Exhortation to Various Virtues.
OBEDIENCE, FAITH, AND LIBERALITY URGED. — V.7. Be not wise in thine own eyes, puffed up with an imagined superiority on account of possible greater learning, since the wisdom of this world is not essential before God; fear the Lord, such reverence for Yahweh serving to set aside one’s own wisdom, and depart from evil, this course being natural in the case of a child of God, to whom all wickedness is undesirable and loathsome.
V. 8. It shall be health to thy navel, considered as the center of the entire body, and marrow to thy bones, refreshing the entire organism with vigor and strength; for such is the effect of a good conscience and of an honest endeavor to serve the Lord in faith.
V. 9. Honor the Lord with thy substance, with the riches which one enjoys as His blessing, repaying Him from tile gifts granted by Him, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase, the yield of one’s work and the harvest of one’s land, for mere lip-service is not sufficient, the Lord demanding tangible evidence of the faith which His children profess to possess; v. 10. so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, as a reward of God’s gracious favor and fatherly kindness, and thy presses, rather, the vats where the wine was stored, shall burst out with new wine, overflowing with rich abundance by the blessing of God, with which He would acknowledge the willingness of His children.
But the opposite also holds true: As we should not forget the Lord in days of plenty, so we should not be estranged from Him in evil days.