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CONFIDENCE IN GOD ENCOURAGED
THE book of Proverbs is not so much designed to open to us the way of salvation, as it is to regulate our conduct after we have attained the knowledge of the truth. It abounds with maxims admirably calculated to assist us in our intercourse with men, and with instructions also relative to our walk before God. Of this latter kind is the advice given us in the words which we have just read: wherein we see,
I. The confidence which God requires of us—
As creatures, we are of necessity dependent on Him who first gave us our existence: for in him we live, and move, and have our being. But it is by no means sufficient for us to acknowledge this as a truth which we cannot controvert: we must acquiesce in it as a state that we approve, and glory in it as our highest privilege. Our confidence in God must be co-extensive with our necessities: it must be—
1. Entire—
[We must trust in the Lord “with all our heart.” There must be no aversion to such an appointment as unnecessary, no distrust of it as insufficient. We should view ourselves as utterly incapable of ensuring our own happiness: and we should regard God as engaged to order every thing for our good. We should not for a moment doubt his wisdom to discern what shall eventually prove best for us, nor his power to execute it, however great or numerous the difficulties may be which appear to obstruct its accomplishment. Nay, we must be persuaded, that his love delights in caring for us, and that his truth and faithfulness will perform all that in his unbounded mercy he has undertaken in our behalf. From this conviction we must commit all our concerns to him. to be ordered and overruled as he in his infinite wisdom shall see best. There must be an actual transfer of them if we may so speak into his hands, and a full conviction of mind that he is able to keep, and will assuredly keep, what we have so committed to him, so as to bring all our affairs to a blessed and successful issue [Note: Psa_37:5. with 2Ti_1:12.].]
2. Exclusive—
[We must “not lean to our own understanding.” so as to rely on it for any thing. We are to use our understanding indeed, but not to transfer to it any measure of that dependence which should be placed on God only. We know not what would be the ultimate issue of any one thing. We are ready to suppose, that whatever obstructs our wishes for a time, will endanger their final accomplishment: whereas God often makes those very events subservient to his own gracious purposes, and uses them as means whereby his ends shall be fulfilled. This was remarkably the case with Joseph, in all his trials: and there is no true believer who will not acknowledge, that in his own experience many things which have been desired by him would have proved injurious, and many things which have been deprecated by him have been overruled for his welfare. From a full conviction that “a man’s way is not in himself, and that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps [Note: Jer_10:23.],” we must renounce all idea of planning for ourselves, any further than in an entire dependence on the divine guidance and direction. We are doubtless to use all proper means for attaining what on the whole appears most desirable: but the relying on our own devices, as calculated of themselves to ensure success, is the thing which God has marked with his strongest disapprobation [Note: Isa_22:8-11. See also Isa_30:1-3; Isa_31:1-3.] — — — The doing of this demonstrates our folly [Note: Pro_28:26.], and exposes us to the heaviest curse [Note: Jer_17:5-6.]. We must therefore altogether “cease from our own wisdom [Note: Pro_23:4.].”]
3. Uniform—
[“In all our ways we must acknowledge him;” not in those only which seem to be of greater importance, but in all without exception. It is not in the rise and fall of empires only that God’s hand is to be viewed, but in the falling of a sparrow, or in any event equally insignificant. We are apt to consider some things as important, and others as unimportant; but the truth is, that in God’s sight nothing is important (except as it may advance his glory); nor is there any thing unimportant as it relates to us. Many things which in their effects and consequences have been of the greatest imaginable importance, may in their origin be traced to the slightest possible occurrence. If we look into the book of Esther, we shall see this observation confirmed in its utmost extent. Nor is God to be acknowledged only in those events which would be deemed small, but in those also which are casual, or, as we call them, accidental: “the lot (than which nothing is more casual) is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord.” In every thing therefore, whether great or small, painful or pleasant, concerted or fortuitous, God must be acknowledged as having sent it, if past, and as having the entire disposal of it, if future.]
