Vanish

“My son, let them not vanish from your sight; keep sound wisdom and discretion”  Proverbs 3:21

Vanish – Did you know that gravity bends light?  When you watch the sun setting over a flat horizon, the image that you see just before the sun vanishes is really not where you think it is.  The gravity of the earth bends the light you see.  The sun has actually already dipped below the horizon, but the light is curved by the mass of the earth so you still see it.

Sometimes we take the same “bending” approach with God’s instruction.  We keep His word on our horizon where we think we are still being exposed to His wisdom.  But the closer we come to letting His instruction slip out of sight, the more bending our moral gravity affects His straight message.

The Hebrew word here is luz.  It means, “to bend or deviate”.  It is used to describe a crooked or perverse person, someone who opposes the straight paths of the Lord.  Of course, bends in the line of sight mean that I am no longer able to see what’s really there.  Gravity might bend light in the physical word, but in the spiritual world, bending God’s instructions will definitely leave me in the dark.  This verse implores the young man not to play with moral gravity.  Don’t let wisdom and discretion slip from view.  A few verses later (Proverbs 3:32), the same word is used to tell us that God hates a bent or crooked man.  The prophet Isaiah called for God’s pathway to be made straight (Isaiah 40:3).  God doesn’t mind bending light around celestial bodies, but He certainly minds bending the rules of godly living.  Line of sight living means keeping Jesus in constant view.

If you find yourself on the edge of a moral horizon, better check the line of sight.  God’s directions for living don’t bend.