The LORD's Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

It's Proverbs chapter 16, verses 1 to 15.

Proverbs 16:1–15

For its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

Be assured he will not go unpunished.

By steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquity is atoned for.

And by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil.

When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

An oracle is on the lip of a king.

His mouth does not sin in judgment.

A just balance and scales are the Lord's.

All the weights in the bag are his work.

It is an abomination to kings to do evil.

For the throne is established by righteousness.

Righteous lips are the delight of a king.

And he loves him who speaks what is right.

A king's wrath is a messenger of death.

And a wise man will appease it.

In the light of a king's face there is life.

And his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

Is that better?

Is that better?

Yeah, that should be better.

Basically.

Oh no.

It's hot.

Whether it's schools canceled due to COVID-19 or wedding plans postponed.

Or a sudden move of a friend.

An unexpected job loss.

A surprising pregnancy.

Or a death of a loved one.

We've all experienced what it's like to have our carefully laid plans derailed.

By the unexpected circumstances of life.

And these experiences can be unsettling.

Because they remind us of just how little control we actually have over our lives.

But this passage reminds us that there's someone who does have control over our lives.

And by putting the Lord's sovereignty and the human responsibility side by side.

Solomon teaches us that we should live with a posture of humble submission under the sovereign Lord.

And this passage is divided into two main sections.

Which are clearly marked by the repetition of the word Lord in verses 1 to 9.

And the word King in verses 10 to 15.

So verses 1 to 9 is about the sovereign rule of the Lord.

And verses 10 to 15 are about the intermediate rule of a king.

So first let's look at the sovereign rule of the Lord in verses 1 to 9.

These verses are bracketed by verse 1 and verse 9.

Which sound a similar theme.

Verse 1 says,

The plans of the heart belong to man.

But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

Verse 9 says,

The heart of man plans his way.

But the Lord establishes his steps.

So these verses relate and contrast divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

It is our responsibility as humans to make plans.

The plans of the heart belong to man.

The heart of man plans his way.

But though man gets the first word in these verses,

God gets the last word.

The answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

We might plan one thing, but the answer we get,

the outcome is determined by the Lord.

Men devise their plans, but God decides.

Man proposes, but God disposes.

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

And the steps we take, the ways we walk,

they are not in ourselves, but in the God who directs our steps.

So the notion that we are masters of our own faith is ultimately an illusion.

And this truth is first of all humbling for us.

Being in Cambridge, many of you are, by the world standards, incredibly successful.

But it would be presumptuous to think that we are responsible for that success.

Even if you worked diligently to earn your degrees and land your jobs,

all that we have ultimately comes from God's hand.

We were all born with a certain genetic makeup.

We were all born in a certain zip code.

We were all born with certain parents.

We were all given certain opportunities.

In fact, there is nothing we have ever done for which we can take sole credit.

For this reason, we should live with a posture of humble submission

under the sovereignty of the Lord.

And this truth is not only humbling, it is also liberating.

Because we should expect the unexpected.

We should plan to have our plans fall through.

Uncertainty is certain.

We should not imagine that we are in control, that everything is up to us.

People who live with such delusions live harried and always hurried lives

like frantic mice scurrying about after their winter nest is destroyed.

The 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns penned this famous line

after reflecting on such mice scurrying about after their winter nest was destroyed.

And he said,

The best late schemes of mice and men often go awry.

But if we live with a posture of humble submission under the sovereignty of the Lord,

we can rest.

We can trust.

We can have peace.

We can have, in the midst of uncertainty,

the certainty that God provides.

In the midst of our insecurities, we can know God's security.

We need not live with fear and anxiety.

We can live in the quietness of trust if we live with humble submission to God.

So verse 2 continues that theme of the Lord's sovereignty over the hearts of men.

It says,

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,

but the Lord weighs the Spirit.

We think that we are justified in all that we do,

because if we didn't think so, then we wouldn't do it.

We think that we are right in all that we believe,

because if we didn't think so, we wouldn't believe them.

In this way, we are all self-justified.

