Proverbs aims to inspire submission to the will of God in order to cultivate better decision-making in our daily lives.
**16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.
The Bible is full of stories about people who thought they knew the right way, but ended up in the wrong.
Think of Pharaoh who led his army after the Hebrews only to drown in the Red Sea (Exodus 4-15), or Eve who was so convinced the forbidden fruit would make her wise (Gen 3:6), or Cain who thought life would be better if he just did away with his brother (Gen 4:3 ff.).
16:25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Think of the chief priests and the crowds who demanded the crucifixion of Jesus (Luke 23:21), or Paul who tried to eliminate the Christian church by force before he was himself converted and called by Christ to become an apostle (Acts 26:14).
21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.
The paths of life run differently than we expect, and God’s ways are higher than our own.
1) We’re not in control.
16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
Proverbs 16:1 calls us to look for the interplay of the will of God in human conversation, especially in our own words. The Lord is at work in the bridge between meditation and articulation.
This proverb contrasts human will with God’s will, while at the same time it asserts that God’s own will is worked out in our words.
As Allen Ross observes:
“The proverb then is actually giving the reader a glimpse of how God confounds even the wise.” (Allen P. Ross, Proverbs, 1002)
While this is mysterious to consider, yet it’s quite practical.
If you’re turned down for a job – you need not wrestle any further about whether to take that position. The answer, at least for now, is clearly “no”.
We will make our plans, but God rules the outcomes. We can take comfort in his sovereignty. Maybe that consistent “No” is protecting you from something which you cannot imagine. Perhaps your own inability to find the right words is a confirmation that your time to speak has not yet come.
But there is something foreboding in this proverb as well.
You might answer “yes” to a wicked path. Sometimes God’s judgment is manifest in allowing us to have exactly what we want.
16:4 The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
God is sovereign; we are not. Watch out for the answers of others and watch the words of your own mouth, but trust that God will work his will through us one way or another – whether we speak with him or against him.
19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. (also see Acts 4:24-30)
If we would align our plans and our words with God, then we must study God’s own words and plans.
16:20 Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
2) We shouldn’t trust ourselves.
16:2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit.
With Proverbs 16:2 the foreboding is increased. There is a clear warning in this proverb. What you consider pure and right may or may not be what God counts pure. Either way, you will tend to think of yourself as in the right (cf. 21:2 above).
The pattern is consistent throughout humanity – we really want to be right. We like to think of ourselves as right all the time. We’re not inclined to be teachable or to change our minds.
Proverbs warns us that we are not so right or pure as we suppose.
Key insight: you are not the most reliable narrator of your own story.
You need to know what other people think. You need to know what God thinks. And God is not you. We need perspective in order to get a better idea of what is right and wrong.
20:24 A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?
One thing is sure – if you insist on always making your own way and relying upon your own judgment, then you are proud. And pride is not pure.
16:5 Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished. 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Ellen Davis concludes that,
“Self- suspicion is the only effective antidote to arrogance. In matters of speech, it expresses itself as the willingness to explore the feelings that lie behind a remark that “didn’t come out right,” to discover our own malice and confess it as a sin. Healthy self-suspicion derives from the recognition that our knowledge of ourselves is always woefully incomplete…” (Ellen Davis, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 102)
There is tremendous stubbornness in the human spirit. We don’t like to second guess ourselves because we don’t want to admit we’re not in control. We hide insecurity by assuming a posture of self-assurance.
21:29-31 A wicked man puts on a bold face, but the upright gives thought to his ways.
Sometimes we know there is danger; we have been clearly warned – but we keep going.
27:12 The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.
We celebrate this stubbornness as a culture whenever we say with admiration: “He is his own man.” Or “She has made her own way.”
Consider these chilling lines from the song “My Way” written by Paul Anka and popularized by Frank Sinatra:
“For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!”
(see full lyrics here: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/franksinatra/myway.html)
The good news is you don’t have to walk that lonely path. You don’t have to live a brash and proud life, you don’t have to choose the path of folly. By the grace of God, you can choose the way of wisdom.
3) We still have to decide.
16:3 Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established
Despite all these warnings about the folly of human plans, yet the Bible is still in favor of making plans. Despite the fact we’re not in control and we shouldn’t trust ourselves, yet we still have to decide. God is sovereign, but he is not a puppeteer.
As Paul Koptak observes:
“Human choices are not made less important by considering the sovereignty of God; rather, their true importance is shown.” (Paul Kaptak, Proverbs, 426)
It seems to me Proverbs calls us to make our plans with vigor – but to submit our plans and commit our ways to God. We should plan and pray before we act, but we should act decidedly – while humbly allowing for redirection from the Lord.
Proverbs endorses careful planning. Don’t take the various warnings about human folly as an excuse to piously relieve yourself of the responsibility to plan or to decide.
11:14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
We Americans live in a time and place that presents us with seemingly endless choices – and encourages us to keep our options open.
But as Barry Cooper puts it:
“The god of open options is…a liar. He promises you that by keeping your options open, you can have everything and everyone. But in the end you get nothing and no one.” (Barry Cooper, “Imprisoned by Choice”, Christianity Today, Jan/Feb 2013, p. 54)
Part of our problem in decision paralysis is that even when we see the right path clearly we still want to know all the reasons why that way is best and we want to know all outcomes ahead of time.
27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
There’s nothing wrong with decision trees and forecasting. These are helpful tools. But the freedom of faith comes in accepting that you don’t have to understand in order to choose well and you don’t have to know outcomes in order to walk in the Fear of the Lord. Often it’s only once we step forward in faith that we may begin to see more clearly.
As Thomas Merton once observed:
“Faith brings together the known and the unknown so that they overlap: or rather, so that we are aware of their overlapping. …when we accept only what we can consciously rationalize, our life is actually reduced to the most pitiful limitations…” (Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 135-36, italics his)
For the person of genuine faith, discerning the will of God should not be especially difficult – at least not most of the time. Walking the righteous path may prove difficult, but the way forward is straight and narrow. Finding the way involves turning to God and to his Word; you don’t have to make it up as you go along.
3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
If we study God’s law, we will find it plainly forbids a plethora of bad options. If we stop playing God we may find joy in faith and the simple peace that comes with acknowledging our limitations.
There are more good things to be done in the world than bad, more than one way to please God. But we should choose something to put our hand to that aligns with God’s favor.
17:24 The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
As Christians we must remember that we find our salvation, not in every story, but in a particular story. The best news for us is that God is not keeping his options open. God has chosen to act and God has chosen to love. In the man Jesus Christ, God chose to suffer for your forgiveness, to die for your redemption. Christ himself traded his own life for yours.
Barry Cooper observes:
“Nothing narrows your options more than allowing your hands and feet to be nailed to a wooden cross.” (Ibid., p. 55)
Where humanity has lost the will to love, God remains committed. And by Christ’s atonement God enables us, by faith, to choose the good again and to choose to love again without fear. Jesus once said to his disciples:
John 15:16a You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…
God chooses first, but still we must choose decidedly for God.
Luke 9:62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
(**Verse citations are from Proverbs unless otherwise indicated. All Bible quotations are from the ESV.)
Speaking Truth in Babel 