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Proverbs
Chapter Five
Proverbs 5
Chapter Contents
Exhortations to wisdom. The evils of licentiousness.
(1-14) Remedies against licentiousness
The miserable end of the wicked.
(15-23)
Commentary on Proverbs 5:1-14
(Read Proverbs 5:1-14)
Solomon cautions all young men
as his children
to
abstain from fleshly lusts. Some
by the adulterous woman
here understand
idolatry
false doctrine
which tends to lead astray men's minds and manners;
but the direct view is to warn against seventh-commandment sins. Often these
have been
and still are
Satan's method of drawing men from the worship of God
into false religion. Consider how fatal the consequences; how bitter the fruit!
Take it any way
it wounds. It leads to the torments of hell. The direct
tendency of this sin is to the destruction of body and soul. We must carefully
avoid every thing which may be a step towards it. Those who would be kept from
harm
must keep out of harm's way. If we thrust ourselves into temptation we
mock God when we pray
Lead us not into temptation. How many mischiefs attend this
sin! It blasts the reputation; it wastes time; it ruins the estate; it is
destructive to health; it will fill the mind with horror. Though thou art merry
now
yet sooner or later it will bring sorrow. The convinced sinner reproaches
himself
and makes no excuse for his folly. By the frequent acts of sin
the
habits of it become rooted and confirmed. By a miracle of mercy true repentance
may prevent the dreadful consequences of such sins; but this is not often; far
more die as they have lived. What can express the case of the self-ruined
sinner in the eternal world
enduring the remorse of his conscience!
Commentary on Proverbs 5:15-23
(Read Proverbs 5:15-23)
Lawful marriage is a means God has appointed to keep from
these destructive vices. But we are not properly united
except as we attend to
God's word
seeking his direction and blessing
and acting with affection. Ever
remember
that though secret sins may escape the eyes of our fellow-creatures
yet a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord
who not only sees
but
ponders all his goings. Those who are so foolish as to choose the way of sin
are justly left of God to themselves
to go on in the way to destruction.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Proverbs》
Proverbs 5
Verse 3
[3] For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb
and her mouth is smoother than oil:
The lips — It concerns thee to get and to use discretion
that
thou mayest be able to resist those temptations to which thou art exposed.
Verse 4
[4] But her end is bitter as wormwood
sharp as a twoedged
sword.
But — The effect of that to which she entices men
is
destruction.
Verse 5
[5] Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
Feet — Her manner of life.
Verse 6
[6] Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life
her ways
are moveable
that thou canst not know them.
Lest — To prevent thy serious consideration.
Moveable — She transforms herself into several shapes
and has a
thousand arts to ensnare.
Know — Thou canst not discover all her practice.
Verse 9
[9] Lest thou give thine honour unto others
and thy years
unto the cruel:
Honour — Thy dignity and reputation
the strength of thy body
and mind.
Years — The flower of thine age.
The cruel — To the harlot
who though she
pretends love
yet in truth is one of the most cruel creatures in the world
wasting thy estate and body without pity
and damming thy soul for ever.
Verse 10
[10] Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy
labours be in the house of a stranger;
Strangers — Not only the strange women
themselves
but others who are in league with them.
Labors — Wealth gotten by thy labours.
Verse 14
[14] I was almost in all evil in the midst of the
congregation and assembly.
A moment — In how little a time am I now come into remediless
misery! Assembly - And that in the congregation of Israel
where I was taught
better things.
Verse 15
[15] Drink waters out of thine own cistern
and running
waters out of thine own well.
Drink — Content thyself with those delights which God alloweth
thee in the sober use of the marriage-bed.
Verse 16
[16] Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad
and rivers of
waters in the streets.
Fountains — Thy children proceeding from thy
wife and from thyself. Fountains are here put for rivers flowing from them.
Dispersed — They shall in due time appear
abroad to thy comfort
and for the good of others.
Verse 18
[18] Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife
of thy youth.
Fountain — Thy wife.
Blessed — With children; for barrenness was esteemed a curse
among the Israelites.
Verse 19
[19] Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her
breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
Satisfy thee — At all convenient times: for that
there may be excess in the marriage-bed is manifest.
Ravished — Love her fervently. It is an hyperbolical expression.
Verse 22
[22] His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself
and he
shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
Holden — He is in perfect bondage to his lusts
and is neither
able nor wiling to set himself at liberty.
Verse 23
[23] He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness
of his folly he shall go astray.
Die — He shall die in his sins. Astray-From the way of life
and from eternal salvation.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Proverbs》
05 Chapter 5
Verses 1-23
My
son
attend unto my wisdom.
Caution against
sexual sins
The
scope of the passage is a warning against seventh-commandment sins
which youth
is so prone to
the temptations to which are so violent
the examples of which
are so many
and which
where admitted
are so destructive to all the seeds of
virtue in the soul. We are warned--
I. That we do not listen to the charms of this sin.
1. How fatal the consequences will be! The terrors of conscience. The
torments of hell.
2. How false the charms are! The design is to keep them from choosing
the path of life
to prevent them from being religious. In order thereunto
to
keep them from pondering the path of life.
II. That we do not approach the borders of sin. The caution is very
pressing.
1. We ought to have a very great dread and detestation of the sin.
2. We ought industriously to avoid everything that may be an occasion
of this sin
or a step towards it. Those that would keep out of harm must keep
out of harm’s way.
3. We ought to be jealous over ourselves with a godly jealousy
and
not be over-confident of the strength of our own resolutions.
4. Whatever has become a snare to us and an occasion of sin
we must
part with at any cost (Matthew 5:28-30).
III. The arguments enforcing the caution. The mischiefs that attend
this sin.
1. It blasts the reputation.
2. It wastes the time.
3. It ruins the estate.
4. It is destructive to the health.
5. It will fill the mind with terror
if ever conscience be awakened.
Solomon
here brings in the convinced sinner reproaching himself and aggravating his own
folly. He will then most bitterly lament it. (Matthew Henry.)
Verse 2
That thou mayest regard
discretion.
