ORNAMENTATION
[p. 266] ORNAMENTATION
Proverbs 1: 8,9; Proverbs 25: 11,12
My thought is to speak about ornamentation. This is a prominent feature in creation, and God has particularly designed that His house in which He dwells should be ornamented. The most casual observer will have noted the ornamentation in the physical creation. As we look up into the heavens we are impressed by the wonderful variety of ornamentation, and we can understand the word which says, “By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens”, Job 26:13. The words of the Psalmist also are very striking, “The heavens declare the glory of God”. Psalm 19:1.
And so, when we take account of the earth, we see this ornamentation in a less degree, but nevertheless in great variety. One may mention mountains, hills, trees, rivers and lakes; they all speak of divine beautification. And again if we think of all that is living, beginning with man, we see also a wonderful variety of ornamentation and beauty. When Adam saw the movements of life in each species, he named what he saw according to the intelligence which God had given him. Hence we find in the Scripture references to a creation representative of strength and beauty.
In Romans 1:20 we find that we are to learn from all these things, for it says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead”.
Further, we see from 1 Corinthians 11:14 that nature itself teaches us, and in that way God has surrounded us with instruction. We learn what moral beauty is in the behaviour of the woman in the sight of God, as it says “the hidden man of the heart ... even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit”. 1 Peter 3:4.
[p. 267] Having come to the thought of moral beauty in a sister, a believing woman, we may turn to Proverbs, as it brings out in a particular way the means of this ornamentation. Solomon had through the help of God a great appreciation of it, not exactly that of the celestial, or heavenly, although he even refers to that, but he enlarges specially on what is terrestrial, or earthly. He spoke of trees and herbs; he was a man with great appreciation of trees, he used them for his buildings and knew their value well. It says that “he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall”, 1 Kings 4: 33. Anyone in his day wishing to understand botany had to listen to him.
What would answer to the cedar tree in the New Testament is illustrated in the woman of Sidon; Matthew 15: 21 - 28. The Lord, the true Solomon, had gone even to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon; He was about to bring out the truth of His assembly and went there to look for materials. When the woman took a dog’s place the Lord said to her, “O woman, great is thy faith”. Matthew 15:28. The greatness of the cedar tree began to appear when she accepted the absolute nothingness of what she was.
Proverbs is a book that speaks of the Son of the Father’s love, the book begins, “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel”, Proverbs 1:1 and in Proverbs 4: 3 he says, “For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother”, so that this book is of peculiar interest to those who are sons. It is addressed to sons by one who himself knew this relationship. He was not only son of David, begotten by David, but he was a real son to David and we are therefore free to speak of this book as suggesting to us the Son of the Father’s love.
You will remember the passage in Colossians 1:12,13 “Giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light, who has [p. 268] delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”. What precious words these are for young believers, as well as for us all! The Father has brought us out from the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. It is not only the kingdom, but it is the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. It is the rule of Him who is in the bosom of the Father, as John says, “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”. John 1:14. We are brought into His kingdom.
But now what He would do is to beautify us so that we may shine with Him in His kingdom, and in this kingdom we shall be happy and satisfied. When the queen of Sheba came to see all the glory of Solomon, she exclaimed, “Happy are thy men”. 1 Kings 10:8. What a great thing it is to be one of Solomon’s men, to be amongst those that shine together with him in his kingdom And he indicated at the outset what was in his mind in writing this book, “To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge, and discretion. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels; to understand a proverb, and the interpretation the words of the wise, and their dark sayings”, Proverbs 1: 2 - 6, and then (Proverbs 1: 7): “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”. This statements shuts out at once all the men of knowledge in this world, for if they have not submitted themselves to God in Christ, they have not the beginning of knowledge, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
No part of this knowledge can be apprehended without the fear of the Lord. The epistle to the [p. 269] Romans has in view to awaken the fear of God in man. The first thing, therefore, is this, that God has a right to our bodies, and so we present them a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. In the fear of God we have knowledge, we know that God has a right to us and we present our bodies a living sacrifice to Him.
But we should also be adorned, and the next verse gives us the way in which it is brought about: “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck”. Proverbs 1:8,9. Let us consider this!
It speaks here of the instruction of a father. Solomon knew what the instruction of a father implied; he was brought up tenderly by David. I hardly know of an infant, with the exception of our Lord Jesus, who is so interesting as Solomon. There are infants indeed in Scripture which we can dwell upon with interest and pleasure, such as Isaac, Joseph and Moses, but when we think of Solomon, we have one who has certain features suggestive of our Lord Jesus. The name itself signifies the love of which he was the object. It was said of him that “Jehovah loved him. And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord”, 2 Samuel 12: 24,25 which means that the child was of interest to Jehovah. Further on we see that God said, “He shall be my son”, and it was as Jehovah’s son that Solomon built the temple. It says of Moses that he was fair to God (Acts 7), but of Solomon as a child, it says that Jehovah loved him.
