The words of wise men are heard in quiet— The words of wise men are more minded among people of a sedate disposition, than the cry of war raised by a man in authority among the inconstant multitude. By this translation, the opposition designed by the author is preserved, as well as the allusion to the condition of a small town mentioned in the preceding parable. See Desvoeux, p. 420.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Solomon had been applying his mind with the greatest diligence to the study of wisdom; he had deliberately weighed and considered the particulars mentioned in the foregoing Chapter s, and the end that he proposed was, to declare all this for the edification of others. One difficulty in the ways of Providence he had observed, respecting the distribution of afflictions and prosperity to the righteous and the wicked; they who deserve least possessing often the greatest affluence; and they who are the excellent of the earth pining under sickness, distress, and indigence. Now, though he could not fully resolve this work of God, the method of divine procedure, yet the following observations may serve to give much satisfaction to the children of God.
1. That the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; he has a peculiar regard to them, and all their affairs; he knows their works, and approves them.
2. That no man knoweth either love or hatred, by all that is before them; the different outward circumstances of men, which occur in the course of divine providence, are no proofs either of God's love or hatred: or, neither love nor hatred man knows, so deceitful are appearances; the professions of love are often insincere, and there is hatred sometimes entertained where we expected the warmest regard; but all things are before them, known to the Eternal Three, from whom nothing is hid, nothing is secret.
3. That all things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; yet are their characters widely different: those are good, renewed by divine grace; clean, as washed in the Blood of sprinkling, devout in their services, and fearing an oath, cautious how they swear, and seriously and religiously observant of their engagements: these are unclean, their nature impure, and their iniquities not washed away by the atoning Blood; profane, living in the habitual neglect of the ordinances of God; sinners, openly violating the laws of God and man; swearers, rash, blaspheming, perjured. Now, that so little difference should be put between persons of such opposite characters, may seem an evil among all things that are done under the sun: and that there is one event unto all, is enough to harden the wicked into atheism, and may shake the confidence of the just: but, though the dispensations of God's providence be the same, the design of them is vastly different; the same event is made a savour of life unto life to the one, and a savour of death unto death to the other; so that God will at last appear just, and all will be made to own the righteousness of his government.
4. The wicked, notwithstanding any prosperity which they may enjoy, are miserable both in life and death. The heart of the sons of men is full of evil; observing this similarity of events to all, they infer that God hath forsaken the earth, and therefore give an unrestrained indulgence to every appetite: and madness is in their heart while they live; their delights are but a madman's dreams; they are insensible of their real wretched state, and know not the eternal ruin to which they are hastening: and after that they go to the dead; death closes the scene, their pomp cannot descend with them into the grave; they are numbered with the transgressors, and perish without hope eternally.
2nd, The advantages of life are set forth: happy they who improve them!
1. While there is life, there is hope. Whatever be a man's condition, either temporal or spiritual, however deplorable and unhappy, it may change or improve. The chief of sinners may, through grace, quickly become the chief of saints, and a living dog is better than a dead lion; the meanest beggar alive may be made useful, and enjoy comforts of which the mightiest monarch dead is incapable.
2. The certainty of approaching death is a warning to prepare for it: now is the moment of opportunity; and the living, who know that they shall die, are called upon continually to be ready. It will be too late shortly, for as the tree falleth it must lie.
3. After death, this world is no more to us. The dead know not any thing, nothing that passes here below, or how it is with those whom they have left behind; neither have they any more a reward, cannot enjoy any longer the fruit of their labours upon earth; for the memory of them is forgotten among the living; in a few years, their very memorial sinks into utter oblivion, and it is not known that they have ever been. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished, death causes every endeared relation to cease, and terminates all quarrels; when we are removed from the world, neither the persons nor transactions in it any more affect us: neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun, the worldling's portion ends with his expiring breath; he can carry nothing away with him: and the gracious soul, however rich his portion in heaven, then quits whatever was near or dear to him on earth.
4. The inference that he would draw from hence is this; to make use of the moment which is allotted us, to enjoy with thankfulness the blessings that God bestows; and in our place and station give all diligence to glorify God, and make our calling and election sure. The temperate use and enjoyment of the good creatures of God are so far from being criminal, that they are enjoined us, as our portion under the sun, Ecclesiastes 9:9. And since all our days here are but vanity, the greater need have we to make the best of them: to eat and drink temperately, but with gladness of heart; to be sordid neither in diet nor apparel, but to live according to our station and circumstances, and enjoy the relations of life with which the Lord has blessed us. And God, far from forbidding us these comforts, accepteth thy works; a thankful heart in the use of the blessings that he bestows, is a daily sacrifice. Only amid our enjoyments, we must not forget the occupations which call for our diligence and labour. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, the duties of our station, and especially the great concern of religion, do it with thy might, with zeal and vigour, in opposition to every difficulty and discouragement; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest; it will be too late there to discover the error of our ways, and impossible to amend them. To-day, therefore, whilst it is called to-day, up and be doing; the night cometh, when no man can work.
