Bridges on Proverbs 20:14
 
 
Charles Bridges on Proverbs 20:14
 
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14.  It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
 
The Bible gives abundant proof that man has always been the same in every generation since the fall. Where is the market in which the counterpart to this disclosure of fraud and selfishness centuries ago is not found? Commerce, the LORD's providential dispensation to bind man to man, is marred by his depravity. The wise man had before detected the iniquity of the seller. (Verse 10. Compare Ecclesiasticus 27:2.) Here he lays bare the buyer, and, to bring it home more closely, he gives even the market-language — It is naught — it is naught — ‘The article is of an inferior quality. I can get it cheaper elsewhere. If it is worth so much, yet not to me; I have no present want of it, no particular care about it.’ And when by these convenient falsehoods he has struck a shrewd bargain, he is gone his way; he boasteth, laughing at the simplicity of the seller, and is probably highly commended for his cleverness. (James 4:16.)
The same principle of fraud applies to the seller. If the one says — It is naught — it is naught — the other no less eagerly cries — ‘It is good — it is good’ — ‘when neither of both speaketh, either as he thinketh, or as the truth of the thing is.’† The one is bent on buying cheap; the other on selling dear. The one decries unjustly; the other praises untruly. He asks one price, when he means to take another, and takes advantage of the confidence of his customer to impose on him a worthless article.† In fact, ‘no man's experience would serve him to comprehend, no man's breath to declare, the infinite variety of those more secret and subtle falsehoods that are daily invented and exercised everywhere under the sun.’†
All of us are engaged in pecuniary transactions. With many it is the main business of life. Yet such are the temptations from our own interest or self-defense, the selfishness of others, and the general example of the world, to deviate from the straight line; that we should be most thankful for this probing analysis of deceit. The man of God stands on the frontier of the line of demarcation, and warns against a single step of encroachment. Passing over the line is bidding defiance to the Great King. The gain may be trifling, but the sin is vast. Enough of guilt was included within the dimensions of a single apple, to ‘bring death into the world and all its woe’ to successive generations. And here the law of God is deliberately broken;† conscience is violated; deceit is practiced; “evil is called good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20); our duty to our neighbor transgressed; and all this — perhaps without a moment of remorse — only to feed man's covetousness.
But do Christian professors always prove themselves clear in this matter? Yet how can we be Christians really, if not relatively and universally; if not in the week, as well as on the Sabbath; if not in our dealings with men, as well as our communion with God? What is our title to the name of disciples of Christ, unless we yield to his authority, and in heart, hand, and tongue, are governed by his laws? Let us each ask — Have we trembled before the solemn warnings of the great Lawgiver?† Are we ready to be tried by his rules of guileless simplicity (Matthew 5:37), and reciprocal justice? (Matthew 7:12.) Have we always acted as under the eye of God? Are there no money transactions that we should be ashamed to have “proclaimed upon the house-tops”? Are we prepared to go to the bar of a heart-searching God, with “a conscience void of offense both towards God and towards man”? (Acts 24:16) — Let us never forget the gospel, as the only principle expulsive of selfishness, in its active exercise of grateful devoted love, and in its indefatigable spirit of “doing all to the glory of God.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Proverbs 20:10
10 ¶ Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. {Divers weights: Heb. A stone and a stone} {divers measures: Heb. an ephah and an ephah}
 
Compare
Ecclesiasticus 27:2
2 As a nail sticketh fast between the joinings of the stones; so doth sin stick close between buying and selling.
 
 
James 4:16
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
 
 
Footnote:
Bishop Sanderson’s Sermon on 1 Samuel 12:3.
 
 
1 Samuel 12:3
3 Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. {bribe: Heb. ransom} {to blind...: or, that I should hide mine eyes at him}
 
 
Footnote:
Amos 8:6. Contrast the disinterested transaction Genesis 23:3-18. Augustine mentions a somewhat ludicrous, but significant, story. A mountebank published in the full theater, that in the next entertainment he would show to every man present what was in his heart. An immense concourse attended, and the man redeemed his pledge to the vast assembly by a single sentence — ‘Vili vultis emere, et caro vendere’ — ‘You all wish to buy cheap, and to sell dear’ — a sentence generally applauded: every one, even the most trifling (as Augustine observes) finding the confirming witness in their own conscience. De Trin. Lib. xiii. c. 111.
 
 
Amos 8:6
6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
 
Genesis 23:3-18
3 ¶ And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spake unto the children of Heth, saying, 4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6 Hear us, my lord; thou art a prince of God among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 7 And Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying-place. 10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the children of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. 12 And Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. 13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt, I pray thee, hear me: I will give the price of the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. 14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15 My lord, hearken unto me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. 16 ¶ And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. 17 So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round about, were made sure 18 unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Footnote:
Bishop Sanderson, ut supra.
 
 
Footnote:
Compare Leviticus 19:11; 25:14.
 
 
Leviticus 19:11
11 ¶ Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
 
Leviticus 25:14
14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
 
 
Isaiah 5:20
20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! {call...: Heb. say concerning evil, It is good, etc}
 
 
Footnote:
Colossians 3:25. 1 Thessalonians 4:6.
 
 
Colossians 3:25
25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.
 
1 Thessalonians 4:6
6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. {defraud: or, oppress, or, overreach} {in...: or, in the matter}
 
 
Matthew 5:37
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
 
 
Matthew 7:12
12 ¶ Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
 
 
Acts 24:16
16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.