Bible Commentaries

Proverbs 6:23

(with Psalms 119:105)

The Divine lamp is:—

I. A light on the path. The best path in the world would be of no use without light enough to see our way. If we cannot have daylight, we shall be glad of moonlight; and if the night be dark and moonless, we shall want lamplight. What a glorious lamp you would have if it were possible to get a spark of the sun itself, and put that into your lantern! Even such a lamp is the Bible.

II. A light upon the past. The Bible shows us how man began his journey, created in the image of God, and happy in loving and obeying God. It shows us his first wrong step, and how one wrong act opened the door of sin and misery and death. Thus the word of God is—

III. A warning light. It is God's lighthouse, to warn us off the treacherous rocks of sin, on which we are in danger of being wrecked. It is God's beacon-light warning us to be on our guard against the assaults of temptation, and the power and craft of that great enemy of our souls, from whom we can be safe only when we put on the whole armour of God.

IV. A saving light.

V. A light for every step.

E. R. Conder, Drops and Rocks, p. 149.

Proverbs 6:27-28

These words contain an important principle of general application to every sin—the impossibility for a man to play with the enticement to sin without falling a prey thereto. The truth of the statement will appear if we take into consideration the following things:—

I. That every temptation presented to man addresses itself to a nature that is already corrupt, and is therefore liable to take to it.

II. That man in playing with the temptation puts himself directly in the way that leads naturally to the sin.

III. That playing with the temptation to any evil shows some degree of bias in the nature to that particular evil.

IV. That playing with temptation brings man into contact with sin only on its pleasurable side, and thus gives it an advantage to make an impression favourable to itself on his mind.

V. That man, through playing with temptation, weakens his moral power to resist the sin, and gradually gets so debilitated as to be too weak to oppose it.

VI. That man, by playing with temptation, at last tempts the Spirit of God to withdraw His protection from him, and to leave him to himself, and a prey to his lust.

O. Thomas, The Welsh Pulpit of Today, p. 68.

References: Proverbs 6:28.—E. R. Conder, Drops and Rocks, p. 149. 6—Parker, Pulpit Analyst, vol. i., p. 541.