Yesterday we started looking in Proverbs 16. We covered verses 1 thru 3 and took at really quick look at our plans in relations to how we see them and how God puts in place, uses and sees those very same plans. Today we will look at verses four and five. 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.
(Proverbs 16:4-5 ESV)
There is a lot here and as we continue in this series you will see the blogs getting a bit longer and more detailed. This is because each of these verse build and point back to the ones before. We begin to see this even here in these verses. We saw in verses one thru three that a man believes his plans are pure but it’s God that judges the purity of those plans. We are then told to commit those same plans to the Lord.
Here in verse four we being to get a glimpse of how our plans, as well as everything else, plays to the glory of God. Don’t miss the huge implications of these verses. Verse four clearly states that the Lord has made all things for “its purpose”, this includes those that are hard hearted and wicked.
Don’t read over that verse. You will want to ignore it because it seems to bring ideas to mind that you may have never dealt with or don’t want to deal with. (If thats the case let me give you Romans 9:22 and 1 Peter 2:8 to really mess with you).
It means that all plans, like those spoken of in verse 1 thru 3, are not accidents. In some cases those plans have been given to you by God to bring forth something that will bring Him great glory. Those plans also may very well be your own plans that God will uses to humble you and bring glory to Himself. This verse, like many verses in the Bible, point us to truth that God is never surprised by anything because, like a God father, He is always behind the scenes working things out for His glory and to teach us about Himself.
Now verse five brings us back into the proverb after verse fours shocking revelation. It points us back to the plans that we think are pure and right. We have been asked to commit our plans to the Lord in verse three but are quickly assured that if we don’t want to do that then we are really only fooling ourselves. Verse four assures us that if we are so arrogant to think that our plans are better than Gods that we can’t out smart Him because it was part of His plan all along. Verse five builds onto verse five by then pointing us to penalty for not committing and submitting ourselves, and our plans, to the Lord.
We are told that if one does choose to be arrogant he will be punished. It is written in such a way to assure those that are arrogant that they may not face any punishment in this life, but to be sure that they will in the life to come. With this we should also gather hope. If we are humble and have committed our plans to the Lord we are assured that those that oppose us, those that are wicked and cause pain will face judgement. They will not go on forever unpunished.
These two verses, like the verses before, also drive us to more questions:
1) Do we truly trust and understand that God is in control of all things? Have we even worked this out on a Biblical level?
2) Is their arrogance in our hearts that need to be submitted to God so that the plans we have do not lead to our own doom? Have we asked God for humbleness in how we plan and process decisions in live?
Pastor Mike Moore 