A River Runs Through A Ham Sandwich

*Channels of water *are cut through *the king’s heart, *but the hand of Yahweh *turns him *wherever He pleases. (mast) *(condensed version)

Proverbs 21:1 (NKJV)

1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.

*[Channels of water] literally, a canal. But it is the plural form indicating channels or ducts for water to flow through. It is a word picture, however, to illustrate the prepositional action joining these Hebrew noun constructs. This aids the preposition’s conjunction to the next set of images in the word picture of the Lord holding out the king’s heart in his hand, demonstrating complete control over the king (Gen.20:6; Acts 16:14; Phil.2:13; Ex.4:21; Rom.9:17-23). But the positive side to this image is that water flows from the king’s soul by the source of the Lord’s hand (Jos.11:20; 2Kgs.2:19-22; 1Cor.12:11; Jn.3:7-8). So this is a picture of the king being a life-giving source of wisdom for the people (Lk.10:22-24). But the king doesn’t have control over where his will is directed (Jn.5:30; 8:27-29; Lk.22:42), for it is in the hand of the Lord’s self-existing power (1Sam.2:6; 2Kgs.5:7).

Now for definition, a canal is carved out by the manual labor of strong men’s hands. That’s the image being set up here by this word picture. A path is being cut for the water of God’s life source to flow from the rock of the king’s heart (Ex.17:6; 1Cor.10:1-5). This is a picture of Christ with Solomon as his foreshadow (1Cor.10:4). In the same way that Solomon was the instrument to give the whole nation of Israel prosperity (Gal.5:1-2; Lk.11:31), Christ is the life source that gives eternal life to the people of God (1Cor.15:45).

So this is the precedent set up for the kings of Christ’s line. It could be translated as ‘streams of waters.’ Both nouns are in the plural form, but the source of the water is singular by virtue of its conjunction with the hand of Yahweh (Jn.4:10). With Christ as the one true king of Israel, there is no other mediator to be the life source for her temporal and eternal welfare (1Tim.2:5). But since this is precedent for Israel’s kings, who are to be seeking and waiting for the true life source, the ‘streams of waters’ are referring emphatically to the perpetual precedent until Christ consummates the mediation (Jn.10:6-11; 1Cor.15:45). So there is no need to try to divide it as water flowing from multiple sources, for there is one exclusive source, but the water is divided into channels to flow out to various collections (2Chr.32:30).

Therefore the interpretation rendered as channels of water is sufficient to illustrate the Hebrew word picture as they are cut through the king’s heart (Acts 2:36-37; Rev.1:7), mediated by the sovereign hand of Yahweh (Acts 3:19). So he is feeding more than one collection by the source of the Lord’s blessing in his heart (Acts 2:33). He is providing the nation with protection on its borders, plus he is feeding the nation with wisdom concerning domestic and civil concerns, and at the same time he is feeding the house of God with honor; but Solomon’s error was in feeding the ‘high places’ of false worship (1Kgs.3:3), to satisfy the domestic peace of the cults (1Kgs.11:5-10), ignoring the covenant of peace mediated between God and Israel (1Kgs.11:11; Dt.33:29), and therefore damming up and blaspheming the precedent (1Kgs.12:25-33); for his sons followed in the image of his same evil steps (1Kgs.14:22-24).

*[are cut through] literally, a demonstrative joining preposition, away from. Again, this is for illustrative purposes. The hand of Yahweh is shaping the course and direction of the king’s desires for the people of Israel (Lam.4:2; Jer.18:1-11; Isa.29:16; Rom.9:21; 2Cor.4:3-7). God can, at any time, remove his sovereign hand from the king’s heart and leave him to his own desires (2Chr.32:24-31), which is what happened in Solomon’s latter days, as the following proverb speaks of when he did what was right in his own eyes for the peace and prosperity of the children of Israel (Pr.21:2; 1Kgs.11:30-36). So ‘away from’ the hand of Yahweh is the source of life, through the mediation of the king’s heart, which was (and is) to be Christ alone (Gal.3:20; 1Tim.2:5), as the waters cut through (or shape) the heart (of the precedent), in the principle of the kingly line, through the discipline of the Lord, in their every wayward turn of its application.

Now the discipline was to prep them for the holy king who was to come because the way of these men was to do what was right in their own eyes (Jdg.17:6; Pr.12:15; 16:2; 26:12), but Yahweh is weighing their hearts through suffering, to steer them back on course throughout their successions (Pr.28:11). And so as Solomon’s kingdom was divided, the heart of the king was cut like a knife through butter, by the living waters of the righteous mediation of Yahweh, to turn him back to the fear of the Lord (Ecc.12:6-14). Now this preposition, in order of the grammar, comes after the king’s heart in the original construct; but acts as the bread that sandwiches it together between the separate prepositional clauses. It functions as an envelope that pockets and folds over the king’s heart like a glove to send it wherever the hand of God wills. Therefore it joins the subject, which is Yahweh, to the object, the king, throughout the remaining clauses as they are in conjunction with the Hifil verb stem, that is reflexive to its conjoining verb constructs, opening and closing them like barn doors, pushing the flow of the life source, (that is, the living waters), through the king’s heart like blood through its valves of the chambers and throughout the whole kingdom as a unified organism.