The wise man’s intention in giving advice
Some knit these words to
what follows
and understand them thus: “I wish thee to hearken to wise
counsels
that thy heart may not admit thoughts of the beauty of strumpets
nor
thy lips talk of such wanton objects as they talk of
but that thy thoughts and
words may be sober and honest.” Others knit them to the words before
as if he
had said
“Observe my wise precepts
that thou mayest well ruminate of them
and be so full of good thoughts in thy heart
that thou mayest be able to
produce them copiously in thy words for the good of others
as I do for thine.
But especially that thou mayest know what to think and speak of strumpets’ fair
words and alluring carriage.”
I. A
readiness to attend will bring a store of knowledge.
II. Let us
get ready ears and hearts to get knowledge.
III. Good
things heard must be seriously thought on
then and after.
IV. We
must labour to know so as not only to understand
but also to utter what we
know in fit words. That we may profit others. (Francis
Taylor
B. D.)
Verses 3-5
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb.
A strange woman
One outside of the true family bonds and relationships. This
description has been regarded by expositors as having a double sense.
1. It is a portrait of a
harlot
especially one of foreign extraction.
2. It is a representation of
the allurements of unsound doctrine
and corrupt worship.
I. We have here a description
of the strange woman.
1. Her vile
unclean
flattering
enticing speech.
2. Her fate: her end bitter
physical suffering
mental anguish
spiritual distress.
II. A word to her.
1. You are somebody’s child;
think of the old time
etc.
2. You are ruining soul and
body.
3. Ruining others as well.
4. The woman that was a
sinner found mercy
and there is mercy for you. (Anon.)
Evil companionship
It would not be complaisance
but cowardice--it would be a sinful
softness
which allowed affinity in taste to imperil your faith or your virtue.
It would be the same sort of courtesy which in the equatorial forest
for the
sake of its beautiful leaf
lets the liana with its strangling arms run
up the plantain or the orange
and pays the forfeit in blasted boughs and total
ruin. It would be the same sort of courtesy which
for fear of appearing rude
and inhospitable
took into dock an infested vessel
or welcomed
not as a
patient
but a guest
the plague-stricken stranger. (J. Hamilton
D. D.)
The consequences of profligacy
This chapter consists of caution and warning against
licentiousness--the lawless and irregular indulgence of the passions--“Youthful
lusts that war against the soul.” Inhumanity is the union of two opposite
natures--the animal with the impulses and appetites of the brute
the spiritual
with Godlike aspirations and capacities of intelligence and religion. Whatever
may be the aspirations of the soul
we find there is an animal nature as really
and truly “us” as the spiritual itself. In man the conjugal relation is
associated with all pure ideas
and is the source and fountain of the purest
joy; the family circle is the nursing-mother of all virtue. Licentiousness
would subvert all these connections. The Jewish law was so framed as not to
suffer any of the daughters of Israel to sink into harlotry; the text speaks of
“a strange woman
” because such were usually persons from the surrounding
nations.
1. There is nothing so
expensive as sin. How many constitutions
how many fortunes have been blasted
and wasted through early subjugation to lust!
2. God urges obedience to His
laws by the happiness
purity
and beauty of a well-ordered
wise
and prudent
conjugal connection. The young man is surrounded by God’s omniscience. If he
does not ponder his ways
God will. Iniquity
and especially sins of this sort
tend to gain a fixed habit. There is nothing so utterly repulsive as the
picture of one who has grown old in habits of grossness. (T. Binney.)
Her steps take hold on
hell.
A beautiful hell
One memorable night
a young lad and an old Scotchman being in
Paris together
found themselves in front of one of the dens of infamy; the
fragrance of the spices of Araby seemed to float in the air
and the sound of
music and dancing broke upon the ear. The glitter and dazzle of fairyland was
at the door; and the Scotch boy said
“What is that?” The body of the friend to
whom he spoke now moulders in the dust; the voice that answered is now singing
praises to God on high; but the hand of that Scotchman came like a vice to the
wrist of the lad who was with him
and the voice hardened to a tone that he
never forgot
as he said
“Man
that is hell!” “What!” It was a new idea to the
country lad. Hell with an entrance like that!--with all the colours of the
rainbow; with all the flowers and beauty
and the witching scenery and
attractions! I thought hell was ugly; I thought I would get the belch of
sulphur at the pit’s mouth; I thought harpies on infernal wing would be
hovering above the pit: but here like this? Yes
I saw above the gate--and I
knew French enough to know what it meant--“Nothing to pay.” That was on the
gate; but
though there be nothing to pay to get in
what have you to pay to
get out? That is the question. Character blasted! soul lost! Mind that. Just
examine your ways. Do not be taken in by the flowers and music
and the
beautiful path that is at your feet this afternoon. (John Robertson.)
Verse 6
Her
ways are moveable
that thou canst not know them.
The movable
ways of the tempter
The
wiseman lets us know how foolish it is for men to flatter themselves with the
hope that they shall by and by be truly disposed and enabled to repent of their sin.
The temptress can form her mode of behaviour into a hundred shapes to entangle
the heart of the lover. She spreads a thousand snares
and if you escape one of
them
you will find yourself held fast by another. She knows well how to suit
her words and
behaviour to your present humour
to lull conscience asleep
and to spread
before your eyes such a mist as shall prevent you from being able to descry the
paths of life. If you ever think of the danger of your course
and feel the
necessity of changing it
she will urge you to spend a little time longer in
the pleasures of sin. If her solicitations prevail
if you linger within the
precincts of guilt
your resolutions are weakened
and your passions gain new
strength. What is the awful result? The devil obtains more influence;
conscience
forcibly repressed
ceases to reclaim with so loud a voice; God
gives you up to the lusts of your own heart
and leaves you to choose your own
delusions. Attend
then
to the wisest of men
who instructs you to keep free
of these dangerous temptations. (G. Lawson
D. D.)
Movableness
The
text refers to a sinful character who endeavours to keep her companion in
vice by her movable ways. Few can say with Paul
“None of these things move
me.” We are liable to be acted upon by influences within and without us. It is
a grave weakness to be easily movable to bad and faulty ways. Movableness is
the prevalent fault of probably every one of us. How easily we are moved to
speak in haste. How difficult to keep our eye from being moved to look on evil.
