Proverbs 13:1-13

The Heedless Scorner, Etc.

Pro 13:1-13

This verse has been rendered, "is his father's instruction;" the meaning being that a wise son embodies his father's instruction, "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:" a wise man may point to his son and say, This is the sum-total of my educational efforts. Observe, however, that the most careful and loving endeavours may be thrown away, as good seed may be cast upon stony ground and profit the sower nothing. The proverb is careful to define the quality of the son whose education embodies the purpose of the father; he is to be "a wise son," that is to say, a son who can make the most of his opportunities, who really understands the process through which he is passing, and who can assimilate the intellectual food with which he is nourished. It is made clear that only such a son can profit by his father's instruction by what immediately follows namely, that "a scorner heareth not rebuke," that is to say, a scorner is profited by nothing; being a satirist himself, he turns everything into satire; he mocks the speaker of good things, he parodies the highest poetry, he resents the most delicate and spiritual approach; wine turns to vinegar in his mouth, and all that is beautiful is blighted when he looks upon it. We should not be struck by the mere ability of satire; we should remember its moral disadvantages, for it debases and impoverishes whatever it touches that is meant for its good. We are not now speaking of the satire which may be used as an argumentative weapon, for the exposure of wickedness, and for the ridicule of mere pretension: we are speaking of the satire which takes the moral purpose out of every appeal, and turns to derision all the efforts that are directed towards the soul's real education. When instruction has been lost upon a man, we should look to the man himself as the explanation of that loss. It is easy to look upon the pastor of a church, and blame him for the poor results which have accrued from his ministry; we may mock him, and looking at his people may say, Are these the fruits of your labour? whereas we ought to look at the people and say, Is this the use you have made of the noble opportunities which have been put within your reach? had ye been wise sons ye would have received instruction, and profited by it, and in a blessed incarnation would have represented it to the whole world. Wisdom gathers everything; scorning gathers nothing: it is for each man to say that: he will walk in the one spirit or in the other, but let him distinctly know what the consequences of each spirit must be.

"There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches" ( Pro 13:7 ).

Christ's own teaching is here anticipated. He that loseth his life for Christ's sake shall find it; he that seeketh his life for his own sake shall lose it. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. We have to lose before we can gain; to sow before we can reap; to trust all the ministries of nature before we can fill our arms with sheaves. The voice of experience is heard in this testimony. There is nothing in mere reason to support it; on the contrary, there is much on the first appearance of things to discredit the assertion. Cause and effect would seem to be here wholly neglected. If a man be gathering all his days, will he not have an abundance at the last? If a man be scattering for a lifetime, is it; possible that he can have a mountain left at the close? The answer to these inquiries would seem to be instantaneous because obvious. Yet spiritual experience goes in a directly contrary direction. He who gives himself away most secures himself, provided the motive of the oblation be good, and that the spirit in which it is offered be the spirit of Jesus Christ. There must be no investment of charity; there must be no speculation in alms. The very spirit of sacrifice is ervealed in this noble text, especially in the words, "There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches." A philosopher once said he had nothing except that which he had given away. Christian natures go out of themselves and live in the good of others; that is to say, when they see others prospering they rejoice, and draw comfort from advantages which do not immediately belong to themselves. A man who has made himself poor in order that he might educate his children, and bring them up in the ways of virtue and honour, is a rich man, provided his children are grateful, and return to him due compensation for his endeavours: that compensation need not be in money, but in pureness, in nobleness of purpose, in chivalry of spirit; when he sees how his money is, so to say, growing crops of golden wheat in their mind and character, he is delighted, and accounts himself a rich man. Whoever has suffered in order that others may be free is rich in the liberty which he has secured for them. Whoever has expended himself that the sick and the dying may be recovered is rich in the health which has been established through the instrumentality of his labour. The selfish man always comes to nothing; for a time he seems to succeed, but he has no satisfaction even in his treasure; his flowers are without fragrance; his sky is but a great glaring arch; it is not atmosphered and made beautiful through the action of a thousand ministries, subtle in their operation, but gracious and infinite in their results. If this proverb could be thoroughly understood, it would set up a new standard in every life by which to judge prosperity and failure; it would make the first last, and the last first; men who understood it, and applied it to daily practice, would know that there is a success which is failure, and there is a failure which is success, and that nothing is to be accounted of that does not go down to the very foundations of righteousness and rise to the very glory of God.

