What Is A Man Without A Face?

The whole *image of man *is upright *in his own sight, *but he who balances *the heart *is Yahweh. (mast)

Proverbs 21:2 (NKJV)

2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts.

*[The whole] literally, “the whole character of man” in the full construct of the Hebrew word. But we are zeroing in on the word in parts. This portion of the construct refers to the object as a whole in its description. The object is the man, but there is an adjective describing the man. And so, the whole man is to be identified according to that adjective.

*[image of man] literally, the pathway of man. In context, we must understand this in correlation to its antecedent (in understanding) rather than the present application. It would be referring back to the previous proverbial thought, which was the king’s heart. How was the king’s heart being described? It is described as a channel or a water trough by which farmers irrigate their fields. Therefore we are to understand this “pathway” under the image of a water trough that directs the flow of water in a particular direction or pattern. A condensed understanding would bring us to see that it refers to the course of a man’s character, which is his image of life (Pr.27:19).

So this Hebrew word construct is speaking to the whole of a man’s life and character. In other words, his direction of life (1Cor.15:33-24 NIV). According to the NIV, the Greek word for character, which is my preferred translation for this use, or habits/morals in other translations, is the word ethos. So it speaks to the ethnic image at the root of its character, its ethic. But in Hebrew, it is working as an adjective to speak to the seat or source of a man’s manner and custom, his “scheme” of life (Ecc.7:29; Ps.64:6). That’s why the second phrase of the sentence construct is also antecedent to this present word, which offers us even better clarity on what it is defining. It is clearly describing the heart of a man, but the emphasis here is how the heart displays its image, referring to the whole man from the inside out (Matt.15:15-20; Mk.7:20-23). The heart is the seat of the object, the core of the inner man if you will, but the way of the heart is displayed by the image and reflection of the face (Pr.27:19; Gen.1:2; Ps.139:16).

Therefore if the heart is hostile to God (Rom.8:5-8; Heb.12:3), the face expresses the heart’s moral character and likeness (Ex.33:20; Rom.3:23; Eph.2:1-3; Rom.7:8, 13) when confronted with the image and way of the Word of God (Jn.14:6; Ps.10:4; Dt.28:49-50; Gen.4:5-6). For it was the Word of God that was face-to-face with God from the beginning (Jn.1:1), and if the Word has become the seat of the way of a man (1Pet.1:23), the emotions of the face are the heart’s channel or pathway to reflect the uprightness of the heart (Num.6:22-27). But as we saw, this image can be corrupted by an evil ethic and image according to 1Cor.15:33. This was the work of the devil, to corrupt the image of the first man with his own spiritual ethic (Jn.8:42-44; 1Jn.3:8), since Adam was to represent all men under his headship before God (Gen.1:27), but the devil wanted Adam to believe that they “each” could have an equal “representation” with God to rule as “gods” independent from God’s image. In the image of God, He created “him” (singular); male and female, he created them (contrastively in the fall) (Gen.3:1, 4; Gen.5:1-3). This is how we know Adam was to be the woman’s spiritual and representative head (1Cor.11:7-11). Therefore, in Adam’s image, all grow corrupt into death as the wage for the ethical pattern or “pathway” of his sin (Ps.14:3; 51:5; 53:3; Rom.5:12-21). The “whole man” is corrupt from the top of the head to the soles of the feet (Isa.1:4-6). Israel began as one new man of God (Dt.6:4; Mk.12:29; Ez.3:1), but his ethic grew corrupt the more he harbored evil in his heart (Lk.11:13). But this is also true for any individual who is enlightened by the Christian ethic but still denies its power to save (2Tim.3:1-5).

