The Divine Veto: God's Counsel in a World of Schemes Text: Proverbs 19:21
Introduction: The Grand Conspiracy
Every human heart is a bustling committee room, a noisy parliament of plans, schemes, ambitions, and desires. From the moment we wake, the subcommittees of the soul are in session, plotting the course of the day, the week, the year, the life. We draft blueprints for our careers, our families, our finances, and our reputations. The human heart is a tireless engine of "what ifs" and "if onlys," churning out a thousand different scenarios, a thousand different pathways to what we imagine to be our happiness and security. We are inveterate planners, incurable schemers. It is part of how God made us in His image; we are sub-creators, and that involves making plans.
But our generation has taken this good gift and twisted it into a declaration of independence from God. Modern man believes he is the master of his fate, the captain of his soul. He writes his business plans, his five-year goals, and his retirement strategies as though he were the supreme executive of the universe, and God, if He exists at all, is a minor shareholder whose opinion can be safely ignored. The world is filled with the wreckage of such plans. Corporate empires, political dynasties, and personal kingdoms, all meticulously planned, have crumbled to dust because they were built on the shifting sands of human autonomy.
Into this chaotic boardroom of the human heart, Proverbs 19:21 speaks a word of absolute, final, and glorious authority. It is not a suggestion. It is not a helpful tip for better strategic planning. It is a statement about the fundamental structure of reality. It tells us that while our little committees may debate and vote and pass resolutions all day long, there is a higher council, a divine board of directors, whose decision is the only one that ultimately matters. There is a divine veto. And understanding this truth is the beginning of all true wisdom, all true peace, and all true fruitfulness.
This proverb is a direct assault on two opposing and equally foolish errors. The first is the error of secular humanism, which says, "My plan is all that matters." The second is the error of pagan fatalism, which says, "My plan doesn't matter at all." The Bible charts a third course, the course of sovereign grace and responsible action. We are to plan, yes, but we are to plan with an open hand, submitting all our blueprints to the Master Architect for His final, unappealable approval.
The Text
Many thoughts are in a man’s heart,
But it is the counsel of Yahweh that will stand.
(Proverbs 19:21 LSB)
The Bustling Marketplace of the Heart
The first clause sets the scene for us:
"Many thoughts are in a man’s heart..." (Proverbs 19:21a)
The word for "thoughts" here can also be translated as plans, devices, or schemes. It paints a picture of a mind teeming with activity. This is not necessarily a condemnation. It is simply a statement of fact about the human condition. Our hearts are complicated places. They are filled with a multitude of desires, some good, some bad, some noble, some petty, some wise, some foolish. We plan to get a degree, to marry, to buy a house, to raise children, to get a promotion, to go on vacation. The sheer number of them is what the Proverb highlights: "many thoughts."
The problem is not the planning itself. God gave us minds to think and reason and look to the future. The problem is the source and the goal of these plans. In our fallen state, these "many thoughts" are often born of pride, fear, envy, or greed. They are schemes for self-glorification, not God's glorification. They are strategies for building our own little towers of Babel, designed to make a name for ourselves and to insulate us from our utter dependence upon God. We plan as practical atheists, forgetting that the next beat of our heart is a gift of His grace.
Think of the rich fool in the Gospel of Luke. His heart was full of plans. "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry''" (Luke 12:17-19). Notice the drumbeat of self-reference: I, my, I, my. His plans were entirely horizontal. God was not a factor in his accounting. His many thoughts were a closed loop of self-interest. And God's counsel broke in with terrifying finality: "You fool! This very night your soul is required of you" (Luke 12:20).
This is the state of every man apart from Christ. His heart is a frantic, bustling marketplace of self-centered plans, all of which are ultimately destined for bankruptcy. They are built without reference to the Creator, and therefore, they are built against reality.
The Unshakable Bedrock of Reality
The second clause of the proverb provides the divine corrective. It is the anchor in the storm of human ambition.
"...But it is the counsel of Yahweh that will stand." (Proverbs 19:21b)
The contrast is stark. On the one hand, you have the "many thoughts" of man, which are plural, chaotic, and temporary. On the other hand, you have the "counsel of Yahweh," which is singular, unified, and eternal. The word "counsel" refers to God's settled purpose, His divine plan, His decree. It is not a suggestion or a piece of advice that He hopes we will take. It is the unchangeable, sovereign will that governs all things, from the spinning of galaxies to the fall of a sparrow.
