CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 12:26. Is more excellent than his neighbour, rather “guides his neighbour.” Delitzsch reads, “looketh after his pastures.” The Hebrew word signifies “abundance” (see Miller’s remarks in the comments on the verses).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 12:26
THE GUIDE AND THE SEDUCER
Translating this verse, “The righteous guides his neighbour aright,” we remark:—
I. That the righteous man guides his neighbour both by his word and by his life. He guides him by wise counsel—by giving him “a word in season” (see Proverbs 12:25)—and he more especially guides him by his holy life. His character is a revealer of the way of life. The light which shines through a lantern reveals the path, not only to the man who carries it, but to him who beholds it if he should be disposed to follow in the same road. The righteous man is a light-bearer—he has moral light within him, which breaks forth in the acts of his daily life, and sets a good example to other men, and so, to some extent, his life, like that of his Master’s, is a “light of men.”
II. That he guides him aright because he shows him how to make the most of his life. Men are generally anxious to live long, and the righteous man shows his neighbour how to live long by living well. A husbandman values his trees, not by the length of time they have stood in the ground, but by the amount of fruit they yield. There are trees which bring forth more fruit in one season than others do during the whole time they stand in the orchard. And the length of a man’s life is to be estimated not by the number of years he has been in the world, but in the use which he has made of them. Many men who leave the world comparatively young have lived longer, because to more purpose, than others who have not died until they were a hundred years old (On this subject see homiletics on chap. Proverbs 10:17, page 164).
III. That the wicked man also exercises an influence upon his neighbour; but his influence tends to evil. He is a seducer—one who leads astray by false professions and promises. Like the good man, he emits a light, but it is the false light of the ignus fatuus, which is the offspring of the stagnant swamp, and which will only lure him who follows it to destruction. One of the chief employments of the bad, and that which seems to afford them the greatest pleasure, is to carry other men to ruin. And even when the wicked man is not an active seducer, his way, or his life, seduces his neighbour. The force of an evil example is very great, and men are insensibly influenced by it. Men of ungodliness diffuse around them an atmosphere of moral unhealthiness, which insensibly affects those around them, who are not godly, and strengthens them in all their downward tendencies. Such men are “as graves which appear not” (Luke 11:44), and are centres of spiritual disease and death.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
If then, the “righteous be more excellent than his neighbour,” how is it that men do not follow their way? Because “the way of the wicked, which is apparently more excellent, or abundant in temporal advantages, seduces them (Kimchi in Mercer). It “seduceth” with false hopes, doomed in the end to destruction.—Fausset.
The way of the godless leads them into error; the course of life to which they have given themselves up has such a power over them that they cannot set themselves free from it, and it leads the enslaved into destruction. The righteous, on the contrary, is free with respect to the way which he takes, and the place where he stays. His view (regard) is directed to his true advancement, and he looks after his pasture (see Critical Notes), i.e., examines and discovers where, for him, right pastures, i.e., the advancement of his outer and inner life, is to be found.—Delitzsch.
Let him dwell by whomsoever, he is ever a better man than his neighbours; he is “a prince of God” among them, as Abraham was amongst the Hittites. Said Agesilaus, when he heard the King of Persia style himself the Great King—“I acknowledge none more excellent than myself, unless more righteous; none greater, unless better.” “Upon all the glory shall be a defence” (Isaiah 4:5)—that is, upon all the righteous, those only glorious, those “excellent of the earth” (Psalms 16:2), that are “sealed to the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). Now, whatsoever is sealed with a seal, that is excellent in its own kind, as Isaiah 28:25. The poorest village is an ivory palace, saith Luther, if it have in it but a minister and a few good people. But the wicked will not be persuaded of the good man’s excellency, he cannot discern, nor will not be drawn to believe that there is any such gain in godliness, any such difference between the righteous and the wicked. He, therefore, goes another way to work.—Trapp.
I. In regard of their condition in this present life. They have all prerogatives and preferments. By parentage every one of them is God’s child. By dignity they are all kings. By inheritance they have title to heaven and earth; their food is heavenly manna, their clothing is Christ’s righteousness, their attendants are the holy angels.—II. In respect of their state that shall be in the life to come. They shall have perfect happiness, and be made like unto Jesus Christ, more excellent and puissant than the most glorious angels.—Dod.
The “wicked” man not only does not “guide” his neighbour, but does not guide himself, actually “leads” himself “astray.” Here is the same climax we have so often noticed (chap. Proverbs 11:14).—Miller.