ResponsiveReiding

Proverbs 9:1–6 (ESV) Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

2. Pillar #2 – PREPARATION. Wisdom does the hard work of preparing for what is ahead, it does not go about its tasks willy-nilly. Notice that its pillars are “hewn”. Some vainly imagine that spiritual progress in the soul, or ministry to others, is the domain of some mystical “zap” by the Holy Spirit. In this view, it almost becomes un-spiritual to study hard, to practice the craft of communicating the Gospel or even God’s Word. Wisdom knows that even giftedness is only half of the equation at the very best. Talent is no replacement for, or enemy of, preparedness. Even the most gifted athletes and musicians practice. Soldiers go to boot camp before they ever enter the battlefield. And Christians learn the holy skills of battling with indwelling sin, studying God’s Word, praying, taking our own thought lives captive to Christ, meditating on “whatsoever things are pure” etc., serving one another and communicating the eternal truths that impact the souls of people. No one accidentally stumbles into Heaven – they plan to go there, and take the only route which will get them there – following Jesus Christ. And beloved, the road is not an easy one. Prepare.

Proverbs 9:1–6 (ESV) Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

Wisdom does not make blind leaps – it prepares. The Teacher reminds us Wisdom prepares fully – perfectly – hence the allusion to 7 pillars. It is a picture of completion. And this is central to the Church’s mission in the world, as well as in our individual lives. I propose we might discern the following 7 pillars.

1. Pillar #1 – PROOF. Wisdom proves itself by experience. No one takes investment advice from a 3 year old, nor anyone else whose never made an investment (or a successful investment) in their lives. Most advice on child rearing from those who’ve never raised a child is severely lacking. And what we have to offer to the world must be something we have tested, tried and lived ourselves – not platitudes. Have WE been born again? Are WE trusting Christ alone for our salvation? Are WE challenging sin in our own lives and growing in the likeness of Christ? We ought never to try to share with others above our own years and experience. Yes, we can point them to the Word where it speaks beyond ourselves, but we must do so with an attitude that makes the Word the authority, and not us. This is often the error of young preachers – telling those with gray heads and healed scars how they ought to live – when we’ve not lived or suffered ourselves. Live in faith yourself before exhorting others to do so. Humble yourself beneath the hand of God prior to pressing another to deal with their pride. Trust God in a really dark place before chiding one who is trembling in theirs. Wisdom has built her house before she invites anyone over to it. No, it doesn’t have to be finished – but the foundation needs to be laid.

Proverbs 8:6-9 (ESV) 6 Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right, 7 for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8 All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. 9 They are all straight to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge.

Wisdom NEVER takes the path of sin. Any advice, any counsel which tries to make a case for why it is OK, or even the “best” course in THIS particular circumstance to take the sinful option – is a lie. It is unwise. It is ungodly. How our own hearts at times will reason within us as to why (though I would not ordinarily do so) – given a particular set of circumstances – act, think or feel in ways contrary to God’s Word. The underlying presupposition is that somehow – at certain times – righteousness is not the best choice. We think in terms of stories or movies where at last, the victim, robbed of justice, takes justice into their own hands. We cheer inwardly as they break the law in order to bring about true justice. But this is an illusion. While it may make a kind of sense in the fallen economy of this world – it never makes sense in God’s economy. And Christians are to live above this world’s way of thinking. Even if on the surface, we seem to lose now. By faith we see and understand (reigning-in our own hearts) that God will bring all things to a just end. Like our Savior, when reviled, we do not revile in return; when we suffer, we do not threaten, but continue entrusting ourselves to Him who judges justly. 1 Peter 2:23.

” My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:1-4, ESV)

The picture presented to us here is of a Godly father teaching his son the spiritual necessities of life – things which will inform his ethics on every level. The opening exhortation is to remember these things, to treasure them up (vs. 1) and to anticipate the benefits these remembered, treasured teachings will bring (vs. 2). Verse 4 summarizes again that acting upon what he is being taught here will find him not only living wisely before men, but God as well. The rest of the chapter will bear out the details of this “teaching” – but it is verse 3 which captures the essence of what the young man needs to know and do as the predicate to all else: “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.” Rightfully, our first impression is that such a student would learn himself to be a man of steadfast love and faithfulness. He is to “wear” these like precious jewelry and take them into the deepest recesses of his heart. But perhaps there is more here. Perhaps, the idea even underneath this – is that the father wants his son to learn of the steadfast love and faithfulness of God in this way. To wear THAT lesson like the most precious jewelry of all. To have it as it were not only tattooed, but etched – scarred into his own heart. That the heart and mind so saturated with the fullness of the God’s unfailing, unerring, eternally abiding love – is the only way he will ever own the “ethics” aimed at. He is to come to know God’s love in Christ so well, that he is eventually filled with all the fulness of God (Eph. 3:14-21). Father, may I learn that lesson so.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5, ESV)

It is an easy error to take a passage like this one, and turn it into something it is not. All one need do, is take the first word “trust” and make it bear the entire weight of the thought. But that is to miss the point entirely. In other words, our author’s exhortation is NOT to merely be a trusting person, to be a “person of faith” or to have some sort of generic trust that everything will work out OK. What we are being called to here is to trust in God Himself. To trust His character, His promises. We cannot trust our own perceptions of circumstances and their imagined meanings. But we can and MUST trust God’s revelation of Himself in His word, and in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This takes us off of the futile task of trying always attach specific meaning to very little event in life – to instead find the meaning of everything in the Author of Life Himself. Trust Him Believer. Trust the God who cannot lie. Trust the God who cannot sin. Trust His promises. Trust His descriptions of reality in the Word. Trust His Gospel. Trust Him above everybody and everything else. But then again – do not forget the underlying presupposition here: You cannot trust anyone you do not know – not really. So – do you know Him? Do you know Him in the person of Jesus Christ? Do you know Him as your Lord and Savior? As your sin-bearer? When you do – then you can trust Him fully.

