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Blog Archive
December 30, 2015
A Vision For What's To Come
Proverbs 29:18 is a familiar verse to those who have spent any amount of time in the church, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (KJV).
This verse of Scripture is often offered as a motivation for churches and ministries to formulate a vision for the future. Often this means, for example, a plan or program that involves financial and/or numerical growth to the church. While plans like these can be helpful to turn our focus towards growth, this isn't exactly what this text says. In fact, the meaning of the text is much more fondational and significant than a mere inspirational slogan.
There are two key words in this simple phrase which comprise the first half of Proverbs 29:18, vision and perish (as they are translated in the KJV). To fully appreciate the intent of this text, it is best to first consider the term translated "perish." If you consult another translation of the Bible, you will find this term translated another way. In the ESV, NASB, NIV, NKJV, or HCSB you will find it translated, "go unrestrained, cast off restraint, or run wild." Literally the term means "to loosen, let loose." Therefore, "where there is no vision, the people let loose or cast off restraint." With this slightly adjusted translation, it seems that the idea conveyed is, that without a plan things will operate in chaos without focus. While that is generally true, it still isn't exactly what this inspirational text means.
The term translated "vision" means exactly what it says. The context of this term, however, constrains us to a particular meaning of the term. The context does not allow us to understand the word vision to mean "a formulated and structured plan of where we are headed." It is here that the second half of this verse is helpful. The parallel to "vision" is "law." It is for this reason that the ESV renders this term as "prophetic vision" in order to narrow our understanding and point us in the right direction. In the Old Testament, vision typically meant a communication from God. A loose and practical translation of this verse could be, "Where the Word of God is not communicated, the people will go their own way." I assure you the "people's way" is not the way of God.
While it may seem that I am seeking to undo a traditional understanding of a great inspirational and motivational verse that helps us to lobby for clearly communicated direction for the future, I am actually trying to provide a more fundamental and faithful understanding of the text that will more surely prepare us for the days ahead. Our vision for the future must rest upon the "vision" intended in this text, that is, in our more contemporary terms, upon God's disclosure of Himself to humankind which is the Word of God. Faithfulness to God's Word must be our goal above anything else! It is what we are called to and it is the means that God has ordained to accomplish His Plan. It is by the means of faithfulness to His Word that our plans will serve His Plan.
So, no matter what visionary plans we may seek to cast, if they are not firmly rooted in the Word of God and faithfully seek to proclaim the Word of God, they are nothing more than another distraction from God's glorious plan. If we are to serve His Plan, we must know the Word, love the Word, and live the Word. May God grant us an insatiable thirst for that "vision," which is the Word of God!