Proverbs 28:22 Commentary and Bible Study

Again the proverb looks deep into the heart of an unbeliever and considers where he thinks security will come from and the false reasoning which he makes in working out these things. The unstated contrast is with the child of God who looks to the Lord for his security and remains at peace because he is confident that God cares for all his needs. Does this proverb teach that all who try to be rich in this world will be reduced to poverty? No, at least, not immediately. God’s providence and his judgments are not finalised in this world, as if we could look at the paths which he assigns to men and women and could see the complete story, the final outcome and learn from this world alone that acquisitiveness does not pay. God does not bring all the greedy to face the consequences of their greed in this life. But ultimately it is true, for God will take from those who are lost even the things they thought that they had in this life. Poverty will indeed come upon them, only it will be eternal poverty: the loss not just of possessions, but of the soul itself. What then is an evil eye? It is an eye which urges the person to chase after things that cannot last, cannot profit the soul, which are not worth the effort that the person expends on them. Equally, an evil eye is a bad eye, a blind eye. The connection of the moral and the physical deficiency of the eye is used by Christ in his illustration in Luke 11. There he says, ‘The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light’ (Luke 11:34-36). This is an amazing illustration, because of its profundity, its freshness and novelty, and its insight and truth. The physical eye is either seeing or blind. If it is seeing, then it sees for the foot which knows where to step, it sees for the hand which sees where to grasp and so on. But the foot and the hand do not see. No, but the eye sees for them and because the body is one, it makes its vision available to them also. But conversely, if the eye is blind, the whole body is in darkness. But the physical eye is an analogy of the spiritual eye, the moral eye. If a man has light in his soul from God, then he can see spiritual truth, the most important things of all. He can see the nature of this world – that it is fallen; he can see the plan of salvation, the gospel; he can see the goodness and grace of God in Christ. That faculty of sight conveys light to the whole of the soul.