We are urged to fix our affections on things above
but who can do this in his
own strength? Are we not movable in our friendships? Perhaps movable Christians
love only themselves; and if this be so
it needs but a short time and a slight
ruffle against their feathers to move them. Some are easily movable from their
work for God and for humanity. Some
perhaps all of us
at times
are movable
in our faith. Do not allow yourself to be moved from trusting in the love of
Jesus
and never be ashamed of being His faithful disciple. Some are moved from
the comfort of prayer. (William Birch.)
Verse 9
Lest thou give thine
honour unto others.
A man’s honour sunk in
sensuality
A good name is
better than precious ointment
but of a good name this abominable sin is the
ruin. The credit of David and of Solomon was greatly sunk by it. By it has the
honour of thousands been irretrievably lost. Life is a great blessing
and may
be regarded as the foundation of every earthly blessing. But unclean persons
part with everything that renders life worthy of the name
and in a literal
sense
they often give their years unto the cruel. Their lives are lost in the
pursuit of this sin by the just judgment of God
by its native consequences
or
by the accidents to which it exposes those who practise it. And for what are
these years given away? Did men generously part with their lives in the defence
of their country
or for the sake of a generous friend
the loss would be amply
compensated by honour
and by the pleasure of a good conscience. But how infatuated are they
who give their years unto the cruel
who conceal a selfish and malignant heart
under the mask of love! All unlawful love is hatred
and all tempters to it are
cruel enemies to our happiness. Shall we then gratify inhuman enemies
at the
expense of honour and life and everything dear to us? These false friends and
malicious enemies rob you of your honour and life
with as much eagerness as if
they could enjoy these precious blessings of which you are deprived. (G.
Lawson
D.D.)
Verse
11
And thou mourn at the last.
Dying regrets
Religion has one undeniable advantage to recommend it--whatever it
calls us to sacrifice or to suffer
it always ends well. On the other hand
sin
has one undeniable evil to excite our aversion and horror--whatever sensual
pleasures and imaginary profit attend its course
it always ends awfully.
I. The subject of these
regrets. It is a man who has disregarded through life the means employed to
preserve or reclaim him. Man’s instructors and reprovers may be ranked in six
classes.
1. Your connections in life. Father
mother
friend
etc.
2. The Scriptures.
3. Ministers.
4. Conscience.
5. Irrational creatures.
6. The dispensations of Providence.
II. The period of these
regrets. It is a dying hour.
1. Such a period is unavoidable.
2. It cannot be far off.
3. It may be very near.
4. It is sometimes prematurely brought on by sin. Such a period
if
it be not prematurely produced by irreligion
is always embittered by it.
III. The nature of these
regrets. This mourning has two attributes to distinguish it.
1. It is dreadful. A dying hour has been called an honest hour.
2. It is useless. To the individuals themselves
whatever it may be
to others.
Lessons:
1. How good is God!
2. How fallen is man!
3. How important is serious thought! (William Jay.)
At the last.--
Last things
The wise man saw the young and simple straying into the house of
the strange woman. It was not what it seemed to be. Could he shed a revealing
light upon it? He saw only one lamp suitable to his purpose; it was named “At
the last.” He held this up
and the young man’s delusion was dispelled. He saw
in its light the awful consequences of self-indulgence and sin. If this lamp is
useful in this one case
it may be useful in others. I can only compare my text
in its matchless
power to Ithuriel’s spear
with which
according to Milton
he touched the
toad
and straightway Satan appeared in his true colours. This lamp has four
sides to it.
I. Death is at the last. In
some sense it is the last of this mortal life; it is the last of this period of
trial here below; it is the last of the day of grace; it is the last of the day
of mortal sin. In the light of death look upon mortal sins. The greatest of
human actions will appear to be insignificant when we come to die. Look at our
selfish actions in this light. How will sin then appear?
II. Judgment is at the last.
When we die
we die not. When a man dieth shall he live again? Ay
that he
shall--for his spirit dieth never. After death comes the judgment. Look at the
past
the present
the future
in the light of that judgment.
III. Heaven is at the last.
Look on all our actions in the light of heaven.
IV. Hell is at the last. See
things in that dread and dismal light
the glare of the fiery abyss. How will
self-indulgence
unbelief
procrastination look in that light? (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
When thy flesh and thy
body are consumed.--
Sin’s recompense
If all men believed at the beginning of their courses of
life what they find at the end
there would be far less power in temptation
and many would turn aside from those paths which bring them to ruin; but it is
one of the
peculiarities of youth that
while it has unbounded faith in certain
directions
it seldom has faith in regard to mischiefs which befall
disobedience. There are many reasons which conspire to make men either
over-confident in the beginnings of life
or even audacious.
1. The inexperience and thoughtlessness which belong to the young.
Thousands there are who have taken no pains in the formation of their
consciences.
2. There is a most defiant spirit in the young.
3. There is a hopefulness which frequently goes beyond all bounds.
4. There are reactions from an infelicitous way of teaching which
tend to produce presumption in the young. Especially the exaggeration and
indiscriminate way in which sin is often held forth. Conventional sins are held
up before men as representing sinning
until there comes up a scepticism of the
whole doctrine and the whole sad and melancholy experience of sinning.
5. Men are made presumptuous in sinning because they see wicked men
prospering. They regard that as the refutation of half the preaching
and of
almost all the advice they hear. There is a law of everlasting rectitude. There
are conditions on which men’s bodies will serve them happily
and there are
conditions on which men’s souls will serve them happily. But if a man violate
these conditions
no matter how secretly
no matter how little
just as sure as
there is a God in heaven
he must suffer the penalty. Every one of the wrongs
which a man commits against his own soul will find him out
and administer its
own penalty. There comes a time when men who are not actually worn out by
excess of transgression do regain
to some extent
their moral sense. After the
period of infatuation there comes
very frequently
a period of retrospection.
It is alluded to in the passage now before us. The resurrection of moral
sensibility comes through a variety of agencies--failure
shame
affliction
etc. Sometimes it comes too late. I beseech you
young men
believe in virtue;
believe in truth; believe in honesty and fidelity; believe in honour; believe
in God; believe in God’s law and in God’s providence. Put your trust in God
and in the faith of God
and not in the seeming of deceitful and apparently
prosperous men. Whatever else you get
have peace
day by day
with your own
conscience. Whoever else you offend
do not offend your God. Do what is right
and then fear no man. (H. W. Beecher.)
