In Proverbs 23:19-2819Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. 20Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: 21For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 22Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. 23Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. 24The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. 25Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. 26My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. 27For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. 28She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. (Proverbs 23:19‑28), the wise man begins with warning his son against association with the self-indulgent in drinking and eating. Next he commends heed to parents. Then he counsels to truth and understanding through it, with the joy it gives to the father and mother. Last, he warns against corruption as utterly ruinous on all sides.
The first part consists of parental advice against social dangers (vss. 19-25). The second (26-28) rises to Jehovah who warns of a still deeper personal danger. All opens with an affectionate appeal of a general kind.
“Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.” Not talking but hearing is the path to wisdom, and the heart is as much concerned at least as the ears.
Love of company outside, and free from home proprieties, is no little snare. Hence it is said, “Be not among wine-bibbers, among gluttonous eaters of flesh” — a temptation to the fast growth of youth, apt to be impatient of restraint, and full of impetuous energy.
Both eating and drinking expose to lack of moderation, especially if either become a habit. “For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe with rags.” Shame and suffering must be the end of so unworthy a way; and where is the fear of Jehovah in it?
Hence the more earnest expostulation of verse 22, and from both sides. “Hearken to thy father that begot thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.” How sad to fail in reverence to parents, and especially to the one who had the chief care and love unfailing when the child most needed both! Oh! the shame of despising one’s mother when she is old, and ought to have still more honor!
Then comes weighty counsel, and in particular at the start of public life. “Buy the truth, and sell it not, — wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” No money, it is true, can buy the truth, but the heart’s desire and waiting on Him who gives freely and upbraids not. But there are many temptations to sell it for fleshly and worldly attractions, from which He alone can preserve. We may observe how truth leads to and is shown in the practical shape of wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
How emphatic too is the effect on the father’s heart when this is so! “The father of a righteous one shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise one shall have joy over him.”
This is repeated, and yet more, in verse 25: “Let thy father and thy mother be glad, and let her that bore thee rejoice.” How happy too for the child!
But verse 26 brings in Jehovah, it would seem, who claims the heart unreservedly. “My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe (or, delight in) my ways.” He, rather than the natural father, can speak thus without limit; and where the heart is thus given to Him, the eyes do verily delight in His ways; for they are goodness and mercy, truth and faithfulness.
On the other hand, the snare from a harlot is perilous indeed. Lost to shame, her intrigues are subtle and varied. She “is a deep ditch,” as “a strange woman in a narrow pit,” out of which extrication can only be through divine mercy and power.
The peril is further pointed out in verse 28. “She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.” It is not only that she has her insatiable ends, but that it leads on the other side to no end of wicked advantage and demoralization in every form.
Now follows (Proverbs 23:29-3529Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. (Proverbs 23:29‑35)) the picture of him who loves strong drink to the life, aye, and the death.
As the chapter began with the evil of self-indulgence in eating, especially in a ruler’s house, so it ends with the still more evident danger of hard drinking, no matter where it may be. How graphic is the wise man’s sketch!
Of all the lusts of the flesh, none from first to last exposes so much to shame and grief as intoxication. Others may be fatally ruinous to oneself or to our partners, but this is more stupefying, insensate, and disposed alike to folly and violence. “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?” The question is readily answered: “They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek out (or, try) mixed wine.” For intemperance ever seeks more and stronger incentives, till the thirst after them becomes overpowering.
No less wise is the advice given to nip the inclination in the bud. “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth (or, giveth its color) in the cup, when it goeth down smoothly (or, moveth itself aright).” Resist the beginnings; be not caught by the attractive look. “Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” “The wine of violence” is not the only danger, but the bright and the agreeable also.
What is the end in this world, of which the preacher here warns? “At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” As this is true of all our own will, so it particularly is the effect of yielding to this debasing gratification. What bodily anguish it entails, what self-reproach for conscience!
The follies too, which are among its results, are so stupid as to expose the victims to derision, as well as to excited feelings and expressions alien to them at ordinary times. “Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter froward things” — conduct which they themselves deplore when sober, hardly believing that they can have committed themselves to such disgrace.
But this is not all. “Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea” — all sense of danger is gone in this temporary madness, only exceeded by an opposite peril: "And as he that lieth down on the top of a mast.”
The talk too is no less idiotic: “They have smitten me”; yet, “I am not sore”; “They have beaten me”; yet, “I felt not”; “When shall I awake?” they babble out; but even so, they are not ashamed to say, “I will seek it yet again.”
Men may be clever and interesting; but what of these qualities, if they are “evil”? They may flourish for a while; but they are enemies of God, and just objects of horror, but pity too, and no more to be envied in any respect than their company to be sought. Underneath wit on the surface is their study of destruction, so that their lips cannot conceal the mischief they talk.
It is wholly different with the wisdom that begins with fearing Jehovah, which instead of active mischief builds up a house for family use, and by understanding establishes it. And as He prospered the wise in their projects, so He gave knowledge to furnish richly and pleasantly. For this book contemplates His people on earth, not present suffering with Christ and glory on high. How different Christ’s part here below, and the lot of His faithful ones!
