Introduction
We have all heard it said or have said it ourselves, “patience is a virtue.” And patience is a virtue but waiting stinks. Let's be honest. We are not patient people. We don’t want to be put into circumstances where patience is required. No one views going to the DMV positively. A pastor I served under was famous for saying, "I have a lot of patience, I just run out of it fast."
We live in a fast pace world. Time is money. Messages are instant. Food is fast. Entertainment is constant. All of this and more makes us struggle with patience. We struggle with a slightly longer-than-average line at the grocery store. We struggle with a longer timeline for the life we wanted. We struggle with prolonged singleness, with a prolonged season in a job we don't enjoy. We struggle with the cycle of sinful behaviors in someone else and/or with ourselves. We struggle with prolonged grief, with a darkness that will not lift.
So much of life requires not just wisdom attained, but wisdom sustained, wisdom of waiting, wisdom of patience, careful, one step in front of the other progress. Nothing about the Christian life is necessarily fast. In fact, our sanctification and growth is painfully slow.
Much of what God is going to accomplish in your life is going to take place quietly over a long period of time. What's going to happen is God is going to shape us in the ordinary, and then there are going to be these moments where he breaks through, and it blows our minds. Those breakthroughs fuel gladness in the ordinary and have us pleading all the more for the extraordinary. This is the rhythm of the Christian life. Long periods of ordinary, then moments of extraordinary breakthroughs. But all we want is the breakthroughs. We don't want to be patient. We don't want those long periods of ordinary slow growth. But patience is a fundamental element of the Christian faith. Time and time again, God calls his people to wait. To be patient. Because waiting teaches us about the goodness, grandness, and love of God. Today we examine the most painful of the virtues: Patience.
Bible Passage
Proverbs 14:12-18 (ESV - English Standard Version)
12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief.
14 The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.
15 The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.
16 One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.
17 A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.
18 The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
Scriptural Analysis
Verses 12-13
Verses 12 and 13 are linked by the catchword “end." These famous proverbs are intended to be read together. There is a way that seems right to a man: Way or road refers to “conduct,” “behavior,” or “manner of life.” “Seems right” suggests a moral manner of conduct. The picture may be that of a journey in which the traveler believes he is headed on a straight road or path toward his destination but discovers only too late that his path leads to death. We may translate this line, for example, “You may believe you are on the good road” or “You may think that your way of life is good,” but its end is the way to death. The contrast between that which “seems right” and the actual end of “death” reminds the reader of the need for wisdom beyond themselves.
The two parts of verse 13 embrace the whole of human experience: Laughter may hide present heartache, while joy may in time be replaced by grief. The meaning of this line is then that a person may laugh and still be sad, or even in laughter there may be sadness. Both verses communicate that not everything is as it seems, especially if one is lacking wisdom.
Verse 14
Backslider is translated as "the faithless." The fruit of his ways is literally “from his ways,” which refers to the bad conduct or evil way of life of the perverse person. This line affirms that the wicked person will eventually suffer the consequences of his behavior.
The thought here is that the good person will in the end be satisfied more than the perverse person in line 1. The saying contrasts the greater satisfaction for the good person with that of the bad person. “The perverse person will only be satisfied by his wicked ways, but the good person will have a greater satisfaction.” We understand this proverb because we have all seen that the person of evil is never content with one act of wrong but is constantly planning their next wrong act. Evil, wrong conduct, and immoral behavior are never satisfied with themselves. There's a constant need to get a fix for their bad desires.
Verse 15
This verse contrasts the prudent person with the simple person. "Believes" means to accept something as true or real. Everything renders a phrase meaning “every word” and probably means here that the simple person accepts as true everything he hears. Such a person lacks the maturity and wisdom to distinguish between what is true and what is false. The sales pitch always sounds good to them whether it be for a frig they don't need or theology about eternity. But the prudent looks where he is going. Literally, this verse is saying “The prudent watches his steps.” “Watches his steps” is a figure that means to be cautious, alert, or aware, with the sense of being careful not to be misled. In some languages this line is expressed, for example, “but the smart person keeps an eye on the path” or “a wise person looks where is he going."
