Proverbs 28:2 For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged
Last night several of us were talking about the upcoming presidential elections, and I’m sure we will all be talking about the elections ad nauseum for many days to come yet. Now, I’m not speaking doom and gloom here, but regardless of who we elect, there is a perennial governing class, thousands of people in the federal government, and it is growing every day. These are people we did not vote on and do not know, but nonetheless in various ways they govern our lives. That is to be expected.
Proverbs 28:2 says, “For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged.” Another way of saying this is, “When the land transgresses, there are many princes or rulers.” Indeed, there are.
If someone is simple, they are not wise. Life becomes very complicated for them, and it takes a very complicated government to govern them because they are not governing themselves. So, simple people produce complicated governments. On the other hand, wise people have a simpler life because the wiser you are, the more you will govern yourself. Now, government is ordained of God, but government should begin with yourself, not with your business or your house. The wiser you are the more you will govern yourself.
Much of Proverbs 28 is composed of verses dealing with government, rulers, and how we treat other people, but it is generally about how people govern and are governed. I Timothy 3 says, “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless…one that ruleth well his own house.” The reason for this is if a person will not govern himself, he really has no right to govern the lives of others.
When you think about freedom, the quality of independence, are you thinking of doing what you want or doing what you should? That matters. When I was growing up, my mom would make chocolate chip cookies and I would get three or four, often two. That was it. There was a limit. I was governed, not by my will or self-discipline, but by my mom. When I got married, my lovely wife would make chocolate chip cookies and five minutes later I would be staring down at an empty plate thinking, “Good night! Where did those go?” The answer is that they all went inside me. I ate them all because there was no one to govern me. I had not yet realized that if I didn’t govern myself, there wasn’t anyone else to do it.
Friend, the wiser you are, the more you will govern yourself. It is all too easy to complain about the government, your boss, your spouse, and whatever else, but at the same times absolve yourself of any personal responsibility. All of us may be governed to some extent, but all of us should be self-governing to the extent that we obey God, seek His Spirit to help us, and take stock of our own lives.
What does governing yourself look like? First, to be wise you need to think like an adult. In the summer we are blessed by a great group of college students who come to be counsellors for campers at the Ranch. All week, they are in charge of a cabin, helping and guiding, governing boys and girls and even teenagers, as the authority in that cabin. It is funny that when we all meet together on Saturday, instantly there is a change of mind. They are no longer in charge; they are just kids again, and they are looking to the authority, the camp director and others in charge. They should respect authority, but what happens is that they stop worrying about taking responsibility and just kind of relax as if to say, “Hey, you worry about things.” Thinking like an adult means to acknowledge responsibility, not to be absolved of it. So, to be wise means to think like an adult.
Second, to be wise means to think of others. There are many verses in this proverb that talk about the poor and our responsibility to each other. One example is verse 27, which says, “He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack, but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.” So, we are a nation, a church, or a family, not an island unto ourselves. None of us lives to himself or dies to himself. So, life will be much better when I take responsibility and think as an adult and when I take on compassion and think about others because the wiser you are the more you will govern yourself.