Proverbs 20.24
“A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?”
One of the many things I love about the book of Proverbs is the recurring theme of “the path.” As I have written in previous devotionals, the Hebrew word is derek, and it means “way, direction, journey, or path.” How important is derek in scripture? The word occurs 620 times in the Old Testament, with 68 of those occurrences in Proverbs.
The clear and consistent message is that there are two very different ways to live your life: on-path or off-path. The on-path life is lived in obedience to God’s truth. It is directed by the Lord’s standards of rightness, and it is guided by his wisdom. The off-path life is the way of foolish people. It is directed by impulse and self-centeredness and does not follow God’s standards.
Life is a constant battle for which path you will follow. The challenge is that the off-path life is easy, attractive, and popular, whereas the on-path life is often inconvenient, uncomfortable, and unpopular.
Proverbs 20.24 makes a statement about the path and then asks a question. The meaning of the verse is this: The Lord has designed a way for life to be lived. By means of his revealed principles and standards, the Lord has given people a path to follow. But apart from God, people will not know how to live. Left only to himself, man does not have sufficient understanding of the way to go about life and work.
You see the reality of this truth played out in the lives of individuals, you see it in organizations, and you see it in American culture. When a person or an organization or our nation follows the path and principles of the kingdom of God, there is blessing. But when there is a failure to follow God’s path and principles, things begin to break down.
We are living in a generation that has, increasingly, rejected the path and principles that God reveals in his word. Modern man is arrogant and doesn’t think he needs God in order to understand the way life should be lived, an organization should be led, or a nation should be governed. Indeed, modern man views the path and principles of scripture as antiquated, obsolete, and even oppressive.
The truth is that apart from God, man does not “understand his way.” Indeed, Proverbs 16.25 issues this warning: “There is a way (derek) that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
Next week we will look more closely at what Proverbs says about The Path. It is a profoundly important subject that every Christian should study with great diligence. The Lord seeks to give you wisdom and discipline to stay on-path, as well as the discernment to recognize and reject the deceitful people and distorted ideas that want to take you off-path.
Be watchful every day about the path you are following.
