Classic KJV - Proverbs 12:3

Translation

This text is easy to translate from the Hebrew, so almost all English translations are identical. It’s interesting to note that a root gives both stability and nourishment. The expression “the root of the righteous” also appears in Proverbs 12:12, where it yields fruit.

This root provides both stability and productivity, and the text implies that there is only one root for all righteous people—not many roots. Further, the righteous find their one root outside themselves. They do not make their own root through navel-gazing or Transcendental Meditation. The person who is first connected to the righteous root then finds stability. The root does not move. It provides nourishment for both leaf and fruit. This analogy is similar to that of the vine and the branches in John 15, where Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Jesus is the root of righteous. He is the root of Jesse, the father of David, Israel’s greatest king (Isaiah 11:10).

Alternatives are Fleeting

Men often engage in “wickedness” in the attempt to get established, thinking that they can cut corners just to get started. But once they start cutting corners, they discover that they can never get enough, never enough to quiet the sense of insecurity caused by their shady methods. The accumulation of wealth, stored up as investments or bank account, is meant to be strategy for security, but it ends up breeding more insecurity. There’s never enough.

As the author Phillip Keller says, “True security is not found in a bank, but in the assurance that God will take care of us¹.” This assurance is not given to those who spurn God, putting their trust only in themselves. As the text says, regardless of the faux-security of wealth, wickedness provides no lasting security.

God's Promise Through Isaiah

At a time of great public turmoil and even terror, note whose needs will be met (emphasis added) :

"Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?"  He who walks righteously, and speaks with sincerity, He who reject unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe. He who stops his ear from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil. He will dwell on the heights. His refuge will be the impregnable rock. His bread will be given to him. His water will be sure^.2

Our Maker, Saviour, and Friend

Jesus ascribes a stability to Himself greater than the entire planet! He says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away,” Matthew 24:35.

Jesus is the only sure foundation upon which anyone can build (1 Corinthians 3:11). He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is immovable. He is the root of the righteous. There is no righteousness in human nature (Romans 3:23).

Finally, and most importantly, Jesus is the complete and exclusive Savior of the entire world (Acts 4:12), available to all, but he saves only those who want to receive Him, who are prepared to accept Him as their saviour (John 1:11-13).

1. Sorry - exact reference lost

2. Isaiah 33: 14b-16  NASB 1995