Tag-Archive for » Proverbs 29:18 «

Priestly Indictment

Thursday, February 04th, 2010 | Author:

“But you have turned out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law.  You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says YHWH of hosts. Malachi 2:8

To Stumble – God calls our priests to be intercessors and proclaimers of His truth.  He holds them accountable to that charge.  God charges His priests with two sins.  First, they themselves have turned away from “the way.”  What does that mean?  It means that these priests no longer practice according to God’s instructions.  Go back to the instructions in the Torah.  God is meticulously specific about the actions of the priest.  He sets the standard and it is not subject to modification.  To be a priest is to follow His directions to the letter.  To corrupt the covenant of Levi is a serious offense.[1]

The second sin is a direct result of the first.  When a priest of the Lord doesn’t do exactly what the Lord asks, the people stumble.  Do you remember that often quoted verse, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18)?  What you might not realize is that Solomon isn’t talking about foresight.  Solomon is talking about prophets and priests.  He tells us that unless we have seers, we are lost.  We must have God’s words, given faithfully to us, established in our behavior, if we are to survive.  This is not about a five-year planning committee.  It’s about the faithful presence of our intercessors.

God charges the priests with personal disobedience and public misdirection.  If the priest isn’t living according to God’s instructions, the people will stumble.  The Hebrew verb here is kashal.  This is a dangerous word.  It is connected to falling by the sword, the collapse of nations and the rise of wickedness.  When the priests don’t do what God expects, the whole nation totters.  Did you think the death of nations was the result of failed economic policies, corrupt judges or bad politicians?  Think again!  God lays the blame at the feet of the priests.

The pictograph of kashal is “the last to destroy authority.”  Stumbling is the last step that destroys control.  What is left after stumbling is chaos.  Did you notice the connection between “stumble” and Torah?  When the priests are not true, the people destroy the authority of Torah.  They stumble over God’s instructions.  A priest who does not live and speak as God directs takes down the house!  Why?  Because the people no longer guard, honor or obey Torah.

This is very serious business.  In God’s universe, the fate of entire nations rests in the hands and on the lips of God’s intercessors.  The spiritual condition of God’s servants has a direct bearing on all God’s children.  No wonder His servants are called to guard the Way.

Topical Index:  stumble, kashal, Malachi 2:8, Proverbs 29:18

[1] For the moment, we will ignore the requirement that a priest be from the tribe of Levi.

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , ,  | 13 Comments

Doubtful Vision-Casting

Sunday, June 21st, 2009 | Author:

Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.  Proverbs 29:18

Vision – I recently came across the very interesting comment (it’s worth quoting in full): “You have no doubt heard the biblical axiom, “Without a vision the people perish…” It is used often in an effort to establish a raison d’etre for a congregation.  It attempts to use Scripture to support the ‘build it and they will come’ model to promote building projects; or the ‘praise = entertainment; worship = solemnity’ model to promote programs. Try finding a congregational building program that does not contain the word ‘vision’ in it and you are doing well. One problem with this axiom is that it is only half of the verse from Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps [guards and cherishes] the Torah.”  Notice, the word ‘revelation’ is used. This better explains what the King James Version is saying when it uses the word ‘vision.’ In typical Hebrew parallelism, the phrases are meant to offset one another: “no revelation” versus “cherishes the Torah”  “cast off restraint” versus “happy [blessed]“.

The fact that the American Evangelical church has lost the culture war by forfeit is proof that she has not adhered to ‘revelation’ – which is Torah (i.e. G-d’s revealed Word).  She has “cast off restraint” because she thinks G-d’s instructions are merely suggestions, and all that matters is ‘faith’”. 

The author is right.  Our penchant for casting a “vision” is thoroughly Greek in its operation.  God doesn’t need you to have a vision, a goal or a five-year plan.  He wants and needs you to observe the plan He already put in place 3500 years ago.  God has established His Kingdom here on earth, the vanguard of a coming worldwide domination of His righteousness.  He has already given the constitution of the Kingdom and the marching orders for its expansion.  We ignore them at our peril.  Solomon noted that whenever men and women disregard the revelation (hazon), terrible things happen.  Conversely, whenever men and women cherish God’s instructions, a state of well-being ensues. 

Notice the parallel of Proverbs 29:18 with Proverbs 11:14.  “Where there is no guidance, a people falls,” and  here, “where there is no understanding of the revelation from God, the society deteriorates into chaos.”  We find the same observation in Judges 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes.”

Can the word hazon be translated as “vision”?  Yes, but it is related to the “seeing” of a prophet, not to the planning commission at the church.  The church is called to obedience, not to programming.  Once again, we are back at the Garden.  When Eve ate from the Tree, she cast off restraint.  She had to “vision”.  She did what was right in her own eyes.  She determined what was good for her!  And the rest is history.  What is true for one, is true for all.  Society follows that same collective path of Eve with the same result – ‘atsav – sorrow.

Will you step away from the “vision” casting catastrophe of our Greek planning preoccupation?  Will you trade what is right in your own eyes for the revelation of God’s instructions?  And will you help your brothers and sisters in the Lord, so confused by the addition of pagan thinking to the church, see a different kind of “vision”?

Topical Index:  vision, planning, church, hazon, revelation, Eve, Tree, Proverbs 29:18

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , , , , ,  | 28 Comments