therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their way, and be filled with their own devices.
This verse is where a long warning turns into a verdict. God invents no new punishment. People are simply handed what they chose, in full measure. Can anyone want their own way and escape it?
The word "therefore" points back to a settled disposition, not a single slip. One writer traces it to a refusal that runs so deep that even the terror of judgment cannot break it.
The judgment will be so dreadful and arresting that people will then turn to call on the Lord (v. 28). But however hard they search, they will not find Him. If their change were honest repentance, God would answer. Calling out only from fear of judgment is not repentance. People often want deliverance, but with no acknowledgement of guilt… Those who form their character this way will never turn around and judge themselves for their sinful folly. They completely refused all God's counsel and despised His every rebuke (v. 30).
Eating fruit is a farming picture: a crop answers to a seed. William Kelly warns that no one mocks God and gets away with it, and that delay is not escape.
The Lord is not mocked without consequence. "Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices." Sowing to the flesh must be reaping destruction. He does not execute judgment as yet; but it will come surely and soon.
God brings in no outside weapon. Their own attitude is the instrument.
They must suffer the consequences. Their own attitude and actions come back on their own heads to kill them. Their own foolish complacency destroys them.
To be "filled" sounds like a reward until you ask what fills them. One writer puts this filling in the same class as the filling of the lost.
A person may hunger after the world and not be filled; the world is fading, not filling. A person may be filled and not satisfied. A sinner may take his fill of sin, but that is far from satisfaction: "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways" (Prov. 14:14). This is the same kind of filling the damned in hell have. They will be full of the fury of the Lord. But the one who hungers after righteousness will be filled and satisfied.
This is not only a future sentence. Another writer sees the same eating going on now, wherever people push God out — and the fruit can taste good.
Whenever and wherever people abandon the truth of God, degradation of every kind follows. Only the truth of God can restrain evil… People eat the fruit of their own ways. Sometimes it is pleasant to the taste of a corrupted nature, but divine and eternal judgment lies at the end. The very lusts that rule and torment the slaves of sin are, in a sense, the pledge and token of God's wrath.
One writer aims these words at people today. The Saviour they shut out still waits at their door, and the outcome of keeping it shut has not changed.
He is knocking, and He will keep knocking until the day of grace runs out. How sad for those who reject such grace and keep their door locked and barred against the waiting Saviour. Grace rejected must end in judgment carried out. They reject Christ, and Christ will cast them out. Then they will prove the dreadful seriousness of those words that cannot be taken back.
- Refusal. The verse begins with "therefore" because the story began earlier. They hated knowledge and refused counsel. Crying out later from fear of judgment is not repentance.
- Sowing. What follows is a harvest, not a random blow. Sowing to the flesh reaps destruction. God's patience in delaying judgment is not permission.
- Self-made. God needs no outside weapon. Their own way comes back on their own heads, and their own complacency does the destroying.
- Filled. They get what they wanted, in full measure, and it never satisfies. The world is fading, not filling. Only those who hunger after righteousness are filled and satisfied.
- Now. The eating has already begun wherever people push God out. The fruit is pleasant to a corrupted taste. The appetite that torments them is the token of what waits at the end. Grace refused ends in judgment carried out — which is why the door is still worth opening.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of the foolish shall cause them to perish.
Wisdom has been calling through this whole chapter. Verse 32 gives the reason that call matters: two roads — drifting away and settling down in comfort — end in the same ruin.
First, a word on wording. The ESV says "the complacency of fools destroys them." Older translations say "the prosperity of fools," and the writers below use that older wording. Both senses fit: ease of mind and ease of circumstance. The verse names two kinds of people and gives both the same end. One writer shows how little effort that ruin takes:
The Lord is not mocked without consequence. "Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their way and be filled with their own devices." Sowing to the flesh must mean reaping destruction. He does not carry out judgment yet. But it will come, certainly and soon: tribulation and anguish for man, indignation and wrath from Him who judges. It is easy to turn away from grace and truth, from righteousness, at any time. But the backsliding of the simple will slay them, and the prosperity of the foolish will lure them to ruin.
The word does not mean unintelligent. One writer explains what these people are choosing:
Here simplicity means ignorance. Sadly, the ungodly prefer it to the wisdom of true faith in the Lord Jesus. They think their scorn can dismiss the truth, as if their foolish words carried authority. Because they hate knowledge, they delight in scorning.
They choose this ignorance, so they answer for it. Elsewhere in Proverbs the same writer presses the point:
"The simple" here are people who do not know, and their punishment comes from that ignorance. For it is our fault if we neglect the Word of God, which would enlighten us. Ignorance is no excuse when God has given us His Word, and we have ignored it.
Nothing from outside punishes these people. What kills them is their own choice:
They cannot escape the consequences. "They shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own fancies." The very fact of their attitude and actions comes back on their own heads to slay them. Their own foolish complacency destroys them (v. 32).
Uzziah was a king of Judah whose success went to his head. One writer traces the whole collapse to this proverb:
He was marvellously helped until he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. "Strength of the Lord" was the meaning of his name. It would have been a happy thing for him if he had realised that only in His strength is anyone really strong… Uzziah prospered. His prosperity lifted up his foolish heart with pride. In him his great ancestor's proverb came true: "The prosperity of fools shall destroy them."
Comfort does more than feel good. It dulls the ear toward God, and one writer counts the cost:
Prosperity often deafens the ear against God… Soft pleasures harden the heart. Prosperity has its honey, and also its sting… The spreading of a full table may be the spreading of a snare. Many have been sunk to hell with golden weights… The world's golden sands are quicksands. What if we have less food — we have less snare; if less dignity, less danger. As we lack the rich provisions of the world, so we lack the temptations.
Verse 32 is not the last word. The next verse turns the picture around, and one writer carries its promise through to Christ:
"Hear, that your soul may live." So said the prophet Isaiah. It is blessedly true under the gospel… Or, as it is written here, "Whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster." Is that not a good shelter in a world of evil and danger? Christ is that shelter now to everyone who believes on Him — not only rest from evil but rest from the fear of it, by grace.
- Ease kills. Two roads lead to the same end: drifting away, and settling down in comfort. Neither takes any effort. It is easy to turn away at any time.
- Ease chosen. The "simple" are not stupid. They prefer ignorance to wisdom, and ignorance is no excuse when God has given His Word.
- Ease harvested. The punishment grows out of the choice. They eat the fruit of their own way, and their own complacency destroys them.
- Ease illustrated. Uzziah prospered until he was strong, and then pride lifted up his heart and ruined him.
- Ease given. Real safety comes as a gift: whoever listens dwells secure, free even from the fear of evil. Christ is that shelter now, by grace.