I heard a story a while ago about one couple who had a major life decision to make and not knowing what else to do they decided to consult the ancient wisdom of… the fortune cookie. That’s right, they went out to a Chinese restaurant and after they ate the agreed to follow the best they could, the advice they received in their fortune cookie. Well, now you don’t have to go out to eat, or even buy a fortune cookie because, you guessed it, there’s an app for that. You can break open a fortune cookie right here and follow its direction. (open a fortune cookie on i-touch and read it) It’s good advice, but not always the most applicable.
Now, when I was growing up we had a wonderful device which we thought gave us all the wisdom of the world. You could ask any question you wanted and it would give you the right answer every time, at least we thought it was the right answer. From relationships to career choices to insight into who would win any sporting event or board game, I’ve shared this with you before, but the magic 8 Ball had all the answers. But you know what, even this has been replaced because… there is an app for this too. The fortune ball can be consulted on any issue and give you an answer.
While all of these are fun, the question is do I really want to base my life’s decision on what a fortune cookie says, or place my future in the hands of the Magic 8 Ball? Do I really want my i-touch or the internet to be the source of all wisdom and guidance for my life? That’s not to say these are not a good source of knowledge, but I don’t want to trust the answer to life’s questions to what I find online, and the good news is that we don’t have to because we have something better. God has given us all the direction and wisdom and guidance we will eve need in life and we have it right here.
We have available to us wisdom that has been around for more than 3,000 years. It is ancient wisdom that has been gathered from many different cultures and has been sifted through the unique perspective of faith and trust in God. It is wisdom that has been put into practice for generations and it has been found to be trustworthy and true, but more important than all of that – it is wisdom that comes from God. The book of Proverbs that we are going to be looking at for the next 5 weeks is more than a collection of wise sayings that have been gathered together from a variety of people. These are sayings which come from the God himself and because God is the who created us, ordered our lives and knows what is best for us, we need to take the time to read, learn and follow these directions.
Most of the proverbs we find here come from King Solomon (Proverbs 1:1) and what the Bible says is that Solomon himself received them from God. Solomon was the son of King David and when he became King, God told him to ask for anything he wanted and it would be granted to him. 1 Kings 3:5, 9 & 4:29-34. Some of these very sayings were written down and passed on from generation to generation, and they have been handed to us in the scriptures so when we read this book of Proverbs what we are reading is the wisdom God himself gave to Solomon. This is not just a collection of sayings that might sound good and make sense; this is God’s order for life. This is the blue print that if we follow will serve us well in every aspect of our lives.
The word wisdom, which in the book of Proverbs is also translated as insight, or understanding is the Hebrew word chokmah which is defined as skillfulness in dealing with the matter at hand so that we get the best result and in the case of these proverbs, the matter at hand is life itself. These sayings reveal us to the divine order given to us by God and if they are followed; if we put this wisdom to work in our lives it will bring us the best result. In other words, these proverbs lead us into the path of life and health and strength that God has for us.
As we begin a journey to uncover God’s ancient wisdom, let’s be clear from the start that wisdom is not just knowledge. Wisdom is not just gathering together all the facts, wisdom is knowing how to apply this knowledge to our lives. For ex, we all know the law of gravity. We throw a stone in the air and what will happen? It will fall to the ground. That’s knowledge. We understand this law of gravity which is part of God’s divine order of creation. Wisdom is taking that knowledge and applying to our lives. Wisdom is using this knowledge to guide our decisions. This is wisdom, when we throw a stone into the air because we know it is going to fall back to the ground we step out of the way so we don’t get hit. Wisdom requires us taking the knowledge God gives us about the order of life and relationships and applying it to our daily lives so that life can be the best God has for us.
So where do start in our journey toward wisdom? Proverbs 1:7 says, fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But what does it mean to fear the lord. Fear of the Lord is a common theme throughout the Old Testament and it doesn’t mean that we are to be afraid of God; it means we are to recognize God’s holiness. In his commentary on the book Proverbs, Kenneth Aiken said that fear of the Lord is a deep seated reverence and awe in recognition of the holiness of God. Fearing the Lord means that we understand God is far greater than we are so we need to acknowledge his greatness and submit ourselves to his ways.
While fear of the Lord is the beginning of our path to wisdom, it is not the end of the journey. Understanding who God is and knowing that God’s ways are right is just the start – the journey goes on and the process of finding wisdom is outlined for us in Proverbs 2:1-6. After we acknowledge God as the author of life and that his ways really are the only right ways to live, then we then need to turn our ear to wisdom. We need to put away the magic 8 ball and stop relying on fortune cookies, and stop turning to google and start seeking God’s wisdom for life. We do this in many ways, but clearly one of the best ways is to turn to the book of Proverbs and begin to read God’s word.
