Seek Wisdom

Proverbs 2:1-5

The things we value go a long way toward making us the kinds of people we will become. We have heard the saying, "you are what you eat," and in a way it is true. On a soulish level it is also true that, "you are what you pursue." In more ways that we might expect, we get the things we strive for in life: if we value the praise of people we will become a fame-hound, if we value financial success we might become workaholics, and if we value the wisdom of God we might become disciples of Jesus Christ. If this is all true, and Solomon things it is, then we have an opportunity to seek wisdom and gain the grace of God.

Solomon wants us to "receive" the word of God and "treasure" them up in our hearts. When we receive something we wrap our hands around it. It has been extended to us, and now we take it. And to treasure a thing seems to mean we write it on our hearts and minds - we memorize it. I might be able to recite several lines from my favorite songs or movies with the right inflection and melody in place. But can the Word of God flow so easily from my lips? Do I have enough of it in my heart so that it comes to mind at appropriate moments? Is enough of it in me so that in my down time, my heart is meditating on what the Lord has said? This may sound like a tall order for many of us, but recall what does come to your mind now when you think of nothing else. Do those things teach you the fear of the Lord?

And we must seek for it like silver, like a hidden treasure. This is the value and effort the disciple puts on the wisdom of the Lord. We commonly seek silver. You may not actually mine silver ore from the ground, separate the rock, and refine the metal, but you seek silver. You wake up most mornings and prepare yourself to acquire it. You educate yourself so you can make as much of it as you need (or more). You encourage your children to do the same so that they will never go without it. None of this is evil, but reflect for a moment on how much effort you put into seeking and acquiring silver. Hidden treasure is even harder to find. It takes more of our time and resources to find it and make it our own.

So it is the believer ought to look for the wisdom of the Lord. We must awake with the driving desire to hear the voice of wisdom. We must be ready for the resources of our heart and home to be consumed finding her. In reality, silver is ash in the presence of God's wisdom and hidden treasure is a common trinket.

We strive in such a way to hear the voice of wisdom because it teaches us the fear of the Lord, and only then will we really come to terms with the knowledge of God. Listen for her tonight. Endeavor to wake up with your ears and mind open to what wisdom has to say. Read the Word of the Lord. Pray in listening silence for the voice that calls out to save God's people.

A Great God Saves Sinners

Isaiah 1:1-9

God sends us prophets so we can see things from his point of view.  This is more important than we might realize as we tend to get wrapped up in the ways we view things.  It is easy for us to understand our times through what is trendy to believe, what our favorite columnists or political pundits believe, or what the wind blows in under the guise of conventional wisdom.  In short, we tend not to see things through God’s eyes.  So he sends us prophets.  Their words are God’s words to us in our times so we can have our eyes opened to the way things really are.  And the view from there is not always pretty.

Isaiah begins with a lament.  “Ah,” he says, “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity.” It is true that prophets were not always the most popular of people.  They were curmudgeons.  You typically did not want to hear what they had to say, but the more we hear the words of the prophets, the more we hear the sound of weeping.  The rebellion of God’s people broke their hearts.  They said the things they said, not because they were spiteful nags, but because they were compelled by the word of God and their love for their people.  I have no doubt that Isaiah would have said something different if the truth about God’s people was different.  But as it as it stood, they needed to hear some difficult things.

They were like a body broken out with disease from head to toe.  The boils were obvious, their heart was weak, and the wounds were raw.  Their sins were no longer hidden or hideable – they were out there for everyone to see.  A disease under the skin might be masked for a while, but once the boils begin to grow and the wounds begin to fester, the problem becomes clear to anyone who has eyes.  Except, it seems, to the diseased.

God’s people have not bandaged their wounds, lanced the boils or applied ointment: “they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil” (vs. 6).  In short, they are riddled with disease and have refused the treatment – they are full of sin but have forsaken the God who heals them.  They are a beaten and bruised boxer who thinks he is victorious.  They are covered with festering boils and believe they are healthy.  Their lives have become ugly and they believe they are beautiful.