3rdly, Though diligence is our duty, yet the issue of all events is in the hands of God, and things often turn out strangely contrary to appearances. This the preacher had observed, and warns us of, that we may not be too sanguine and confident.
1. The strongest presumptions often disappoint us. The race is not to the swift; they stumble in their course, or, too secure of success, loiter, and are distanced: nor the battle to the strong; the most formidable armies have been often defeated by a handful of men; and the mightiest champions, as Goliath, have fallen before the arm of a stripling: neither yet bread to the wise, who frequently want, while fools wallow in affluence; nor yet riches to men of understanding, who, though ingenious in their professions, and most likely to succeed in the world, are strangely neglected, and others of no abilities preserved before them; nor yet favour to men of skill, whose parts and genius, instead of engaging the esteem of others, sometimes provoke their envy; and many, instead of exalting them, seek to depress and disgrace them: but time and chance happeneth to them all, far different is the event from human probability.
2. We are frequently unable to guard against misfortunes. Man knoweth not his time, what calamities are before him, when his day of evil shall come, or how to avoid it; but like the fishes taken in an evil net, and as birds caught in the snare, so unexpectedly do we often find a snare in what promised the greatest satisfaction, and see ourselves suddenly involved in trouble, where we least suspected danger. We need be ready for every event, prepare for changes, expect disappointments, die daily, and then the day of evil shall never surprise us unawares.
4thly, Though the wise are not always successful, yet usually they are so; and wisdom is most necessary to the management of our affairs, notwithstanding the disappointments from which the most prudent are not exempted.
1. Solomon gives an instance of the advantages of wisdom; and the story might have been a real matter of fact which fell under his observation; or it may be a parable, intended to set the subject he treated of in a more striking light. There was a little city, and few men within it, consequently less able to sustain the attacks of a besieger; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it; so that the ruin of it seemed inevitable, and resistance vain: now there was found in it a poor wise man, who, though so deserving of honour and advancement, had been neglected; yet, like a true patriot, in time of danger, he stepped forth a volunteer in the service of his ungrateful countrymen, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet, highly as he had merited, he found no recompence, no man remembered that same poor man, so ill are kindnesses, done to men, often requited: God will not be so unmindful of the works of faith and labours of love. Some explain this mystically of Christ, and, no doubt, the application is beautifully apposite: The little city is the church of God, separated by walls of salvation from the world around it; the members of it are few in number, and utterly unable to defend themselves against their spiritual enemies. The great king who besieges it, is Satan, the prince of the power of the air, under whom the armies of earth and hell are leagued against God's people; by open attacks (of temptation and persecution), and by secret sap (of errors and delusions), he seeks to open a way into the fortress. The poor man, who, in this desperate case, steps forth, is Christ, filled with all the treasures of divine wisdom; and by his counsel the devices of Satan are disappointed, the souls of men rescued from ruin, and the faithful saved with an everlasting salvation: yet those who saw him in the flesh never thought him capable of such a transaction, and rejected him; and even after what he has done, the most of those who are in the pale of his church by profession, give him not the glory of his work, and ascribe no praise to this great Deliverer, but live and die in an ungrateful neglect of their great Benefactor.
2. The inferences which the wise man draws from hence are, that wisdom is better than strength, and able to extricate us from difficulties, baffling superior force, and foiling the weapons of war. Nevertheless, we may still observe in general, that the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard; such are the prejudices of the world against the poor, that many a bright genius lives and dies in obscurity. Some few, indeed, may overcome the common prepossession, and learn to value merit, however depressed in station: by them the words of wise men are heard in quiet; they attend silently their sage instructions: or the humble, modest, and diffident manner in which the wise deliver their opinion, weighs more with them, than the cry of him that ruleth among fools, whose pride on his station makes him noisy and blustering; but the thoughtful hearer prefers the force of the poor man's reasoning to all the pomp of sounding words displayed by the other.
3. As much good as one poor wise man doth, so much evil proceeds from one sinner; he destroyeth much good: all the gifts which by nature he possesses, and the abundance bestowed on him by Providence, are vilely perverted and abused; he is the plague of his family, his city, his country; his ill example is contagious; and his study is, to counteract the influence of good laws, or good advice: and through the corruption of the human heart, ever prone to evil, his endeavours are but too frequently successful.