Proverbs 4
McGeeCHAPTER 4Although the child is now a young man who has entered the big bad and mad world, he is still counseled to remember the instruction of his father.
Proverbs 4:1
“Ye children” includes the young and the old, male and female.
Proverbs 4:2
Solomon wrote this, and he is talking about his own father. Notice that he says, “I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.” There are those who feel that the father’s heart was wrapped up in his boy Solomon. I don’t see it like that. In my opinion the historical books reveal that Solomon was not the first choice of his father. This boy, reared in the women’s palace, was more or less of a sissy. I think he was a sort of playboy, and David did not have much in common with him. Solomon says, “I am my father’s son, but it was my mother who really loved me and taught me.” However
Proverbs 4:4
David probably gave him a great deal of advice. When Solomon was made king, David said to him, “Play the man!” I think he said that because he felt that Solomon was not manly. He said, “Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” David had learned by experience that you had better obey the Lord. Probably David was not as kind in teaching his son as he could have been. I have never felt that David was a success as a father. Unfortunately, that has been true of a great many famous men. The life of David was something that Solomon could emulate. Perhaps you are saying, Yes, but look what David did. Well, David’s great sins were committed before Solomon was born, and David had turned from that type of life altogether. Now Solomon is giving advice to a young man, and he is really laying it on the line.
Proverbs 4:5
Wisdom is depicted as a lady who keeps a school and sends out her catalog. Remember that there is another woman, the stranger woman, who is also bidding for the interest of the young man. Wisdom is urging him to come to her school so that he might be wise. Notice that he says that wisdom will “preserve” and “keep” the young man. The great difference in contemporary educators is pinpointed in this verse. Do they love wisdom? In other words, do they love the Word of God? It was Pascal who said that human knowledge must be understood to be loved. But divine knowledge must be loved to be understood. So if you are going to understand the Word of God, you must bring to it love and a mind that is willing to be taught. Then the spirit of God can open up the great truths to you. How important it is to see this. He says, “love her, and she shall keep thee.”
Proverbs 4:7
Notice the way he speaks of wisdom. It is not just knowledge; it is not simply having a computer mind. It is wisdom and intelligence to use knowledge properly and to have a love for it. That is something that the souls of men need today. The reason education is not satisfying is because of the way it is dished out. The most impressive thing here is that we are to get wisdom. How important it is.
Proverbs 4:8
The interesting thing here is that wisdom is to be loved like a woman is loved. When we get to the New Testament, this is changedChrist has been made unto us wisdom, and we are to love Him. The real difficulty in our day is not that there are problems in the Bible. The real difficulty is that in man there is not that love and longing for God and for the things of God. When love is present in the heart, this Book will begin to open up, because the spirit of God will become the Teacher.
Proverbs 4:10
This sounds to me like it is Bathsheba talking to Solomon.
Proverbs 4:11
This is a wonderful call to the young man to seek wisdom. “Take fast hold of instruction"it is something that should have top priority. It is like saying, “Learn all you can learn.”
Proverbs 4:14
We have noted before that the warning in this book is against the evil man and the stranger woman. That woman is a prostitute, of course. I think we shall see that this also has a spiritual application.
Proverbs 4:16
This portrays for us how the evil man and the stranger woman live. They can’t even sleep unless they have done some evil thing. You read of crimes and say, “I don’t see how a man could do a thing like that; I don’t see how a woman could live that kind of life. How can they stand to live with themselves?” My friend, these folk couldn’t live with themselves if they didn’t do these wicked things. We do not know how desperate and how deep into sin the human heart can go. There is nothing which the human mind and heart cannot conceive in wickedness. We need to realize that out in this world we are rubbing shoulders with many people who are not always nice. Of course there will be some wonderful people, but we need to be careful of the kind of people we meet. When I was a pastor in downtown Los Angeles and rode to work on the freeways, I would pray. (When you ride these freeways in Southern California, you do well to pray for your safety, but actually, I prayed about something else.) My prayer would be something like this: “Lord, I’m going to meet new people today. Some of those people I will be able to help. Some of them would like to hurt me. Help me to be able to tell the difference. Help me to put my arm around the man who needs my help, but help me to avoid the man who would put a knife in my back.” I think it is important that we recognize the kind of world in which we live. I have learned that there are certain men who will become true friends, bosom friends, and I thank God for them. It is men like that who made my radio ministry possible. Then there have been men who have tried to destroy ityet they profess to be Christians. It is difficult to understand their thinking. The human heart is not to be trusted. We need to be very careful; we need to have discernment as we meet mankind in our daily walk.
