life in following Him Whose ways and words here below we know from God as of none else! Yet was Jehovah's word, before He shone in this world of darkness, a lamp to their feet and a light to their path. And the day hastens when it will be made manifest to every eye that “the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.” What was plainly attested in the days of David and Solomon is but a witness to the full display of this truth in the coming kingdom, when “the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the treacherous shall be plucked out of it.”