Our spiritual beginning is of special interest to God. As it is written, “When Israel was a child Jehovah loved him”. Hosea 11:1. When he was a child. God never forgets the freshness that marked our early spiritual beginnings. But when we think of Christ as a babe, Solomon was but a figure of Him. Luke and [p. 270] Matthew provide us with the details. Luke speaks of the Lord as a Babe, Matthew as a little Child. Luke also gives us the Boy and the Man. And so Christ is the One really that is in view in Proverbs. When Solomon said, “I was son unto my father”, Proverbs 4:3, we think of what Christ was to God, as seen in the gospels.
The prophets speak of Him in His wonderful humiliation, as it is written, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”. Isaiah 50:4. All these scriptures speak to us of what He was to His Father.
Solomon knew a father’s affections and a father’s instructions and could speak of this to his sons, and therefore it is so important that we should learn through the instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ, as He says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me”. Matthew 11:29.
Then we have also the teaching of the mother mentioned here, because Solomon also knew a mother’s affections. He says that he was tender and only beloved in the sight of his mother; Proverbs 4:3. We have to understand the tenderness of the mother; it refers typically to the spirit of the saints in the assembly. The father represents the authority of the Lord, because authority is vested with the father. Fathers are to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But if there is only authority, the mind of the child is not developed, so it needs the teaching of the mother. We can understand what a son Solomon was to his mother Bathsheba. She had no doubt light in her soul as to God’s thought that He intended that he should build Him a house. We can therefore understand what care she would have for such a son. She was anxious that he should have a training that would make him suitable for his high destiny and great service. But there is not a single believer whose destiny and service are not greater than Solomon’s. We should [p. 271] ever have this in view when we think of our young brothers and sisters.
The believers in Thessalonica were very much like Solomon, because it says that they were beloved of God, and there is no believer that is not loved by God. He could send us a Nathan to tell us that we are beloved, but One greater than Nathan has come, the Holy Spirit, and He has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts. Therefore each one of us is loved by God, and when we think of the young ones in the light of this, how concerned should we be that they may receive the tender teaching of the love of a mother amongst us, as Paul said to the Thessalonians that he cared for them, even as a nurse cherishes her children, With him was found the skill of a nurse, and he was waiting with the care allied to the affections of a mother in order that the Thessalonians should be brought up in the light of “the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love”. Colossians 1:13.
I think that you can see the importance of the father’s instruction and the mother’s teaching, and how they have in view ornamentation. He says, “For they shall be a garland of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck”, Proverbs 1:9. How delightful to look at a company of saints with grace about the head and these chains about each neck, to find these two beautiful things instead of the pride and ugliness and stiffness of the flesh. A garland of grace is something far greater than any garland bestowed on a Roman conqueror. You see how the believer is ornamented with this garland of grace and this chain of love.
Let us now look at chapter 25. The first chapter speaks of what we are as to our appearance, and such are an adornment in the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love, but chapter 25 has reference to His speaking. Observe that this chapter begins with the proverbs of Solomon, which had been transcribed by the men of Hezekiah. These proverbs had hitherto [p. 272] been neglected, until it was all brought out again in the light through the faithfulness of certain men.
The first is that it is God’s glory to conceal a thing (Proverbs 25:2). We find that God in His love has wonderful things concealed. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”. 1 Corinthians 2:9. Love finds its joy in surprising with its gifts.
“But the honour of kings is to search out a matter”. Proverbs 25:2. Those who had a place in responsibility as kings did not search out much. If the kings prior to Hezekiah had been faithful, they would have searched out these proverbs. And so it says that “the honour of kings is to search out a matter”, that is, it is the obligation of those that have a place of responsibility before the Lord to search out matters, and the Holy Spirit who has come down from an open heaven “searches all things, yea, the deep things of God”. 1 Corinthians 2:10.
And we also have to speak about all these things, and therefore we have very wise injunctions in the fourth and following verses, “Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the refiner”. Proverbs 25:4. The dross must be removed. And then verse 6, “Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men”. Proverbs 4:6. To be able to speak one has to begin in great meekness, because it is better that one says to thee, “Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen”; as the Lord says in Luke 14: 8, when He drew near to the house, “When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room”. Further on in our chapter, it says, that we should not go forth hastily to strive and “debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret to another”, Proverbs 25:8,9. That is to say, we should walk in a brotherly way with one another and not disclose [p. 273] personal things about each other, and so “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” Proverbs 25:11.
We have seen how our appearance is described in chapter 1, and then we find that our words are to be spoken at the right time, so that they are like apples of gold in pictures of silver. How attractive it is to find these features in the people of God!
Finally it reads in verse 12, “As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, is a wise reprover unto an obedient ear”. Proverbs 25:12. In all these verses we get instruction that we should not only adorn the house of God, but also our own appearance by the words we speak. Let us therefore covet to speak these words, so that they may not be only on the walls in our houses, but on our tongues. How truly would a word remain in the heart, that has been spoken in season. This book is full of words, that have been spoken in season. When a rebuke is necessary, it needs a wise reprover. An unwise reprover only turns away the one he reproves, but a wise reprover is like an earring of gold. That is to say that the one that receives the reproof will receive it as a token of infinite love. The ear has heard and received the reproof of love, and from that time that ear bears this beautiful ornament.