Commentary - Proverbs 20:18

Bird's-eye view

This proverb delivers a foundational piece of wisdom that cuts directly against the grain of our modern, romantic sensibilities. We live in an age that idolizes the spontaneous, the impulsive, and the "from the heart" gesture, assuming that anything planned out must be artificial or insincere. Scripture, and this proverb in particular, teaches the precise opposite. Godly living is not a matter of winging it. Wisdom requires forethought, counsel, and deliberate planning. The proverb presents this principle in two ascending parts: first as a general rule for all endeavors ("thoughts are established by counsel"), and second, as an absolute necessity for the most high-stakes enterprises, represented here by making war. The man who rushes into conflict, whether personal or national, without sound guidance is a fool destined for ruin. This is a thoroughly practical verse, instructing us that piety is not a substitute for preparation, but rather the very foundation of it.

The book of Proverbs is God's instruction manual for skillful living in His world, and this verse is a load-bearing beam in that structure. It assumes that man is a creature who makes plans, but that his plans are fragile, foolish, and frequently fatal when concocted in the echo chamber of his own mind. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and one of the first fruits of that fear is the humility to seek out and listen to the counsel of others. This principle applies to everything from managing your finances to raising your children, from ordering the church's worship to prosecuting a just war.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs 20 is a collection of Solomon's wisdom that touches on a wide array of practical life issues: integrity in business (v. 10, 14, 17), the dangers of wine (v. 1), the nature of kingship and authority (v. 2, 8, 26), the sluggard (v. 4), and the power of the tongue (v. 15, 19). Verse 18 fits squarely within this context of providing sharp, memorable wisdom for navigating the complexities of a fallen world. It follows a warning against gossip (v. 19) and precedes a warning against vengeance (v. 22), highlighting the need for careful, guided action rather than impulsive, isolated reaction. The book as a whole is a call to abandon the folly of trusting in one's own heart (Prov 28:26) and to embrace the wisdom that begins with fearing God. This verse provides a key mechanism for doing so: seeking and heeding the counsel of the wise whom God has placed around you.

Key Issues

The Folly of the Lone Ranger

We have a cultural suspicion of anything that seems contrived or "pre-packaged." This is particularly true in the realm of piety. We see it in discussions about worship, where a planned liturgy is assumed to be a straitjacket on the Holy Spirit, while a spontaneous, off-the-cuff prayer is seen as more genuine. This proverb pours a bucket of cold water on such notions. It tells us that this is the way a fool thinks. God is a God of order, not chaos, and He establishes His purposes through means. One of His primary means for keeping His people from disaster is the wisdom He distributes among the body of believers.

To reject counsel is to functionally declare that you have all the wisdom you need resident within your own skull. This is the very definition of pride, and pride, as Proverbs reminds us elsewhere, goes before destruction (Prov 16:18). The man who isolates himself and refuses to listen to advice is a man setting a snare for his own feet. He is his own worst counselor, because he is an expert at telling himself exactly what he wants to hear. True wisdom, by contrast, is humble enough to recognize its own blind spots and actively seeks out the perspective of others.

Verse by Verse Commentary

18 Thoughts are established by counsel,

The first clause lays down the universal principle. The word for "thoughts" here is better rendered as "purposes" or "plans." These are the designs and intentions that a man forms in his heart. The proverb tells us how these plans are made firm, solid, and stable, how they are "established." They are established not by sheer force of will, not by emotional intensity, and not by a subjective feeling of being "led." They are established by counsel. This means they are brought out into the open, submitted to the scrutiny of wise and godly men, and tested. A plan that remains locked away in one man's head is a fragile thing, susceptible to all his biases and follies. But a plan that has been hammered out on the anvil of good counsel is one that has been strengthened, refined, and made ready for action. This applies to all of life's purposes, great and small.

So make war by guidance.

The second clause takes the general principle and applies it to the most serious of human endeavors: war. If you need counsel to establish your business plans, how much more do you need it when lives are on the line? The word for "guidance" here carries the idea of strategic direction and skillful maneuvering, the kind of wisdom a ship's pilot needs to navigate treacherous waters. You do not blunder into a war. You do not start a war because a dignitary lost his temper or because of some rash, prideful reaction to a provocation. War is to be undertaken, if it must be undertaken at all, with the utmost gravity, preparation, and collective wisdom.

This has direct application to nations, but it also applies to the spiritual warfare in which every Christian is engaged. We are not to fight our battles against sin, the world, and the devil as isolated commandos. We are to fight as members of an army, under the direction of the officers Christ has appointed, and in counsel with our brothers in arms. The Christian who tries to fight his sin all by himself is the Christian who is getting routed.

It is worth noting what Dwight Eisenhower said about military planning. He said that "plans were useless, but planning is indispensable." The point is that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. But the man who has gone through the process of planning, of thinking through contingencies with wise counselors, is far more able to adapt and react wisely when the unexpected happens than the man who was caught completely flat-footed. The planning process itself cultivates the wisdom needed for the fight.

Application

The application of this proverb ought to be immediate and far-reaching. First, it should kill our romanticism about spontaneity. The next time you are tempted to think that a well-ordered, thoughtful, and planned approach to worship, family devotions, or any other spiritual discipline is somehow less "sincere," you need to repent of that thought. God honors preparation.

Second, this verse commands us to be men and women who are rooted in a community of counsel. Are you making a major life decision? A career change? A significant purchase? Are you considering marriage? If you are doing so without actively seeking the wisdom of your pastor, your elders, and other mature believers, you are behaving like a fool. You are ignoring God's appointed means of grace and guidance. You are not an exception to this rule.

Finally, we must see that the ultimate counselor is Christ, who is the Wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24). All human counsel is fallible and must be measured against the perfect counsel of His Word. But Christ does not give us His wisdom in a vacuum. He gives it to us through His Word, by His Spirit, and in the fellowship of His saints. The wise man avails himself of all three. He reads his Bible, he prays for the Spirit's illumination, and he has lunch with a godly brother to ask him, "What do you think?" The man who does this is the man whose plans will be established. The man who trusts in his own heart will be overthrown.