Proverbs 29:18 (Daily Verse and Comment)

  Proverbs 29:18

(18) Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; 
But happy is he who keeps the law. 

New King James Version   Change your email Bible version

Where a person is headed in life determines how that person will conduct his life. The Living Biblegives an interesting slant to this verse: "Where there is ignorance of God, the people run wild."

The primary sense of this verse here is if one does not know where he is going, he wanders all over the place. He will not go in a straight line. Instead, he will go off in one direction for a while, then, maybe, he will get back on track again. Then again, maybe he will not get back on track but just continue wandering.

Thus, it is extremely important that we have the right vision before us. Suppose we have the wrong vision, coupled with an intense desire to reach whatever that vision happens to be. If we do not have the right vision—even though we have the discipline, the patience, and the desire—we will be heading in the wrong direction. We do not have the right goal.

Now suppose we have the right vision, but it is unclear, a bit fuzzy to us. We lack discipline, self-control, or desire. The chances are very great that we will wander all over the place. We will ricochet off the guardrails on the left and the right. We may get back on the track occasionally—even though we wander all over the place. Maybe God, in His mercy, will guide us back to the central path, the way He wants us to go.

We easily perceive that it is best to have the right vision and the right qualities that help accomplish that vision. The primary sense of Proverbs 29:18is that if one does not know where he is going, he will wander hither and yon. The implied spiritual sense is that if one does not know God's purpose, he goes off the path of God's laws. When people lack godly instruction, "the people run wild." "But happy is he who keeps the law."

In the King James Version, they insert the word "law" in the verse, but it is only implied in Hebrew. The verse strongly implies the divine revelation given to the prophets, which is why the King James translators translated this word as "vision"—the revelation given to the prophets—even though, again, the Hebrew does not directly say it.

This is important to us because it is in the Prophets that God gives the majority of His vision for the future—what is coming. There may be a little bit in the Law, but far more is contained in the Prophets. Of course, we also find some in the New Testament.

If this is indeed the vision God has given and He is working out, then we begin to understand the reason why we have been given free-moral agency and told to choose. We have to choose which way we will go. There is a way, but we must choose to go that way.

— John W. Ritenbaugh