17 Two Hearts (Proverbs 4:20-27)
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When I was younger, around 13, my mom got me a very unique gift for Christmas. She got me a book, but a one of one, incredibly unique book at that. I actually have the book in front of me right now, it's called ‘Wreck This Journal’, and the purpose for the book is to ruin it. To mess it up. To ruin its perfect texture.
The first page has a warning that says the following:
Some pages in the book ask you to draw outside the lines, to scribble over written text...others ask you, quite literally, to ‘make a mess’ and then ‘clean it up’. Some ask you to make a mess and NOT clean it up. The back cover of the book is the last page, and it asks you to tape the journal shut and mail it to yourself (pictured below). Like what kind of psychopath would do that?!?! Haha.
This book is, and I quote, ‘dedicated to perfectionists all over the world’.
If you are a perfectionist you will despise everything about this book.
And that, my friends, is exactly why my mom got it for me. She recognized a growing pattern of behavior in me in my youth of perfectionism, a broad personality trait that tends to be overly critical and obsesses over flawlessness, which, if it's not already obvious, is not healthy and as someone who still struggles with it I can attest it can cause some serious problems.
So my mom got that book for me for Christmas in hopes of modifying my behavior. And guess what? It didn’t work. This book is spotless to this day (take that mom).
And although I joke about that in this moment, I think it's no stretch to say that much of Christianity has become like that: lots of behavior modification. We recognize our struggle, we are aware of our weakness, and we try to fix it. We try to modify our behavior.
Some of you may have tuned in to this series because like we’ve talked about its a common misconception that Proverbs is a book of tips and tricks for the Christian life, a la many people think it's a book on behavior modification. And we eat that up! We want that! We want to be told what to change and then change it. But in Proverbs that couldn’t be further from the case.
In my study this week I read of this great illustration that ‘many people think of God like they think of Santa Claus. He judges you if you're naughty, and he rewards you if you're nice. Because of that misconception, much of modern Christianity consists of behavior modification’.
The author then concludes that thought by saying that this approach brings ‘heartache’ as you either become depressed when you fail to solve your problems through the modifying of your behavior, or you become full of pride if you succeed.
And that leads me to our last section of Proverbs 4, verses 20-27. Our text today tells us we cannot slap the band aid of behavior modification on internal bleeding. Our verses today propose that the solution to our problems does not reside in behavior modification, rather, that it resides internally in our heart, and our need for a new one at that. Our text argues that the heart is the root or source behind our every word and action, and that if we want to address sin in our life or grow in godliness, it starts with our heart.
Proverbs 4:20-27
‘My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. 24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. 25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil’.
Let’s talk about it.
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Welcome to the X+1 Podcast, where we meet you where you are with Jesus Christ and seek to take you one step closer to Him.
I’m your host, Luke Metzler, welcoming you to episode 17 in our series entitled ‘Pursuing Wisdom in Proverbs’.
The last two weeks we have been working through Proverbs 4, looking at the two parents in verses 1-9, and then the two paths in verses 10-19, leading us to our last pair of Proverbs 4, and that is the two hearts.
Before Christ we had a heart of stone, and in Christ we have a heart of flesh. This text shows us the implications of both, and it also shows us the competition that exists in seeking to impact and control our heart.
That’s in part why Solomon tells his son yet again in verse 20 to ‘be attentive to my words’ and ‘incline your ear to my sayings’. There are many voices vying for Solomon’s son’s attention.
We’ve talked about this: chapter one presents the voice of sinners that seek to entice in contrast to the voice of wisdom that seeks to embrace. Then in chapter two we’re presented with the voice of wisdom again in contrast to the voice of the forbidden woman, who seeks to flatter with her smooth words (Proverbs 2:16). All of these voices want one thing: they want the son’s heart. And the same is true for us. There are many voices vying for our attention in hopes of earning a share of our heart. And so we need to be careful of what voices we heed and listen to. But more than that, Solomon says in the next verse we also need to be careful of what we allow our eyes to see.
Verse 21,
‘Let them [his sayings] not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart’.
This verse shows us that wisdom demands constant seeking.
Wisdom is never to leave our sight.
There’s also a clear connection here between our ears, eyes, and heart. Clearly what we see and what we hear impact our heart.
One commentator on this says that your eyes and ears are the gates to your heart.
That’s why what you listen to and what you look at are so so important. The songs you listen to, the books you read, the reels you watch on social media, they all shape and form you.
So we are to be very careful as to what we let into the gates of our heart through our eyes and our ears. And Solomon says here we should be focused on listening to and looking at his words, keeping them in our hearts. Why?
Verse 22
‘For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh’.
Solomon is saying that wisdom reverses the curse of death. Jesus reverses the curse of death. He is life to those who receive Him, and He brings healing to the flesh.
