Weltanschauung. Let me say it again, but this time I’ll stand back, in case I don’t say it, but spray it. Weltanschauung. A simple word-for-word translation of this German word would render the world “worldview,” but linguists (that is, someone who studies language) wouldn’t call worldview a definition for weltanschauung. A person’s weltanschauung is a worldview that fully covers beliefs about philosophy, religion, morality, government, society, politics and economics. To have a weltanschauung, the person just doesn’t know about these topics, but the person fully understands them, has come to a conclusion about, can fully defend his or her stances, and knows how they affect life and how to live them out. The book of Proverbs stresses that people need to have a weltanschauung, but mores specifically, God’s people need to have a godly weltanschauung, and not a human weltanschauung.
If you have your Bible book with you, turn to Proverbs 3:5. If you have a Bible app on your tablet or smartphone, boot up your Bible, and put in your search bar Proverbs 3:5.
5 בְּטַ֣ח אֶל־יְ֭הוָה בְּכָל־לִבֶּ֑ךָ וְאֶל־בִּֽ֝ינָתְךָ֗ אַל־תִּשָּׁעֵֽן׃
5. Trust towards Yahweh with all your heart, and towards
your understanding do not lean.
6 בְּכָל־דְּרָכֶ֥יךָ דָעֵ֑הוּ וְ֝ה֗וּא יְיַשֵּׁ֥ר אֹֽרְחֹתֶֽיךָ׃
6. In all your ways know him, and he will make straight and smooth your manners
Before diving into the text itself, the text needs some analysis of its historical context. Solomon contributed 3 books to the Old Testament: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Each of these 3 OT books came at different times in Solomon’s life, and the text reflects when Solomon wrote them. Solomon penned Song of Solomon during his early adulthood, and therefore, the book is optimistic. Song of Solomon is a romantic book, not just love romantic but also feelings romantic. It is an idealistic book on how love and romance should work. It is almost like a Jewish fairy tale. Solomon scribed Ecclesiastes in his later adulthood, and thus, the book is pessimistic. Elderly in years, Solomon undergoes the stage in life Erik Erikson called ego integrity versus despair. According to Erik Erikson, senior citizens in this stage of life look back on their life choices and their life contributions. If they feel satisfied, they live the rest of their lives happy until they die happy. If they feel dissatisfied, they live the rest of their lives sad until they did sad. Solomon experience just that in Ecclesiastes, and he ends up dissatisfied, hence he pessimistically concludes that life is meaningless or vain. Solomon writes Proverbs in the middle of his adulthood, which means Proverbs is realistic. In the middle of his adulthood, between optimistic Song of Solomon and pessimistic Ecclesiastes, Proverbs has the best of both worlds, both optimistic and pessimistic when needed. Because of that, it has the most realistic expectations. Alongside realistic, the book is also serious. Solomon has a serious sit down with his son to pass on the wisdom he has learned from life, both optimistic and pessimistic, both idealistic and cynical.
Before diving into the text itself, the text also needs some analysis of its literary context. The book of Proverbs belongs in the genre of poetry, as opposed to law or history. Hebrew poets used the structure Hebrew poetry to get their message across to their audience, which differs how a narrative gets its points across to its audience. To ignore the structure of a Hebrew poem would be like saying there is no difference between a high school history textbook and one of Shakespeare’s plays. Hebrew poets formed their poetry around poetic parallelisms, or parallels of arrangement and idea, where one line parallels another line in thought. Poetic parallelism appear in a few forms, including synonymous parallelism, antithetical parallelism and synthetic parallelism. For a synonymous parallelism, the lines of poetry say the same thing using different words, typically synonyms (hence synonymous), to emphasize a thought or idea. In an antithetical parallelism, the lines of poetry say opposite thoughts to contrast ideas. Regarding a synthetic parallelism, the next lines add, expand or explain the previous lines. When reading Proverbs 3:5&6, keep an eye out of these parallelisms!
One last note about the literary context of Hebrew poetry. Remember that nouns can be concrete or abstract. Concrete nouns are people, places and things that can be experienced through the senses. Abstract nouns are events, ideas or emotions that cannot be experienced through the senses. Linguists believe that a language must establish its concrete nouns before its abstract nouns, so that it can base its abstract nouns off the concrete nouns. Hebrew poetry knows that and loves to engage in wordplay, using a single word with both its concrete meaning and its abstract meaning in mind. Keep an eye out for these wordplays!
