Hebrew Word Study – Plotting, Planning – Chashav  – חשב Cheth Shin Beth

Proverbs 16:9: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will,” Hamlet to Horatio, Act 5, Scene 2.

I really had a problem understanding this passage and the commentaries seemed to be of little help. However, Shakespeare probably gave the best commentary on this verse in his play Hamlet. This play was written in 1603 in England, about the same time that the King James Version of the Bible was commission by King James VI in 1604. The play describes a transition or transformation of a young prince named Hamlet.  It is set in Denmark (where something was rotten Act I Scene 5). It depicts Hamlet who is seeking revenge against his uncle Claudius who has murdered his father, the king, in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet’s mother. 

At the end of this play, Hamlet has gone through a great process of maturing as he realizes that he cannot control everything and in the end, it is God who determines our destinies. Those last lines in Act 5 Scene 2: “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will,” were very powerful for this time in England’s history.  Queen Elizabeth died in 1603 at a time when there was no clear hereditary successor and the future of England was uncertain. In the previous century whenever there was a change in authority the result was widespread political and religious persecution as English shifted from Catholicism to Protestantism. One year nuns were in the habit and the next they were forced to get married. The priest was forced to show allegiance to the pope and the next year forced to denounce the pope or get their heads lopped off. We think we have it bad today religiously and politically, you can thank God this is not 16th Century England.  

Before Queen Elizabeth I took the throne it was occupied by her half-sister Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) a devout Catholic who sought to restore Catholicism to England, the hard way. Many Protestants were burned at the stake.  Queen Elizabeth, I brought some stabilization to the country because she was really a Protestant at heart but partial to the Catholics. The persecution ended and the Puritan Protestant movement began all during her 44-year rule and now there was absolute fear as to who would take the throne after Queen Elizabeth I died. Would the purges of Bloody Mary return? 

As it turned out King James VI, the King of Scotland succeeded Queen Elizabeth and further stabilized the religious tensions by not being very particular about religion.  His mission was ridding the world of demons of which many a woman found herself being burned at the stake for witchcraft. He practically wrote the book on how to deal with demons. In fact, he did write the book Deamonologie (Demonology). It was, however, the belief that the king ruled by Divine right. So whoever had the throne were put there by God and you could do little to overrule God. 

For this reason, those lines from the play Hamlet “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will,” would remind Shakespeare’s audience that no matter who took the throne after Queen Elizabeth died it would be the will of God. They might prosper, they might suffer, it was in God’s hands.  Fortunately, they didn’t fare too badly under King James VI. We even got the beloved King James Bible out of it even though King James himself was a rascal. You know burning women at the stake for being witches, keeping a few boyfriends on the side if you get my drift. God’s choice for a leader may not be our choice but if He can deal with it, so can we. 

A man’s heart devises its way. The word device in Hebrew is chashav.  This has the idea of connecting the dots.  It means to think or reason.  It is in a Piel form, which intensifies this reasoning factor. It is a well-thought-out plan, you planned for every contingency. But as Robert Burns famously said; “The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.”  

I found myself facing one of those financial problems that plague most of us.  I prayed and felt confident that God was going to take care of it.  He did. But what did I do?  I began to think of the many ways that God was going to answer that prayer.  I began checking my email, voice mail.  I checked on the sales of my books thinking one would really go viral and pay off this debt.  You can’t second guess God. He answered the prayer His way, not mine. On top of that I had no choice but to say; “Yep, a miracle.” It wasn’t my plan, but the endgame was what was important.

Many Christians during the last election had it all reasoned out just how God was bring about the results just as they expected the results to be. Well, it was not to be.  Man’s heart plotted and planned the outcome. But the Lord directed the steps. In fact, the word steps in Hebrew is tsaad which means to pace oneself, take strides. It is not that those who had  it all planned out on how the election would go were wrong, in the world of the Spirit, the results were just as God wanted. What these Christians had hoped the final outcome, the endgame, would be will be, but not at their pace or strides, that had hoped, but it will be God’s pace and his stride. 

King James VI was not everyone’s dream date, but he did give them the religious freedom they longed for and the outcome was not so bad for Christians. Well, that was at least the way King James saw it. I mean that was King James’s Version.

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