To place this entire confidence in God will be found our truest wisdom, if we consider,
II. The encouragement he gives us to trust in him—
Wonderful is the promise here given for our encouragement; “He will direct our paths.” But how will he direct us? Will he speak to us in dreams, or visions, or by Urim and Thummim, or by an audible voice? Or will he go before us in the pillar and the cloud, as he did before his people in the wilderness; or answer us, as he did David, in reference to the men of Keilah, and the Amalekites [Note: 1Sa_23:4; 1Sa_11:12; 1Sa_30:8.]? No: we are not authorized to expect any thing of the kind: yet will he direct us sufficiently to preserve us from any material error,
1. By his Spirit—
[To “open the eyes of our understanding” is one of the most important offices of the Spirit: and, in doing this, he will purge away from our eyes that film which obstructs our sight. Pride, passion, interest, and a thousand other things, incapacitate us for a clear and perfect discovery of our duty: and, till these be mortified, we are constantly exposed to the most awful delusions: we are ready at all times to “call good evil, and evil good: to put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” But, when our minds are duly enlightened, we see things in their proper colours. On different occasions, when the apostles would have called fire from heaven to consume a Samaritan village, and when they contended with each other who should be the greatest, our blessed Lord instructed them better: and so will he do with us, bringing to our remembrance some portion of God’s word which bears upon the point in hand. Thus he fulfils that blessed promise, “that we shall hear a word behind us, saying. This is the way, walk ye in it: when we should otherwise have turned either to the right hand or to the left [Note: Isa_30:21.].” We say not, that the Holy Spirit does not sometimes effect this without the word: we are inclined to think he does; and that too by a kind of impression on the mind deterring us from evil and guiding us to good [Note: Psa_73:24. 1Jn_2:20; 1Jn_2:27.]: but he never does it contrary to the word. Suffice it to say, that whether with or without the word, he will guide us into all truth, so far as shall be necessary for the rectifying of our views, and the regulating of our conduct.]
2. By his Providence—
[God often interposes for men in a most wonderful manner, to preserve them from evil, and to guide them into that which is good. Even a wicked Balaam was obstructed in his way by God’s appointment, in order to awaken him to a just sense of his duty. A remarkable instance of such an interposition occurs in the life of David. He, being incensed against Nabal for the contemptuous manner in which he had treated his messengers, and for his ungrateful refusal to administer to his necessities [Note: 1Sa_25:4-11.], had determined to avenge himself upon him and all that belonged to him. But God put it into the heart of Abigail to go to meet him, and by mild representations to pacify his wrath [Note: 1Sa_25:18-31.]. Thus were the greatest impieties prevented through the intervention of this prudent female [Note: 1Sa_25:32-34.]. And in this way God often directs the ways of his people, either sending a friend perhaps, or a minister, to suggest such considerations as shall influence their minds: or by some particular occurrence “raising, as it were, a hedge, or building a wall,” to keep them in the path of duty [Note: Hos_2:6-7.]. It may be, that the occurrence may occasion much grief at the time; but God knows how to accomplish his own purposes, and will constrain us all in due time to acknowledge that “he doeth all things well.”]
We will add a few words,
1. To direct your exertions—
[Do not imagine that confidence in God is to supersede your own personal exertions. You are to labour, as much as if every thing depended on yourselves; and then to trust in God, as if nothing had been done by you. You must also expressly commit your concerns to God in fervent and continual prayer. The Psalmist particularly combines this with confidence in God: “Trust in God at all times, ye people; pour out your hearts before him [Note: Psa_62:8.].” The confidence that is unaccompanied with prayer and diligence is mere presumption. We have a beautiful pattern in Jacob, when he was about to meet his brother Esau. He disposed every thing in a way most suited to pacify his brother’s anger, or, in the event of not succeeding in that attempt, to secure that part of his family who were most dear to him: but, whilst he acted thus, he committed himself wholly to the Lord, and looked for success from him alone [Note: Gen_32:9-32.]. Thus let there be no want of prudence or of diligence on your part; and then you may be assured that God will not suffer you to be disappointed of your hope.]
2. To regulate your expectations—
[Though God promises to direct your paths, he will not so direct you as to keep you from every degree of error. The apostles themselves, though in what they declared to be the will of God they were inspired to utter nothing but what was true, were not infallible in their own personal conduct. Peter greatly erred on one occasion, in his conduct towards the Gentiles; as Paul also did in reviling God’s high priest. You must not therefore conceive that you are certainly and altogether right, because you have prayed to God for direction: God may have many wise and gracious purposes to answer by leaving you still under some measure of darkness and ignorance: if it be only to humble you still more, and to shew you the blindness of your minds and the deceitfulness of Your hearts, it is a good and gracious end, for which you will in the issue see reason to be thankful. Be modest then, and diffident in your conclusions: and instead of assuming infallibility to yourselves, be always ready to suspect that your way is still far from perfect; and to the latest hour of your lives be proving to God to lead you in a right path, and to fulfil to you that gracious promise. “The meek he will guide in judgment; the meek he will teach his way.”]