Proverbs 28:16 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 28:16

Comments

The precise form of ignorance or lack of understanding described here is shown by the contrast. The ignorant man is compared with one who hates every form of covetousness, sharp practice, and acquiring of gain through injustice. Popular suspicion believes that those who seek power are only in it for personal gain, and therefore a wise ruler has to be excessively careful not to feed this suspicion. The ungodly ruler wants power because it is the gateway to personal enrichment through corruption. God has established government to uphold the standards of his law, especially the second table of the law – the commandments relating to our fellow human beings. Every king in Israel was to be scrupulous in upholding God’s statutes (Deuteronomy 17:14-20), and every judge was to hate partiality (Exodus 23:8; Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:17; 16:18-20). The office is not for the man’s benefit, but for the service that can be rendered to the people. It is this that the prince in the first half of the verse fails to understand. He is someone who distorts the world around him so that all things work for his profit at the expense of every other person. It is as if he is the only human being who has needs, desires, who has a stake in what happens, as if he is of such overwhelming importance that all others can legitimately be sacrificed for his sake. He is therefore ready to oppress anyone who gets in his way.Under Pharaoh, Joseph ruled over Egypt with understanding. He saw the hand of God in all that happened. He understood the trial that had come upon the nation and he understood the remedy to feed the people and deliver them from starvation. He was God’s human deliverer in a time of crisis for the world, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Application

Again, how different is this to the type of authority which ought to exist in the church of Jesus Christ, who told his disciples, ‘The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve’ (Luke 22:25-26). No surprise therefore that the qualification for elders includes, ‘not greedy of filthy lucre’ (1 Timothy 3:3), and that Paul was eager to demonstrate that in preaching the gospel he did not use ‘a cloke of covetousness’ (1 Thessalonians 2:5). Instead they must be those who can be perfectly trusted to take care of that which is not their own, and for whom it would be unthinkable to take advantage of their office. They have integrity in the heart which is maintained before God and not just before men.

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Proverbs 28:16 Commentary and Bible Study