Proverbs 6:12-15 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

The character and doom of the abandoned

Perhaps there is no word which more aptly designates the man who is here described than the word "abandoned." The "man of Belial" ("the naughty man") is he who is abandoned, who has abandoned himself, to the promptings of his own evil nature, to the fascinations and tyrannies of sin. Here we see the features of his character and his doom.

I. THAT IN SPEECH HE IS UTTERLY UNPRINCIPLED . "He walks with a froward mouth." He continually and remorselessly uses the language of falsehood, of profanity, of lewdness, of slander. From his mouth there constantly issues that which God hates to hear, and which is offensive and shameful in the estimation of the good and pure.

II. THAT IN PRACTICE HE HABITUALLY RESORTS TO LOW CUNNING . ( Proverbs 6:13 .) He has ways of communicating with others only known to the initiated. He cannot afford to be frank and outspoken; he must have recourse to subtlety, to low tricks, to devices which will cover his thoughts from the eye of the upright. This is

III. THAT IN HIS HEART HE IS POSITIVELY MALIGN . ( Proverbs 6:14 .) He takes a demoniacal pleasure in doing evil. It is not only that he will consent to sacrifice the claims or injure the character of others if he cannot enrich himself without so doing; it is that he finds a horrible and malignant satisfaction in compassing their ruin; he "devises mischief continually; he sows discord." To the pure it is incomprehensible that men can positively delight in impurity; to the kind it seems impossible that men can enjoy cruelty, etc. But it is the last result of a sinful course that the "froward heart" scatters mischief on every hand for the sake of the evil thing itself; to him vice and misery are themselves his reward.

IV. THAT GOD WILL BRING DOWN ON HIS HEAD IRREMEDIABLE DISASTER . ( Proverbs 6:15 .) The man thinks he can defy his Maker, but he is deceiving himself. God is not mocked; he that sows to the flesh shall reap corruption ( Galatians 6:8 ). He has broken away from all Divine restraints; he has thrown off him the arresting hand of a merciful Redeemer, he has silenced the voice of a pleading spirit; but God is not altogether such as we are ( Psalms 50:21 ). He will rebuke, and he will set our sins before our souls again. The hour will come, quite unexpectedly, when judgment will overtake him. It may be