Proverbs 4:18
You will meet wonderful saints like this. Then notice the contrast:
Proverbs 4:19
There are two ways that are set in contrast. One way is the way in which the righteous go. It is described as a “shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” There is another way, the way the lawless go. It is a way of darkness. It reminds us of the broad way that our Lord described, which I believe has been misunderstood. I can remember when I was a boy that we would be taught about the broad way and the narrow way. Now if they had asked me which way I wanted to go, I would have said immediately, “I think you could have a lot more fun on the broad way.” Unfortunately, I think that is the impression most often given. However, that is not accurate at all. The picture is altogether different. The broad way is a wide one today. That is where the mob is. The crowd is having a “vanity fair” down that way all the time. The carnival is going on. (By the way, that word carnival comes from the word carnal, which has to do with the flesh.) Down there is the place where they indulge the flesh, and they call it the way of liberty. We hear today that we are living in a new age in which we can do as we please. That is certainly a broad waythat is, at the entrance.
But notice that this broad way gets narrower and narrower and narrower. The way of the lawless is the dark way. “The way of the wicked is as darkness.” There are the bright lights at the entrance, but down a little farther there are no lights. The people don’t even know what they are stumbling over. That is the broad way that the Lord Jesus described. It is just like going in at the big end of a funnel and then finding that it gets narrower and narrower until finally it ends in destruction. In contrast, the narrow way is very narrow at the entrance. The Lord Jesus said, “… I am the way …” (Joh_14:6, italics mine). It is so narrow that it is limited to one Person: Christ. No one can come to the Father but through Him. You just can’t find a way any narrower than that. Peter said, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Act_4:12).
Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (Joh_10:9). The entrance is narrow, but after the entrance the way gets wider and wider, leading to an abundant life here and on into the light of heaven itself. My friend, we need to enter into the narrow end of the funnel, and that end is labeled, The Lord Jesus Christ. That is exactly the picture we get from our verses here in Proverbs. There are two ways. There is the path of the just, and there is the way of the wicked. We will hear more of this in this book. The broad way is described in chapter 16: “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pro_16:25).
Proverbs 4:20
The psalmist said this about the Word: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psa_119:11, italics mine). God’s words are the words of life. It has been said of the writings of a great man of the past that if his words were cut, they would bleed. This can truly be said of the words of God. They are living wordsif you cut them, they will bleed. “For they are life unto those that find them.” They will bring life and light to you. They bring instruction and direction and joy. All this comes through the Word of God. Now here is one of the great verses in the Book of Proverbs:
Proverbs 4:23
Another translation of this verse is: “Keep thy heart above all keeping"with all diligence. This is the most important thing to watch over. “For out of it are the issues of life.” The life of the flesh is in the blood, and it is the heart that pumps that blood. William Harvey back in the seventeenth century discovered the circulation of the blood which revolutionized medical science. Yet here in Proverbs which was written about 2,700 years earlier, there is a recognition of the importance of the heart for the maintenance of life. And the heart symbolizes the center of one’s innermost being. The Lord Jesus said that it isn’t what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of a man. “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Mat_15:19).
Some of the meanest things in the world come out of the human heart. The heart is the seat of the total personality. If you want to know how important the heart is, get your concordance and look up all the references to the heart that are in the Bible. We are to keep our hearts with all diligence. What we hear is important. What we study is important.
What we see is important. We should recognize that out of that heart will come all of the great issues of our lives. Let’s not miss the fact that the Book of Proverbs, written long before Harvey made the discovery of the circulation of blood, makes a statement about the heart that centuries later science demonstrated to be true. In the Book of Proverbs (and this can be said of the entire Bible) you will find no unscientific or inaccurate observation.
Proverbs 4:24
The issues of life will proceed from the heart, but it is the mouth and the lips that will do the speaking. Someone has put it like this: “What is in the well of the heart will come up through the bucket of the mouth.” How true it is that sooner or later the mouth will reveal what is in your heart. Our mouths give us away. Mrs. McGee and I were having lunch in a little town in the Northwest and were talking to each other. We noticed that the waitress seemed very much interested and pretty soon she interrupted us. “Aren’t you Dr. McGee?” I answered, “Yes, how did you know me?” She said, “I’ve never seen you before, but I listen to you on the radio.” Later my wife told me, “You had better be very careful what you say. You are recognized by people when you have no idea that you are being recognized.” How true that is, but the care has to begin with the heart. What is in the well of the heart will come up through the bucket of the mouth. Our mouths will give away what is being harbored in our hearts.
Proverbs 4:25
Oh, how careful a young man needs to be! A man told me the other day that he ruined his whole life by being arrested when he was a young man. He has a record against him, and that record has confronted him again and again down through the years. In this day when the use of drugs and liquor is so prevalent, especially among young folk, how careful he should be. How tragic it is to see multitudes of youngsters who are destroying themselves because they do not “ponder the path” of their feet.