Proverbs 10:6-7, Two Destines! Which is Yours?

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April 22, Proverbs 10:6-7

Matthew 5:3-16 “A good life has but a few days; but a good name abides forever.”

Two Destines! Which is Yours?

All of us wish to have a good name. Even the wicked do not want their names to rot after death. This desire cannot make bad men good, but it may have curbed, to some degree, their most wicked tendencies. Few will envy the Memorial of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Again and again the Holy Spirit records only that he made Israel to sin, a sin which plagued Israel long after his death (1 Kg. 15:29-30). Blessing and cursing both live on! Some are remembered for good, and some for evil, and the sooner forgotten the better. God has a special memory-bank for His saints and He honours those who honour Him.

1. The Just Commended, the Wicked Censured: Blessings are upon the head of the just. Blessings commend the just in various and bountiful ways. Genuine blessings come from a gracious God and abide on good men. The Just have a good name from both God and man. He can expect such blessings based on God’s promises. He who is so blest is a blessing to all around him. In contrast, Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. Is violence subject or object of this phrase? The RV and NIV footnotes read: “The mouth of the wicked covers or conceals violence,” suggesting a secret purpose of violence. This would mean that a wicked man never opens his mouth without pouring forth violence, a hidden hypocrisy or deceit. This, we believe, is not correct. We treat violence as the subject. The form used here always connotes wrongful treatment (Perowne). While blessings are poured upon the head of the just, violence covers the wicked with reproaches and even blows (Jer. 22:3). “Their mouths shall be stopped with shame for the violence they have done” (Henry). Haman’s covered face (Est. 7:8) was a sign of his fall from grace and approaching doom. In Pr. 8:36 we found that he that sins against me (Wisdom) wrongs, does violence to, his own soul. Their evil, their mischief, returns on their own heads. “Often some outward stroke of violence covers their mouth” (Bridges). They will be struck speechless (Job 5:16).

2. The Just Celebrated, the Wicked Condemned: It is the just alone who leave a blessed memory. All those godly parents, faithful pastors, and humble Christians, are of blessed memory. “This curious appetite for a good name to abide in the world behind us, is not left like a mountain stream to waste its power. It is let into the system of Providence, and plays its own part in palliating the results of the fall” (Arnot). Read the Honour-Roll of martyrs in Hebrews 11. How short life is, but memory can be very long. We remember with gratitude names like Ridley and Latimer, but what were the names of their persecutors? We try to forget the painful, shutting it out of our memory. Yes, blessed is the name of the one, but the name and memory of the other rots in condemnation. The lives of David Brainard, Murray McCheyne, or John Sung were short, but the memory of them is still fragrant. Who can estimate the holy influence such lives have, and continue to have, on succeeding generations? Truly the memory of the just is blessed.

Thought: What sort of memorial are we weaving for ourselves? 

Prayer: Lord, make my life fragrant for your glory, here and hereafter.