It is the function of the Bible not just to tell us what we don’t know, and to inspire us to greater heights, but also to tell us what we do know — to knock on our doors, and if necessary batter them down, until we are forced to pay attention to what we might easily forget, or fail to give proper weight to!
How often do we need to read — and hear, and be reminded of — the simple, practical advice of the Book of Proverbs? The answer is obvious: as often as it takes! As often as it takes to keep the warnings of this simple, “dull’, down-to-earth book in the forefront of our minds. And then once again tomorrow, if we are in any danger whatsoever of forgetting. In reading, writing, thinking, and speaking about this Book, we must keep in mind: No ‘style points’ will be deducted for repetition!
And where may we find the means to remind ourselves, even again, of its exhortations, its admonitions, and its warnings? The answer: wherever we can! The Lord Jesus found the raw material for his parables in the daily affairs of ordinary life — the fields of the farmer and the shepherd, the household chores of the wife and mother, the marketplace of the buyer and the seller. So wherever we are and whatever we are doing, Solomon’s proverbs echo in our ears. Our minds having been instructed by its sayings, once and again, then the little voice just behind our ear may whisper again: “Remember…’
“Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men” (Prov. 4:14).
Paul in the New Testament says much the same thing: “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character’ ‘ (1 Cor. 15:33). The life of the wicked has far more power to corrupt the righteous than the life of the righteous has to correct the wicked. It is much easier for the healthy to become diseased by contact with the sick than for the sick to be restored by contact with the healthy.
One reason why the company of those who are worldly and indifferent to God will be a great problem is this: If the believer will not forget about his conscience while in their company, then he can expect to be scoffed at, and made fun of.
Another danger is this: In mixing with sinners, he is putting himself into a situation where — sometimes openly and sometimes very subtly — he will be tempted to abandon his principles.
Good men are not usually as concerned to bring their companions to the knowledge and practice of the Bible as bad men are to lead the good astray. Many a person, after having his heart changed with the things belonging to God, has been fatally ruined by mixing with those who viewed his faith with suspicion or contempt, and enjoyed trying to make him forget his God.
Setting a foot on this downward road of the wicked will be like the first venture upon the “slippery slope”; it may be impossible — who can tell? — ever to retrace one’s steps, once that crucial first step is taken.
It is fatal to think we can play around with sin because we think we have a built-in resistance. Our only safe course is complete avoidance. All the more reason, as one Christadelphian puts it, that “the solid warning to enter not into the way of evil men holds within it the [further] meaning, ‘…but if perchance you have entered, go no further’.” For it may yet be still possible if only barely — to escape that fatally dangerous, downward-tending, slippery slope!
Why is sin so dangerous? Because it is deceitful! “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Heb. 3:13). “Sin” masquerades as innocent pleasure, or as the silliest little trifle of the passing moment, hardly worth notice at all. It may even seem to be praiseworthy action — “getting the most out of life”. The “devil” doesn’t have horns and hooves; he doesn’t have a long tail and a pitchfork. He wears a business suit; he’s charming, with a pleasant smile and an easy manner. He talks about “guaranteed future returns”, or finding satisfaction in the best entertainment center, or the most expensive car, or living in the very best neighborhood.
Or the “devil” — SHE! — assumes the guise of an attractive young woman who purrs, “So you’re married. So what? There can’t be any harm in one little drink, can there?”
For how else can the “devil”, or “sin”, hope to “deceive” mankind?
And so we should each ask ourselves the question: What — and where — is the devil that I should be on the guard against?
“The wealth of the wise is their crown, but the folly of fools yields folly” (Prov. 14:24).
The first line here leaves unanswered the question: ‘But what ARE the riches of the wise? Literal wealth, or spiritual wealth?’
Some writers think that literal wealth is an ornament to those who use it well. They cite examples of wise men who used their riches well: Job, employing his goods to benefit others (Job 29:6-17), and David, assembling the materials for God’s Temple (1 Chr. 29:1-5; 2 Chr. 5:1).
On the other hand, others suggest that the wisdom of the wise, which IS their crown of glory, constitutes their “wealth”, regardless of material prosperity, or the lack thereof.
