Bird's-eye view
Here we have another one of those classic couplets from Proverbs that sets two men on two paths, leading to two very different destinations. The structure is an antithetical parallelism, which is just a fancy way of saying it presents a sharp contrast. On the one hand, you have a man of insight, a man who sees things as they are, and his end is praise. On the other, you have a man whose heart is twisted, and his end is contempt. This is not complicated, but it is profound. The world is a moral enterprise, and your internal disposition, what the Bible calls your heart, will inevitably work its way out into your reputation and public standing. God has built the world in such a way that reality eventually wins. A man's true character will out.
Outline
- 1. The Commendation of Prudence (v. 8a)
- 2. The Contemptibility of Perversity (v. 8b)
Context In Proverbs
The book of Proverbs is a divine instruction manual for skillful living in God's world. It is not a collection of fortune cookie sayings or abstract platitudes that might be nice if they were true. They are hard-nosed, practical, earthy statements of fact about how the world actually operates. This particular proverb fits squarely within the central purpose of the book, which is to encourage the reader, the "son," to pursue wisdom and to shun folly. Chapter 12, like much of the book, is a series of standalone couplets that contrast the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the foolish, the diligent and the lazy. This verse, therefore, is one more brushstroke in a grand portrait of the two ways a man can walk: the way of wisdom that leads to life and honor, or the way of folly that leads to death and disgrace.
Key Issues
- The Nature of True Insight
- The Perverse Heart
- Praise and Contempt as Public Verdicts
Verse-by-Verse Commentary
8A man will be praised according to his insight, But one of perverse heart will be despised.
A man will be praised according to his insight... The Hebrew word for insight here is sekel. This is not talking about a high IQ or the ability to solve Sudoku puzzles. This is prudence, discretion, good sense. It is the ability to look at a complex situation and grasp the right course of action. It is a practical, moral intelligence. Where does this come from? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and this insight is a branch growing on that tree. A man with sekel is a man who thinks God's thoughts after Him, applying them to the nitty-gritty of daily life. And the proverb says this kind of man "will be praised." This is a divine promise embedded in the fabric of social reality. In a community that has not completely lost its mind, this kind of competence and wisdom is recognized. It is valued. People see it, and they commend it. A man who can fix things, whether a broken fence or a broken relationship, earns respect. This is the opposite of the modern celebration of victimhood or flashy incompetence. God's economy honors true, practical wisdom.
But one of perverse heart will be despised. Here is the contrast. The issue is not a lack of intelligence, but a corruption of the heart. The Hebrew for "perverse" has the sense of being twisted, distorted, or crooked. This is a man whose central processing unit is bent. His desires, his motives, his entire orientation to the world is out of alignment with God's reality. Because his heart is twisted, his thinking is twisted. Because his thinking is twisted, his words are twisted. And because his words are twisted, his actions are twisted. He is the kind of man who calls evil good and good evil. He is clever, perhaps, but his cleverness is always in the service of his crooked desires. And what is the end of such a man? He "will be despised." He will be held in contempt. People eventually see through the charade. The twisted dealings, the manipulative words, the self-serving agenda, it all comes to the surface. And when it does, the result is not praise, but disgust. This is a public verdict. God ensures that, in the long run, a man's reputation reflects his character. A crooked heart produces a despised life.
Application
So what do we do with this? First, we must recognize that our natural state since the Fall is to have a perverse heart. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9). We are all born with a twist in us, oriented away from God and toward ourselves. Left to ourselves, we are the second man in this proverb, not the first. We do not naturally possess godly insight; we are naturally fools.
This is why the gospel is such good news. The gospel is God's remedy for the perverse heart. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God offers us not just forgiveness for our twisted deeds, but a new heart. He promises to take out the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26). He gives us the Spirit of Christ, who is the wisdom of God incarnate (1 Cor. 1:24).
Therefore, the pursuit of insight is the pursuit of Christ. To grow in sekel is to be conformed to the image of the Son. As we submit our minds and hearts to the Word of God, the Spirit untwists us. He straightens out our thinking so that we can begin to see the world as it truly is and live skillfully within it. The praise we should seek is not ultimately from men, though that is often a byproduct of a godly life, but rather the "Well done, good and faithful servant" from our Master. The man of perverse heart will be despised on the last day by the only one whose opinion truly matters. But the man who has been given a new heart and new insight in Jesus Christ will be praised for all eternity, according to a wisdom that is not his own.