Proverbs 24:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The point of the proverb is that it is not possible to temporarily exempt yourself from the paths of wisdom and then return to them when you like, and still think that you are on the right path. At face value the proverb makes a self-evident point and we wonder why it needs to be made – a man’s reputation depends on his behaviour. But the point is that he thought to indulge his evil passions on an exceptional basis and then return to his former uprightness, but that will lead to disaster. That departure from God’s ways in planning to do evil may mark the true character of the man, and those who know him will see this and rightly judge him for it. They will say, if he is capable of such things he is someone who is someone who does not have the root of the matter in his heart. He will fully deserve the name he is given, even though he only intended to give way to his evil passions for a short time and then return to the path of righteousness. He may have deceived himself, but he will not deceive others, and he will deserve the reputation he gets. Wisdom requires constancy and we cannot take the day off so that we take a rest as it were from walking with God. We must keep fighting against temptation every day, however feeble we become. In our progress along the path to heaven, we must continue to go forward, though we are forced to bend low in order to struggle against the headwinds. Even if we are reduced to crawling forward, we must stop or turn back. To give way to devising evil for even a short time is not going to strengthen us for our future pilgrimage, but will be a setback that severely weakens us and makes it harder than it was before to continue along the narrow way.