This last is, in my mind, the most meaningful. Consider, for example, “the price of wisdom is beyond rubies” (Job 28:18), and “Wisdom is more precious than rubies” (Prov. 3:15; 8:11).
But the real point for our purposes is the second half of the verse: “The folly of fools yields folly!”
As this line stands in the Hebrew, it is what some commentators call a “tautology” (i.e., a statement that is redundant, or needlessly repetitious). “Redundant” and “repetitious” it may be, but is it really “needlessly” so? That may be a matter of opinion. One of the strengths of Proverbs, so it seems, is its repetition: the Book tells us what we need to hear, even if — sometimes — it seems (needlessly?) repetitious!
So we ought to ask: do we all know, as we should, that a life of folly produces only folly in the end? And the answer, it seems to me, is: No! We do not understand perfectly such a simple truth. If we did, then the world — along with all of us who claim to “know the Truth” — would have long since given up every vestige of folly, and grasped wisdom with both hands, and embraced it with both arms! But this has not happened, and so the plainest cliché — “The folly of fools yields folly” remains as one more witness, pointing out to us a warning, and by implication the “way”!
Some of us may think that a lifetime of folly may be redeemed, in the briefest moment, by one flash of “wisdom” at the end. And of course it might! But… where will that one flash of “wisdom” come from? And who will listen when it comes, if the mind has been drugged by folly all its days? And what presumption there is, in any of us, if we tell ourselves (or others) that “there is always a chance”, but do nothing to develop or promote that “chance” to turn from folly to wisdom, before it is too late!
In fact, we might say that this line emphasizes by its very repetition the barrenness of folly. Folly is its own reproach and its own “reward”. In other words, to paraphrase Christ, thorns produce only thorns, and brambles produce only brambles (Matt. 7:16) — unless a good seed is planted and nourished!
In the context (of the first line), we might read this second line: “The folly of fools even when accompanied by riches — is still only folly!”
One old Bible commentator tells us: “Folly is oftentimes made more manifest through the ill use [fools] make of their riches; spending them in the gratification of their sinful lusts; and making no use of them for their own improvement in knowledge, or for the good of their fellow creatures” (John Gill).
Decorate folly as you will, dress it up in rich fabrics and set it off with gaudy ornaments — it is still nothing but folly. And the wise and discerning see it for what it is, and more so for its being flaunted conspicuously, so as to attract witnesses.
In Gone With the Wind, a newly-rich Scarlett O’Hara — anxious to move into the highest circles of post-war Atlanta society — offers her old slave and nursemaid Mammy a fine new dress. The wise Mammy replies, “Miz Scarlett, you and me can give ourselves airs and get ourselves all slicked up like racehorses, but we are still just mules in horse harness and everybody knows it.”
Adam and Eve had their fig-leaves, Jezebel her special eye makeup, and Scarlett O’Hara her fancy dresses. What do we hide behind so as to conceal, even from ourselves, the “folly” of our ways?
“Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed” (Prov. 11:11).
Words may have a great power and influence, for good or for ill. The wicked, the selfish, and the fools have a cursed existence, and a cursed fate — which the Proverbs contrast with the blessed state of the righteous, the liberal, the kind, and the wise.
“Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted.” This expression may refer either (1) to the blessing God gives the upright (which will benefit society), or (2) to the blessing that the upright are to the city, and the community, where they live. The second, I think, fits the parallelism best: cp. Prov. 14:34: “Righteousness exalts [even] a [whole] nation.”
“But by the mouth of the wicked [the city] is destroyed.” What the wicked say has a disastrous effect on society, endangering, weakening, demoralizing, and perverting with malicious and slanderous words. Wicked leaders can bring destruction on a city by their evil counsel.
How might the mouth, or words, of the wicked destroy a city? There are various possibilities.When we think of howthis chapter began (“The LORD abhors dishonest scales…”: Prov. 11:1), then it might be something like this:
The picture is of a city under siege. It is a city with a reputation for goodwill and progress because good people live there, and over a period of time the blessings of their way of life become benefits to all who live there.
