Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs is the twentieth book of the bible and there are a lot of things to be learned before we hear this Word of the Lord in trusting Him and not our own understanding. Many of those things that come before this instruction were mistakes made by others that came before us. We are taught to avoid the mistakes of the past by studying the mistakes of others.
What if the only mistake any of those that came before us was not trusting the Lord?
The structure of the bible is laid out so that all the words and acts of the prophets come after the psalms and proverbs. Many of the promises to come are contained in those books of the bible and up until that point they seem to be written to humble us and encourage us to worship God.
The issue of following this God set before us in the wilderness experience was a purge of the unbelieving who died in the wilderness and never entered into the promised land. All died before entering except Joshua and Caleb who had spied out the promised land and believed God when God declared He would give them that promise in spite of the giants in the land.
That was one promise and one faith in which only two men believed. Even Moses and Aaron died without reaching the promised land.
Here we stand four thousand years later and the issue of who possesses the promise is still being fought over by agencies that have not learned the lessons of history. They have failed to acknowledge God in all their ways.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Then came the warning.
Jeremiah 26:13-15 English Standard Version
13 Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. 14 But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”