The doom of the libertine
I. Waste of wealth. It is
spent to garnish the house of sin; it is so much taken from home-scenes
and
legitimate pleasures and benevolence.
II. Waste of health. Note the
corruption of licentious nations
as the Turks
etc.
III. Waste of tears. Mourning
at the last is too late for proving the repentance to be genuine. (Anon.)
A dissolute young man
I. A dissolute young man with
a decaying body. The wise man foresaw the wretched physical condition to which
the dissolute life of the young man whom he calls his son would lead.
1. It is a sad sight to see a young man decay at all.
2. It is more sad when the physical decay has been produced by a
dissolute life.
II. A dissolute young man with
an active memory.
1. He remembers the many privileges he has abused.
2. He remembers the sinful scenes of his life.
III. A dissolute young man with
a torturing conscience.
1. An agonising sense of self-blamefulness. Conscience casts all
excuses to the winds; it fastens the crime home on the individual himself.
2. An agonising sense of self-ruin. The moral wail here breathes the
feeling of destruction. (D. Thomas
D. D.)
The woes of wantonness
I. Lamentation follows
wantonness.
1. When men find their goods gone and their bodies corrupted.
2. When they see all their opportunities of doing good to soul and
body gone.
3. They feel God’s hand heavy on them
as being on the rack of an
evil conscience.
II. The end of wanton courses
is sorrowful.
1. Because of pleasures past.
2. Because of present sorrows.
3. Because of pursuing pain that is gotten by disease.
4. Because of public shame.
III. The body itself is
consumed by wantonness. Because it consumes the radical humour of the body. (Francis
Taylor
B. D.)
Verse 12
And say
How have I hated
instruction
and my heart despised reproof.
Conscience as an
instrument of punishment
These are supposed to be
the words of a young man whose dissolute life had induced disease and want and
infamy. He stands out upon the dim verge of life
a beacon light to all who
live without God. Remorse
like a fierce vulture
had clutched upon his soul
and despair had cast the shadows of a cheerless night around him. It was from
his moral reflections that his keenest anguish arose.
I. The natural
authority of conscience
and its consequent power to inflict punishment.
1. If we would appreciate the capacity of the soul to suffer through
the morbid action of the moral feelings
we must first understand its internal
structure
its several faculties and powers. Man is endowed with various powers
of reason
of sensibility
and of action. Of the principles of action
some are
mechanical
as instinct and habit; some are animal
as the appetites and some
of the desires and affections; and others rational
arising from a knowledge of
his relations to other beings
and from a foresight of the proper consequences
of his acts. He thus combines in his nature those laws which govern the brute
creation with those which declare him to be made in the “image of God
” and
suit him to a state of moral discipline. With this complex nature he is endowed
with the power of self-government
which implies the due exercise of all the
properties of his being
under the direction and control of one supreme
authority. This authority is conscience
which God has enthroned in the human
breast with all the attributes of sovereignty. The brute animal rushes on to the
gratification of its desires without a thought beyond the immediate object in
pursuit. Man brings under his eye the just relations of universal being
chooses and pursues.
2. Consider what a monitor conscience is. It teaches us to perform in
good faith
as being right
that which we do; but it does not of itself supply
an independent rule of right.
3. The government of conscience is not like that of the animal
appetites. Its voice is gentle and persuasive
often drowned in the clamour of
passion
or unheeded in the eager pursuit of forbidden pleasure.
4. If conscience is supreme
according to the original constitution
of our nature
then
whatever may be the occasional
temporary abuse it may
receive from the usurpation of the animal propensities
it must upon the whole
and taking all the range of our existence into the account
possess an
ascendant power over man.
5. Go where you will
the natural dread of an accusing conscience
will be found to have been the rod of terror to the guilty of all ages. No man will
long abide the direct action of self-reproach. The restlessness of the soul
under the action of self-reproach
has displayed itself upon a wide scale in
the cumbrous and often sanguinary superstitions of the heathen. We have seen
the distress and anguish which a sense of guilt produces in the breast of the
awakened sinner.
II. The nature and
extent of the punitive action of conscience. In relation to God
a
consciousness of guilt is accompanied--
1. With a sense of the loss of Divine favour and fellowship.
2. A sense of guilt is accompanied with an apprehension of
punishment. In the breast of every man there exists a belief that this world is
under a providential government
from the just awards of which he has something
to hope or to fear in a future state of being. In relation to other moral
beings
a sense of guilt is accompanied with--
Practical considerations:
1. How delusive is that hope of future happiness which
though it is
built upon the natural goodness of God
manifested through a Mediator
makes no
necessary reckoning of a holy life. It is not in the province of Omnipotence to
produce moral happiness in a polluted soul.
2. We here perceive the reasonableness as well as certainty of future
punishment. (Freeborn C. Hibbard
M.A.)
Woman’s lamentation over a
wasted life
Women outnumber men in the
family
in the Church
in the State
A God-loving
God-fearing womanhood will
make a God-loving
God-fearing nationality.
1. A young woman who omits her opportunity of making home happy.
2. A young woman who spends her whole life
or wastes her young
womanhood
in selfish display.
3. A young woman who wastes her opportunity of doing good.
4. A young woman who loses her opportunity of personal salvation.
Opportunity gone
is gone for ever. Privileges wasted
wasted for ever. The
soul lost
lost for ever. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Self-condemnations
I. Sensualists
will be self-condemned in the end.
1. Because of the issue of sin in general
which must come to a
self-condemnation.
2. Because of the strength of their sorrow arising out of their
troubles.
3. Because of the force of truth
which will overcome all in the end.
4. Because of the power of conscience.
II. That which lies
sorest upon the spirits of gross sinners in the end is
slighting instruction.
1. Because it is
a great mercy for God to afford teachers.
2. Because not hearkening to instruction is the way to fall into sin
and not hearkening to reproof the way to abide in it.
III. Wicked men
heartily hate instruction and slight reproof.
1. Because they are contrary to their corrupt affections and wicked
lusts.
