CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 3:8. Navel, “body” or “muscles.” Marrow, literally “refreshing,” “moistening,” in contrast to the condition described in Psalms 32:3-4.
Proverbs 3:11. Despite not, or “loathe not,” “shrink not.” The word, according to Miller, means “to melt.” Chastening, “discipline,” “correction.”
Proverbs 3:12. The latter clause of this verse should be read, “and holds him dear, or does him a favour, as a father does his son.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Proverbs 3:7-12
THE WAY (1) TO HEALTH, (2) TO WEALTH, (3) TO ENDURANCE
Three exhortations are here given, to each of which is attached a promise or reason to induce the young man to obey.
I. An exhortation to humility. (Proverbs 3:7-8.) Its peculiar appropriateness and importance will be seen if we consider—
1. The person to whom the exhortation is addressed. “My son” (Proverbs 3:1). Lack of experience has a great tendency to breed self-conceit. As a rule, those who have lived the longest and have most acquaintance with men and things are the least disposed to be “wise in their own eyes.” Ignorance is the mother of self-conceit. These words are addressed to a young man, because his youth would render him very liable to this fault.
2. That self-conceit does not end with oneself but is dangerous to others. The man who insists upon the correctness of his knowledge of a dangerous way, and will not listen to the experience of those who are better acquainted with it, is sure to find some who believe in him and follow his guidance. Thus he may not only lose his own life, but be the murderer of others.
3. It shuts a man up to his ignorance. The only way to become wise is to feel we are ignorant. As a lunatic must be shut up with others in a like condition while his madness is upon him, so a self-conceited man must be imprisoned with the fools of the universe while he remains in that condition.
4. The Divine woes which are levelled against such an one. All the woes pronounced by our Lord against the Scribes and Pharisees were against sins born of this sin. The charge against them was that they were wise in their own eyes. “For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him said, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth” (John 9:41). “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:21).
II. The remedy against self-conceit. “Fear the Lord,” etc. When those who are wise in their own eyes begin to reverence those who are much wiser than they are, they will begin to depart from this evil which is the root of many evils. Esteem for those who deserve esteem will lessen their esteem for themselves. A knowledge of the character and wisdom of God will produce reverence. When a man renders to God the reverence which is due unto Him, and which is born of a right appreciation of what God is, the scales of self-conceit will fall from his own eyes. As the sun melts the hoar-frost from the windows and leaves a clear medium for the rays of the sun to enter the chamber, so the contact of God with the human soul will melt away the self-esteem which shut Him out. How entrenched was Saul of Tarsus in his own opinions before he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. How high an estimate he had of himself, but how great was the change which acquaintance with Christ wrought. When Job got an insight into God’s greatness, he said, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Self-conceit cannot live where there are right views of God.
III. The promise here given to those who walk reverently before God. Certain it is that such a mode of life leads to bodily health. Those who walk in the fear of the Lord live lives of purity, of temperance, of freedom from the consuming passions and corroding cares of the ungodly. Other things being equal, or anything like equal, godliness has the promise of the life that now is in this respect as in others. But if we understand the words in this narrow sense only, they seem to express only a small part, and the inferior part, of the blessing that comes to a man from the “fear of the Lord.” The bones here, as in Psalms 32:3; Psalms 35:10, are put for the whole man. And as the Psalmist, in the first-mentioned psalm, expresses his sad condition of soul as well as body when he says, “My moisture is turned to the drought of summer,” so the “marrow,” or “moisture,” of the bones here expresses a vigour of the entire man. Sin breaks the bones of a man’s spirit; the consciousness of the Divine favour which will flow from a reverential walk with God makes them “to rejoice” (Psalms 51:8).
