CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 21:11. Instructed, Zöckler translates this “prospereth,” and understands the simple to be the subject of both clauses of the verse.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 21:11
INSTRUCTION FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT
I. An inevitable event in the history of the scorner. It is here taken for granted that he will be punished—that he who sets at nought the “counsel,” and will have none of the “reproof” of wisdom, will have his day of reckoning. The “day of his calamity” and “fear” will come (chap. Proverbs 1:27). Throughout this book, as throughout all the inspired writings, sin and punishment are linked as cause and effect. There is punishment in the constantly increasing dominion of evil in the soul, and there is punishment in the stings of conscience; but there is also punishment by the direct interposition of God, and it is to this that the proverb evidently points.
II. One of the fruits of wisdom. He who is wise will be instructed. Having used what he has, he will in accordance with the Divine law receive more. To “him that hath shall be given” (Mark 4:25). He who by a wise use of five talents has gained other five, shall have his store increased still more. This is likewise a foundation principle of this book, that the wise are those who are willing to be instructed, and that to those who desire instruction it will not be wanting. The special point of the verse is in the fact—
III. That the punishment of the evil man, and the soul-advancement of the good, have a work to do outside the men themselves. When the scorner receives punishment others receive instruction. This is one of its objects. A good ruler, as we have before seen (chap. Proverbs 20:26), is bound to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked for many reasons, and for this reason among others, that the punishment of one offender may prevent others from committing a like offence. Men often learn by example what they would not learn by precept—the inexperienced are often more deeply impressed by one instance of retributive justice than they would be by many admonitions in word. This is, as we know from God’s Word, one end of His visitations. “For this cause,” said God to Pharaoh, “have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Exodus 9:16). There are vessels belonging to our navy which are past repair, and are therefore unfit for sea. Yet they are retained as light-ships along the coast, and are useful in preventing better ships from going to pieces on the rocks. Pharaoh had long scorned the commands and the judgments of Jehovah, and his own doom was fast hastening on. But he would still serve as a beacon-light to save others—by his punishment the simple would be made wise. But there is the other and brighter side of the picture. The inexperienced are allured to goodness by the advancement of the good, as well as deterred from evil by the downfall of the wicked. When the simple sees the wise man in the attitude of a learner—when he finds that the wiser he is the more he desires instruction; and when he marks the effect of his humility and earnestness in his growth in all that is calculated to win him respect and to afford him real satisfaction, he “receives knowledge” by “the instruction of the wise” as well as by the “punishment of the scorner.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
A respectful sinner; how is he a scorner? The Holy Ghost plainly intends just the shock that such words occasion. If a man hears that he should repent, and knows the reasons, and among the reasons are facts like hell, and calls like Christ’s, and scenes like death, with all the realities of an eternal judgment, is there any spoken scorn that can be thought of as more scornful than the acted scorn of not repenting? “The simple becomes wise,” i.e., the subject or the witness of the punishment, just as it may happen … Punishment never wastes. The wicked may be thrust lower by his evil (chap. Proverbs 14:32), but some saint receives the lesson. This principle reaches through the system. The philosophy of hell is its good-doing through all the universe.—Miller.
It is a stroke easily taken which another feels, the receiver only fears, and it is a blow haply given which, striking one, reacheth two; the scorner to his reward, the simple to his amendment … Let it therefore be a sharp punishment which is inflicted; smite a scorner, for such it is that the scorner deserveth, and it will work upon the simple, though not by the touch of the punishment yet by the virtue of it. And when wisdom hath once subdued him by fear, then will it lead him on to hear the wise, and by attention to receive knowledge.—Jermin.