Proverbs 11
McGeeCHAPTER 11As we have seen, the young man is in college now, and wisdomwhich is Christis the Teacher. Wisdom had to go out on the highways and byways to get her pupils, but she has a class now, and she is teaching by proverbs. The literary form of these proverbs is mostly couplets. The two clauses of the couplet are generally related to each other by what has been termed parallelism, according to Hebrew poetry. Hebrew poetry is attained by repeating or contrasting a thought. There are three types of parallelism: synonymous parallelism that restates the thought of the first clause; antithetic parallelism which gives contrasting truths; and synthetic parallelism in which the second clause develops the thought of the first. This chapter will actually give the young man some good advice about business.
Proverbs 11:1
God does enter into business; you can take Him into partnership with you. However, you can’t form a partnership with Him if you are crooked. If you are honest, He would like to be your partner. The Christian businessman is to be honest and a man of integrity. I am thankful that there are so many of these wonderful Christian businessmen. I have played golf with such a man. He lives in Chicago but had come down to Florida to attend our Bible conferences. Although we became well-acquainted, I didn’t come to know much about him in his business dealings. I was so pleased when another man who knows him well told me that this man is known far and near for his honesty and integrity. And he is a successful businessman. It is wonderful to find there are still men like this.
Proverbs 11:2
The other besetting sin is pride. Immediately here in his freshman course the young man is warned about pride. This proverb contrasts pride and humility. Always with pride comes “shame.” There is a great deal in Scripture, and especially in this Book of Proverbs, about pride.
Proverbs 11:3
This simply means that if a person wants to walk in the truth, if that is the desire of his heart, the spirit of God can be counted upon for guidance and direction. The contrast is: the “perverseness of transgressors [the treacherous] shall destroy them.” The other evening I talked with a young man who has the same problem that I had when I was going to school, which was finances. He asked me, “How do you tell the will of God; how do you know the way you should go?” My answer was this: “I had the same problem that you have. Always for me it narrowed down to only one way, and it would become very simple. The way that opened up was the way that I could go. If the door were closed, it was closed. If I didn’t have the money to go to school, I simply would not go. But it seemed the Lord would always open up just one door to let me go in. That happened to me again and again, and I always interpreted it as an open door from the Lord. I believe that if you mean business with God, He will open up the door. That has been my experience.”
Proverbs 11:4
Doesn’t this remind you of the Lord’s account of the rich man and the beggar named Lazarus? Both of them died. The riches of the rich man didn’t avail him anything in the day of wrath. But righteousness delivered the beggar; it took him right to Abraham’s bosom. Those who trust riches certainly have their priorities upside down. There is nothing wrong in wealth, but we need to recognize that it has limitations. Money will buy almost anything in this world, but it can buy nothing in the next world.
Proverbs 11:5
Perhaps it will mean more to us if we translate “wicked” by the word lawless.
Proverbs 11:7
“When a lawless man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.” Doesn’t this remind you of Haman in the Book of Esther? And Mordecai was the righteous man “delivered out of trouble.”
Proverbs 11:9
Hypocrite comes from the two Greek words meaning “to answer back.” The hypocrite is one who answers back, and the word was used for actors in Greek plays. When one actor would give the cue to the other actor, he knew it was time for him to say his little piece. It was play-acting. To say a man is a hypocrite in religious matters means that he is a phony. He is the man who will say “Hallelujah, praise the Lord” insincerely. He is just playing a part; he is not praising the Lord in his heart. “An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour.” He will pretend to be your friend, but he will knife you when your back is turned in an attempt to cover up the sin in his own life. Whom do you think of in the Bible in this connection? Wouldn’t it be Potiphar’s wife and the way she maligned Joseph? She brought false charges against Joseph to cover up her own sin. She was the guilty party, but she covered it over by accusing Joseph. Who would believe the story of a slave against the story of the wife of an official of Pharaoh? There was no need for Joseph to even open his mouth, because he didn’t have a chance to defend himself. Unfortunately, sometimes in the church we find a hypocrite who will say terrible things in order to protect himself. I have always been afraid of the man who is nice to his preacher to his face but who criticizes him behind his back. I have always felt that I needed to watch out for that kind of man. He is covering up something in his own life. Time has demonstrated to me that this was often a correct estimation of the situation. This proverb is referring to this kind of hypocrisy.
Proverbs 11:10
I place David and Saul beside these proverbs. When David was king of Israel, Jerusalem became a great city. When King Saul died, there was not much mourning for him.
Proverbs 11:12
I believe David is an example of this proverb, too. Did you ever stop to think of the tremendous effect the life of David had upon Solomon? Even though David had committed sin with Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba, David’s life was a wonderful life except for that blot on it. You remember when David had to flee from the city when Absalom rebelled against him, that Shimei, of the family of Saul, cursed him. Old Joab, David’s captain, wanted to go over and run a spear through him. David said, “No, he is speaking out of his heart. This is God’s judgment upon me.” “A man of understanding holdeth his peace.” There will be times when you will find folk are actually cursing you, maligning your character. Just keep quiet. The Lord will take care of it, as He took care of this situation with David. These are wonderful principles in this book. They are good for young people to study. There seems to be a real spiritual movement among the young people of today. I would like to see them study the Book of Proverbs. It would bring them to Christ, because He is the One who runs the school of wisdom and He is made unto us wisdom. Proverbs would give young people a lot of common sense. It seems to me we are short on common sense today. We seem to have a lot of high I. Q.’s and a lot of low common sense quotients.
