Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 355 · December 21
Vision and Restraint
“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
You may have heard this verse quoted in a church planning meeting, and the meaning was clear: unless a leader sets out a vision, the church will die. The trouble is that the verse has been made to say something the rest of the Bible never asks it to say.
Start with the Hebrew. The verb behind "perish" is para, and it does not mean to die. It means to let loose, to throw off restraint. You can see it in Exodus at the golden calf, where "Moses saw that the people were naked," because "Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies." Both times, "naked" comes from this same verb: the people had broken loose, and Aaron had let them. Proverbs uses it too, for the man "that refuseth instruction." So the picture in our verse is of a crowd running wild, with nothing over it.
The word "vision" points the same way. It is the prophet's word for what God has revealed. When Samuel was a boy, "the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision," and the Hebrew word there is the same one. It means God speaking, far more than a leader's plan. Then read the second half of the proverb, which explains the first: "but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." Hebrew proverbs work in pairs, and here the opposite of having no vision is keeping God's law.
Look at the verses around it too. Three verses up: "The rod and reproof give wisdom." One verse up: "Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest." One verse down: "A servant will not be corrected by words." The whole passage is about restraint, and the proverb sits in the middle of it, saying what happens to people who have none.
So the famous verse is about a people who have stopped hearing from God, and who do as they please because of it. That is more searching than the version quoted in the meeting, and it is also more hopeful, because the cure is close at hand. God has spoken, and His word is open in front of you. The proverb's last line is a promise to anyone who keeps it: "happy is he."
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 355 is Strengthened in the Inner Man (Ephesians 3:16).