Without Vision the People Perish (Part 1)

“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.” Proverbs 29.18[1]

Most of the time when I see this passage it has been ripped from its context to justify the desires of the BMOG (that’s Big man of God) Don’t get me wrong I am a big believer in vision and visionary leadership. I think God still speaks to his church, and that he gives leaders, specifically, and the church in general a vision for what he is doing. That said, this passage still often gets abused to say, if you don’t agree with the pastor you are fighting God. I worry about that attitude on the part of many church leaders. Church leaders should be slow to equate their leadings with the very command of God. The author of this Proverb (29.18) knew Israel’s history; it’s relationship with the prophets, and with God, and when the author penned these words. I don’t think they had in mind the B.M.O.G. So why do I say that?

Well, two words in this text bear distinct relevance to understanding this passage: Vision and Law.[2] Vision, as it is often translated suggests that it is of the imagination or foresight of the people.[3] This concept of vision has been largely embraced within Christian pop-culture and has been used as the foundational proof-text for articles, books and sermons on leadership and vision. A classic example is George Barna’s book The Power of Vision, which was very popular in the early nineties.[4] More recently John Reid & Maureen Gallagher’s book, The Art of Change: Faith, Vision, and Prophetic Planning, as well as others, have contributed to this misnomer.[5] The actual word in the original Hebrew is hâzôn[6] is normally used to refer to prophetic vision, it occurs only this one time in all of Proverbs,[7] and is understood here to mean, “that which is not otherwise accessible; divinely imparted to the prophet.”[8] Hâzôn is not the vision of insight and good ideas but the vision of communication from God to humans.

The other word in this proverb that needs context is Law. Unlike vision (hâzôn), the word Law (tôrah) occurs in several other places in Proverbs, and in the Proverbs it is typically used with reference to the command of a sage or a priest, as well as the Word of the Lord, or as in the writings of the Pentateuch.[9] These two words (hâzôn and tôrah) then become synonymous with God’s words, one in prophetic utterance, and the other written down. The construction of the sentence ties these two words, hâzôn and tôrah, together to make law and vision synonymous. This is similar to the phrase ‘the Law and the prophets’ used throughout the biblical text to refer to the sum of the Old Testament writings. Since the use of the two words, hâzôn and tôrah can be counted on to retain their distinctive in this passage, then the thrust of the passage is rightly understood as whoever follows God’s instruction will be blessed.

This use of law and vision (synonymously) not only fits the grammatical construction of the verse but the larger backdrop of Proverbs, as well as other biblical wisdom literature. It also makes sense from a historical perspective, considering that during the height of the prophetic era, Israel’s political, social and moral condition was its worst, while during the time that God seemed most silent Israel seemed to behave best.[10] Richard Schultz says that the use of law and vision in this context is most likely referring to prophetic revelation and Mosaic Law rather than to wisdom literature.[11] Fox also points out that this passage is not likely tied to any particular time period or event, and that the teaching is more of a general observation about the need for the prophets oracle, in the same way that the people needed the priestly torah or the counsel of elders.[12] In simple terms Proverbs 29.18 is not about the presence of ecstatic visions for controlling people and behavior. Instead it is about the needed to follow divine guidance. The point is that in the life of Israel, the Bible functioned not merely as sacred writ, but as the communal narrative for life with Yahweh. They were not adding on the Bible as a good book or as the holy suggestions. Nor was this text a justification for a leader to get his or her own way. The Proverb writer was saying that God’s Word and the prophet’s vision were life.

So then, what we must ask next is, what does it mean in this context to be blessed? Throughout the Old Testament, there are many promises of blessing (barukh), in connection with obedience to the law; promises such as long life, prosperity, and health. The Hebrew word used for blessed in this text is ashrê.[13] According to Henri Cazellas, this form of the word blessed is atypical of the language used in the Pentateuch, but is commonly used in wisdom literature, especially in the book of Proverbs.[14] It is indicative of Second Temple liturgy. In Proverbs specifically, it is equated with the idea of happiness as a result of actions (Proverbs 14.21; 16.20; 20.7; 28.14; 29.18).[15] The ashrê is understood as a proclamation made in response to behavior. Koptak suggests that in this context, the primary thrust of blessing would appear to be that the blessing is to be “full of joy.” Whoever does not follow God’s instruction will not be full of joy– the key to covenant joy being the acceptance and abiding by God’s instruction in covenant life versus the fall-out of “casting off restraint.” Koptak goes on, essentially to say, the emphasis on ‘blessed is he who keeps the law’ should not be understood as elevating individual piety in contradistinction to the social ethic of the community, but as the responsibility of the individual representing and participating as a part of the collective community.[16] That leads us to our last part of the text the phrase, “keeps the law?”

As aforementioned, the use of “Law” (tôrah) as it occurs repeatedly in the book of Proverbs refers to sage-like wisdom or instruction rather than the Pentateuch (or more specifically the ten commandments). Yet, it is not without merit to mention that the ten commandments (“Do not covet, Do not murder, Do not steal”, etc) are all forms of restraint on anti-social behavior. It is reasonable to conclude then that this is what was meant by the phrase, “keeps the law.” If these restraints are lifted from a society, then that society would certainly not be listening to wisdom but “casting of restraint.”

That would make the overall thrust of this passage to say something like the people of God need divine instruction (i.e. the Word of God) to keep in step with God and the community of faith. Without God’s instruction, vis-à-vis the Bible, preaching, parental and pedagogic instruction (i.e. Christian education) the people lose their way, and their joy, and they are destroyed. A brief overview of biblical history would indicate that this is exactly what happened to Israel and Judah when they strayed from divine instruction. While they may have retained some outward conformity to biblical norms, it was not enough to keep them on track, which led to their eventual destruction. In response to this, the New Testament passage of Romans 12:2 instructs the community of faith to avoid outward conformity (more specifically to the world) and to pursue internal transformation: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12.2

More about that in next weeks post . . .

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[1]ESV.

[2]Roland Murphy, Proverbs, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 22 (Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 222.

[3]R.B.Y. Scott, Proverbs–Ecclesiastes (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965), 170.

[4]This book was very popular in the early nineties among evangelicals and was used in the Association of Vineyard Churches USA as an argument for strong CEO model leadership by lead pastors.

[5]John Reid & Maureen Gallagher’s book, The Art of Change: Faith, Vision, and Prophetic Planning, (Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2009), 1. The recent publication date of this book signals that this is still a common use of the passage.

[6]The Original Hebrew word has been transliterated as hâzôn in this paper but has been elsewhere transliterated as châzôn in other works. Both forms of transliteration are found in many works, but the form hâzôn is more common to the modern works cited herein.

[7]William McKane, Proverbs: A New Approach, The Old Testament Library. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970), 641.

[8]B.D. Napier, “VISION,” in The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, ed. George A. Buttrick, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1962), 4:791.

[9]Roland Murphy, Proverbs, WBC, vol. 22 (Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 222.

[10]Crawford, 512.

[11]Richard Schultz, . “Unity or Diversity in Wisdom Theology? A Canonical and Covenantal Perspective.” Tyndale Bulletin 48.2 (1997): 298.

[12]Fox, 841.

[13]Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, ed. Karl Elliger and Wm. Rudolph, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Biblestiftung, 1977), Proverbia 28:19.

[14]Henri Cazellas, “אשרי” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. G. Johannes Botterweck, trans. and ed. John T. Willis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 1:445-448.

[15]Ibid.

[16]Paul E. Koptak, Proverbs, The NIV Application Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003) 642.