"The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out" ( Pro 13:9 ).

By this we are to understand that the light of the righteous burns joyously, is a very image of gladness and rapture: the sun rejoiceth as a giant to run his course; he is, so to say, conscious of his power and of his speed; travelling does not weary him, shining does not exhaust him; at the end he is as mighty as at the beginning. It will be observed that in the one case the word is "light" as applied to the righteous, and in the other the word is "lamp" as applied to the wicked. The path of the just is as a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day; the light of the righteous man is above, it is not of his own making, it never can be exhausted: the light in which the wicked man walks is a lamp of his own creation, he made it, he lighted it, he is above and greater than that light, and at any moment it may be extinguished; he walks in the fire and in the sparks which he himself has kindled; he is full of brilliant fancies, flashing and glaring eccentricities; he rejoices transiently in the rockets which he throws up into the air, but as they expire and fall back in dead ashes at his feet he sees how poor have been his resources, and how mean is the issue of a cleverness that is without moral basis and moral inspiration. God's blessing is always attached to the true light. God himself is Light. Jesus Christ was the Light of the world, and Christians are to be lights of their day and generation, reflecting the glory of their Master. The wicked indeed have a kind of light; that should always be amply acknowledged: but it is a light of their own creation, and a light that is doomed to extinction, it shall be put out; a drop of rain shall fall upon it, and the little flicker shall expire, never to be rekindled.

"Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded" ( Pro 13:13 ).

The more literal rendering would be, "He that despiseth the word shall bring ruin on himself." This is a great law of the Biblical revelation namely, that destruction is not a merely arbitrary act on the part of God, a mere penalty, but that it involves the idea of suicide or self-ruin. The man is not merely punished from without, he is punished from within. There is no threatening in the statement that if a man put his hand into the fire he will be burned; it is not a threatening, it is a warning, a foretelling, a statement of simple fact So we are told here that whoso despiseth the word the innermost wisdom, the logos, the eternal truth shall bring ruin upon himself, shall commit suicide. A view of this kind enables us to escape several practical mistakes into which they fall who do not understand the constitution of man and the purpose of divine law. As far as possible we should exempt God from the thought that he is standing outside of us merely for the sake of rewarding the good and punishing the evil, and that he does the one by so many crowns and sceptres, and the other by so many rods and stripes. The law of reward and also the law of punishment are to be found within ourselves. There is a profound truth in the proverb that virtue is its own reward, and vice is its own punishment: we need not wait to go before the divine Majesty in any ceremonious formality; we no sooner eat the forbidden fruit than we die. How true it is, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die:" thou shalt consciously die; without a single word being spoken from the judgment-seat death shall take place, the whole heaven shall be clouded, the whole earth shall become a sepulchre, and man himself, though living physically, will know that he is in very deed twice dead. Experience on every hand proves this. We ourselves know it. No sooner does an evil word proceed from our lips than we feel that we have sustained moral loss; no sooner do we execute a forbidden deed than we fall down dead in the presence of God. It is a mistake to limit the word "death" to merely physical decay or extinction. It is a consciousness of the soul, always connected with the doing of evil and the conscious desert of punishment. He that sinneth against God wrongeth his own soul. See, on the other hand, how equal is the law, for "he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded;" he who looks above for wisdom, and who will not move until God indicates time and place he shall be rewarded, with peace, with a sense of security, with daily light for daily needs. If this were a Biblical doctrine only it might be put to the disadvantage of being denominated metaphysical, or even sentimental; but we find the same law operating in the family, in social life, in the whole sphere and action of the commonwealth.