Proverbs 14:14

The Consequences of Our Chosen Paths

1.) In this Proverb, Solomon restates a familiar theme: you reap what you sow.

2.) The particular nuances that he highlights in this verse includes:

a. How unique and personal this is with every individual. (his own ways; from himself)

b. The filling or satisfaction… the abundance of consequences.

14a The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways…

1.) The backslider defined

a. To move; go; turn back; move away; backslide; to turn oneself away; turn back; to be repulsed.

2.) The backslider described:

a. He ONCE walked with God. He at one time was headed in the right direction, but has CHANGED directions… or at least slowed down his pace of progress.

b. He is no longer going forward, but is going backwards.

c. He once fought the good fight, but has retreated for one reason or another. (tired; weary; wounded; enticed; lazy; enamored by the worldly; deceived by the enemy; etc.)

d. This is the man who no longer wants to walk with God.

e. Hence, he does not follow the way of wisdom.

f. He seeks to live for himself and please himself.

g. He seeks prosperity in the world over a relationship to God.

3.) The backslider in HEART… implies two things:

a. He may not appear to be a backslider
• His backsliding may not be outwardly apparent. It is inward… in the heart… where no man can see.
• He is still assembling together with the saints…
• All looks well on the outside, but on the inside, a departure is underway.
• There are backsliders in heart who sit in churches every Sunday, thinking nobody knows. God knows.
• Sin doesn’t have to be outward. It is possible to commit adultery in the heart… murder… idolatry…
• In fact, sin manifests itself in the heart before it is ever manifested outwardly.
• Eventually, the backslider in heart will become a backslider in outward deed.

b. The backslider in heart is just as much a backslider as the backslider in deed.
• Whatever the backslider in heart does is unacceptable before God.
• He may sing in the choir, serve as an officer, teach Sunday school… but if he is a backslider in heart, it is all wood, hay, and stubble… regardless of how talented he may be… how well he sings or teaches or ministers in any other way.

c. His backsliding was not a mere slip that occurred in a weak moment, but was rather a slip that occurred because it was in his heart to go backwards…
• It was the secret desire of his heart long before it was ever put into practice.
• Ezek. 14:3-5 – the Jews set up idols in their hearts. They may not have been outwardly worshipping idols, but it was in their heart to do so.

d. The one who is a backslider in his heart will eventually become a backslider in deed. He is just waiting for the right moment… the right opportunity… the right “front”… the right set of circumstances…

4.) Degrees of backsliding…

a. Backsliding implies going backwards… not progressing forwards.

b. A believer is going backwards when:
• He has lost his earlier zeal for the things of Christ…and is “cooling off”… like embers losing their former glow…
• He has become entangled in the affairs of this life… not necessarily involved in sin, but “occupied” with things that keep him from spiritual growth.
• He has settled back into mediocrity… and is no longer pressing toward the mark.
• His devotion time in the Word has slacked off… become dry and dusty… finds himself reading the Word less than he used to… praying less…
• He desires the camaraderie of his old friends or the guys at work rather than making friends with God’s children…and the fellowship of the saints…

c. Many believers at church would not be able to notice this change, but God does. God knows a lack of spiritual progress when He sees it…

d. God takes note of our spiritual progress, growth, zeal, fervor, level of dedication, commitment, enthusiasm, and our love for Christ.

e. He knows if we are zealously reaching toward the mark… just drifting along… stagnating… pretending… or headed for a crash landing!

f. God knows. HE knows all about our walk.

5.) His ways…

a. His way is the way of sin…

b. The way of self…

c. The way of spiritual neglect…

d. The way of indulgence…

e. The way of the flesh…

f. The way of the world…

g. The way of pride…

h. The way of greed… materialism…

i. The way of laziness…

j. The way of apathy…

k. Any way—except the way of the cross…

6.) Filled with his ways…

a. Filled defined: to be satisfied, be sated, be fulfilled, to have one’s fill.

b. Filled with his ways speaks of being filled with the consequences of his ways…

c. He is filled in the sense that his soul is saturated with the evil fruit that he planted… sick of it!

7.) Prov. 1:31 – those who reject God’s wisdom and choose their own course will be forced to eat of the fruit of their ways.

