Posted on 05/21/2022 12:42:45 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The way of man is froward and strange: but as for the pure, his work is right. It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house. The soul of the wicked desireth evil: his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes” (Proverbs 21:8-10).
“The way of man is froward and strange,” it isn’t strange and perverse to man, for “all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes” (Proverbs 16:2). It is strange in consideration of the way that God made man.
“. . . but as for the pure, his work is right,” it is not strange to God, for it is known to God. The “pure” in the Old Testament for those that kept the Law, performed the sacrifices, and did what God told them to do. The pure in the New Testament are a little bit different: “And put no difference between us [the Jews] and them [the Gentiles], purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). This is a purification by faith. When a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, God purifies that heart. When a Christian’s heart gets all fouled up with sin, the “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).
First of all, purity comes from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then secondly, purity is maintained by a regular confession of sins to God, pleasing the Blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us. Notice the absence of any kind of mediator in this matter. We are privileged to go straight to the alter of grace without the intercession of a human priest of any sort.
Verse 9 and 19 have the same thought. Jewish homes were built with a patio-type arrangement on the top of their houses with a parapet surrounding them to prevent people from accidentally falling off the side. They were open to the elements, but Solomon says it is better to sit out in the storms and rain than inside the house with a brawling wife.
Most Americans have a broad dwelling and a brawling broad.
“The soul of the wicked desireth evil,” they cultivate it. They are not like that when they begin life—most children, even though they are natural sinners and natural liars—like to be told the truth. Now, they are not always so good at telling the truth, but they don’t like to be lied to. Children are very hurt when an adult deceives them. They have an immediate sense of what’s right and wrong, and when they see something that is wrong, they immediately recognize it as wrong and point it out as being wrong. This is why children are referred to as “little lawyers.”
The older children get, and the more sophisticated they get, truth becomes a bit more pliable. That word, sophisticated, by the way, is interesting in itself. It comes from the word “sophistry,” which means a “subtle trickery” or “deception.” When you say someone is sophisticated, you are actually suggestion that they are devilish. The bottom line is that this person has learned how to say things without offending people but designed to get their own way. It is a lot like a politician or an insurance salesman.
“The soul of the wicked desireth evil,” he loves it. Paul gives a poignant description of these people in Romans 1, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:32).
Some people become so perverted and so crooked that the only thing they desire in life is just to do bad. They are not happy until they are doing it. Even though man is born a sinner, they aren’t born wicked—that nature is grown and cultivated by the individual. If that nature in a child is let go, and not tempered or controlled, it will eventually end up in wickedness. A child is simply not like that in the beginning.
“. . . his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes,” they can’t stand their “me first, you last” attitude. People that just want what they want and no matter what anyone else thinks about it are rarely on the neighborhood fan list.
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