Verse 19.—1. The particularity of address—“to thee, even to thee.” In the days of prophetic inspiration, it was no unusual thing for the servants of God to receive express commissions to individuals, in which they alone were concerned. But the whole Book of God—the entire “word of His testimony”—should be considered by every one as addressed to him; as much so as if there were no other human being besides himself, and as if it had been “given by inspiration” to himself alone. There is no room for any saying, as Jehu did of old—“To which of all us?” The answer would, in every case, be—To each of you all—to thee—to thee—to thee. Not that there is no such thing as, “rightly dividing the Word of Truth;” not that there are no portions of it that have a special appropriateness of application to the characters and circumstances of individuals. Still, the great truths of the Word are alike to each and to all. And speedily a man may be placed in one or other of the peculiar situations to which the different portions of it are adapted! I know of nothing more important than for every individual to bring Divine lessons home to himself. Too often, alas! we forget personal amidst general application of particular truths. We think of them as intended for men, and forget that they are designed for us. Would you then profit by what you hear?—keep in mind that what is addressed to all is addressed to each—“to thee, even to thee.”—2. Mark the emphasis on the time—“this day.” We set a mark, in our minds, on days that have been rendered memorable by events of special interest. Would Noah, think you, ever forget the day of the year on which he and his family entered the ark, and when “the Lord shut him in?” or the day on which he again stepped out of it upon the green earth, to be the second father of mankind? Would the shepherds ever forget on what night of the year the angelic messengers, amidst the light of the glory of the Lord, announced to them the Divine Saviour’s birth, and when “the multitude of the heavenly host,” bursting on their sight, “ascended jubilant,” saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men?” Or would Cornelius ever forget the day and the hour when the angelic visitant directed him to that instruction whereby he and all his house should be saved? You, it is true, have many times heard the words of truth. Let me, however, remind any of you who have thus often heard, and who still neglect them, of the importance to you of each day that you enjoy the privilege. Every time you thus hear them, your eternal all depends on the reception you give to the message of God. This day may be important indeed, for it may be the last on which Divine truth shall sound in your ears. O that it may be a day to be sacredly and joyfully remembered by every sinner now present, as the day on which he first felt its inestimable preciousness to his soul! If you thus hear, and thus improve the opportunity, the day will not be obliterated from your memory by the lapse of eternity. There is one thing of which with emphasis it may be said to each individual sinner, It is “to thee, even to thee:”—I mean the message of the Gospel—the message of free mercy through the Divine Mediator. There is no exception; there is no difference. The law speaks to each, “to thee, even to thee”—its sentence of condemnation. The Gospel speaks to each—“to thee, even to thee”—its offer of free, full, immediate, irrevocable pardon on the ground of the universal atonement. To every fellow creature we can say—An adequate atonement has been made for all; therefore for thee—“for thee, even for thee;” and on the ground of that atonement does Divine mercy come near to thee—“to thee, even to thee”—with the offer of forgiveness, acceptance, and life. “This day” is the message of life again “made known” unto thee, O sinner; and there is no obstacle to thine acceptance and enjoyment of it, but what is in thyself;—none in God; none in Christ; none in the atonement; none in the Divine offer of its virtue to mankind. “To thee is the word of this salvation sent;” and “now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.”—Wardlaw.
Only a Divine Word can beget a Divine faith, and herein the Scripture excels all human writings, none of which can bring our hearts to the obedience of faith. “I can speak it by experience,” says Erasmus, “that there is little good to be got by the Scripture, if a man read it cursorily and carelessly; but if he exercise himself therein constantly and conscionably he shall feel such a force in it, as is not to be found in any other book whatsoever.” “I know,” saith Peter Martyr, “that there are many who will never believe what we say of the power of God’s Word hidden in the heart; and not a few that will jeer us, and think we are mad for saying so. But oh that they would be pleased to make trial! Let it never go well with me—for I am bold to swear in so weighty a business—if they find not themselves strangely taken and transformed into the same image.” The Ephesians “trusted in God” so soon as they heard the word of truth. They “believed” and were “sealed” (Ephes. i. 13). And the Thessalonians’ faith was famous all the world over, when once the Gospel “came to them in power” (1 Thess. i. 5–8).—Trapp.
Verses 20 and 21. How the preacher labours! Let us begin at his most expressive terminus. We are to be sent for! some certain day. “Those that send” is but the proverbial cast. “Him that sends” is the more perfect meaning. As sure as the stars we shall be sent for one day; and one thing will be exacted from us, and one only in the creation, and that is light. The man without light perishes. Solomon says, his whole aim has been to press light on the sinner. . . . “Have I not done,” he says, “and that under Scriptural promises, the very best things to secure my object? and is not that object, now that I might make thee to know the verity of the words of truth!” This Hebrew is very peculiar. “Words of truth” are easily uttered. “Counsels and knowledge” of the deepest sort may be in the minds of infidels. We may teach a child the very intricacies of faith. But there is a “verity” at its deepest root that the natural man cannot perceive (1 Cor. ii. 14). To express this, Solomon uses a very infrequent word. It means (in radice) to weigh out so as to be exact. That I might make thee to know the exactness of the words of truth. The meaning is that verity which is seen by a Christian eye.—Miller.
