Proverbs 6:1-35

On Suretyship The "Naughty Persons-Seven Things Hateful to God

Proverbs 6:0

There is no necessary reference here to modern commercial usages. The passage may be easily misunderstood and misapplied. The case is well put in Bishop Ellicott's Bible: "When the Mosaic law was instituted, commerce had not been taken up by the Israelites, and the lending of money on interest for its employment in trade was a thing unknown. The only occasion for loans would be to supply the immediate necessities of the borrower, and the exaction of interest under such circumstances would be productive of great hardship, involving the loss of land, and even of personal freedom, as the insolvent debtor and his family became the slaves of the creditor ( Neh 5:1-5 ). To prevent those evils, the lending of money on interest to any poor Israelite was strictly forbidden (Leviticus 25:0 ); the people were enjoined to be liberal, and to lend for nothing in such cases. But at the time of Solomon, when the commerce of the Israelites had enormously developed, and communications were opened with Spain and Egypt, and possibly with India and Ceylon, while caravans penetrated beyond the Euphrates, then the lending of money on interest for employment in trade most probably became frequent, and suretyship also, the pledging of a man's own credit to enable his friend to procure a loan." The rest is easily imaginable. The text may be accepted as a distinct exhortation to ourselves. Have nothing to do with suretyship. If you can afford to give anything, give it, and there let the matter end. You have no right to pledge what you do not possess. There are cases in which the temptation is very strong to help, but there must be no yielding. Give: give liberally if you can; give heartily and promptly, but never come under enslaving conditions. The old man needs no caution; the young man must be warned, and even besought with much importunity.

"A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord" ( Pro 6:12-14 ).

The "naughty person" has no public friends. When his portrait is painted it is always in hideous colours. The aim of the artist is to reveal the villain's ghastliness. Eyes and feet and fingers are all delineated as servants of evil, each a hired slave, each an instrument of shame. The matter, however, is not confined to the eyes and feet and fingers: the true reason is given in ver. 14: "frowardness is in his heart." Thus again and again we come upon the seat and spring of mischief. We must (especially as public teachers) be on our guard lest we content ourselves with merely painting the portrait of evil. We are not to be religious artists, but religious examples. How easy to depict sin! How pleasant to be merely a moral rhetorician! How delightful to denounce sin in hexameters, and to curse the devil in blank verse! Not thus will the Lord of righteousness judge it, for he will send sudden calamity upon the wicked, and suddenly break him as upon a wheel without remedy. Indignation and wrath are reserved for those who do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness. "Thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" All heaven is turned into a storm of wrath when God looks upon the policy and scheme of wickedness: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury." Fools are they, on a boundless scale, who try to shout down the thunder of God, and to turn away his judgments by the impotent uplifting of their palsied hands. They are buried in the cemeteries of ancient history and in the new-cut graves of this very day, and their epitaphs may be discerned afar: "They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy." The day of the wicked is short. In his pleasure there is no joy. He can only be happy so long as he is self-forgetful. My son, lay this to heart and shun the ways of evildoers. Their purpose can only be to destroy thee. They cannot restrain their falsehood, nor can they curb their cruelty. Put thou thy confidence in God.

"Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken "without remedy" ( Pro 6:15 ).

The most detestable of all characters was described in the former verses; we must remember this in order to see the justice of the sudden calamity with which he is threatened. The suddenness is rather in the consciousness of the sufferer than in any change in the judgment and righteousness of God. From the beginning the penalty has always been fixed, but its realisation, come when it may, always affects the soul with a sense of suddenness. Notice that this detestable character is to be "broken;" that is to say, he is to be shattered as a potter's vessel, and reconstruction is to be simply impossible. The words, "without remedy," sound like a knell of despair. In almost every other case there is some possibility of amendment and recall; but in the case of the malicious mischief-maker destruction is absolutely without promise of hope. In the sixty-fourth Psalm, David describes the action of the mischief-maker in energetic terms: "Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: that they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not." The suddenness of the action of the bad man is met by equal suddenness on the part of the divine Judge. "They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them? They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search [a search searched]: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep." The character of the malicious mischief-maker never changes. He is full of invention, he accomplishes "the planned plan" terms by which "a diligent search" may be rendered. The portraiture is one of conspirators, who calculate how they may lay snares privily and work out all the malign purposes of a secret league.

