Chapter 17

We must remind ourselves that there are two great basic principles which are found in the book of Proverbs. The first is orientation to the plan of God and this means primarily, down with human good. The great enemy of the mankind is human good, and this is the story of the book of Proverbs. Human good is rejected in the first phase of the plan of God—salvation. Human good never has any place in the plan of God. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross was divine good and the issue of salvation is divine good versus human good, or “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” There is no compromise of this principle, no one can be saved by his human good and by his works. Human good is said to be religion or legalism, and religion or legalism is simply man doing something by his own ability and morality, and God is supposed to bless man on the basis of what man does and man gets the credit. This is the great attack which is recognised in Proverbs—man trying by his own works to gain the approbation of God. This doing in phase two is simply called in Proverbs the wicked doer—the believer producing human good. This is the believer who is out of fellowship. The believer who operates in the energy of the flesh constantly produces human good and he acts like any unbeliever.

But the plan of God is grace, and grace equals God doing the work and man simply receives that God has provided. This doing is divine good. So the great issue in phase two is human good versus divine good and it is God’s objective that in spite of our failure, in spite of our carnality, in spite of our suffering, our pressures, our disasters, that we as believers in Jesus Christ might produce divine good. But this requires Bible doctrine. Without Bible doctrine this is impossible. The believer has many enemies, including legalism, emotionalism as a criterion, sincerity, and other human good activities. But with Bible doctrine in the soul we have inner happiness which equals occupation with Christ, and with this we can have that stability, that happiness, that peace which is fantastic.

Verse 1 – doctrine and inner happiness. This is a comparative distich where the first line offers something better than the second line.

“Better is a dry morsel and quietness [tranquillity or inner happiness] therewith”—a dry morsel represents food which is not edible. It is better, says the Word of God, to have inner happiness and bad food than to have all the accoutrements of life in a home and a nagging wife, which is called here strife.

“than a house full of sacrifices” – the sacrifices were the best animals. This is a house where they served the best food, a house where they have legalism, a lot of religiosity. With this there is strife and quarrelling and bickering. So the principle is that in a home the thing that is absolutely essential in Bible doctrine. Good food plus strife or bickering equals misery. Strife comes from human good and mental attitude sins. But lousy food plus inner happiness which comes from doctrine equals a perfect situation. The lousy food is merely a detail because you have occupation with Christ, something that cannot be shaken. This opening verse in the chapter is to remind us that everything in life is a details except doctrine. You cannot afford to miss Bible doctrine. Having the details of life and no doctrine is self-induced misery.

Verse 2 – “A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame.” This man is a wise servant because he was born again and he began to learn doctrine. Once he began to learn to use doctrine it made him wise. He is wise because he is utilising the assets of doctrine. But born into this family is a son, but he is minus doctrine whereas the wise servant is plus doctrine. This wisdom overflows into stability and others factors. The son who is minus doctrine is a shame to his father.

“and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren” – wisdom is always the application of doctrine to experience. Bible doctrine takes up the slack for the deficiencies of life. The son had the birthright to rule, he had power, talent, and relationship with the father; but the servant comes to rule instead of the son because the servant used the assets of the second birth [salvation]. The son worked on the principle of human good. The Hebrew actually says in this second line, “and he [the servant] shall distribute the inheritance to the brethren.” The servant actually becomes the heir and he distributes a little money at a time so that at least the father’s sons will have something by which they can lives.

Implications: The believer with doctrine is dependable, he is faithful, he is successful, he overcomes all the handicaps of life, he has the respect of those who can properly evaluate personnel in life. The believer with doctrine is honest and therefore the dying father depends upon the servant, the believer with doctrine, rather than on his own flesh and blood. So the dying father also had wisdom. He recognised that a person’s value is not measured in terms of birth, background, education, talent, personality, but in God’s sight it is measured in terms of Bible doctrine leading to occupation with Christ.

Verse 3 – suffering. “The fining pot” – this is a crucible, a pot in which metals were melted and purified in the melting process; “and the furnace” – the refiner’s furnace which was used in the ancient world. Whether it was the crucible or a furnace in the ancient world they applied fire to the metals for purification. Fire equals the principle of suffering in this proverb and under this principle we learn the importance of doctrine. The reason why the believer is permitted to suffer is because suffering gives him a true scale of values. He realises that doctrine is important. When we have doctrine it is fine if we have the details of life but if we do not have them it makes no difference. Cf. 1 Peter 1:7,8.

Verses 4,5—the believer minus Bible doctrine.

Verse 4 – the believer producing human good under the OSN. “A wicked doer” – the believer who produces human good.

“giveth heed to false lips” – one thing that characterises the legalist is that he does not care for doctrine. He is negative to doctrine and this leads to accepting false teaching. This is why believers are often involved in cults and various types of apostasy. A wicked doer here is in the hiphil stem, causative, and it goes back to the volition of the believer. He causes himself to do this, he gives heed – hiphil participle. So one causes the other. When Bible doctrine is rejected a vacuum is created into which false teaching is drawn.

“and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue” – a liar is simply a believer who does not have doctrine. He is a liar because he can only see human viewpoint. A naughty tongue is not naughty in the sense that we use the word but it means a false tongue. The giving here is a hiphil participle—the result. There is a vacuum created by negative volition and the hiphil participle recognises that this is the result of the previous hiphil participle which is the result of the previous hiphil participle. The result is that we get false doctrine and human viewpoint in the soul, and the result is self-induced misery. A further result is brought out in the next verse.