Proverbs 11:13
A talebearer is one who tells something in order to hurt someone else. Sometimes the thing he is saying is true, but he still ought not to say it to others. If he knows that a brother has sinned, he ought to go to him personally and deal with him privately about it. He should not run around and tell everyone else about it.
Proverbs 11:14
Perhaps a more understandable translation is this: “Where no management is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” Regardless of how smart you are, you need good advice. You will remember that God gave Daniel to be an adviser to Nebuchadnezzar. He helped his king a great deal. Daniel was also an adviser to Cyrus, and he was a great help to him.
Proverbs 11:15
One who goes surety for a stranger shall smart for it, and he will get smart from the experience. He will learn that he made a big mistake. However, there was One who was surety for a stranger. Do you know who that was? Well, listen to the apostle Paul, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2Co_8:9). He assumed your debt of sin, and mine. He had to pay the awful penalty. His experience is described prophetically in Psa_69:4: “They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.” And again, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” (Isa_53:7).
The penalty was exacted, and He became answerable for it.The “… wages of sin is death …” (Rom_6:23) and Christ paid it for me. What a wonderful thing that is! Dr. H. A. Ironside in Notes on the Book of Proverbs, p. 121, wrote: He bore on the tree the sentence for me; Now both the Surety and sinner are free. He took my place.
Proverbs 11:16
This reminds me of Ruth in the Book of Ruth. She was a widow, she was poor, and she was a woman. Yet she retained her honor. Boaz could say to her, “… for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman” (Rth_3:11). The whole town of Bethlehem knew her. Not only did she maintain her honor in relationship with the opposite sex, but in every way she retained honor. The second part would apply to Boaz. “And strong men retain riches.”
Proverbs 11:18
Here is quite a contrast between sin and righteousness. Deceitfulness and lawlessness are going to be judgedthere is no escape. And the righteousness which a believer has is the righteousness of Christ. Because we have that, we will not come into judgment but will pass “… from death unto life” (Joh_5:24). Now here is a choice proverb
Proverbs 11:22
Have you ever seen a pig walking around with a gold ring in its snout? Well, there are a lot of them out here in Hollywood, California. They are beautiful women with no discretion.
Proverbs 11:23
The only way to have peace and joy is to be rightly related to Christ.
Proverbs 11:24
This is a paradox. Dr. Ironside put it like this: Bunyan’s quaint rhyme, propounded as a riddle by Old Honest, and explained by Gaius, is in itself a suited commentary on these verses: A man there was, though some did count him mad, The more he cast away, the more he had. He that bestows his goods upon the poor Shall have as much again, and ten times more. The Lord has said that if one sows sparingly, he shall also reap sparingly. That is a general principle. It certainly also applies to giving to the work of the Lord.
Proverbs 11:26
This verse reminds me of Joseph down in Egypt. He didn’t withhold the corn. He gathered it faithfully for seven years and then he was able to feed the world, including his own father and brothers and their families. It also reminds me of Nabal"he that withholdeth corn" certainly applies to him. He was a fool, and that is what his name means. He was married to a beautiful woman, Abigail. Why she married him, I don’t know, except that he was a rich man. David, during the years he was hiding from Saul, had taken care of Nabal’s sheep and had helped him on many occasions. So when David and his men were hungry, he called on Nabal for food. Nabal turned him down flatin fact, he insulted the messengers whom David had sent. (Redheaded David would not take that lying down! He went after the man, but on his way Abigail came to meet him with an offering of peace.) This proverb fits Nabal like a glove. Also I believe we could give this proverb a spiritual application. The corn is the Word of God. Many preachers are withholding the corn. They preach on political issues and social questions instead of teaching the Word of God. God have mercy on preachers who are withholding the corn from their people! We all are to give out the corn todaythis is not just for the preachers. Are you sitting on the sidelines, withholding corn from those around you? You could be a great impetus in getting a teaching of the Word of God into your area. Oh, my friend, “He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.” But what a thrill it is to have someone come and thank you for bringing them the Word of life! “Blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it"or giveth it without money and without price.
Proverbs 11:27
This is another evidence that “… whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal_6:7).
Proverbs 11:28
When our Lord gave parables, which I believe he drew from real life, He told about a farmer who had such a bumper crop that he decided to tear down his barns to build bigger barns. He would give all his attention to that. There is nothing wrong in building bigger barns, but the Lord said that he was a fool, because he was so interested in building big barns down here that he didn’t think of building anything for eternity. That is the danger of riches. No one can buy his way into heaven.
Proverbs 11:30
Many years ago a survey was conducted on the sons of preachers, because P.K.’s (preacher’s kids) come in for a lot of criticism. It was found that several United States presidents were sons of preachers, including Woodrow Wilson. Also some of our outstanding scientists were sons of preachers. Generally the children of saved folk turn out very well. Today there seems to be a flurry of little courses on how to achieve harmony in the home. I wish we could get past that smattering of knowledge and the little surface coating that is being applied today. A little course in psychology about being sweet and nice in the home is not the answer. We need to return to the Word of God and to living a godly life in the home. A lot of our family problems would evaporate if we had righteousness in the home. “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” “He that winneth souls is wise.” Today a great deal of attention is being given to personal witnessing. That is good. I believe it is one of the finest things that is taking place in our day and generation. The Word of God has been saying all the time, “he that winneth souls is wise.”
Proverbs 11:31
Judgment is coming. There can be no doubt about that.