2. It appears that they heartily hate them by the malice they bear to
the reprovers of their sins
which is vehement and deadly. Their lusts are so
strong on them that they hate and slight all reproofs. (Francis Taylor
B.D.)
Verse 13
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers.
Consequences of disobedience
Can any state be more distressing than that of an individual who
has enjoyed the best opportunities of securing his own happiness and promoting
that of others
totally failing in both these
and becoming the subject of
bitter self-reproach?
I. There is the
admission of having had the great advantage of teachers. There are scarcely any
but have had some very considerable advantages and means of religious
instruction. They involve you all in a serious responsibility to God and your
own conscience.
1. The best
purest
most commanding instruction in the Bible.
2. The living voice of teachers
either parents or ministers
or kind
friends in schools.
3. The Spirit of God unfolding the truth to your understanding and
conscience; striving with your heart
and inwardly calling you to seek those
things which belong to your peace.
II. There is an
implied connection between instruction and obedience. The text admits the
obligation resulting from such advantages. “I ought to have obeyed
but I have
not.”
1. You are bound to obey the good instruction you have received
because it is clearly the will of God
the Being who is above all
and who
holds you amenable at His tribunal.
2. By the tender and unspeakable love of the Saviour
Jesus Christ
who came forth from His Father
and became the Redeemer of men by the sacrifice
of Himself.
3. By a regard to your own highest interests. Obeying the Divine
precepts is the only way to secure your own peace of mind
your joy through
life
your hope in death
and your immortal felicity after death.
4. By a regard to the interests of others to whom you may be related
in this life. You have social relations
duties
and obligations which you
ought to regard
and cannot neglect without great criminality. You ought to
become yourselves
and endeavour to make them
such as God would have us all to
be.
5. By the obligation which arises from your final accountableness at
the bar of judgment.
III. There is a
confession that instruction had not been obeyed. This text does not express the
case of those who have only partially
or in some respects
failed of
obedience
but have in the main been mindful of the instruction they have
received. It is applied to those who have failed altogether
and in the general
habits of their mind and life have disregarded the great and holy principles
inculcated upon them in early life. Some of the causes of this failure are--
1. There is in our own hearts a disinclination to serve God
and an
aversion to the Divine precepts.
2. There are innumerable and incessant temptations to forsake the
guide of our youth.
3. There will be a direct and powerful influence of the worst kind
exerted over those who give themselves to evil companions.
IV. There is an
expression of penitential regret for disobedience. The text seems to be the
language of remorse.
1. A perception that our misery has resulted from wilful
disobedience
not from ignorance.
2. The feeling that this disobedience has been maintained against
light and knowledge.
3. The consciousness that you once possessed all the means necessary
to promote your happiness and secure your salvation. (The Evangelist.)
Drink waters out of thine own cistern
and running waters out of
thine own well.
Spiritual resources
I. Man has
independent spiritual resources.
1. He has independent sources of thought. Every sane man can and does
think for himself.
2. He has independent sources of experience. No two have exactly the
same experience.
3. He has independent powers of usefulness. Every man has a power to
do some thing which no other can.
II. Man Is Bound To
Use These Resources. “Drink waters out of thine own cistern.” Do not live on
others’ self-drawing.
1. Honours our own nature.
2. Increases our own resources.
3. Contributes to the good of the universe. The man who gives only
what he has borrowed from others adds nothing to the common stock. The
subject--
Family joys
A painter lays down a dark ground to lean his picture on
and
thereby bring its beauty out. Such is the method adopted in this portion of the
Word. The pure delights of the family are about to be represented in the
sweetest colours that nature yields--wedded love mirrored in running waters;
surely we have apples of gold in pictures of silver here. And in all the
earlier part of the chapter the Spirit has stained the canvas deep with Satan’s
dark antithesis to the holy appointment of God. The Lord condescends to bring
His own institute forward in rivalry with the deceitful pleasures of sin. How
beautiful and how true the imagery in which our lesson is unfolded! Pleasures
such as God gives to His creatures
and such as His creatures
with advantage
to all their interests can enjoy--pleasures that are consistent with holiness
and heaven
are compared to a stream of pure running water. And specifically
the joys of the family are ”running waters out of thine own well.” This well is
not exposed to every passenger. It springs within
and has a fence around it.
We should make much of the family and all that belongs to it. All its
accessories are the Father’s gift
and He expects us to observe and value them.
But because the stream is so pure
a small bulk of foreign matter will sensibly
tinge it. The unguarded word
neglected thoughtfulnesses
or slovenly and
careless ways. But careful abstinence from evil is only one
and that the
lower
side of the case. There must be spontaneous outgoing activity in this
matter
like the springing of flowers
and the leaping of a stream from the
fountain. All the allusions to this relation in Scripture imply an ardent
joyful love. Husband and wife
if they are skilful to take advantage of their
privileges
may
by sharing
somewhat diminish their cares
and fully double
their joys. But we must take care lest the enjoyments of home become a snare.
God is not pleased with indolence or selfishness. If the family is well
ordered
ourselves will get the
chief benefit
but we should let others share it. (W. Arnot
D. D.)
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad.
The children of marriage
Streams of children. Unlawful intercourse is often barren.
I. Children of
lawful marriage are like rivers.
1. In plenty. God’s blessing goes with marriage.
2. In purity. Pure fountains bring forth pure streams.
3. In spreading abroad.
4. In profitableness.
II. Children are a
great part of the comforts of marriage.
1. Because they are a part of both their parents.
2. Because they are a firm bond of love
peace
and reconciliation to
both their parents.
III. Parents need
not be ashamed of their children.
1. Because they come into the world God’s way
and that brings no
shame with it.
2. Because there is hope that they will be good.
3. Being well-bred
they may come to preferment in the State.
4. They are likely to
have honourable posterity. (Francis Taylor
B. D.)
Let them be only thine own
and not strangers’ with thee.
Strangers with thee
Strangers with thee in life! Those united in Christ are those only
who are united in truth. Strangers with thee in death! Alone wilt thou descend
the banks of that dark river. For be assured the hosts of darkness and sin flee
terror-stricken from its waters. The Lord and the Church are with them; but
“strangers with thee.” Strangers with thee in eternity! There the little
finesses and shams by which rivalry and hatred are concealed in this life will
be torn away
and the naked energies of sin will stand isolated and single in
their intense and repulsive malignity. “Strangers with thee.” (Episcopal
Recorder.)