A wise man is strong, we are told. It is moral strength, the reverse of Samson’s physical strength with moral weakness and folly. Hence too a man of knowledge increaseth strength, instead of losing its advantage by heedlessness. As it is prospered in peace, so wise counsel is of the greatest weight in war (vs. 6), where, as danger thickens, safety is in multitude of counselors, not in self-confidence.
How well it is said that “wisdom is too high for a fool!” He is self-satisfied, knows not his emptiness, and asks not of God what he lacks. So far, he does well not to open his mouth where counsel is sought, for what could a fool say?
But there is a man more to be dreaded and avoided than the senseless — such as devises evil doings. Hence he earns the character of a master of intrigues. These men are truly mischievous.
To a godly soul another consideration arises still more serious: “the thought of foolishness is sin, and the scorner is an abomination to men.” It is not only the carrying out of mischief, but the thought of foolishness is sin. How sad when the heart allows it, instead of fleeing at once to God against it! But the scorner is odious above all, as one who is not only evil in mind and heart, but he takes pleasure in lowering and maligning the righteous.
Courage is tested in the day of trouble, which gives the occasion to show its worth. But it shines better in delivering those who are in it; and this with integrity before Him who sees, to whom each owes his preservation, and who takes account of man according to his work. He would have one to enjoy the good He gives, but consider wisdom and the issue. A wicked man is warned against lying in wait against the righteous man, who, if he fall, will surely rise, while his enemy stumbles into ruin. Nor does it become one to rejoice at the fall even of an adversary, lest Jehovah see it, and not for nothing.
A day of trouble naturally alarms and bewilders one who has not faith and hope in God. Even the believer, distressed after the word of Christ emboldened him to join his Master on the sea, “when he saw the wind boisterous,” was afraid and began to sink. Had he looked off to Jesus, his strength had been great, for there only it lay. Little faith is little strength. Jesus is the same to us whatever the sea or the wind; and Peter apart from looking to Jesus would have sunk equally on the smoothest sea without a puff of wind.
To use strength for ourselves has no worth; but to deliver those who are in peril of death unjustly, from whatever source, public or private, becomes a righteous soul. It is a duty independent of either friendship or neighborly claim. The Samaritan was the Lord’s answer to the lawyer’s question, Who is my neighbor? Without the least thought of justifying himself, he becomes neighbor to the sufferer who needed his help.
In vain did the priest and the Levite say of the man lying half dead on the opposite side of the road, We knew it not: Jehovah considered it.
The conviction that He preserves one’s soul brings His knowledge of all before the heart, as we may believe it moved the Samaritan to mercy, besides the certainty that He renders to man according to his work.
Honey is a good thing naturally where God made all things good, nor did He begrudge the honeycomb sweet to the taste in a land flowing with milk and honey. He had pleasure in providing good things freely for man, though He knew man would abuse them all.
But what is wisdom to thy soul? The communications of Jehovah are sweeter still, says Psalm 19. If thou hast so found it, “there shall be a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” He that does the will of God abides forever.
The next is a warning to a wicked man to beware of craft or violence against the house of the righteous. Does not Jehovah see?
It is true that the righteous may fall ever so often — “seven times” — yet he riseth again; as the wicked do not stumble into disaster. Look on the one hand at David; at Shimei, Ahithophel, Absalom, and Joab on the other.
How selfish and base to rejoice in the fall of an enemy! It may please the subtle enemy and the flesh too; but let not your heart be glad that he stumbles, else Jehovah will surely see and be displeased, and turn away His anger from him. And to whom? Let your conscience answer.
It is a great thing for a believer to occupy himself and his lips with the good, especially now that God has revealed Himself in the Son incarnate, that he may not be overcome of evil, but overcome it with good. The Jew was expressly separated from the Gentile, devoted as he was to his gods that were in no sense God. But the Christian who is surrounded by evil men and imposters is called to bear witness to Him who came in grace and truth, a divine Person as truly as He was manifested in flesh, and this that his soul might receive of His fullness. He is thus enabled to pity and seek the blessing of the wicked instead of envying them.
The awful end of rejecting the Saviour to his own ruin is present to one’s own spirit, humbled by the known grace of God who will send the Lord Jesus shortly to execute a judgment which will extinguish the lamp of the wicked.
Therefore all the more does the believer fear God and the king in the form of honoring him who is His representative in earthly things, and to be obeyed in all things save to the dishonor of God and His Word. Even then he is to suffer the consequences, never to resist or rebel like those given to meddling and change. For even here their calamity rises suddenly when they least expect it, and who knows the ruin that impends till it falls far and wide? “Fear God, honor the king,” says 1 Peter 2:1717Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17).
In a sort of appendix that follows the opening maxim is the value and duty of impartiality in judgment, which with respect of persons is but a mockery. But this undue favor assumes its worst form when the wicked person is complimented as righteous. Such a reversal of equity provokes whole peoples to curse the perpetrator, and draws out the abhorrence of the nations in hasty likes and dislikes.
Honest rebuke of the wicked, or of any unprincipled favor shown them, as the rule, wins delight and the cordial desire for a blessing upon such. It draws out the strongest mark, not only of respect but affection, when a right answer is given, whereas self curries favor by compromise.