“For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.” (Pr 5:21 AV)
So, the word ‘pondereth’ has thrown me off a bit. When we ponder something, we are mulling it
over in our minds because there is information missing, or an application
missing. There is a lack somewhere that causes
us to ponder. Why is something the way
it is? What is the purpose? Why doesn’t this make sense? What am I supposed to do with this? These questions are questions of pondering
something to which we are exposed. However,
God who knows all doesn’t need to learn anything. So, why does He ponder? The Hebrew word here means to make
level. In that sense, our pondering and
God’s pondering are the same. We seek to
make something level because it is out of balance. Our minds or hearts conflict with what we saw,
read, or heard. So we have to bring it
into balance so we know what to do with it.
We ponder the obscured to make it plain.
When God ponders, He levels or balances our wicked actions with His justice. The context bears this out.
Solomon is comparing the wife of our youth which God has given as a
gift, with an opportunity an adulterer takes with a harlot. The marriage bed is not out of balance. What God has designed has been thrown out of
whack. It must be put back into
balance. It must be leveled. The leveling is described in the next two
verses. The adulterer will be taken in
his own ways. He will be ensnared in
them. The pleasure of the sin will be
like a drug that continues to drag him further and further into its
talons. This application is not limited
to sins of intimacy. It is true of any
sin. Any unrepentant sin can become a
habit. Our sin could be as innocuous as
fibbing. Or it could be as serious as
pride. The particular sin is not the
issue. At least for the duration of this
devotion. Sin is captivating. Sin is enslaving. Sin grows from little to large. What is
important is God’s pondering of our sin.
He will level the playing field.
Think of it this way. In Boy
Scouts, there were several activities designed to test a Scout’s skill and
resolve. One of those tests was an
orienteering course with skills tests along the way. There was a certain time allotted for this
challenge. Perhaps it started after breakfast
and it ended at lunch. Those laying out
the course would do several dry runs to make sure the course was not too long
or too short. They wanted the scouts to
compete, but they didn’t want them to be too early or late for lunch. So, there were obstacles placed along the
course to level the time it took to complete it. There were roadblocks, so to speak, that
forced the competitor to slow down. Some
challenges purposely cost the scout time and effort. There were placed there as a frustration to
the scout’s ambition. There were times of racing. But there were also times of staying
still. These waypoints were a way of
making the course run a predetermined path in the exact manner the planners had
planned.
God has placed in the nature of the universe a moral law and
consequences for failing that moral law.
These consequences are the leveling of the life of man to produce that which
God desires. He ponders our paths. He makes even our transgressions by designing
consequences. The course is even. We may think we are having fun by riding that
sled downhill. But someone had to drag it
back up again. In our context, it is
being taken in the snare of immorality.
A sin that is hard to escape. The
end of that snare is destruction and ignorance.
However, each sin has its consequence.
It is the pondering of God that makes these consequences
unavoidable. The example given in our passage
is a man who leaves the pleasure of his wife for something that is essentially
the same. The only difference is the thrill
of doing something which one is not supposed to do. But the physical act is the same. The exemplified man is a fool to think it is greater
pleasure. It is not. It is a trap and God will ponder his
goings. The path will be made level. God will even disobedience out with judgment.
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