The truth is, however, we do not see everything rightly,

because our knowledge is partial.

But God, on the other hand, sees everything and knows everything.

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,

but the Lord weighs the Spirit.

The Spirit refers to a person's inner life,

the invisible center of one's motives.

And the image of weighing a Spirit,

which also is translated sometimes as wind,

is intentionally paradoxical.

Spirit, wind, it's weightless.

It is invisible.

We human beings cannot weigh the Spirit,

but the Lord weighs the Spirit.

We human beings cannot peer into the hearts of people,

but the Lord sees the invisible,

sees the hearts of men and women in the world.

And this reality should, again,

make us live with the posture of humble submission

under the sovereignty of the Lord.

So then, instead of becoming complacent in our delusion

that we are right and justified about everything,

we should regularly examine ourselves under the searching light of Scripture.

We should pay attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

We should invite rather than spurn the advice and accountability of the church community.

We should pray as it says in Psalm 139, 23-24,

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts.

And see if there be any grievous way in me.

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Knowing that all our ways are pure in our own eyes,

and knowing that only the Lord weighs the Spirit,

we should seek to align our plans with God's

and entrust our works to Him.

And that's what verse 3 is talking about.

Commit your work to the Lord,

and your plans will be established.

The word commit means literally to roll over.

It means to turn it over to God

and to leave it there.

To entrust it to Him.

Psalm 37, verse 5, conveys the same idea.

Psalms 37:5

Commit your way to the Lord.

Trust in Him, and He will act.

To commit your work to the Lord

doesn't merely mean to do whatever you want

and then ask God to bless it.

Rather, it means to seek to do what God blesses.

It means to align our wills with the will of the Lord.

To lean toward Him.

To roll our ways over to Him.

And leave them there.

And when we do that, it says,

our plans will be established.

The word established is repeated in verse 9.

The heart of man plans his way,

but the Lord establishes His steps.

The way to make sure that our steps will be established then

is to plan the ways of the Lord.

To align our purposes and priorities with His.

This is how we should engage all of our endeavors.

Our summer internships.

Our jobs.

Our business.

Our marriage.

Our parenting.

Our studies.

We should commit our ways.

Our works.

To the Lord.

Lord, I want to do what You want me to do.

In the way You want me to do it.

Lord, Your will, not my will, be done.

And to commit our work to the Lord

is to pray what John Wesley once prayed.

Quote,

I am no longer my own, but Yours.

Put me to what You will.

Rank me with whom You will.

Put me to doing.

Put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for You,

or laid aside for You.

Exalted for You,

or brought low for You.

Let me be full.

Let me be empty.

Let me have all things,

and let me have nothing.

I freely and wholeheartedly

yield all things

to Your pleasure and disposal.

And now,

glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

You are mine,

and I am Yours.

So be it.

That's what it means

to commit our works to the Lord.

This doesn't mean, however,

that when we do that,

everything will go smoothly for us

from that point on.

As we have seen over and over again

throughout this book,

the book of Proverbs,

in this world,

we see both God's good order

and man's sinful subversion

of that order.

For this reason,

while it's generally true

that honest hard work

leads to prosperity,

sometimes the fruit of honest hard labor

is swept away by injustice.

Similarly, the plans of the righteous

do not always prevail,

but are sometimes spoiled

by the plans of the wicked.

But verses 4 to 5 teach us

that we need not fret

the presence of the wicked.

It says,

The Lord has made everything

for its purpose,

even the wicked

for the day of trouble.

Everyone who is arrogant in heart

is an abomination to the Lord.

Be assured,

he will not go unpunished.

The Lord has made everything

for its purpose.

The word purpose

is literally answer.

It's the same word

that was used in verse 1.

The answer of the tongue

is from the Lord.

So then everything in life,

without any exception,

has its answer

from the Lord.

God has a purpose,

an answer

to everything in the world,

including the things

that you find

the most difficult to explain,

including even the wicked

who appear to flaunt

the will of God.

Think of it this way.

If I were foolhardy enough

to challenge Magnus Carlsen,

the current world chess champion,

to a chess match,

I will surely capture

some of his pieces,

thinking that my plan is working.