Verse 5 – self-induced misery from false teaching received leads to mental attitude sins which produce more self-induced misery. Here vindictiveness is the result.

“Whoso mocketh the poor” – this refers to the carnal believer of the previous verse. The word mock is not mock as we understand it at all. The Hebrew word is la’ag and it means to deride in the sense of looking down at someone, building yourself up, making yourself feel good by picking out someone who is deformed, someone who is an idiot, someone who is non-attractive, and by verbally deriding them developing in your own mind a pride and a confidence. The word poor means the handicapped, not someone who is broke. It means someone who is needy in a special way.

“reproacheth his Maker” – he is ridiculing God. God permits these people to survive for a purpose: to give us perspective with regard to His plan. So this person ridicules God in the sense of failing to recognise that this obvious type of human frailty is not nearly as bad as his own human frailty—mental attitude sin of derision.

“and he that is glad of calamity shall not be unpunished” – this is gloating over some calamity that has befallen someone else. The greatest monster in the Christian life is what you think—mental attitude sins.

Verses 6-10, the proverbs of life.

Verse 6 – a reciprocal distich: the first line is stated and then the situation is reverse in the second line. “Children’s children are the crown of old men” – this refers to grandchildren. This is a comparison. Not between parents and children but between grandparents and children. Grandchildren are a crown to old men tells us that grandparents dote on their grandchildren who can be a source of blessing to them. Here we are introduced to divine institution #3. If there is between grandparents and grandchild a span of doctrine covering three generations, then this doctrine becomes a crown. The three generations of doctrine gives maximum stability to a national entity. The principle is that there is three generations of success in the perpetuation of Bible doctrine.

Verse 7 – deals with divine institution #4, the national entity itself. There is such a thing as freedom of speech. This verse is a comparative distich where the first line gives something better than the second line. “Excellent speech” means lip talk about something you do not understand, a speech above and beyond the capacity of the individual who is called here “a fool.” A fool talks with authority about things he does not understand. But there is something much worse than the fool making a beautiful speech about a subject he does not understand, and that is the “lying lips of a prince.” The lying lips in the Hebrew refers to the deceitful activity of a national leader operating on the basis of political expediency rather than doctrinal principles. This prince does know what is going on and he, too, makes a speech. But when he makes a speech he deliberately deceives. The lying speech of a national leader is much more detrimental than the eloquent speech of a fool who speaks on a subject of which he knows nothing.

The answer to this is found in one word—grace. So we have a principle of orientation to the grace of God through Bible doctrine. From these two proverbs which deal with life in general we now get down to the proverb whereby the believer can do not only something for himself but something for the national entity in which he finds himself.

Verse 8 – “A gift” here is doctrine. God has given the believer something for phase two, the Christian way of life—the doctrine by which we orient, by which we serve, by which we produce divine good.

“as a precious stone” – literally, a stone of grace. In the Hebrew the word stone refers to a very valuable stone. The gift of a stone refers to the fact that what God gives us in Bible doctrine and everything that he provides for us is based upon His person. It depends upon the person of God. God is absolutely perfect and therefore His gifts are perfect. They do not depend upon human merit or human ability in any way. The gem is analogous to doctrine. Doctrine has its source in grace. God has graciously provided us with information whereby we can have great happiness, peace, blessing and joy, throughout our existence on this earth.

“in the eyes of him who has it” – the eyes refer to the intelligence, the intelligence of the one who possesses doctrine. If you are going to have a true scale of values in this life as a believer it has to be based on Bible doctrine.

“withersoever it turneth, it prospereth” – the word it refers to Bible doctrine. Wherever it turns means wherever it goes. Wherever Bible doctrine goes Bible doctrine prospers.

Verse 9 – the result of that Bible doctrine. We have the importance of harmony among believers. “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love.” Covering a transgression means to pardon a transgression, to have no mental attitude sins toward another in spite of what they have done to you. It means non-retaliation—Romans 12:19. The word seek means to promote, so when you forgive and forget something that someone else has done against you, you promote love. The word covereth is a verb in the piel stem (intensive) kasah, which means to pardon, forgive, to have non-retaliation in your mind. You love when others retaliate. You respond to the Lord and you relax toward them. You put the matter in the Lord’s hands and you leave it there. The piel stem means to do it constantly. A transgression is someone doing something against you. It is derived from a verb in the Hebrew which means to revolt, to apostasize.

“but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” – he separates himself from friends. There are some believers today who do not have one friend because they have separated themselves through their mental attitude. The Hebrew here means to rake up sins that should be forgotten, to air dirty linen. The matter refers to someone who has wronged you and to go around and talk it. In other words, airing someone else’s sins.

Verse 10 – “A reproof.” The Hebrew actually says One reproof. This is simply the teaching of Bible doctrine, a reproof from doctrine.

“is worth more than an hundred stripes” – learning it by discipline.

“entereth more into a wise man” – the only person who will take the reproof of Bible doctrine is the person who loves doctrine, the person who is learning doctrine. Reproof is only good for the wise. For reproof to penetrate you have to have doctrine there.