It might seem at first as if no precepts of this kind, drawn from the experience of a social state most unlike our own, could be of much service to us. But much that is true of man at any time is true at all times. The counsels of the teacher look forwards rather than backwards. With but little change of outward circumstance, they are true even now. Their inner, substantial truth can never become obsolete.
I. (1) The first great danger against which the young man is warned on his entrance upon life is that of wild, lawless robbery. Still the tempter leads men captive at once by their covetousness and their weakness. (2) And so also of that which we have come to speak of as pre-eminently the sin of great cities, the evil which spreads over and corrupts every form of civilised society. Vivid as the picture was of what was seen in Jerusalem "in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night," it might almost seem to have been photographed from the streets of London. (3) Indolence, self-sufficiency, cowardice where can we find these portrayed in more vivid colours than here?
II. Having seen that the perils of life were the same, you will be able to recognise also the identity of the excellence presented to the youth of Israel and the youth of Christendom for their admiration. That ideal is at once noble and attainable. It meets men in their homes and in their work, in the marketplace and in the council-chamber, and bids them be wise, and righteous, and blessed there.
III. Through all excellences in man or woman there runs that which is the source and condition of them all, even the fear of the Lord.
IV. Such a life, having this root, bearing such fruits, is noble and honourable at all times. The wisdom of the Old Testament presented it as the true pattern for men to aim at. The wisdom of the New Testament does not reject it. But we should stop short of the whole counsel of God if we were to stop here. Wisdom manifested in the flesh, the Son of God, who was also the Son of man, has in word and act, by precept and example, disclosed a height and a depth beyond even this excellence.
E. H. Plumptre, Theology and Life,p. 184.
Reference: Proverbs 1:2-9. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on the Book of Proverbs,vol. i., p. 10.