A BROKEN CRUTCH Based on Prov. 3:5-6
A social science teacher once told my sister that faith in God was only
a crutch. My sister asked me how to answer that, and my immediate
response was to deny it and tell her she doesn't know what she is talking
about. As I reflected more, however, I recognized that though it was
meant as a slam, it really was a statement that could be used for the
defense of the faith. After all, a crutch is not evil. It is a device of service
that enables people who would other wise be helpless to walk about. If
something is a crutch, it is of value for many, and that is just the case with
faith in God.
Man is a moral cripple, and he cannot stand alone. If he does not
have a crutch supplied by God he would be doomed to be a moral invalid
forever. In this light then, calling faith in God a crutch is a compliment. It
should be made even stronger by saying that faith in God is the crutch. It
is the only one that will enable man to walk in the path he was made to
walk in. Man has tried to find meaning to life, and he has tried to get onto
a path of light with other crutches, but everything he leans on breaks and
plunges him into a pit of paralysis. Man's choice is not between having a
crutch, or no crutch, but between having one that holds him up, or a
broken one. Solomon in verses 5 and 6 is counseling his son to lean on the
good and solid crutch of faith in God, and to not put his weight on the
broken crutch of his own understanding. We want to consider the positive
and negative of this advice.
I. ABSOLUTE TRUST IN GOD.
You can't ask for a stronger statement on faith than this. Faith, when
it is true faith, is identical with trust. Faith that stops short of trust is
neither saving nor sanctifying faith. The devils believe in God and
tremble, but they do not trust in Him. Christian faith, as Old Testament
faith, is trust or it is nothing. To know and not trust is of no value. To
believe in all the orthodox doctrines and creeds of Christendom is of no
value if one does not trust in the Lord. This was true in the Old Testament
as well. The Old Testament saint had to put his trust in God or he would
have no fellowship and sense of personal guidance. Judaism was not just a
matter of law as God revealed it. We must distinguish between biblical
Judaism and historical Judaism. Many kept all the laws, but their heart
was far from God, and God despises such formal obedience to ritual. God
has never been pleased with anything less than personal trust. This is the
message of both Testaments. God wants no half-hearted trust. He wants
all your weight leaning on the everlasting arms.
Notice the stress on the person of God. It is trust in the Lord, and not
in the law, or Moses, or anyone else. Acknowledge Him as present in all
your ways. This may seem like commonplace truth, but it is something we
need to be constantly reminded of. So many Christians, like Jews of old,
have gone off the narrow path without being conscious of it because they
transfer their trust from the person of God to some other value. It is a
very subtle process, but it is possible for one to get into a state where the
means becomes the end, and the end is forgotten. One can be so attached
to the 23rd Psalm, or some other portion of Scripture, that you are really
saying that this is your Shepherd rather than the Lord. All Scripture,
theology and methods of worship are to lead us to trust in the Lord, and
not become, in them selves, the chief object of our trust.
Our trust is to be absolute, and in all our ways we are to acknowledge
Him, and not just in those ways in which it is convenient. We have a
tendency to recognize God's presence at worship and Bible study, but
there is no such limitation into that here. An ancient Rabbi, Bar Kappara,
said that this text, "Is the succinct text upon which all the essential
principles of Judaism may be considered to hinge." We have in this text
Judaism at its best in a nutshell, and it fits perfectly into the framework of
Christianity. It is a summary of the personal and perpetual nature of a
redeemed man's relationship with God.
We are to count God in on all we do, and lean on His arm for
guidance. There is nothing in life that is to be done as if He was not a part
of it and concerned about it. You can have no double life where God is
Lord in one area called sacred, and then you run the show in another area
called secular. God is to be the acknowledged One in everything. This
calls for conscience effort on our part. We must cultivate the practice of
the presence of God. Do not be discouraged at failure, for this is to refuse
to run a race because you cannot start at the finish line. Persist in seeking
to recognize God in all your ways, and in time you will be greatly
rewarded, for as the text says, "For He will direct or make plain, or make
straight your paths." He will give providential guidance and go before you
to smooth out some rough spots. Youth needs this assurance for they are
most likely easy to be led on paths that lead to much sorrow. If you trust
in the Lord, you will be able to say with Dr. Horton-
When in the slippery paths of youth,
With heedless steps I ran,
Thine arm unseen conveyed me safe,
And led me up to man.
