'Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21. She
crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates:
in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22. How long, ye simple
ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their
scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23. Turn you at my reproof:
behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words
unto you. 24. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded; 25. But ye have set at nought all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26. I also will laugh at your
calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27. When your fear cometh
as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when
distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28. Then shall they call upon
me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall
not find me: 29. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the
fear of the Lord: 30. They would none of my counsel; they despised all
my reproof. 31. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own
way, and be filled with their own devices. 32. For the turning away of
the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy
them. 33. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall
be quiet from fear of evil.'--PROVERBS i. 20-33.
Our passage begins with a striking picture. A fair and queenly woman
stands in the crowded resorts of men, and lifts up a voice of sweet
entreaty--authoritative as well as sweet. Her name is Wisdom. The word
is in the plural in the Hebrew, as if to teach that in this serene and
lovely form all manifold wisdoms are gathered and made one. Who then
is she? It is easy to say 'a poetical personification,' but that does
not add much to our understanding. It is clear that this book means
much more by Wisdom than a human quality merely; for august and divine
attributes are given to her, and she is the co-eternal associate of
God Himself. Dwelling in His bosom, she thence comes forth to inspire
all human good deeds, to plead evermore with men, to enrich those who
listen to her with choicest gifts. Intellectual clearness, moral
goodness, religious devotion, are all combined in the idea of Wisdom
as belonging to men.
The divine source of all, and the correspondence between the human and
the divine nature, are taught in the residence of this personified
Wisdom with God before she dwelt with men. The whole of the manifold
revelations, by which God makes known any part of His will to men, are
her voice. Especially the call contained in the Old Testament
revelation is the summons of Wisdom. But whether the writer of this
book had any inkling of deeper truth still, or not, we cannot but
connect the incomplete personification of divine Wisdom here with its
complete incarnation in a Person who is 'the power of God and the
wisdom of God,' and who embodies the lineaments of the grand picture
of a Wisdom crying in the streets, even while it is true of Him that
'He does not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the
streets'; for the crying, which is denied to be His, is ostentatious
and noisy, and the crying which is asserted to be hers is the plain,
clear, universal appeal of divine love as well as wisdom. The light of
Christ 'lighteth every man that cometh into the world.'
The call of Wisdom in this passage begins with remonstrance and plain
speech, giving their right names to men who neglect her voice. The
first step in delivering men from evil--that is, from foolish--courses
is to put very clearly before them the true character of their acts,
and still more of their inclinations. Gracious offers and rich
promises come after; but the initial message of Wisdom to such men as
we are must be the accusation of folly. 'When she is come, she will
convict the world of sin.'
The three designations of men in verse 22 are probably arranged so as
to make a climax. First come 'the simple,' or, as the word means,
'open.' There is a _sancta simplicitas_, a holy ignorance of
evil, which is sister to the highest wisdom. It is well to be ignorant
as well as 'innocent of much transgression'; and there is no more
mistaken and usually insincere excuse for going into foul places than
the plea that it is best to know the evil and so choose the good. That
knowledge comes surely and soon enough without our seeking it. But
there is a fatal simplicity, open-eared, like Eve, to the Tempter's
whisper, which believes the false promises of sin, and as Bunyan has
taught us, is companion of sloth and presumption.
Next come 'scorners,' who mock at good. A man must have gone a long
way down hill before he begins to gibe at virtue and godliness. But
the descent is steep, though the distance is long; and the 'simple'
who begins to do what is wrong will come to sneer at what is right.
Then last comes the 'fool,' the name which, in Proverbs, is shorthand
for mental stupidity, moral obstinacy, and dogged godlessness,--a foul
compound, but one which is realised oftener than we think. A great
many very superior intellects, cultivated ladies and gentlemen,
university graduates, and the like, would be unceremoniously set down
by divine wisdom as fools; and surely if account is taken of the whole
compass and duration of our being, and of all our relations to things
and persons seen and unseen, nothing can be more stupid than
godlessness, however cultured. The word literally means coarse or
thick, and may suggest the idea of stolid insensibility as the last
stage in the downward progress.
But note that the charge is directed, not against deeds, but
dispositions. Perverted love and perverted hatred underlie acts. The
simple love simplicity, preferring to be unwarned against evil; the
scorner finds delight in letting his rank tongue blossom into speech;
and the false direction given to love gives a fatal twist to its
corresponding hate, so that the fool detests 'knowledge' as a thief
the policeman's lantern. You cannot love what you should loathe,
without loathing what you should love. Inner longings and revulsions
settle character and acts.
Verse 23 passes into entreaty; for it is vain to rouse conscience by
plain speech, unless something is offered to make better life
possible. The divine Wisdom comes with a rod, but also with gifts; but
if the rod is kissed, the rewards are possessed. The relation of
clauses in verse 23 is that the first is the condition of the
fulfilment of the second and third. If we turn at her reproof, two
great gifts will be bestowed. Her spirit within will make us quick to
hear and receive her words sounding without. Whatever other good
follows on yielding to the call of divine Wisdom (and the remaining
early chapters of Proverbs magnificently detail the many rich gifts
that do follow), chief of all are spirits swift to hear and docile to
obey her voice, and then actual communications to purged ears. Outward
revelation without prepared hearts is water spilt upon rock. Prepared
hearts without a message to them would be but multiplication of vain
longings; and God never stultifies Himself, or gives mouths without
sending meat to fill them. To the submissive spirit, there will not
lack either disposition to hear or clear utterance of His will.
