Proverbs 25
McGeeCHAPTER 25This is a new division of the Book of Proverbs. These are still proverbs of Solomon, but they were put together by the men of Hezekiah. The Septuagint calls them “the friends of Hezekiah.”
Proverbs 25:1
This is the way the proverb states what the Lord Jesus said: “Search the scriptures …” (Joh_5:39). Paul wrote the same thing: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Ti_2:15). We are to “search out a matter.” Even then we need to recognize that there are a great many things that God has not revealed to us at all. I doubt if we would be able to understand them if He did. They are inscrutable; they are beyond the comprehension of man. As He made it very clear: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa_55:9). However, what God has revealed to us, we should study; we should consider it. It is important that we recognize our need to search the Word of God and to study it.
Proverbs 25:3
Sometimes we don’t understand what our rulers are doing. They probably have justification for it, because they know things that we do not know. Neither can we understand God’s ways, but we are never to sit in judgment upon what God does because whatever God does is rightit is the proper thing to do.
Proverbs 25:4
I think one of the worst things that can happen to any individual is to have an evil adviser, someone who leads you into difficulty and trouble and sin. I thank God for a man in my life who led me away from that, because there was another man who had led me in the wrong direction. Think how important this is to the man in high position. A man who makes a decision in business that would affect a great many employees or a man in government whose decision would affect a great segment of the population needs to have the right kind of advisers around.
Proverbs 25:6
“Put not forth” could be translated “display not.” You will remember that the Lord Jesus gave a parable to illustrate this great truth, and He did it because the religious rulers of His day were paying no attention to this proverb at all. When a great and important man invited many of his friends for dinner, he had reserved places at the table for certain ones he wanted to honor. But when the dinner bell was rung, there was a mad rush to get the best places at the table. They almost turned the thing over, I imagine, as they rushed in to get the most prominent places. The Lord Jesus was present there that day and apparently waited until everyone else had gone in. Then He said something to correct them: “When you’re invited to a dinner, don’t try to get the best place.
You should purposely take the lowest place. Then when the one who has invited you comes in and sees you taking the lowest placeif you are his honored guesthe may say to you, ‘Come on up here.’ Now, if someone else has taken that place, the host would have to tap him on the shoulder and say, ‘You go down and take the lowest place’” (cf. Luk_14:7-10). There are people whom we call “pushy” todaythey are pushing themselves. We have people who are pushy in Christian circles. They are ambitious. They want to get ahead in Christian things. That is a tragedy. Maybe you can’t blame a man in the business world for trying to get ahead, but in Christian work it ought not to be.
Proverbs 25:8
Now, again, the Lord Jesus gave a parable about this. He said in essence, “When a king is ready to go forth to war, he ought to sit down and see whether he’s going to be able to get the victory. And if he sees that he can’t carry on the warfare, then he ought to send an ambassador to make a peace treaty with the enemy” (cf. Luk_14:31-32). We have an example of this in the Old Testament in King Josiah. He was a good king, and he led the last great revival that Judah had. There was a great turning back to God under his leadership, but he made one grave mistake. Somehow just one flaw sometimes spoils the life of an otherwise great man. Josiah was a great man and an outstanding man of God, but he made this bad mistake. Pharaoh Nechoh, king of Egypt, came to make war, not against Josiah at all, but against an altogether different enemy.
But when Josiah came out against him, Pharaoh Nechoh told Josiah, “Now look, I didn’t come up to fight you.” But Josiah (he was a young man) had gone out to fight. I guess he thought it was the Lord’s will. (A great many of us blame the Lord for the mistakes in our decisions.) Josiah got into real trouble and lost the battle. In fact, he was killed in the battle there at Megiddo where the war of Armageddon will be fought. Josiah made a big mistake by meddling when he should not have done that at all. That is the thing the Lord wants us to see in this proverb (cf. 2Ki_23:28-30).
Proverbs 25:9
You could cause a great deal of trouble by criticizing your neighbor to the man down the street. If your neighbor has faults, go and talk to him personally.