בְּטַ֣ח - beṭaḥ = “Trust”: A simple translation of בְּטַ֣ח (beṭaḥ) does render “trust,” but this trust goes deeper than the simple translation. This trust means to rely heavily on somebody or something for safety and security, especially when confronting a threat. This trust suggests that some hazard or peril, unknown to humankind, always exists, and therefore, humanity always needs somebody higher looking out for humankind. For the reason, the book of Proverbs constantly contrast trust with fear because of their opposite nature (see Proverbs 14:16, 28:1 and 29:25 for example). Sadly, so many humans trust in something, like money, instead of someone, like Yahweh. Ironically, בְּטַ֣ח (beṭaḥ) appears more commonly in the Old Testament in a negative context, for those who use wealth to create a false sense of security (see Psalm 52:7 and Proverbs 11:28, for example). Now when somebody thinks of trust, that person may relegate trusting to intellectually thinking or emotionally feeling. The Hebrew language never understood בְּטַ֣ח (beṭaḥ) to take such a passive role. The Hebrew term בְּטַ֣ח (beṭaḥ) requires the person to act, believing that the Lord has commanded the right thing. If whatever happens has disastrous results, the person repents for misinterpreting God’s instructions and seeks to once again change his or her thinking, so he or she may better reflect the Lord’s ways.
אֶל־יְ֭הוָה – el-Yahweh = “toward Yahweh”: Saying “towards Yahweh” does not sound natural or smooth to modern English ears, hence why most English translations say “in the Lord.” Not only does the Hebrew text not use the traditional בּ prefix, the author Solomon purposely uses אֶל (el) to paint a picture in the mind of his son. He wants his son to actively turn and face toward Yahweh. This action will make more sense when seeing the parallel in the next line. More important than the action or the preposition is the recipient, which is Yahweh. The believer trusts towards the Lord for so many reasons. Believers trust toward Yahweh that his commands reflect truly ethical standards, that the Lord himself holds to these ethical standards, and that God will enforce these ethical standings, judging those who do not follow them. Therefore, this command to trust also invites the those who trust toward Yahweh to also follow these ethical standards, knowing that they join the Lord in following and stand in contrast to the fool and the wicked who do not follow them.
בְּכָל־לִבֶּ֑ךָ - bekol-liv beka = “with all your heart”: In modern-day America, we associate the heart with our emotions, or how we feel. The Hebrews associated lev, the Hebrew word for “heart,” not only with emotions and how a person felt, but also intellect and how a person thought. In short, the heart, in the Hebrew mindset, represented the internal human. Therefore, the trust toward Yahweh should involve both intellect and emotions, and it should include them to the fullest. Since God alone offers his people full safety, full security and full wisdom, the only fair response involves giving full trust in return. Thus, every belief, every choice, every conviction and every decision must first have the approval of the Lord. If believes really do trust in God alone, then investing it all in God only makes sense.
וְאֶל־בִּֽ֝ינָתְךָ֗ - veel-binotka = “and towards your understanding”: The root of בִּֽ֝ינָתְךָ֗ (binotka) is בִּינָה (bînāh). While בִּינָה (bînāh) sometimes simply means “wisdom,” בִּינָה (bînāh) usually takes it a step further. The Hebrew term בִּינָה (bînāh) might be a compound word, coming from two words translated as “between” and “to discern.” If so, בִּינָה (bînāh) would literally mean “to discern between.” This definition, in this context, would imply that understanding involves discerning between morally right and morally wrong. To discern morally right from morally wrong, someone cannot merely have wisdom. That person has to interpret wisdom. To do that, the person must have insight to the wisdom. Ultimately, the only way to have the insight to interpret wisdom would involve seeing the world as Yahweh sees. Once again, it draws back to turning full attention towards God. Speaking of which, the Hebrew preposition אֶל (el) appears yet again, making “toward your understanding” a clear parallel to “toward God.”
