Commentary - Proverbs 10:27

Bird's-eye view

This proverb sets before us the great continental divide of biblical ethics, the fundamental choice that every human being must make. There are only two paths, two ways to live, and they lead to two starkly different destinations. On one side, you have the path of wisdom, which begins with the fear of Yahweh. On the other, you have the path of the wicked, which begins with the fear of man, or the fear of nothing at all. This is not a complicated business. Solomon, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, draws a sharp antithesis. One way adds days to your life; the other way cuts them short. This is a foundational principle of the created order. God has woven a moral fabric into the universe, and this proverb simply describes how that fabric behaves. To live in accordance with the grain of the universe is to live wisely, and this generally results in blessing, stability, and length of days. To live against the grain is to live foolishly, and this generally results in chaos, instability, and a premature end. This is not a mechanical promise, but it is a foundational truth about the world God has made.

At the heart of it all is our relationship to God Himself. The fear of Yahweh is not a servile, cringing terror, but rather a joyous, trembling awe before the majesty and holiness of our Creator and Redeemer. It is the beginning of all true knowledge and wisdom. The wicked, by contrast, have no such anchor. They are their own gods, their own standard of right and wrong, and consequently, their lives are built on the shifting sands of their own pride and appetites. The outcome described here, a long life versus a shortened one, is the natural harvest of the seeds that have been sown. It is a covenantal reality: walk in God's ways and receive the blessing of life; walk in your own way and receive the curse of death.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs 10 marks a shift in the book. The first nine chapters consist of longer, thematic discourses, primarily a father's extended exhortations to his son to pursue wisdom and avoid folly, personified by Lady Wisdom and the adulterous woman. Starting in chapter 10, we get into the thick of the individual, two-line proverbial sayings. This verse, 10:27, is a classic example of the antithetical parallelism that characterizes much of this section. It sets up a sharp contrast: "The fear of Yahweh" on one side, and "the wicked" on the other; "prolongs life" on one side, and "will be shortened" on the other. This verse distills the central message of the entire book into one potent, memorable couplet. The choice presented here is the same choice that has been laid out in chapters 1-9. It is the choice between life and death, wisdom and foolishness, blessing and cursing, a choice that echoes God's covenantal dealings with Israel throughout the Old Testament.

Key Issues

The Moral Grain of the Universe

One of the central things the book of Proverbs teaches us is that God did not create a morally neutral world. He built it with a definite grain to it, like a piece of wood. You can work with the grain, or you can work against it. Working with the grain is wisdom. Working against it is folly. This proverb is a straightforward description of that principle. The fear of the Lord is aligning yourself with reality as God constituted it. Wickedness is a rebellion against that reality. Therefore, the results are not arbitrary punishments or rewards dispensed from on high. They are the natural, organic consequences of how one chooses to live in God's world.

Think of it like this. If a man has a healthy fear of heights, he will be careful on a cliff edge, and this caution will prolong his days. If another man is a fool and scoffs at the danger, dancing on the precipice, his years will likely be shortened. The law of gravity is not taking revenge on him; he is simply experiencing the consequences of defying a fixed reality. So it is with the moral law of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because it is the recognition of the most fundamental reality in the universe: God is God, and we are not. Living in light of that reality brings life. Denying it brings death.

Verse by Verse Commentary

27a The fear of Yahweh prolongs life,

Let's begin with the foundation: the fear of Yahweh. This is not the cowering dread of a slave before a tyrant. This is the reverential awe, the creaturely submission, and the loving worship of a son before a good and holy Father. The Bible is clear that this fear is the starting block for all true wisdom (Prov. 1:7). It is the posture of a heart that rightly understands its place in the universe. It is to hate evil, pride, and arrogance (Prov. 8:13). A man who fears God knows that he is not the center of the universe, that God's law is good, and that sin is a deadly poison. Consequently, he will live a life of prudence, self-control, and righteousness. He will avoid the kind of reckless, self-destructive behavior that so often leads to an early grave. He won't get into drunken brawls. He won't be destroyed by sexual profligacy. He won't make enemies through deceit and treachery. His life is ordered, stable, and sane. And the natural result of this divinely-ordered sanity is that it prolongs life. This is a general rule. It is a proverbial truth. Of course, righteous men sometimes die young, and wicked men sometimes live to a ripe old age. But the book of Proverbs deals in the observable patterns of God's world, and the pattern is clear: wisdom leads to life.

27b But the years of the wicked will be shortened.

Now for the contrast. The wicked man is the one who does not fear Yahweh. He trusts in his own heart, which the Bible tells us is the definition of a fool (Prov. 28:26). His life is oriented around himself, his appetites, his ambitions, his pride. Because he has rejected God's wisdom, he lives against the grain of the universe. His life is characterized by strife, foolish risks, and destructive habits. He is the man who commits adultery, who loves violence, who cheats in business, who is quick to anger. Is it any surprise that such a life is often cut short? He makes powerful enemies. He is consumed by the diseases that follow debauchery. He lives under the constant stress of his own rebellion. The structure of reality itself is pushing back against him. So when his years are shortened, it is not an accident. It is the harvest he has been sowing all along. He loves death (Prov. 8:36), and so death comes to him. This is the wages of sin, paid out in the currency of time.

Application

So what do we do with a proverb like this? First, we must take it to heart as a piece of practical, everyday wisdom. Do you want to live a long and fruitful life? Then fear God. Order your life according to His Word. Flee from wickedness. This is intensely practical. It means governing your temper, being faithful to your spouse, working diligently, and speaking truthfully. These are not arbitrary rules; they are the manufacturer's instructions for how human life is supposed to function.

But we cannot stop there. If we are honest, we all have to admit that we have played the fool. We have all lived wickedly. We have all, at times, failed to fear God as we ought. Our own hearts condemn us. By the standard of this proverb, we all deserve to have our years cut short. And this is where the gospel comes crashing in with glorious news. The one man who perfectly feared Yahweh every moment of His life, the Lord Jesus Christ, had His years cut short. He died a premature, violent death on a Roman cross. Why? He did it to take the curse that we deserved. He took the "shortened years" of the wicked upon Himself, so that we, the wicked, might receive the "prolonged life", indeed, the eternal life, that His perfect fear of God deserved.

Therefore, the fear of the Lord for a Christian is not just about living wisely to have a long life on earth, though it includes that. It is about clinging in faith to the one who is our Wisdom from God. It is about looking at the cross and seeing the ultimate collision of wisdom and folly, of life and death. Christ took our folly so we could have His wisdom. He took our death so we could have His life. The fear of the Lord, then, is not a mechanism for earning God's favor. It is the grateful, awestruck response to a God who would shorten the years of His own perfect Son in order to give eternal years to fools like us.