Are You Carving Out Your Own Path?

*If from *Yahweh are *the steps of *the mighty, *then how did *Adam know *he strode *with this excellence? (MAST)

24 A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?

*[If from] literally, out of. But this construct begins out of the interrogative pronoun that is conjunctive from the next phrase that joins [this] indicative start to the following interrogative question. Therefore it translates as a presupposed fact that demands a response to the statement. There isn’t really any exposition that I can do from here other than the prep work that sets the beginning of our interpretation. It is out of Yahweh, who is Lord over heaven and earth, ‘that the mighty men of old established their steps’ (Gen.6:4).

He is the solid but holy ground underneath their feet and the compass of their path. He directs their feet in the direction that they should face and the pace by which their feet should march. It is out of the Lord God Almighty that these men find their strength and power. It is from Yahweh where they get their sustenance, their breath of life (Isa.31:3).

*[Yahweh are] literally, Yahweh is. Many are content to leave this translated as the LORD, but it softens and lowers the name of God to a mere title. Yahweh is the Lord, but Yahweh is the proper name of God, the name that sets him above all that is created (Dan.2:47). It is his name above the heavens and is a glorious name. He is God of gods (Dt.10:17), but this proper name sets him distinctly and transcendently above all that he named as ‘gods’ (Ps.82:6; 136:2; Phil.2:9; Acts 4:10-12). It is Yahweh who creates the gods (Jos.22:22), but these gods whom he called out of this world are not self-proclaimed gods (Acts 12:21-23) but would be mere men without the power of God (Ps.82:7).

God has chosen weak men to show himself strong (1Cor.1:20-31). Therefore, it was not anything in these men that made them mighty, but only the footprints they followed (1Sam.17:45). All their power is derived from their humility in the strength and power of God (Rom.1:16-17; 2Cor.12:7-10). This manner of walk is what made Moses a mighty man (Acts 7:22; Num.12:3), what made David a mighty king (1Chr.11:10; 1Sam.17:45), and Israel a mighty people (Neh.3:16; Dt.7:8; 1Chr.5:24; . . . etc.). But these men also walked in the Providence of God. Something the other nations did not do as they elevated themselves ‘as gods’ by their own hands and walking according to the inflation of their own imaginations (Gen.3:5-6; 6:4-5; 8:21-22; Ex.20:3; 34:14; 2Kgs.19:18; Isa.31:3; Jer.2:11; 16:20; Hos.8:6; Acts 19:26; Gal.4:8; Rom.1:22-23).

The other nations attributed their power to a god or many gods (Acts 17:22-33), but the gods of those nations are all to be observed as false gods (Jer.7:9; 1Jn.4:1) because those gods were created out of the imagination of the mind of men (Lk.1:51), as their carvings and explanations changed and evolved over time [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_deities]. Some false gods were associated with the stars of the night sky, sometimes even of the same celestial object (Acts 7:43), sharing the identities of two imaginary gods formed from the minds of two (or more) distinct nations, being one of the many ways these gods contradicted themselves.

However, Yahweh revealed himself over time without any contradictions and refused to associate himself with any one thing created (Lk.9:35; Eph.2:15) because he himself is the Creator (Jn.1:1-3; Col.1:15-18). In his Father, he is the Almighty God, the Maker of Heaven and earth (Jn.10:25-30; 14:20). And therefore, he is the rightful Owner and King of all creation (Rev.19:16; Acts 10:36; Ps.24). Nothing can stop him from accomplishing his will in all the earth (Dt.32:39), nothing in heaven above or from the earth beneath (Isa.45:20-24). There is nothing like him in heaven above or of the earth beneath (Ps.113:5; Isa.46:9). Yahweh is sovereign over all (Ps.46:10).

*[the steps of] literally, footprints. But this carries with it the understanding of a ‘stride’ or a march as it is conjunctive of the following verbal construct. Here it is a noun, referring to what Yahweh makes of the ‘goings’ of these men who walk with him (Gen.18:19; Ps.18:21; Jdg.2:22). It is His footsteps that make their steps mighty in nature (2Kgs.21:22). Literally, they are the footprints of God, but not as a result of the size of these men, but as the result of the size of their God (Lk.12:25; Rev.21:17). They are walking in the form and direction of Yahweh’s steps (Num.12:8; 2Tim.3:5; Phil.2:7; Rom.2:20; 6:17). In other words, their tiny footprint is not even seen within his greater steps (Dan.11:43; Jn.5:37; Lk.3:22).

