Proverbs 19a

19:2-3                Desire without knowledge…is not good.

                                           And one who moves too hurriedly…misses the way.

                             One’s own folly…leads to ruin.

                                           Yet the heart…rages against the Lord.

Everyone has favorites verses. These verse are among my favorites. Perhaps because I tend to move slowly anyway, trying to double check and consider every angle. “Look before you leap,” they say; but they also say, “He who hesitates is lost.” What am I to do?

Before we dig deeper, let’s compare these verses in different translations; always a good idea when dealing with an unfamiliar topic or phrase. Here the phrase is ‘desire without knowledge’.

Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes. People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.

--New Living Translation.

It is dangerous to have zeal without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily makes poor choices. A person’s folly subverts his way, and his heart rages against the Lord.        –New English Translation.

Ignorant zeal is worthless; haste makes waste. People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed? 

--The Message.

Some words we recognize; they are part of a largely forgotten English proverb:

              “Haste makes waste,

and waste makes want,

and want makes strife

between the goodman and his wife.”[1]

So, we have here good advice, an example of the best of folk wisdom. Do we have anything else?

A friend of mine, Bob Priest, retired anthropologist and mission professor, has used these verses as a lead-in to a talk about thoughtless evangelism and destructive mission. The immature apostle Paul, while he was still called Saul, is an example of this. As soon as he recovered from being struck down on the road to Damascus, he went out to preach. The result in Damascus was that people wanted to kill him; so he was sent off to Jerusalem. He didn’t fare much better there as his preaching led to the same result; those who heard him wanted to kill him. So, the apostles packed him up and sent him off to Tarsus (Acts 9). It wasn’t until about 14 years later that he came back as the mellower Paul and preached, usually, with more positive results. Zeal without knowledge is not good.

We often see that on the mission field; people who get off the plane preaching even though they have no knowledge of language or culture. They shape their message in their own terms, they quickly condemn anything that does not look like their cultural version of Christianity, and they make more enemies than recruits. Then they lament how hard-hearted the people are, and how difficult is their task of preaching the gospel in this God-forsaken place. Zeal without knowledge is dangerous.

So, what does zeal with knowledge look like? First, the foundation:

19: 23.                The fear of the Lord is life indeed;

                                           Filled with it one rests secure and suffers no harm.

I would add, “Filled with the fear of the Lord, one causes no harm.” Zeal with knowledge makes a good and faithful servant of the Lord.

Second, the approach:

19: 20.                Listen to advice and accept instruction,

                                           That you may gain wisdom for the future.

How do we discern the will of God in our lives? One way that I, and many others, have learned is to find mature Christians, probably not just one, then ask for and listen to their advice. Sometime I have, and sometimes I have barged ahead. Believe me, it is better to seek advice, and you will find it because there is nothing that comes to you that hasn’t been experienced before. Zeal with knowledge makes a good and faithful servant of the Lord.

Finally, there is the issue of patience, as opposed to haste:

19: 11.                Those with good sense are slow to anger,

                                           And it is their glory to overlook an offense. 

Whatever happened to ‘gentle’ in America? Is gentleness not ‘macho’ enough for man nor woman? Has it been replaced with the strategy of mounting a counter-attack using the same accusation? “You’re not a real Christian!” “No, you’re not a real Christian!” “I’ll sue you for defamation of character!” “Then ‘I’ll sue you for defamation of character!”             

Here is something to think about. In what sense it is to your glory to overlook an offense? Further, in what sense does gentleness reflect God’s glory?[2]            

[1] www.dictionary.com. Many cultures have similar expressions, Hebrew, Greek, etc. In Spanish, it is ‘poco a poco’, ‘little by little’ gets the job done. In Marshallese, the Pacific atolls where I did my doctoral work, it is ‘jidik illok jidik’, ‘little by little’ or ‘easy does it’.

[2] “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things” Galatians 5: 22-23.