Proverbs 3:9-10 contain—
I. An exhortation to a right use of temporal riches.
1. Those who honour God with their gifts honour Him who has first honoured them with their stewardship. The man who is entrusted with the property of others has an honour put upon him by the trust. Potiphar put a great honour upon Joseph when he committed all that he had into his hand, and Joseph felt that it was so. This of itself should be a motive to a strict integrity and to devotion to the interests of One who has thus honoured us with confidence. All temporal, material blessings are given to men as stewards of God’s property (Luke 16:1-12), and in this light they ought to regard themselves.
2. If men honour God with their substance, they turn what would otherwise be a snare into a blessing. The tendency of wealth is doubtless to make men God-forgetting, self-confident, selfish (Mark 10:23; Luke 12:16; James 5:1). But those who use it for the advancement of God’s kingdom—for the alleviation of human suffering—make a friend of this “mammon of unrighteousness” (Luke 16:9).
3. God cannot be honoured with our substance unless we first give ourselves to Him. The great desire of a true father in relation to his children is to secure their love. Having that, everything else that is theirs will be his. Without that, no offering, no service, can be acceptable. God must have the man before He will accept his wealth.
II. The promise annexed to this exhortation. This cannot be the motive, but it is the consequence. Any man who gave his wealth because he believed it was a good investment in this sense, would not be honouring God with it. We must give, as we are commanded to lend, hoping for nothing again (Luke 6:35). And, although the material rewards which are appended to a certain line of conduct under the old dispensation do not invariably follow it in the new and more spiritual one, there is probably no Old Testament promise of earthly reward which is, and ever has been, fulfilled with so few exceptions.
I. An exhortation to patient endurance of affliction.
1. From the constitution of our nature we can but dislike or loathe (despise, see “Critical Notes”) affliction itself. There has never been one of human kind who has welcomed affliction for its own sake; nay, more, there has never been one who has not shrunk from it, considered by itself. No man can do other than grieve for the death of his friend when he considers his own loss merely. No child of God can love pain or loss. The man who is under the knife of the surgeon must groan in the unnatural condition in which he is placed. Even Christ Himself, though He delighted to do the will of His Father (Psalms 40:8), shrank from the bitter cup of suffering. If, then, pain—probably mental pain—was felt to be bitter by the Sinless Man, how much more will a sinful man find it hard to bear.
2. The pain itself is that which renders us unable to see the connection between it and the benefit it is to work out. While a man is suffering pain of body or mind, his feelings, more or less, overpower his reason. Although we know that it is to work good in the future, we fail often to realise the fact—feeling holds us down to the present.
II. Four considerations to help us in times of affliction.
1. Its individuality. “My son, despise not thou,” which implies that God chastises men as individuals—that he distinguishes between them. There may be many sons and daughters in a human home; no two are exactly alike, therefore a wise discrimination must be exercised with regard to the chastisement or the discipline administered. So God discerns the needs of His children. No son or daughter need think that another cross would suit them better; they may be assured that the one they bear is the one that has been especially prepared for them, and is therefore peculiarly adapted for them.
2. Its end. It is educational. It is correction, not destruction. Even if it is rebuke, or punishment for a particular sin, it is designed to eradicate that sin, and thus add to the character; and we are assured, on the highest authority, that tribulation worketh patience, experience, and hope—all of which graces go to form a higher type of man (Romans 5:2-3).
3. Its signification. It means son-ship, adoption. It means that God has taken us in hand; that He is Himself presiding over our education; that He loves us and desires our spiritual growth.
4. Its Author. “The Lord.” We accept that from one whom we know, which we would not from a stranger. If we can be sure that a man’s motives are pure, we judge of his conduct accordingly. The consideration that affliction comes from the “righteous Father,” the King who cannot wrong any of His subjects, ought to help us to take the rebuke with meekness,—to bear the pain, although we cannot now see the profit.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 3:7. This warning against self-confidence is closely connected with the preceding verse. The wise in his own eyes is he that leans to his own understanding. How striking is this connection between the fear of the Lord and the fear of sin (ch. Proverbs 14:27; Proverbs 16:6; Genesis 39:9-10; Nehemiah 5:15).—Bridges.
