MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 14:26
A SURE REFUGE
I. What is to be found in the fear of the Lord? “Strong confidence.” The confidence is in the divine character, and is based upon a knowledge of it, in contrast to a false security which has its foundation in ignorance. There is a reverence of one being for another which is the outcome of ignorance, but this cannot generate that strong confidence which can be a sheet anchor to the human soul. The old Romans, in the early days of their history, had a reverence for their divinities, but it was a reverence of ignorance, it was a reverence for unrealities, and could never yield them that confidence which all men in all ages need to comfort them in trial and inspire them with hope in the mysteries of human life. There are men now who are quite ignorant of the Divine character and yet seem to possess great confidence that all will be well with them—that God, in fact, will not do what He has said He will do in relation to them. But this confidence is also false; it is based, not upon fear of the Lord, arising out of acquaintance with Him, but upon want of knowledge, and consequently upon disregard of His claims. But the strong confidence of our text is the fruit of a reverence which has its foundation in acquaintance with the holiness of the Divine Father, which is the outcome of a knowledge of His laws, of His threatenings, and of His promises. It is the confidence which a child reposes in a good parent, because it knows from experience—from an every-day contemplation of that parent’s life—what good grounds it has to reverence and to trust him. This confidence is strong enough to inspire the soul with courage to face the difficulties of human life and to vanquish them. Confidence in a fellow-creature is often inspiration. A soldier’s confidence in his general, a seaman’s confidence in his captain, inspires to the performance of deeds of heroism. And confidence in the living God, in that King who can do no wrong, in that leader who can make no mistake, has been the inspiration of millions of men and women in all ages and under all circumstances. It has been found strong enough to enable them to be heroes through a long life of poverty, of ignominy, of sickness, and it has sustained all in the hour of death, and many in the death of martyrdom. By the strength born of this “strong confidence,” they have “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,” etc. (Hebrews 11:33-38).
II. This confidence gives men God for a refuge.
1. He is a present refuge from conscious guilt. This is a need which every man feels as soon as his conscience is awakened as surely as the man-slayer felt his want of a stronghold of defence from the avenger of blood. The God against whom man has sinned becomes, when His character is understood, the object of hope for pardon. The sinner can only “flee from God, by fleeing to God.”
2. He is a present refuge from all foes, whether spiritual or human. “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” (1 Peter 3:13) is a question which can never be answered. It is impossible that the children of God can ever be without a resource in whatever peril of soul, body, or estate they find themselves, for—“If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31.)
ILLUSTRATION
The Rev. J. W. Fletcher had a profligate nephew, who was dismissed from his post as an officer in the Sardinian army. One day, by presenting a pistol to his uncle, General de Gons, he extorted from him a draft for 500 crowns. With this he called on Mr. Fletcher, and, as he exhibited it with exultation, Mr. F. took it, folded it up and put it into his pocket, saying: “It strikes me, young man, that you have possessed yourself of this note by some indirect method; and in honesty I cannot return it but with my brother’s knowledge and approbation.” Instantly the pistol was at his breast, and he was told, as he valued his life, to return the draft. “My life,” replied Mr. Fletcher, “is secure in the protection of the Almighty power who guards it.” This led the nephew to remark that his uncle De Gons was more afraid of death. “Afraid of death!” rejoined Mr. Fletcher, “do you think I have been twenty-five years the minister of the Lord of life to be afraid of death now? No, sir, thanks be to God who giveth me the victory! It is for you to fear death who have every reason to fear it. You are a gamester and a cheat, yet call yourself a gentleman.… Look, there, sir, look there! See the broad eye of Heaven is fixed upon us. Tremble in the presence of your Maker, who can in a moment kill your body, and for ever punish your soul in hell.” The youth was disarmed, and the interview ended in his uncle praying with him, and promising to give him a hundred crowns to relieve his immediate necessities.—From “The Proverbs Illustrated.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Fear is anything but a refuge in itself. But as faith was imputed to the patriarch for righteousness (Romans 4:22), so this need not cloud Christ’s merit. Christ has so saved us that fear becomes our hope. He who has experienced “fear” has gone into a retreat; nothing can dislodge him from it. If the lost tremble, let them learn to fear; for by fear they become children of God, and as children of God they have an eternal refuge.—Miller.
Fear hath torment (1 John 4:18; Acts 24:25). It is the trembling of the slave (Romans 8:15); the dread of wrath, not of sin. There is no confidence here. It is pure selfishness. It ends in self. There is no homage to God. But the true fear of God is a holy, happy, reverential principle (see Psalms 112:1; Psalms 33:18; Psalms 147:11); not that which love “casts out” (1 John 4:18), but which love brings in. We fear, because we love. We fear, yet we are not afraid (Psalms 112:1-7). The holiest and humblest is the most fixed and trusting heart. The fear of man produces faintness (Jonah 1:3; Gall. Proverbs 2:12). The fear of the Lord—such is the Christian paradox—emboldens. Its childlike spirit shuts out all terrors of conscience, all forebodings of eternity. Abraham sacrificed his son in the fear of the Lord; yet fully confident “that God was able to raise him up from the dead” (Genesis 22:12, with Hebrews 11:17-19).—Bridges.