Proverbs 2:5 (ESV) “then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”

The word “THEN”, opening this verse serves as a conclusion to what came immediately before in the previous 4 verses. IF – we seek out God’s Word with all due diligence – THEN we will understand THE FEAR OF THE LORD. If the fear of the Lord is the very beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7), then this is how we come to it. The pursuit laid out for us in the first part of this chapter is the very means to gain this fear. Combine the two and you have this simple reality – I cannot know God rightly, unless I pursue the knowledge of Him the way He has appointed. You cannot know anyone, let alone God, apart from taking the steps necessary to understand their heart and mind and values and goals and desires. And we cannot know these things about God apart from the diligent searching out of His Word by the aid of the Holy Spirit.

The amount of the Bible you are willing to leave un-mined – is directly proportional to the amount of God you are unwilling to know, and willing to do without. Note again this verse begins with “THEN” – THEN you will understand, and not until.

Proverbs 27:21 (ESV) The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.

I would rather be tested by curses any day, than tested by praise. It is when men speak well of me that I am most prone. How I lap it up – like a dog will lap up something sweet left unguarded – almost compulsively and without restraint. We will bend more toward those who flatter us, than yield to the pressure of those who cast insults our way. It is harder for us to disappoint those whose opinions we respect and have previously enjoyed than to cast off the mud slung by known enemies. This is the real test. Lord, spare me from it.

“Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Better the crucible, better the furnace – than the adoration of men – especially when it is sincere.

“An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.” (Proverbs 17:4-5, ESV)

Why are we so quick to listen to speech which denigrates others and speaks evil of them? Why is it we delight in the character assassination which is so prevalent in the media today?

The answer is no further away than our own hearts. The truth is, if there were no market for it – if we didn’t drink it up and support those who do it – it could not last long as a publicly indulged commodity.

As Christians, we ought to be concerned that our taste for gossip is nearly insatiable. That we love to hear ‘dirt” on others, and especially rejoice to hear of the failures and miseries of those we disagree with, oppose or dislike.

This state of affairs is not due to the fodder itself, but to the wickedness in our hearts which likes to drink it up like sweet tea, and re-package it for the next consumer.

So it is we are warned in vs. 5, that whoever mocks the impoverished – whether we think of them as morally impoverished, doctrinally poor, monetarily bereft, intellectually deficient or politically bankrupt – must never forget these are creatures of the same God who made and owns us. And if and when we take shameless delight in their woes – we ourselves will not unpunished for such hearts.

Father, forgive us. And give us hearts and minds of compassion.

” My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.” (Proverbs 2:1-8, ESV)

Part 2 / We saw in Part 1 that spiritual maturity is not a matter of getting a sudden growth-jolt at a special meeting or seminar. Nor does it come by merely being around spiritual matters. Nor does it just happen. We must pursue it. Growing in God’s wisdom takes effort. It takes an investment of time and right labor. But as the balance of this passage reveals, the benefits are big. In fact, what is quite certain is that a number of the benefits listed, are the very ones most of us – while still spiritually immature – cry out after most. In this case, we need to stop whining about what we do not have, and begin to use the tools God has appointed for obtaining them – to secure them for ourselves. We looked at those tools in Part 1. Now we look at the benefits. [CLICK FOR THE REST BELOW]

(more…)

” My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.” (Proverbs 2:1-8, ESV)

Part 1 / Wisdom and spiritual knowledge are not gained by osmosis, sporadic study, lazy attempts at searching out God’s Word or abstract magical insights. We must set a value on it first. Treat it like treasure. Keeping our eye and ear peeled for it – looking for it all the time. Praying for it and then taking the pick and shovel and digging, sifting, searching, refining, and looking for more. Nothing less will yield the result of understanding the fear of the Lord, and finding the knowledge of God.

Notice Solomon’s keys here for gaining God’s wisdom:

1. God’s Word must be RECEIVED (vs. 1). We cannot obtain and understand the Word, if we do not take it in. We must be receiving it. Do you take it in every day? Then how will you understand and apply it?

2. God’s Word must be TREASURED (vs. 1). We must count His communication to us as valuable. Every syllable. Nothing omitted. God never makes small talk. Everything He has to say is of eternal importance. Do I treat His Word as an inestimable treasure?

3. My heart must be ATTENTIVE to His Word (vs. 2). I cannot just let it pass in one ear and out of the other. I must take it in, consider it, mull it over until I understand it and think about its implications. Otherwise, it will do me no more good than rubbing an aspirin on my head in an attempt to ease a headache.

4. I must INCLINE my heart to understanding (vs. 2). I must have a heart that intends to respond positively to what is heard. I must want to know the truth. If I have no intention of obeying God’s Word, it will not yield its treasures up to me.

5. I must PRAY to understand and apply it (vs. 3). I must CALL OUT, and RAISE [my] VOICE to God in regard to it. I must make my application to the Author, to have Him give me the same light to read it by, that He penned it by. The same Holy Spirit who breathed it into the human scribes, must breathe it afresh in me if it is to have any effect. And I must be actively engaged in the pursuit of that in prayer if I would have it become my own.

6. I must SEEK for it. (vs. 4) Those who sit back waiting for God’s wisdom to just seep into their brains and hearts without doing the necessary labor – are in for a rude awakening. You cannot sit in a vat of food and imagine you’ll get nutrition. One must do all the necessary work of planting, cultivating, harvesting, preparing, cooking – and yes – eating.

7. THEN – and ONLY then, will we actually obtain. (vss. 5-8). Because true Godly wisdom is something we can gain only from Him Himself. And this, is how He desires for us to get it from His own hand.