But then the story gets around that visitors to the city have been cheated by tricky business people; within no time at all the place has a name for double-dealing. No community can afford to allow that sort of thing to happen because, without business, their standard of living is threatened. How quickly the community leaders respond to any threat of this kind because they know the life of the city is at risk.
On the other hand, the Bible is filled with the stories of good men whose presence blesses a city, or a nation:
- Joseph, first a slave and then finally a ruler in Egypt, saved many people from famine (Gen. 41:38-57).
- Daniel, carried into captivity to Babylon as a young man, set a wonderful example of faithfulness to his God for many, many years — and certainly influenced even some of the leaders of that wicked city.
- The righteous Hezekiah, assisted by the great prophet Isaiah, through faith and prayer, saved Jerusalem from destruction by the Assyrians.
In the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life! — still aired regularly during the holidays, 60 years after its initial release — there is an extended parable illustrating this proverb.
George Bailey is a young man with great ambitions: he’s going to go to college, become an engineer, and then travel the world building great things — bridges, skyscrapers, ocean liners, whatever strikes his fancy; he’s going to make his mark for all to see. He’s going to shake the dust of his hometown — “this crummy little Bedford Falls”, he calls it — off his feet for good!
But fate intervenes: his father falls ill, and George must take his place in the family business (but “only for a little while!”, he tells himself). George’s younger brother goes off to college in his stead; then the great war comes, and all affairs are rearranged; George’s father dies; and George falls in love and gets married.
Finally, George wakes up one day, realizing that he is not the young man he once was; that he is not going to college; that he has been left behind, in the little “nowhere” place of Bedford Falls. What was a stop-gap — and a necessity — for a few years has become in fact his life’s work: he has become his father, the owner of Bailey Savings and Loan — a little company that will never provide him and his family more than a modest living. His contemporaries — who never had half the energy, the brains, or the potential he had — are getting on wonderfully, in bigger and “better” places. And he is stuck!
At this point a terrible financial crisis arises, entirely by “accident”, to threaten even the little that George Bailey has built up for himself and his family. And poor George stands on the town bridge, staring down into the swirling waters of the river, and contemplates ending his “meaningless” life. He wishes, he says, that he had never been born — for he has not made a bit of difference to the world. But a kindly angel, Clarence, helps George see what a difference he has made — by first of all letting him see what Bedford Falls, and those he loves, would have become had he never existed!
And so we learn, in a “flashback” of sorts, what Bed ford Falls (renamed “Pottersville” in George’s nightmare) would have become without him. The pleasant, friendly, little “postcard” town would have been filled with bars, nightclubs, gambling dens, and worse.
Why? George’s savings and loan helped the working-class folks own their own modest homes, and find dignity and hope for themselves and their families. It brought new businesses to the town; it helped to create jobs; it carried the unemployed through their temporary losses until they could get back on their feet again.
All this, it seems, had kept Bedford Falls out of the greedy clutches of Mr. Potter — for young (and then not-so-young) George Bailey had been the only man to stand up to the monopolistic, money-grubbing, hateful threat of this old miser.
And in the final outpouring of love and goodwill that crowns the movie, George Bailey finds that his friends are all there to help him and his family. “Where would we have been without you, Mr. Bailey?” He comes to see that a life made up of little kindnesses and charities and good deeds has an effect far beyond what he could ever have imagined, and finally he sees that — in the words of the angel Clarence — “No man is ever really poor who has friends!”
Thus, “through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted.”
How can we ever be “poor”? How can we ever feel sorry for ourselves? We must remember: we have the greatest of friends, in Jesus Christ. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:13,14). And even if we do not do all that Jesus has commanded (for we know we will fall short), yet if we have tried faithfully, then he is still our friend: His life, laid down for us, secures the forgiveness of our sins.
And we have many other friends around us, friends who share our hope, in him and in his God. Friends whom we can help and encourage, and friends who can help and encourage us, toward the Kingdom of God.
We may never do the “great” things that we imagine; but as we follow Christ, we can always do the small things that come our way.
Quietly, and sensibly, encouraged by Proverbs and the other simple and “dull” commands and promises of God’s book, we do what we can with what we have, where we are.
It is enough.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One