What confidence shall be strong, if this is not strong? He confides in that which is all infinite:—the truth, the love, the wisdom, the power of his covenant God! Whatever the love of God has induced Him graciously to promise, no power or combination of powers in existence can stay from being done.—Wardlaw.
It does not mean that the fear of God is something on which one can rely, but that it has (Proverbs 22:19; Jeremiah 17:7) an inheritance which is enduring, unwavering, and not disappointing in God, who is the object of fear; for it is not faith, nor anything else subjective, which is the rock that bears us, but this rock is the object that faith lays hold of (Cf. Isaiah 28:16).—Delitzsch.
Gregory, writing upon those words in Job 4:6, “Is not this thy fear, thy confidence?” etc., saith that although Eliphaz did wrongfully reprove Job, yet he doth rightly set down the order of the virtues, when he joineth fortitude to fear, For in the way of God we must begin with fear that we may come to fortitude. For as in the course of the world boldness breedeth courage, so in the way of God it breedeth weakness, and as in the course of the world fear begetteth weakness, so in the way of God it bringeth forth confidence.—Jermin.
The fear which brings a sinner submissive and trustful to the sacrifice and righteousness of the Substitute is itself a confidence.… Those who went early to the sepulchre and looked into the empty grave where the Lord lay, departed from the place with “fear and great joy.” A human soul made at first in God’s image has great capacities still. In that large place fear and great joy can dwell together.… The filial fear of the children may be known by this, that it takes in beside itself a great joy, and the two brethren dwell together in unity.… “His children shall have a place of refuge.” They “are kept by the power of God.” … There are two keepings very diverse from each other, and yet alike in this, that both employ as their instruments strong walls and barred gates. Great harm accrues from confounding them, and therefore the distinction should be kept clear. Gates and bars may be closed around you for the purpose of keeping you in, or of keeping your enemy out. The one is a prison, the other a fortress. In construction and appearance the two edifices are in many respects similar. The walls are in both cases high and the bars strong. In both it is essential that the guards should be watchful and trusty. But they differ in this: the prison is constructed with a view to prevent escape from within, the fortress to defy assault from without. In their design and use they are exact contraries. The one makes sure the bondage, the other the liberty of its inmates. In both cases it is a keep, and in both the keep is strong—the one to keep the prisoner in, the other to keep the enemy out. The fear of the Lord to those who are within, and have tasted of His grace, is the strong confidence of a fortress to defend them from every foe; to those who look at it from without, it often seems a frowning prison that will close away the sunlight from all who go within its portals, and waste young life away in mouldy dungeons. Mistakes are common on this point, and mistakes are disastrous.… Though the refuge is provided, and the gate standing open, and the invitation free, poor wanderers stand shivering without because a suspicion clings to the guilty conscience, that the “strong tower” offered as a safe dwelling place will turn out to be a place of confinement from genial society and human joys.—Arnot.
FOR HOMILETICS ON Proverbs 14:27 SEE ON THE PRECEDING VERSE AND ON CHAPTER Proverbs 13:14 PAGE
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 14:26-27. The whole system of religion is expressed in the fear of God. A religion which makes this fear the principle of action implicitly condemns all self-confidence and presumptous security, enjoins a constant state of vigilance and caution, a perpetual distrust of our own hearts, a full conviction of our natural weakness, and an earnest solicitude for Divine assistance. It keeps men always attentive to the motives and consequences of actions; always unsatisfied with present attainments; always wishing to advance and always afraid of falling away. The blessings it brings in its train are—
1. Security. “Strong confidence.” “Place of refuge.” “Great is the confidence of a good conscience.” “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and He will deliver us” (Daniel 3:17). “None of these things move me” (Acts 20:24). When they told Numa that the enemy was at the gates, he simply answered, “But I am sacrificing.” When Antonius was threatened, he replied, “We have not so worshipped, neither have we so lived, that we should fear their conquering us” (Trapp). If such was the confidence of heathens, what should be that of Christians? God’s children “know in whom they have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12).
2. Consolation. “A fountain of life.” So called from the constancy of its supply. A confluence of blessings, grace here and glory hereafter—present and future—upper and nether springs. David combines both when he says, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory” (Psalms 73:24). He refers to the future when he says, “Oh, how peat is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!” (Psalms 31:19). Here he speaks not only of what God has laid up, but of what He has laid out—not only of what he has in prospect, but of what he has in experience.
3. Deliverance from dangerous temptations. “To depart from the snares of death.” “The way of this world is like the Vale of Siddim (Genesis 14:10), treacherous and slippery and full of snares” (Trapp). But he that fears the Lord has many safeguards. “The integrity of the upright shall guide them” (chap. Proverbs 11:3).—S. Thodey.
Proverbs 14:27. “The law of the wise” is “the fear of the Lord,” for of both the same things are predicted (chap. Proverbs 13:14).—Fausset.
Not only does Christian confidence open a cover from the guilt, but it roots out the power of sin. For among the countless throngs of the redeemed, not one finds a cover from condemnation, who is not renovated into spiritual life. Bridges.
The fear of the Lord teacheth wisdom, and wisdom teacheth that an evil feared is much the sooner avoided, and that it is a great safety of life to fear death. Wherefore St. Cyprian saith, “Be ye fearful, that ye may be without fear; fear the Lord, that ye may not fear death.” For the same fountain doth not send forth bitter waters and sweet; life and death do not issue from the same spring.—Jermin.