Proverbs 4:23-27, Defend the Citadel!
February 20, Proverbs 4:23-27
Matt. 12:31-37; Phil. 2:14-16 “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mk. 13:37).
Defend the Citadel!
In these verses that follow, there is, what Derek Kidner calls “a kind of medical inspection symbolised by the heart, mouth, eyes and feet,” but we prefer to treat it as a battle for the heart and soul of man.
- The Command Centre: Keep thy heart. Where shall we begin our inspection? Where, but with the Citadel, the heart, but what is the heart? It is a fact of life that if you want to live, take care of your heart. In the OT the heart was the citadel or the command centre of human personality. Apart from references to it as a physical organ, there are 822 mentions of the word. Of these, 204 (85 in Proverbs) refer to the thought-life (Pr. 23:7). In the NT the closest term would be the mind, but it can sometimes mean the emotions, the will, the whole inner being. These terms are, at times, interchangeable, emphasising the power of the thought-life, man’s most vital and vulnerable point. What the physical heart is to the body, the moral heart is to the mind. It is the command-centre of our innermost being. Know your heart well, for be assured Satan does, and exploits its every weakness.
a. There is an Urgency. Above all watching, protect your heart. We normally only keep or guard something of great value, but many have no sense of the importance of their heart as the determiner of their thought-life. Because of sin, man is captive to lawless thoughts and evil impulses. It is the thought-life, the imagination that usually controls our actions. The heart meets many subtle assailants. It is a matter of the greatest urgency, therefore, to protect it against all the assaults of the Enemy. “Let the sentinel be never sleeping at this post” (Bridges). Long before, Moses warned: Only take heed to (be on guard for) thyself, and keep (guard) thy soul diligently (Deut. 4:9). Do you keep your garden so well that passers-by pause to admire it? You guard your home, your family, your money, yet do you neglect the most important thing you possess, the citadel of your heart?
b. There is a Capacity. God made man in His Image as a thinking being, to think His thoughts after Him, and thereby man would realise his true fulfilment. Sinful man, however, hates God’s thoughts and prefers his own, but with what disastrous results? Who can measure the reaches of God’s thought (Isa. 40:12-14; 55:8-9), and who can but rejoice at how God quickens the hearts (minds) of His servants? God used Job to interpret for us the problem of suffering. Moses, brought up in all the wisdom of Egypt, became the instrument of God to give to the world His imperishable Law. In the NT, God exalts the mind of John, the beloved disciple, to incredible heights as he records the mystery of the Incarnation, and the description of the Risen, Glorified Christ, the Alpha and Omega, standing among His churches. What can surpass the magnitude of the mind of Paul? Space fails to tell of others that God has used down the centuries to raise a standard for Truth.
Thought: Keep your heart with God, for God may use even you!
Prayer: Lord, that I may hide Thy Word in my heart.