CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 24:14. There shall be a reward, rather, “there is a future,” as in chap. Proverbs 23:18.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 24:13-14
HONEY AND WISDOM
I. An analogy.
1. Honey is found by man ready prepared for his use; no human skill is needed to make it fit for food—nothing that man can do can render it more palatable than it is as it flows from the comb. So the revealed wisdom of God as it is found in the Scriptures needs no intervention of man to make it suitable to human needs.
2. As honey is evidently designed by God to furnish a wholesome and pleasant food for the body, so has He designed that the revelation of His mind and will by His inspired messengers shall provide wholesome and congenial food for the soul of man. The great abundance of honey in Palestine led to its forming a more prominent part of daily food than in western countries, and its possessing these two qualities made it very fit for general and constant use, and was a perpetual testimony to the providence of God in relation to the needs and enjoyment of His creatures. So is the provision which God has made for the spiritual wants of the children of men. On this point we must take the testimony of those who have tested this soul-food. We should not ask a man whether honey was pleasant to the taste if he had never eaten it, and those are not qualified to bear witness concerning the spiritual enjoyment and benefit to be derived from the “wisdom of God” who have not tested it. All those who have done so, whatever their condition in life, in whatever age they have lived, or whatever part of the world they have called their home, have agreed with David’s testimony that it is “more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb” (Psalms 19:10).
II. A contrast.
1. Honey may be eaten until it cloys the appetite and injures the eater, but not so with the word of God. Those who eat the most of this spiritual food are the most spiritually healthy, and have the keenest appetite for it.
2. Although this God-given bodily food may do much to nourish and sustain a healthy man, it cannot cure a diseased body, or prevent the inroads of sickness and decay. But there is a soul-transforming power in the spiritual food of which it is here an emblem. Those who eat of it are by it healed of spritual disease, and are continually and unceasingly growing in moral health and vigour.
3. The blessings flowing from eating the spiritual food are only fully realised in the life beyond the present. To this the wise man refers in the last clause. (For Homiletics on this thought, see on chaps. Proverbs 11:7; Proverbs 14:32, pages 201 and 391).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 24:13. The wise man’s feast which he makes his son is but one dish. And what need of more when that is both good and pleasant? The glutton provideth many dishes, and costly to make them luscious, but they are not good, not good for the health of the body.… On the other side, the physician provideth divers meats, and they are good—good either for the preservation of health or for the recovery of it, but they are not pleasant and grateful to the palate. That is the best feeding when these are joined together.… Or else if they are not joined together, notice that the wise man putteth good in the first place; as teaching thee rather to take that which is good though not pleasant, than that which is pleasant but not good.—Jermin.
Proverbs 24:14. When thou hast found it. That is, when thou hast so found it that thou canst feed upon it and convert it into nourishment, then thy pains of seeking shall be rewarded. And though it be a late reward, for wisdom is not quickly found, yet there shall be a reward, and that so full, that in nothing thine expectation shall be cut off. For though hardly yet it is well-gotten; and with pleasure will sweeten the pains, with good will satisfy the tarrying and recompense the delay. The Chaldee rendereth the middle part of the verse, “If thou hast found, the last will come better than the first.” As if this were a mark whereby to know whether we have found wisdom or not, because then the further we go on the more sweetness we shall find.—Jermin.