But in the end,

I will learn to my humiliation

that all of my moves,

in fact,

played right into his hands.

All the pieces I took

would have been sacrificed

by design,

all playing a part

in the Grand Master's plan.

Similarly,

in an infinitely more significant,

an infinitely more transcendent way,

all evildoers

who oppose God

play right into his hands.

They might think

that they are getting their way.

They might think

that they are defying God.

But in the end,

they are pawns

on His chessboard.

They are being prepared

for the day of trouble.

They will not go unpunished.

And verse 5 emphasizes

that God particularly despises

everyone who is arrogant in heart.

The word heart

is repeated three times

in this passage,

verse 1,

verse 5,

verse 9.

There is a focus

on the heart,

what man plans

in his own heart.

And it says,

everyone who is arrogant in heart,

literally high

or exalted in heart,

is an abomination

to the Lord.

Whoever has

an overweening heart,

a heart that contends

with God,

a heart that says,

I am in charge,

a heart that says,

I am the master

of my fate,

a heart that says,

God does not see,

a heart that says,

God will not hold me

to account.

Such a person

is an abomination

to the Lord

and will surely

be punished.

Verses 6 to 8

then give us a picture

of the righteous

that contrasts

with this portrait

of the sinful wicked,

the prideful wicked.

It says in verse 6,

by steadfast love

and faithfulness,

iniquity is atoned for,

and by the fear

of the Lord,

one turns away

from evil.

The first half

of verse 6

prescribes the remedy

for past sins,

and the second half

presents the preventative

for future sins.

Steadfast love

and faithfulness,

as we saw

in chapter 14,

verse 22,

they're two of the most

commonly mentioned

attributes of God

in Scripture.

And when describing

God as having

steadfast love

and faithfulness,

they're together

referring to God's

unmerited favor

and His unchanging,

unwavering commitment

toward His people.

But this particular verse

does not have

God's steadfast love

and faithfulness

in mind.

Instead,

it has our response

to God's steadfast love

and faithfulness

in view.

We know this

because it's paralleled

by the fear

of the Lord.

Then by our

steadfast love

and faithfulness,

iniquity is atoned for.

By our fear

of the Lord,

we turn away

from evil.

How is it

that our steadfast love

and faithfulness

leads to the atonement

or cleansing

or covering up

of our sins?

Our covenant loyalty

to God,

our repentance

and faith in Him,

our aligning ourselves,

pledging allegiance

to God,

to Christ,

that's what makes

God graciously

pardon our sins.

And likewise,

it's the fear

of the Lord

living in humble

submission

before the watchful

eyes of God

that makes us

turn away from evil.

Our love

and faithfulness

are the remedy

for sins.

Our fear of God

is the preventative

for sins.

And when we live

like this,

God's blessings

naturally follow.

It says in verse 7,

when a man's ways

please the Lord,

he makes even

his enemies

to be at peace

with him.

But as Proverbs

often does,

it juxtaposes

verses that

qualify one another.

So verse 8

qualifies

verses 5 to 7.

It says in verse 8,

Better is a little

with righteousness

than great revenues

with injustice.

Living in a manner

that pleases God

will lead to peace

and prosperity

and the wicked

will ultimately

be punished.

But this is not

guaranteed

in this life

because we live

in an upside down world.

Nevertheless,

verse 8

reminds us,

Better is a little

with righteousness

than great revenues

with injustice.

In this upside down world,

some wicked people

will enjoy

great revenues

with injustice.

And,

in contrast,

in this upside down world,

some righteous people

will have little.

But having little

with righteousness

is better

than having

great revenues

with injustice.

Interestingly,

verse 8

is the only verse

in this first section,

verses 1 to 9,

that does not mention

the Lord.

Perhaps to convey

the sense

of the seeming

absence of God

when the wicked

prosper.

But we can rest

assured that

God is not absent.

As verse 9 concludes,

The heart of man

plans his way,

but the Lord

establishes his steps.

