The wise person recognizes they are surrounded by
temptation every day. If there isn’t an
external pressure to ignore the ways of God, there are internal pressures that
lure us from the path of Wisdom. So what
is it this wise person does to not only recognize temptation but to avoid
it? The Apostle Paul once told the
Corinthians that the Lord does not allow us to be tempted beyond our power to
overcome, and yet we continue to fall.
How do we learn to break that cycle?
We are admonished over and over in the first few chapters
of Proverbs to pay close attention to the voice of Wisdom. We are supposed to learn how to recognize her
voice, bind her sayings around our necks, and write her ways on our
hearts. And in this way the simple heart
learns not just the words of Wisdom but her ways. And her ways become the guardrails for our
path. If we are pulled too close to the
edge of the path, we hit a guardrail – a precept – and we know what needs to be
done. In short, if we keep the ways of
the Lord, the ways of the Lord keep us.
Solomon says that when we are attentive to Wisdom, “Then
you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, and every good path”
(vs. 9). Wisdom is understanding – an understanding
of the ways of the Lord. If Wisdom
decrees that we ought not be selfish but share our goods with those in need, we
will only find the truth of that if we are walking in Wisdom’s path. The fool, however, sees their goods in a
different way and hordes instead of gives.
Or even if they give, do they do so with a heart inclined in the right
direction? How many of us give to be
seen giving?
And Wisdom is a matter of both heart and hands: “for
wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul”
(vs 10). A wise life constructs in us a
taste for God’s truth and His ways. The
wiser we are, the more we love the truth and revelation of God. We will love getting to know him. And as part of this path, our hearts are
changed. The wise life is lived from the
inside out. We can fake a wise act from
time to time, but the insight and motivation that Wisdom creates in us cannot
be counterfeited for very long. Wisdom
is an inclination; it is a way of perceiving and filtering the world. Wise acts are like the surface spring of an
underground stream.
This underground stream of wisdom, will in turn guide a
life in the ways of the Lord. “Discretion
will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way
of evil” (vs 11-12). Thinking again of
Paul’s remark about temptation and our ability to overcome, we see in the ways
of Wisdom our path through temptation.
Discretion and understanding are results of a person’s dedication to the
knowledge of God, and they turn into the clarity with which we see temptation
and its destruction. Then we gain, more
and more, the strength to overcome.
The Lord will keep his people from the ravages of
foolishness and sin, but his people need to hear and heed his voice. Wisdom cries aloud in the streets and in the
marketplace asking us to learn what she says.
Humans don’t magically or mistakenly avoid folly and end up living lives
of wisdom. That is a job – a life-long
job of seeking after and valuing the wisdom of the Lord. But in the end our lives are kept safe from
our own folly when we learn to keep the ways of the Lord.
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