אַל־תִּשָּׁעֵֽן - ʾal-tiššāʿēn = “do not lean”: Literally, תִּשָּׁעֵֽן (tiššāʿēn) translates into “lean,” but it has a figurative meaning of trusting in someone. On the surface level, going from the concrete meaning to the abstract meaning should make sense. Anytime somebody leans on something or someone, that person relies in the person or the thing to support them. In the same way, human reliance and trust should not come from supporting the self, but instead, it looks toward Yahweh for support. The Ancient Near East cultural context, however, provides an even deeper meaning. In ancient times, kings would lean against their ministers, magistrates and governors in public to symbolize that the king trusted that person with the power the king gave the person, and so the public should trust the person in power as well. When a finite, limited human being stands before the omniscient God, it should be clear that the human should not consider his own thoughts and opinion as correct answer, but rather, the human should look towards God for absolute truth.
Put it all together, Solomon carefully chooses his grammar and his rhetoric. Solomon has crafted together a synonymous parallelism in Proverbs 3:5. Yahweh’s understanding and human understanding stand at two opposite poles. To turn towards one means to turn away from the other. Solomon teaches his son to trust and heavily rely on God’s way of thinking, not his own or anyone one else’s, especially in terms of morals. If not sure if trusting toward God, then do the opposite of trusting the self. Again, this does not mean that God rejects the human mind’s capabilities to think with logic and reasoning. The fact that humans can think with logic and reason traces back to the image of God, and God uses that to reveal himself in general. Here, Proverbs 3:5 warns humans against thinking that their logic and reasoning will provide for them a complete answer. A truly wise person knows that human wisdom has its limits, and all wisdom comes from God, but a fool thinks that he or she has all the wisdom that he or she will ever need.
בְּכָל־דְּרָכֶ֥יךָ - bekol-derākeykā = “in all your ways”: The Hebrew term דְּרָכֶ֥יךָ (derākeykā) comes from the Hebrew root דֶּרֶך (derek). Concretely, דֶּרֶך (derek) means “road,” but abstractly, it means “way.” This should not seem so foreign to the English speaker, as English uses “way” in the same manner. For example, as part of the Super Bowl game pregame show, the network might air a segment called “The Road to the Super Bowl.” This segment would not describes the two teams’ busses road trip to the Super Bowl location, but it would describe the games the teams won to qualify to play in the Super Bowl. The same works here. The phrase “in all your ways” parallels “with all your heart.” The Lord desires his people holistically. He wants their thoughts, their feelings, their speech and their actions, whether in public or private, whether in the sacred realm or the secular realm. God wants the whole of his people.
דָעֵ֑הוּ - dāʿēhû = “know him”: Most English Bible translations renderדָעֵ֑הוּ (dāʿēhû) in Proverbs 3:6 as “acknowledge,” but the Hebrew root ידע (yada) literally means “to know.” Most English Bibles lean away from translating דָעֵ֑הוּ (dāʿēhû) as “to know” because “to know” in the English has a broad span. Clearly, in the context of Proverbs 3:6, the author has a specific meaning in mind. This type of knowing is more intimate. It means getting to know someone or something better. It means knowing to improve your relationship with someone. This involves a constant awareness to God’s divine rule in life. Just like trust in the previous verse, the Hebrew term ידע (yada) does not take a passive role. It is an all-encompassing knowledge that affects how you think and how you act. Solomon instructs his son to first get to know the Lord as much as possible in order to think like God and act like God. Both attitudes and behaviors should reflect God. Furthermore, getting to know God will teach that person that God has the authority to act out his sovereign will. Altogether, knowing God should evolve into trusting God.
וְ֝ה֗וּא - vehu = “and he”: In Hebrew, Hebrew verbs have the pronouns built into the conjugated verb, so technically Hebrew does not need pronouns in the subject. Therefore, the when the pronoun appears in the subject, the author draws attention to the subject. Here, Solomon emphasizes that the subject, he, the Lord, is the only one who can do what the rest of the sentence says.
