Proverbs 5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins.… I. MAN AS KNOWN BY GOD. The fact that God knows man thoroughly, if practically realised, will have a fourfold effect upon the soul. 1. It will stimulate to great spiritual activity. 2. It will restrain from the commission of sin. 3. It will excite the desire for pardon. 4. It will brace the soul in the performance of duty. II. MAN AS PUNISHED AT SIN. As virtue is its own reward, so sin is its own punishment. Sin punishing the sinner. 1. It will seize him as its victim. 2. It will arrest him in his career. Illustrate Belshazzar. 3. It will detach him from his comrades. 4. It will bind him as its prisoner. There are the "cords" of causation; the "cords" of habit; and the "cords" of despair. 5. It will exclude him from knowledge. 6. It banishes him as an exile.In the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. Sin banishes the soul from virtue, heaven, God; and reduces it to a homeless, friendless orphan in the universe. "The seeds of our own punishment," says Hesiod, "are sown at the same time we commit sin." (D. Thomas, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.WEB: The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly. |
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