At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1).
I read somewhere that there is a character in one of Hemingway’s novels who was asked how he went bankrupt. His reply was that it was first gradual, and then sudden. This proverb reminds me of that principle. First gradual, and then sudden.
The picture here is that of a fool who reproved or reprimanded frequently, but he doesn’t want to receive any of it. He is often reproved, but each time he just stiffens or hardens his neck. This resistance is a reflex move. It is habitual. Admonition follow admonition, but the foot can’t be bothered to change course at all.
When someone is stiffening their neck, it looks like they are being vindicated in the event, at least in that moment. Someone reproved, and the exhortation is just shrugged off. After it is shrugged off, the sky is still blue and the grass is still green. Everything is the same, and so the rebuke must have been inaccurate. Then it happens again, and the same state of affairs just continues on. This happens, Solomon tells us, often.
But a day finally comes when everything just gives way. The whole thing collapses, and in a way that makes people think of that “last straw” proverb. The fool believed that everything was going his way, regardless of what these rebukers might say or think. And so he was justified in ignoring their appeals . . . until he wasn’t.
Unfortunately, even after the final event has shown that the exhorters were correct in their caution, it is often the case that the fool is not convinced, even then. It is far easier to blame others, or curse his bad luck, or assume that fate has conspired against him. But it remains the case that God is not mocked, which means in its turn that a man reaps what he sows.
