Proverbs 3:1-12 -Further Benefits of Wisdom

 ¹ My son, do not forget my teaching,
       but keep my commands in your heart,

 ² for they will prolong your life many years
       and bring you prosperity.

 ³ Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
       bind them around your neck,
       write them on the tablet of your heart.

 ⁴ Then you will win favour and a good name
       in the sight of God and man.

 ⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
       and lean not on your own understanding;

 ⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
       and he will make your paths straight.

 ⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes;
       fear the LORD and shun evil.

 ⁸ This will bring health to your body
       and nourishment to your bones.

 ⁹ Honour the LORD with your wealth,
       with the first fruits of all your crops;

 ¹⁰ then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
       and your vats will brim over with new wine.

 ¹¹ My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline
       and do not resent his rebuke,

 ¹² because the LORD disciplines those he loves,
       as a father the son he delights in.

Context is important. These verses are often isolated from the context and while that is rarely unsafe it is better to understand the full message than just part of it.

 

This is chapter three of proverbs, which has much to say about wisdom. In chapter 3 we see that trust is in the wider context of love and faithfulness, shunning evil, honouring God with your wealth and accepting his discipline. We are told to trust with all our heart and we are told to keep his commands in your heart, to write love and faithfulness on the tablet of your heart.

 

 Trust in an emotion. Forget that and you are in deep trouble, just as Northern Rock, Leyman Brothers and many banks are. They trade in trust but they thought they simply traded money. When the trust dissolved, there were long queues at the branches and no means to pay.

 

It is the same in many aspects of our lives. Whether it is employing a child Minder, sending a child to school, buying online, choosing to be married, employing a builder to do improve your house, accepting a doctors advice about treatment or an operation, you make a decision based on known facts but it is the emotion in trusting them that settles it. You may have anxieties and fears all along but that underlines my point. It is about how you feel, not just a mathematical calculation. When God says “Trust me”, he is asking you to make an emotional move. To trust him means relying on him even if some of the evidence is contradictory. The writer to the Hebrews went further and says

 ¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ²This is what the ancients were commended for.   Hebrews 11:1-2 In the end faith trusts when we cannot have proof.

³By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Steven Hawking rightly says that from a mathematical point of view, you don’t need God to intervene to kick-start the Big Bang. But if we trust in God, we believe he is creator and sustainer of the universe. All the science shows is the process by which this happens. But the starting point is the conviction that the science demonstrates the existence of God rather than makes him dispensable.

 

 Trust is never blind.

In fact we reakon someone naive if they believe everything they hear. When we get to the book of Acts, we find that the Bereans are praised because they checked the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul was saying was true. I have no problem with someone wanting to check up on what I say and see if it’s true. In fact, I wish everyone would. God did not give you a brain to make money but not explore the big questions.

 

 Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

 

Two very obvious things here. First In the Lord, Secondly with all your heart. The word Lord here is ‘Yahweh’. This takes us back to Moses at the burning bush. In Exodus 3:13-15 we read

¹³ Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

 ¹⁴ God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

 ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

 

God is to be known by the experiences the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had of him. He has revealed himself in relationship to them . However, he is also himself, not a creation of their thinking but a God who is beyond the limits of our understanding.

For you and me, the same comes from our relationship with Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit in our lives. When you trusted Jesus, you had some limited understanding of him. As you have got to know him, that trust has developed. But the experience is not everything we can know. There are greater heights and depths of relationship with him to explore as you Trust in him with all your heart.

 

 Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

 

Trusting God is not a when in a crisis pray or on a Sunday morning worship, an option when I want top be spiritual. It is a compelling motivation to all of my life. That is expanded in the rest of this text.

 

 Not leaning

To trust in the Lord means to follow in the path of wisdom for there is no wisdom apart from God. Leaning on your own understanding then would not be “making decisions for yourself.” It would be making decisions that are not in accordance with the way of wisdom. If there is no wisdom apart from God after all, then it is foolishness to live a life in any way outside of the path of wisdom.

Not leaning but standing

This is a much repeated idea in the wisdom literature of scripture – the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiates and even the prophets. Here is a sample:

 

^{Proverbs 2:6} For the Lord gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

 

^{Proverbs 26:12}     Do you see persons wise in their own eyes?

There is more hope for fools than for them.

 

^{Proverbs 16:9}     The human mind plans the way,

but the Lord directs the steps.

 

^{Proverbs 20: 24}     All our steps are ordered by the Lord;

how then can we understand our own ways?

 

^{Hosea 14:9}     Those who are wise understand these things;

those who are discerning know them.

For the ways of the Lord are right,

and the upright walk in them,

but transgressors stumble in them.

 

The proper way to go about life is to get to know Jesus, to live in the Spirit day by day, to know his way by reading his word, speaking to God in prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit either through the word or by direct revelation. That is the way of wisdom. It does not require a beard and great study in some monastic type of lifestyle. It means trusting God and his word and his promises and walking as he would have you walk, whether or not it brings happiness, success or wealth. Your chief concern is to please him. The challenge is when God leads us to a place we would not want to go. When we think we know better than God. Buit that is sin. Right back in the garden of Eden, God said do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but the serpent persuaded Eve and Eve persuaded Adam that there was a better way. They were wrong and they suffered the consequences of their sin, just as we do when we reject God’s way and lean on our own understanding.

 

 In all your ways acknowledge him
Always give credit to God and not take any yourself. Remember, everything good comes from above. As things go right in your life, give credit to the one who deserves it. Even the air that we breathe is His. As He opens doors and blesses us, we must be sure to give Him the glory. Once we do that, we can face the difficulties of life, knowing that he is with us and that the struggles of life are just as much times to acknowledge him as the good times. To credit him that his way is best, to trust him that he has control over your life and this is the best for you, however painful.

 

 He will make your paths straight. Some translators have used and he shall direct thy paths following the AV. But this has more to do with passages like

Isaiah 40:3

³ A voice of one calling:
       "In the desert prepare
       the way for the LORD ;
       make straight in the wilderness
       a highway for our God.

Strisght paths are the way of righteousness. The correct way for us to travel. Straight paths are the Royal way , a pathway for our God. And if we trust in the lord with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding and in all our ways acknowledge him, we walk with him on the path he has prepared to walk with us. His way is perfect. Do you believe it? Then live it! And he will direct our paths and open up the way and help us to go in the right direction.   You see God has plans for you. Listen to Jeremiah 29:11-14

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you," declares the LORD,

 

That is why this text is so precious to Christians, because it draws our thinking in the right direction. And if we think right, our feet and hands will follow.  So

 

Trust in the Lord wholeheartedly

          and do not rely on your own intelligence;

     ⁶     In all your ways acknowledge him,

          and he will keep your paths straight. ^[1]

or as the Good News puts it:

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. ⁶Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.^[2]

 

The New Living Translation says:

 ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
      do not depend on your own understanding.
 ⁶ Seek his will in all you do,
      and he will show you which path to take.[3]

 

The Message expresses it:

^5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
   don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
   he's the one who will keep you on track.[4]

 

The AV put it

⁵Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

 ⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. [5]

The Amplified putting all those variations together says:

5Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.  ⁶In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. [6].

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