This would be describing someone who has put on Christ externally but does not possess him internally at the core image of the inner man (Rom.13:14; Gal.3:27). But what is being described in the proverb is the man of sin who still lives and has not been crucified with Christ (Rom.6:5-6; 7:9-13; Eph.4:22). That is the man Solomon is referring to here as the whole man. The last portion of this Hebrew word is the basic or general term for man. It is not referring to our theology which is rooted in Adam, who was truly created in the image of God according to the divine essence (likeness) (God’s character) (Gen.1:26). No, this is beholding the base man who is the result of Adam’s sin (Gen.5:3; Ps.51:5). It is the common man who was born under and still abides in darkness (Ps.58:3; 139:15-16; Gen.1:2); who is still unformed by the light of Christ (Jn.8:12; Job 33:30). It is referring to the fallen race of Adam (Rom.5:19; 9:20), the lesser Adam (Rom.9:21-24), that exercises its ethic apart from the accepted sacrifice (Heb.12:24; Gen.4:4). It is an ethic without the propitiation (Rom.3:1-3, 6, 9-20). This ethic is a law unto itself because it doesn’t practice righteousness by the appointed substitution (Rom.2:14; 3:21-26). Adam retained the right to his (God-given) name because it was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life from before the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8; 17:8; 20:15; 21:27; Phil.4:3), but his “spiritual” children were appointed by God and are still to be revealed (Gen.4:25; Rom.8:19; 9:6-13; 11:5, 7, 28). His natural children carry the curse without a substitution (Gen.3:11, 14-15; 6:1-3, 5-8; 8:21; Ps.51:5). They are called illegitimate because they walk in darkness and do not practice the light (Heb.12:8; Eph.5:11; 6:12; 1Pet.2:9; Col.1:13; 1Thess.5:5).

*[is upright] figuratively, straight according to a standard. So it matches the standard image. The meaning pertains to measurement as we see the correlation in the second phrase of the construct that the image of this heart is balanced (or standardized) by Yahweh as Lord. It is Yahweh who examines this image to see if it is a straight measurement. He is the measuring rod (Ps.19:1-5; Rev.2:27; 12:5; 19:15). Therefore to be upright is to be in step with God’s image according to God’s sight (Dt.32:10; Ps.17:8; Pr.7:2; Zech.2:8), which is to say according to God’s measurement (Jn.1:23; Lk.3:5; Ecc.7:13; Isa.40:4; 42:16; 45:2). Therefore to be upright, the standard must be according to God’s likeness at the core of God’s essential character (Ecc.7:27-8:1; Matt.5:48). Solomon searched for this wisdom according to the standard given in the garden of God (Gen.1:26), but he found none in the present creation when he was honest about even his own image, for like Job, he too needed a Mediator that was fit to be both God and man. Solomon understood this (Job.9:33; 33:23). Therefore he made the comment that his soul still seeks but cannot find, yet there was one man he knows that was promised, the seed of the woman (Gen.3:15), which cannot be corrupted by man (Rom.1:23; 1Pet.1:23; Ps.16:10). This points forward to the virgin birth in the person and character of Jesus Christ (Song 5:9-10). Therefore it is his image that is the standard (Col.1:15; 2Cor.4:4; Zech.2:1; Rev.11:1; 21:15).

*[in his own sight] figuratively, by his own estimation. The man is measuring himself by himself. He makes himself to be the measuring rod. Isn’t this the height of pride? Pride is the core character of a man. Such a man will confess his weaknesses and limitations, but in the manner in which he judges others, he makes himself the rule (Pr.20:6). It’s the very definition of self-righteousness. He is full of himself (Gal.6:3). He tests everything by his own senses. It is solely based on what he can touch, taste, see, hear, and feel with his basic elements of human science (1Cor.11:14). There is no spiritual understanding of his true estimation (1Cor.2:14; James 1:23). All things are judged by natural laws. He may even believe in God because his natural senses reveal the evidence of God, but he denies the true “pathway” to God in the emptiness of his own image (Matt.7:13-14; Lk.13:24). He knows he is a mold of the maker, but he sets himself up as the image in his own imagination (Ps.103:14; Rom.1:22-23; 9:20). But it is his very imagination that is void of God’s likeness (Gen.6:5; 8:21; Lk.1:51; Jer.17:9-10). A man cannot know the character of the image by the mold (Matt.16:17), for he beholds it in reverse, and that’s the “direction” or “pathway” of every man (Rom.6:23; Ps.1:1). His way of life is death (Pr.1:15-19; 5:3-6), and it is this pattern and image that he suppresses in his unrighteousness (Pr.6:23; Rom.1:18-21). He fills this empty mold with pride and creates himself an idol (Pr.10:17; 12:28; 15:24), for he does not wait upon God (Pr.12:26).

