Putting the I into WISDOM
The Christians who have most influenced me for good have had a fully functional familiarity with the book of Proverbs. They were (and are) able to take their considerable knowledge and apply it to their lives, providing both godly examples and godly advice. Join with me as each one of us endeavors to put the I into WISDOM. Let us seek to exemplify God’s wisdom in our daily lives. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
We considered Proverbs 1:20-23 yesterday. This passage personifies wisdom and presents wisdom as a preacher offering words of life. Why don’t people listen to us? Why do we sometimes not listen to God and to the godly wisdom of His people?One reason is found in verse 24: they (and, too often, we) have “refused.” The Hebrew literally means to directly refuse. In other words, the strong streak of sinful stubbornness that is the spine of our self-important pride surfaces promptly and pompously. A good (and thus bad) example is the Pharoah of the Exodus. He severely damaged his own nation (which had been blessed by the presence of the captive Israelites), lost his eldest son, destroyed his army, and probably lost his own life (Psalm 136:15), all because he was stubborn before God. Did the Israelites learn from him? No, not really. Four times in the book of Exodus, they are called “stiffnecked” (32:9; 33:3,5; 34:9). Remember, they were the people of God at that time. Even as they were fleeing the evil Pharoah, they were committing the same sin of stubbornness. In Ezekiel’s day, God even labeled them “stiffhearted” (Ezekiel 2:4). A remedy to this grievous condition is quite simple: as we read the Bible, each one of us should realize that God is communicating directly to the one reading – not to a spouse or a boss or a neighbor. As an old Gospel song affirms, “Calling you, calling you – can’t you hear the blessed Savior calling you?” Yes, He has “called” (verse 24) and continues to call. Let us make sure that we do not refuse His words. Another old Gospel song succinctly summarizes this teaching: “How can you refuse Him now? How can you refuse Him now? How can you turn away from His side?”