“Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.”— Proverbs 17:24
The book of Proverbs brings men out in their blacks and whites. It shows the difference between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial.
Our text, in few words, sets forth the portrait of two men, and contrasts them with the word “but.” It tells us of the man of understanding, and the fool. The former fixes his attention on something near, the other on things far off. The former fixes his attention on something excellent, the other on anything at all, or, rather, on nothing at all. In our text, the Holy Spirit has erected a mirror, so that all men may see their reflection in either the one portrait or the other. Which portrait describes you?
I will proceed, first, by developing each of these two portraits, and then by drawing out some implications.
Consider the first portrait: “Wisdom is before him that hath understanding.”
The man of understanding has wisdom “before him,” or, literally, “before his face.” Wisdom is the object of his attention. Wisdom fills his view. He has a single eye. He is a man of one thing.
His eyes are upon a needful object. The man of understanding studies and seeks wisdom because he feels a constant, pressing need for it. He often feels that he lacks it, and thus asks God for it (James 1:5). He knows that he needs wisdom to govern his tongue, discern his times, resist his enemy, edify his brethren, and glorify his God.
His eyes are upon a near object. Wisdom is near to him because God has made it near, has put it “before his face.” Wisdom is near to him because the preached word of the gospel is nigh to him, in his mouth and in his heart (Rom. 10:8). Wisdom is near to him because he is in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto him wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30). Wisdom is near to him because he keeps it near to him by daily meditation on the Scriptures. He is like one of the wise virgins, and has his oil with him, and is not left searching desperately when need suddenly arises.
His eyes are upon an inexhaustible object. The man of understanding is always pursuing wisdom, always reading, meditating, praying. “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance” (Matt. 13:12). Even our Lord Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52). Therefore, the man of understanding is never at a standstill, but aspires to reach “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
His eyes are upon a quieting, contenting object. He is always seeking more wisdom, and indeed has spiritual hunger pains for it, but at the same time he is quiet and content. Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace (Prov. 3:17). In setting wisdom before his face, he knows that he has chosen the one thing needful as his portion. Therefore, he learns to be quiet and content in temporal losses, because he knows from the Word and by experience that God will order the loss of outward things for his growth in wisdom.
His eyes are upon a beloved object. It is because he loves wisdom that he scorns all difficulties to obtain it. It is only love that can successfully cut off distractions. He loves wisdom because he loves Christ, who is wisdom. “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me” (Prov. 8:17).
Wisdom was before the face of Ruth when she kept her eyes upon the field of the kinsman-redeemer (Ruth 1:9). Wisdom was before the face of Mary when she sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word (Luke 10:39). Wisdom is before the face of ministers when they keep the last day frequently in their thoughts, and their flock frequently upon their heart in the secret place. Wisdom is before the face of the people when they do not hanker after strange doctrines or self-exalting teachers (Heb. 13:9, 2 Cor. 11:20). Wisdom is before the face of young men when they purpose in their hearts not to defile themselves (Dan. 1:8). Wisdom is before the face of young women when they are discreet, chaste, keepers at home (Titus 2:5).
Consider the second portrait: “but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.”
This description shows the great unruliness of human nature. Nothing can satisfy the fool or even hold his attention. The fool is a walking contradiction. In Adam, the fool desired to be wise like God, and wanted to have his eyes opened. But in reality, the fool is like his restless father the devil, who goes to and fro throughout the earth, walking up and down in it (Job 1:7).
The fool, with his eyes in the ends of the earth, is unsatisfied. “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied” (Prov. 27:20). In the world, there is “the lust of the eyes,” but not the satisfaction of the eyes. We have never-dying souls with boundless desires, and two swiftly-rolling balls in our heads that keep on darting this way and that because the soul never comes to rest upon anything. Man has the capacity to do a lot of looking. Some people set themselves to “see the world,” and they might succeed, in large measure. But it is one thing to see the world, and another to be satisfied by it. In tempting Christ, the devil “shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” (Luke 4:5). The devil has great ability to show you the world, less ability to give it to you, and even less to make you happy with it. In the parable, the first man invited to the supper refused, saying about his piece of ground, “I must needs go and see it” (Luke 14:18). (If a mere “piece” of ground ensnared his eyes and soul, how much more danger are we in from gazing upon “the ends of the earth”!) He could see his piece of ground, as Rutherford said, but could not rub souls with it. He refused marrow and fatness for a mirage. The makers of social media platforms offer you a “feed” with no bottom, but the last thing it will ever do is feed you.
The fool, with his eyes in the ends of the earth, is imbalanced. He has eyes as big as the Hubble Telescope, but narrow shoulders that cannot bear burdens, and a narrow heart that cannot pity the afflicted. He is all eyes, no ears (1 Cor. 11:17), and therefore he is unteachable. He is all eyes, no hands (1 Cor. 12:21), and therefore he is simply an unprofitable consumer. He takes in everything and produces nothing.
The fool, with his eyes in the ends of the earth, is unrestrained. He has no filter. He looks at everything. He becomes a busybody and meddler into other peoples’ matters, but does not ponder the path of his own feet (Prov. 4:25-26). Like Peter, he asks, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” but does not apply sermons to himself. He gazes freely upon his neighbor’s house and wife, never fearing the snare to his soul. Like Ham, he lacks the purity to avert his eyes from nakedness, and lacks the meekness to avert his eyes from the sin of a father (Gen. 9:22). It is never difficult for him to walk through a city or an airport, because he is a stranger to the exercise of guarding his eyes. After he has looked at everything, the fool will begin to intrude into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind (Col. 2:18).