And this counsel, we are told, "will stand." The Hebrew word here means to arise, to be established, to endure. While the plans of men are like sandcastles, built with great effort and washed away by the next tide, the counsel of the Lord is a mountain of granite. It cannot be moved. It cannot be thwarted. It cannot be vetoed. As Isaiah says, "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose" (Isaiah 46:10). The plans of men are like so much foam on the waves; God's counsel is the ocean itself.
This is the doctrine of God's sovereignty, and it is the bedrock of Christian comfort and sanity. It means that history is not a random series of accidents. It is a story, written by a sovereign Author. It means that your life is not a chaotic mess of your own making and the world's meddling. It is a tapestry being woven by a wise and loving hand, and even the dark threads of your foolish plans and the sins of others are being used to create a pattern of glory (Romans 8:28).
This truth demolishes the pride of the humanist. Your grand schemes for a secular utopia, your plans to build a world without God, are doomed. God will not be mocked. He "nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples" (Psalm 33:10). But this truth also demolishes the despair of the fatalist. The fatalist believes that some impersonal, blind "fate" is in control, and so he resigns himself to misery. The Christian knows that it is not fate, but a Father, whose counsel is at work. And His counsel is not just sovereign; it is good.
Living Under the Divine Veto
So how does this proverb shape the way we live? How do we plan and work and dream in a world where God's counsel is the only thing that will ultimately stand? The answer is not to stop planning, but to start planning differently.
First, we must plan with humility. James gives us the practical application of this proverb: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow... Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that'" (James 4:13-15). The phrase "if the Lord wills" (Deo volente) is not a superstitious incantation. It is a fundamental orientation of the heart. It is the constant, joyful acknowledgment that our plans are provisional drafts submitted for divine approval. It is to recognize that our breath, our strength, and our opportunities are all on loan from Him.
Second, we must plan with diligence. The sovereignty of God is not an excuse for laziness. The man who says, "Well, God's will is going to happen anyway, so I'll just sit on the couch and eat potato chips," is not pious; he is disobedient. God's counsel includes the use of means. He has ordained not only the ends but also the way we get there. He has counseled that fields that are diligently plowed and planted will yield a harvest. He has counseled that businesses run with integrity and wisdom will often prosper. We are to work with all our might, planning and striving as though it all depends on us, while praying and trusting as though it all depends on God. Because both are true.
Third, we must plan with peace. The anxiety that plagues modern man comes from the crushing burden of trying to be his own god. When you believe that the success of your plans rests entirely on your shoulders, you will be perpetually terrified. You will lie awake at night, running through the "many thoughts," trying to anticipate every contingency. But when you know that the "counsel of Yahweh" will stand, you can rest. You can do your work for the day, commit your plans to Him in prayer, and then sleep the sleep of the beloved. Your failed plans cannot derail His purpose. Your successes are not the result of your genius but of His grace. This is true freedom.
The Counsel of the Cross
Ultimately, the "counsel of Yahweh" is not an abstract philosophical principle. It is a person. The eternal counsel of God, the plan He decreed before the foundation of the world, is centered on the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. The entire drama of human history, with all its teeming, conflicting plans, has been moving toward one great event.
Think of the cross. The "many thoughts" in the hearts of men were on full display. The envy of the Pharisees, the greed of Judas, the cowardice of Pilate, the bloodlust of the mob, all these sinful human plans converged at Calvary. From a human perspective, it was the ultimate triumph of wicked scheming. But the Bible tells us that these men were simply carrying out what God's "hand and His purpose predestined to occur" (Acts 4:28). They were unwitting actors in a divine play, their rebellious plans harnessed by a sovereign God to accomplish the greatest act of redemption in the history of the world. Their evil counsel served the good counsel of God.
This is the gospel. God's unshakable plan, His eternal counsel, was to save a people for Himself through the substitutionary death and victorious resurrection of His Son. When you repent of your own self-sovereign plans and trust in Christ, you are brought into alignment with the counsel of Yahweh. You stop fighting against the grain of the universe and you begin to move with it.
Your life is no longer about your "many thoughts." It is about His singular, glorious purpose. And you can have absolute confidence that this purpose, this counsel, will stand. It will stand when your health fails. It will stand when your career takes an unexpected turn. It will stand when nations rage and kingdoms totter. And it will stand on that final day, when every human scheme has been brought to nothing, and the counsel of the Lord, in all its wisdom and beauty, is all that remains.