Blog - Proverbs 2:15

If you like this blog, then you will like Get Wisdom, Get Understanding which is Pastor Wagner's commentary on Proverbs chapter 1 which is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle. Find out more here. For all the blogs in this series, click here: Proverbs Commentary. Proverbs 2:15 "Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:" (Pro 2:15)

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Solomon here concludes the description of the evil men of whom he has been warning his son for the last three verses. Given that these wicked men "leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness" (Pro 2:13), it is little wonder that their "ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths." When used in a natural sense, a way that is crooked is "bent from the straight form; having (one or more) bends or angles; curved, bent, twisted, tortuous, wry" (OED). The way of the righteous is a straight path which is not to be deviated from, either to the right hand or to the left.

Pro 4:25-27 - Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. 26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. 27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

The scripture warns that "thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them" (Pro 22:5). The crooked paths of the wicked are well-suited for snares and traps, their bends and curves serving to prevent the Christian whose eyes are looking straight before him from detecting and avoiding them. The only effective way of keeping himself from those thorns and snares is to steer clear of the crooked way on which they are found. Trying to walk the twisted path of the wicked with hopes of straightening it out is a fool's errand, and the man who tries will do so in vain, seeing "that which is crooked cannot be made straight" (Ecc 1:15). Wisdom instead directs us to "enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men [and to] avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away" (Pro 4:14-15). When used figuratively, as it is here, crooked is "the reverse of ‘straight’ in figurative senses (esp. with reference to moral character and conduct); deviating from rectitude or uprightness; not straightforward; dishonest, wrong, perverse; perverted, out of order, awry" (OED). Even in this perverse generation in which we live, those who have a godly, normal sexual orientation are called straight by both the righteous and wicked alike. This is a tacit admission that the way of sodomites is not straight and is therefore crooked. Since the way of the sodomite is crooked, it is therefore "the way of the evil man" (Pro 2:12). And to this agree the words of scripture.

Lev 18:22 - Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
1Ki 14:24 - And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
Rom 1:26-27 - For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

In this evil generation, it is as important as ever for Christians to hold fast to the faith, that they "may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom [they] shine as lights in the world" (Php 2:15). And they froward in their paths. To be froward in one's paths is to be "disposed to go counter to what is demanded or what is reasonable; perverse, difficult to deal with, hard to please; refractory, ungovernable" (OED). Thus a man who has a rebellious spirit which is wont to do the opposite of what is asked or commanded of him by a legitimate authority is froward in his paths and is therefore an evil man (Pro 2:12,15). The Lord does not take a froward spirit lightly, but says that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (1Sa 15:23). No man's authority is absolute; and when any government goes beyond their sphere and requires of Christians obedience that is unbiblical, they "ought to obey God rather than men" (Act 5:29). But when a government, or any authority, is exercising its God-given duties, then Christians ought to submit to it. Those who "despise government" and are "presumptuous" and "selfwilled" are those who "walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness" (2Pe 2:10). Wisdom from the word of God gives the godly man the discretion to avoid such and deliver himself from their pernicious ways (Pro 2:10-15).

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