CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 1:7. Fools, derived from a word meaning to be gross and dull of understanding. Gesenius understands it to signify “one who turns away,” the “perverse.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Proverbs 1:7-9
THE ROOT OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE AND THE MEANS OF ITS ATTAINMENT
When the husbandman comes to examine a fruit-tree, he disregards everything in the way of leaf and branch; if he does not also find evidence of fruit in the appointed season, he considers that the end of planting is not attained. God, the great Husbandman, here declares that all human wisdom and intelligence avail nothing unless they have for their basis that fear of Him which enables a man to attain the end for which he was created.
I. The fear of the Lord springs
(1) from a practical recognition of His existence. God, to the vast majority of mankind, is but a name; they no more recognise the personality and moral character of the Divine Father than they recognise a personality and moral attributes in the wind or the sunlight. He has no influence upon their hearts; to them, practically, there is no God. There is no fear of God before their eyes, because there is no God.
2. From an experimental knowledge of His kindness. The mightiest being cannot be reverenced for his power; that may produce the “fear which hath torment,” but not the “reverence and godly fear” which leads to willing obedience. When a king’s character is such that his subjects taste of his kindness and feed upon his bounty, it begets a reverence which makes them fear to break his law. The “fear of the Lord” is synonymous with heart-religion, and must be born of a personal experience of Divine mercy. This fear says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him” (Psalms 34:8).
II. The means by which this beginning of knowledge ought to be attained. The rule in creatures below man is, that they instruct their offspring as soon as they are capable of instruction. The eagle teaches her young to fly: she “stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings.” (Deuteronomy 32:11.) And this is what God expects every parent to do in a moral sense. A child ought to get his first ideas of God from his parent, and his father’s and mother’s love ought to be the stepping-stones by which he rises to apprehend the love of his Father in heaven. This exhortation takes for granted that the parents will be possessors of this true knowledge, and will impart it to their children.
III. The reason given to the young for receiving and retaining parental instruction. The coronet on the brow of the noble proclaims his place in society—sets forth his high position. The necklace of pearls on the young and beautiful maiden proclaims the wealth of the wearer, and adds to her attractiveness. So the obedience of a good son to a true father proclaims him to belong to the noble in spirit—sets a crown upon his character. And a daughter’s reverential love to a good mother is a true indication of moral wealth. That mother’s words, treasured in the memory and translated into life, are so many precious pearls of soul-adornment, and are in the sight of God of great price.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 1:7. This, “the fear of the Lord,” comes as the motto of the book. The beginning of wisdom is found in the temper of reverence and awe. The fear of the finite in the presence of the Infinite—of the sinful in the presence of the Holy; self-abhorring, adoring, as in Job’s confession (Job 42:5-6), this for the Israelite was the starting point of all true wisdom. What the precept “Know thyself” was to the sage of Greece, that this law was for him. In the book of Job (Proverbs 28:28) it appears as an oracle accompanied by the noblest poetry. In Psalms 111:10, it comes as the choral close of a temple hymn. Here it is the watch-word of a true ethical education. This, and not love, is the beginning of “wisdom.” Through successive stages, and by the discipline of life, love blends with it and makes it perfect.—Plumptre.
Why is this the only way that God hath pointed out for the attaining to ?Wisdom
1. One reason may be the falseness of man’s spirit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and so God will not entrust it with such estimable treasures of durable wisdom before a trial hath been upon it. “To him will I look, even to him that is of a pure and contrite spirit, and trembleth at my words.”
2. Here is another argument, viz., impossibility. “The natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God,” &c. “The eye sees not the sun, unless it bear the image of the sun in it;” nor could it receive that impression if it were covered with dirt and filth. So the necessary foundation of true wisdom is unfeigned righteousness and pureness. The purging of a man’s soul takes away the main impediments to true knowledge,—such as self-admiration, anger, envy, impatience, desire of victory rather than of truth, blindness proceeding out of a love of riches and honour, the smothering the active spark of reason by luxury and intemperance, &c.—Henry Moore.
Where God is, there is the fear of God; and where the fear of God is, there are all things which God requireth.—Jermin.
The fear of the Lord consists, once for all, in a complete devotion to God,—an unconditional subjection of one’s own individuality to the beneficent will of God as revealed in the law (Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:20; Deuteronomy 13:4; Psalms 119:63, &c.)
How, then, could they be regarded as fearing God, who should keep only a part of the Divine commands, or who should undertake to fulfil them only according to their moral principles, and did not seek also to make the embodying letter of their formal requirements the standard of life.—Lange’s Commentary.
Proverbs 1:8. The relation of the teacher to the taught is essentially fatherly.—Plumptre.
In Scripture and that oriental speech framed to be its vehicle, narrow examples stand often for a universal class. “Honour thy father and mother,” means—obey all superiors. “Thou shalt not steal,” means—keep clear of every fraud. In those patriarchial countries, obedience to a father was the finest model of subordination.… Let the child take the first and obvious meaning; let the man look deeper. The earlier principles having been settled, the Proverbs have begun with a grand practical direction—that we are to listen to our teachers; that we are to begin at our firesides, and obey all the way up to God.—Miller.
Proverbs 1:9. The instruction and discipline of wisdom do at first seem difficult and hard, and are like fetters of iron restraining the corruption and rebellion of nature; but at length they are like chains of gold, worn like ornaments and no burden at all.—Jermin.
Nothing so beautifies as grace doth. Moses and Joseph were “fair to God,” (Acts 7:20) and favoured of all men. Trapp.
As Christ prays, “Hallowed be thy name,” as his first petition, so Solomon puts first in his promises mere beauty, the mere prize of being right. The best thing in being pious is the mere comeliness of piety.—Miller.