Proverbs 16:2-5,9 Devotional: Blind to your own motives0

Devotional Sharing, Submitted by Pastor William Kang, Gracepoint Berkeley

How might someone be blind to his/her own motives? Everyone wants to think that they are good or noble people.  If not, they want at least want to think that their actions are justified with good reasons.  Some people are greedy and they want things that do not belong to them, that they shouldn’t have or that they can’t afford.  And so in order to get what they want and believe that they are good people or that their intentions are justified, they need to blind themselves to their motives.

I remember moments in my life where I was motivated by mixed motives, and my conscience told me that they were mixed.  Looking back, I’m surprised by my ability to turn a blind eye to those motives by latching on to a noble reason, even though those noble reasons never came into play in the decision making process.  I remember even fooling myself into thinking that those noble reasons were the real reasons all along.  It’s amazing how I can fool myself to a great extent just to assuage my guilt.  However, I can’t fool myself anymore than I can beat myself in a game of chess.  Ultimately I know that it was I who turned a blind eye.

How do vv. 4-5 temper the implication in v.3 that all your plans will succeed if you “commit to the Lord whatever you do?” Verse 4 says that the Lord will work out everything for his own end.  It doesn’t take a great amount of faith to believe that God will work out everything for his own end.  He is all powerful and he is greater than any power on this earth.  The proud and the arrogant (v.5) are no match for his powers. God says that they will be humbled. In short, God will accomplish his desires, and so it makes sense, then, that if I commit whatever I do to God, and if God takes the ball and runs with it, then God getting what he wants in the end, will make sure that what I’ve committed to him will succeed.

Devotion Questions:

• How might someone be blind to his/her own motives?
• How do vv. 4-5 temper the implication in v.3 that all your plans will succeed if you “commit to the Lord whatever you do?”
• In what ways am I making my own plans without considering God’s standards or God’s view of my motives?

Commentary:

v.3 For our plans to succeed, we must depend on the Lord. This is an instruction proverb that includes the result for compliance. The verb “commit” is literally “roll”. The figure of rolling, as in rolling one’s burdens onto the Lord, is found also in Psalms 22:8 (9 MT); 37:5; and 55:22. It portrays complete dependence on God. This would be accomplished with a spirit of humility and by means of a diligent season of prayer; but the plan also must have God’s approval. […]People should commit their plans to the Lord so that he may establish them. Not every plan we have is pleasing to him; but for those that are, this verse is a great comfort.

v.4 God in his sovereignty ensures that everything in life receives its appropriate retribution. On the surface the verse strikes an immediate impression for God’s sovereignty: all God’s acts are part of his plan. Kidner says that ultimately there are no loose ends in God’s world (Proverbs, p. 118). Since the wicked are punished in the end, this proverb adds that that is his plan for them. […] The point is that God ensures that everyone’s actions and their consequences correspond–certainly the wicked for the day of calamity. In God’s order there is just retribution for every act, for every act includes its answer or consequence.

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