Proverbs 29:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 29:14

Comments

Here is something full of beauty and worthy to be admired. Here is a king, lifted up high above the needy, and having no reason to concern himself with their wants and worries. His throne is established firmly and the poor are far away from him, and their troubles unable to affect him. And yet he turns his eye on them out of pure grace and makes their troubles his own, for the state of the poor and needy is something which his inner compassion will not allow him to ignore. When the verse says that he judges the poor, the meaning is that he intervenes on their behalf, considering their case and ruling in their favour against those who would take advantage of them. How many kings have not bothered to do such a thing but have looked the other way, for it did not suite them to defend those who could give them nothing in return? But God sees such acts of kindness and he rewards those who love those who cannot repay in this world: ‘When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just’ (Luke 14:12-14).

Application

How we admire the character of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the contemplation of his character fills us with strength. That such a person is real, exists, and has been given a name above every name fills us with joy. There is such a thing as kindness and compassion and it has been exalted to the highest position, because it is of such value in the sight of heaven. He left a far higher throne than any earthly king to descend to the earth and concern himself with the miseries of those who had forfeited all right to his help and his pity, and who deliberately rejected him and repulsed him every step of the way that he took towards them. Heaven might well have abandoned earth since it was part of a rebel jurisdiction which was owed no second chance. Christ touched the lepers and welcomed the repentant tax collectors and prostitutes as his disciples. Of the Messiah it is written, ‘He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor’ (Psalm 72:4). What trouble he incurred by doing this! How we cling to one who was prepared to look with pity upon us when we were in such a wretched state!

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Proverbs 29:14 Commentary and Bible Study