“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying ‘Come unto me and drink.’ ” (John vii. 37.)—Trapp.
In the Scriptures, Wisdom cried unto men. “They testify of me,” said Jesus. The prophets all spake of His coming. The sacrifice offered year by year, continually proclaimed aloud to each generation the guilt of men, and the way of mercy. The history of Israel, all the days of old, was itself Wisdom’s perennial articulate cry of warning to the rebellious. The plains of Egypt and the Red Sea, Sinai and the Jordan, each had a voice, and all proclaimed in concert the righteousness and mercy of God. And the things were not done in a corner. . . . But the wisdom of God is a manifold wisdom. While it centres bodily in Christ, it is reflected and re-echoed from every object and every event. There is a challenge in the prophets, “Oh earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!” The receptive earth has taken in that word, and obediently repeats it from age to age. . . . He hath made all things for Himself. He serves Himself of criminals and their crimes. From many a ruined fortune, Wisdom cries, “Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.” From many an outcast in his agonies, as when the eagles of the valley are picking out his eyes, Wisdom cries, “Honour thy father and mother, that thy days may be long.” From many a gloomy scaffold Wisdom cries, “Thou shalt not kill.”—Arnot.
Verse 21. Wisdom’s walk through the streets. The Lord and His Spirit follow us everywhere with monition and reminder.—Lange’s Commentary.
In verse 10 sin was represented as trying to get in. Here wisdom is represented as trying to reach out. Sin is harmless unless it can get into the conscience. Wisdom is utterly helpless unless it begins with the flesh. One strives to get in, the other yearns to reach out. “The natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit.” She must begin, therefore, without. The impenitent can only hear natural reasons. “The law is a schoolmaster.” The terrors of death are applied by the Almighty to draw us nearer, within, and finally into the region that is spiritual. It is “out of doors,” therefore, that Wisdom must life up her voice.—Miller.
The voice of wisdom is heard everywhere. It sounds from the pulpit. From every creature it is heard (Job xii. 7, 8). The word is in our very hearts, and conscience echoes the voice in our souls. Let us go where we will we must hear it, unless we wilfully shut our ears.—Lawson.
In the Temple she crieth for holiness and reverence, in the gates she crieth for justice and equity, in the city she crieth for honesty and charity. Or else by accommodation we may thus take the words, the head is the chief place of concourse in man, where all the faculties do meet and all affairs are handled: the openings of the gate are the outward fences, the city is the heart, to all which wisdom strongly applieth her instructions. In the head she crieth for a right understanding, in the outward fences for watchfulness, in the heart for upright sincerity.—Jermin.
Verse 22. Men are always going to be wise, and therefore, Wisdom plunges upon this very difficulty. You are going to repent; but when? And, as a still more imperative question, “How long first?” You are, perhaps, a grey old man, and your resolutions have been for fifty years.—Miller.
Lovers of simplicity and haters of knowledge are joined together; for where there is a love of simplicity, there is a hatred of knowledge, where there is a love of vice there is a hatred of virtue.—Jermin.
Scorners love scorning. The habit grows by indulgence. It becomes a second nature.—Arnot.
These simplicians are much better than scorners, and far beyond those fools who hate knowledge. All sins are not alike sinful, and wicked men grow worse and worse.—Trapp.