This is the most powerful deception of sin.  We begin to consider sin itself to be righteousness, we take disease to be health, we begin to believe that wrong is actually right.  And in the end, we will begin to refuse the category or sin altogether.  Sin’s greatest magic trick is its disappearing act.  It does its damage; it ravages the soul, and convinces us that it was never really here.

The people of God need to see these things.  We cannot progress into a meaningful understanding of God or relationship with him until we understand what sin does to our souls.  Once we grasp this reality, we have the option of leaving the wounds open and festering, or turning to a great and gracious God.  Isaiah tells us that God has left us a remnant; fur us, it is an opportunity.  God’s grace has left a way of forgiveness and healing where we deserved to be destroyed.  We deserve what Sodom and Gomorrah got.  Their sin and rebellion led to utter destruction.  Will ours?

God decided to save sinners, so he has extended his healing grace.  May we see what God sees, and may we have the wisdom and humility to let him bandage the wounds of our sins and bring the healing only he can give.

Mom and Dad Wisdom

Proverbs 1:8-19

One of the first steps in wisdom is learning who to listen to.  Whose voice will I accept as wise and virtuous?  Which opinions will I learn to take with a grain of salt?  How will I learn to filter the bombardment of information and pressure in this life?  Solomon’s first answer at these questions comes quickly in Proverbs.  Mom and dad should be voices of wisdom into their children’s lives, and youth should learn to listen to what they have to say.

As voices of wisdom, parents are supposed to prepare their children for what is coming their way and offer commentary.  It does no good for a parent to allow a child to raise themselves, or sift through competing voices themselves.  Parents are designed by God to warn children and provide clear input on the ways that are foolish and the ways of God’s wisdom.  So we see in this passage that parents encourage their children to listen to them and then spell out how sin and foolishness will entice their children.  As a result, we see what kinds of arguments foolishness will use to look like wisdom and be appealing in its ugliness.  The enticement is powerful.

Foolishness tells the young man that they will lie in wait for blood.  They will take the first unsuspecting pedestrian, trap and beat them, and take their goods.  This is violence both for the sake of it (“ambush the innocent without reason”) and for the sake of unjust gain (“fill our houses with plunder”).  This is both the allure of violence, possibly especially for young men, and the promise of gain without work.  And though we are not all allured by a life of random violence, how many of us are tempted by gain without work?  If I can simply take it from another – no matter how violent or legal the means – and not have to work for it, isn’t that an easier way of life?  Why wait to have what I can have now?

The fool continues to draw in his bait.  The young man is promised community when the sinner says, “throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse” (vs 14).  The promise of a group of people who will take care of your needs, provide protection and a sense of belonging touches a deep need within every human.  What family and the family of God is intended to provide, the fool promises to give.  And though fools and thieves are liars, their false promise is nonetheless a temptation for many.  God built us to desire community, and he built the family and the Body of Christ to meet that need.

Don’t listen to them.  Don’t walk down that path.  The advice is straightforward, and it is the voice of reason and wisdom in our lives if we listen to it.  And it isn’t just about joining gangs or throwing in our lot with violent thugs.  The voice of wisdom reveals what is being manipulated in every human heart with this appeal of the fool: “Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain” (vs. 19).  All of us need to watch our step.  I need to be aware of those ways in which I am tempted by greed and the collection of things in this life that cause me to step on other people.  Have I walked over someone at work?  Have I short-changed someone in a business deal?  Have I harmed a neighbor just to make my lot bigger or better?  Have I hurt a family member just to get my way?  Any way in which I am tempted to enlarge myself and my fiefdom at the expense of my neighbor is greed, and it will end up costing me my own life.

Begin listening to the voice of wisdom.  You may think you have a better plan or that you are too smart by half for the fool.  But you are wrong.  They end up setting a trap for their own lives and doing themselves in.  The path of the fool leads to your own destruction no matter how hard you try to manage it.  Listen to Mom and Dad Wisdom, and you will avoid the path of the fool.