CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 18:3. Ignominy, rather, “shameful deeds.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 18:3
This verse also, as will be seen from a reference to the Critical Notes, and also from the Comments, is susceptible of several interpretations. We think it treats of—
THE SHORT-LIVED PROSPERITY OF EVIL MEN
I. Wicked men do come into places of power and influence. This fact has often tried the faith of righteous men. Asaph’s “steps had well-nigh slipped” when he saw “the prosperity of the wicked”—that “violence covered them as a garment,” and that they “set their mouth against the heavens;” and yet that “their strength was firm,” and “they had more than heart could wish” (Psalms 73:2-8). The tiller of the soil knows from experience that the useless weeds and noxious plants often seem to absorb all the nutriment from the earth, and so make it well-nigh impossible for the useful herb and sweet-scented flower to grow in the same field or garden. And moral weeds seem to have a like capability of utilising everything that comes in their way to their own advancement—the unrighteous man makes a fortune, or a position, or a name for himself, while his godly neighbour is struggling for a bare subsistence. In the field of the world, the tares grow as well as the wheat (Matthew 13:26), and often they seem for a time to be more flourishing. Ahab and Jezebel dwell in Samaria, and Elijah is compelled to flee into the desert. Herod feasts in the palace, while John the Baptist is beheaded in the dungeon.
II. Contempt and reproach are their final portion. Their day of power is short-lived. David has recorded as his experience that he had “seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree”—but he “passed by, and lo, he was not” (Psalms 37:35). And however their success may dazzle men’s eyes and warp their judgment for a season, contempt is their portion at last. They are often held in contempt even while living, and the reproaches of those who have been made to suffer by them are heaped upon their heads. Many of those who fawned upon them and flattered them while they were prospering will be most ready to scorn and upbraid them, if the day of their retribution arrives before they quit this world. And if they keep their power and influence throughout the term of their human probation, their names will be contemned by posterity, and in the day when “everyone receives the things done in his body” (2 Corinthians 5:10), they shall “awake to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
When a “wicked” man enters upon the stage, that creature, the most degraded of the universe, and who has the least right to show any contempt, is the very person to be the most contemptuous; and the mortal who is himself most disgraced, shows the readiest mind to cry shame upon and to reproach and that even the Most High. Doubtless there is secular truth in all this The disgraced citizen is often the most reproachful.—Miller.
I. They bring “contempt,” not to themselves only, but to the places they fill, and the societies to which they become united—to themselves, for the unworthy manner in which they fulfil the duties of the trust they have assumed, or have had committed to them; and to their places and societies, with which their names are associated. They entail “ignominy and reproach” upon all they have to do with. And in no case is this more true, than with regard to offices in the Church. O what an amount of scorn and reproach has been brought upon the sacred office of the ministry by the intrusion, under numberless pretexts, and from numberless causes, of wicked, worldly, ungodly men into its holy functions! How full is Church history of this deplorable evil!—and how many infidels and scorners has Church history by this means produced. Thus it was under the old dispensation. The wickedness of the sons of Eli made men “abhor the offering of the Lord.” And thus it is still. Of the “false teachers” who should arise in the latter days, it is said—“by reason of them the way of truth shall be evil-spoken of.” From few other sources, if from any, has there proceeded a greater profusion of unmerited “reproach” of the name and doctrine and kingdom of the Lord; or has “the chair of the scorner” drawn a greater number and variety of its sarcastic sneers and bitter revilings. II. The phrase may mean—“When the wicked cometh” into intimacy, companionship, familiarity, “then cometh contempt.”—He who admits the wicked to his intimacy—makes him his associate—must share the infamy of his ill-chosen companion. Many a time too has this been exemplified.—Wardlaw.