Desire Without Knowledge – Proverbs 19:2-3

We’ve all seen it.  There is a fumble by the offense on the football field and the defensive player picks it up and begins running.  The crowd is yelling at him and his thyroid gland is pumping stimulating hormones as he runs full out, crossing the end zone line for what he thinks is a touchdown.  But he was running the wrong way.  He ran to his opponents’ end zone.

Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.  When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD. (Proverbs 19:2–3, ESV)

We’ve all done it, gotten excited about some goal or course of action and in our passion forged ahead to achieve our goal without adequate planning or knowledge.  I remember taking a new role in my work and in my excitement unwittingly running roughshod over other workers who had already been doing what I was newly assigned to.  Desire without knowledge is not good.

David, in his zeal for the Lord, sought to take the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem, his new capital, without consulting God’s word about how to transport the ark.  When one of his men was killed by God for touching the ark, he was angry and afraid.  This is what we do.  When our desire is not accomplished we blame God.  When our plans come to ruin, our hearts rage against Him.

We identify our desires with Him, and rightly so in many cases.  David’s desire was a good one.  His feet became hasty.  But mixed in with our good desire is an arrogance that thinks we can accomplish even God’s desires in our own way.  We want to be the hero of our story.  And when God does not play our game, we cry foul, against Him.