*[but he who balances] contrastively, but he that estimates. Now the verb form here is a Qal stem of a participle conjunction. So Solomon is contrasting the self-estimation of the man with the Lord on a set of scales. But it helps to know how this verb is used in the Niphal stem to better understand the definition of the verb. In the Niphal stem, the verb means “to straighten out” or “to correct.” So when placed in a word picture as on a set of scales, it is the Lord who balances this out. This is to view the man in a positive light for the hope that is exclusively in Christ. If God doesn’t weigh the man out (i.e., straighten him out), the man will be found wanting on the day of wrath (Dan.5:27). It matters not how he judged himself by his own mirror (ethic). He will be judged by the unchangeable Word of God (1Cor.4:4).

So while this is in the Qal form, I believe the proper definition is in the balance of the contrastive conjunctive. Watch how Solomon wants us to apply this in the very next proverb, “to do righteousness and justice.” But if the LORD doesn’t balance the scales, its application would be impossible (Matt.19:26). Therefore Christ is the sacrifice in the fullness of the application of the present enlightened dilemma (Pr.21:3). Christ must balance this out for the sake of the king’s heart. So Solomon is applying this by faith, which is an answer of a good conscience under the understanding of the confession of the empty mold (1Pet.3:21; 1Tim.1:5). Christ must step in and fill it with the likeness of his light so that the clay will be useful for every good work in God’s hand (2Tim.2:19-21; 2Cor.4:6; Jn.11:9-11; Jn.3:3).

*[the heart] Primarily, the heart. But it is signifying the inner man (Rom.10:8-13). Again, it is addressing the core of the human image (1Thess.3:11-13). It is the seat of all his affections and will. It is the control center of the bodily frame (2Cor.5:14-17). Therefore it encompasses the mind and the soul (1Thess.5:23). The Greek equivalent would be the psyche. It is the life of the soul (Rom.8:6). But, again, in the context of our construct, it is the Lord who is balancing the crookedness of the psyche to be its life-source against indwelling sin (Rom.7:22-25). In the absence of the Spirit, the soul is dead, but the soul sustains itself by the power of sin (James 2:26). But where the Spirit is present, the power of sin is crucified, and the psyche is liberated to draw its life from the words of Christ, which is the way of life (i.e., the pneuma) for the Christian (Pr.6:23; 10:17; 12:28; 15:24; Jn.14:6; Jer.21:8). The Holy Spirit is the “pathway” of knowledge to the Holy One (Pr.9:10).

*[is Yahweh] Literally, Yahweh. There needs little introduction to the intent and meaning behind this great name. Yahweh is the LORD God. But so is the Holy One, and so is the Holy Spirit. And when the heart is possessed by the power and control of the Holy Spirit, the conscience is taken captive by Yahweh himself (2Cor.5:14; 10:5; Eph.4:7-8; 2Cor.9:15; Rom.5:5). Yahweh is the name of God, which speaks of the self-existing and self-sustaining essence of God’s being. The soul that is in the palm of Yahweh is in the grip of this eternal power and nature existing together as one holy substance in the uniting character of this love (Jn.10:27-30; 17:20-26; 1Jn.3:1; Eph.1:18; 2:18-22; Isa.49:16).