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord.
The method of Providence for restraining evil
God announces Himself the witness and judge of man. The
evil-doer can neither elude the all-seeing eye
nor escape from the almighty
hand. Secrecy is the study and the hope of the wicked. A sinner’s chief labour
is to hide his sin
and his labour is all lost. Darkness hideth not from God.
He who knows evil in its secret source is able to limit the range of its
operation. There is a special method by which this is done. It is a principle
of the Divine government that sin becomes the instrument for punishing sinners.
His own sin is the snare that takes the transgressor
and the scourge that
lashes him. The Maker and Ruler of all things has set in the system of the
universe a self-acting apparatus
which is constantly going for the
encouragement of good and the repression of evil The providential laws are
directed against the current of man’s sinful propensities
and tell in force
thereon. They do not
however
overcome and neutralise
and reverse those
propensities. Retribution in the system of nature
set in motion by the act of
sin
is like the “Virgin’s kiss” in the Roman Inquisition. The step of him who
goes forward to kiss the image touches a secret spring
and the statue’s marble
arms enclose him in a deadly embrace
piercing his body through with a hundred
knives. Verily a man under law to God needs to “ponder his feet.” (W. Arnot
D. D.)
Man’s ways before God
Everybody can see the cedar of Lebanon
the pine of the forest
or
the hedge with its convolvulus and wild rose. They can even see the daisy
the
flower in the grass. But who sees the grass? He who made the grass to grow upon
the mountain
He knows every blade of it
and for every blade has recognition
sunshine
and dew. So is it with the lowliest and humblest man in this world
to-day. God’s eye loves goodness; He delights in it; and there is no goodness
which He fails to recognise and bless. (W. L. Watkinson.)
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself.
Man as known by God and punished by sin
I. Man as known by
God. The fact that God knows man thoroughly
if practically realised
will have
a fourfold effect upon the soul.
1. It will stimulate to great spiritual activity.
2. It will restrain from the commission of sin.
3. It will excite the desire for pardon.
4. It will brace the soul in the performance of duty.
II. Man as punished
at sin. As virtue is its own reward
so sin is its own punishment. Sin
punishing the sinner.
1. It will seize him as its victim.
2. It will arrest him in his career. Illustrate Belshazzar.
3. It will detach him from his comrades.
4. It will bind him as its prisoner. There are the “cords” of
causation; the “cords” of habit; and the “cords” of despair.
5. It will exclude him from knowledge.
6. It banishes him as an exile.
“In the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.” Sin banishes
the soul from virtue
heaven
God; and reduces it to a homeless
friendless
orphan in the universe. “The seeds of our own punishment
” says Hesiod
“are
sown at the same time we commit sin.” (D. Thomas
D.D.)
The apprehending nature of sin
Nothing is so deceptive as sin. Nothing so cruel and unrelenting.
Nothing so ruinous and destructive. Some think that sin is a single act
and
that it passes away with the doing.
I. Sin will surely
find out the sinner. Conscience is one of its officers. The consequences of sin
lay hold of the sinner. No man can escape from himself.
II. Sin will surely
bring the sinner to judgment. He must answer for his wrong doing and wrong
thinking. In his personal experience something declares against the sinner. It
causes a disharmony of one’s nature. At the bar of judgment a penalty is
declared. The judgment is a self-condemnation. The penalty will enforce itself.
III. The cords of
sin will hold the sinner. He cannot free
himself from them. His very being is
bound and fettered with an adamantine chain. Sin can never exhaust itself.
Continual sinning involves continual penalty. Sin presents only a hopeless
aspect. Turning to himself
man turns only to despair. Practical lessons--
1. We should not cherish slighting views of sin.
2. We should heartily loathe and detest it.
3. We should humbly resort to the only
the gospel
remedy for sin.
Christ is the only emancipator from its terrible power. Only
through personal faith in Christ can any guilty soul realise salvation. (Daniel
Rogers
D. D.)
Sinners bound with the cords of sin
The first sentence of this verse has reference to a net
in which
birds or beasts are taken. That which first attracted the sinner afterwards
detains him. This first sentence may have reference to an arrest by an officer
of law. The transgressor’s own sin shall take him
shall seize him; they bear a
warrant for arresting him
they shall judge him
they shall even execute him.
The second sentence speaks of the sinner being holden with cords. The lifelong
occupation of the ungodly man is to twist ropes of sin. The binding meant is
that of a culprit pinioned for execution. Iniquity pinions a man. Make a man’s
will a prisoner
and he is a captive indeed. Who would not scorn to make
himself a slave to his baser passions? And yet the mass of men are such--the
cords of their sins bind them.
I. The
captivating
enslaving power of sin is a solution to a great mystery.
1. Is it not mysterious that men should be content to abide in a
state of imminent peril?
2. Before long unconverted men and women will be in a state whose
wretchedness it is not possible for language fully to express.
3. Is it not a wonder that men do not receive the gospel of Jesus
Christ
seeing that the gospel is so plain?
4. Nay
moreover
so infinitely attractive.
5. The commandment of the gospel is not burdensome.
6. And
according to the confession of most sinners
the pleasures of
sin are by no means great. Here stands the riddle
man is so set against God
and His Christ that he never will accept eternal salvation until the Holy
Spirit
by a supernatural work
overcomes his will and turns the current of his
affections.
II. Though this is
the solution of one mystery
it is in itself a greater mystery. One reason why
men receive not Christ is
that they are hampered by the sin of forgetting God.
Another sin binds all unregenerate hearts; it is the sin of not loving the Christ
of God. What a mystery it is that men should be held by the sin of neglecting
their souls! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The lot of the wicked
I. Wicked men hurt
themselves more than others can.
1. By their sins they set all their enemies at liberty.
2. Their plots for the ruin of others for the most part light on
themselves.
II. Wicked men are
taken in the snares of their own sins.
