Proverbs 30:18 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 30:18

Comments

Four images are given us for consideration, and all of them tell us something about human guile. The first three non-human or inanimate images point to something in man which the fourth focuses on, but the application is wider than just this one case of the young man and the young woman. This is a description of human sin, human character. The eagle looks beautiful in the air but it sees what it wants and then swoops down on its prey. It is a picture of a human being out for what they can get. A serpent on a rock proceeds with graceful movements, but it is not obvious what it intends and it may strike suddenly. It disguises what it really wants illustrating the deceptiveness of human sin. The ship steers its path through the ocean with a wake following behind it, but that soon vanishes leaving no trace of the path that it took. It is a picture of the effort men and women make to cover their tracks and hiding their sins from each other and from God. Last is the seducer (as distinguished from the true lover), so cunning and yet ruled by lust. All of the skill he employs is dedicated to one end and the rest is a disguise.

Application

These pictures of guile are Solomon’s observations about man which are given to warn us. We have within us this inclination to sin and we are very skillful at times in the way we go about it. Unless we are aware of this, we will underestimate the fallen nature and its capacities, both in others, but more importantly in ourselves. Do we understand our own hearts? Do they deceive even us? Unless we know ourselves, we cannot come to God. We can approach him only in complete honesty, hiding nothing, and that means that we have to stop pretending that we are other than we are. There is much heart searching to do before we can seek the Lord, and we need the help of the Spirit of God to do this. We have spent so many long years making excuses and justifying ourselves, that the truth about us is not easy to see. We come as sinners and we cast off the evil habits of guile and cunning that we are so used to. We want God to give us an altogether different heart.

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Proverbs 30:18 Commentary and Bible Study