Proverbs 25:11
Isn’t that a lovely one? That is just a beautiful simile. “Apples of gold"we do have a Golden Delicious apple today, but apparently the fruit referred to here is the orange. Oranges, as well as other citrus fruits, were common and native to Israel. Today they grow some of the finest oranges in the world. An orange is a beautiful fruit. Someone will think I am promoting oranges because I live in California, but oranges were plentiful in Palestine at the time of Solomon. As we go through the Word of God, we find that certain individuals said in a wonderful way just the right word at the right time. Sometimes it’s a good word. Sometimes it’s a word of rebuke. But the words were necessary, and they were “fitly spoken.” The words fit into the picture. They were the proper thing to say. This is something that most of us ought to pray about: what we should say and at what time. We need to recognize that many times we say the wrong thing at the right time, or sometimes we have the knack of saying the right thing but at the wrong time. And there are times when we probably ought not to open our mouths at all. I’m sure we all know some dear Christian who has a reputation of being able to say just the right thing at the right time"a word fitly spoken.” There was a dear saint of God who lived in the country in middle Tennessee years ago. She had a reputation for always saying something very nice to the preacher at the end of every morning service. Very frankly, people would linger to hear what she had to say, because there were times they couldn’t think of anything good to say about the sermon that they had heard. And one time they had a visiting preacher who was just a little worse than any they had ever had before. I tell you, people were interested that morning. What in the world could she say nice to that preacher about the sermon he had preached?
So when she went out, she said to him, “Pastor, I want you to know that I did enjoy your sermon, because this morning you had one of the most wonderful texts in Scripture.” Now that is “a word fitly spoken.” It was like oranges in a picture frame of silver. The golden orange and the silver frame blend very well, as you know.
Proverbs 25:12
You have seen a woman’s beautiful earring. In our day some men are wearing earrings, although I never saw one that I thought was attractive; but you have seen a woman beautifully wearing an earring. That describes the effect of a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. There are times when a person should be reproved and rebuked. We are living in a day when if we rebuke someone, especially if it is done publicly, people will say, “My, you certainly have lost that individual. You’ll never be able to win him.” Friend, if he’s the right kind of individual, you’ll win him. And if he’s the wrong kind, you wouldn’t be able to win him anyway. There are times that a reproof should be made.
Proverbs 25:13
In that land it gets really hot at the time of harvest. And in that day they would go up to Mount Hermon and pack some of the snow and bring it down. I tell you, the snow was good. How wonderful it tasted! That is what a faithful messenger is. No wonder the Lord is going to say to some, “…Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Mat_25:21). We all like to have around us faithful people. A man wants a faithful wife. He appreciates faithful children. An employer wants faithful employees. A pastor wants a faithful staff and a faithful congregation. And the people want a faithful pastor. Faithfulness is a wonderful quality. It is like a good, cold drink on a very hot day to have someone with us who is faithful.
Proverbs 25:14
Some men boast of gifts they don’t have. When I was a pastor, I would get letters from men who would tell me how wonderful they were. I remember one man wrote me, and he said he was an evangelist, a Bible teacher, a singer, and a pianist. He could do everything, and he wanted to hold a meeting at our church. I read the letter to the officers of the church, and they began to laugh. They said to me, “Why don’t you invite him?” I said, “I’d never invite that man for two reasons. The first reason is, if he’s the kind of man he says he is, after our people had heard him, they’d never want to hear me again! The second reason is I have a notion that he is a man who is boasting of a gift he does not have.” What a picture this is! And this is the picture of the apostates in the last days. Jude describes them in the most vivid language. He speaks of them as being clouds without water, fruit trees without fruit, “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame …” (Jud_1:12-13).
Proverbs 25:16
In the Old Testament, honey illustrates natural sweetness. There was no honey permitted in the bread or meal offering, because that offering speaks of Jesus Christ in His humanity. There was no natural sweetness in Him. Have you ever met someone who was so sweet, who said so many sweet things it almost made you sick? Notice what it says here. Don’t take in too much honey because it will make you sick at your tummy.
