Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?
Who is wise
There must be prudence and wisdom before we can understand Divine truths; there must be an illumination within. A man may know whether he be prudent and wise by his relishing of Divine truths, for otherwise he is not wise and prudent in these things which are the main. The prophet now comes to shew and defend the equity of God’s ways, how crooked soever they seem to flesh and blood. By “ways” he understandeth the whole law and Gospel, the whole Word of God; which he calleth right, not only because they are righteous in themselves, but because they reform whatsoever is amiss in us, and rectify us; and work whatsoever is needful for our good and salvation. God’s ways are those wherein He walks to us: the ways that He prescribes us to walk in; and our ways as they are comformable to His. “The ways of the Lord are right”; as they agree to that which is right or straight; and right likewise, because they lead directly to a right end. Observe that man is not a prescriber of his own way, and that no creature’s will is a rule. The Word of the Lord is every way perfect, and brings us to perfection. The best way to come to a good and right end is to, take God’s ways. Shew the divers effects these right ways of God have in two sorts of people, the godly and the wicked.
1. The just shall walk in them. They are just who give to every one their due, and give God His due. They are such as have respect unto all God s commandments. They do things to a good end, even the glory of God and the good of man. They desire to grow in grace and they love the brethren. In the worst times, God will have always a people that shall justify wisdom. Men must have spiritual life, and be just, before they can walk. For our encouragement to walk in God’s ways, know that they are the most safe ways of all; they are the most pleasant, and they are the cleanest and holiest. “The transgressors shall fall therein.” The same word which is a word of life and salvation to the godly is an occasion of sin and perdition unto the wicked. (R. Sibbes.)
Who are the truly wise and prudent?
I. The character of the persons who would give heed to the words of this prophecy, and to these doctrines.
1. What does the Spirit mean by “wise”? Wisdom is described in the Book of Proverbs. In it wisdom calls, reproves, and has a spirit to pour out, actions and attributes which belong only to the very and eternal God. In it wisdom is said to be the source of royal and judicial authority. It is described as eternal. It is said to have a temple and sacrifices.. It promises to do that which the Almighty alone can do. It threatens to execute judgment upon those who refuse to accept the proffered mercy. Then who else can wisdom be but the Lord of Hosts? “Wise” must mean those who make the knowledge of God their chief study and pursuit. They are wise whose heart, mind, and soul are pervaded by wisdom.
2. What does the Spirit mean by prudent? The original means, an “understanding one,” or “a sound reasoner.” So the real meaning of the expression differs considerably from the apparent one. The Spirit means an individual who, by diligent searching and study of God’s dispensations and providential visitations, arrives at accurate conclusions with reference to the Almighty’s promises and threats; to the consequences of obedience and disobedience; to the effects of impenitence and repentance. A prudent man, in Scripture, but especially in this place, means a knowing individual in the deep mysteries of God’s holy Word.
II. The nature of the doctrines taught. “The ways of the Lord are right.” This is an expression for true religion which binds and knits man to God. True religion is irresistible. What can be more “reasonable” than that He who made all things for Himself should demand us to Himself? The ways of the Lord “are right,” with regard to their conformity to the holy nature and will of God, with regard to the peace which they confer.
III. The double use made of the ways of the Lord by different parties. “The just shall walk in them: the transgressors shall fall therein.” We never make the Word of the Lord our rule of life whereby to walk, until we are made righteous; until the sun of righteousness hath shone in our hearts, and illumined our souls. But how fearful is the doom of those who have despised the wisdom and prudence which the prophet recommended for their knowledge and understanding. The same Being who helps forward the just on their way, and removes every impediment from their path, becomes the insurmountable obstruction in the way of transgressors. Many are the things in the Word of God at which corrupt hearts are apt to stumble. The profoundness and incomprehensibleness of some of its mysterious doctrines, instead of humbling the finite mind and bringing it into subjection to the infinite, puffs up with pride and arrogance the depraved and scanty reason, and makes it exalt itself against Him who is exalted above all. The sanctity and strictness of God’s ways make many an unholy temper and disposition revolt against making those ways their choice. (Moses Margoliouth, B. A.)
The right ways of the Lord
Here the prophet makes an application of his subject.
I. The import of this question of appeal.
1. Vain men would fain be wise. The question implies that the number of the wise and intelligent on these subjects was but small. And those who did not understand such things as the prophet had delivered did not deserve the name of wise and intelligent, however they might assume it to themselves.
I. The important declaration. “The ways of the Lord are right.” Need not prove this. It is a first principle in religion. It is now before us as matter of reflection.
