The Scripture passages are identified with bold upright font and the author’s notes are identified with italic regular font.

Note – All words or phrases found in quotation marks are actual parts of the Hebrew definition(s).

21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. 22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. 23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

God Sees

God sees it all my friends. God understandings it all. God cares about it all. There is nothing about us, in our lives, or that touches our lives that God does not know about in advanced and has thoroughly considered. The path of our life has been thoroughly dredged by God. V.21

This in no way means that God has fated our entire life or that all that happens to us is our destiny or even God’s Will, for neither possibility is supported by the whole of Scripture. There are things that are our destiny, fated by God to happen in our life, then there are things that happen that God had no part of or who does not even want to have take place.

Have you ever heard it said, ‘People get caught in their own trap.’? Well, verse twenty-two is where that comes from.

Most of the problems caused in our life derive from our own wrongdoing or from the wrongdoing of someone very close to us (v.22). Think over the last six major problems you had in your life? What actually caused the problems? Was the damage done due to your own sin or the way someone close to you had sinned? And what about when sin begets sin…someone does to you, you do to them, it spreads to yet another person who is affected, so on and so forth. Our sins are like a giant mushroom gas that spreads out far and wide and poisons all of those people close to us if we are not careful.

That sin can come in all types of forms. In verse twenty-two the word used for “iniquities” in the Hebrew is inclusive of the following: “perversity, in example moral evil:— fault, iniquity, mischief, punishment (of iniquity), sin.” There are many people who do not see their “faults” as sin, it is to them just their faults. However, ask those affected by their “faults” and you might find them well able to describe the person’s sin. You show me hurt between two people, and I will show you sin somewhere in the mix. v.22

Giving oneself to sin is extremely dangerous because ultimately it leads to us being bound by our own sin, which is what it means to be “holden with the cords of his sin.” v.22 Our sin begins to take control of us instead of us controlling sin. Anyone caught in a sin they are struggling to stop will attest to that truth.

Have you ever known a person who was just silly far too often? Now reflect on that person’s life and character. I can almost assure you in nearly each case that person was a person of little or no true substance in life. They lacked anything that truly mattered to them or for which they had deep passion. Part of the definition for the word “folly” found in verse twenty-three means “silliness” – silliness and folly are companions. v.23

Because people refuse to be mindful of God’s godly wisdom they will die in their folly and sin. Folly leads to going astray and going astray leads to death. Going “astray in the Hebrew language means “to stray, usually figuratively to mistake, especially morally to transgress; by extension (through the idea of intoxication) to reel, figuratively be enraptured:— cause to go astray, deceive, err, be ravished, sin through ignorance, let or make to wander.” v.23

That path of life that I wrote of a few paragraphs back, the path that God’s dredges before us, the path to our “true life” is not a path that is meant to be filled with sorrow caused by sin and folly, your own or the sin and folly of those closes to you, it is the path of godly wisdom instead that He desires for each of us. This is why He has placed His instructions in His Word, not to restrict us but instead to protect our life from harm. Instructions such as love each other, husbands and wives be kind to one another esteeming the other greater, do not lie, do not steal, do not misuse your body, do no get drunk, do not commit adultery, rejoice with our brethren when they rejoice, help carry their sorrows when they hurt, husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church, wives respect your husbands, etc. all meant to protect us.

Throughout this study if you need the wisdom of God on a matter, and you wish to receive the counsel of another Believer in Christ, please use the “comments” link to send your question to me.

Please keep me in your prayers and know that if God should speak anything into your heart as you pray for me regarding my life please feel free to share that with me. God speaks through His people.

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Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.