As verse 4 says,

The Lord has made

everything

for its purposes,

even

the wicked

for the day

of trouble.

And this is why

we should live

in a posture

of humble submission

under the sovereignty

of the Lord.

Having addressed

the sovereign rule

of the Lord

in verses 1 to 9,

Solomon turns

to the intermediate

rule of a king

in verses 10 to 15.

God sovereignly

rules over all,

but in this world

he also rules

through an intermediary,

through a human king

or governing authorities.

That's what verses

10 to 15 are about.

Verse 10 begins,

An oracle

is on the lips

of a king.

His mouth

does not sin

in judgment.

An oracle

refers to

revelation

that a prophet

receives

from the Lord.

This doesn't mean

that the king

also has to be

a prophet,

but it's conveying

the truth

that the king's

judgments

should be consistent

with the Lord's

judgments.

The king

does not

rule by fiat.

He does not

get to pass

laws and sentences

according to

his whim

because he

is ultimately

accountable

to God.

He is

God's

mouthpiece,

God's

servant.

He is

no God.

This is why

Israel

never resorted

to the teaching

common among

their neighboring

nations that

kings are

divine.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 17:18–19

17 verses

18 to 19

make clear

the fact that

king is

accountable

to the Lord.

It says,

And when he

sits on the

throne of his

kingdom,

referring to

a human king,

he shall

write for

himself in

a book a

copy of

this law,

that's the

scriptures,

approved by

the Levitical

priests,

and he

shall be

with him

and he

shall read

in it all

the days

of his

life,

that he

may learn

to fear

the Lord

his God

by keeping

all the

words of

this law

and these

statutes

and doing

them.

The kings

of Israel

ruled at

God's

behest,

and they

were God's

intermediaries

between God

and his

people.

If prophets

represented God

to the

people,

kings

represented the

people to

God.

And now

verse 10

is not saying

that the kings

are infallible,

that governing

authorities are

infallible.

If we look at

the history of

Israel's kings

in the Bible,

we learn that

invariably they

fail.

They sin in

judgment.

As verse 12

makes clear,

kings do at

times do evil

and it is an

abomination to

the Lord when

they do.

So then

verse 10

is expressing

God's

ideal,

his paradigm,

not the

pattern of

human kings.

This is

similar to

the exhortation

that we

receive in

the New

Testament

from Apostle

Paul in

Romans

Romans 13:1–4

chapter 13

verses 1

to 4.

It says,

Let every

person be

subject to

the governing

authorities,

for there is

no authority

except from

God, and

those that

exist have

been instituted

by God.

Therefore,

whoever resists

the authorities

resist what

God has

appointed, and

those who

resist will

incur judgment.

For rulers

are not a

terror to

good conduct

but to

bad.

Would you

have no fear

of the one

who is in

authority?

Then do

what is

good and

you will

receive his

approval, for

he is God's

servant for

your good.

But if you

do wrong, be

afraid, for he

does not bear

the sword in

vain, for he

is the servant

of God, an

avenger who

carries out God's

wrath on the

wrongdoer.

We'd be

wrong to

assume that

Paul must

have wrote

these verses

when there

was a very

benevolent Roman

ruler.

In fact, the

Roman ruler at

the time Paul

wrote this was

Emperor Nero,

the same

Nero notorious

for his

reckless

extravagance

and tyranny,

the one known

particularly for

his callousness

and cruelty

toward Christians.

Nonetheless, Paul

commands Christians

to be subject to

governing authorities

for there is no

authority except

from God and

those that exist

have been instituted

by God.

There are times,

yes, when we

must practice

civil disobedience

and say as the

apostles did in

Acts 5.29, we

must obey God

rather than men.

But the

apostles, even as

they did this,

were still subject

to the governing

authorities.

authorities.

They still

preserved a sense

of deference

toward the

governing authorities.

For example, in

Acts chapter 21

Acts 21:1–5

verses 1 to 5,

when Paul is being

tried unfairly by

the Sanhedrin and

is ordered by the

high priest to be

struck on the

mouth, Paul responds

to them by saying,

God's going to

strike you, you

whitewashed wall.

