Proverbs 21:31

The word for sacrifice, zebach, comes from a root meaning to slaughter. It names an animal killed as an offering, and it often stands for the peace or fellowship offering, where the worshipper ate a meal from the sacrifice before God. These offerings were God’s own gift to Israel, set out in the law (Leviticus 1–7) as the way to give thanks, to have fellowship with him and to deal with sin. So the fault in this verse lies with the man who brings the offering. God looks past the animal on the altar to the worshipper and the life he is living.

The word tôwʻêbah, abomination, is a strong one. It means something detestable and utterly wrong in God’s sight, and it is also used of idols. Scripture uses it of idolatry, sexual sin and dishonest dealing, and this verse puts the wicked man’s sacrifice in that company. God receives it as an offence against himself.

Proverbs has already said this in almost the same words (Proverbs 15:8), and the verse just before this one sets the covetous man beside the righteous, who “giveth and spareth not” (Proverbs 21:26). All through the book God weighs what a person does by the heart it comes from.

In Israel’s courts the word of a witness, ʻêd, could decide guilt or innocence, which made truthful testimony a fitting subject in a chapter so concerned with justice (Proverbs 21). The ninth commandment says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16), and the law ordered that a false witness receive the very punishment he had meant to bring on the accused (Deuteronomy 19:16–21). The word behind “false” is kâzâb, a lie, so the man in this verse is a witness of lies, someone who deliberately twists what happened.

He “shall perish”. The verb ʼâbad means to wander away or be lost, and so to perish, and Scripture uses it of lost animals and lost property as well as of the wicked. For the false witness the loss comes in many forms. His testimony is found out, his name and influence are lost, and in the end he stands condemned before God. Proverbs says it elsewhere too: “A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish” (Proverbs 19:9), and “The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment” (Proverbs 12:19). The book calls the man who hides hatred with lying lips and spreads slander a fool (Proverbs 10:18), and it says, “Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22).

The wicked man, râshâʻ, is someone set in wrongdoing, and he “hardeneth his face”. The verb ʻâzaz means to be strong or stout, and so to be impudent, and with pânîym, the face, it gives a picture of brazen defiance. In Israel the face showed a man’s honour or his shame, so a hardened face is one that refuses to blush. This man has made himself proof against shame, rebuke and correction, and his face shows the hardness of the heart behind it. Scripture uses the English word “harden” of Pharaoh’s heart as well (Exodus 7:3), and his story shows where resisting God leads. Yet God’s goodness is meant to lead such people to repentance (Romans 2:4).

The upright man “directeth his way”. The verb is bîyn, to understand or discern, so he considers his way. He thinks about where he is going, weighs his motives and choices, and keeps to a path that is right. The way, derek, is the whole course of a life. Proverbs urges this care elsewhere: “Ponder the path of thy feet” (Proverbs 4:26). The upright man does it with God, trusting him and acknowledging him in all his ways (Proverbs 3:5–6), and the LORD knows the way of the righteous (Psalm 1:6).

These sayings belong to the collection of Solomon’s proverbs in Proverbs 10:1–22:16, and most of them set two kinds of people side by side. The false witness and the listener, and the brazen man and the upright one, show the same truth: what a person is inside comes out in his face, his words and his road.

Verse 30 names three things people trust when they make plans. chokmâh, wisdom, is practical skill and insight, the ability to handle life and affairs well. tâbûwn, understanding, is discernment, the power to see into a matter and judge it rightly. ʻêtsâh, counsel, is advice or a plan, the kind of strategy kings worked out with their advisers in matters of state and war. All three, at their very best, fail when they are set against the LORD.

The LORD here is Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of God, rendered “Jehovah” in older translations, which speaks of him as the eternal, self-existent one. The nations relied on shrewd advisers and military strength, and this verse places every such resource beneath him. The book has said it before: “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand” (Proverbs 19:21). The psalmist sings that the LORD overturns the counsel of the nations while his own counsel stands for ever (Psalm 33:10–11). God declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), his thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8–9), and Job, at the end of his trial, confesses to him that “no thought can be withholden from thee” (Job 42:2).

For the proud this is a warning, because whoever sets himself against God is bound to fail. For the humble it is a comfort, because God’s purposes will stand whatever is planned against them.

The last proverb carries the point onto the battlefield. Among the nations the horse, çûwç, was the strongest weapon a king could have, and kings spent heavily on horses and chariots. “Prepared” is kûwn, to set up, establish or make ready, and it covers the whole work of getting the horse fit for battle. The first line describes wise and thorough preparation. The second line, “but safety is of the LORD”, tells where the outcome is decided. The verse before has said that every counsel against the LORD fails (Proverbs 21:30), and the chapter opens with “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).

The psalms say the same: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7), and “an horse is a vain thing for safety” (Psalm 33:16–17). Israel saw it at the Red Sea, when the LORD delivered them from Egypt (Exodus 14), and David saw it when he went out against Goliath (1 Samuel 17).

The word for safety, tᵉshûwʻâh, means rescue: deliverance, help, safety, salvation or victory. Here it is deliverance and victory in battle, and elsewhere in Scripture it often names God’s saving acts for his people.

Each of these sayings comes to its fullest meaning in Jesus Christ.

The sacrifices of the law were a shadow of his one perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 10:1–10). The wicked man’s offering is detestable because of the one who brings it, and Christ, the sinless Lamb of God (John 1:29), offered himself, an offering wholly pleasing to God. He exposed the religious leaders who kept up outward piety while their hearts were far from God, and likened them to whited sepulchres (Matthew 23:27–28). He taught that true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24). Through him, people who were once wicked are cleansed and made “an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).

Over against the false witness stands Christ, “the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5), who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). His words “are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63), and he said, “my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). He is the true man who hears, always listening to the Father and doing his will, and he sends his people out as witnesses to him in the power of the Spirit (Acts 1:8).

Where the wicked man hardens his face against shame, Christ set his face to go to Jerusalem and the cross (Luke 9:51), as the Servant in Isaiah resolves to bear scorn (Isaiah 50:7). He was obedient unto death (Philippians 2:8), and by his Spirit his people now walk in the way of righteousness (Romans 8:4).

The wisdom of the world called the cross foolishness, yet there God carried out his plan of salvation, and Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18–25). In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3), and God works all things after the counsel of his own will (Ephesians 1:11). All power in heaven and in earth is given to Christ (Matthew 28:18), and every knee shall bow to him (Philippians 2:10–11).

The safety of the last verse is salvation in its fullest sense. Sin and death were beyond the reach of human strength, and Christ won that battle by his obedient life, his death and his resurrection. “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). We are saved by grace through faith, as the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8–9), and the LORD is our rock, our fortress and our deliverer (Psalm 18:2).

These five proverbs show us a God who sees through every pretence and whose purposes stand against every plan. He looks at the heart of the one who worships, he hears every word spoken before him, and he knows the face we turn toward correction. He also holds every outcome in his hand, from the counsels of kings to the battles of nations. That is sobering for anyone who hides sin behind worship or lies behind a solemn face. For those who trust him it is a deep comfort. The worship he welcomes comes from a heart made clean through Christ, the words that last belong to those who have listened to the truth, and the safety we prepare for is his to give. So we can plan and prepare in peace, and leave the day of battle with the LORD, because safety is of him.