There are only three occasions where this noun is used in the Hebrew Bible. Two of which are translated as ‘steps’ and the other as ‘goings.’ But this noun is rooted in the Hebrew verb, ‘to stride’ or ‘to march in procession.’ That’s what this noun is describing as these men walk at the heels of the Lord (Dan.11:43). They appear mighty to men because they are walking in the footprints of God. Their steps are predestined and decreed from the good direction and righteous power of the Lord (Ps.37:23). So they are observed by the Lord as mighty because they are marching in the victory of the good reward that has been provided to them out of the sacrifice of Yahweh (Gen.22:6-8, 12-14).

*[the mighty] singularly, a strong man. But I don’t believe this is being used here for the singularity of just one particular strong man. Rather it is singular in its use, of one collective whole, as an adjectival noun describing anyone who identifies as walking in the footsteps of Yahweh. The singularity of this man is not brought out until the conjunctive interrogative draws out such a man to examine himself, to see if he is walking in this way of Yahweh (Mal.2:8; Jn.1:23; 14:6; Matt.7:14; Mk.12:14; Lk.1:79; Acts 9:2; 16:17; 18:25-26; 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22).

While this is using the term ‘strong man’ in a positive light (Ps.19:5), this is not usually how it is used in the term's broader context (Mk.3:27). In this context, it refers to the footsteps of Yahweh (Ps.19:1-7), and it is observed in a good light as Adam was ruled by a greater light (Gen.1:16-18). This term often carries a deep darkness surrounded by Christ's use of it among those coming against his earthly ministry and of the collective group of scribes and priests dividing the kingdom into two political classes (Matt.12:23-37). He referred to them as two distinct parties of a strong man versus a strong man in their representative group.

The point of Matthew’s account, of the words of Christ, however, is that this Jesus of Nazareth was the good man while the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt.12:35), who were dividing the kingdom (Matt.12:25), were the strong man coming out ‘together’ against Thee one and only true strong man (Matt.12:30), the Son of God (Mk.3:6). But this was said ‘to them’ in such a way as a taunt for the power and strength of both parties to come out ‘as one strong man’ (Jdg.6:16; Jn.2:19; Matt.3:7; 16:1) to arrest him because he made their house of religion a desolation (Matt.23:38). This taunt ignited their hatred of his strength and power (Lk.11:21), which was working in unison with the Holy Spirit and Providence, to expose their false system and declare the destruction of its end (Jn.2:19; 12:13; Mk.13:2).

So there is this strong man versus strong man scenario going on between them of who is the rightful King of the chosen kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love (Col.1:13; Zech.12:10; Matt.12:23). But the scribes and Pharisees were not looking for someone to replace their respectable, honorable positions of their Sanhedrin (Lk.13:34; Matt.16:12), even though he were the Messiah of God (Jn.10:24-30). Nevertheless, this scenario plays out in practically every great nation that has had the Word of God come to them (Jn.10:34-38). Wherever this message has been, it has created a battle to obtain, not so much the treasure of itself, but of the earthly prosperity that it produces (Isa.48:17; 1Cor.10:33; Gal.5:2), when the fathers of that beginning regeneration took their responsibility to it seriously (1Tim.4:8; Tit.3:8; Phlm.11). It has always created mighty men (Zech.10:5), but not always strong men who walk in its power and wisdom (1Tim.4:8; Rev.19:18) as was observed in the days of Noah and of the kings of Israel (Gen.6:4; 2Kgs.21:22).

Often, the Word's wisdom is only applied for its practical and immediate benefits rather than its eternal and transcendent rewards (Ps.103). That’s what the mighty men, the so-called giants of those days, were doing when they left their spiritual fathers (the sons of God) for the beauty of the daughters of Adam (Gen.6:2), who were now declared by God as the weak and sinful men of the dust in Adam’s fall (Gen.5:3; Gen.3:17-19), clothed with only the beauty of the earth (Lk.12:27). They grew impatient with God and took off the covering of their ‘spiritual’ renown to bear children with the dust that was to be tossed to and fro in the mindlessness of the wind (Amos 8:12; Dan.12:4; Jer.5:22; Isa.24:20; Job.1:7; Eph.4:14; Jude 6). Mighty men often rose up to make a great name for themselves (Gen.11:4), but their end was always the same as the sons of God, who were no different in nature except in this declared position of justification (James 5:17; 2Pet.1:4; Eph.2:3) as the wind of heaven’s glory was at their back pushing them along these steps of Yahweh (Jn.3:8). They came to nothing but dust, and their earthly glory was forgotten (Ezk.18:24; Isa.26:14; Ps.109:15; Job.18:17; Dt.32:20; Jer.5:31; Ps.82:6-7).