David clearly saw as the portion of the mischief-maker the very judgment that is declared in this verse. He even makes use of the same word "suddenly." "But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded. So shall they make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away."

"These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren" ( Pro 6:16-19 ).

The first expression may be rendered "Six are the things which he hateth." Probably the enumeration is only used to enable the writer to indicate the supreme thing which is hateful to God. In six troubles God hath been with thee, and in seven he will not forsake thee. The eye of the consoler is upon the seventh trouble as the climacteric distress. We are not to look upon the six as merely an arithmetical number, but as the whole process preceding the crucial trial of life. So when God says there are six things which he hates, he simply means that while he hates all things evil there is a seventh which gathers up into itself all that is most hateful to him. This seventh or supreme offence may be regarded as the Unpardonable Sin of the Old Testament The Lord hates a proud look, because it disqualifies men from receiving favour and grace from heaven; he hates a lying tongue, because it is stained through and through with falsehood; he hates hands that shed innocent blood, because of their cruelty; he hates a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, because it lives in a false world, in which the standard is wickedness, and the reward is increase of presumption; he hates feet that be swift in running to mischief, as if they expressed great delight in their unholy work; he hates a false witness that speaketh lies, because society is no longer secure when truth is not its chief ornament; and God hates the man that sows discord among brethren, for whatsoever foils or diminishes the spirit of love is not of a godly nature. If God hates all these things, on what pretence can we love them? Whilst the Lord hates all things that are evil, and might include them in one generic designation, it is a needful condescension to our infirmities that he should stoop to details, and such specific enumerations as may enable the sinner to follow the track of the divine displeasure. Besides, whilst a merely general condemnation of evil should be sufficient on the divine side, the human heart: would take refuge in this generality, and be perfectly content to sentimentalise about it. It is when God charges sins directly and specifically upon men that they are driven from vague generality into minute and critical self-examination. It is evident that these "six things" are separable one from the other in many particulars. No one man may concentrate in himself all the six hateful offences; for example, a man may have a proud look, yet he may not be a false witness that speaketh lies; or a man may have a lying tongue, but his hands may never have shed innocent blood; or a man may have a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, but he may not have energy enough to run swiftly in the way of mischief. On the other hand, a truer analysis would find that all the six sins spring in reality from one source, and constitute, indeed, substantially an identical offence. It could be shown that a man could not have a proud look without sowing discord among brethren; and it could be shown that a man who has a lying tongue spends his whole life in shedding innocent blood. These are not things that are to be judged in the letter but in the spirit. Whoever has a heart gifted with the genius of devising wicked imaginations could not be slow to speak lies, or to sow discord among brethren. So we are caught alike in the general, and in the particular. There can be no escape from the judgment of God.

"My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life" ( Pro 6:20-23 ).

The father will now have the child return to "the commandment" and "law," and regard them not as burdens but as ornaments. "Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck." We are familiar with this figure, because we find it in the third chapter, "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart." Long before this we have become accustomed to the same species of ornamentation. See, for example, Exodus 13:9 , and Deuteronomy 6:8 . The literal interpretation of these orders led to the use of prayer fillets and phylacteries among the Jews. It appears that particular texts of Scripture were cut out, put in a leather case and tied at the time of prayer on the left arm and forehead. We are to distinguish between the application of moral truth and the mere idolatry of moral maxims. If our morality were to be written upon our forehead, it would be but a public spectacle; but when it is wrought into the very substance of the heart it expresses spirituality of character. The heart must be interested in all our religious studies, or those studies will degenerate into pedantry and hypocrisy. A very beautiful picture is given in Proverbs 6:22 . The young man is led by the divine commandments; in sleep he is kept by the law of wisdom; and when he awakes he communes with the Spirit of God. The commandment and the law as Scriptural terms are always associated with images of light and glory: "the commandment is a lamp;" "the law is a light." Other passages bear out the appropriateness of these symbols (Psalms 19:8 , Psa 119:98-100 ). There are indeed details of life in the consideration of which not a little perplexity may arise, yet there is always a "commandment," a vivid "law," a specific "instruction," which may be consulted, and obedience to which will readjust all details. We are not to be eccentric moralists, looking for recondite points on which we may set up a special piety; we are to look to the broad ways and currents of life, and to see that they originate in a spirit of righteousness, and tend towards human utility. If we are faithful to these easily ascertained realities and demands, all that is recondite and peculiar in moral development will be revealed to us. The path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day.