The fool, with his eyes in the ends of the earth, is ungodly. Every man looks unto his god, and this man looks unto the earth, because the earth is his god. He minds earthly things (Phil. 3:19). He looks unto earth’s ends, not unto heaven’s king. He never says, “Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD” (Psalm 25:15). To the fool, God is not even worth a look. Therefore, his damnation will be just.
This fool is in peril. He is like the rich man, who searched out for himself the finest clothing and the most sumptuous fare that the earth could yield, but could not see the beggar at his gate. When he began to look about himself, it was too late. “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments” (Luke 16:23).
Having considered these contrasting portraits, I will now seek to impress upon you four implications that arise from our text.
1. A Great Change
Our text shows us that there are two kinds of people in the world, the wise and the foolish. A great change called conversion is needed for the natural-born fool to become wise. In conversion, God gives a kindly and irresistible pull to the heart. He puts the mind and affections into a new frame. He redirects the attention. He changes restless, roving ones like the Gerasene demoniac, who was always crying in the mountains and in the tombs. After Christ changed him, he was sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed, and in his right mind. This great change came upon Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (Acts 16:14). Has this great change come upon you, dear reader? Has the direction of your gaze been altered?
2. A Great Revelation
Those who hear the gospel have the most glorious sight set before their eyes. They are those “before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you” (Gal. 3:1). God turns the ear into an eye. This sight of Christ is what prophets and kings longed to see, and did not see. Concerning this sight of Christ, the apostle John wrote, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the onlybegotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). One man who saw the glory of God’s self-revelation in Christ was Stephen, who went forth to his death like a conqueror. What is the earth, and the very ends of the earth, to a man who, being full of the Holy Ghost, looks steadfastly into heaven, and sees the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God?
However, natural man cannot receive this wisdom. Isaiah, in one of the clearest Old Testament prophecies of Christ crucified, began by crying, “Who hath believed our report?” (Isaiah 53:1). The wisdom that God sets before men’s faces in the gospel is an enigma to them until God opens their eyes. “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:7-8).
3. A Great Offer
In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is not merely described, but is heartily and freely offered. “Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 4:3-6).
To the unsatisfied fool, God says, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (Isaiah 55:2). To the fool whose disordered eyes see everything except the truth, Christ says: “I counsel thee to … anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see” (Rev. 3:18). To the fool whose wandering eyes have led him far from God, even into the ends of the earth, God says: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22). To the fool whose rebellion has sunk him into the depths, God offers salvation for an upward look: “Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple” (Jonah 2:4). Before the fool whose eyes have pried into every unseemly sight, God sets up his dear beloved Son, lifting him up upon the pole of the gospel: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-15).
4. A Great Exercise
The first part of the Christian’s great life-work is to keep wisdom before his face. He binds the Lord’s statutes upon his hands and makes them frontlets between his eyes (Deut. 6:8). Whenever he looks at anything, he has the law of God sitting between his eyes. In everything, he looks unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2).
The second part of the Christian’s great life-work is to mortify, through the Spirit, the deeds of the body, including the wandering of the eyes (Rom. 8:13). He makes a covenant with his eyes not to think upon a maid (Job 31:1). He trains his eyes to look right on, and ponders the path of his feet, occupying himself with those duties and difficulties that are right in front of him (Prov. 4:25-26). He receives with gratitude those temporal enjoyments that God has put within his reach (Psalm 128:2-3), but does not strain after the things that exceed his reach (Psalm 127:2).
May the Christian, in any sense, look upon the earth, even unto the ends of the earth? Yes, but in a far different sense than the fool does. The Christian looks upon the earth to study the works of his God in it, and concludes that “the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD” (Psalm 33:5). When the Christian sees men polluting the earth by sinning against God, he is vexed in his soul: “I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word” (Psalm 119:158). He remembers that the Lord has promised a day when “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee” (Psalm 22:27). He prays for the fulfillment of this promise, and sings confidently, “Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him” (Psalm 67:6-7).
A few concluding questions may help the Christian to know how well he is doing in the exercise of keeping wisdom before his face and mortifying the wandering of the eyes.
- To what do you devote your best attention? What is the first thing that you attend to in the morning, and the last at night?
- There are a thousand digital distractions that are engineered to gobble up first the fragments of your time, then the choice portions of your time, and in the end to devour the bulk of your time. We live in a day when many young men are wasting their youth on video games. Are you swimming hard against this stream? Are you redeeming the time because the days are evil? (Eph. 5:16). It is reported that every day, 80 years’ worth of new viewing material is being uploaded to YouTube.1Eighty years per day roughly corresponds to five hundred hours of human attention consumed per minute. “By the end of 2015, close to five hundred hours of new video content was being uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day.” Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2017), p. 142. No doubt, the vast majority of this material is worthless to your soul, or worse.
- When is the last time you have chosen to ignore something that tried to grab your attention? An advertisement, even for something lawful in itself, from which you averted your eyes? A breaking news article left unread, so that you might read your Bible instead?
- How well do you sanctify the Christian Sabbath unto God? Do you cheerfully accept this divine limitation upon your pursuit of the things of earth? Or do the things of earth so thoroughly engross your eyes and heart that devoting even one day in seven to the things of God and of heaven feels unwelcome and onerous?
With all these things being so, we should frequently, urgently, and believingly put up the petition of Psalm 119:37 to our God: “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy ways.”
Footnotes
- 1Eighty years per day roughly corresponds to five hundred hours of human attention consumed per minute. “By the end of 2015, close to five hundred hours of new video content was being uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day.” Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2017), p. 142. ↩︎
