“Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.”
Final segment of this study. I've really enjoyed writing this, and God really used it to show me many truths in these verses that I hadn't noticed before.
“Be not wise in thine own eyes”
According to this verse, we are not supposed to consider ourselves wise. It goes along with the previous verses. If we consider ourselves wise, then we will depend on our own understanding and not trust in God. If we think we know everything, we won’t have a need to acknowledge God and seek his direction.
Romans 1:22 warns us about this also. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” If we think ourselves wise, we will become proud and haughty. We won’t have need of God’s direction because we “know” how to handle it. But as we all know “Pride goeth before destruction”.
What does God tell us to do instead? Well, two things. “fear the Lord and depart from evil.”
To fear the Lord, we need to understand who he truly is. A holy and just God. One that is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. We should have a respectful and loving fear of God. Not a fear that makes us obey Him because we’re afraid of what he might do otherwise, but a loving fear of making sure that what we do glorifies him. With a respectful fear, we will understand that God does know and see more than us. It will be easier to trust in him.
Finally, the verse says to “depart from evil.” This goes hand-in-hand with fearing God. If we fear God, we won’t want to be around evil. We’ll want to stay far away from it. And that’s what departing means. To leave it completely, and never return. To make sure it’s no longer in our lives. If we don’t flee from evil, it will take us down the wrong road, and God will never be able to direct us.
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.”
Three powerful verses that teach us a lot about God and how he wants us to lead our lives. We need to trust in God, and not ourselves. We need to look for God in our lives and seek his direction. We need to realize how weak and foolish we are and look keep our eyes on God, not ourselves.