Proverbs 4:23 Commentary and Bible Study

Imagine the young man has taken over the farm. He is now running the place and he may say to himself, ‘Dad was pretty spartan. Dad was content with this old house, and with these simple fixtures; I would like something grander.’ And his mind may be stolen away to planning great things for himself. ‘What I am going to do is to build a big stone house, of two stories for prestige, then I am going to make myself some gardens. The result will be, instead of being successful with his farm, and with the provision of his family, his farm will begin to fail, and he will begin to go down, because his mind is somewhere else. What kind of a farmer you will be, what kind of a father, and what kind of success you will have, and how your family will turn out depends, says Solomon, on how well you guard your affections, and your mind, your aspirations, the things you love. ‘Keep thy heart’ – the word keep is the Hebrew for guard. Guard thy heart with all diligence. And that word diligence also means defend, or hedge about. So what the Hebrew says is, ‘Guard your heart with every possible kind of defence. Why in this farm, it is not enough to put a wall round it, because there are other enemies who do not care about walls, the pests and so on. You have got to make all manner of provisions to protect this farm. You have got to take every precaution that is available to you to keep out the animal marauders, the human marauders, to keep out the attack from drought and so on. You have got to have good irrigation. You have got to have all the measures that will protect the crop for the future, and keep it in good shape.