Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Pr 29.1 and following. Indeed, in this book, the wise and the foolish, the just and the wicked, the poor and the rich, the king and the servant, and many other characters, are considered according to their reciprocal relationships and their responsibilities before God. Verses 1 and 2 connect to chapter 28. “The man who, being often taken back, stiffens his neck will be broken suddenly…” If the pride of a man is not broken, it is he himself who will be broken, suddenly and without remedy with the iniquitous, the man of Belial (Pr 6.12-15). Such was the fate of pharaoh, Saul, Absalom… But it is always serious, even for a believer, to despise the Lord’s discipline (Heb 12:4-8). “The man who loves wisdom is the joy of his father…” (v. 3). True in our families, this verse applies all the more so in God’s family. It is the Joy of the Father to see His children love Wisdom, who is Jesus Christ (2 Jn 1:1-4; 3 John 1:1-4). Several verses tell us about righteousness. It is especially required of the governor or king (verses 4, 12, 14). But all those who are righteous (verse 7; that is, justified by the work of Christ) must take sympathetic knowledge of the cause of the poor.
All these teachings relate especially to life in society. “The staff and the rebuke give wisdom…” The staff can either be used literally for children, or take all forms of the Lord’s discipline toward His own. There is no worse punishment than being left to oneself (verse 15; Psalm 81:9-17). Rushing into words (verse 20), anger (verse 22), pride (verse 23), are at the origin of many transgressions. But, in contrast to the first Adam, this verse 23 focuses our eyes on Jesus. His unparalleled path of humility is the counterpart of supreme glory (Phi 2:5-11). Another trap is set by the fear of man; it cannot go hand in hand with the fear of God (verse 25). By wanting to please men (or not to displease them), it is to the Lord that one ceases to please. How many have been dragged into evil by bad comrades to whom they did not dare to say no! If we have to take a courageous stand and fear the consequences, let us trust in God; he will raise us “in a high retreat.” Finally, verse 27 reminds us that there is no communion between righteousness and iniquity… (2 Co 6:14-7.1). May God keep us in His communion!
The man who loves wisdom is the joy of his father, but the companion of the prostitutes will dissipate his good (v. 3; Pr 10:1). As we have already noticed more than once in this study, there has been, since chapter 10, a kind of new beginning or order when Proverbs returns to the initial thought of Wisdom, to the relationship of the son with his parents (Pr 10:1; 17:25; 19:13, 27; 22:17). Is not the whole book intended to make the son who is in a relationship of affection and obedience with the father who begat him love and follow the way of it? Here the character of the son is to love Wisdom. It is not only to follow her, to obey her, to be submissive to her. As one advances in the knowledge of Wisdom one is attached to it as something infinitely precious. Now, as we have seen, Wisdom, in its supreme expression, is Christ. The knowledge of this person grows as one progresses; we love it. One is attached, obedient, faithful to principles; we love a person, we also love the Word, because it is the revelation of that person.
This love is the joy of the father. It is spoken here of the one who, on earth, begat such a son and whom we find throughout in Proverbs, but for us Christians we know that it is heavenly Father’s joy to see us love his Son. “If someone loves me… my Father will love him.” It is much more than the joy of God’s people when the righteous multiply. In contrast to the one who loves wisdom, we find the companion of prostitutes, the man who chose the corrupt world to make his company. This man received outward blessings in sharing, like all men. Even these he will lose, because he will have “eaten his good with prostitutes”. But he can find the joy of the Father on the path of repentance when, having died, he has come back to life, when, being lost, he has been found (Luke 15).
A king, by just judgment, strengthens the country, but the man who accepts gifts ruins it (vs. 4:14; Pr 16:12; 25:5. After Wisdom, we find the king as the representative of divine authority here on earth. In him the judgment of all things according to the character of God gives stability to the country he governs; whereas, if the judge accepts gifts, he associates himself with the wicked whose purpose, by giving them, is to “deviate the paths of judgment” (17:23). He is thereby ruining the country he should have governed and strengthened.
