Without Vision

 As context is critical to understand what is meant in a conversation, it is of utmost importance in the study of the Bible.  Many times we have walked in at the “wrong time” of a conversation and the sentence we heard did not make sense.  This can ironically occur when we take a verse out of context:  phrases from scripture can become catchphrases that miss the original intended meaning.  It is one thing to assume we know what someone means when we haven’t heard half of what they were saying, but it is another when we do this with God Who speaks plainly in His word.

I recently saw a plaque that stated, “Without a vision the people perish” and Proverbs 29:18 was quoted.  I looked up the passage which reads in the KJV (thus I assume this is the translation used as the NKJV puts it differently):  “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”  When we speak about “vision,” often we refer to something which is not plainly seen by all but is visualised by someone who leads who effectively guides us to that end.  The implication of the first part of the verse (when it stands alone) suggests the dire consequences of people who lack visionary leadership or the faculties of sight themselves.  When we read this verse in its entirety, however, a clear directive of keeping God’s law comes into view.

I strongly suspect those who quote the first part of this verse as a cliché might not even know what else that same verse says.  The idea presented dovetails beautifully with what Jesus said about those who hear his voice and do not obey it.  He compared such a one with a man who built a house on sand and it was swept away in the storm—and great was its fall.  News stations all over the world are broadcasting pictures of the widespread destruction caused by hurricane Ivan.  The shocking and tragic pictures of devastation are an object lesson that demonstrates the spiritual reality Jesus spoke of.

The vision Solomon referred to was not one afar off in the future, a personal goal or unknown reality seen by only a few, but the Law of Moses written on tablets of stone hundreds of years before.  This vision was one of God’s righteousness, and those who kept the law would be richly blessed by their God.  Happy are the people whose God is the LORD, and when we keep Jesus in our sight we are always led to walk in righteousness.