*[then how did] literally, then Adam, how he knew the way of excellence? But this can only be understood in observation of the next proverb, where Solomon answers himself. ‘It is a snare for a man to devote something rashly as holy, and afterward to reconsider his vows.’ (NKJV) Solomon is stating this in the reflection of the wisdom of God. This question forced him to think theologically. God is holy, and therefore cannot disavow his promise to Adam, that he would provide the appointed seed to crush the head of the serpent that led him into sin (Gen.3:15; 4:25; 21:12; Ps.89:4; Jer.31:6; Matt.13:24; Lk.8:11; Jn.12:24; 1Cor.15:36; Matt.12:40; Gal.3:16; 2Tim.2:8; 1Pet.1:23; 1Jn.3:9).

Adam, as he was and still is man’s representative before God (Rom.5:14), failed to represent God to man (Rom.5:15), in that he was to be holy as God is holy (Eph.1:4; 1Pet.1:15-16). But in sinning (the falling short of this glory), he produced unholy fruit and was removed from the holy garden of God (Ezk.28:13; 31:8-9). But, in the holiness of God’s mercy, God did not disavow Adam but gave him a promise of new representation because he could no longer represent himself (Gen.3:22-24). And so there is a theology centered around Adam in how he represents the holiness of God’s mercy (Rom.5:13-14), which he showed to his children who sinned (Gen.4:15-16).

This example was demonstrated by the godly line until after the flood (Jer.5:4-5) when capital punishment was instituted to preserve the godly line of Noah’s representation (1Pet.3:18-22), for these mighty men grew stronger in their rebellion over the sons of God (Mk.3:29; Gen.6:1-2, 5-7), that were living by this holy example of God’s mercy (Gen.6:3). But by God slowing down the span of life, the progress of sin and hostility against the promised Seed would also slow down (Gen.4:25-26) until the institution of the law (Rom.5:12-15, 20-21). So this was by Divine design to demonstrate, again, the justice of God against the places that made Adam’s mercy a pragmatic practice (Num.35:24; Rom.3:15). So Noah gives us a representation of the first institution of the justice of government after the flood, in that life for life must be administered in the case of the sin of murder (Num.35:12), so that both the convicted and the witnesses together learn the fear of Yahweh (Dt.14:23). Taxes were collected for the purpose of this administration of justice, but the grace of ‘eating’ them was in the learning of the statutes among the congregation of the tabernacle on the sabbath gatherings or federal feast days when business was discussed, and as these things were further instituted in detail as Israel grew into a great and mighty nation. This new institution was ‘the way’ of God’s justice among the people of Israel as the promised seed of Abraham (Mal.1:14; Ezk.33:12-20; Jer.6:16; 21:8).

*[Adam know] literally, now Adam, how he knew the way of Yahweh. Again, this is the pattern of thought going into the next proverb as Solomon carries this wisdom down from heaven upon a ladder of proverbs (Gen.28:12; Jn.1:51). It’s as if he is saying, here, Adam knew, because ‘It is a snare for a man to devote something rashly as holy, and afterward to reconsider his vows.’

If it was a snare for a man to do this, how much more for the God who made the world? But God never said he made the world holy; it is only said to be made good (Gen.1:31-2:4). But Adam’s sin had made the whole world evil before Adam (or any son of Adam) ever entered the blessed and sanctified seventh day (1Jn.5:19; Jn.1:18; Lk.11:13). So Adam knew because he walked with God at the beginning (Isa.26:7-8) and was used by God for this holy purpose of demonstrating his will in this pattern or image of Adam’s mercy. Adam was never made to be an object of God’s wrath (1Thess.5:4-5,9) as his posterity would become (Rom.1:8; 9:22; Eph.2:3) by being ruled by the lesser light of the night (Gen.1:16-18; Eph.5:8; 6:12; Col.1:13; Jn.3:19).

*[he strode] literally, to know his distance. With the conjunction that joins the verbal action, to know, with the noun, footprints, of the previous statement, it links the preceding pattern of thought, concerning the mind of Yahweh, with the pattern of Adam’s thought, in thinking God’s thoughts after him. Joined together, then, thought for thought, it is ‘to know his footprints.’ Also, there is some liberty here that we can take in trying to understand the tense of the verb action.

