CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 28:12. Hidden. Or “sought for.” Delitzsch understands this to mean “plundered,” or “subjected to espionage.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 28:11
WISDOM IN WEALTH AND POVERTY
I. Riches tend to produce self-deception. The power of riches to give external position and influence is almost unlimited. Wealth can bring its owners into the palaces of princes, and place them on an equal footing with men of talent and rank. It can surround a man with servants who will obey his nod, and with friends who will flatter him to his heart’s content. By means of riches a man can make his name famous in both hemispheres while he lives, and cause it to be remembered after he is dead. It is not therefore surprising that many men who possess this potent means of influence should be so dazzled by it as to be unable to see themselves apart from it, and should credit themselves with being more than ordinary men, while the only difference is that they have more. A rich man is always in danger of mistaking his wealth, which is but an appendage to his personality, for the wealth of wisdom, which is a part of oneself, and so of being the subject of the worst of all deception, viz., self-deception.
II. But the possessor of riches does not often deceive other people as to his real worth. Men around him may flatter him and treat him as if they thought him very wise and clever, but they are often despising him all the time, and oftentimes there are those about him who, although they are beneath him in rank and wealth, are far above him in sagacity and penetration, and can read his character and motives far better than he can himself. Wealth can do much for a man, but it cannot purchase for him the respect and esteem of even the poor man who “hath understanding,” and poverty has many drawbacks, but it is free from this one—it does not minister to human vanity.
III. A poor man who has moral and mental wealth is a greater blessing to the world than even a rich man who is wise and good. He can show the world that there are some things better than wealth, and that these better things are in no sense connected with it or dependent upon it. He can convince men that gold is but a shadow and that riches of heart and mind are the substance, and he can demonstrate how much more lasting and satisfying is the influence gained by wisdom than that which is born of wealth.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The phrase, “searcheth him out,” may be variously understood. He discerns his true character. He sees that wisdom and wealth do not always go together; that a full purse is quite compatible with an empty head. He sees, too, that a man’s wisdom is not to be estimated by his opinion of himself. He sees shallowness where the man himself fancies depth, and folly in what elates him with a vain consciousness of his own wisdom. He sees abundant reason for not making the rich man his oracle, or setting him up as his idol, or making his example the pattern for his imitation, merely for the number of his acres, or for the gold and silver in his coffers. He sees how prone men in general are to allow weight to counsel in proportion to the wealth of the counsellor. But the “understanding” which God has given him shows him the absurdity of this. He “searches out” the fallacy, and detects and exposes the imprudence and folly of sentiments and proposals, that are propounded and recommended by the wealthiest of the wealthy. And still further, taking “understanding” in its higher sense, as it is used in this Book, as including a mind divinely enlightened and under the influence of the fear of God and all the principles of true religion:—the poor man who has this, sees and knows that “a little with the fear of the Lord is better than the riches of many wicked;”—that “a good understanding have all they who do his commandments;”—that no folly can be more palpable and flagrant than the folly of “trusting in uncertain riches,”—“setting the eyes upon that which is not,” and neglecting provision for the soul and for eternity,—forfeiting the “unsearchable riches” provided by the mercy of God for sinners,—all the blessings, unspeakably precious, summed up in “life everlasting;”—spurning away the counsel that would put these in possession;—greedily coveting the treasures of the world that perish in the using, and rejecting the Divine offer of the treasures of immortality. The poor man who hath understanding—I can hardly say “searches out” the folly of this,—he discerns it by a kind of spiritual intuition.—Wardlaw.
The thought in Proverbs 28:12 is the same as in chap. Proverbs 11:10. See Homiletics on page 206.