III. The different views of the ways of God which are entertained, and the different effects produced thereby. The righteous, being taught of God, have a proper and spiritual discernment of things. Transgressors, blinded by the god of the world, discern no spiritual objects in their proper colours. (S. Knight, M. A.)
God’s ways made known unto the wise
The truth is, that men live the chief part of their lives without any knowledge of their own separation from the Lord; they do not understand that sin separates the sinner from his Maker.
I. Who are the wise?
1. They are willing hearers of God’s truth. Like Cornelius of old.
2. Humble receivers of truth. Like the jailer at Philippi.
3. They are careful thinkers. Like Mary, who pondered things in her heart. No others but these can really be spoken of as wise.
II. God’s right ways. He has a right to demand obedience on our part to whatever He may please to lay down. If we walk in His ways we shall have grace to support us, and supply our various wants, we shall have guidance in the hour of difficulty, we shall have our hearts prepared for the enjoyment of those pleasures which are at God’s right hand for evermore. He will give us strength for the day, and grace unto the end. The ways of the just shall be increasingly clear. “The wicked shall fall therein.” The ways are the same, but men receive them and walk in them differently. That which is really good for those who are anxious to serve God, we are told here, is turned into evil in the case of the wicked. (H. Montagu Villiers, M. A.)
Walking or failing in God’s ways
In the worst times God will have always a people that shall justify wisdom. Some are foolish; not caring for the ways of God, cavilling at them. But the “just shall walk in them,” that is, they take a contrary course to the world that slights wisdom. In ill times, let us labour to justify truth, both the truth of things to be believed and all just religious courses.
1. Men must have spiritual life, and be just, before they can walk. Walking is an action of life; there must be life before there can be walking. Unless there is first spiritual life in the inward man there will not be a harmony and correspondency betwixt a man and his ways.
2. Because a just man is also a prudent and wise man, he walks in God’s ways. Spiritual wisdom and prudence lead to walking in obedience.
What things doth this walking in the ways of God imply?
1. Perspicuity. Those who walk in the ways of God discern those ways to be God’s ways, and discern them aright.
2. Resolution to go on in those ways till he come to the end, though there be never so much opposition.
How shall we know whether we go on in this way or not?
1. When earthly profits and pleasures seem little, and heaven and heavenly things seem near.
2. It implies a uniform course of life.
3. He who would walk in God’s ways must be resolute against all opposition whatsoever.
The use of this teaching may be--
1. Reprehension unto those who can talk, but not walk; that have tongues, but not feet.
2. It is for instruction, to stir us up to walk in God’s ways.
3. It is for consolation. If this be our walk, then God will walk with us, and the angels of God shall have charge of us, to keep us in all our ways. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)
The cause and cure of social evils
It cannot be said that our position as a nation is like that of Israel in those days when she was tottering to her fall. But the same, or very similar, evils to those which proved the ruin of Israel exist among us to a deplorable degree. Those who are familiar with the prophecy will know what I mean when I say that evil is with us at the moth stage, not yet at the lion stage (see chap. 5.). The moth stage is when evil keeps eating like a canker into the vitals of a people, but where there is nothing, or very little, to attract attention; no noise, nothing to alarm. But let the moth stage go on, let corruption increase among the people, and presently the roar of a lion will be heard; there will be tumult and commotion, there will be the outbreak of open rebellion against the powers that be, in heaven and on earth too. Hosea has it for his great object throughout to show the cause and the cure of all these evils. The cause is unfaithfulness to God, and the cure is returning to Him with the whole heart. There is never more vigour in Hosea’s tone than when, reminding of the sin of Jehovah, he says, “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off!” Has modern society no calf? Does it not make a god of gold? Is not that “covetousness which is idolatry” a national vice? Israel had a calf at Dan as well as at Bethel. This may be taken to represent the idol of natural law. People trust in the laws of evolution, working through the struggle for existence to the survival of the fittest. The great effort, of these people is to bring man and all that concerns him under the stern operation of that law. What shall we do? A question much more easily asked than answered. There are many reforms, and these by far the most needful and far-reaching in their result, which can only be accomplished by the diffusion of a spirit of love; and this is only possible by a general return of the people to the Lord their God. The humanitarian spirit which is shown by not a few of those who make no profession of faith in God is much to be commended; but it never can by its inherent force make way in society. To flow as a fertilising stream through the waste places of society, it must take its rise in the high mountains of Divine faith and hope and love. The nether springs of human generosity must be fed by the upper springs of Divine grace. (J. Monro Gibson, D. D.)