The Often Forgotten Verse About our Future

Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV) 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.

Proverbs 3:5-6 get the headlines in sermons and Christian coffee cups. I understand. The passage is about our future and we are often so worried about it that we need a lot of reinforcement to embrace it. After all, you cannot stop the future from arriving.

Some translations say, "he will direct your paths." And I love that too... and we all should do exactly as this verse suggests.

But it should be mentioned repeatedly that "all scripture is God-breathed and profitable" to equip us (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17).

To that end, look at the verses PRECEDING those incredible words from Proverbs 3:5-6:
Proverbs 3:1–4 (ESV) My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, 2 for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. 3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.

Two commands to NOT lose two things - the teaching of the writer in Proverbs AND steadfast love and faithfulness. They must be so much a part of our lives they are like drapes "around our neck and on our hearts."

Then the promise: "you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man."

Now here's the question: Which is more profitable? Straight paths or favor and good success? I would suggest the latter. 

This makes something very clear: God heavily rewards steadfast love and faithfulness. 
So what are they?

Steadfast love is a continuance through the tough times. It is a fiduciary of heart that says we will not give up when life is against us. The word is "hesed" in Hebrew. It is the word that most often describes God in the Old Testament. One place where God uses this word repeatedly is in Ruth. Why does that matter? Because Ruth happens in the time of the judges when everyone was doing "what they saw fit." In other words, everyone was living for themselves. Or even clearer: No one was committed to anyone. And yet God was still working in "hesed" for His people. The Lord showed steadfast love ("hesed") to Israel by using a foreigner with "hesed" toward her mother-in-law to bring about the Davidic kingdom. Then God promised David to never take his "hesed" from David's line and Jesus arrives as the incarnate "hesed" of God toward us! 

Which lays out why it is such an important value to God and why He blesses it with favor and good success. Because God is a loyal friend who gives to us through our good and bad days. 

Practically speaking - steadfast love will put many people in your path who will appreciate a value so rare in our society of "everyone doing what they want". It will yield the fruit of favor and success because this gem of a character trait is so hard to find. And rare things are prized possessions.

So yes, God can and will make your paths straight as you trust in Him. But if you're loyal like Him - He will bestow on your life what He has to offer and it sounds really great to me. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God’s View of You

Sometimes I think we imagine that God is mostly disappointed with us. That He puts up with us and bears with us because He has to (after all He is love), but most of the time our glaring weaknesses weary Him and make His day miserable. Of course, this is the devil’s doing in our minds. The truth of scripture bears out that the world has to get staunch-raving evil before God is totally weary of us. And the stories in the Old Testament remind us with each passing character that God is patient, loving and kind to His very flawed inconsistent servants. Saul is a case study of this. His lineage will not hold the kingdom, that has already been stated from the mishap of offering the sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive in 1 Samuel 13. His next great gaff will happen in the chapter to come in 1 Samuel 15 where his own kingship will be taken from him and the anointing placed on one soon to come. Yes, God will regret making Saul king and we’ll talk about that next. But for now...
Read more

The Stain of Slavery

One of the greatest pains in my heart over the history of the church is the fact that many "Bible-believing" Christians used the Bible to promote, continue, and enable slavery in America's past. It may have happened elsewhere, but I'm an American, and I know it happened here. Then, some repeatedly make the claim because of a tiny amount of verses where God informs Israel on how to take slaves, it means the Bible is a pro-slavery document. How absurd. The overarching narrative of the Bible is that God sets the slaves free. The second book testifies to this part of God's character.  Getting to Jeremiah's day, one of the reasons Israel's nation was handed over to exile was because they enslaved each other. This attitude was so engrained into the culture of Israel that they had a hard time giving up slavery even in the face of national catastrophe.  In Jeremiah 34, the king is promised that he will die in Babylon, but he will die in peace. Jeremiah 34:3–5 (ESV...
Read more

Leaders Who Later Fail

Remember Johanan from Jeremiah 41? The man who saved many others from the threats of the murderous coup? He seemed like a noble leader. But time reveals a lot.  Jeremiah 42:5–6 (ESV)  Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.” These are the words of the presumptive leaders of Israel in the land while the nation is in exile. The previous chapter saw a hero arise to protect a few remaining survivors. His name was Johanan. On the surface, he seems like a good man, seeking the will of the Lord in his leadership position. Jeremiah returns with directives from the Lord: Jeremiah 42:10 (ESV) If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant y...
Read more