Proverbs 31:4 Commentary and Bible Study

Solomon was also earnestly warned about the indulgence of the flesh; he had failed here too. During the days of his waywardness he had tried every available pleasure that lay within his reach, and he tells us, ‘I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith’ (Ecclesiastes 1:13). Concerning alcohol, he says, ‘I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom’ (Ecclesiastes 2:3), and he also says, ‘I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity’ (Ecclesiastes 2:1), and, ‘Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy’ (Ecclesiastes 2:10). Before his spiritual recovery he had experimented with the gratification of his body with wine and no doubt with food also, for he would not have allowed himself one and not the other. We can be sure that his kingly resources would have allowed him to try the very best available both from Israel and from the many other lands with which she traded. This experiment did not fail because of any lack of quality in food or drink, but it was a most dangerous experiment, contravening the clear instruction of the word of God to avoid the lusts of the flesh, and ignoring his own warnings, given under inspiration that ‘wine is a mocker’ (Proverbs 20:1). Was it possible, he asked himself, that satisfaction lay in this direction, in the total gratification of every desire of the flesh? Is the flesh the entirety of man’s nature so that the pleasing of it can satisfy the whole being? Certainly not, for the flesh is perishing and grows old and weak and will fail completely in death. How can the feeding of the appetites satisfy the eternal soul in man which cannot be at peace with the destruction of his body? To feed the flesh and not the soul is to leave the soul starved and emaciated. Though men might try to pretend that they are composed of flesh only, their souls will not cooperate in this deceit and complain bitterly that no provision has been made for the eternal part of man.All this Solomon did – and the comment applies to all his other experiments as well – with his wisdom intact and operating as a guardian overseeing all his wanderings. He never forgot his purpose to search out the source of satisfaction in life in order to be able to recommend it to his fellow man. This search for pleasure in the indulgence of the flesh he calls folly, because he knows before he starts that it is generally regarded as folly and he finds it to be exactly that. It can only be folly to suppress the mind, the highest part our nature under the influence of alcohol and treat life as merely an opportunity for sensory overload. All of this broke the commandments of God, weakened his rule, and undermined his authority, so that Scripture says, ‘the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice’ (1 Kings 11:9). And now at the end of his life he came back to the Lord and what he had been taught as a child by his mother came to the forefront of his mind again.