Verses 16-18
Verses 16–17 are linked by images of hair-trigger temper and folly, and they are framed by the simple/prudent distinction in 14:15 and 18. If prudent persons consider their steps (v. 15), they turn from evil (v. 16). A wise man is cautious which allows him to turn away from evil. The word "cautious' is a verb meaning to be “careful,” “alert,” or “on guard.” In this context, "turns away from evil" is to be taken as avoiding trouble or misfortune. But a fool throws off restraint and is careless. Instead of being cautious or on guard, this person throws off restraint, which renders a verb form that may mean to “be arrogant or excited,” that is, to “lose control.”
Egyptian wisdom literature held up the “silent man” as wiser than the “heated man,” who could always be counted on to blurt out anger and folly. Solomon says that here. The comparison here is between one who does foolish things on impulse and one who does evil that has been carefully planned and premeditated, a product of scheming. Both lead to bad ends. Acting on impulse rarely if ever produces good and godly results. Impulse purchases rarely work out.
The “simple” and “prudent” of 14:15 reappear, this time receiving the consequences for the choices they made; the simple receives folly as their inheritance, while the prudent “are crowned with knowledge.” The crown here is more a decoration of valor than a sign of rule. A man of discretion is patient and described as someone crowned with knowledge.
TODAY'S KEY TRUTH
The Wise Wait for God To Show Them The Way.
These verses could be translated, “A wise man is cautious and stays out of trouble, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless. A quick-tempered man does foolish things, but a thinking man endures.” Patient consideration before acting or speaking, even in the face of provocation, averts disaster. The wise wait.
A strong faith is not a flash-in-the-pan kind of faith. A strong Faith is more like a tree that grows its roots into the soil by streams of water over time. So slow is its movement that it is almost imperceptible, but when the storm comes you discover just how deep the roots go.
Our text today suggests that we should be slow and careful both in our believing things and in our actually doing things. The “simple” believe everything and act rashly, while by contrast, the wise must think critically and carefully about what they believe and what they do. Let's examine those two aspects of life: what we believe and our behavior. First, what you believe.
What you believe matters. What you believe about God matters. What you believe about Scripture, about people, about purpose in life, it all matters. What you believe about heaven and hell and who goes where matters. One of the faults of a fool is that he is too quick to believe any testimony he hears. We have soooo many celebrity pastors, ministers, motivational speakers, and life coaches today that are being followed because of how they say things, and not for what they say. The world is so fast-paced we're too busy to stop and think critically. We are so consumed with the pace of life that we don't take time to pause and give careful thought to what we are hearing and believing. The result of this inability to be patient and methodical about what we believe has serious, eternal consequences.
Many people today are conviction-less. They have no deep-rooted, carefully thought-through, understanding of the world and God. They have only very shallow thoughts regarding the ultimate things like God, morality, life, death, and eternity. They have been told they are good people. Likewise, they have compared themselves with a lot of bad people. Thus, they have come to believe that they will be eternally “fine” with God. That's how the ways of man can seem right but lead to death. Many people in this position do not hold this position because they have thought about it deeply, but because they haven’t thought about it much at all. They have not taken the time necessary to ask life’s hardest questions. The wise wait before they believe. They examine it. They test it up against scripture. Listen, reading books by Christian authors and those authors who claim to be Christian, isn't the same as reading the Bible. Nothing can replace reading God's word. We have to be in God's Word to know God's Word. Everything we hear and read has to be laid up against God's Word to be tested. That takes patience.
It is important to remember that we live in a world of falsehoods. We are surrounded by people and spiritual forces, who propagate non-truths day in and day out. Not only are we surrounded by false world views, false opinions, and false perspectives, our sinful nature actually gravitates to falsehoods. We more naturally suppress the truth than embrace the truth.
The wise stop and collects all the information, seek understanding, compare what they are hearing or reading with the word of God, and then they embrace truth. We should be slow or at least humble when we make assumptions or take hard positions on any issue or person, especially before we have taken the time to think deeply about it.
