CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 15:15. Afflicted, or “toiling.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 15:15
THE CONTINUAL FEAST
I. All men have days of affliction. They may be traced to one of four sources—
1. Men are afflicted by reason of their relation to the first head of the human race. Every man inherits bodily weaknesses of some kind—is, in apostolic phrase, made subject to vanity (Romans 8:20) of some kind or another for which he is not personally responsible—which is not the fruit of his own character or conduct, nor of that of his immediate ancestors. Mental sorrows are also born of this remote relationship. The human mind is not now what it was when it came first from the hand of its Creator. God at the beginning made man perfect—his spirit was a reflection of the perfect law of God, and all within was consequently harmony and peace. But it is not so now, even with the best of the human race. There has been a subjection to vanity through sin, and this is the fruitful source of much mental pain and sorrow to all men, although they are often unconscious of the origin of the darkness that envelopes their spirit.
2. Men are afflicted by reason of their immediate relationships. A child who has a bad father suffers much and grievously, the father who owns a wicked child often has many days of deep affliction. A nation may be deeply afflicted by reason of the viciousness or unwisdom of its rulers. Many and various are the afflictions which come to men through those to whom they are related, whether by family or national ties.
3. Afflictions arise from personal transgression of God’s laws. These transgressions may be either of a negative or positive character—they may consist in doing what we ought not to do, or in leaving undone that which it is our duty to do. Much affliction comes to men because they have neglected to do for mind, body, or estate that which they are commanded by God to do. Men who neglect to work, or who neglect to conform to the laws by which their mind or their body is governed, must pay the penalty, and often suffer much affliction from the mere neglect of duty. And much more will those know days of affliction who are positive transgressors of any Divine law, whether physical or moral.
4. Affliction comes to men sometimes by Divine permission, either to chasten men for sin or to increase the goodness of their characters. Affliction came to Job, and he had many evil days, not because he was a sinner, but because he was a saint. Good man as he was, he had many days of affliction—days which were to him very evil—but they arose neither from his remote or immediate relationships, nor from personal or relative transgression, but were the outcome of Satanic agency, acting by Divine permission.
II. Days of affliction are evil days. While the patient is under the knife of the surgeon he is undergoing an experience which is in itself an evil, which is an experience to be dreaded and avoided if possible, however good may be the days of health which are the result of it. No one can feel that affliction in itself is anything but an evil—much good may come out of it, but that does not make the actual suffering of body or mind good in itself. If the sufferings of the present life were unconnected with the blessings which will spring out of them, if they were not regarded in the light of Divine revelation they would be unmitigated evils.
III. Evil days work good to him who can rise above them. If a seaman can be cheerful and hopeful in the midst of a storm, he is all the better for having passed through it. His courage is strengthened and his experience is enlarged, he is more of a man than before he entered into conflict with the winds and waves. While others have been overwhelmed with terror, he has been full of a calm self-possession, and that which has shown how weak many men are, has shown how strong he is. But in order thus to rise above outward circumstances, there must be internal resources. Only those can came through the storms of life the stronger and the better for having passed through them who have an unfailing well of hope and comfort within. The martyrs of old revealed that they had a continual feast within, although they had many days of affliction without. Their “merry hearts,” filled with true and unfailing gladness, lifted them above the bitterness and evil of their circumstances. Thus to glory in tribulation is to take “meat out of the eater and sweetness out of the strong.” But only those can practise this art who, like their Master, “have meat to eat” of which men in general “know not of.” (John 4:32.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The feast of him who is of “a merry heart,” who has within himself the sources of true joy, is not terminated—is not even suspended—in the season of affliction. His feast is independent of changing condition. He often relishes it most when other sweets are embittered. Often is his inward spiritual festivity the richest, when the supply of his outward and earthly comforts is scantiest.—Wardlaw.
Affliction, as the fruit and chastening of sin, is an evil.… Though the abounding consolation of Christian affliction does not blot out its penal character, yet the child of God is not so miserable as he seems to be (2 Corinthians 6:10). The darkest of these evil days can never make the consolations of God small with him (Job 15:11). He can sing in the prison (Acts 16:25), can “take joyfully the spoiling of his goods” (Hebrews 10:34), can praise his God when He has stripped him naked (Job 1:21). What real evil then can affliction bring? Or rather what does it bring but many feast days? A few days’ feasting would soon weary the epicure. But here the merry heart hath a continual feast.—Bridges.
“All the days of the toiling are evil, but a good heart is a continual feast.” A glorious comparison! A sour heart is fed by a hard life; and yet, though the hard life is common to all, a brightened spirit masters it, and not only masters it but sweetens it. Toiling. The word is very peculiar. “Afflicted” our version has it. “Humble” is the translation in many cases. Toiling strikes us best,
(1) because such is the root—the verb, first of all, means to toil—and
(2) because such is the sense; the toiling character of life makes all groan together. We are not paid. Such is the toil of our spirits that life is a battle. As a worldly maxim, “a good heart” carries the day; but, as an adopted text, the wise saw strengthens itself. Under the toils of life, “a good heart,” regenerate by grace, greets the same toil the lost man does, and finds the “heart” itself “a continual feast.”—Miller.
This is diligently to be observed, that none can have a cheerful mind indeed but only such as, through faith in Christ having peace with God, pollute not their consciences with detestable iniquities. For indeed evils enter into such to trouble their minds, to profane their joys, and to pull them from the continual feast of security here spoken of, who either walk in the committing of gross offences, or are close hypocrites and dissemblers.—Muffet.
He that hath a heart merry in a good contentment can always invite himself to a full feast. When he hath not wherewith to feast others—yea, even when he wanteth perhaps what to eat, he wanteth not wherewith to feast himself. It is not a feast that must have time to provide it, and to make it ready, and which, being ready, is soon passed over; but it is a continual feast, ever ready, and never ended.—Jermin.
The sincere heart, the quiet conscience, will not only stand under greatest pressure, as did St. Paul (2 Corinthians 1:9-12), but goes as merrily to die in a good cause as ever he did to dine, as did divers martyrs. Be the air clear or cloudy, he enjoys a continual serenity, and sits continually at that blessed feast, whereat the blessed angels are cooks and butlers, as Luther hath it, and the three Persons in the Trinity gladsome guests. Mr. Latimer saith the assurance of heaven is the sweetmeats of this feast. There are other dainty dishes, but this is the banquet. Saith St. Bernard, “Wilt thou, O man, never be sad? wilt thou turn thy whole life into a merry festival? get and keep a good conscience.” A good man keeps holiday all the year about.—Trapp.
So far as we would live a comfortable life, we should seek to build up our inward man more than our outward estates; that our hearts be better furnished than our houses, and our consciences than our coffers, that our stock of faith and everlasting goodness may exceed our store of coin and temporal goods: and so shall we be fenced against all perils, and provided for against all wants, and secured against all accidents whatsoever.—Dod.