Get all the wisdom thou canst. That is the very burden of these Proverbs. But as thou gettest it if thou seemest wise, be sure that thou art weighed down with folly. Gabriel, who has never sinned, is foolish because he knows not the end from the beginning, and we are foolish from a further cause, that our wisdom has remains with it that are corrupt.—Miller.
The greatest hindrance to all true wisdom is the thought that we have already attained it.—Plumptre.
Fear God, and fear evil; fear God to go to Him, fear evil to depart from it. The wings of fear to carry thee to God are love and care, the wings of fear to carry thee from evil are shame and sorrow.—Jermin.
Proverbs 3:8. The constant, steadfast, self-diffident operation of the religious principle is beneficial alike to body and soul. It preserves the mind in tranquillity and peace (Isaiah 26:3), and this is in a high degree conducive to the health and vigour of the bodily frame.—Wardlaw.
Two sadnesses flow from not fearing Jehovah—worn muscles and dried bones (see “Critical Notes”). The two are perfectly distinct. One means “aching labour,” the other, “horrible despondency.” The fear of God delivers from both.—Miller.
All God’s laws come from one source and conspire for one end. They favour righteousness and frown on sin. The law set in nature runs parallel as far as it goes to the law written in the word. Vice saps the health both of body and mind.—Arnot.
Proverbs 3:9. Works of piety and charity are evidently included.—Wardlaw.
Who art thou, that thou shouldest be able to honour Him, who is Himself of infinite honour? Who would not in this respect employ his substance in God’s fear, seeing thereby thou dost honour Him, whom to serve is a high honour to the highest angels.—Jermin.
To devote a portion of our substance directly to the worship of God, and the good of men, is a duty plainly enjoined in the Scriptures. It is not a thing that a man may do, or may not do, as he pleases. There is this difference, however, between it and the common relative duties of life. For the neglect of it no infliction comes from a human hand. God will not have the dregs that are squeezed out by pressure poured into His treasury. He loveth a cheerful giver. He can work without our wealth, but He does not work without our willing service.—Arnot.
Proverbs 3:10. At first sight the motive may be regarded as a selfish one. But second thoughts give another view. It is a trial of faith. And it is a trial than which few are found more difficult. It is hard to persuade a man that giving away will make him rich. We look with more confidence to bank interest, or the still better interest of a vested loan, than to a return of profit from what is wholly given away.—Wardlaw.
Men take care how to use their money to the best advantage by sea, by buying land or cattle, or by usury, an easy trade; thy best trade will be to maintain God’s worship.—Jermin.
This consecration of substance, as the seed-corn for the harvest, is as strange to the world as would be the casting of the seed in the earth to an untutored savage. Yet is the result secure in both cases: only with the difference, the temper of the earthly sower has no influence on the harvest; whereas the fruitfulness of the spiritual harvest mainly depends on the principles of the work. Most important is it that we honour the Lord—not ourselves.—Bridges.
Proverbs 3:11. Two things are forbidden here.
1. Do not make light of (despise) the Lord’s chastening, as if thou couldst easily cast it off—in insensibility to it, not recognising the Lord’s hand in it, and not humbling thyself under it.
2. Do not, on the contrary, through pusillanimity, be weary, and impatient, and despondent under the burden.—Cartwright.
Not to feel thy evils would be inhuman; not to bear them, unmanly.—Seneca.
Fainting and wearying may take place in two ways. The heart may be overwhelmed by sudden trials, giving an effect so stunning and overpowering that the spirit sinks into a temporary stupefaction, and, as the Apostle has it, “we faint.” Or it may become wearied out and exhausted by the long continuance of the same trial, or by a rapid succession of different strokes of the rod.—Wardlaw.
Having stated the blessings of wisdom, it is logical to consider the apparent exceptions.—Miller.
