Rolling Your Burdens on the Right Back Text: Proverbs 16:3
Introduction: The Autonomous Man's Burden
We live in an age of frantic, white-knuckled control. The modern secular man believes himself to be the captain of his own soul, the master of his own fate. He makes his five-year plans, sets his quarterly goals, and tracks his key performance indicators. He is a little god, you see, and his universe is a complicated machine that he must constantly tinker with, adjust, and manage. The burden of this is immense. It is the burden of Atlas, trying to hold up a world that was never his to carry. And when his plans inevitably crash into the jagged rocks of reality, as they always do, he is left with nothing but the wreckage and the gnawing anxiety that he did not plan well enough, work hard enough, or control the variables tightly enough.
This is the lie of autonomy. It is the original lie of the serpent, "You shall be as gods," and it is a damnable and exhausting lie. It promises freedom but delivers only the most crushing form of slavery, a slavery to self. The autonomous man is a man carrying a backpack full of boulders, and he cannot for the life of him figure out why his back is breaking.
Into this world of anxious self-reliance, the book of Proverbs speaks a word of profound, liberating sanity. It does not tell us not to work, or not to plan. The book of Proverbs is intensely practical and has no time for lazy fools. Rather, it tells us what to do with our work and with our plans. It tells us where the burden truly belongs. Our text today is a direct assault on the idol of self-sufficiency. It provides the only true path to stability, fruitfulness, and peace in a chaotic world. It teaches us the divine art of surrender, not as an act of passive resignation, but as an act of robust, active faith.
The Text
Commit your works to Yahweh
And your plans will be established.
(Proverbs 16:3)
Rolling It All on Him
Let us look at that first clause:
"Commit your works to Yahweh..." (Proverbs 16:3a)
The Hebrew word for "commit" here is instructive. It is the word galal, which literally means "to roll." Think of rolling a great stone, something far too heavy for you to manage on your own. This is the image being painted for us. It is the same word used when the stone was rolled away from the mouth of the tomb. This is not a polite, abstract dedication. This is not simply saying a prayer over your business plan and then proceeding to carry it out in your own strength. This is a transfer of the entire weight. It is an act of heaving the whole enterprise, the whole project, the whole day's labor, off of your own back and onto the infinitely strong back of Yahweh.
This is a command that strikes at the very heart of our pride. We like to be in control. We like to think our successes are due to our cleverness and our failures are due to unfortunate circumstances. But this proverb tells us to abdicate. It tells us to hand over the reins. Your "works" here means everything you do. It is your business, your parenting, your studies, your evangelism, your writing, your ditch-digging. Every task, every project, every ambition. You are to take all of it and roll it upon the Lord.
This is not an excuse for laziness. Far from it. This is the foundation for true, godly diligence. The man who has rolled his works upon the Lord is the man who is truly free to work hard. Why? Because he is no longer crushed by the burden of the outcome. He is not working to justify himself. He is not working out of a spirit of fear, trying to manage a universe that is unmanageable. He is working as an act of worship, as a faithful steward, knowing that the results are in the hands of a sovereign God who works all things for His glory. The pagan works anxiously because everything depends on him. The Christian works joyfully because nothing ultimately depends on him.
This act of "rolling" is an act of faith. It is a practical application of the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty. We confess with our mouths that God is in control of all things, but this proverb demands that we confess it with our calendars, our bank accounts, and our to-do lists. It is to say, "Lord, this is Your project. I am Your servant. The success or failure of this endeavor is in Your hands, and my only job is to be faithful with the task You have set before me."
The Divine Establishment
And what is the result of this radical act of faith? The second clause gives us the glorious promise.
"...And your plans will be established." (Proverbs 16:3b)
When we roll our works onto the Lord, He, in turn, establishes our plans. The word for "established" means to be made firm, secure, and prepared. It is the opposite of the shifting sand of human autonomy. When we try to establish our own plans in our own strength, they are built on a foundation of nothing. They are subject to the whims of the market, the frailties of our own bodies, and the sinful actions of others. They are houses of cards in a hurricane.
But when we commit our works to God, our plans are established by Him. Now, this is where we must be careful. This is not a magical formula for getting whatever you want. This is not the Bible's version of a prosperity gospel incantation. The establishment of our plans is not the same thing as God rubber-stamping our every foolish ambition. The context of the entire book of Proverbs, and indeed the whole Bible, is crucial.
The process is this: as we continually roll our works onto the Lord, something begins to happen to our plans. Our thoughts and desires begin to be conformed to His will. As the Amplified Bible rightly paraphrases it, "He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will." The establishment is not God bending His will to our plans, but rather God shaping our plans to conform to His will. And plans that are in conformity with the will of God are the only plans that have any hope of being established, because they are plugged into reality itself.
So the man who commits his works to the Lord finds that his plans change. His desire to build a monument to his own ego is replaced by a desire to build for the glory of God. His frantic pursuit of wealth is replaced by a pursuit of righteousness. His plans become less about his own comfort and more about the advancement of Christ's kingdom. And it is these plans, the ones that have been sanctified and aligned with God's purposes, that He promises to make firm.
This is the beautiful interplay of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. We are to work, and work hard. We are to plan, and plan wisely. But we do so in complete and utter dependence upon God. We plan, but we hold those plans with an open hand. We work, but we roll the burden of that work onto Him. We are responsible, but He is sovereign. As another proverb says, "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). Our job is the planning; His job is the establishing. And this proverb tells us that the bridge between the two is the act of "committing," of rolling it all onto Him.
Conclusion: The Gospel Foundation
This proverb is not ultimately about project management. It is about the gospel. How can a sinful man, whose every work is tainted by sin, dare to roll his works onto a holy God? How can we, whose plans are so often selfish and idolatrous, expect God to establish anything for us but judgment?
The answer is that we cannot, not on our own. The only reason we can "commit our works to Yahweh" is because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. He is the one who lived a life of perfect work, perfectly committed to the Father at every moment. And on the cross, He took upon His back the weight of all our failed works, all our rebellious plans, all our anxious, idolatrous striving. He bore the burden that would have crushed us eternally.
Because of Christ, the ultimate stone of our sin and guilt has been rolled away. And because of Christ, we are now invited to roll every lesser burden, every daily work, every future plan, onto the strong shoulders of our Heavenly Father. We do not come to Him on the basis of our own performance, but clothed in the perfect performance of His Son.
Therefore, this is the call to the Christian. Stop carrying the world on your shoulders. It is a burden you were never meant to bear, and it is an affront to the God who holds the universe in His hands. Take your business, your family, your future, your anxieties, and your ambitions. Take it all, and by an act of raw faith, roll it onto the Lord. Do your work faithfully, as unto Him and not unto men. And then trust Him. Trust that as you do, He will begin to shape your desires. He will purify your plans. And He will establish the work of your hands for His eternal glory. That is a promise far more secure than any five-year plan this world has to offer.