Proverbs 27:22 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 27:22

Comments

The fall of man into sin has changed his nature in a profound way. Sin is not simply a habit he can break out of by resolutions, or a matter of correction to his external behaviour, or of learning a few manners; it is deeply embedded in the warp and woof of his being. No process known to man can remove it. The illustration makes this clear. The pestle and mortar were used to pound or to grind up substances into a fine powder which allowed them to be mixed together with other ingredients into a composite or a paste for the purposes of cooking, medicine, or preparation of compounds for such things as perfume. The aim of grinding it small was to break the sample down into its most basic elements in what was the most effective way known in Solomon’s day. By doing so a skilled person could gain control of their substance and mix it as desired with any other substance of his choosing. Does this process work for foolishness in a sinner’s heart? It utterly fails, and not for the obvious reason that foolishness cannot be put into a mortar, but because it will not work even metaphorically. If you were to grind the heart of a fool in a mortar, by exposing to him his pride and self-centredness in all his does, his prejudice against God and his gracious message, his dishonesty working in secret whenever he thinks he can get away with it, his lack of self-control when under provocation, his unkindness and malice to many around him, all this will be shrugged off as nothing. The fool is an expert at justifying himself, at minimising his own wickedness and manufacturing reasons for any failing. He has recourse to a thousand excuses for why he has departed from God’s right paths and ignored conscience. This is a conversation constantly going on in his own heart before it ever becomes something said out loud. He is constantly practicing self-justification so that he is ready with an answer. Like a bow made out of a twisted piece of wood, it is impossible to pull it and have it curve nicely. However careful you are to put the right pressure on it, it cannot be made to behave as it should. Every one of those finely ground pieces of the fool’s heart still contain the essence of foolishness.

Application

What can cure us of our folly? Only the gospel! Only the work of the Spirit of God in our hearts can bring us under conviction, for the Spirit alone is skilful enough to catch us in our twisting and turning away from truth, and hedge us in at every turn until we confess our wickedness to God. Only he can bring the sinner to the point where he shuts his mouth and stops offering any excuse for his sin. Only the Spirit can bring us to humble ourselves before God and come to Jesus Christ for salvation, and admit that we cannot save ourselves. Only the Spirit can create a new nature in us which does not contain that foolishness which pervades the entirety of our fallen nature. Let God’s people not use any lesser cure than the gospel itself, preached to a lost world. Let them abandon all gimmicks such as drama and music and carnal attraction to try to bring people to Christ. All these things will fail, for it may seem that the sinner has yielded to Christ, but the change falls short of true conversion. Foolishness has not been driven out, and is still in charge of the heart. A minor adjustment is all that has taken place, but there has been no new birth.

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Proverbs 27:22 Commentary and Bible Study