For if God did despise thee, He would not chasten thee, if He was weary of thee, He would not correct thee.—Jermin.
Some think it a goodly thing to bear out a cross by head and shoulders, and wear it out as they may, never improving it. As a man that, coming out of a shower of rain, dries again, and all is as before.—Trapp.
Prosperity and adversity, in their wise mixture and proportion, form our present condition. Each is equally fruitful in honouring the Lord; in prosperity, by a wise consecration of our substance; in adversity, by a humble and cheerful submission.… It is correction, this is for your humbling; it is only correction, this is your consolation. It is the declared test of our legitimacy (Hebrews 12:7-8). His discipline is that of the family, not of the school, much less of the prison.—Bridges.
Solomon here anticipates a covert objection, if all the favour in the sight of God and man, and the health which have been attributed to the fearers of the Lord (Proverbs 3:1-10) really be theirs, how is it that we see them so often sorely afflicted? The reason is, the Lord sends these afflictions, not for evil, but for good to His people.—Fausset.
Consider the afflictions we meet with in the character which the text assigns to them, viz., as corrections. What reasons have we for viewing them in this light?
1. They are of God, and God takes no pleasure in the misery of His creatures. By some other demonstrations than the dark demonstrations of sorrow, we know the benevolence of God; and as afflictions are from Him, we have reason to deem them a part of the discipline of His love.
2. The rule or order of human afflictions indicates their corrective intent. All do not come under this principle, but many do. It is manifest that many miseries of life are the results of sin, and if we could see further, it is extremely probable that we should attribute many human miseries to human sin which we now attribute to the naked sovereignty of God.
3. There is every reason to believe that a state of innocence would have kept the world from all suffering. Evils that extend so far, or are of such a nature that our reformation could not shun them, are instructive monitions that sin strikes deep, and requires for its cure the hand that rules the world.
4. Our afflictions have many alleviations. If they were intended as mere punishments they would have been made more destructive.—Dr. Spencer.
The first distinct utterance of a truth which has been so full of comfort to many thousands, the summing up of all controversies, like those of Job’s friends (Job 5:17) or our Lord’s disciples (John 9:2) as to the mystery of suffering. It was the lesson which the book of Job had proclaimed as the issue of so many perplexities. Here it enters into the education of every Jewish child taught to acknowledge a Father in heaven chastening him even as he had been chastened by an earthly father. The Apostle writing to the Hebrews can find no stronger comfort.—Plumptre.
Especially the well-beloved Son, who (Proverbs 3:12) was made “perfect through sufferings.”—Wordsworth.
God’s strokes are better than Satan’s kiss and love; God smites for life, Satan caresses for death.—Egard.
The kingdom of God in this world is a kingdom of the cross; but all suffering tends evermore to the testing and confirmation of faith (1 Peter 1:6-7).—Lange.
God’s chastenings and corrections are no signs of anger, but of love; they are the pains which our healing and cure demand. Those who lie under the cross are often more acceptable to God than those who taste and experience His dainties. He finds pleasure in our crosses and sufferings for this reason, because these are His remembrance and renewal of the sufferings of His Son. His honour is also involved in such a perpetuation of the cross in His members (Ephesians 3:13; Colossians 1:24, etc.), and it is this that causes Him this peculiar joy.—Berleburg Bible.
God loveth not thy correction, but thee He loveth.—Jermin.
He that escapes affliction may well suspect his adoption.—Trapp.
The same stroke may fall on two men, and be in the one case judgment, in the other love. “In vain have I smitten your children, they received no correction (Jeremiah 2:30). All were “smitten,” but they only obtained paternal correction who, in the spirit of adoption, “received” it as such. You may prune branches lying withered on the ground, and also branches living in the vine. In the two cases, the operation and the instrument are precisely alike; but the operation on this branch has no result, and the operation on that branch produces fruitfulness, because of a difference in the place and condition of the branches operated upon.—Arnot.