Proverbs 26:14 Commentary and Bible Study

Brevity is the mark of the skilful proverb, brevity and yet profundity: the ability to express in few words what gets to the essence of a matter. To understand this comparison we should as usual consider carefully the distinctive features of the illustration. A door turns on its hinges and nobody thinks twice about it; it is what the door is designed to do; it is a matter of course. The door does not suddenly start behaving differently and open in a completely new way, for the hinges constrain its movement and it follows a predictable arc as it turns. What Solomon is drawing our attention to is not the beauty of the design of the hinged door or its functionality, but its restricted and predictable movement. The door’s movement is smooth and controlled. Those who live in the house know which way every door opens, inwards or outwards, hinged on the left or the right, and they are never surprised. In the same way the sluggard is bound to behave predictably, in his case, lazily. He too is bound by hinges which constrain his movement and those hinges are the deep rooted habits in his fallen heart. Sin weakens us and makes us unable to break free from the temptations we have given way to a thousand times before. It will not let the godless man suddenly become concerned to please the Lord, or the dishonest man become concerned about integrity. If through some fearful experience, he is disturbed about his state, and inclined to want to change, he soon realises that he lacks the power to do so, and he either justifies his failure, or returns disheartened to his sin again. The non-Christian always underestimates the power of sinful habits to bind him, and the effort that will be required to live in a new way; there simply does not dwell in his heart the power to do so. Therefore, as the sluggard turns on his bed and seeks a more comfortable position to prolong his unnecessarily long sleep, so the fool turns to some old tried and tested sin for the pleasures that he seeks in life. He cannot arise from the bed of his pleasures in order to do something much more pressing and important with his life, and seek the living God.