A Crown Of Life Is Laid Up For Those Drafted By Wisdom's Strength

The beauty of the elect is in the strength of their youth, but a gray crown is the honor *of their old age. (mast)

29 The glory of young men is their strength, And the splendor of old men is their gray head.

*[The beauty] literally, the honor. But there are many ways this Hebrew noun can be used. In context, though, it is directly associated with the power of youth, being related to the shape of the muscular body as it reflects light. Therefore the word is often translated as splendor or glory and sometimes ‘radiance.’ It is even associated with fame. But here it is talking about the beauty of youth in the prime of life. It’s not talking about baby skin at its most tender and delicate stage but the beauty of controlled power in the form of a male body.

The noun, however, is in the feminine form because it’s the construct of the subsequent masculine noun configuring a genitive relationship between the two seemingly opposing nouns. So this preceding noun that comes before the subject is the adornment that clothes the nakedness of the subject. It is the perfection of the center of the word clause. This beginning noun, acting as an adjective in its feminine form, clothes or covers all that follows in the first frame of the constructive clause with its perfection (1Cor.11:7; Ezk.28:12, 15). Therefore this Hebrew noun tells the reader how to read the rest of the nouns in the phrase. Consequently, they all shall be beautiful to behold, for it shines upon them each a particular and exclusive understanding. The whole weight of the value of the remaining words hangs on the balance of how we understand this first word. So the honor of a young man’s worth is in his strength. Therefore the more youth you have with the integrity of this strength, the more beauty there will be in their works.

*[of the elect] literally, choice men. In the context of Solomon’s court and national army, we should understand that youth is much too basic a meaning here, but to realize that Solomon has selected the best of the best to serve the court with the greatest strength. These youths are, as they say, “Army Strong.” Their strength is the most excellent in all of the kingdom. They are not just young men; they are selectmen. So the spiritual sense of the word here is not merely youths but the choicest men of the youth of Israel’s blood. But don’t confuse this with how God chooses his spiritual instruments; this is only the groundwork for laying out how to understand the proper meaning of the Hebrew noun for young men. So they are choice young men, and in keeping with the first cause, they are also beautifully chosen young men, chosen by the King’s definition of beauty. The spiritual sense of this first construct then would be the elect of God in the beauty of Christ, Lord willing, as we shall see again later with more understanding.

*[is in the strength] literally, the power. But again, it is in association with youth, so it is in their strength to use their youth skillfully that God is calling beautiful or honorable here. And in the political sense, of Solomon’s purpose, to encourage the youth of his army to be skillfully strong for the battle that may be ahead; but in the Spiritual sense of holiness in the Father's cause, to be skillfully strong in the weightier matters of the Lord (Matt.23:23), and in the greater context of the Holy Spirit’s purpose in preserving the wisdom of Solomon for the equipping of the man of God in the sufficiency of the Scriptures (2Tim.3:16). This is to say for us to be ready to do the heavy lifting regarding the suffering that can result from being a good soldier of the kingdom of God (2Tim.2:3). The beauty of Christ has given you the honor to do the heavy lifting (Mk.10:21; Jos.4:5). But it is not the beauty of youth itself that makes these men choice servants; it’s the beauty of holiness that chooses these men for honorable service (Rom.9:20-24). Therefore this beauty is meant to weigh them down in works of holy worship (Eph.2:10), not lift them up in the pride of life on a stage that hosts their shame, as Lord willing, we shall see in the following clause (Jn.12:30-33; Heb.12:1-2; 2Cor.4:14). No, this choice service is intended to teach them the beauty of the Lord and what the Lord sanctifies to them when the flower and strength of youth fade away (Jn.3:14-15; 1Jn.2:15-17; James 1:9-12; Rom.12:1-2).

*[of their youth] literally, their, but conjunctively constructive a pronoun of the adjectival masculine noun for elect men. Therefore in this construct to the conjunction, this pronoun carries into the next clause in association with the Hebrew adjective ‘old.’ But we will get to that later, Lord willing. Right now, it is antecedent to the young men in the prime of their strength. But it is God’s glory purposely set upon them that makes their strength a beauty. It is a strength derived from the honor of God’s beauty; it is not their own. For when men walk in their own strength, the holiness of God lets them fall to demonstrate his own beauty (Pr.11:2; Ezk.30:6). He separates himself from their pride when they seek to define beauty from their own image (Gen.3:5). God is the author of beauty, but proud men twist it to honor themselves (Lk.16:15; Jn.5:44). So it is better to be strong in God’s Army than to be the few, the proud, the sardines that are jammed packed into Hell’s torments, for there are many who take the broad path of pride’s destruction (Matt.7:13), no matter how the devil tries to twist it (Isa.5:20). God’s soldiers are fishers of men, and they search for the smallest, weakest men who will bring the power of God the most glory in his beautiful design to serve the Word of God and the wisdom of the cross of Christ (Rev.19:14; 1Cor.1:25; 2Cor.13:4). So the spiritual sense of the choice men (in their youth) is really pointing to their ignorance at the same time that it is pointing to what God is going to make of them as we see the conclusion of them being the strength of the court’s wisdom (2Cor.12:9; Jdg.7:2). The men are chosen based on how they will most glorify God’s wisdom (1Cor.1:26-31). In other words, they own the foolishness of their sin, but God holds the power to their strength (1Thess.1:6; Neh.8:10). The works of youth will not abide as good works without the wisdom of God (Isa.30:1). Solomon is the prime example of this, for the kingdom that he built was torn apart for his love for the beauty of youth (1Kgs.11:1-3). Therefore his own backslidings rebuked him in the wisdom of his own proverbs (Jer.2:19).

