Proverbs

Leave Nothing to Chance

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

The lot is cast into the lap; But the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

Proverbs 16:33

Let us say that a man rolls a pair of dice, and it comes up snake eyes. We can say, on the strength of this proverb, that God foreordained that result. Before the worlds were fashioned, God had decided that the dice would land that way. God not only decided that soldiers were going to gamble for the Lord’s robe when He was crucified, He had also determined which soldier was going to take that robe away. Every detail of everything that happens in this world is determined by God. The hairs of our head are numbered (Matt. 10:30). A sparrow cannot fall to the ground apart from the will of the Father (Luke 12:6-7).

So does this mean that we can infallibly determine the will of God for our lives by rolling dice on every decision? No, we cannot. If we were to roll the dice, we know that it was determined by God to come up as two threes. What we don’t know is the meaning that should be assigned to this, and we have no way of knowing. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). The meaning of the two threes could be your own assigned meaning, which was that you were supposed to apply to med school. But it might also mean that you were a fool, and God thought it was time to prove it to everybody.

So an employer who has a stack of applications and who settles on one by flipping coins in his office is an employer who deserves everything he gets. But if he has carefully winnowed the applications down to two, and they are both equally qualified, and he decides by flipping a coin, that is a different matter. That is how the disciples chose the replacement for Judas (Acts 1:23).

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

All the days of the afflicted are evil: But he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

Proverbs 15:15

Scripture does teach us that different things, both good and bad, happen to men and women, whether they are good or bad. These things have to do with our external circumstances, and to a certain extent our emotional responses to these events are like a thermometer. They reflect what is going on. Job knew when he had received bad news, and he responded accordingly. 

But there is another sense in which we carry our own emotional weather around with us. In other words, we are not just thermometers, but also thermostats. 

If someone is afflicted, all his days are evil. He is a thermometer. But there is another man who has a merry heart, and he is a thermostat. His attitude is such that everything is wonderful. He has a continual feast because he brings his food with him. He always packs a lunch. 

These two circumstances are placed in tension by Solomon. He is not saying that “positive thinking” overcomes everything, but he most certainly is saying that an optimistic outlook, a merry heart, overcomes a lot. And when a person under affliction wakes up to another day of pain, or another week of struggle, he needs to endure what God has assigned to him.

But at the same time, he must take care not to forget the second half of the verse. He must not let a stretch of affliction train him into thinking that how you think of your circumstances doesn’t make any difference at all. A set of bad afflictions is really bad, but not quite as bad as a set of bad afflictions along with a negative attitude. In other words, no situation is so bad but that you can’t make it worse.

And a merry heart is a wonderful companion for most circumstances.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

A faithful man shall abound with blessings: But he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.

Proverbs 28:20

Let us think about getting from point A to point B. In this case, point A is a condition of fewer blessings and point B is abounding with them. The contrast in the proverb is between the faithful man and the man who makes haste to be rich.

It says that the faithful man shall abound with blessings, which would include wealth. The man who will fail in his innocence is the man who wants to abound with blessings also, but he is in a hurry to get them. In other words, he drives over the speed limit, cut corners, takes short cuts, and all the rest of it. 

The implication here is that God wants faithful men to be blessed, but He wants the blessings to accumulate slowly. This faithfulness is demonstrated over a period of time, and during that time the faithful man is given many opportunities to wait and be patient. 

When a man has his eyes on the “results,” meaning that he wants to get rich quickly, he is in effect asking the devil to tempt him.

When God blesses a man, He does it incrementally. He puts one layer on, and then he lets it cure. Then He applies the second layer, and He lets that one cure as well. When we are patient with God’s processes, we are being blessed with the wisdom that comes over time, and which can come in no other way. 

God’s secret path to wealth is therefore something like “work hard for forty years, tithe, invest, save, and work some more.” But the impatient heart of the carnal man wants the windfall, wants it now. When it fails to appear on schedule, when it doesn’t appear “now,” and an opportunity arises to shade things a bit, the pressure is on. A man like that shall not be innocent.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Evil men understand not judgment: But they that seek the Lord understand all things (KJV).

Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely (ESV).

Proverbs 28:5

One time our family was visiting my grandmother, who lived in a small town in Nebraska. It was there that I saw a bumpersticker that summed up a lot of truth. It said, “you don’t see much in a small town, but what you hear makes up for it.” If I could modify this saying just a little bit, and adapt it for our generation I would say that “we don’t see much justice in our time, but what we hear makes up for it.” We are a generation of justice jugheads, and yet people are talking about it all the time. Especially something they call social justice.

Not only is there a disparity between what we see and what we hear, there is also a connection between what we see and what we hear. Put another way, we talk about justice the way a diseased man talks about health, the way an impoverished man talks about money, the way an obese man talks about nutrition.

But those who seek justice do not understand justice. Those who seek the Lord understand it. Evil men talk a lot about justice, but the rancor in their voice tells you it is the voice of envy and accusation. When they refer to justice, they are talking about what someone else has, and the simple fact that he has it is the source of the grievance. They demand justice, using that word without even blushing, but according to Scripture that evil envy in their heart dictates that they are making their assessments in a pitch black courtroom. Evil men love to talk about justice—for that is how they enslave people—but they do not have any earthly idea of what the word means. Those who love the Lord, having sought Him, do understand it. This is why the evil men call them oppressors.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Without counsel purposes are disappointed: But in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Proverbs 15:22

The first thing to do with this proverb is to gather the wisdom that lies on the surface of it. We may then go on to discuss how the principle involved might be misapplied.

If a man has a head full of plans, and he doesn’t check with anybody about anything, he is probably going to encounter a number of rude surprises. “Without counsel purposes are disappointed.” In other words, if he had only checked with someone who had done this before, he might have found out about this important task, or that important prerequisite. The proverb is aimed at the industrious fellow who doesn’t believe that he needs to budget for the possibility that he might be wrong about something.

Over against this, we learn that a “multitude of counselors” is a good thing. The man with plans in this scenario sees that his plans are “established.” Two heads are better than one, and ten heads are better than two.

How might this principle be misapplied? A man with a watch knows what time it is, while a man with three watches is never sure. In other words, in order for the words of this multitude of counselors to do any good, it is necessary for their words to be weighed, or sifted, or evaluated, or compared. When you seek counsel from ten different men, it is highly unlikely that they will all say exactly the same thing. And that means, for example, that if you seek counsel from ten men, you will probably not do what eight of them suggest.

That does not make the seeking out of counselors an exercise in vanity. It is worthwhile to weigh what everyone says, and to consider their objections and concerns. There is wisdom to be found in all ten, and not just in the counsel of the two you heeded. 

And in any case, it is far better to be talking with others about where you might be mistaken than to be trapped inside your own head, that place of continuous applause.

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