Another poet expresses the cry of the youth in trial and assures them
of God's promise.
"Finding, following, keeping, struggling is He sure to bless?
Saints, Apostles, prophets, martyrs answer yes!"
We have God's promise and the multitude of historical examples to back it up. Why play
around with broken crutches when absolute trust in God alone will
support you and guide you into the paths best for time and eternity. Now
we want to consider the negative advice of Solomon to his son.
II. ABSTAIN FROM TRUST IN HIS OWN UNDERSTANDING.
Pascal said, "There is light enough for those who wish to see, and
darkness enough to confound those who trust themselves." Self-sufficiency
is a broken crutch that so many lean on to their own hurt and destruction.
No person is truly educated if he does not have a sense of his own
inadequacy. He can know very little who thinks he knows all. On most
issues of a complex nature we must just trust in the Lord and not lean on
our understanding. For example, on the matter of when does a child pass
from the age of innocence to the age of responsibility so that if he dies he
will be lost if he has not accepted Christ? There is no one who is able to
give an answer to that with full assurance. We can only trust God to do
what is just, and then do our part to reach youth at every age for Christ.
We must learn that there are many matters that are to be left to God,
for certainly omniscience should know something that is not known to our
finite minds. In all the areas of mystery we need not lean on human
understanding, but simply trust that if it would have made any basic
difference God would have revealed an answer. Because He didn't, we
can leave the matter in His hands. But Solomon is not talking here only
about mysteries of life. He is talking primarily about the decisions of life.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him means in education, vocation, marriage
etc. Do not make these decisions based on your own understanding alone.
Thomas Fuller said, "Trust not a great weight to a slender thread."
You can't afford to run your own life. Many young people feel they are
capable of making their own decisions, and so they rely the broken crutch
of their own mind. You need to recognize, your understanding is affected
by prejudice, selfishness, rebellion, ambition, and all sorts of factors that
make it unreliable as a final authority. To lean on your own
understanding when you can trust in the Lord is like lighting a candle in
the noonday sun to light your way. The Chinese say, "Self-sufficient,
self-mistaken." You must have a source of guidance outside of yourself
because man's very nature leads him to be his own worst enemy if he leans
wholly on himself.
In Jer. 9:23-24 we read, "Thus says the Lord. Let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the
rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he
understands and honors me, that I am the Lord who practiced kindness,
justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight says the
Lord." All our trust is to be in God, for He is adequate for all needs and
all situations. All other things will fail you and prove to be broken
crutches.
Solomon has spent a lot of time drilling it into his son how important
wisdom, understanding and discretion are, but he gives a balancing truth
here that will keep all this from going to his head. All of this is good, and
to be sought, but he says don't ever consider it anything but a means. God
alone is the object of our trust, and the source of all our wisdom. Do not
be so foolish as to take the gift and forget the giver by whose power and
guidance the gift will be useful. He who forgets the source of
understanding, and relies on that gift alone is like the story of the village
idiot who was given the job of shining the cannon in the park. It was a
happy arrangement because it kept him busy and out of trouble, and it
made him feel he was making a contribution to the city. Every day he
would shine that cannon and keep it spotless, but after some time he
appeared before the city council and announced that he was quitting.
They were amazed and asked him why he would even consider such a
move. He explained that he had saved up enough money to buy his own
cannon and go into business for himself. It looked to him like a real move
ahead, but, of course, he was relying on his own understanding, which was
totally inadequate to recognize the folly of his plan.
They are equally foolish who feel they are infallible and can take their
God-given gifts and run their life without looking to the author and giver
of those gifts. They, like the idiot, are cutting themselves off from the
source of their well being. They are letting go of the only crutch that can
support a crippled creature through this life on the paths of righteousness.
They are taking up a broken crutch that will surely let them down. Since
all young people go through this stage where they tend to feel they are
infallible, it is of the utmost importance that each learns this advice by
memory, and that they repeat it often-"Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not on thine own understanding. In all thy ways
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
