More reflections on Proverbs

This time from Chapter 20, verse 5:

A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water,
But a man of understanding draws it out.

I had looked up some commentary on today’s reading, mostly for 20:16 which left me a bit confused. The commentary I read seemed a reasonable reading of it. They fit with other Proverbs verses concerning surety. This verse, though, I’m not sure about the commentary.

The commentary says the wise are reluctant to offer council while the fool gives it readily. Thus, one must draw out the council of the wise. I’m not so sure about that.

“A man of understanding” seems to be more the wise man than just a man. The same source reads 18:4 not as a contrast but as two separate statements, the first corresponding the deep waters of the wise here and the second how wisdom needs an eternal source.

I think this missing a broader theme. As I wrote before I key idea I am reading in the Proverbs is the joyfulness of wisdom. I read deep waters both there and here in contrast to the joyful nature of the wise.

Instead of the need for “a man of understanding” to draw out wisdom from the wise I read in this passage something different. We know in our hearts the truth of things. However, our attachment to sin and folly often overcome these basic truths. A plan, such as The Lord’s plan for us or a simple plan for us to improve ourselves, in our heart is often buried by self-doubt, recrimination, or just the chatter and distractions of the world. It takes a wise man, “a man of understanding”, to draw what is best in us out, to show us ourselves.

One could argue this Proverb foreshadows our salvation. Christ, as The World made Flesh, is the ultimate man of understand. In embracing the Christian life, we are engaging with Christ and allowing him to draw God’s plan for us out of our hearts and into the world. Too often we take faith and believe in the same way the infamous Sunday School Christian takes comfort. The process of a life in Christ is that of letting the wisest of all, The Lord, draw out of our hearts our better natures.

It is also a charge upon us. A plan in a man’s heart is deep waters and deep water covers that which is worthy and hides that we seek to find. It is our charge to draw out those among us. Do not let their plans lie in deep waters but draw them to bring out their best.