What is Your Life’s Orientation?

Keep your heart with all vigilance,

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance

for from it flow the springs of life.

24 Put away from you crooked speech,

and put devious talk far from you.

25 Let your eyes look directly forward,

and your gaze be straight before you.

26 Keep straight the path of your feet,

and all your ways will be sure.

27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

turn your foot away from evil. (Prov 4:23-27 NRSV)

These wisdom words in Proverbs have great meaning to me. Instead of starting at verse 23, I want to expound upon the meaning behind verse 27 and show how this relates to the previous verses (23-26).

Verse 27 says, “Do not swerve to the right (south) or to the left (north);”

I have quoted this verse whenever I have come to a major decision point in my life, or whenever I had doubt over the decision I was following.

To fully understand it, we must know the following:

The Ancient East oriented everything to facing east, just as we orient everything today to the north.

Therefore east was considered the direction of correctness, from which all the orientation of life comes.

East represents the starting of a new day, and with it new life.

East is a significant direction throughout Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament.

Authority comes from the east, spiritual significance comes from the east, judgment comes from the east, and new life comes from the east.

All direction, all guidance, and all life was oriented toward the east.

If you face east, south is to your right hand, and north is to your left hand. The Hebrew word interpreted in English as “right” also means “south”, and the word interpreted “left” also means “north”.

Therefore verse 27 could be interpreted, ‘Do not swerve to the south or to the north:” This does not make sense in English unless we understand the significance of facing east to the Ancients.

Turning & facing north or south will make one lose orientation in life if followed for too long.

So, where is your orientation?

Is it east facing Wisdom, God, Life, Rightness, and “Shalom”?

Or is it south or north facing the systems of the world, self, or human wisdom?

Now to work backwards to the preceding verses.

Verse 26 says, “Keep straight the path of your feet”.

Meaning be single minded and focus on facing “east”.

My wife and I were discussing this matter of life orientation and how post modernity has changed from modernity in our life time.

She said something which really stuck with me.

She said, “Motion precedes e-motion, not the other way around”.

How true.

It is that focus on the direction we journey along that determines our life and our emotions.

We determine our direction, start acting in that direction, and our emotions will follow.

Her words are the modern version of the train where the engine of faith and fact power the tag-along caboose representing our emotions.

Verse 25 says, “Let your eyes look directly forward”.‍ ‍

Meaning do not let your heart be swayed by other orientations than that of God and Life.

Our world offers us different philosophies and pathways throughout life.

And culture and society have oriented themselves from mysticism in the Middle Ages to '‘enlightenment” in the 1700-1800s to “rational thought” in the modern age of sciences and, now, to “subjectivity” in the post modern era.

Different directions, different orientations.

Verse 24 says, “Put away your crooked speech”.

Meaning do not let your behaviour be dictated by other orientations than that of God and Life.

It also shows how the meaning behind words have changed over time.

Our words have been twisted to produce “crooked speech” which misguides us from looking “east”. Or makes it so we misinterpret what following the Lord truly means.

During the modern era, when I was a young man, authors like CS Lewis put into words the life-giving concepts behind changed words. He wrote about this in his book, “The Abolition of Man” or what I call “Man without a Chest”.

During the post modern era, I find I do not have the understanding to correct these errors but I have found an author who does this very well. Her name is Sabine Abbasi and she has written a number of books from her professional perspective as a university professor in business law, leadership, psychology, and literary works.

The one book I would recommend reading covers the topic of this blog very well.

It is entitled “Agape - The Loss of Truth, The Rise of Lawlessness, and the Collapse of Love”.

Verse 23 gives the best advice of all. It says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life”.

Everything of importance flows from our inner being.

If our inner being is empty, lost, or poorly oriented, our life will become a mess.

Life does not come from our exterior but from our heart. I

f our heart, our life, our love is not oriented to the “east”, it will collapse into meaninglessness.

Once again, I found Sabine Abbasi’s book very helpful in further delineating this.

In conclusion -

Let us keep our eyes focused, our feet following, and our heart guarded in the direction that gives life - “east”.

Paul says the same thing in Hebrews 12:2 when he says, “ looking (keep your eyes focused) to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith”.

Even if we have deviated to the “south” or the “north”, our God is able to help us re-orient our life to Him, the true “east”.

Praise His Name.