*[the king’s heart] literally, the king’s heart. Not much explanation is required here in terms of interpretation, but further exposition may be needed. The heart of the king is the seat of Israel’s political power, the thrust of all her wealth to her people, and the honor by which the neighbors of her kingdom peep through her window of God’s justice and loving esteem of her. And so, the outside kingdoms honored her based upon how the king ruled the heart of the nation. So what pulls the strings of the king’s heart? Would it be how he chooses to be observed by the neighboring nations? Would it be how he requires himself to be esteemed by his own subjects? What was going to steer the pride and glory of the king’s heart? What was going to be the controlling factor? Will it be the strength and determination of his own will that gets things done in the kingdom? By what standard will he feed the nation with equal justice under the law and defend the liberty of all her commodities and trades? What will bend the king’s will to act for the cause of the nation’s good? Will he allow his heart to be deceived into doing evil? What will motivate him to rule in the best interest of all? Will his free will be the judge and arbiter of right versus wrong and good versus evil? Will the wisdom of the throne be born out of the nature of his own heart? God surely knows!

*[but the hand of Yahweh] literally, towards all that desire the hand of Yahweh. In grammatical order, the hand of Yahweh towards all that desire. But again, it is antecedent to the last preposition, away from, in conjunction with the following verb stem and clause, towards all that desire. Now this, the hand of the Lord, is sandwiched between the preposition and the Qal verb stem, to desire. So a broader translation could render it, “the hand of Yahweh; but to all that desire.” Now the third person verb stem is in conjunction with the hand of Yahweh in the masculine singular form, meaning it is antecedent of Yahweh, but Yahweh is rendered silent in Hebrew. So a more fuller rendering would follow like this, “the hand of Yahweh; but to all that desire Yahweh.” Again, this prepositional phrase sandwiches ‘towards all that desire’ around the king’s heart ‘away from’ which the living waters flow, enveloping the king’s heart.

*[turns him] figuratively, to hold out / to extend. Now the word picture that continues here is Yahweh holding out the king’s heart towards all who desire Him. God takes, therefore, what is already his and gives it to his people (Jn.16:14). In conjunction with the previous phrase, it could be rendered, “the hand of Yahweh; but to all that desire, it is held out to all that Yahweh pleases.” Now the pronoun is antecedent to the life source. According to the previous word picture, it refers to the king’s heart or the water that flows through it, but it is more likely all that is in the hand of the Lord. It’s as if God is holding out the king’s heart like a glass of water to refresh all those who thirst for the hospitality of his hand. In other words, the king’s throne is an extension of God’s mercy, and the scepter is lowered to whomever the Lord wills (Ps.103).

So there is the opportunity for mercy at this throne. But as we will see in the next set of proverbs, this mercy doesn’t come without wise justice. Life can be retained by honoring the wise principles that flow from the king’s counsel through Yahweh’s direction. The way the Hebrew verbs are functioning, in their individual stems, is like a mirror image that uses the “pronoun” as a hinge, in conjunction with the Hifil stem, making them reflexive to one another. The verbs read the cause of the Hifil stem (the hand of Yahweh) from back to front and then from front to back, leaving the pronoun “it,” or as sometimes rendered, “the same,” as the period of the statement. And so the Hebrew pronoun ‘this same’ (picture) is antecedent to the image of the king’s heart in the hand of Yahweh, pointing back to the former image in whole, which best identifies the king’s wisdom.

Therefore God is extending wisdom through the king to all that desire to know his mercy. Yahweh holds out His will through the king. All who desire wisdom will follow him. So another rendering could be: “but to all that desire Yahweh, He desires to extend it to all,” or the literal condensed: “He extends (the same).” By the Hifil verb stem, we read (the cause) in reverse through His own will bending down to their desire like a mirror image in Jesus Christ (Matt.8:2), who is the hinge of the pronoun held out by the hand of God (James 4:8). Christ, the king, is the living water to satisfy our every thirst. Jesus Christ is the present and eternal reigning king of Israel’s throne.

*[wherever He pleases] literally, to be pleased to act. In other words, it is the Lord’s pleasure to will and to do for those who desire Him (Ex.20:6; Dt.5:10; Pr.8:17, 21, 36; Jn.14:21, 24). But it’s him they desire (Gal.2:20; 1Cor.8:3; 1Jn.4:10). But we must also note that it is His will that causes their desire. The verb also implies voluntary choice without influence or force. It is the freedom of God’s will to act according to His pleasure, not ours (Phil.2:13). So when we desire him, it is because he works that desire in us, and he delights in bending down his own will to act on our behalf (Ru.3:13; Dt.25:7; Nu.14:8). Again, the shorthand rendering of the face-to-face Hebrew verbs goes like this: ‘but to all that desire, Yahweh turns him.’ However, the verbs being in conjunction with one another, through the emphatic Hifil stem, are a reflexive mirror image, by joining their verb actions, yet are antecedent of separate nouns. So a fuller description of the nouns, by the reflexive conjunction of the pronoun (that same)(Pr.27:19), creates a mirror image of the heart of Yahweh in the grace mediated by the king (1Sam.13:14; Rom.6:17). But the verb shows that the action is emphatic to Yahweh, and therefore the king is not reflexive in turning himself but is turned towards those who desire Yahweh. And so, it is the emphatic hinge that is reflexive of itself. Yahweh creates the thirst (or the desire) to seek him (Ps.42:1-11) and turns the heart of the king to satisfy that thirst with the living waters of Yahweh (Jer.2:13; 17:13; Song 4:15; Zech.14:8; Jn.4:10-11; 7:38; Rev.7:17).

[Channels of water are in the king’s heart from the hand of Yahweh; but to all that desire Yahweh, He turns the king wherever He pleases]. (mast) *(broader version)