As the old saying goes, sometimes “it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.” It’s an attitude we have all taken on at some point in our lives, and it is precisely the attitude we are warned against in Proverbs 21:3.
The principle behind this proverb should be easy for parents to understand. We always teach our children that they should apologize when they break or spill something, or if they wrong someone. If we are responsible, we also teach our children that it is better still to be more careful and wise, so as not to have to apologize in the first place. In fact, you might say, “To be wise and careful is chosen by parents above apologies.”
This verse, I think, says the same thing: God does not want people who heedlessly do wrong and blindly commit injustice, because they know they can just pop by the Temple later and slice a lamb. Rather, God wants people who so believe in and love Him that they obey Him, and “do righteousness and justice.”
—Dan Phillips, God’s Wisdom in Proverbs (Kress Biblical Resources, 2011), 153.
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