8.) Prov. 13:21 – evil pursues sinners.

9.) Prov. 10:24-25 – The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.

a. The fear of the wicked = that which wicked men fear.

b. Wicked men DO fear the consequences of their wickedness.

c. Crooks fear going to jail; adulterers and whoremongerers fear getting aids; those who steal or gossip fear getting caught;

10.) The punishment for the backslider is that God gives him what he wants.

a. Num. 11:18-20 – As God gave the Israelites meat in the wilderness… so much of it that it became loathsome to them!

b. He gave them their fill—and made them SICK of it.

c. God makes the backslider weary of his sin… sick of it… like the prodigal son.

d. That which he thought he delighted in, becomes wearisome, burdensome, sickening… nauseating… (This is God’s mercy!)

e. Prov. 20:17 – Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.”

14b And a good man shall be satisfied from himself.

1.) The good man… (spiritually, ethically, and morally good)

a. This is the righteous man who walks with God.

b. His heart is right with God and that is reflected in the way he talks and lives.

2.) Satisfied:

a. Actually, the verb “satisfied” does not appear in the original. Note the italics in the King James Version.

b. The verb was added by the translators to make the sentence make sense.

c. The only verb is FILLED.
• The backslider is filled with his own ways.
• The verb filled can have two meanings:

1. filled up like a barrel is filled with dirt… or

2. filled and satisfied as when one eats.
• The concepts are quite similar, and can connote that which is either good or evil.
• Solomon seemed to play on this nuance by not inserting the verb in the second part… but obviously requiring the reader to insert the same verb… with a slightly different twist.
• The backslider is filled with the consequences of his wickedness, but the good man is satisfied with good things.

3.) Solomon does not say that the good man here will be successful or prosperous. Rather, he states that he will be satisfied.

a. It is possible to be unsuccessful and still be satisfied… content.

b. If you gave it your best shot; if you followed the rules while others may have cheated to get ahead; you can be content KNOWING that this is the will of the Lord for you… you can be quite content in the will of God!

4.) Satisfied from himself:

a. This inner satisfaction comes from within, but is not independent of God.

b. It comes from what God has wrought in him… from within.

c. He is satisfied from within… at peace with himself… because he is at peace with God…

d. He will have the “testimony of his own conscience.” (II Cor. 1:12)

e. He will be satisfied with a conscience that is at rest.

f. He will be satisfied knowing that he is in the right.

g. He will be satisfied knowing that God is on his side and is pleased with him.

h. This all comes from himself in the sense that the choices HE made and the paths HE chose to pursue as HE yielded to the Lord… and thus those choices have brought to HIM satisfaction.

i. There is great satisfaction that comes in knowing you have made the right choice… even if it was a difficult choice.

j. The one who chooses Christ over money… Christ over the world… Christ over pleasure… Christ over anything and everything else that comes our way chooses that which will bring satisfaction to his soul.

5.) Blessings upon the good man…

a. Prov. 10:6 Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.

b. Prov. 10:16 – The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin.
• This speaks not just of life, but all the blessings of an abundant, wholesome, spiritually healthy life.

c. Prov. 12:2-3 – A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.

d. Prov. 20:7 – The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him. (there is satisfaction in that)

e. Prov. 21:15 – It is joy to the just to do judgment: (he genuinely delights in the path he has chosen… he is satisfied from within)

6.) Psalm 17:15 – David was a good man—and SATISFIED.

a. Note that this good man (a man after God’s own heart) was satisfied when he BEHELD God’s face. Therein lay the key to the satisfaction of a good man.

b. David was also aware of his own fallen nature and how easily HE TOO could fall backwards…

c. Vs. 5- Hence, he prayed in faith for the Lord to hold up his goings and keep his foot from slipping. A good prayer for us all!

d. Vs. 6 – David also had confidence that God WOULD hold him up! That is not self confidence or pride, but FAITH… trust in God to hold up his steps… and keep him going in the right direction.

e. Jude 23-24 – God is ABLE to keep us from falling. Do you believe that? Trust in Him. Walk by faith—moment by moment and see the salvation of the Lord… step by step!