What You Value

For Friday, August 11, 2006
Proverbs 2:1-4

1My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,

The precondition for wisdom is that you must desire it. You learn what you want to learn. A mechanic is baffled by how much knowledge a physician has about the body and is able to diagnose his problem. That same physician is baffled by the knowledge and ability of the mechanic to diagnose and fix his car's engine. The truth is that each is able to learn what he enjoys learning.

Even so, this illustration falls short of what the passage is full conveying. It does not matter that one person does not take the same interest as another in regard to specialized knowledge. Indeed, that is the value of having different interests and mental capacity. We complement and help one another. But wisdom is not specialized knowledge, nor is it a mental process that one can do without. It is not dependent on advanced degrees or specialized knowledge.

What is needed is a desire for it. If you will pray for wisdom; seek after wisdom through study and observation, through learning from others who are wise, then you will attain that wisdom necessary for well-being. For again, wisdom is not related to amount of information you possess, but to being a keen observer, a prudent approach to situations that arise, controlling your tongue, and so on. Wisdom is related to attitude. Do you want to act wisely?

And do you? When you look back over a day, can you conclude that your words and behavior were the result of wanting to act wisely or wanting to get your own way? Interesting isn't it, to see that wisdom has more to do with morality than with knowledge.

The Disaster of the Fool

For Thursday, August 10, 2006
Proverbs 1:26-33

26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when terror strikes you,
27 when terror strikes you like a storm
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30  would have none of my counsel
and despised all my reproof,
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way,
and have their fill of their own devices.
32 For the simple are killed by their turning away,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”

The time will come for all fools when disaster strikes. And then it will be too late to turn to wisdom. The consequences of their folly cannot be avoided nor turned back. Wisdom, who had appealed to them almost shamelessly, will now mock them as they mocked her. They shall "eat the fruit of their way and have their fill of their own devices."

Why such a heartless response from wisdom. Shouldn't she always be available to anyone who would turn to her? Shouldn't foolishness be pardonable when a fool comes to his senses? Three thoughts to note here. One, there must eventually be a point of no return. Disaster can be avoided only so many times. The day of Final Disaster (the Day of Judgment) will come. Folly must reap its consequences. The fools are given many times to repent. Wisdom goes daily into the streets, and fools many times reap smaller consequences of their behavior that should cause them to listen up. Fools will earn what they have ingrained in themselves.

Two, fools are in their position not because of mental deficiency but because of a willful attitude. They hate knowledge; they despise counsel and reproof. Teachers understand this. They know that what marks the achieving student from the failing student has little to do with ability and everything to do with motivation. Thus, the disaster coming upon fools is what they have brought upon themselves.

Three, fools do not choose "the fear of the Lord." God does folly personally, because it is ultimately a rejection of him. The fool does not acknowledge God, or if he does he acknowledges God through conscious rebellion. This is what marks him a fool. The fool and the wicked are synonymous. A fool is wicked because he is rebelling against God; the wicked is a fool because it is foolish to rebel against the One who sees all things and cannot be prevented from carrying out justice.

Refuse to Listen

For Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Proverbs 1:22-25

22"How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.
24Because I have called and you refused to listen,
have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
25because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,

Why do fools fall? Because they love foolishness. The simple love playing the role. They find wisdom difficult to attain, and so they'd rather play the part of a simpleton than work at wisdom and fail. Scoffers delight in scoffing. They like to appear that they see through the surface of things and expose the false and silliness of others. But it is not truth they are after; they are in love with hearing themselves and being thought witty. Fools hate knowledge; or rather, they hate knowledge that is inconvenient, that would make them change the way they perceive reality and the way they live. Thus the truth about the simple, the scoffer, and the fool is not that they do not hear but that they refuse to listen.

"Fools," said I, "you do not know.
"Silence like a cancer grows.
"Hear my words that I might teach you.
"Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the well
Of silence.
(Sounds of Silence, by Paul Simon)

Pray for the Holy Spirit to change hearts so that ears may be willing to listen. Pray for your neighbors and family and colleagues. For they cannot, will not, hear the gospel without the work of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom can present truth; only the Spirit can instill it.

Lady Wisdom

For Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Proverbs 1:20-21

Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

Two notes to make: first, wisdom is cast as a woman. She will be contrasted with the forbidden woman who leads men astray. Men are attracted to the latter, but it is Wisdom who will prove to be of lasting value and delight.

Second, Wisdom unabashedly goes out into the streets and public places trying to attract men. But instead of using "smooth words" like the forbidden woman and painting herself to appeal to lust, she proclaims truth. She "cries aloud," "raises her voice," and "cries out." She her earnestness, her zeal and sincerity as she tries to reason with the masses. Wisdom does not keep to herself. She is not reserved for intellectual speculation. She is meant to take part in the daily lives of common men and women.

Is your wisdom the kind that can be used on the streets, in the marketplace, and in the courtroom? Or do you reserve this Wisdom for your Christian partition and worldly wisdom for daily life, your excuse being that godly Wisdom will not work in the world? Will you today, as you walk along the street and go into the markets and through the city gates, will you heed to voice of Wisdom crying out to you to listen and to obey?

True Victims of Crime

For Monday, August 7, 2006
Proverbs 1:10-19

10My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
11If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us ambush the innocent without reason;
12like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13we shall find all precious goods,
we shall fill our houses with plunder;
14throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse"--
15my son, do not walk in the way with them;
hold back your foot from their paths,
16for their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed blood.
17For in vain is a net spread
in the sight of any bird,
18but these men lie in wait for their own blood;
they set an ambush for their own lives.
19Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors.

The simple moral is "crime does not pay." It is wrong to do evil even if it should pay; but it doesn't. Especially for young men like those in this illustration who join in gangs and commit violence, it is only a matter of brief time that they will be thrown in jail or beat up or killed. They do not realize that they are setting up their own violent trap.

But so is the way for any who are "greedy for unjust gain." Being greedy will hurt you. If your focus is on getting as much money as you can, you will take risks and make foolish decisions that will harm you. But being greedy for unjust gain - delighting in taking advantage of others - all the more your downfall is certain as you create enemies - both of the wicked and the righteous - who become intent on revenge or justice.

Don't let making money be your ultimate goal. Don't choose careers because they will make you rich. If being rich becomes your goal, it will corrupt you, however moral you may start off. Greed will hurt you. Even if you think you are doing well - like a person who thinks he is healthy while cancer is infecting his body. For God will not be mocked. His justice will be carried out.