Proverbs 25:17
Oh, this is a good one! Don’t spend too much time at the neighbor’s, or else you may overhear a conversation in the kitchen where the lady of the house says, “I wish that old gossip would go home and stay home.” It’s better not to wear out your welcome at a place. That is what he is saying here.
Proverbs 25:19
For example, Judas was a bad toothache, and he was foot troublehe was both of them. You have probably met someone like that in your life.
Proverbs 25:21
We find that the Lord Jesus repeats this principle, and Paul does too. It is very important.
Proverbs 25:23
We are living in a day of sweetness and light when we are not supposed to rebuke anyone for anything. Every now and then I get a letter from some lovely saint who rebukes me for being hard on certain groups and certain movements. May I say that I believe that is what I should do. “The north wind driveth away rain.” An angry countenance will take care of a backbiting tongue; it will take care of those who are teaching falsely today. I think they should be dealt with, and I intend to continue to speak out when it is important to speak out. It would be wonderful if we could have sweetness and light all the time, but we are living in a world in which there are serpents along the pathway of life. There are pitfalls in our path: there is false doctrine and false teaching of the Word of God. And I want to speak out, but I hope I do it in a spirit of love. I have no intention of hurting any individual, but I do try to give out the truth of God. I find ample justification for that in the Word of God and here is one verse for it.
Proverbs 25:24
We have had this pointed out to us several times already. Solomon, who had so many wives, must have had a lot of trouble with some of them. Maybe that is why he mentioned this so often. I have wondered if he had some backseat drivers when he would go for a ride in his chariot. A professor in seminary gave us this little poem many years ago. I’ll just give you one verse and the chorus. I have part of it memorized, and I love to quote this to my wife. ‘Twas at a crowded crossing; crowds hastened to the spot, Whence came a cry of anguish and one loud pistol shot. Inside an automobile there lay a woman dead. Beside it stood the driver who with emotion said, (Chorus) “I am the lady’s husband. Long years have we been wed. I loved her very dearly and shot her through the head. I perhaps should not have killed her; it is not right to slay But with those backseat drivers, it is the only way.” I hope you don’t mind that bit of facetious verse. Maybe Solomon had some backseat drivers in mind when he wrote this proverb.
Proverbs 25:25
Have you heard from home lately? Or have you written home to mother? That is important. But there is something far greater in this verse than first meets the eye. There has come good news from a far country. The Lord Jesus said, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (Joh_16:28). In that brief period of time, as John Wesley said, God was contracted to a span, and He wrought out your salvation and mine. That is the good news that has come to us from a far country. By the way, have you received Him? Have you accepted Him? He is the Water of Life. He is “cold waters to a thirsty soul.”
Proverbs 25:26
When I was a little boy and went along on a hunting expedition, we never carried water with us in a container. We would come to a creek or a spring. Sometimes it would be limpid water (in that day pollution was not a big problem), but every now and then we found a spring that was green with scum. What a disappointment that would be. This is the comparison he makes with a righteous man, a man who has stood for truth, who finally bows before the wicked. How many times that happens in business. How many times that happens in politics. A man of integrity, in order to get into office, will bow before the wicked. And it even happens in the church. A man who has stood for pure doctrine, for things that are right, will begin to compromise and cut corners. That is the heartbreak of the day. It is just like coming to a spring when you are thirsty and finding it covered with scum and pollutants. What a verse this is!
Proverbs 25:27
A little honey is good, but a lot of honey makes you sick. For a man to be ambitious for self glory, especially in the ministry of God, makes you sick. We see this around us in the churchthere is an inordinate ambition among some Christians today. It makes you sick at your tummy to see that type of thing.
Proverbs 25:28
This refers to a man or woman who cannot control his emotions, who is not self-controlled. And you know that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Now there is a time for a person to let go. There is a time to stand for something and to speak out with great emotion. But, my friend, we are to recognize our need to control our own spirits.