Thinking With Purpose

Yesterday I started a mini-series of posts all under the heading of Misused And Abused Bible Verses.  We are taking a look at verses in the Bible that are commonly used completely out of context.  As I stated yesterday our goal should always be to understand the Bible in context and hold to its biblical meaning not our man-made meaning. 

The verse that we are going to look at today is Proverbs 29:18 which says in the KJV, “where there is no vision the people perish…”  I have heard this verse used numerous times to say that leadership need to have a God-given vision and that when they don’t they are leading their churches to destruction.  This verse is not at all referring to a 5-year plan kind of a vision.  The KJV is actually a poor translation of this verse. 

The word “vision” refers to the revelation that a prophet would receive from God.  It is how God communicated in that time.  It was the method of transferring the word of God to the people.  It can very literally be translated “prophetic utterance”.  The word ‘perish’ is better translated “cast off restraint”.  The intended meaning of this verse is that when the people do not have God’s Word in their lives the result is that all restraint is cast off.  Without the Word of God in our lives all moral restraint is gone.

You may ask, ‘how do you know that the word vision refers to prophetic revelation?’  One way is simply the definition of the word that is used.  The second way is found in the text.  The second part of the verse says ”but happy is he who keeps the law.”  There is an invisible link between the word vision and the word law.  These two ideas are being contrasted and as a result the truths of each point are related.  On one side you have people who cast off restraint because they do not have any revelation (law) from God, and on the other side you have people who are blessed because they are obedient to the law (Word of God/revelation/vision).  The ESV has the best translation.  It reads, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

The way to be blessed and live in agreement with God’s Word is not through having a 5-year plan (vision), its through having more of God’s Word in our lives.  Again, let’s not misuse and abuse Scripture!