William Jay on Proverbs
 
William Jay:
Proverbs Chapter 3:5
(From  Morning Exercises, September 14)
 
(tap on a verse number below to return to Bridges' comments)
 


 
 “Lean not unto thine own understanding.”
 
The understanding is a natural faculty, by which man is distinguished from inanimate creatures, and also from the animal world. The sun and moon and sea and rivers are impressed by laws of which they know nothing, and follow their destiny wholly unconscious of the operations they perform. The beasts of the field and the fowls of the air have an instinct which often surprises us. But while it is wonderfully exact as far as it goes, it is exceedingly limited; it admits of no variety or progression. These beings are no wiser now than when they went to Noah for shelter and to Adam for names. “But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.” By means of this endowment he can look backward and forward. He can examine and judge. He can survey principles in their abstraction, and duties in their circumstances, and actions in their moral bearings. He can refuse the evil and choose the good against present feelings and imposing appearances.
This faculty, from the lowest degree of reason to the highest reach of intellect, is the gift of God, the Father of lights, and should be cultivated by us as men and as Christians. We should rejoice that we live in a country and in an age so favorable to all kinds of information. It is a sad reproach to many, that in the midst of knowledge they are found so ignorant as they are; it must be the result of dissipation or sloth.
But though we are to prize and improve and make use of our understanding, we are not to lean to it. Yet if we were not prone to this, the caution would be needless. There is nothing of which men are so proud as their knowledge. There are more than a few who would rather be charged with a want of principle than a want of cleverness, and would rather pass for knaves than fools. This regard seems indeed to be a kind of equalizer of the human race; and the only thing with which all are satisfied, and in which they feel an ineffable complacency, is their own understanding. They lean to their own understanding in preference to the understanding of others, whom yet, if asked, they would consider as very superior to themselves both in capacity and experience. They may indeed consult with an adviser, but it is in the hope of finding a confirmation of their own opinion; and should his judgment differ from their conclusion, they would feel little difficulty in resolving by which to abide. We frequently see this in those who are just entering the world, and so much need a guide to escape those early mistakes that may affect the whole of their future life. Whatever quickness of perception they may possess, they must surely be destitute of that practical wisdom that grows out of observation and trial. Yet how little do “the younger submit themselves to the elder.”
Men carry this disposition even into the things of God. They regard their own reason more than his word, and are reluctant to believe what they cannot comprehend. We are told that Alphonsus, the royal astronomer, having apprehended some seeming irregularities among the heavenly bodies, was daring enough to say, “Had I been by the Creator when he made the world, I could have given him some good advice.” We justly shudder at his profaneness; and yet who has not fallen into a similar error? Who has not found fault with God in his manner of governing the world, the church, the family, the individual? Who has not been ready to direct the Spirit of the Lord, and, being his counselor, to teach him?
To preserve us from this tendency, let us remember how limited our own understanding is, how many subjects there are entirely beyond its reach, and that there is nothing with which it is perfectly acquainted. Let us also reflect how much we are impressed by appearances, and how different these often are from the realities of things. “Who knoweth what is good for a man in this life; all the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow?” What should we have been at this hour if things had always accorded with our mind and wishes? Let us look back, and see how frequently we have erred both in our hopes and fears. We now clearly see, that what we so eagerly desired would have proved our injury or ruin, and that what we were so anxious to escape has conduced to our best welfare, so that we can say, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”
We are very incompetent to judge for ourselves, because we know not the influence other and untried events will exert upon us. To these we go forward with our present views and feelings, not aware that new scenes will produce new views and feelings, and may unfold secrets in our character of which we have no conceptions, and which may fill us not only with surprise but dismay. Thus, when Elisha predicted with tears the atrocities and cruelties he would commit, Hazael shuddered at the thought, and sincerely exclaimed, “What, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?” the man of God only answered, “The LORD hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.” And his elevation transformed him from the man to the monster which he had execrated.
And if, by leaning to our own understanding, we take one wrong step, what consequences, immediate or remote, personal or relative, may arise from it. See this in David. I shall now perish, said he one day, by the hand of Saul: “there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.” The oracle, had he consulted it, would not have told him so. In truth, it was the worst measure he could have devised. It tended to alienate the affections of his countrymen, to justify the reproaches of his enemies, to deprive himself of the means of grace, to put himself out of the divine protection, and to lay him under obligations to a benefactor he could not oblige without betraying the cause of God. Accordingly, he was soon drawn into a scandalous equivocation with Achish. Then he was ordered to go and fight against his own people Israel. And when he was released from this embarrassment and went back, he found that in his absence his residence and property had been destroyed, and his family carried away captives. “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Lot leaned to his own understanding, and chose the vale of Sodom, which was well watered, like the garden of the Lord. By this movement he separated himself from intercourse with his pious uncle. He was taken captive by the confederate kings. He was strangely induced to reside in the town itself; and dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. At length he was burnt out of house and home. His wife, for looking back, became a pillar of salt, so that he never after could go or gaze that way. His daughters, contaminated by the vices of the place — but we dare not go on. “Trust in the LORD with all thy heart.” “Lean not to thine own understanding.” “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”