Surely if anything be worthy of sending for, worthy of going for, then are the words of knowledge and truth. If they may be had for going or sending, who should not go, who should not send, whither should we not go, whither should we not send? They are they which must bring us to heaven and to happiness. Or else to take the sense another way, and in a spiritual application of the words: Who are they that send unto us? What are the words of truth that we must answer unto them? They that send unto us are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. God the Father sendeth His blessings, God the Son His merits, and God the Holy Ghost His graces. The words of truth that we must answer are the words of thankful obedience.—Jermin.
The certainty of the words of truth. The evidence of the divinity of the Bible, instead of ever being shaken by all the efforts of infidelity, has been augmenting from the beginning hitherto. Its external evidence has grown in the fulfilment of its predictions. Its internal evidence, though in one sense ever the same, has, in another, been increasing also; inasmuch as it has stood its ground amidst all the advances of human knowledge, and men have never been able to improve upon it or to get before it:—and it is the one only book of which this can be affirmed. And its experimental evidence,—the manifestation of its truth in its saving influence,—in its power to dislodge and change the evil passions and habits of the worst of men,—has multiplied by thousands and tens of thousands of dead and living witnesses. In our own days, we have but to point, not only to cases of revival in our own land, in which the Gospel has proved itself “mighty through God” to the pulling down of the strongholds of worldliness and corruption, and turning hearts long alienated to God,—but to the lands of heathen idolatry and cruelty and vileness, wherever Gospel truth has found its way and has been embraced. There, in the marvellous changes that have been effected,—in the contrast between previous stupidity and pollution, and heartless and murderous ferocity, to intelligence and purity and virtue, and peace, and harmony, and happiness, we have the triumphs of the Cross, and the manifestation of the “certainty”—the Divine certainty—“of the words of truth.” They have thus shown themselves to be indeed “excellent things” by the excellence of their effects. We call upon all to examine for themselves. The Bible courts examination. It is the unwillingness and refusal to examine, that is most to be deplored. The genuineness of its writings, the authenticity of its histories, the reality of its recorded miracles, the fulfilment of its prophecies, the sublimity and consistent harmony of its doctrines, the purity of its precepts, the origin of its commemorative ordinances, and its tendency to personal and social virtue and happiness,—all court examination. The testimony of the celebrated Earl of Rochester, when converted from infidelity and profligacy to Christianity and virtue, will be found the truth. Laying his hand on the Bible, he would say—“This is true philosophy. This is the wisdom that speaks to the heart. A bad life is the only grand objection to this Book.”—Wardlaw.
main homiletics of verses 22 and 23.
God the Spoiler of the Spoiler.
I. Robbery is of three kinds. 1. There is the open and unlegalised thief. There are men who do not pretend to respect the rights of others and who openly live in violation of Divine and human laws. They differ somewhat in their methods and in the description of their plunder—some seeking to gain an entrance in to the mansion and lay hands on the jewels of the wealthy, and others being content with what they can find in the cottage or on the wayside—but they are alike in pursuing their profession without any pretence that they fear God or regard men. But these are not the robbers against whom the sentence is passed which is contained in this proverb. 2. There is the legalised thief. There are governments under which iniquity is established by law—kingdoms in which wholesale robbery is carried on in the name of justice. There were many such in the days of Solomon and there is not a few in this nineteenth century. Perhaps, however, the Preacher was not referring so much to a government as a whole as to individuals who, sitting in the seats of justice, were regardless of the rights of those over whom their position gave them authority. The “oppressor in the gate” is probably a judge who disregards the rights of the poor man if he conceives it will further his own interest so to do, while he all the time pretends to be an administrator of justice and does all in the name of the law of the land. Under this class may be placed those who hold in trust property which has been given for the use of the poor and who disregard the claims of the really needy and so defeat the good intention of the donor. There is an immense amount of this misappropriation of money even in England, and although those who are guilty of it distribute their favours with a pretence of impartiality, and in the name of law they are as truly robbers in the sight of God as the burglar or the pickpocket. 3. There is the negative robber. A man may be a thief without taking anything from his fellow-man or without holding any official position and abusing his power and privileges. If a man or woman who is brought in contact with others poorer than himself or herself withholds from these poorer brethren anything simply because they cannot retaliate or enforce their rights, such a man or woman is a robber of the poor. And this may and is often done unconsciously—a man who would be indignant at being branded as unjust withholds from those whom poverty has placed in his power rights which belong to every rank and station but which are not always looked upon as the equal heritage of the poor and the rich. For it is quite possible to rob the poor without taking or withholding money from them. Some, who would not do this, rob them of their rest and leisure and withhold from them consideration and sympathy.
II. Defenceless though the poor may seem, Almighty power is on their side. Although the robbery may be legalised on earth, it is contrary to the law of heaven, and although the judge who oppresses can be brought before no human tribunal, he will one day stand before the bar of God. The Judge of all the earth was Himself once a poor man, and can sympathise with the oppressed poor as well as avenge their wrongs. He will spoil the oppressor of his soul’s comfort, and cause him to faint, and be afflicted for want of spiritual sustenance. Many a poor man’s soul is made sad by legalised injustice, and Christ as man’s judge will bring legalised justice to bear upon him who offends in this matter (Matt. xxv. 41–46). See also Homiletics on [Verse 16], and on Chap. [xiv. 30], page 389.
outlines and suggestive comments.