Wisdom

To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:2-7 ESV).

 

It seems as if it was a lifetime ago when I found myself in my first seminary class at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary. I was much more than merely “green.” I had been a Christian for just a few years and preached even less. I was both terrified and exuberant. During those years I was privileged in many ways. I met so many great servants of the Lord. One of them, Bill Tolar, then the professor of archeology, was a wonderful influence in my life. He has now gone on to be with the Lord, dying in 2018.

 

I still remember one of the things he often said about preaching. His caution was not to preach from the book of Proverbs too early in the ministry. His warning was based on the belief that we all needed to have more “seasoning” in order to bring its spiritual insights to our congregations. Since he was from South Louisiana and very familiar with “seasoning” I took that to heart. While I have preached from many of the books of the Bible through the years, I still am not sure I can tackle the complexity of Proverbs. I do know it has been a vital source through the years in my life.

 

So, today we will look at selected portions of this wonderful book. At the outset of Solomon’s writing he simply says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (v. 7). Often we are taught that “the fear of the Lord” means submitting our lives to Christ’s lordship and applying his Word to every situation. The trouble is that we more often don’t know how to do that wisely. We have so many examples of that in our culture. It is often “right” to pursue a particular course of action. However, the real question is not whether the action is right or not. It should also be wise.

 

Living in a world with information at our fingertips, we must learn that the knowledge we need is really wisdom applied with the compassion of Christ. It includes an awareness of God’s laws and a concern for life calling for obedience and discipline even when doing so may be difficult. Jesus showed the way by submitting to his Father’s will. He is our example. Look at our meme again today. There is good advice in that common proverb too!