The man who flatters his neighbor stretches out a net before his steps (v. 5; Pr 26:28; 28:23). There is a way other than the present to bring down one’s neighbor, and that is flattery. Man takes into account the one who flatters him, the just judgment is distorted and thus the ways of jehovah are perverted. “Voice of a God and not of a man!” the Tyrians said to Herod (Acts 12:22-23). In the transgression of the evil man, there is a trap, but the righteous will sing and rejoice. This thought continues those of the previous verses. There is a third trap of deviating from god’s rule and disobeying it. This transgression is the trap that will be the ruin of the villain. The righteous, precisely because he is just, escapes transgression. It was the same for Elijah, for Stephen, and for all the faithful witnesses; but the righteous men are anxious to preserve the life of the righteous, like Obadiah, preserving the hundred faithful from the wrath of Jezebel. The fool puts out all his mind, but the wise calms him and holds him back: To put out everything he thinks, to bring out his passions in the same way, this is the characteristic of the man devoid of intelligence – the wise man is calm, dominates the movements of his heart and knows how to retain its expression.
Let a governor pay attention to the word of lies, all his servants will be wicked: Responsibility of the one who is called to lead others, and his influence on them. It is of all importance that it be true. As soon as he listens to the word of lies and lets it enter his conduct, the effect will be felt on all the servants around him: they will be wicked and it is the governor who will be responsible for it. The poor and the oppressor meet, the Lord enlightens the eyes of both (v. 13; Pr 22:2). Therich and the poor meet in their birth and death, the poor and the oppressive also meet when it comes to the grace of God who opens the eyes of both.
The king who judges the poor according to the truth… his throne will be strengthened forever: In this chapter and in the previous chapter it is often spoken of the poor as an object of sympathy, often also of the dominator, the prince, the governor, the king, who can be according to the heart of God, or act as oppressors. But the fact that the king is the king of a poor people does not change anything, neither to its prosperity nor to its stability, provided that it governs in truth. Such was Hezekiah. We are not dealing here with the glory of Solomon’s reign, but with a time of decline. The time will reappear when the king’s people will be “a people of frank will on the day of its power, in holy magnificence” (Ps. 110).
The angry man stirs up quarrels, and the man who infuriates himself abounds in transgressions (v. 22; Pr 15:18). It is the influenceof angry man on the minds of others; he excites quarrels. Influence of the violence of a man who does not know how to dominate himself, on his own moral state; in this way he transgresses god’s will in every moment. A man’s pride lowers him, but he who is humble in spirit acquires glory (v. 23; Pr 16:18, 19. For pride lowers man in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the wise. We know that the result will be ruin. The humble-minded man is lifted up in the eyes of God and the result will be the glory of the kingdom.
Whoever shares with a thief hates his soul; he hears the adjuration and does not declare the thing: He who shares with a thief the proceeds of theft, believes to be less guilty than him, since he has not stolen himself. Summoned before the judge and bound by the oath required by the magistrate, he does not declare the thing, in order to avoid the conviction for himself. It is to hate his own life, for the law says that he will bear his iniquity, being condemned to death without appeal (Lev 5:1). The fear of men sets a trap, but who trusts in the Lord is raised in a high retreat: Fearing men is a trap. There is a danger of denying even his Lord, as Peter did, to escape a peril that he would have avoided by simple trust in Him. This trust delivers us, shelters us, and raises our heads above all our enemies (Ps. 27:1-6).
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- Irreparable loss suffered by the ungodly
Ps 36:13 Already those who commit iniquity fall; They are overthrown, and they cannot get up. Mk 3:29, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never obtain forgiveness: he is guilty of an eternal sin. Lk 16:26 Moreover, there is a great abyss between us and you, so that those who would like to pass from here to you, or from there to us, cannot do so. Hb 12:17 You know that later, wanting to obtain the blessing, he was rejected, though he asked for it with tears; for his repentance could have no effect.