Hebrew makes this very difficult because it doesn’t carry verb tenses like English and Greek. The verb, to know, is imperfective, but as it is conjoined to the footprints of Yahweh, there is this unfolding action viewed from within itself, but it is very hard to determine the action in relation to time because the proverb offers no context for it. But because the theological context refers to ‘the historical’ Adam, the time must be in the past tense (Pr.2:6-17).

So Adam did know he walked in the footsteps of God, but it has been “translated” for practical use rather than for its theological purpose. And since theology is designed to raise questions, that’s how the translators chose to render it, rather than referring back to Adam in original thought. Adam is to be a representative, so it is permissible to ask questions like, how can a man know he walks with God (Gen.5:24); or, how can a man know he is created in the image of God? These are really the same question.

We can know the same way Adam knew. We come to know by forcing ourselves to think our thoughts after the thoughts of God (Matt.16:23). We come to know that we are walking with God quite literally by walking after him (Jn.8:12; 12:26; Lk.9:23; Mk.1:17). Jeremiah speaks of ‘the way of Adam,’ that it ‘is not in him’ (that is, that it is not in us), as he represented us, ‘to direct his own steps’ (Jer.10:23). We know this by the way in which Adam leads us into evil (Matt.6:13; Lk.11:4). But the Spirit of prayer, which preserved his soul, led him to pray, ‘O LORD, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing (Jer.10:24). This same thing is exactly what Solomon is doing by calling down this wisdom of the previous spiritual fathers and carrying them down in proverbs to his children like a man climbing down a ladder with leaves falling from his hand (Gen.28:12; Jn.1:51; Matt.13:3). We know because we have something to test ourselves against (2Cor.13:5; Lk.1:2; 1Jn.5:13; Jn.20:31). We know because we have a mirror to look into (James 1:23; 1Cor.13:22; 2Cor.3:18). Adam knew because he knew the thoughts of God after he saw that his own did not measure up (Isa.55:8-9; 65:2; Ps.40:5; 119:59). We show ourselves fools to think that we can think God’s thoughts for him (Rom.1:22-25) rather than after him.

Also, there is this additional noun, distance, corresponding to the previous noun, footprints, which are linked together to judge the length of a stride. So it is referring to a manner of style in which one walks (1Cor.15:32; 2Tim.3:10; 1Pet.3:5, 11; 1Jn.2:6; 3:1; 3Jn.6; Phil.1:27). It is ‘the way of Yahweh’ in a course and direction of life (Jn.14:6). It is after this manner, therefore, (that is, the manner of Christ), that we must walk (1Jn.2:6). Christ not only has given us the footprints but also the stride (1Cor.9:24), and as Christ began this race in us as well as finishing it for us (Heb.12:1-2), Christ, being with us, is also at the finish line waiting to award us the prize of our crown (Rev.22:12), to motivate us to establish our steps strictly and narrowly in him alone as the prize and reward of our faith (Acts 20:24; 2Tim.4:7-8; Matt.7:13-14; Lk.13:24).

As sinners, we have a great ‘distance’ to make up in our gap between this eternal stride of Christ (Lk.16:26). So without the gift of the Spirit of grace, this walk is impossible and miserable (Rom.3:16). But for the joy set before him, he endured our misery (Ecc.8:6), and so for the joy of knowing this salvation in him, we must endure these temporary sufferings and go the distance for the sake of knowing the power of his resurrection (Matt.10:22; 2Tim.2:3,12; Phil.3:10).

*[with this excellence] literally, the same. But it is the construct of those conjunctive nouns previously spoken of in relation to the verb. And so this is referring all the way back to the original pattern of thought of the beginning statement. It is referring to the footprints of Yahweh, which are far more excellent than that of any man (Rev.21:17; Matt.6:27). And so it is this way or manner of Yahweh being spoken of here. So behold this is a stride of excellence (Lk.6:40; 13:32), but not an excellence of any created man (Matt.5:48), for our ways and manners bring nothing but shame to God (Heb.12:2; Nahum 3:5; Eph.2:9). How excellent is Yahweh to you (1Jn.3:20; 5:9; Isa.55:9; Heb.7:26)? Is Yahweh the Most High in your walk among the gods (Ex.15:11; Jdgs.2:12; Ps.82:1; 86:8; Zech.3:7; 2Thess.3:11; Mic.4:5)?