יְיַשֵּׁ֥ר - yeyāššer = “will make smooth and straight”: As expected in Hebrew poetry, this verb has a literal and figurative meaning. The literal meaning many know of because of it pertains to the role John the Baptist fulfilled. When the king had to trek to a foreign land, he would send a messenger ahead to smooth out bumpy roads or straighten out crooked roads to make the trip as easy as possible. That action is ישׁר (yāšar), the Hebrew root ofיְיַשֵּׁ֥ר (yeyāššer). Literal translators, who desire a one-to-one translation, debate whether “make straight” or “make smooth” makes the best translation. Dynamic equivalency translators, however, do not mind putting both. Both technically work, for both describe the Lord preparing life before you, and God does indeed prepare it wholly. If having to take a side, however, straight probably works best because most people native to English understand “going straight” as pursuing a righteous life instead of a sinful life, which the verse attempts to communicate.
אֹֽרְחֹתֶֽיךָ - ʾōrehōteykā = “your manners:” The Hebrew word אֹֽרְחֹתֶֽיךָ (ʾōrehōteykā) is meant to parallel the Hebrew term דְּרָכֶ֥יךָ (derākeykā). As discussed, דְּרָכֶ֥יךָ (derākeykā) has both a concrete meaning of “road” but an abstract meaning of “way.” Likewise, אֹֽרְחֹתֶֽיךָ (ʾōrehōteykā) has a concrete meaning of “path” but an abstract meaning of “manners.” With that in mind, it looks off when most English Bible translations use the figurative meaning for דְּרָכֶ֥יךָ (derākeykā), but they use a literal meaning for אֹֽרְחֹתֶֽיךָ (ʾōrehōteykā). Therefore, this translation stays consistent, using the abstract idea for both Hebrew terms.
The bicolon in Proverbs 3:6 create a synthetic parallelism because it explains a cause-and-effect relationship between the two cola. When a person gets to know the Lord, God responds by preparing their manners to a godly format. No one should want it any other way. As the omniscient God, Yahweh has the best insight into ever person’s life, which makes the Lord the best one to prepare anybody’s life. If a person does his role by pursuing righteousness, God will intervene and help by removing the stumbling blocks of temptation.
If anyone in the Bible got this idea, the apostles in Acts
got it down. In Acts chapter five, the high priest and the Sanhedrin council
call the apostles in after an angel frees them from prison and they return to
preaching in the temple. Previously, the Sanhedrin had charged the apostles to
no longer preach about Jesus publicly, and in exchange, they wouldn’t get in big
trouble. Sounds like a good compromise, right? Not for the apostles. They went
right back to preaching in the temple courts. When asked for a defense, Peter
and the apostles answer in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men!” I’m
not sure if Peter and the apostles had this Proverb in the back of their head,
but they knew had to think like God, even if it meant disagreeing with the
ruling council. In return, they got the blessing Proverbs 3:6b records. Acts
5:41 says that apostles left there rejoicing. Anyone else facing the hard
pressing judgments of the Sanhedrin would walk away discouraged, but not the
apostles. They rejoiced because they knew the suffering came about doing God’s
will. They knew preaching the name of Jesus was God’s will because they trusted
in God’s understanding and thought like God.
After exploring Proverbs 3:5&6 in its historical and literary context, three applications stand out as relevant to modern society.