1. The guilt of their sins follows them wherever they go.
2. God’s wrath and curse follow upon sin.
3. God delivers sinners over to Satan.
4. Punishment attends on sin.
III. The snares of
wicked men’s sins hold them fast.
1. The custom of sinning becomes another nature.
2. God ties the sinner fast to eternal punishment by his sins
and
for his sins
giving him over to a reprobate sense
and by His power
as by
chains
keeping him in prison till the great judgment. (Francis Taylor
B.D.)
The sinner self-imprisoned
At one time many convicts were employed in building high walls
round the prison grounds at Portland. Soldiers posted above them with loaded
guns watched them at their work. Every brick laid rendered their escape more
impossible
and yet they themselves were laying them.
And he shall be holden
with the cords of his sins.--
Sinful habits
I. Their
formation.
1. One sin leads to another by reducing the sense of odiousness.
2. By strengthening wrong principles.
3. By rendering falsehood necessary for purposes of concealment.
4. By multiplying opportunities for commission.
5. By lessening the power of resistance.
II. Their power.
1. As seen in the criminal.
2. The drunkard.
3. The swindler.
4. The errorist.
5. The gospel-despiser.
Apply--
The self-propagating power of sin
In Scripture
Divine providence and the results of sin are often
brought into immediate and close connection with each other
as if the pain
attendant on sin were a direct act of God. But there are other passages where
sin is looked at
as bringing its own punishment with it by the law of the
world analogous to the physical laws of nature. In the text the results of sin
are represented as taking place in the natural order of things. The sinner
thinks that sin is over and gone when it is once committed. If you put a Divine
punisher of sin out of sight
sin does the work of the executioner on the
sinner. Among these consequences of sin certain ones are often insisted
upon--such as bodily evils
loss of temporal advantages
fear of the wrath of
God. But there is a far more awful view of sin
when we look at it on the moral
side
as propagating itself
becoming more intense
tending to blacken and
corrupt the whole character
and to annihilate the hopes and powers of the
soul. See some of the laws of character to which these consequences of sin can
be reduced.
I. The direct
power of sin to propagate itself in the individual soul. Sin is the most
fruitful of all parents; each new sin is a new ever-flowing source of
corruption
and there is no limit to the issue of death.
1. Note the law of habit
or the tendency of a certain kind of sin to
produce another of the same kind. This law reigns over every act
quality
or
state
of the soul
to render the sinful act easier
to intensify the desire
to destroy the impression of danger
to increase the spirit of neglect and delay. Illustrate by
the internal affection of envy
or an external habit
such as some sensual
appetite.
2. The tendency of a sin of one kind to produce sins of another kind.
The confederacy of powers in man admits of no separate action of any one
wayward impulse
but as soon as evil in one shape appears
it tends to corrupt
all the parts of the soul
to disorganise
to reduce other powers under its own
control
and to weaken those which resist. One sort of sin puts the body or
soul
or both
into such a state
that another sort becomes more easy and
natural. There is an affinity between bodily lusts. Any one of them tends to
derange the soul by a loss of inward peace. One wrong affection renders another
easier. Even an absorbing passion
like covetousness or ambition
though it may
exclude some other inconsistent passion
does not reign alone
but has around
and behind it a gloomy train of satellites
which are little tyrants in turn. A
more striking example of the connection between different kinds of sin is seen
when a man resorts to a new kind of sin to save himself from the effects of the
first. Another dark shade is thrown over the malignity of sin from the fact
that it so often makes use of innocent motives to propagate its power over the
soul.
II. The tendency of
sin to produce moral blindness. Sin freely chosen must needs seek for some
justification or palliation; otherwise the moral sense is aroused
and the soul
is filled with pain and alarm. Such justification cannot be found in moral or
religious truth
and of this the soul is more or less distinctly aware. Hence
an instinctive dread of truth and a willingness to receive and embrace
plausible
unsound excuses for sin
which neutralise or destroy its power. The
ways in which this overthrow of unperverted judgments
this rejection of light
tends to strengthen the power of sin
are manifold. It decreases the
restraining and remedial power of conscience; it kills the sense of danger
and
even adds hopefulness to sin; it destroys any influence which the beauty and
glory of truth could put forth; in short
it removes those checks from
prudence
from the moral powers
and from the character of God
which retard
the career of sin.
III. Sin tends to
benumb and root out the sensibilities. This view of sin shows it in its true
light as a perverter of nature
an overturner of all those particular traits
the union of which
under love to God
makes the harmony and beauty of the
soul.
IV. Sin cripples
the power of the will to undertake a reform. There are eases
very frequent in
life
which show a will so long overcome by the strength of sin and by
ill-success in opposing it
that the purpose of reform is abandoned in despair.
The outcries of human nature under this bondage of sin are tragic indeed.
V. Sin propagates
itself by means of the tendency of men to associate with persons of like
character
and to avoid the company of persons of an opposite character. In the
operation of this law of companionship the evil have a power
and an increasing
power
over each other. The worst maxims and the worst opinions prevail
for
they are a logical result of evil characters. In conclusion
with the justice
or goodness of this system I have at present nothing to do. The Bible did not
set it on foot
the Bible does not fully explain it
but only looks at it as a
dark fact. Sin does not cure itself or pave the way toward truth and right. The
question still is this--Is there any cure? If there be any cure it must be
found outside of the region which sin governs. I call on you
then
to find out
for yourself a cure. I offer you one--Christ and His gracious Spirit. (T.
D. Woolsey.)
He shall die without instruction.
The great charity of early instruction
All persons are born in a state of ignorance and darkness as to
spiritual things; therefore all young persons need instruction. Good
instruction in youth is God’s appointed means to bring men to the saving
knowledge of Himself
and the attainment of salvation. The neglect of early
instruction and good education is the ruin of many a person in both worlds.
They live viciously and die desperately; they pass from the errors and works of
darkness to the place of utter and eternal darkness. They die without
instruction
and go astray
and perish in their ignorance and folly. The time
of youth is the most proper time in nature for good instructions; children are
apt to catch at everything they hear
and to retain it and repeat it. Their
faculties are fresh and vigorous
and they are void of those prejudices against
truth and virtue which they are afterwards likely to take up.
1. Children cannot live as Christians if they know not the
fundamentals of the Christian religion. A man can act no better than his
principles dictate to him.
