This verse came up in my Bible Study group this week. It struck me as somewhat hard to understand, and as I looked at it I considered using the word just instead of pure. It brings a little more life to this verse. Of course, me being the word nerd that I am, I had to dig into it. I looked it up on Blue Letter Bible and then clicked on the interlinear function to see the breakdown with Strong's translation to the original language and looked at the meaning of the word pure. It basically meant pure, clean, without blemish, but then one of the last definitions had a figurative definition of "righteous" which is similar to just.
Let's look at this verse with that deeper meaning: "A person's ways may seem pure, or justified, or in the right; in his own eyes." Here we have man, acting how he sees as a justified way. How much of the full picture does man have? Only his own when he reasons in his own mind. Then when he does what he believes is good, pure, right, just, and then it affects all those around him and they are hurt, is it really pure?
The last have of this Proverb has a daunting balance: "But the Lord weighs the motives." You see, our Lord is Omniscient, another big word for all knowing. Because He knows all He is also Omnipotent, having full power. In addition to that He is also Omnipresent, being everywhere at all times. The Lord has a great advantage over man in this which is why there is another Proverb that says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5
Let's bring this back to us with the horse. We head out for a ride; we have a plan and we know the way. The horse decides the ride is not going how they want it to, that it is not benefiting them, so they chose to take a different path, and for the purpose of this example, the rider is going to let them, because often the Lord allows us to do the same. As that horse goes down that path it ends up being a much harder trail, that leads to some big hurdles that they can't get over and have no other way out so they begin to panic. This is where the rider (or the Lord) comes back in because we know the terrain and have that forethought of what lies ahead, the horse can only see what is immediately in front of them. Let's say this big obstacle in the way of the path is a tree with several branches that keeps the horse from going over on their own, but we as the rider have the tools with us to cut some of the branches away. We go before the horse, cut the branches with our tool that the horse cannot possess or even work if they could, and make a way. We then ask the horse to go through the way we have made and then begin again to guide the horse back to our original path and continue in our way.
Our walk with the Lord in this life is no different from that ride with the horse. A wise man, Dr. G. Charles Jackson, has described our life like watching a parade through a hole in a fence. All we can see is what is right before us, we can't see the floats that have already passed, or the floats that are yet to come; but God can. Trust Him.
Romans 7 gives us a very vivid picture of how man acts on his own and why things we intend for good end up not always good because evil is always there with us in our flesh. Read it and rejoice in the answer that there is for us to be made righteous.
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