Are you sitting to

judge me according

to the law and yet

contrary to the law,

you order me to be

struck?

It's a pretty

vigorous defense and

accusation.

But when onlookers

scold Paul saying,

would you revile

God's high priest?

Paul does not say,

he who disobeys

God's law is no

high priest.

Paul does not say

that.

Instead he says,

I did not know,

my brothers,

that he was the

high priest.

for it is written,

you shall not speak

evil of a ruler

of your people.

This is because

there is a sense

in which all

authority is

derived authority

from God.

This is why

David, even when

he was fleeing

from Saul who

had gone mad and

was trying to kill

him, even though

David knew that he

was supposed to be

king over Israel,

he refused to kill

Saul when he had the

opportunity saying

that Saul is

Lord's anointed.

Likewise, we

should preserve,

even when we

disagree with the

policies of the

governing authorities

instituted by God,

we should preserve

a sense of respect

for their office

because earthly

rulers teach us

that we are a

people under

authority,

that we should

live with a

posture of humble

submission under

the sovereignty of

the Lord ultimately.

And this is the

truth that Proverbs

16.10 is expressing

and the oracle is

on the lips of a

king.

His mouth does

not sin in judgment.

Verse 11 continues

this train of

thought,

A just balance and

scales are the

Lord's.

All the weights in

the bag are his

work.

The just balance and

scales refer to the

measuring equipment

for commercial

activity when you're

trading and buying

and selling.

And it's here used

to illustrate the

concept of justice.

Equal weights and

just scales are the

Lord's.

words.

They are his work.

This truth is very

emphatic here because

every verse in this

second half, in

verses 10 to 15,

has the word king

in it.

It's about the king,

the intermediate rule

of a king, except

verse 11.

It doesn't have the

word king in it.

It's the only verse in

this second half that

has the word Lord in

it.

In this passage about

kings, this verse about

the Lord stands out,

and it's intended to

emphasize that it is

not the human king's

prerogative to tilt the

scales of justice for

selfish gain.

The king is not, in the

ultimate sense, the

arbiter of justice.

He's merely the

administrator of God's

justice.

And verse 12 gives the

reason why justice is so

important.

It is an abomination to

kings to do evil, for the

throne is established by

righteousness.

The word establish is the

same word that's used in

verse 3.

Commit your work to the

Lord and your plans will

be established.

And verse 9, the heart of

man plans his way, but the

Lord establishes his steps.

So then, if the king wants

his plans and his steps to

be established, he should

make sure to eschew evil and

embrace righteousness.

He should make sure that his

works are committed to the

Lord.

And this is why even the

most depraved rulers try to

do some good during their

reign.

Because if they don't, and

all they encourage is

depravity and decadence,

society would crumble and

their rule itself would be

undermined.

Their throne would not be

established.

The human king rules at God's

behest and therefore he should

establish his throne by

righteousness.

Since, as Psalm 89 verse 14

Psalms 89:14

says, righteousness and

justice are the foundation of

God's throne.

And when the king's throne is

established by righteousness, he

delights in righteousness and

detests wickedness.

Verses 13 to 14 say this,

Righteous lips are the delight of

a king and he loves him who

speaks what is right.

A king's wrath is a messenger of

death and a wise man will

appease it.

The king who rules in

accordance with God's law

rewards righteousness and

punishes wickedness.

However, a wise man knows how to

appease the king when his wrath is

provoked.

That's what verse 14 says and that

was the subject of chapter 14

verse 35.

Chapter 15 verse 1.

A servant who deals wisely has the

king's favor, but his wrath falls on

one who acts shamefully.

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a

harsh word stirs up anger.

By a soft, timely word, a wise person

placades the king's wrath.

And if the king's wrath is like a

messenger of death, verse 15

describes the king's favor this

way.

It says,

In the light of a king's face there

is life and his favor is like the

clouds that bring the spring rain.

The light of a king's face is a

metaphor for the king's favor.

That's the meaning of the Aaronic

blessing in number 625 when it says

the Lord make his face shine upon

you.