First, Proverbs 3:5&6 ultimately teaches about morality, or more specifically, Proverbs 3:5&6 teaches to trust in the Lord for godly morals, instead of humans for human morals. Christians today constantly have to vie with outside worldviews trying to compete with a godly worldview. Therefore, Christians should constantly remind themselves that they need to trust with God’s understanding and not lean on man’s understanding. I encourage you that whenever a secular view challenges your godly worldview, just repeat Proverbs 3:5 to yourself as reminder that you stand behind God’s truth. When the world tells you that those group of cells in a woman’s uterus is just an extension of her body, which she can do as she pleases, you must trust in the Lord, and lean not on our own understanding. When the world tells you that some people will always be poor because they are lazy, and there is nothing you can do to help them, you must trust in the Lord, and lean not on your own understanding. When the world tells you that two men or two women marrying each other is love, you must trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. When the world tells you that these warm summers are just a phase this planet is going through, and there is no need to worry about pollution, you must trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. When the world teaches the world and life came about after billions of years of chance lining up, you must trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. When the world tells you that the only way to bring about peace is to engage in more war, you must trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
Second, Proverbs 3:5&6 teaches to have a very strong
faith in Yahweh, which could almost a blind faith. Now someone want to avoid
the phrase “blind faith” because it has negative connotations of believing
within thinking. This blind faith, however, means something different. This
kind of faith recognizes that human thinking, next to the omniscient God, truly
is blind. It can see so little when the Lord can see so much. This type of
faith accepts God’s truth, even if human thought cannot comprehend it. Not only
does this faith require acceptance, it requires trust. When a person obtains
this faith, that person acts on the faith, almost blindly. Trusting that Yahweh
knows better, they follow the Lord’s commands, even if they don’t know where it
leads. God personally taught this to me one day. I had a doctor’s appointment
in Lancaster, between Fruitville Pike and Lititz Pike. From work, I just needed
to take I-83 southbound and then route 30 eastbound. As I went to merge onto
I-83 southbound, I noticed a car exit on the entrance ramp! Looking down the
ramp, it made sense why. A car crash right after the exit ramp had resulted in
blocking off traffic. I needed to take a detour. I knew of a road that ran
parallel to I-83 just to the east of I-83. I just needed to find the right turn
to turn onto the road. After driving some distance, I made that right turn…or
so I thought. After driving on that road for some distance, I found myself
going northbound towards Harrisburg! With nowhere to turn around and nowhere to
stop, using the voice commands on my iPhone, I asked Siri to give me directions
to Lancaster. Siri took me through every windy road on no-man’s land York
County. With nowhere to stop, I had to trust that my GPS took the right
direction. Sure enough, I ended up at the Wrightsville exit of route 30. I
still don’t know how I got there. I think Siri brought me through York Have and
Mount Wolf. I may not know how I got back on track, but I know I trusted it to
get me there. In the same way, a wis believer will trust in Yahweh’s
instruction, even if he or she does not know where it leads.
Third, Proverbs 3:5&6 teaches that a wise believer can humble himself or herself to realize that he or she may not always get things right. Yes, Yahweh is the omniscient God, so he will always get things right, but humans are fallible, so they are prone error. Even the Christian, who has the Holy Spirit dwelling inside, has to make the choice to listen to the Holy Spirit, which also means they can choose not listening. When a person ends up making the wrong choice or wrong decision, instead of blaming God, that person needs to humbly confess and repent that he or she did not listen to God. Again, I can personally testify to you. Back in April, my wife and I received a fact sheet, which is how our adoption agency notifies us of a potential baby to adopt. We felt good about this fact sheet, so we said yes. I kept telling my wife, “This is it! We are finally going to become parents!” I was so sure of it. It just felt like the perfect timing. I had finished my Ph.D. classes and moved on to the dissertation stage, which I could do at home while parenting a child. My wife’s job had transitioned to working at home, so she could work at home while parenting a child. Even Bible Quizzing had wrapped up for the year, so I had this extra time to parent a child. All signs seemed to point to the perfect timing, so I felt certain the Lord had us wait all this time for a child until this perfect timing. Sadly, April passed, and we were passed up on parenting this child. I was so sure of the perfect timing! After thinking about it, I realized I thought the timing felt perfect, but clearly, the Lord did not. Therefore, I humbly confessed and repented, “How I dare claim I know the perfect timing. Truly, the Lord knows the perfect timing.” In the same manner, a wise believer will humbly confess and repent when that believer thinks he or she knows better than God.
Sometimes the Christian’s greatest obstacle to obtaining a godly weltanschauung can be himself or herself. Christians too often get tempted to think God’s will is their will, instead of making their will God’s will. Instead, if the Christian starts thinking like God thinks, the Christian can see clearly how God has blessed him or her and will continue him or her.
Bibliography
Buzzell, Sid S. “Proverbs.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.
Fox, Michael V. Proverbs 1–9: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 18A. Anchor Yale Bible. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008.
Garrett, Duane A. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Vol. 14. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993.
Garrett, Duane A. “The Poetic and Wisdom Books.” Holman Concise Bible Commentary. Edited by David S. Dockery. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998.
Goldingay, John E. “Proverbs.” Pages 584–608 in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. Edited by D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham. 4th ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994.
Murphy, Rowland E. Proverbs. Vol. 22. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 1998.
Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. Proverbs. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909.
Waltke, Bruce K. The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 1–15.
The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004.
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