The Folly of a Fast Foot and an Empty Head Text: Proverbs 19:2
Introduction: The Modern Cult of Sincerity
We live in an age that worships at the altar of sincerity. The high priests of our culture tell us that what matters most is that you are passionate, that you are zealous, that your heart is in the right place. As long as you are enthusiastic and well-intentioned, the actual results, the consequences, the doctrinal fidelity of your actions are all secondary considerations. "He meant well" is the epitaph they want to write on the tombstone of a failed generation. Our churches are filled to the brim with this kind of thinking. We have zealots for social justice who have never submitted to the justice of God. We have enthusiasts for worship experiences who are ignorant of the God they claim to worship. We have passionate activists for any number of causes who are running full tilt, with great sincerity, straight off a cliff.
But the book of Proverbs, which is God's distilled wisdom for practical living, serves as a bucket of cold water thrown on this whole hot mess. The wisdom of God is not sentimental. It is not interested in your good intentions if they are untethered from knowledge. It is not impressed with your speed if you are running in the wrong direction. This proverb before us today is a direct assault on the modern cult of sincerity. It is a two-pronged attack on the kind of foolishness that our age champions as a virtue.
Solomon gives us two foundational principles for a life that doesn't end in ruin. First, your soul, your very life, must be governed by knowledge. Raw, undirected passion is not a virtue; it is a liability. Second, your actions must be governed by deliberation, not haste. A heavy foot on the accelerator is a dangerous thing when your hands are off the steering wheel. Together, these two clauses provide a necessary check and balance for the Christian life. They teach us that true godliness is neither dead intellectualism nor mindless activism. It is informed, careful, deliberate, and thoughtful obedience to the living God. Let us therefore attend to this wisdom, lest we become the very kind of fool this proverb warns against.
The Text
Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge,
And he who hurries his footsteps sins.
(Proverbs 19:2 LSB)
The Unfurnished Soul (v. 2a)
The first clause lays down an absolute principle:
"Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge..." (Proverbs 19:2a)
The word for "person" here is the Hebrew word nephesh. This is often translated as "soul," but it doesn't refer to some ghostly, disembodied part of you. Nephesh refers to the whole person, the seat of your appetites, your desires, your will, your very life. It is you. So, we could render this, "For a life to be without knowledge is not good." This is a profound understatement. It is like saying it is "not good" for a ship to be without a rudder, or for a surgeon to be without knowledge of anatomy. It is a recipe for certain disaster.
This directly confronts the spirit of our age. The world tells you to "follow your heart." God tells you that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9). The world tells you that your passion is your truth. God tells you that your passion, without knowledge, is a fire in a munitions depot. Look at the Apostle Paul before his conversion. Was there a more zealous man on the planet? He was breathing out threats and murder against the church, and he did it, as he later said, with a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (Romans 10:2). His nephesh was full of fire, but his head was full of darkness. And the result was wreckage and blasphemy.
What knowledge is Solomon talking about? This is not a call for everyone to get a doctorate. This is a call to be governed by the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). It is the knowledge of God's character, His law, His created order, and His gospel. It is knowing the difference between good and evil, wisdom and folly, the path of life and the path of death. To be without this knowledge is to be a blind man in a maze, full of energy but utterly lost. God's people are destroyed for a lack of this knowledge (Hosea 4:6). They are not destroyed for a lack of passion, or a lack of sincerity, or a lack of budget. They are destroyed because they reject the knowledge of God.
An unfurnished soul is an empty room, and nature abhors a vacuum. If you do not furnish your mind and heart with the truth of God's Word, the world will be more than happy to furnish it for you with its own lies, vanities, and perversions. A life without biblical knowledge is not neutral; it is actively "not good." It is a life vulnerable to every foolish trend, every demonic doctrine, and every self-destructive impulse.
The Sin of the Hasty Foot (v. 2b)
The second clause is the natural consequence of the first. The man with an empty head will almost certainly have a fast foot.
"And he who hurries his footsteps sins." (Proverbs 19:2b LSB)
The man without knowledge has no map. Because he has no map, he thinks the only thing that matters is speed. He mistakes motion for progress. He who "hurries his footsteps" is the man of impulse. He is the reactive man, the man who runs on instinct, emotion, and impatience. And the text is blunt: this man sins. The word for "sins" here is the Hebrew word that means to miss the mark, to fall short of the goal. By trying to get there faster, he ensures he never gets there at all.
We see this everywhere. The young man who hurries into a marriage without knowledge of the woman's character or his own responsibilities, he sins. The businessman who hurries to get rich, cutting corners and ignoring ethical boundaries, he sins (Proverbs 28:20). The church that hurries to adopt the latest cultural fad to seem "relevant," abandoning biblical faithfulness for worldly applause, it sins. The activist who hurries to protest an injustice without knowing the facts, driven by outrage instead of wisdom, he sins.
Haste is the enemy of wisdom. Wisdom requires deliberation. It requires counsel. It requires patience. It requires waiting on the Lord. The man who believes will not be in haste (Isaiah 28:16). Why? Because the man who believes knows that God is sovereign. He knows that God's timing is perfect. He is not in a panic. He is not driven by the tyranny of the urgent. The hasty man, on the other hand, is a practical atheist. He acts as though everything depends on his immediate, frantic action. He takes matters into his own hands, just as Saul did when he grew impatient waiting for Samuel and offered the sacrifice himself, a sin that cost him the kingdom (1 Samuel 13).
Notice the connection. A lack of knowledge creates a vacuum that impatience rushes to fill. Because you don't know what to do, you do the first thing that comes to mind. Because you have no principles to guide you, you are guided by your passions. The empty head and the hasty foot are partners in crime. One loads the gun, and the other pulls the trigger.
Conclusion: The Deliberate Christian Walk
So what is the remedy? The remedy is to reverse the proverb's diagnosis. If it is not good to be without knowledge, then it is good, and essential, to pursue knowledge. If it is sin to hurry your footsteps, then it is righteousness to walk with deliberation and care.
This means we must be people of the Book. We must steep our minds in the Scriptures. We must not be content with spiritual junk food, with little inspirational quotes and shallow sermons. We must desire the pure spiritual milk of the Word, and then grow up to chew on the solid meat. We must furnish our souls with doctrine, with theology, with the whole counsel of God. This is our map. This is our rudder. This is the knowledge that keeps our zeal from becoming a wildfire.
And once our minds are being filled with this knowledge, our feet must learn to slow down. We must learn to walk, not to sprint. The Christian life is a marathon, not a fifty-yard dash. We must "walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise" (Ephesians 5:15). A circumspect walk is a careful walk. It is looking around. It is considering the path. It is taking thought. It is praying, seeking counsel, and waiting for the Lord to give light.
The gospel informs both of these pursuits. It is in the gospel that we find the ultimate knowledge, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). And it is the gospel that frees us from the frantic haste of self-justification. Because Christ has already run the race for us and secured the prize, we are free to walk in careful, deliberate, and joyful obedience. We are not in a hurry, because the victory is already won. Our task is not to win the war in a panic, but to faithfully mop up the remaining resistance, taking care that our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Therefore, reject the world's call to be a passionate fool. Reject the frantic, impulsive spirit of the age. Fill your head with the knowledge of God. And then, and only then, set your feet to the path, and walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received.