Solomon is saying give ear to God’s Word, let the Scriptures not escape from your sight, keep them within your heart. You will find Jesus. And He is life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. The keeping of God’s Word will be life to those that find it. Healthy will be the soul that feeds upon this heavenly manna, that feeds and cultivates a relationship with Jesus.
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Now Solomon continues with this theme of keeping your heart that we see in verse 21 in verse 23, where he says,
‘Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.’
If there is any verse worth memorizing in Proverbs I would say this one is it.
‘Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.’
We are to protect our heart, for it is the source of life. The heart is our linchpin. Everything is connected to it, it is the center of our actions, both of sin and holiness. I cannot stress the importance of our heart enough.
The thoughts we think, the words we say, the actions we make, they all flow from the state of our heart. The heart is vital. Literally and figuratively.
Jesus says in Luke 6:45 that it is out of the ‘abundance of the heart’ that our mouth speaks.
Jesus also says in Mark 7 that is ‘...from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23).
From these texts two things are clear:
One, they emphasize Proverbs 4:23 in the sense that they show our heart to be the source from which our life flows.
And
Two, these texts show us how evil our hearts are, and our need for heart change.
These texts highlight other Proverbs as well like Proverbs 22:15 which says ‘Folly is bound up in the heart of a child…’. And Proverbs 28:26 which says that 'He who trusts in his own heart is a fool…'
Clearly the natural heart is a fountain of poison.
Clearly the natural heart will lead us astray.
Clearly the natural heart is evil.
And at the same time very clearly do our hearts directly impact our thoughts, words, actions; clearly our hearts directly impact our lives.
So this poses a severe problem. How on earth are we to keep our hearts with all vigilance? Given its natural evil, can we even keep our own heart? Like Proverbs 20:9, ‘Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?’ Surely no one, right?
Yes. We can’t keep our own heart. We can’t protect it. We can’t change it. Back to the book ‘Wreck This Journal’, we cannot behavior modify our way to a pure heart. That’s God’s work. But, though it is God’s work, it still remains our agency. As in, our efforts are God’s instrumentality (Bridges).
Our job is to show up, God’s job is to do the rest. God can’t purify a heart that is unavailable, but He can and He will purify a heart that renews its surrender to Him each and every day.
And in Christ our natural heart has been redeemed and made new through the blood of the lamb. Like Proverbs 2:10, wisdom (Jesus) has come into your heart. God’s Spirit lives within you. Christ’s finished work on the cross is the fulfillment of Ezekiel 36:26, which says that ‘I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh’.
Our heart is the source of our every action and our heart is desperately sick in its natural nature, but we have a great hope in Christ that He is making us like Him, having given us a new heart that is no longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness.
And that’s how Solomon chooses to end this section in the last few verses. He moves from verse 23 to verses 24-27 by saying that our lives will reveal the state of our hearts, beginning in verse 24 with our mouth and our words.
He says
‘Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you’.
Continuing in verses 25-27 Solomon addresses our eyes and our feet, saying,
‘Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil’.
It’s interesting how Solomon addresses the whole anatomy of the human, from our head to our feet, when discussing the implications our heart has on us. Again, thats to emphasize its importance in our lives.
Verse 24 Solomon says our heart impacts our words, and the vileness or holiness found in our speech reveals the condition of our heart.
Then verse 25 Solomon says our heart impacts our vision, and where we look.
Proverbs 17:24 says that
‘The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.’
Charles Bridges on this says ‘He who has understanding fixes his eyes upon wisdom, and contents himself with that object; whereas the eyes of a fool are constantly wandering everywhere; and his thoughts settle upon nothing that may avail to his good’.
In other words, the wise have a central focus, that is, Jesus. The fool does not.
So let your eyes look directly forward unto Jesus. If you take your gaze off and look to the left or right, as Peter did when trying to walk on water, you will sink. And if you look back, like Lot’s wife did as God destroyed Sodom, you too may become a pillar of salt instead of a monument of mercy.
Fix your eyes on Jesus, and verses 26-27
‘Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil’.
Solomon ends this chapter encouraging us to ponder every step by its conformity to the known will of God. He encourages us to not take a single step without His presence with us. This reminds us of last week’s podcast on the two paths. Do not swerve to the left or right, where the pleasures of sin lay in wait. Rather, turn your foot away from evil and walk straight ahead.
Proverbs 15:21 says
‘Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight ahead’.
Walk straight ahead. Ponder the path of your feet, and all your ways, in Christ, will be sure.
That’s Proverbs 4:20-27. Two hearts. A natural one of evil, a one with Christ that beats for Him.
Life change that flows from heart change not behavior change.
I love you all.
See you next week.
God bless.