It's saying,

May the Lord look upon you with

favor.

And when the king's face lights upon

you with favor, it says it brings

life.

Similarly, his favor, he says, is like

the clouds that bring the spring

rain.

The summer harvest depended on the

spring rain.

So the clouds that bring the spring

rain were a welcome sight.

The king's favor then is likened to

the sun and to the rain clouds, both

of which were vital sources of life

in the ancient Near East, in this

agrarian society.

So then the Lord, the king of kings,

rules and gives life to people through

kings who are his intermediaries.

And so the logic of the passage is

that we ought to relate to governing

authorities with the posture of humble

submission under the sovereignty, the

ultimate sovereignty of the Lord.

But as we know from the Bible's

history, Israel's kings were by and

large all disappointments.

Even the wise king Solomon, who wrote

this book, the Proverbs, did not live up

to his own teaching in the end.

1 Kings 11 recounts the tragic fall of

Solomon.

It says he loved foreign women and had

700 wives and 300 concubines who turned

away his heart from the Lord and turned

his heart after other gods.

Solomon fell into idolatry and for this

reason the Lord raised up an adversary to

oppose Solomon and decreed that the kingdom

would be torn away from him and his son in

the next generation.

The vast majority of subsequent kings after

Solomon were no better.

They perverted justice and perpetrated evil.

They produced misery and suffering for their

subjects.

And for that reason the Israelites were an

oppressed people.

They were conquered first by the Assyrians, then

by the Babylonians, then by the Persians, then by

the Greeks under Alexander the Great, and then

again finally by the Romans.

And after over 700 years of subjugation, the

long-awaited messianic king, Jesus Christ, came.

The king on whose lips will be the oracles of God.

The king who does not sin in judgment.

The king whose throne is established by

righteousness.

The king whose favor, whose grace brings us life.

Unlike the kings who abused and took advantage of

their subjects, Jesus gave his life for his people.

We were all disloyal subjects.

We had all rebelled against God.

We had all rejected God as our king.

And his wrath had to be appeased.

His justice had to be satisfied.

We were destined to be hounded by the messenger of death

that is the king's wrath.

But the king, out of his love for us,

out of love for his subjects,

sent his only son, the heir to the throne,

his son Jesus Christ,

in order to reconcile us to himself.

And Jesus made atonement for us.

The word atone in verse 6

and the word appease in verse 14

are different translations of the same Hebrew word.

It means to cover.

It means to cleanse.

And Jesus, the heir,

the son who should have ruled in glory,

humbled himself and died on that hideous cross

to save filthy, feckless traitors like us.

We were alienated from God by our sins

and he reconciled us to God

by making atonement for our sins.

God was alienated from us

by his wrath toward our sins.

But the son averted his wrath

by bearing the penalty for our treason.

And Jesus didn't stay dead.

It says in Ephesians 1, 20-23

that God the Father raised him from the dead

and seated him at his right hand

in the heavenly places,

far above all rule and authority

and power and dominion

and above every name that is named,

not only in this age

but also in the one to come.

And he put all things under his feet

and gave him as head over all things

to the church,

which is his body,

the fullness of him

who fills all in all.

Jesus is now at the right hand

of God the Father

above all other rulers and authorities.

He is reigning over all.

And this truth is our greatest hope.

As citizens of God's kingdom,

we have a generous,

benevolent king,

a just king.

It's this truth that enables us

to live with a posture of humble submission

under the sovereignty of the Lord.

When the nations rage,

when peoples plot,

Jesus is on the throne.

When the kings of the earth

set themselves against the Lord

and against his anointed,

Jesus is on the throne.

When the greatest superpower

of the last century

appears to be imploding,

Jesus is still on the throne.

When the pandemic rages,

Jesus is on the throne.

When your life seems to be

spiraling out of control,

Jesus is on the throne.

He is in control.

And that's the hope for believers,

that we have a king who reigns.

And I pray that God will make us a church

in these unusual circumstances

that lives with faith-filled dependence

and humble submission

under the sovereignty of our king.