The War Council of the Wise Text: Proverbs 20:18
Introduction: The Folly of the Lone Strategist
We live in an age that worships the autonomous individual. The modern man, particularly the modern American man, fancies himself a lone wolf, a maverick, a solitary genius who needs no one. He pulls himself up by his own bootstraps, makes his own reality, and certainly doesn't ask for directions. This spirit of rugged individualism has its place, but when it is divorced from the wisdom of God, it becomes a damnable pride. It is the spirit of the age, and it is the spirit of the fool. The fool is always right in his own eyes, and his path is littered with the wreckage of his own brilliant, unexamined plans.
The book of Proverbs is a bucket of ice water thrown on this kind of thinking. It is relentlessly practical, and it is relentlessly communal. Wisdom, in the Bible, is not something you cook up in the isolation of your own skull. Wisdom is received, it is inherited, and it is sharpened in the company of the godly. The wise man understands his limitations. He knows that his own perspective is just that, his own perspective. It's like looking at a great mountain through a keyhole. You might see a rock face, but you miss the entire range. To act on such limited information is not brave; it is reckless.
Our text today is a direct assault on this modern pride. It gives us two fundamental principles for a successful life, for any successful venture, from starting a business to raising a family to engaging in spiritual warfare. The first is that plans are worthless without counsel. The second is that war is suicide without guidance. This proverb is the great enemy of all rashness, all impetuousness, and all prideful self-reliance. It calls us to the humility of the war council, to the sanity of shared wisdom, before we ever draw the sword.
The Text
Thoughts are established by counsel,
So make war by guidance.
(Proverbs 20:18 LSB)
Established Thoughts (v. 18a)
We begin with the first clause:
"Thoughts are established by counsel..." (Proverbs 20:18a)
The word for "thoughts" here can also be translated as "plans" or "purposes." These are your intentions, your designs, your blueprints for the future. And the proverb tells us that these plans, left to themselves, are unstable. They are like a tent with no stakes in the ground. A strong wind comes, and the whole thing collapses. Counsel is the act of driving the stakes deep into the ground. Counsel is what gives your plans substance, stability, and a fighting chance at success.
To be "established" means to be confirmed, to be made firm, to be set securely in place. Your idea might be good. It might even be brilliant. But in its initial form, it is little more than a vapor. It needs to be tested. It needs to be questioned. It needs to be hammered on the anvil of other minds. A wise man doesn't fear this process; he seeks it out. He knows that his own heart is deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9) and that there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death (Prov. 14:12). He doesn't trust his own gut. He trusts the multitude of counselors where there is safety (Prov. 11:14).
Now, this does not mean you should conduct a poll of every fool with an opinion. The counsel must be wise counsel. You don't ask a bankrupt man for financial advice, and you don't ask a man who has made a shipwreck of his family how to raise your children. You seek out godly men and women, those who have demonstrated wisdom and faithfulness in their own lives. You go to your pastor, your elders, your father, your godly and experienced friends. You lay your plans out on the table and you say, "Poke holes in this. Show me my blind spots. Tell me what I am not seeing." This is not a sign of weakness; it is the essential mark of wisdom.
The man who refuses counsel is a man who is in love with his own ideas. He is more committed to being the author of the plan than he is to the success of the plan. This is vanity. It is the pride that comes before the fall. A thought is established by counsel when it has survived the scrutiny of wise and godly men. Only then is it ready for the battlefield.
Strategic Warfare (v. 18b)
The second clause raises the stakes from general planning to the most serious of all human endeavors: war.
"...So make war by guidance." (Proverbs 20:18b LSB)
The logic flows directly from the first part. If you need counsel to establish your everyday plans, how much more do you need it when lives are on the line? The word for "guidance" here carries the idea of strategy, of skillful maneuvering, like a pilot steering a ship through treacherous waters. To go to war without this kind of guidance is like charging into a minefield with a blindfold on. It is not courage; it is a criminal foolishness.
This applies to all forms of conflict. A nation that goes to war without a clear strategy, without sound intelligence, without wise generals, is destined for disaster. A business that tries to compete in the marketplace without a coherent plan will be devoured by its competitors. But the primary application for us as Christians is in the realm of spiritual warfare. We are in a war, whether we acknowledge it or not. We have a sworn enemy, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). And he is a master strategist.
To engage in this war on the basis of your own feelings, your own clever ideas, or your own strength is to be routed before the battle even begins. Our guidance, our strategy, must come from outside ourselves. First and foremost, it comes from the Word of God. The Bible is our strategic manual. It reveals the nature of our enemy, his tactics, our vulnerabilities, and the weapons of our warfare, which are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4).
Second, this guidance comes through the church. The Christian life is not a solo mission. We are an army. We need the accountability, the wisdom, and the prayers of our brothers and sisters. When you are facing a significant temptation, a major life decision that feels like a battle, or a direct spiritual attack, the absolute worst thing you can do is retreat into isolation. That is precisely where the enemy wants you. The wolf picks off the sheep that wanders from the flock. You must make war by the guidance of the shepherds God has placed over you and the fellow soldiers He has placed beside you.
This means we must be humble enough to admit we need help. It means we must be transparent about our struggles. It means we must submit our plans and our lives to the loving counsel of the body of Christ. The lone warrior is a dead warrior. Victory is found in the multitude of counselors.
Conclusion: The Fool's Charge and the Wise Man's Victory
The world celebrates the fool's charge. It makes movies about the reckless hero who defies the odds and wins through sheer force of will. But the Bible does not celebrate this. The Bible celebrates the calculated, prayerful, counseled wisdom of the man who understands the stakes. The fool trusts in his own heart, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered (Prov. 28:26).
Are your thoughts established? Are your plans floating on the surface of your own ego, or are they anchored in the solid ground of godly counsel? Are you a lone strategist in the war for your soul, or are you fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the army of God, under the guidance of His Word and His people?
The ultimate act of making war by guidance is to submit all our plans to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6). He is the one who, before He went to the cross to wage the decisive battle against sin and death, submitted His will to the Father in the garden. He is the ultimate strategist who defeated the serpent not with a frontal assault of raw power, but through the humiliating wisdom of the cross.
Our victory is not in our cleverness, but in our submission to His. Our plans are only truly established when they are His plans. Our warfare is only successful when we follow His guidance. Therefore, let us abandon the pride of autonomy. Let us come to the war council. Let us submit our thoughts to be established by the counsel of the wise, and let us wage war only by the guidance of our King, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.