My hope is that during the next 6 weeks we can read together God’s wisdom. Each week there will be in the bulletin, or you can find online, a study guide that will lead us through the book of Proverbs. Each day we can turn our ears to God’s wisdom and begin to hear God’s voice over all the other voices which seek to give us advice and direction. There are so many people who want to give us their idea of what is wise, from blogs to the 8 ball, everyone thinks they have the answers, but there is only one wisdom that will lead us into a life of truth and peace, and that is the wisdom of God.
Reading the proverbs is good, but as we have already seen, it is not enough to just gain the knowledge; we need to apply God’s wisdom to our heart & life. (Proverbs 2:2) Applying God’s wisdom is a two step process. Before we can apply God’s word we must take time to reflect on what we have read. We need to think about it, discuss it, pray about it, and process it for our lives. We can’t live out this wisdom until we fully understand what it means and what it means for our lives, and we won’t fully understand what it means for our lives until we allow the word of God to resonate within us.
Adam Hamilton, the pastor at Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City says that time and space for reflection is not valued today. We run from one event to the next. We read one book and then another, we surf from one blog to the next one searching for truth and meaning but how often do we take the time to stop seriously think and reflect on what we read. Meditation and contemplation are lost arts that need to be recaptured. When we read the book of proverbs they really do cry out for us to stop and take some time to think through them and process the truth that we find.
One of the things you’ll notice as you read through the book of Proverbs is that it is not set out topically. Themes and ideas jump around a lot which means we might need to take some time to go back and look at what was said in previous chapters. Each Sunday we are going to look at one theme like family relationships or finances, and what we will do look at many of the proverbs on these themes that are found throughout the book. God put this book together in such a way that it requires us to slow down and maybe that is because God knows that for his wisdom to take hole in our lives we need time to reflect. I encourage you to take some time as you read through the book. Write down thoughts or ideas. Ask yourself, how does this rule or teaching apply to different situations in my life? How might this proverb guide a decision I have to make today or this week? Before we can live out God’s wisdom, we need to reflect upon it and search for it’s truth and meaning. All of this takes time and effort.
Proverbs 2:4-5 even tells us that this will be a long drawn out process. Mining for silver takes some time. You don’t just find silver lying along the stream bed or by turning over rocks, you have to dig and sometime you have to dig deep. You have to blast into the earth and build huge systems of tunnels to get the ore out of the ground. Mining for silver takes time, sacrifice and effort, and the same is true if we are going to find the wisdom of God. It’s there, it’s not completely hidden but to gain its full power we have to invest some time and sacrifice and effort.
Once we have done the work of reflection, then we need to take it to the next step and respond. How will I live out this wisdom of God? The proverbs were written to be practical steps for living out our lives. The proverbs aren’t lofty ideals we only dream about – what we find here is practical, common sense wisdom we can put to use today and tomorrow. The real heart of wisdom comes when we take God’s word and use it as a guide for our lives. So after we read and reflect on what God has said we need to take it to the next step and ask ourselves how we can apply this truth to our daily lives. How can God’s wisdom guide our family and the relationships we have with others? What financial principles does God give us so that we are financially stable even in the economic situation our world is in today? How do we use these sayings to develop the strong and Godly character we want in our lives? The wisdom of God does us no good if we ignore it, we have to respond to what we hear.
At the end of Jesus sermon on the mount, which if you think about it is another collection of wise sayings Jesus gives us to guide our lives, at the end of that sermon Jesus says this… (Matthew 7:24) The wise person is the one who doesn’t just hear or read these words but puts them into practice.
So the road to wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, it begins by understanding that God has given us wisdom for the living of life, but it is not enough to simply read God’s wisdom we have to be take the time to reflect upon what we hear and respond to it faithful ways. This process then repeats itself over and over again. We turn our ears to God, we read the proverbs we again, we reflect on what we hear and then respond in faithful ways, and then we do it again. Eventually this process leads us to a place where living according to God’s wisdom is simply a reflex; it is a natural reaction to the circumstances around us. When faced with a situation or a choice in life, we simply know God’s word because it is a part of who we are an we have trained ourselves to follow it.
Over these next 6 weeks, I invite you to develop this reflex as we take the time to read, reflect and find faithful ways to respond to this ancient and timeless wisdom of God.
