Author: Denis Gibson

There is a great difference between the existence of Truth, and our perception of it. Wisdom helps us to know this difference, and modesty and humility are the true marks of it. But knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. The word understand also means the discerning one, the intelligent one. Richard Sibbes remarked, “Wisdom is easy to him that will understand.” This is the wisdom that “opens the eyes both to the glories of heaven and to the hollowness of earth” (Motyer). The scorner looks only to things down under the sun. The gaze of the understanding is Up Yonder to the Son of Righteousness.

What a tragic note is struck here! A scorner seeks wisdom, and findeth it not. Because of sin, man’s thoughts are not only in rebellion against God and His laws, but he is unable to subject his thoughts to God. The unregenerate walk in the futility of their own darkened minds (Eph. 4:17-19; 1 Cor. 2:14). Man’s own feelings have become the supreme judge of right and wrong, of good and evil. This simply makes every man a god unto himself. Yet, in spite of all his boasting and effort, wisdom is not found, neither will it be there at the end of the day.

“Truth,” said old Trapp, “must be spoken, however it is taken.” Why? Not merely because “truth is the strongest argument.” Pagan philosophers said as much. Rather, it is because God has built Truth into the foundation of the universe. He is the God of Truth, and holds man answerable (Ps. 15:2; Zech. 8:16). The margin reading of Eph. 4:24 suggests holiness of truth for true holiness. Truth is mighty and also holy because it is most God-like. Jesus, in His High-priestly prayer, simply affirms, Sanctify them through thy truth; thy Word is truth (Jn. 17:17).

There is no good achieved without some drawbacks. “This proverb is not a plea for slovenliness, physical, or moral, but for the readiness to accept upheaval, and a mess to clear up, as the price of growth” (Kidner). There are no gains without pains, at least none that can be relied upon! Windfalls are generally rotten apples. All progress has a price. The only question is this: Is the good to be gained worth the price we have to pay or not?

God works by means not by miracles, so said Charles Bridges. The illustration of this proverb comes from farming. Those living in Palestine would readily understand it. What farmer, in order to have clean cribs, would do without the help of oxen? If he did, he would have no messy cribs, no strenuous work to do. He would have neat, tidy, clean-smelling barns, but at what a loss? If no work is done, you have gained neatness and order, of a kind, but at the cost of having no oxen in the crib, no sheep in the fold. Then is not your gain loss, for all your neatness? Who would plough your fields, carry home the sheaves, tread out the corn? Thus, the freedom from the labour of cleaning the cribs comes at the loss of everything. You have the clean crib but you have also an empty barn, and a fruitless farm. Sloth saves strain, but the price is both physical and spiritual ruin.

Pride grows from a root of bitterness in the heart. This in turn produces a rod of insolence and folly that inflicts great harm and hurt. Pride and scorn are but briar and thorn, and both are a fruitful source of misery. “He who sows brambles will reap thorns,” thorns that tear both the proud man and those around him.

What we believe about God must profoundly affect the way we live. Our life is a demonstration either of faith in the living God, or of faith in our own self-will and self-judgment. He that walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he that is perverse in his way despises him (v.2). We are either walking in uprightness or in perverseness. Matthew Henry observes that this verse shows grace and sin in their true colours, for those who despise God’s precepts and promises, despise God and all His power and mercy. Mark how men deal with each other and you will soon know their feelings toward God.

Modern “enlightened” man, rejecting Christ, rejects God’s Word as well. Yet he feels competent to legislate how marriage shall and shall not be defined. The homosexual lobby is controlling the agenda of many of our Parliaments. The coming years, if the Lord tarries, will witness a horrendous harvest that this corrupt tree must produce. From an old work, quoted by Bridges, we have this outline for the building of a house that will also be a home. “Firstly, a holy coming together; secondly, a special fitness in the head of the family, and lastly, a holy living together. As many order the matter, they so provoke God by the first entering upon a family, that the family travels ever after under the banner of God’s anger.” What does this matter in our day when so many, even professing Christians, are living in unholy unions? Our Proverb warns us: The foolish plucks it down with her hands. The “enlightened” here are only fools, but what wreckage they are wreaking! In contrast, Every wise woman builds her house, but it only begins when she is married in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:39). Then, Christ is present on the Wedding Day (Jn. 2:2), in the Home (Mk. 2:1), and on the whole of Life’s Journey.

History proves that a wife can be a blessing or a curse to her husband. This has given rise to that old saying, “A good wife and health are a man’s best wealth.” The Hebrew reads: The wisdoms of women but the verb is singular. This may be a reference to the plural of excellency. Thus it is applied to every wise woman. Can anyone estimate the worth of a godly mother, a Hannah, a Ruth, and a Eunice? Mothers make men, because they have the formation of their boys’ characters. “From the mother, rather than the father, the members of the family will take their character.” A foolish woman, by contrast, can destroy an empire. Such was Jezebel (1 Kg. 16:31)! Such was Athaliah (2 Kg.1 1:1)!

“God’s blessing gives to a righteous man food and contentment, but the wicked man wants one or both of them” (Lawson). Truly, “the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour” (Pr. 12:26). God does promise temporal blessings as far as they are good for us. He will give us enough to satisfy our needs, not to gratify our wants (Pr.1 0:3). God, who thinks of sparrows, cares for souls.