A BRIEF MEDITATION ON PROVERBS 16.17 (r/w HEBREWS 12.13)
“The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he who guards his way preserves his life.” Prov 16.17.
Notice the words ‘highway of the upright’. There is a highway for the people of God to walk on. But sadly many are side-tracked by their own carnal desires or by the deceptions of the devil, misled into dangerous by-ways that lead to destruction. (Read the views of Bible commentators on this proverb, below.)
How necessary it is to have the fear of God. God declares to all mankind: ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’ Job 28.28. The reverential fear of the Lord, together with a healthy fear of evil (eg. ‘Flee fornication!’ 1 Cor 6.18), will put you onto the royal highway – as was done in the case of Joseph who rejected the seductions of Potiphar’s wife, and went on to become ruler of Egypt.
How great is the need to walk in righteousness and holiness! (Read John Gill below.)
Isaiah 35.8 talks about a highway of holiness, the straight and smooth path that leads to life. What a contrast to the words of our Lord in Matt 7.13-14, where He speaks of the gate being narrow and the way being difficult that leads to life. But Isaiah 35.8 tells us that narrow gate and difficult way puts us on to the highway of holiness. If only we understood how important it is to walk in accordance with the Word of God, and not deviate from it by our carnal desires, worldly attractions and the enemy’s deceptions.Never let our eyes stray this way or that, but keep’ looking unto Jesus’ enthroned on high, and allow the Word of God to shine upon our path day by day. Psalm 119.105.
Heb 12.13 tells us to keep on the straight and narrow way, and walk firmly and faithfully in the presence of Christ (Walk before Me, Gen 17.1, were the words of God to Abraham). By walking steadily ahead, not looking back, nor looking around, but keeping our eyes on the goal before us (‘the prize’, ‘the mark’, Phil 3.13, 14), whatever ‘lameness’ that we have will be healed, by regular faith-exercise. Straying into crooked and uneven paths, because of lustful temptations and lack of faith, will only aggravate the hurt and damage caused to our spiritual health. To be upright is to be ‘uncompromisingly righteous’ (Amplified).
If we walk on the highway of holiness, (or the paths of righteousness, Psalm 23.3), following in the footsteps of our Great Shepherd, who goes ahead of us; if we deny ourselves and carry our cross and follow Him (Matt 16.24) – only then will we be His true disciples and His shining witnesses in this dark world. But if we ‘halt between two opinions’ (like the Hebrew Christians wishing to go back to Judaism), the danger is that we may become renegades like the Galatians (who chose law over grace!). The phrase, ‘to halt between two opinions’ was used by Elijah the prophet, upbraiding the vacillating Israelites who leaned towards Baal, and rejected Jehovah. (Baal embodies the lust of ‘self-pleasing’. Today’s Christianity is Baal-worship, seen among the Charismatics, for instance. But the Calvinists are no worse, for they choose the ‘lette’ which kills’ (their TULIP doctrines) over the Spirit who gives life, 2 Cor 3.6.
COMMENTATORS ON PROVERBS 16.17
1. Matthew Henry: A sincerely religious man keeps at a distance from every appearance of evil. Happy is the man that walks in Christ, and is led by the Spirit of Christ.
2. Matthew Poole: The highway of the upright, their common road, in which they constantly and customarily use to walk, although sometimes through frailty or temptation they slip into the by-paths of sin, is to depart from evil — to depart from the evil of sin, and consequently from the evil of punishment.
He who keeps his way, who takes heed to walk in the highway of righteousness, preserves his soul from that mischief and destruction which befalls those who walk in the crooked paths of wickedness.
3. John Gill: The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. Upright persons, who are upright in heart, and walk uprightly; these walk in the highway of holiness, in which men, though fools, shall not err; they walk in the King’s highway, in the plain beaten path of God’s commandments; by so walking, they shun the by-paths of sin, and abstain from all appearance of it. Such being their common constant course of life, they being studiously concerned to walk in righteousness and holiness, and who take delight in doing so – these upright persons escape many evils, dangers and calamities that others fall into.
4. The Highway of Holiness. A highway will be there, and a roadway; and it will be called the Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for those who walk on the way [ it is the way of the redeemed]; and fools will not wander on it. Isaiah 35.8.
5. He that keeps his way preserves his soul, who keeps on in his way, the way in which the upright walk; whose eyes look right on, and his eyelids straight before him; who ponders the path of his feet, and turns neither to the right hand nor the left; who walks circumspectly and carefully; who observes the road he is in, to keep in it, and not stray out of it — such a man preserves his soul from many snares and temptations, troubles, dangers, and evils, which he would be otherwise liable to.
6. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. To avoid the dangerous byways to which evil leads, one must walk straight in the path of duty (comp. Prov 15:19, which says: ‘The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns; but the way of the upright is a highway’).
7. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matt 7:13-14.
8. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Prov 4.26. Make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed, Heb 12.13. Let the paths (or tracks) which you follow be straight, for crooked and uneven paths will make the limbs which are lame more helpless still; should nothing aggravate the hurt that has been received, it may soon be healed. The words are a warning against the shifting courses of men who are ready to turn aside from strict duty when persecution threatens, and seek to avert the danger by compliance with what they do not in heart approve.
10. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown:
paths—literally, “wheel tracks.” Let your walk be so firm and so unanimous in the right direction that a plain track and “highway” may be established for those who accompany and follow you, to perceive and walk in (Isa 35:8) [Alford].
that which is lame—those “weak in the faith” (Ro 14:1), having still Judaizing prejudices.
be turned out of the way—(Prov 4:27); and, so missing the way, lose the prize of “the race” (Heb 12:1).
rather he healed—Proper exercise of itself contributes to health; the habit of walking straight onward in the right way tends to healing.
The Hebrew believers are urged to make straight paths for their feet, by having all stones of stumbling and rocks of offence removed, so that they may steadily towards the goal; lest being lame or halting in their minds between Judaism and Christianity, because of violent persecution of their faith, they should be turned aside out of God’s way, compromising, erring and deviating from the truth of the gospel.
J.K.
KNOWING GOD 