- Overthrow of the bad guys
Ec 9:12 Nor does man know his time, like the fish that are caught in the fatal net, and the birds that are trapped; like them, the sons of man are embraced in the time of misfortune, when he suddenly falls upon them. Isa 30:13 This crime will be for you like a cracked part that threatens ruin and protrudes into a high wall, Whose collapse suddenly comes, in an instant: Jer 15:8 His widows are more numerous than the grains of sand of the sea; I bring on them, on the mother of the young man, The devastating in the middle of noon; I suddenly bring down anguish and terror on her. 1 Thess 5:3 When men say, “Peace and security!” then a sudden ruin will surprise them, as the pains of childbirth surprise the pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Love of peace, those who bring peace, approved
Pr 12:20 Deception is in the hearts of those who meditate on evil, but joy is for those who advise peace. Mt 5:9 Blessed are those who bring peace, for they will be called sons of God! Rom 14:19 So let us seek what contributes to peace and mutual edification.
- Dishonor, the wicked will know the
Jb 27:23 One beats hands at his fall, and he is whistled at his departure. Pr 24:24 He who says to the wicked: You are righteous! The people curse him, the nations curse him. Isa 66:24 And when we go out, we will see the corpses of the men who rebelled against me; For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished; And they will be for all flesh an object of horror. Dn 12:2 Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake up, some for eternal life, and others for opprobrium, for eternal shame.
From all the above, we note that plusieurs seek the face of the governor, but the just judgment of a man comes from the Lord: A great number of men have recourse to the governor, to the high-ranking man, to the representative of justice, thinking that his position makes him capable of judging fairly the difficulties they are going through, and thus of giving them effective help. This assessment is false. A man’s righteous judgment does not come from his position, but is given by Jehovah. This was the fruit of the Wisdom given by God to Solomon. The iniquitous man is the abomination of the righteous, and the one who is right in his way, the abomination of the wicked: There is complete antagonism between the iniquitous and the just. No reconciliation is possible. On both sides one is in abomination to the other. “What participation is there between righteousness and iniquity, or what communion between light and darkness, or what agreement of Christ with Belial?” (2 Cor. 6:14-15). If he who is straight in his way is the abomination of the wicked, what day this fact throws on the heart of man! What an absolute condemnation! Thus ends the Proverbs of Solomon. Only the sons of Wisdom are excepted, those who have been begotten by it and whom this whole book has the mission of instructing in practical justice and of training in righteousness in their way! Although this book deals only with an application to this world of this wisdom given by the fear of jehovah, it is therefore of great use to the Christian who, in view of his heavenly privileges, could more or less forget the continual government of God. It is very important for the Christian to remember the fear of the Lord and the effect of God’s presence on the details of His conduct. For it is a great grace that one that deigns to apply divine wisdom to all the details of man’s life, in the midst of the confusion that sin has produced. Occupied with heavenly things, the Christian is less able, through his own experiences, to find the thread that can guide him through the labyrinth of evil through which he passes. God thought of this, and He laid down this first principle: “Wise as to good, and simple as to evil” (Rom. 16:19). Thus the Christian can ignore evil (for a worldly, it might be falling into it) and, at the same time, avoid it by the knowledge he has of good, and that the wisdom of God gives him; God’s government provides for everything else. Now, in Proverbs, we have these things in principle and in detail. But the violent man, at the end of time, is constantly found in the Psalms, and Babylon is the full fulfillment of the woman who takes the simple in her net and leads them to death, while Christ is the perfect wisdom of God who leads to life. And it is from the heart of man that these two things that manifest evil come out at all times, since the fall: corruption and violence. Only we have seen that there is an active development of the tricks of the wicked woman, who has her own house and arrangement. It is not simply the principle of corruption, it is an organized system, as sovereign wisdom has its own. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to react to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “The Sentences of Agur” (Pr 30).
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.