But now comes a pause. Wisdom has made her offers in the crowded
streets, and amid all the noise and bustle her voice has rung out.
What is the result? Nothing. Not a head has been turned, nor an eye
lifted. The bustle goes on as before. 'They bought, they sold,' as if
no voice had spoken. So, after the disappointed waiting of Wisdom, her
voice peals out again, but this time with severity in its tones. Note
how, in verses 24 and 25, the sin of sins against the pleading Wisdom
of God is represented as being simple indifference. 'Ye refused,' 'no
man regarded,' 'set at nought,' 'would none of'--these are the things
which bring down the heavy judgments. It does not need violent
opposition or black crime to wreck a soul. Simply doing nothing when
God speaks is enough to effect destruction. There is no need to lift
up angry arms in hostility. If we keep them hanging listless by our
sides, it is sufficient. The gift escapes us, if we simply keep our
hands shut or held behind our backs. Alas, for ears which have not
heard, for seeing eyes which have not seen because they loved evil
simplicity and hated knowledge!
Then note the terrible retribution. That is an awful picture of the
mocking laughter of Wisdom, accompanying the rush of the whirlwind and
the groans of anguish and shrieks of terror. It is even more solemn
and dreadful than the parallel representations in Psalm ii., for there
the laughter indicates God's knowledge that the schemes of opponents
are vain, but here it figures pleasure in calamities. Of course it is
to be remembered that the Wisdom thus represented is not to be
identified with God; but still the imagery is startling, and needs to
be taken along with declarations that God has 'no pleasure in the
death of the sinner,' and to be interpreted as indicating, with daring
anthropomorphism, the inevitable character of the 'destruction,' and
the uselessness of appeals to the Wisdom once despised. But we
joyfully remember that the Incarnate Wisdom, fairer than the ancient
personification, wept over the city which He knew must perish.
Verses 28-31 carry on the picture of too late repentance and
inevitable retribution. They who let Wisdom cry, and paid no heed,
shall cry to her in their turn, and be unnoticed. They whom she vainly
sought shall vainly seek for her. Actions have their consequences,
which are not annihilated because the doers do not like them. Thoughts
have theirs; for the foolish not only eat of the fruit of their ways
or doings, but are filled with their own devices or counsels.
'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' That inexorable
law works, deaf to all cries, in the field of earthly life, both as
regards condition and character; and that field of its operation is
all that the writer of this book has in view. He is not denying the
possibility of forgiveness, nor the efficacy of repentance, nor is he
asserting that a penitent soul ever seeks God in vain; but he is
declaring that it is too late to cry out for deliverance from
consequences of folly when the consequences have us in their grip, and
that wishes for deliverance are vain, though sighs of repentance are
not. We cannot reap where we have not sowed. We must reap what we
have. If we are such sluggards that we will 'not plough in winter by
reason of the cold,' we shall 'beg in harvest and have nothing.'
But though the writer had probably only this life in view, Jesus
Christ has extended the teaching to the next, when He has told of
those who will seek to enter in and not be able. The experience of the
fruits of their godlessness will make godless men wish to escape
eating the fruits--and that wish shall be vain. It is not for us to
enlarge on such words, but it is for us all to lay them to heart, and
to take heed that we listen now to the beseeching call of the heavenly
Wisdom in its tenderest and noblest form, as it appeared in Christ,
the Incarnate Word.
Verses 32 and 33 generalise the preceding promises and warnings in a
great antithesis. 'The backsliding [or, turning away] of the simple
slays them.' There is allusion to Wisdom's call in verse 23. The
simple had turned, but in the wrong direction--away from and not
towards her. To turn away from heavenly Wisdom is to set one's face
toward destruction. It cannot be too earnestly reiterated that we must
make our choice of one of two directions for ourselves--either towards
God, to seek whom is life, to find whom is heaven; or away from Him,
to turn our backs on whom is to embrace unrest, and to be separate
from whom is death. 'The security of fools,' by which is meant, not
their safety, but their fancy that they are safe, 'destroys them.' No
man is in such danger as the careless man of the world who thinks that
he is all right. A traveller along the edge of a precipice in the
night, who goes on as if he walked a broad road and takes no heed to
his footing, will soon repent his rashness at the bottom, mangled and
bruised. A man who in this changing world fancies that he sits as a
king, and sees no sorrow, will have a rude wakening. A moment's heed
saves hours of pain.
The alternative to this suicidal folly is in listening to Wisdom's
call. Whoever does that will 'dwell safely,' not in fancied but real
security; and in his quiet heart there need be no unrest from feared
evils, for he will have hold of a charm which turns evils into good,
and with such a guide he cannot go astray, nor with such a
defender be wounded to death, nor with such a companion ever be
solitary. If Christ be our Light, we shall not walk in darkness. If He
be our Wisdom, we shall not err. If He be our Life, we shall never see
death. If He is our Good, we shall fear no evil.