MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Proverbs 27:23-27
MODEL FARMING
These words were especially applicable to the Israelitish people in their early history, when every family lived upon its own domain and found all its simple wants supplied by the produce of the land and the cattle which fed upon it. This paragraph deals—
I. With the duties of such a life. Solomon has several times before given exhortations to diligence in labour, but here he seems rather to enforce the necessity of diligent and constant supervision on the part of the master and owner of the land. He is not addressing a hired servant, but one who is a landed proprietor and has flocks and herds of his own. If a man in so highly favoured a position desires to reap all its benefits he must diligently superintend all whom he employs and set them a good example of industry and perseverance. He must not be content to leave these things to hirelings, but must give such close attention to all that is going on in his domain as to be able intelligently to guide all the varied engagements which follow one another as one season succeeds the other. No man ought to consider this an unworthy employment of his mental powers, and he who does so would do well to remember that the cultivation of the soil was the employment which God gave to man when He first created him in His own image. As an incentive to industry in this direction the proverb contains a reminder of the uncertainty of riches—it is unwise of any man to be wholly dependent upon a fortune made in the past and to have no resource in case of its loss.
II. It sets forth the rewards attached to the performance of such duties. There is first the supply of the necessaries of life. Luxuries are not promised, but it is implied that simple food and clothing will not be wanting; and a sufficiency of these is all that is really needful to man’s comfort. But there is a pleasure in obtaining them in this way which is surely not found in any other calling. The cultivator of the ground escapes much of the monotony found in most other professions, and has pleasures and advantages to which dwellers in the city are strangers. If he is more exposed to the hardships of the winter, the joy of spring—“when the tender grass sheweth itself”—is surely enough to repay him for it, and then follow the varied occupations of summer, one affording relief to the other, until the year is crowned with the “joy of harvest.” Surely no mode of life is more favourable to bodily and spiritual health than the one here sketched by the Wise Man.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Solomon tells us, in another place, that the instability and uncertainty of earthly things, after all our care, is a motive to draw off our hearts from them, and to fix our eyes upon nobler objects; but he tells us, in this place, that the perishing nature of earthly things is likewise a reason for bestowing a moderate and lawful share of our attention upon our temporal interests. Lawson.
Proverbs 27:25. The frail condition of fading worldly things is here well expressed, it appeareth only and is cut down. The tender grass sheweth itself, and it is but a shewing, for that being done, it is eaten up presently, being at once, as it were, both seen and devoured. The herbs of the mountain are gathered; their growing is not mentioned as being no sooner grown than gathered, and as being grown for the gathering only.… Wherefore as the careful husbandman looketh to the hay and grass and herbs, and takes them in their time, so is the good spiritual husbandman to consider the short time of worldly contentments, and in their time to use them, at no time to trust in them. As hay and grass and herbs are taken in their season, so it is the season in all things that is to be taken. And, therefore, when the season appeareth, let not thy negligence appear in omitting it; when occasion shows itself, show not thyself careless in apprehending of it; when the fruit of opportunity is to be gathered, climb the mountain speedily.—Jermin.
Proverbs 27:26-27. In these two verses the wise man dehorteth from wastefulness of apparel, and from excess in diet.… The proverbial sense is, that plainness of apparel keepeth a man’s estate warmest; and that a homespun thread in clothing is a strong and lasting thread in the web of a man’s worldly fortune, and that a sober and temperate feeding both in himself and family doth best feed the estate of any man, and that the flock of a man thriveth best when he is contented with the nourishment and sustenance that cometh from the flock.—Jermin.