Friday, May 12, 2017

Blessed in the Midst of a Perishing People

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18, ESV)

The best translation of Proverbs 29:18 is a debatable matter. Recently, the King James of this verse has been so misunderstood and misapplied that an alternative has been sought.

The KJV reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish….” This is not a bad translation, but it has been badly misapplied. Many preachers have used this translation to support the idea that we must develop a “vision” of what we want to do. That is not the intent of the verse. The focus of the verse is not human plans but divine instruction, as the (frequently ignored) second half of the verse indicates.

Those who heed the prophetic vision and who keep the “law” (the Torah, the instruction) will be blessed. No promise is implied in this verse for those who dream up a vision of their own. The blessing is for those who follow the divine vision.

It may be significant that the first half of the verse speaks in the plural, “people”, but the second half focuses on the individual, “he”. Even if the people cast off restraint and perish, an individual who chooses to resist the trend and remain faithful will be blessed. Even if the nation as a whole, or the church as a whole, ignores the divinely given vision and fails to keep the God-given instruction, the individual who clings to it will be blessed.

We live in an era in which various human visions are being exalted above the divinely revealed instruction. Restraint is being cast off, and people are perishing. But he who keeps to the Divine vision will be blessed.

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