2. For want of being grounded in the essentials of Christian
doctrine
young people are easily led into error or heresy.
3. These undisciplined persons usually prove ill members of the
State
and the very pest of the neighbourhood in which they live.
4. These untaught people bring a reproach on our religion and the
Church of Christ amongst us.
5. The God who made them will surely reject them at last. Then
gaining efficiency in the religious education of our young people is supremely
to be desired. (Josiah Woodward
D.D.)
In the greatness of the
folly he shall go astray.
The greatness of the sinner’s folly
I. You deny boldly
the existence of God. You believe the world fatherless and forsaken; itself
eternal
or the product of chance. By your creed you profess to be
or at least
to know
the very God whose existence you so madly deny. In the greatness of
your folly you arrogate to yourselves the very perfections of Divinity
while a
God is denied.
II. Apply the
description of the text to the character and history of a deist. You admit the
existence of a Supreme Being
but you deny that the Scripture is His Word. The
work of His hands is your only Bible
the dictates of your unenlightened
conscience your only law.
III. Apply to the
character and history of the undecided. The man who allows the truth of the
Bible
but lives and feels as if it were false. Such conduct is full of
contradictions. (J. Angus
M.A.)
The ways and issues of sin
It is the task of the wise teacher to lay bare with an unsparing
hand--
I. The glamours of
sin and the safeguard against them. There is no sin which affords so vivid an
example of seductive attraction at the beginning
and of hopeless misery at the
end
as that of unlawful love. The safeguard against the specific sin before us
is presented in a true and whole-hearted marriage. And the safeguard against
all sin is equally to be found in the complete and constant preoccupation of
the soul with the Divine love. Forbidding to marry is a device of Satan;
anything which tends to degrade or desecrate marriage bears on its face the
mark of the tempter. Our sacred writings glorify marriage
finding in it more
than any other wisdom or religion has found.
II. The binding
results of sin. Compare the Buddhistic doctrine of Karma. Buddha in effect
taught. “You are in slavery to a tyrant set up by yourself. Your own deeds
words
and thoughts
in the former and present states of being
are your own avengers through a
countless series of lives. Thou wilt not find a place where thou canst escape
the force of thy own evil actions.” The Bible says
“His own iniquities shall
take the wicked
and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.” This is
illustrated in the sin of sensuality. There are four miseries
comparable to
four strong cords
which bind the unhappy transgressor.
1. There is the shame.
2. The loss of wealth.
3. The loss of health.
4. The bitter remorse
the groaning and the despair at the end of the
shortened life.
And there is an inevitableness about it all. By the clearest
interworking of cause and effect
these fetters of sin grow upon the feet of
the sinner. Our evil actions
forming evil habits
working ill results on us
and on others
are themselves the means of our punishment. It is not that God
punishes
sin punishes; it is not that God makes hell
sinners make it. This is
established by the possible observation of life
by a concurrent witness of all
teachers and all true religions. Sin may be defined as “the act of a human will
which
being contrary to the Divine will
reacts with inevitable evil upon the
agents.”
1. Every sin prepares for us a band of shame to be wound about our
brows and tightened to the torture-point.
2. Every sin is preparing for us a loss of wealth
the only wealth
which is really durable
the treasure in the heavens.
3. Every sin is the gradual undermining of the health
not so much
the body’s as the soul’s health.
4. The worst chain forged in the furnace of sin is remorse; for no
one can guarantee to the sinner an eternal insensibility. Memory will be busy.
Here
then
is the plain
stern truth
a law
not of nature only
but of the
universe. How men need One who can take away the sin of the world
One who can
break those cruel bonds which men have made for themselves! (R. F.
Horton
D. D.)
The martyr of guilt
Sin is an evil of fearful tendencies
and necessarily productive
if unchecked
of remediless consequences. The reason is obvious. Moral evil
corrupts and vitiates the mind itself
carries the contagion of a mortal
disease through all its affections and powers
and affects the moral condition
of the man through the whole duration of his being.
I. The views it
affords of the power and progress of evil in the human kind.
1. It ensnares. Reference is to the methods adopted in the East by
those who hunt for game
or for beasts of prey. Evil allures under the form of
good. All the way is white as snow that hides the pit.
2. It enslaves. St. Paul speaks of the “bondage of corruption
” and
of the hardening of the heart through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin gathers
strength from custom
and spreads like a leprosy from limb to limb. The power
of habit turns upon the principle that what we have done once we have an
aptitude to do again with greater readiness and pleasure. The next temptation
finds the sons of folly an easier prey than before.
3. It infatuates. After a seasons wickedness so far extends its power
from the passions to the understanding that men become blind to the amount of
their own depravity
and in this state begin to fancy music in their chains. It
would seem to be one of the prerogatives of sin
like the fascination of the
serpent
first to deprive its victims of their senses and then make them an
unresisting prey. Guard against the beginnings of sin. Sin prepares for sin.
4. It destroys. The soul is destroyed
not as to the fact of its
continued existence
but as to all its Godlike capacities of honour and
happiness.
II. Some of the
circumstances of aggravation which will tend to embitter the sinner’s doom. It
must for ever be a melancholy subject of reflection--
1. That the ruin was self-caused. A man may be injured by the sins of others
but
his soul can be permanently endangered only by his own. By a fine
personification
a man’s sins are here described as a kind of personal property
and possession. Sin
remorse
and death may be deemed a kind of creation of our
own.
2. That the objects were worthless and insignificant for which the
blessings of salvation were resigned.
3. That you possessed an ample sufficiency of means for your guidance
and direction into the path of life.
4. That the evil incurred is hopeless and irremediable.
III. The interesting
aspect under which this subject teaches us to contemplate the Divine
dispensations. It illustrates--
1. The riches of God’s mercy in forgiving sin.
2. The power of His grace in subduing sin.
3. The wisdom of His providence in preventing sin.
4. The urgency of His invitations to those who are the slaves of sin.
(Samuel Thodey.)
Fixed habits
A rooted habit
becomes a governing principle. Every lust we entertain deals with us as Delilah
did with Samson--not only robs us of our strength
but leaves us fast bound. (Abp.
Tillotson.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》