THESE brief moral axioms here close with the following pair, the thoughtless child, and the calculating adult, which we do well to lay to heart.
“Folly [is] bound in the heart of a child: the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his [wealth], he that giveth to the rich, surely [cometh] only to want.
Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart unto my knowledge.
For [it is] a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee: they shall be together fitted to thy lips.
That thy trust may be in Jehovah, I have made [them] known to thee this day, even to thee.
Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge,
That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest report words of truth to them that send thee?” (vers. 15-21).
It is a sure and solemn thing that folly is no calamity from without, but bound in the heart, and this not only when in the conflicts of busy life, but from our early days, departed as all now are from God by nature. “Folly is bound in the heart of a child”: exemption there is none from the most tender age. Nor does the utmost love or care adequately restrain folly. There is the rod of correction to drive it far away by Jehovah's prescription and with His blessing. It is the folly of a father or mother to think their way better than God's.
With the grown up another snare is too common: to oppress the poor in any form of increasing one's means; very especially to commend oneself to the rich by gifts they do not need. God's eye is on this folly too; and such “come to want” as such selfishness deserves.
To give heed to the words of the wise is itself a wise thing, to apply the heart as well as the ear to such as know better than ourselves. How sad the self-sufficiency that doubts it!
These words if kept within give satisfaction and pleasure; whereas all else palls and becomes distasteful, if not a shame. Nor is this all. They contribute to our own growth and the help of others by the help they render and the confidence they inspire. Thus do they become “together fitted to thy lips.”
But there is a better effect still, “that thy trust may be in Jehovah.” Therefore are such words made known; for who otherwise is sufficient for them? and what good is there that we have not received? Surely we do well to mark precisely the debt of each of us, “this day, even to thee.”
Further, let us not overlook the enhanced value of excellent things in counsels and knowledge by their being “written” to us. However good oral instruction, there is no small danger of mistake in the hearer, and still more of letting slip even what we understood. But we can read again and again what is written, and make it our own more fully. Hence the signal profit of scripture, as the permanent word of God to our souls, as nothing else can be.
A similar advantage, here noted next, scripture possesses, is “that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth.” Pure science has nothing moral in it, still less an affection, and least of all makes known God to the soul, and in His true relationship to me. This is just what His word does communicate in all certainty, for His word is truth of that spiritual kind. Unbelief makes the truth of God the most uncertain of all things, like heathenism with its gods many and lords many, but the one true and living God unknown.
How good too is the fruit resulting to others! “That thou mightest report words of truth, to them that send thee” as a trusty representative, or that “send to thee” for advice in difficulty. Does not God give songs in the night, Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?