Jump Start # 544 

Proverbs 21:16 “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.” 

  Our passage today is a reminder to stay diligent with God’s word and to remain steadfast about the divine way. We are presented in this passage with an image of a person who wanders. He’s not determined. He’s not on a specific mission. Instead he’s floating through life, he’s not seeing the danger of things or people. His indifferent and careless ways take him away from understanding. He wanders away from God. A person rarely wanders toward God, it’s away from God they go. The newness of things wears off, the excitement of what they found in God becomes old and dull, the routine of journeying with God becomes tiresome and long, and their attention goes to other things. They wander into things that are wrong. They follow friends who don’t know any better. The passage ends with this chilling warning that they will “rest in the assembly of the dead.” That brings scenes of a horror movie to me. To be the only one alive among all the dead. He doesn’t belong there. He ought to get out of there. He’s soon to join them and become one of them.

  You’ll notice the change in movement in this passage as well. It begins with one “wandering” and it ends with one “resting.” He’s stopped his wandering. This is where the road leads, and it’s a dead end road to the assembly of the dead.

  One place we find the assembly of the dead is at a cemetery. Leaving understanding may cost one his life. The dead may also be the “spiritual dead.” The wages of sin we are told in Romans is death. Leaving understanding will take one to sin and that will lead to spiritual death.

  It seems that the key to all of this is “wanders from the way of understanding.” It is similar to a car that drifts off the road. The driver is distracted, falling asleep and not paying attention to where he’s headed. The Proverb picture is of a man who is doing that with his life. How many marriages have ended because someone wandered from the way of understanding? They got busy with jobs, friends and other things and neglected their mate. They just drifted off the road and by the time they realized it, the marriage crashed. The same can happen in raising our children. Busy with work, even church can lead parents to drifting away from the attention and molding that kids need. Before we know it, we don’t know our kids at all and are amazed at some of the choices that they have made. How did it happen? Someone wandered away from understanding.

 How does one keep from wandering? That’s gong to be the solution to staying out of the assembly of the dead. First, there must be an awareness of what’s going on. Being asleep at the wheel of life doesn’t do it. Just going through the motions of worship, marriage or parenting doesn’t do it. Listen. Look. Observe. All of these take time on our part and they take us away from being so absorbed with self.

  If the problem started from wandering from understanding, then the solution lies in running toward understanding. Staying with understanding, becoming absorbed with understanding. Staying with divine understanding brings confidence and knowledge. One knows what God wants. One can know where he is headed, when he stays with God.

  Years ago, Indiana license plates had a slogan that said, “Wander Indiana.” I don’t know many people who did that. Who just gets in a car and has no idea where they are going? Maybe to shop? Maybe out to eat? Maybe to this town or to that town? Just driving around going no where? Definitely not my idea of a vacation. A person can waste the day going no where. The opposite is to have plans, goals, a destination. I’m off to a museum. I’m off to a ballgame. I’m heading to worship. Plans, goals, destination. The one who wanders doesn’t know if he’s ever made his destination, because he doesn’t have one.

  Some operate this way with their finances. Many live this way with their souls. They want to end up in Heaven, but they are all over the map, wasting time, energy and not sure which way will get them there. Have you ever followed someone who was lost? I have. We were going someplace and I didn’t know how to get there. So I followed my friend. He stopped and turned around. I did, too. He stopped and ran into a store to ask for directions. I sat waiting on him. Is this your life? Are you following someone who really doesn’t know where they are going? Possibly a family member? A friend? Where are you trying to get to? Until you know that, you don’t know if you are on the right road or not.

  Understanding or wandering about…one is definite and the other is vague. One has purpose  and the other doesn’t. One is thinking and the other is careless. One is headed to Heaven and they know that and the other will end with the assembly of the dead and they will be shocked. Shocked because that is not where they want to be, yet they’ve done nothing to stay away from it. They have wandered and wandered.

  Where are you off to? How are you getting there? That’s what this is all about.

  Roger