Proverbs 20:18-19

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Proverbs 20:18. The first clause may be read, Establish thy purpose by counsel.

Proverbs 20:19. “Him that flattereth.” Rather, him that openeth wide his lips, i.e., the babbler.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 20:18

THOUGHT BEFORE ACTION

I. The permanent success of an undertaking is generally in proportion to the thought bestowed upon it beforehand. It is an act of extreme folly to commit ourselves to any course, or to undertake any task without first weighing all the probable consequences, and providing against the most likely contingencies. Such a wise forethought by no means excludes entire dependence upon God, for while it is most true that “Man’s goings are of the Lord,” and “a man cannot understand his own way” (Proverbs 20:24), both common sense and the Word of God plainly teach that man must use the powers of forethought with which he has been endowed, or he must be content to see his purposes frustrated and his plans miscarry. If he desires his “purposes” to be “established,” in other words—what he does to have a lasting result in the direction desired—he must “sit down first” and “count the cost” (Luke 14:28; Luke 14:31).

II. It is advisable to call in the wisdom of others to help us in our deliberations. Since one man is rarely, if ever, able to look at a matter from every point of view, his plans are most likely to be wisely laid, and his purposes most likely to succeed, if he looks at them with the eyes of other men as well as with his own. They may discern a weak spot where he saw nothing to fear, or a point of vantage which had escaped his notice entirely. Or they may see good reasons for dissuading him altogether from the undertaking, or may make him so much the stronger for the task by encouragement and counsel. It is not generally those who are most able to act alone who lightly esteem the advice of others—those men who are most successful in that to which they put their hand are not as a rule given to undervalue the wisdom of other people.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel.… Things will have their first or second agitation; if they be not tossed upon the waves of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune, and be full of inconstancy, doing and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken man.—Lord Bacon.

Ponder Bishop Hall’s description of the spiritual war. “It admits of no intermission. It knows no night, no winter. It abides no peace, no truce. It calls us not into garrison, where we may have ease and respite, but into pitched fields continually. We see our enemies in the face always, and are always seen and assaulted; ever resisting, ever defending, receiving and returning blows. If either we be negligent or weary, we die. What other hope is there, while one fights and the other stands still? We can never have safety and peace but in victory. Then must our resistance be courageous and constant, when both yielding is death, and all treaties of peace mortal.” Does not this war bring the greatest need of deliberate counsel, carefully counting the cost (Luke 14:31); cleaving to our All-wise Counsellor (Isaiah 9:6) and Almighty Helper?—Bridges.

Among the Romans, though a man were never so strong, never so valiant, yet, if he wanted wisdom and counsel, he was said to be miles sine oculis, a soldier without his eyes.—Jermin.

See Critical Notes for the correct rendering of the second clause of Proverbs 20:19, and for Homiletics see on chap. Proverbs 10:19 and Proverbs 11:13, pages 168 and 211.