Proverbs 16:10-15, True King’s Law – God’s Law!
October 26, Proverbs 16:10-15
2 Sam. 23:1-5; Rom. 13 “His frowns are worse than death; His favour is better than life.”
True King’s Law – God’s Law!
Great has been the power of kings! Life and death are in their hands! The Manual for Kings can apply to military dictators or religious fanatics today. Such thrones are sitting on moral dynamite! “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled….” (Acts 24:25).
1. He Must Listen Right. Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him that speaks right (13). In v.12 we heard what the king hates, but here is what he loves. Yet how seldom have kings loved righteous lips or him that speaketh right, either yesterday or today! Such advisers have seldom been heeded. Kings, like so many others, love flattery, even when they know or suspect that they are hearing lies. The fabled story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” pathetically makes this point. False adulation is lapped up, but it is not to be so with the true king. Such a king delights to listen to righteous lips, and loves to listen to Him that speaks uprightly. Well it had been for many a monarch if he had listened better to men of truth. Lord Clarendon boldly reproved Charles I not to think he had the prerogative to declare vice to be virtue, but those righteous lips were not that king’s delight. Truly, “the lions that guard the throne” are the ministers that “speak right.”
2. He Must Sustain Right. The wrath of a king is as messengers of death; but a wise man will pacify it (14). The king’s wrath, his frown, his every word, are messengers of death (Dan. 2:12; 2 Kg. 6:31-32)! How, then, can he do the right and avoid the wrong? Not by the fickle sentiments of a corrupt age, nor by blind despotic edicts, but by the moral law of God (Lk. 12:4-5). Evil must be punished, and kings are called upon to do this, but fairly. Therefore, a wise man who has fallen into the king’s displeasure will seek to pacify his wrath. He will do this by sincere repentance and amendment of life, for a true king cannot remain forever angry. “The just authority of the crown is preserved, without invading the due liberty of the subject” (Bridges).
3. He Must Nourish Right. In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain (15). Life, light, favour, the latter rain, all these are with the true king. Life means true happiness. What the sun is to the earth, such is the influence of a true king to his people. He has the power and the duty to nourish them and bring them happiness. He is likened to that blessed dark cloud betokening the coming spring rains that, in turn, bring the harvest to glorious maturity. So sang the sweet Psalmist of Israel concerning the king. He rules in the fear of God, and is not this but prophecy of the reign of Him in whose favour is life, Who shall come down like rain upon the grass, as showers that water the earth (Ps. 30:5; 72:6)? “Those are fools, who, to obtain the favour of an earthly prince, throw themselves out of God’s favour” (Henry).
Thought: Apply this to the King of kings. What a sublime lesson for life!
Prayer: Lord, help me to keep the brightness of Thy Face ever before me.