Author: Denis Gibson

This is the only place in the KJV where the word backslider occurs. The sin of backsliding, however, is referred to many times in Scripture. For example, there are some thirteen references to it in Jeremiah, and at least three in Hosea, where a different Hebrew word is used. It was, and is still, all too common among professing Christians. It relates to the sad, spiritual unfaithfulness of a person or even a whole nation, as in the case of Israel (Jer. 8:5). It may also refer to a local congregation (1 Tm. 4:1;Rev. 2:4; 14-15). This verse is one of the most complete on the subject of the backslider, and worthy of our closest study.

Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. What a sad, but all too true, observation. Charles Bridges said of this, “Many a sigh is heaved amid the loud laughter of folly.” Any involved in those diabolical “laughing revivals” please take note. Solomon considered such laughter, and said It is mad. He knew that much mirth was really counterfeit (Eccl. 2:2, 1011). The highest end of the Gospel is not how to make us happy, but how to make us holy, how to make bad men good.

The Hebrew word way (derek) means just that, a path or road. It also has the sense of a distance between two points, a journey (Gen. 30:36; 45:23). Then, again, it has the idea of behaviour or an undertaking (Isa. 58:13). So way is a many-faceted word. There are different ways men take that can seem right to no one. These are ways of open ungodliness (1 Cor. 6:9,10). This proverb, however, concerns those, who, though on a wrong path, journey, or undertaking, claim that it seems right to them! Again, we have the word right, meaning straight, level. That’s the path we should all want to travel. There’s that Broad Road right in front of us. It is so convenient, and we see so many select people traveling there. It has the majority vote. It must surely be right! Wrong! It leads to Destruction! Here we have the seeming right but which is sincerely wrong. The seeming right ways are not themselves said to be the ways of death, but that they end in the ways of death! Satan is a cunning serpent, not revealing himself until ready to strike!

House and Tabernacle both refer to what we call a home. They mean more than bricks and mortar or canvas. They indicate our real home, what absorbs our chief interest, what gives us most pleasure, where our heart is, so to speak. It is our true real estate, the source of our actual strength in life. A real-estate agent can only offer your “House for Sale,” but many have already sold their homes over their own heads to the devil.

A woman, whose husband of fifteen years had unexpectedly died, was devastated. “If one more person tells me they know exactly how I feel, I think I’ll scream.” They don’t know! They couldn’t know! Her pain was her own. No one else could share it. Recall the case of Job’s grief and his comforters, who, when they saw him they knew him not, so acutely had he changed under his grief. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and nights, and none spake a word unto him (2:11-13). This is the message of our proverb today. Every heart carries its own special grief or joy. Surely the one absolutely private event is death, and yet, “the worst of a saint is passed when he dies” (Swinnock)

Here we move from the Fools’ Folly to the Saints’ Favour. There is no mocking of sin among the righteous. Contrast those noisy fools, jesting and ridiculing any thought of guilt being incurred by their little sins, and turning their sacrifices into a sham, and the favour of God and man that rests upon the righteous.

The folly of Fools continues to be the theme. 14:7 shows that time spent with fools is unprofitable, in 14:8 it leads to deception, and in 14:9 it is downright wicked. What a verse this is! The world’s systems are a living commentary on the truth of this ancient proverb. Mock and scorner are from the same root. Mock is singular, while Fools is plural. Now, since sin (guilt or sin-offering) is the only other singular noun, some turn this verse to read, Sin makes a mock of fools. While this is true enough, it sets this proverb on its head. “The singular verb can, in Hebrew, be harnessed to a plural subject” (Kidner). This individualises the fools, giving the excellent meaning, Every fool mocks at sin. Thus the contrast is between the noisy crowd of fools, each one of whom makes a mockery of his guilt, and the favour that rests upon the righteous. To mock at the sin-offering, the atonement, leaves sinners with no other remedy for their sin! A great fool mocks at sin!

It makes sense that “if you want easier travelling, mind or mend your ways.” A right life is the easiest after all. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way. Few have ever been hanged for being too wise.

Do not think it is an act of courage to put your head into the lion’s jaws. That would be foolhardy in the extreme.