CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 17:11. Many commentators translate the first clause “Rebellion,” or “a rebel” seeketh only after evil, i.e., brings retribution upon himself.
Proverbs 17:12. Miller translates the latter clause “but not a fool his folly.” (See his comment.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Proverbs 17:11-13
PHASES OF EVIL
I. The main characteristic of a sinner is that he is a rebel against the moral order of the universe. “He seeketh only rebellion.” The planets in their courses describe their orbits in obedience to the law of gravitation, and because they do so the order of the heavens is preserved. God is the sun of the moral universe, and before sin entered it all His creatures kept the path of obedience to His will, held to their allegiance by the love and confidence which they bore to their Lawgiver. But sin snapped the bond, and the word sinner stands for one who has broken away from the moral law of God; every sinner seeketh rebellion.
II. A sinner is a restless being. He seeks rebellion. These words seem to depict the restless character of the ungodly man. When a soul has lost its centre of gravity—when the will of God is not the polestar of life—it drifts about in obedience first to one lawless passion and then another, following in the footsteps of the great leader of rebellion, the first sinner, who, by his own confession, is continually going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it (Job 1:7).
III. A sinner is an injurious man. No man can set himself in antagonism to the law of God, which tends to the happiness of his creatures, without bringing misery upon others, and the more determined his rebellion the more cruel are the effects of his sin upon them. A bear is naturally a cruel beast, but when a bear is robbed of what her instinct leads her to guard most jealously she is an object to be dreaded and avoided. Yet a wicked man is more to be feared, for there are in him capabilities of mischief beyond those possessed by the furious brute. The anger of the beast might be diverted or appeased—even a bear robbed of her whelps would forget her anger if a carcase were thrown in her path upon which she might wreak her vengeance. But the wrath of an angry man is less easily appeased. The mischief which the furious bear can do is more limited. The superior skill of man can soon put a stop to the ravages of a wild beast, but the angry folly of a single fool has often destroyed many lives and broken many hearts.
IV. A sinner is an ungrateful being. Many an ungodly man would deny this charge, but everyone who continues in a state of rebellion against God is continually rewarding evil for good. But the sin of the text doubtless refers to the ingratitude towards a fellow-man. This sin cannot be charged home upon every ungodly man—there are those who, though careless of rendering to God that which is His due, are content with rendering to their fellow-men evil for evil, and would not knowingly render evil for good. But while the heart is in a state of rebellion against its rightful sovereign, every evil tendency is continually growing stronger, and men by degrees descend to depths of evil from which they would once have recoiled with horror.
V. God will, sooner or later, call His rebellious subjects to account. Although men sometimes go on in open rebellion against God for many years, not one shall finally escape. A writ has been issued for the apprehension of each one, although the execution is in some cases deferred. “Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12), and the messenger that summons the ungodly man to the Divine tribunal will be “cruel” because looked at through the medium of a guilty conscience.
VI. The sinner brings evil upon his posterity. It is a truth which is illustrated by the experience of our daily life that no man stands alone in the world—that the sins of the fathers are, in some measure, visited upon the children—that “whoso rewardeth evil for good,” not only brings evil upon himself but upon “his house.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 17:11. God sometimes employs terrible messengers to chastise His own people. When David numbered his subjects, 70,000 of them were destroyed in three days by a visible messenger of severity, under the direction of an invisible minister of providence. If God takes such vengeance of the rebellions of some whom He pardons, what will the end be of them that seek only rebellion!—Lawson.
God hath forces enough at hand to fetch in His rebels.… The stones in the walls of Aphek shall sooner turn executioners than a rebellious Aramite shall escape unrevenged.—Trapp.
Many things there are which an evil man proposeth to his seeking: sometimes pleasures, sometimes profit, sometimes honour, sometimes favour, but in truth it is only rebellion against God that is sought by him. For these things are not to be found in the ways of wickedness, and therefore it is only his deceived imagination that looketh for them there. But rebellion against God is found in all his ways.—Jermin.
There are men that are summoning a cruel messenger to be sent against themselves.… They are “only the rebellious.” A door of mercy! and a ransom fixed for sin! and only one class to fail! and they spontaneously rebels! These are the men that go in search of evil, and this is the meaning of the wise man.—Miller.
Proverbs 17:12. Witness Jacob’s sons putting a whole city to fire and sword for the folly of one man; Saul slaying a large company of innocent priests; Nebuchadnezzar heating the furnace sevenfold; Herod murdering the children in Ramah; “Saul breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord”—was not all this the rage of a beast, not the reason of a man? Humbling, indeed, is this picture of man, once “created in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27).—Bridges.
For the “fool,” what a meeting! when he has been robbed of every earthly chance! and is dead eternally! and the “folly,” that has robbed him, is shut up with him in everlasting misery!—Miller.
See Miller’s rendering of the verse in Critical Notes.
Proverbs 17:13. To render good for evil is Divine, good for good is human, evil for evil is brutish, evil for good is devilish.—Trapp.
The most striking illustration of this sentence, is the history of the Jewish nation. Never was such ingratitude showed to any benefactor, as they showed to the Son of God, and never was the punishment of any people so dreadful, and of so long continuance. That scattered people proclaim to every nation under heaven how dangerous the sin of ingratitude is, especially when God our Saviour is the object of it.—Lawson.