The simple believes everything, but the wise person takes the time to make sure they are believing only true things. The wise give careful thought to their beliefs and to their choices. When it comes to what you believe, The Wise Wait for God To Show Them The Way.
Now let's look at our behavior. One of the hardest lessons I have learned, and keep having to learn, is that anything worth having is worth waiting and trusting a sovereign God for. That doesn’t mean we do nothing. It just means we do what God has commanded in a patient and trusting way.
I've shared before that my favorite Bible story is the Prodigal Son. I believe that story perfectly encapsulates the human experience and that somewhere on our timelines, in our lives, this story plays out. At some point, we are the prodigal son. His story was one of impatience. He wanted his inheritance now. He didn't want to wait for the blessings that were being developed for him later. Aren't we just like that? Even with God.
Here is what we fail to realize. To fight and claw and force that inheritance, that blessing, to come early would be to forfeit that blessing in the end. It took the prodigal son being knee-deep in a pig pin and wanting to eat the pig's food for him to realize that truth. This is true for things like an inheritance, but this is true for many things. To actively, frantically, impatiently, try to force some good blessing of God to happen, is oftentimes to invite difficulty rather than a blessing. Strong desire makes you try to rush things, cut corners, make compromises, and thus invite disaster rather than a blessing.
If you are ignoring God’s word and good counsel to secure what you think to be a blessing of God, it is not a blessing of God you will secure. Anything worth having is worth waiting and trusting a sovereign God for. If you try to force your timeline, how often has it failed? If you try to force your timeline on a king, or on a spouse, what happens? Failure.
God is sovereign over our lives. He is carrying all of history toward a particular purpose. He is in total control over every detail. Not only is he in control, but his plans are in fact better than my plans, even when I can’t see it or understand it. True wisdom is knowing this, that God is Sovereign, and by faith resting in His plans and His timing.
We often think our motives are pure according to verse 12. We frequently think our desires are right. We often don’t recognize the depths of the idolatries in our own hearts. Frequently we are praying and longing for God to do something in our lives, but it's actually God’s kindness that he does not give us what we want. Though we thought we wanted it from our perspective, if we could see our lives and our own hearts from the perspective of God, we might not let ourselves have those plans either. The best we can do as finite, limited, sin-struggers is to commit our lives to the Lord and watch for the Lord to establish his plans. In other words, we make serving him our priority, and we relieve ourselves of needing to control what happens or when it happens. We plan patiently waiting for God to accomplish his plans. I feel myself living in this tension continuously.
Wisdom waits.
The Wise Wait for God To Show Them The Way.
Conclusion
The Gospel itself is an invitation to come and wait.
God told Eve, your offspring will crush the head of the serpent… just wait.
To Abraham, he said, “I will make you a great nation… just wait.”
To Moses, he said, “I will lead these people into a promised land…, just wait.”
To David, “I’ll send a King to reign forever…, just wait.”
To Jeremiah, “Behold the days are coming, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…. I will be their God, and they shall be my people…. I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more… just wait.
To Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit, I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh”…. Just wait.
Jesus said, “See we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him, and kill him, but Just wait. On the third day, he will rise again.”
When it comes to what we believe and our behavior, we wait for God to show us the way.
The Wise Wait for God To Show Them The Way.
I said before that, "You can't connect the dots of life looking forward. You can only connect the dots looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will connect someday. Which means you have to trust in something beyond yourself. You have to believe that God has a plan for your life and is working, even if you can't see or understand what he is doing. Believing that the dots will connect one day will give you peace during the uncertainty on the path before you." It will also give you the ability to be patient.
The Wise Wait for God To Show Them The Way.
When it comes to what you believe and your behavior, wait for God to show you the way.
The wise wait because,
The good God is doing takes time to build.
The bad God is exposing takes time to reveal.
The change God is making takes time to become lasting.
The wise wait because ... Patience is trusting in God’s timing.
The Wise Wait for God To Show Them The Way