At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: But he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.

Proverbs 28:15–16

Simple people get worked over in two distinct ways. The first is when their rulers are cruel and wicked. Those who have this kind of rule are like a lion, roaring for its prey, or a hungry bear, ranging here and there, looking for a meal. The poor are like a vulnerable gazelle or deer. Those who rule in this way are arrogant, cruel, vindictive, and driven by their insolence. When this is the case, things are bad, but at least we all know where we are.

But Solomon goes on. The poor people are also greatly oppressed by ignorant rulers. This is the curse of our day. In days gone by, there were rulers like Tamerlane who exulted in his cruelty, ordering towers to be fashioned out of the skulls of his enemies. That kind of thing is generally frowned on these days. 

But progressive leftist politics is still a great destroyer. It is a destroyer in the hands of a Stalin, who had the heart of a Tamerlane, and it is a destroyer in the hands of an Eleanor Roosevelt, who had a heart of a goop. It doesn’t matter how syrupy the intentions are, the poor are still wiped out by the grand intentions of the social engineers.

Notice the antidote to both cruelty and incompetence is hatred of covetousness. When a man is qualified under God to bear rule, one of his principle qualifications is his hatred of covetousness. “Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens” (Exodus 18:21). This qualification is so important that it is applied all the way down to “rulers of tens.”

Men who hate covetousness will obviously refrain from the smash and grab approach to wealth that the cruel love to employ. But they will also reject all the schemes of uplift and social betterment that some think will be rendered effective simply because they were inspired by good intentions. But cruelty hath slain its thousands; good intentions its tens of thousands.  

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

They that forsake the law praise the wicked: But such as keep the law contend with them.

Proverbs 28:4

One of the reasons we sometimes find ourselves in shooting wars, where all the questions about pacifism naturally arise, is because we have previously acquiesced in another more subtle form of pacifism. That is the kind of pacifism that does not want to dispute, or challenge, or debate. We in our complacency want to think that “debates settle nothing,” which is not true at all. We sometimes think we are being peacemakers when we are only being lazy.

Notice what this proverb says. There is a group of people that forsakes the law of God, and as a result of this forsaking, they praise the wicked. This sets the stage for a conflict, which happens because those who keep the law contend with them. It is likely that the righteous contend with both groups—those who forsake the law and consequently praise the wicked, and also the wicked. The verb contend means to oppose, to strive against, to challenge in court, or even to wage war.

There are many manifestations of wickedness on display in our generation, and it appears to many Christians that these manifestations have grown to the point where opposition would be fruitless. But David could have said that about Goliath, but in faith he did not. He could have reacted to Goliath the same way the rest of the Israelite army did—but he refused. So the first point to make is that just because the wickedness has grown to a great size is no reason for refusing to face it.

But a lesson should be drawn from all of this. Most of the rampant evils we are looking at today would have been much easier to defeat had we just contended with them as soon as the law was initially forsaken. Small weeds are easier to uproot than large ones. So we don’t want to be like that fellow who only drinks when he is alone, or with somebody. We don’t want to be those Christians who refuse to engage because the wickedness is “too small,” and then later refuse to engage because it has grown “too big.”  

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: But much increase is by the strength of the ox.

Proverbs 14:14

Another way to state this is to say that profit is messy. Profit is of necessity messy. A good way to keep your workshop clean is by never going in there. A good way to keep your desk in great shape is by never sitting down at it.

Returning to the proverb, do you want a clean barn or a productive barn? If you want a productive barn, then you want one that will be routinely and regularly and constantly in need of a cleaning.

Work is hard. Work is heavy. Work leaves bits of things on the floor that need to be swept up at the end of the day. An elegant table requires a messy kitchen.

Now of course, as sinners, we have a propensity to quote the wrong proverb to ourselves. As C.S. Lewis once put it, when confronted with a flood we break out the fire extinguishers. We crowd to the side of the boat that is about to go under. What this means is that the lazy farmer who needs to shovel out his barn a lot more frequently than he does, is the farmer who is likely to know about this particular proverb. A cross-stitch sampler of it may even be hanging over his mantle. But he still needs to clean out the barn.

There are disorderly places that are not the sign of productivity, and have descended to nothing more than being a fire hazard. To the proprietors of all such, the exhortation would be to remember that there is a ditch on bothsides of the road. If the fastidious need to learn how productive the right kind of messiness can be, then theyneed to learn how productive the right kind regular maintenance can be.

So you should clean up your workspace regularly. But you should do this because you mess it up regularly.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge: But a fool layeth open his folly.

Proverbs 13:16

This proverb supplies us with a good example of how one half of the verse illuminates the other half. We are told that a prudent man deals with knowledge. That sounds good, but what does it mean precisely? We find out by looking at the contrast. The fool lays his folly open. He is open and vocal about the stupid thing he is just about to do.

The prudent man, the godly man, keeps his cards close to his chest. He does not say everything he is thinking. He does not share his plans with everybody. He does not announce on Facebook that he is going to go here and there, and do business, and make money (Jas. 4:14).

It is better, as our proverb goes, to keep your mouth shut and have people think you are a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.

Some Christians might struggle with an aspect of this. It doesn’t seem honest or transparent to them. Shouldn’t Christians be open and vulnerable? No. They shouldn’t. The prudent man is cagey and canny. 

There are things a man should share with his wife, and with no one else. There are things he should say to his family, and no one else. There are views that a man should tell his closest friends, and no one else. And then there are the things he should be willing to say to anyone.

This is not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is when you say A to one person and not A to another. I am talking about saying A to one person, A and B to another, and A, B, and C to a third. And to have some notion of which group you are with before you start talking. A prudent man understands the importance of security clearances.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children:
And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

Proverbs 13:22

Before getting into a discussion of this particular proverb, we need to remind ourselves again about the nature of proverbs. Proverbs are not axioms in geometry, where you might say something like “triangles have three sides, yea, four sides only are to be found in a rectangle.” Proverbs are generally true, and true enough to steer by them in day-to-day decisions. A bird in the hand really is worth two in the bush. But there are exceptions here and there.

That said, we have two related but distinct statements made here. The first is that a good man leaves an inheritance for his grandchildren. It is an obligation of parents to seek to lay up material wealth for their children and grandchildren. I emphasized the word material here because there is a Gnostic streak in many devout evangelicals, an impulse that wants to rush straight to making this proverb a limited spiritual truth. We are taught in Scripture to be wary of material wealth, but not in the way that is common in our circles. “Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children” (2 Cor. 12:14). So if parents have sacrificed material wealth for the sake of Christ and the gospel, they may be content that they are in fact leaving a spiritual inheritance for their grandchildren. But if they are frittering away their substance in an undisciplined manner, and calling it “spiritual,” it is time for them to reevaluate.

The proverb also pushes in the opposite direction. It is not fitting for sinners successfully to store up treasure for up-and-coming sinners. The wicked can appear to thrive for a time (Ps. 37:35), but read on to the next verse (v. 36). When the just come into wealth that was first collected by the unrighteous, the just ought not to have any qualms about it. It is the way it ought to be.  

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