Proverbs 29:18. Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
Do you remember the book of Judges at all? The book of Judges takes place after the Israelites have entered the Promised Land, but before they have a king. Their great leaders, Moses and Joshua, have died, and the prophet Samuel has not yet been born. The entire book is summed up with this statement: In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
The book of Judges also illustrates today’s proverb.
Where there is no prophetic vision: in the book of Judges there often was no trusted prophet speaking for God and telling the people what to do.
The people cast off restraint: again, everyone just did whatever they wanted to do. Sort of like a classroom full of third graders when the teacher leaves the classroom. In Judges, the people did terrible things because they thought God wasn’t watching.
What about you? Do you practice restraint? Are you able to keep yourself from giving in to temptation, following the foolish path, chasing idols, and making bad choices? Well, apart from Christ in us, no one is. Restraint isn’t part of our sin nature. Even when we restrain ourselves from bad choices, we usually fail to restrain ourselves from the pride that follows. And when we fall into this kind of pride we are immediately failing to keep the law – Love God. The proud person loves only themselves, not God, and not neighbor.
The contrast here is between casting off restraint and keeping the law. That may sound a bit strange, but when we think about all the restraint it takes to love God and neighbor it begins to make sense. It is literally impossible to love others while doing whatever you want. And attempting to love God while doing whatever you want is an even greater antithesis. But how does the prophetic vision give us the restraint we need?
The good news is that when you are in Christ you are never without the prophetic vision of the gospel and the law of Christ. Christ in you, by the Holy Spirit, is the inner prophet constantly telling you what he desires from you – love. When we see how unrestrained Jesus’ love is for us, it begins to cause us to restrain our hate, our anger, our divisiveness.
When we can catch Christ’s prophetic vision of our future with him, living with God forever, always being loved, always loving, always obeying, maybe we too can restrain sin by living in his unrestrained grace.
You: Are you able to restrain sin in your life? Explain your answer.
You in Christ: How does Christ’s unrestrained love for us cause us to restrain our sinful desires?
Christ in you: Where do you need to practice the restraint of Christ today?
Pray: Father, please help me make choices that look like my future with you. Amen.
To Live is Christ 