Proverbs 21:1-5 (ESV) 1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. 2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart. 3 To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. 4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin. 5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
This passage of Scripture is worthy of our meditation (as they all are). It is a comforting thought (vs 1) that though a king may plan his steps the Lord directs his paths. This is true, Scripture says not only of every leader, but every person on this earth (Proverbs 19:21). Let me see if I can illustrate why it is so comforting. In our present day, has anyone else wondered why no one has fired a nuclear missile yet? There are people out there crazy enough to do it, some are even leading countries right now. But why haven’t they pushed the launch button? The Lord, through his various means, turns their heart wherever he wills. God is in control, not the crazies. Which means they will only go so far as God will allow them to go, all in his sovereign plan. They make their own horrible choices, yes, but God only allows so much. He restrains them from breaking the river banks that He in his goodness has set up.
Closer to home for us who are not kings of nations, (or have access to nuclear arsenals), vs 2 confronts us. Whatever we plan to do seems right to us, or else we would do something else. But God sees not only the end of all our actions and the results of them, but He also sees our heart in doing them. Our motives are abundantly clear to Him and why we are doing what we are doing, though it may not be completely clear or revealed even to ourselves or others, God weighs the heart. It means that if our intentions are pure, God knows it, if they are mixed, God knows it, If they are malicious, God knows it and if they are a mix of all three? Guess what, God still knows it. That is why David cries out in Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
This must be our habit in all that we do, to live before the face of God in the continual realization that He knows my heart and knows me better than even I know myself. This is not to say that we should go on extrapolated sin hunts in ourselves. Concentrating in a paranoid way on whether we have hidden motives that we don’t know of will itself lead to self-centeredness and self-absorption on its own. But not realizing at all that we often can deceive or mislead ourselves even though we think we are doing the right thing leads to the worst kind of spiritual blindness: pride. This is where the writer of Proverbs turns next.
He proclaims that: To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. 4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin. I think that vs 4 is giving a commentary on what is happening in vs 3. There is a way that we sacrifice to the Lord, whether that was the actual giving of a physical sacrifice in Old Testament worship, or now, in the giving of our time, gifts, talents, or ministry to the Lord, that Lord sees as lacking. I wish instead, He says, you would have done righteousness and justice. Vs 4 provides a clue as to why he desires this. If we do those things with haughty eyes and a proud heart, they are sin. Pride is the blinding, blazing and obnoxious light that we frustrate everyone with when we try to “sacrifice” or “minister” to others or God in pride, though we can’t see the light ourselves. Like when only after we pass a line of cars that we realize we had our high beams.
To know that God knows your heart is to know that God knows everything about you, the motives under your motives, the desires under your desires and the gods under your God. He knows you and I perfectly, all of our heart, all of our words, all of our actions, all of our motives. There is no hiding from Him. But when we know him to be gracious to restore us even from our pride and malice we can say again like David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” To be willing for God to reveal it to us, repent of our sin and then to be led in the way everlasting. God’s gracious spotlight, Him knowing our hearts, and yet at work to change them at the same time.
Well worded. I like this one a lot, very helpful! :)
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