IN the opening verses the secret that so many have sought in vain is made known: how to find the knowledge of God. After all, there is very little mystery about it. The Christian need not be scholarly and profound to understand the Scripture of truth. It is condition of soul, rather than a well-furnished mind, that is required. God has given His word. He exhorts us to search it in dependence upon His Holy Spirit, who is now come to guide us into all truth.
1 My son, if thou wilt receive my sayings,
And lay up my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom,
And apply thy heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge;
And liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver,
And searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah,
And find the knowledge of God.
It is no careless reading of the Scriptures that is here indicated. The soul is exhorted to “receive” these sayings. This is something more than a cursory examination of them. The sayings of God must be received into the heart. And there they are to be “laid up,” or “hidden.” The ear must be inclined to wisdom; the heart applied to understanding; while the mouth cries after knowledge, and the voice is lifted up for that which will give spiritual intelligence. The whole being is thus devoted to the search for the truth. As men dig deep for silver and make diligent effort to locate hidden treasure, so the earnest seeker must dig into the word of God, and be not content with surface findings. When thus esteeming the words of His mouth as more than one’s necessary food, the result is certain: “Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.”
It is to be feared that even among those who hold and value much precious truth, diligent Bible study is on the wane. It is well to remember that reading books about the Bible is a very different thing to searching the Word for oneself. Notes and expositions may be helpful. If the writer did not so believe, he would not now be putting pen to paper. But if these works of uninspired men be permitted to take the place of the sure Word of the living God, the result can only be baneful in the extreme. The result of such one-sided study will be that men will draw their thoughts from one another, in place of from the great reservoir of truth itself. This will result in a dry intellectuality which is the very opposite of a fresh, vigorous spirituality.
6 For Jehovah giveth wisdom;
Out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous;
He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 He keepeth the paths of judgment,
And preserveth the way of His saints.
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment,
And equity; yea, every good path.
Intimately connected, ever, must be the search for truth and the walking in it when received. Where there is a single eye and a true heart, characterized by earnest desire to live in the power of the truth revealed to the soul, He whose truth it is will be a buckler, or defense, for His own, keeping them safely as they tread the paths of judgment; thus preserving their way. It is by so walking that one shall daily increase in the knowledge of righteousness, judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. Very different is this from mere mental adhesion to a certain theological system, or a particular school of biblical lore. It is not so much “holding the truth,” as being held by that truth. Between the two states there is a vast difference.
“Vain talkers and deceivers” abound, who speak “great swelling words,” and boast of their knowledge of prophetic and dispensational teaching, or of ecclesiastical truth, whose unguarded ways and careless walk bring reproach upon the solemn and precious things they profess to glory in. They seem to chew the cud, but fail to manifest the divided hoof. Such a course persisted in sears the conscience and hardens the heart, till the most searching ministry fails to make any impression upon them.
The proper attitude for one who really holds the truth, and its blessed results, are set forth in the following verses:
10 When wisdom entereth into thy heart,
And knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve thee,
Understanding shall keep thee:
12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man,
From the man that speaketh froward things;
13 Who leave the paths of uprightness,
To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 Who rejoice to do evil,
And delight in the frowardness of the evil one;
15 Whose ways are crooked,
And perverse in their paths.
Wisdom and knowledge entering into the heart and becoming pleasant to the soul, give that discretion which preserves from evil; and the understanding, or discernment that keeps from false ways. Two enemies are seen besetting the feet of the young man. Here it is the evil man; in the next few verses, the strange woman. The evil man is the man who walks in the pride of his heart and in independence of God. This, to the young, seems very attractive, appealing to the natural mind. But to follow the evil man is to “leave the paths of righteousness” and to “walk in the ways of darkness.” The truth of God possessing the reins will deliver from this, keeping the recipient of it from the self-willed ways of the evil one and pointing out his crooked and perverse paths. But this is not the only enemy seeking to beguile the simple. The word of God is also given
16 To deliver thee from the strange woman,
Even from the stranger which flattereth with her sayings;
17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth,
And forgetteth the covenant of her God.
Again and again we catch glimpses of this strange woman flitting in and out in the pages of our book. Who is she? Does she speak of anything more than impurity and uncleanness? Unquestionably the primary meaning is clear on the face of the passages that concern her. She is the ensnaring enemy of morality and virtue, who today, as in Solomon’s time, pursues her nefarious traffic in the bodies and souls of the young and unwary. Forsaking the guide of her youth, forgetting the covenant of her God, she gives herself up to impure pleasures and soul-destroying lusts.
18 For her house inclineth unto death,
And her paths unto the dead.
19 None that go unto her return again
Neither attain they to the paths of life.
So true is this that those who have been ensnared and fallen into ways of uncleanness go through life under a blight from which they never recover. The memory of unholy revels, of filthy pollutions, will abide and prove a source of shame and grief to the end. The more sincere the repentance, the more truly will this be the case.
But having considered all this, is there not another meaning also to be taken from these many warnings concerning the strange woman? In a secondary sense it seems evident that as in the evil man we have set forth independency of God-rationalism run riot; so in the strange woman we see false religion as eventually to be headed up in Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations that be upon the face of the earth. How devious are her ways! How subtle and deceptive her solicitations! And how truly can it be said that “her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead!”
Only the word of God can preserve the soul from her corruptions and keep the feet in the paths of life.
20 That thou mayest walk in the ways of the good,
And keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright shall dwell in the land,
And the perfect shall remain in it.
22 But the lawless shall be cut off from the earth,
And the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
It is not the heavenly but the earthly hope that here comes before us. The book of Proverbs, like all the rest of the Old Testament speaks of earthly things. The heavenly things were as yet unrevealed. So it is the portion of the godly Israelite that is here presented to us. He shall dwell in the land in the day when the lawless Gentiles and the transgressors among the chosen people shall be rooted out of it. Ours is a far better portion. We have an inheritance reserved for us in heaven, whither Christ the Forerunner has for us entered!
How much greater is our responsibility to see that our steps are ordered according to the Word of the living God!