Providence Points: Devotional, September 10 2007
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Biblical, Devotional & Informative
September 10, 2007
As a reminder: every other issue will be a short devotional. Use it
now or keep it for latter.
We continue Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, William Arnot,
Scottish Presbyterian minister.
Chapter 2: The Book
Itself
To understand a proverb, and the interpretation ; the words of the
wise and
their dark sayings."-i. 6.
IT is safer and better to assume that all men know what a proverb is,
than to attempt a logical definition of it. As a general rule, the
things that are substantially best
known are hardest to define. Proverbs are very abundant in all
languages, and
among all peoples. Many of them, though they seem fresh and full of
sap on our lips to-day, have descended to us from the remotest
antiquity. They deal with all
manner of subjects, but chiefly with the broadest features of common
life. The peculiar charm and power of the proverb are due to a
combination of many elements.
Among others are the condensed antithetic form of expression and the
mingled plainness and darkness of the meaning. Often there is
something to startle at first; and yet, on closer inspection, that
which seemed paradox, turns out to be only intenser truth. Like those
concentrated essences of food, which are so much used by travellers in
our day, the proverb may not present to the eye the appearance of the
wisdom that it was originally
made of; but a great quantity of the raw material has been used up in
making one, and that one, when skilfully dissolved, will spread out to
its original dimensions.
Much matter is pressed into little room, that it may keep, and carry.
Wisdom, in this portable form, acts an important part in human life.
The character of a people
gives shape to their proverbs; and again, the proverbs go to mould the
character of the people who use them. These well worn words are
precious, as being real gold, and convenient, as being a portable,
stamped, and recognised currency.
As a general rule, proverbs spring from the people at large, as
herbage springs spontaneously from the soil, and the parentage of the
individual remains for ever unknown. Very few proverbs are attached,
even traditionally, to the name of any man as their author. From time
to time collections of these products are made, and catalogued by the
curious; and the stock is continually increasing as the active life of
a nation gives them off. In other cases, books of proverbs have an
opposite origin. Persons who appreciate the proverbial form cast their
own thoughts in that mould, and so make a book of sentences, which are
proverbs in their nature, although not, in point of fact, generated by
casual contact of mind with mind in miscellaneous human life. It is
altogether probable that, as to its construction, the Book of Proverbs
partook of both kinds. It is probable that Solomon gathered and recast
many proverbs which had sprung from human experience in preceding
ages, and were floating past him on the tide of time; and that he also
elaborated many new ones from the material of his own experience.
Towards the close of the book, indeed, are preserved some of Solomon's
own sayings, that seem to have fallen from his lips in later life, und
been gathered by other hands. Even in this one book the proverb
appears under considerable diversity of form. Both in the beginning
and towards the close, occur arguments, more or less lengthened, of
continuous texture. But even in these the several links of the
connected chain are cast in the proverbial mould ; and the great
central mass of the book consists of brief sayings, more or less
arranged, indeed, but almost entirely isolated.
Considering how great a place proverbs hold in human language-how
great a part they act in human life-it was to be expected that the
Spirit would use that instrument, among others, in conveying the mind
of God to men. Proverbs, like hymns and histories, are both in human
life and in the Bible-in the Bible, because they are in human life. If
you wished to convey a message to a number of countrymen in France,
you would not speak in Latin in order to display your own learning ;
you would speak in French in order to accomplish your object. God's
will to man is communicated by means of instruments which man already
uses, and therefore understands. A greater than Solomon spoke in
proverbs. He who knew what was in man sometimes took up that
instrument, to probe therewith the secrets of the heart. Some he
gathered as they grew in nature, and others he created by his word;
but the old and the new alike are spirit and life, when they drop from
the lips of Jesus. Of the proverbs current in the world many are
light, and some are wicked. Those of this book are grave and good.
God's words are pure, whether he speaks by the prophets of old, or by
his own Son in the latter day. " More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey, and the
honey-comb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned."-Psalm xix. 10,
11. The book from which the following studies are selected is
peculiarly rich in " warnings," and the age in which we live
peculiarly needs them. " Speak, Lord, for thy
servant heareth."