Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.
Solomon's call is short and practical: take in advice, take in instruction. The payoff comes at the end of the road, not straight away. So whose counsel is worth hearing, and what happens to the person who refuses it?
The verse does not say whose counsel to hear. One writer points to the source that never runs short.
The next word fits perfectly: "Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future." What counsel can compare with the counsel God gives? What instruction equals the Scriptures? Some thinkers call the Bible a set of fragments written for passing occasions. But under that appearance it holds the fullest provision, suited to every need that ever did or ever can arise. People of faith find this out, to their everlasting comfort. They are responsible to show its treasures to those who fail to see them. And they reap the blessing in wisdom from the first to their latter end, as every believer proves.
(Older translations end the verse "that you may be wise in your latter end." The writers quoted here use that wording.)
Listening is not passive here. It is itself an act of wisdom, and self-sufficiency is its enemy.
Paying attention to the words of the wise is itself a wise thing. It means giving the heart as well as the ear to those who know better than we do. How sad is the self-sufficiency that doubts it!
The same writer makes the point from the other side: wisdom comes through the ear, not the mouth.
"You, my son, hear and be wise, and direct your heart in the way." Not talking but hearing is the path to wisdom. The heart is involved at least as much as the ears.
The reward comes at the end of life, so the listening must start near the beginning. One writer ties this to how a young person sees his own lack of wisdom.
If we have the right attitude when we are young, we will feel our lack of wisdom keenly. A listening ear is then of vital importance. If so, the result will be wisdom in our latter days.
Advice does not always arrive as a gentle suggestion. Often the instruction we most need comes as correction.
On the other hand, refusing instruction is a great danger and a great sin. But the one who hears it, even in the painful form of reproof, gains heart. And heart is better than silver and gold.
Hearing it once is only the start.
Then comes the practical test: "Keeping instruction is the path of life," just as surely as "he who forsakes reproof goes astray." Not only hearing instruction, but keeping it, is of great price. To dislike the reproof of our many faults, and so abandon it, is the way to go wrong — and no one knows how far.
The sharpest commentary on this verse is the life of the man who wrote it. One writer notes that Solomon set out the rule and then failed it.
Once more there is the call, as in the opening chapters, to hear and to pay attention. The Lord knew beforehand what "the latter end" of Solomon would be. This wise man warned against the fool, the backslider, the unjust, and the man who abandons counsel and the Lord. Then he himself illustrated the truths given in these proverbs by turning away from the Lord. Sadly, he did not hear counsel, and so instead of being wise in his latter days he became a fool.
- Source — no counsel compares with God's. No instruction equals the Scriptures. They hold full provision for every need that can ever arise.
- Hear — listening, not speaking, is the road to wisdom. The ear opens the door, but the heart must go through it too.
- Receive — hearing once is not enough. Instruction must be kept. Abandon reproof and you go astray, and no one knows how far.
- Reproof — the instruction that hurts is the instruction that pays. The one who takes correction gains what is better than silver and gold.
- Latter end — the reward comes last, so the listening must come first. Solomon wrote the rule and broke it, and instead of wisdom in his last days he became a fool.
Many are the thoughts in a man's heart, but the counsel of Jehovah, that doth stand.
Proverbs 19 collects short sayings about work, discipline and the fear of the Lord, and near the end it sets many human plans against one counsel that stands. The question it forces is not whether we may plan, but whose plan will still be standing at the end.
The first half of the verse describes a mind full of ideas. The second half sets one counsel against all of them, and a writer here reads that contrast as the difference between confusion and firm ground.
A man may be rich in ideas and plans, but outside God's teaching his thoughts are only confusion. "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand." (The older translation used here reads "the counsel of Jehovah.") This counsel is what makes a person wise. Anyone who learns it and holds to it is settled and happy.
The verse is not abstract. Anyone who has watched a plan collapse has met its truth. The answer is to shape our plans by something steadier.
We all know by experience that our plans are too often brought to nothing; but the counsel of the Lord will always stand. How important, then, that we get to know His reliable Word, so that our plans line up with His will.
Planning is not the sin. Planning as if God were not there is. One writer describes what that habit amounts to.
The heart of man, far from God, thinks to direct his own steps and decides what he will do, without thinking of the will of God, or even of God at all. The plan itself may not be evil… but God is forgotten. The man acts without God. He lives as if God had left the earth to man, and as if His will counted for nothing. In the ordinary things of everyday life, such a man lives as if there were no God at all.
The remedy is a short phrase to keep at hand:
Whenever we speak of the future, it is a healthy habit to add, "if the Lord wills and we live." This pleases Him. It shows that we submit to Him and depend on Him.
Men once plotted the death of Jesus. They even fixed the timing themselves, and then the timing slipped out of their hands.
But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people." Yet the Lord's purpose stood. He was to die at that very time, and God overturned their plan about the timing.
If God's counsel stands whatever men do, then opposing it is not dangerous to God but to the one opposing.
So in the long run God always carries out His will. Happy are those who go along with it the whole way! If men resist, they gain nothing but grief and disappointment, and short-lived success only makes it more bitter. Far from blocking the word of the Lord, they carry it out by the very steps meant to serve their own wishes. The evils they dread most, they bring on themselves.
The same truth that unsettles the self-confident steadies the disappointed. We all make real mistakes, and God's counsel still holds.
God will perfect what concerns His servants. We all fail and make plenty of mistakes. Yet the Lord's rich grace covers it all, and He even uses our mistakes as an occasion to shine out more brightly… It is our privilege, in our small measure, to thank God for everything, and to take refuge in His eternal counsels. They must stand, whatever the unbelief of man and the malice of Satan.
- Many. The heart is crowded with plans, but many ideas are not wisdom. Apart from God's teaching, man's thinking is confusion.
- One. Against the many stands one counsel. Whoever learns it and holds to it is settled and happy.
- Forgotten. Planning is not the problem. Planning as if God had left the earth is. The cure is the habit of saying "if the Lord wills and we live."
- Overturned. Men fixed the day for putting Christ to death, and God overturned their timing. Resistance never blocks God's word. It only brings grief on the one who resists.
- Standing. His counsel stands despite man's unbelief. So even our failures become occasions for His grace to shine, and we can thank God for everything.