The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 86

II. TnE MOTIVE WITH WHIOH GoD OHABTENS HIS CHILDREN IS FATHERLY LOVE. 1. God must be angry with us for owr sin. His anger, however, is not the fruit of me.ligne.nt hatred, but the expression of grieved love. For love can be angry, nay, sometimes must be, if it is pure e.nd strong. The weak kindliness which is a stranger to indignation e.t wrong-doing is based on no deep affection. 2. If God chastens in love, it is for our own good. Wee.k love seeks the present pleasure of its objects; strong love e.ims at the highest welfare, even though this involve misunderstandings and temporary estrangement. 3. Gorl's paternal relation with us is the ground of his che.stening in love. We do not feel called upon to correct in strange children the faults for which we chastise our own family. The very love we bear to our children rouses indignation at conduct which we should scarcely heed in others. True love is not blind to the faults of those who are loved, it is rather rendered keen-sighted by sorrowful interest. Hence we may take the chastening as a proof of the love and Fatherhood of God. If we were not children, God would not thus put us to pain. Instead of regarding trouble as a proof that God has deserted us, we should see in it a sign that God is owning us and concerning himself with our welfare. The worst curse a man can receive is to be deserted by God and left unchecked in pursuit of folly and sin (Heh. xii. 8). III. To RIGHTLY RECEIVE DIVINE OHASTENING WE MUST NEITHER DESPISE IT NOR GROW WEARY OF IT. The good it will do to us depends on the reception we give it. Like other graces, the grace of correction may be received in vain, may be abused to our own hurt. We must not be se.tisfied, therefore, with the mere fact that we are being chastened. Two evils must be avoided. 1. Despising chastening. Cynical indifference and stoical hardness will render the chastening jnefficacious. We mu3t open our hearts to receive it. It blesses the broken heart. The very sorrow it induces is of the essence of its healing grace. 2. Growing weary of chastening. This is the opposite failing. We may despair, complain, show impatience, and rebel. Then the chastening loses its utility. The right reception is evidently to feel its grievousness, but to submit humbly and to seek to learn its bitter but wholesome lessons. The two all-essential though!B, that suffering is for our own good, and that it is sent in love and is a proof of God's fatherly care for our welfare, should help us neither to be indifferent to it nor to rebel against it, but thus humbly to accept it. Vers. 13-20.-" More precious than rubies." We must bear in mind that the wisdom here commended to us is not mere knowledge, science, philosophy. It has two important characteristics. First, it is religious; it is based on the fear of God. Second, it is practical; it assumes the direction of human conduct. It is the know- ledge of Diviue truth, and the application of it to life. Why is this to be accounted most precious ? l. WISDOM 18 VALUABLE ON ACCOUNT OF ITS OWN INHERENT QUALITIES. (Vers. 13-15.) Paper money is worthless unless it ce.n be exchanged for something else; but gold coins have a value of their own. If they are not used in the purchase of other things, the precious metal is valuable, and can be fashioned into objects of use and bee.uty. Wisdom is like solid specie. If she brings nothing else, she is a treasure in herself, While men are asking what advantages will religion give them, they shoulLl see that she is" the p~arl of great price," for which all other good things may be sold, and yet the profit remain heavily on the side of him who purchases her. This is an inward treasure, a possession of the soul. It has many advantages over materie.l treasures. 1. It is ezalted and elevating. Its character is pure, and it raises thost1 who possess it. There a.re earthly treasures the.t defile by contact with them, and. others that materie.lize-make e. man hard, worldly, ignoble. 2. It is satisfying. A man cannot live on gold, but on bread alone. There are desires of the soul that money and food do not quiet, Books, pictures, music, all works of art, nil triumphs of civiliza- tion, leave a void unfilled. It is the mission of the thoughts of God in the soul to fill .this void .. 3. U is never wearying. Many things that never satisfy soon 8atiate. We .are not full, yet we turn away with disgust, he.ving had enough of them. The sea is beautiful, but the sailor grows tired of the endless monotony of we.ves. Divine wisdom never tires us. It is infinite, endlessly ve.ried, eternally fresh. It is true that we may become wee.ried of religious occupations, religious books, etc. But then we have the  , . ,..,, 'l'HE PROVERBS. tOU, JU, 1-35. , imperfections of the human embodiment of wisdom to annoy us. 4. It is secure. No ~hief can steal it. _N? moth nor rust can consume. it, The thief may take a man's Jewels, hut never his mner treasure. He may be stnpped of property, home, choicest possessions, and left to bare beggary; yet if be have precious thoughts of God in his heart, no thief can touch them. They are a safe, an eternal possession. • II. WISDOM IS VALUABLE BECAUSE IT MINISTERS TO OUR EARTllLY WELFARE, (Vers. 16--18.) The temporal advantages of religion are here described with that prominence and positiveness 'l\·hich are characteristic of the Old 'l'estament, and of the Book of Proverbs in particular. We have learnt to see more limitations upon these things, and, at the same time, we have had revealed to us much larger spiritual and eternal beati- tudes than ~hose ?f the Jewis~ faith. But we may make the mistake of ignoring the truth contamed m the old view. There are earthly advantages in religion. It has promises for this life as well as for that to come. I. Length of days. Many good people die young; many bad men grow hoary in sin. If it were not so we should lose the discipline that comes by our having to walk by faith. But o~ the whole, wisdom tends to length of days by preserving the constitution sound and healthy. A wise way of living falls in with the laws of health. Reckless folly saps the energies of life, induces disease, decrepitude, premature old age and death. 2. Ways of pleasant• ness and peace. The road is pleasant as well as the end. Religion may brin~ a cross, but she also brings grace for bearing it. All her rewards are not reserved for the future. There is a peace of God that passeth all understanding, which the world can neither !Zive nor take away, and which will make the wilderness of the saddest life blossom like the rose. 3. A tree of life. Length of days is a poor blessing unless the life preserved is worth living. What boon would it be to an exile in Siberia, a. convict on Dartmoor, a paralytic in an infirmary? Long existence without a source of worthy life is the curse of the Wandering Jew, not the blessing of eterna.l life. Wisdom- i.e. Divine truth, religion-supplies fruits for holy sustenance:and leaves for the healing of the nations. To know God is eternal life (John xvii. 3). III. WISDOM IS VALUABLE BECAUSE IT IS A LINK OF OONNEOTION BETWEEN MAN AND GoD. (Vers. 19, 20.) Our heart is restless till it finds rest in God. All our highest life, all our deepest peace, all our truest thought, all our noblest effort, all our purest joy, depend on our union in and with God. But wisdom is an essential Divine attribute. By it God first created the earth and the heavens (ver. 13). By it he now controls all things (ver. 20). The wisdom of God is reflected in nature. All our know- ledge is just the reflection of this wi~dom; it is thinking into the thoughts of God; thns it is a communion with him. Spiritual knowledge brings us nearest to God, who is Spirit. Christ as the incarnate "Word," by whom all things were made, and the Wisdom of God, is our Mediator, and unites us to God.