*[but a gray crown] conjunctively, an ornament of adornment. The conjunction here compares the beauty that adorns the youth, which is their strength, with wisdom by the symbol of a gray head that adorns the aged like a crown. So in continuation of the ‘ornament’ of the youth, beauty or ‘splendor’ is being reestablished as wisdom in the crown of old age. A gray head is a man’s reward symbolically for honoring the aged with their strength. This is the natural pattern of life in our death to teach us the fear of the Lord (Ecc.12:10-14). Looking ahead to the following Proverb (Pr.20:30), we see what Solomon means. Wisdom will not be learned while the strength of sin is fully alive in the power of youth (1Cor.15:56; Rom.7:13; Ezk.30:15). Solomon believed this before he even learned it in himself. The aged know how to wash away evil with blows that hurt. The crown of this wisdom comes by the stripes of the rod of rebuke (Heb.12:6). The following proverb even takes it further by stating that the king is that instrument or rod that is in the hand of the Lord (Isa.11:1; 53) to perform this. The crown of wisdom has the right to discipline strength toward a proper use of itself. That’s the political sense, but the Holy Spirit wants us to see this more deeply than Solomon’s first use. The rod is to work holiness more than obedience in the heart (Matt.25:24-28). A dog can learn to obey its master by many blows (Lk.12:47), but what makes a dog loyal to his master is the love of reward (Matt.25:21). And so wisdom is the reward for standing still under the blows designed to turn youth from wasting its strength on evil. The power of youth is best exercised in training for this upward call into the throne of wisdom (Phil.3:14; 1Tim.4:8; Eph.4:15), for wisdom is more beautiful in its application than it is in its development (1Pet.2:20). The process of discipline is ugly, but when discipline has its complete fruition, the beauty of wisdom is its own reward displayed from a changed heart.

*[is the honor] conjunctively, the ornament. Again, this is the repetition of the conjunctive comparison in the construct of the aged. Figuratively, the crown of the aged is the honor of wisdom, but literally, it is a gray head. So a gray crown is to be associated with the weight of wisdom. A gray head is the same as a head of gold in terms of its glory and splendor. That’s what Solomon is comparing the beauty of youth’s strength with against the honor of wisdom that has been tested. Youth is not beautiful without the honor of wisdom. When the strength of youth is cast into a fiery trial, only the honor of wisdom remains. That’s Solomon’s Proverbial point. Again, this gray ornament is a feminine Hebrew noun in conjunction with the previous feminine noun that, in construct to the young men, is but a comparison that crowns the aged. So as it was used in context before as beauty, the additional noun here, by distinction, describes the weight of this ornament by the honor of its splendor or beauty that comes from the head rather than the arms and legs of the frame of a man. Therefore youth and age are acting together as the one beauty or splendor that honors a man. But both beauty and splendor are the reflections of this adornment that brightens the frame of a man in his maturity, not merely the image of his youth.

*[of their old age] literally, aged men. But again, this is not merely aged men by virtue of flesh and blood appearances. Solomon is talking about men who aged gracefully by the direction of wisdom. And again, this wisdom didn’t come by being the smartest one in the room to best use and make the opportunity of the liberties handed down to them by their fathers. No, the Proverbial context is clear, that it was discipline that carried the pain and misery of sin into strength by striking at the heart of its foolishness and ignorance (Pr.22:15). It was the blows that hurt the flesh that turned the ears to incline themselves towards wisdom (Matt.11:15; 13:9, 43; Mk.4:9; Lk.8:8; 14:35; Rev.2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The power of youth never abides with the aged where there is no wisdom to use strength as the rod of righteousness (Lk.23:47). And the SBC wonders why there is no shortage of estranged women beholden to its pews? Are we asking the men to deny their strength? Frankly, I think it is a bad sign if you have an assembly full of women leading the home and no men to be found faithful to the hearing of the Word. It means that the strength of the men was pushed out to crown a teacher with a false honor who was too weak to stand upon the power of God’s Word. Men are the honor of wisdom’s beauty. They are the crown and head to the beauty of youth, not the women? A woman perfects a man in the beauty of his youth, but it's the man who perfects the woman in the wisdom of age (1Cor.11:3-10). You crown yourself with nothing more than the cunning of a serpent when there are no strong men in the image of the local gathering. Who was deceived? Why? Because that man had no strength to correct her! But he had all the strength to put God to the test by taking advantage of her weakness. “You shall surely die!” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’s beauty (Pr.1:7; 9:10; 14:27; 16:6; Isa.33:6). And where there is no wisdom, there will be no strength; and where there is no strength, there will be no father. But wherever you find a church that thrives on the abundance of women, you will find a snake hiding behind the nakedness of their shame (2Cor.11:3). The gospel always enters a home through the crown of that home (Jn.4:16), no matter what that accessory is worth compared to the crown of Christ (2Cor.12:7; Rev.3:14, 20).