Commentary - Proverbs 15:29

Bird's-eye view

This proverb, like so many others, sets before us the fundamental antithesis of Scripture, the great divide that runs through the middle of the human race. There are two kinds of people in the world, the wicked and the righteous, and God relates to them in two starkly different ways. This is not a spectrum; it is a binary. To the wicked, God is distant. This is a judicial and relational distance, not a spatial one, for God is omnipresent. It means He is against them; His face is set against them. To the righteous, He is near. This proximity is demonstrated in the fact that He inclines His ear to them. He hears their prayers. The proverb is a compact statement on the nature of divine justice and fellowship. Access to God is not a universal human right; it is a blood-bought privilege granted to the righteous. The central question this proverb forces upon us, then, is the basis of this righteousness. As we shall see, it is a righteousness that can only be found in Christ.

The structure is a simple antithetical parallelism. The first line describes God's posture toward the wicked: distance. The second line describes His posture toward the righteous: attentiveness. The two concepts are opposites. To be far from God is to have His back turned to you, to be under His disfavor. To have Him hear your prayer is the essence of intimate fellowship, to have His face shining upon you. This proverb is a distillation of a massive biblical theme: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The wicked are those who walk in their own way, and God lets them walk right out of His presence. The righteous are those who have turned to Him, and He meets them with an open ear and a willing heart.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

The book of Proverbs is built on the foundation of the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. This fear creates a fundamental division between the wise and the fool, the righteous and the wicked. Proverbs 15 is filled with these contrasts. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly (v. 2). A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger (v. 1). The Lord's eyes are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good (v. 3). This particular proverb, verse 29, fits squarely within this recurring theme. It is not an isolated thought but rather a sharp, concise summary of the book's moral universe. The wicked are those who despise wisdom and instruction, who walk in their pride, and whose sacrifice is an abomination to the Lord (v. 8). The righteous are those who embrace wisdom, who walk in humility, and whose prayer is His delight (v. 8). This proverb sharpens the point: the difference is not just in their character, but in their access to God Himself.

Key Issues

The Two Ways

The Bible consistently presents humanity as walking on one of two paths. There is the broad way that leads to destruction, and there is the narrow way that leads to life. There is the way of Cain and the way of Abel. There is the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. This proverb is another snapshot of that same, unalterable reality. Yahweh is far from the wicked, and He hears the prayer of the righteous. This is not because God is moody or capricious. It is a matter of His settled character and His covenant dealings with mankind.

The wicked man is not wicked because he breaks some arbitrary rules. He is wicked because his heart is in rebellion against his Creator. He wants to be his own god, to define his own reality, to live by his own rules. Because he wants distance from God, God grants him his wish. God's distance is a judgment, a giving over of the sinner to the desires of his own heart. The righteous man, in contrast, is one who has abandoned this project of self-deification. He has acknowledged his creaturely status and his sin, and he has turned to God for mercy. His prayer is an expression of this dependence. And because he desires proximity to God, God grants him his wish. The principle is simple: God gives us what we truly want. The wicked want autonomy, and they get the isolation that comes with it. The righteous want fellowship, and they get the access that comes with it.

Verse by Verse Commentary

29a Yahweh is far from the wicked,

Let us be clear about what this does not mean. It does not mean that God is not sovereign over the wicked. He makes all things for His own purposes, "yea, even the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov. 16:4). It does not mean He is unaware of the wicked. His eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good (Prov. 15:3). This distance is not ontological; it is judicial and relational. It means God has set Himself against them. He is their adversary. Psalm 34:16 says, "The face of the LORD is against them that do evil." To have God far from you is to be cut off from the source of all life, goodness, and blessing. It is to be left to your own devices, which is the definition of Hell. The wicked man may feel like he is getting away with something, that God's distance is a form of freedom. But he is like a branch that has been cut from the vine; he has the "freedom" to wither and die. This is a terrifying state to be in, whether a man recognizes it or not.

29b But He hears the prayer of the righteous.

The contrast could not be more stark. While God is distant from the wicked, He is intimately near to the righteous. And the premier evidence of this nearness is answered prayer. "To hear" in this context is not simply to register sound waves. It means to listen with favor, to pay attention, to respond. When God hears a prayer, things happen. This is the great privilege of the saints. The God who spoke the universe into existence inclines His ear to the cries of His people. Now, who are these "righteous"? Are they people who have, through their own strenuous efforts, achieved a state of sinless perfection? Not at all. The Bible is clear that "none is righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10). The righteous, in the biblical sense, are those who have been declared righteous by God. Theirs is an alien righteousness, a righteousness that comes from outside of themselves. It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to them through faith. When God looks at a believer, He sees the perfect righteousness of His Son. Therefore, when the believer prays, God hears the prayer as though it were coming from Jesus Himself. Our prayers are heard not because of our righteousness, but because of Christ's. He is our mediator, our great High Priest, and it is only in His name that we have any access to the Father at all.

Application

This proverb should first drive us to our knees in self-examination. Which category am I in? Am I trying to keep God at a comfortable distance, running my own life with occasional tips of the hat in His direction? Or am I one who depends utterly on Him, whose life is characterized by a conversation with Him we call prayer? We cannot be in both categories. You are either near or far. There is no middle ground.

For the unbeliever, the message is a stark warning. Your attempts to build a life apart from God will ultimately succeed, to your everlasting ruin. The distance you now cultivate will one day be made permanent. The God who now seems distant will one day say, "Depart from me, I never knew you." The call of the gospel is to repent of your wicked rebellion and to flee to Christ. In Him, the distant God comes near.

For the believer, this proverb is a profound comfort and a glorious promise. God hears you. Your faintest, weakest, most stumbling prayer enters the throne room of heaven with power and authority, because it is carried there by Jesus. This should embolden our prayer life. We are not shouting into the void. We are speaking to our Father, who is not far from us, but is near to us, and who delights to hear and answer the prayers of His righteous children. Therefore, let us reject the wickedness of self-reliance and embrace the righteousness of faith, which is a life of constant, dependent prayer.