Verses 20-33
The Complaint of Wisdom
Wisdom now turns from her children and addresses those who despise her. The address extends from the 20th verse to the 23rd. Wisdom in this address is personated; it has been considered that the word in the plural number represents the varied and all but innumerable excellences of true and just understanding. Even if we take the personation as highly poetical, this need not divest the speech of such merits as can be tested by reason and experience. If in the first instance Wisdom is here to be regarded as signifying the highest intellectual sagacity combined with anxious moral discrimination, yet the highest form of the thought is only fulfilled in him who is in very deed the wisdom of God. A comparison of Luk 11:49 with Mat 23:34 almost shuts us up to the conclusion that Jesus Christ applied these words to himself. The Apostle Paul says that Jesus Christ has been made unto us wisdom, and that in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom. The description of Wisdom as uttering a loud cry in public, and making all the streets resound with her exclamation, represents the depth and poignancy of her solicitude. Christianity cannot see men rushing down to the chamber of death without uttering a protest and proclaiming a gospel. Wisdom should not enclose herself within her own sanctuary, and shut her eyes to the real facts of actual life as it is to be seen "on the streets," and in the hiding-places of sin and shame. Jesus Christ went abroad amongst men and made himself acquainted with the actual condition of the people. When he came near the city he wept over it. When he saw the multitudes he had compassion upon them. The Church is not to be the quiet and sacred home in which Christianity enjoys itself, but is to represent the refreshment and the strengthening which the Church requires in order to qualify her to deal with the depravity, the ignorance, the squalor, and the despair of the people at large. Wisdom urges herself forward until she attains a position in the chief places of concourse, even in the openings of the gates, and at the very centre of the city. Wisdom is an evangelist. Wisdom is not afraid of being contaminated by the pollution which it seeks to heal. Wisdom is assured that her counsels are necessary for the elevation of humanity, and the whole direction and happy completion of the purposes of human life. The attitude in which Wisdom is represented in this passage is the attitude in which the Church should constantly find herself. Wisdom is aggressive. Not only does she declare her own excellence, she seeks by zealous importunity to draw others to her shrine, that obeying her instructions they may become blessed with freedom and inspired with hope.
Wisdom first addresses the simple ones; that is, men who are open to good influences or impressions, but also to those that are evil. The Proverbs, according to the fourth verse, were intended to give subtilty to the simple. Then she proceeds to address the scorners, asking them why they delight in their scorning. The scorners are to be regarded as men who hold in contempt all holy things, and actually congratulate themselves upon their skill in so doing, "A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth," proud, arrogant men, who imagine that they cannot be instructed, and who pour their contemptuous criticisms upon men who seek the nobler life. Then Wisdom proceeds to address fools, men who hate knowledge, men of debased mind, who are all but incapable of high thinking, and who live with stolid content within the circle of their own ignorance. It has been noticed that, bad as is the condition of the simple, the scornful, and the foolish, Wisdom does not despair of reclaiming them from the error of their ways. It is not the part of divine wisdom to leave men where they are, uttering over them words of helplessness and despair. God insists that even the worst may be converted, and those who are farthest astray may be brought penitently to the altars they have forsaken. This is a high and fascinating distinction of the blessed gospel of grace. It comes out into the highways and the hedges; it eats with publicans and sinners; it calls to them that are afar off, and assures those who are hardest of heart that love waits to welcome and to pardon them. Observe further that all these descriptions are to be taken in their moral as well as in their intellectual sense. Men have not only gone astray in their minds, they have committed treason in their hearts, and because their hearts are corrupt the whole estate of manhood has been overthrown and laid desolate.
Wisdom is not content with criticising the condition of the simple, the scornful, and the foolish, she proceeds to make a great offer to those who have most completely turned their back upon all her charms and claims. Her words are, "Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you." This is the first great act of Wisdom namely, the gift of a new spirit. Thus Wisdom deals radically with the awful circumstances which excite her solicitude. She does not propose to create a new environment that is to say, to alter circumstances here and there so as the more thoroughly to please the eye, or gratify any of the senses. She aims at the renewal of the spirit; not at mere amendment, but at the substitution of the Divine Spirit for the spirit of selfishness and worldliness. It must be God's light that destroys men's darkness. The earth can only be warmed by the sun, and brought out of winter bondage by the graciousness of the heavens. As the earth never leads herself out of winter into summer, but is always taken upon that upward and enchanting journey by the action of the sun, so the heart of man never finds a way for itself into true and enduring liberty, but is conducted from bondage into freedom by the direct action of the Spirit of God. Not only will the Spirit be given as a new energy, but instruction will be added "I will make known my words unto you." These words cannot be made known to any man who has the wrong spirit, "If any man love me, I will manifest myself unto him." Divinest things are hidden from the wise and prudent, and are revealed unto babes. "If any man will do God's will, he shall know of the doctrine." Look now upon the whole picture, and see if it be not marked with the highest dignity and the most assuring tenderness. Even as a picture this description ought to arrest attention and awaken gratitude. According to the lines thus portrayed, men have gone astray from light, and truth, and love, and have involved themselves in all manner of evil thinking and evil doing; so much so that God is no longer in their thoughts, and the whole purpose of life is given up either to intellectual scorning or to moral putrefaction. To a world thus lost Wisdom goes forth as from the sanctuary of heaven, the very temple and throne of light, and, whilst condemning the state in which the world is found, she offers a new spirit and a new will, and does so with the infinite enthusiasm of love. This is not a mere offer, it is an act of importunity; it is not a proposal given with the air of an ultimatum, the proposition represents anxiety, concern, even agony. Wisdom has gone forth to win a conquest, or to retire as with a broken heart. When Jesus Christ offers men rest, the disappointment which will follow their neglect cannot but fill him with the intensest grief. Wisdom does not adopt the tone of curt argument, as one who would say to others, You are wrong, and I alone am right. Wisdom cries, she lifts up her voice in the street, she yields herself to the inspiration of a generous passion; she does not intend to return to her rest at night until the whole city has been filled with the music of her all-including gospel.
"Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil" ( Pro 1:24-33 ).
The action now changes. We are to think of Wisdom having made her offer, and having been refused by those to whom she addressed herself. Mercy now gives place to judgment. The day of persuasion is limited. We may form some conception of the range and intensity of the speech of mercy when we consider the blackness and completeness of the judgment which follows refusal. If to understand man's sin we may have to look at God's mercy, so to understand God's mercy we may often have to look at God's judgments. When all heaven is black with thunder, because of the violence which is found in the earth, we may form some conception of the nature of the violence by the blackness of the thunder which threatens it. Whatever may be the doom which awaits the sinner, whatever theory of the future may be adopted by speculative thinkers, no man can peruse the Bible without being made to feel that the penalty which follows sin is appalling, not only beyond expression, but beyond imagination. It may be that Calvary can only be fully explained by perdition. The Son of God did not die to save men simply from the sleep of unconsciousness, or from the insignificant ruin of oblivion. Men should tread the sacred ground which relates to the future of sin with trembling feet. He who makes light of the doom of the sinner makes light of the whole priesthood of Jesus Christ. Whatever may be the speculative truth, it is not too much to say that the evangelical conception of law involves a very glorious conception of the work which Jesus Christ came to accomplish.
Notice that Wisdom can only "call." It is for the sinner to say whether he will accept or refuse. Wisdom says, "I have called," and then she adds, with mournful pathos, "ye refused." This is a vivid statement of a great philosophical thought; the action of the human will is a mystery which has never been fully explained, but it is everywhere recognised in the volume of revelation. Jesus Christ said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Even when the Saviour addressed men who came to him with the utmost humility, he said to them, "What will ye?" On the last day of the feast he offered to give water to the thirsty, but it was for the thirsty to say whether they would accept the gracious overture. Herein is the mystery of human nature; it is so weak as to be consumed before the moth, and yet so great that it can deny its God and reject his love. But the action does not rest at this point: an offer has been made and rejected, voices of reconciliation and pardon have been disregarded; beyond this there is an action exceeding all others in melancholy Wisdom will laugh at the calamity of the sinner, and mock when fear comes upon the bad man. Surely beneath all the poetry in which this future is represented there is the very spirit of philosophy and justice. The reason is given for the terrible judgment The action on the divine side is in no sense arbitrary; even whilst the judgment burns as an oven it condescends to give a reason for its intensity. Observe the word "because" in the 24th verse, after that word comes a statement of the reasons upon which God proceeds. What we have to ask is whether the impeachment itself is correct. Have we in very deed refused the offers of Wisdom, have we disregarded the command of God, have we set at nought all the divine counsel, have we rejected all the holy reproof of the Lord? If we decide these inquiries in the affirmative, then the rest will proceed inevitably, irresistibly! So long as the offer is made our strength to accept it is recognised; but when that offer is rejected our only strength is to go forward to evil and ruin, to be driven before a righteous judgment into the punishment which awaits impurity and disobedience. Who can dwell upon the words "laugh" and "mock"? They need not be taken literally and thus become limited in their significance, or made to assume aspects which may be supposed to be unworthy of the Sovereign of the universe. They are poor signs of the reality of what God will do. He will act as if he laughed, and as if he mocked. There is a time predicted when men shall call unto the rocks and unto the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of the Lamb; but rocks and mountains have never been on the side of the sinner, all nature in her silent processes has ever been the servant and the ally of God. Nor does the action end even at this point. Let us see how the action now stands: first, Wisdom has called; secondly, men have refused; thirdly, judgment has ensued; and now, fourthly, those who have been condemned make suit unto the God they have despised. "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." Jesus Christ distinctly points out that there is a time when the door will be shut, and men will stand without, saying, "Lord, Lord, open unto us;" but he will answer, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." All the meaning of this, who shall adequately reveal? These are not matters for intellectual speculation; may they never be matters of actual experience! We cannot, however, but be struck with the careful manner in which reasons are always given for this outcome of evil courses. Hear how the indictment proceeds: "They hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsels: they despised all my reproof therefore"! If men will not plough the earth, or cast in the seed, or take advantage of the opportunities created by the sun, in harvest they shall beg, and in winter they shall be desolate. Does any one complain of the arbitrariness of the course of nature? Do not men instantly sit in judgment upon those who have allowed the seasons to pass by without availing themselves of the opportunities offered? Instantly the spirit of criticism arises and declares that nature has been outraged, that law has been dishonoured, and that only suffering can follow. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; it is also a fearful thing to fall into the hands of neglected nature. The divine economy of the universe is one. A sacred unity binds together all worlds, all laws, all souls, all destinies. Surely he is a scorner and a fool who undertakes to live a life apart from that economy, and who supposes that, having detached himself from the central power, he can create a rival throne, and sway with success a competitive sceptre. "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?"
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