Where is Wisdom?

Proverbs 1:1-7 and 3:1-6, 13-18[1]

 

 

Ted Koppel, in an acceptance speech for Broadcaster of the Year, observed, "What is largely missing in American life today is a sense of context, of saying or doing anything that is intended or even expected to live beyond the moment... We have become so obsessed with facts that we have lost all touch with truth... Consider this paradox: Almost everything that is publicly said these days is recorded. Almost nothing of what is said is worth remembering." We seem unable to tie all the disparate information of "The Information Age" into a meaningful whole. The mass of information is so overwhelming that we surrender to it, allowing, perhaps, that you can have your truth and I will have my truth as if "truth" could be bartered in the market.

 

In today's world, we have greater information, certainly. More facts, to be sure. But do we know what to do with these facts? Do we know how to take these separate pieces of the puzzle and put them together into a coherent whole? Do we know what the puzzle picture is supposed to look like? Where is wisdom in our world today?

 

Where is wisdom in our world today? Some folks in our culture look for wisdom in knowledge, but knowledge is not wisdom. There are a lot of smart people who are not necessarily wise. I read an article the other day about this Harvard scientist who has applied Darwinian principles to analyze the social psychology of revolutionary behavior as it relates to birth order and is expressed in historical persons. Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with the results of his study. Let's just say the guy is smart!

 

But listen to what he says about his personal life: "My single greatest goal is to get into a relationship and have a family. It may be too late, though. I'm forty-nine, and the eligible range of partners is limited...The mate-selection pool is constantly being drained of stable companions. I guess I should have invested more in that particular domain." I submit to you that here is exhibit A in the argument that possessing knowledge is not the same as possessing wisdom. Possessing information without possessing the understanding of what we are to do with that information does not help us. Is knowledge important? Yes! But knowledge alone is not wisdom.

 

Where is wisdom in our world today? Some folks in our culture look for wisdom in experience, but experience is not wisdom. Experience is only as good as what you do with it. One of my favorite proverbs says, "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly" (26:11). This proverb is saying a lot of things, but at the very least it is saying that experience is useless if we don't learn from our mistakes, or if we learn the wrong lessons from our mistakes.

 

 

 

But let's say we do learn from our mistakes, will our experience then lead us to wisdom? Certainly it may guide us along the way, but even if we learn well from our mistakes, that doesn't mean we will become wise. Our experience can teach us how to be more effective in human terms, but human effectiveness is not necessarily wisdom. A subtle example of this is found in the words of the long-time (and effective) church elder who once said, "I don't know much about following Jesus, but I know what's right for this church." Knowing how to get something done is not the same thing as knowing what thing to do. Is experience important? Yes! But experience alone is not wisdom.

 

Where is wisdom in our world today? Some folks in our culture look for wisdom in common sense, but common sense is not wisdom. Common sense often looks like wisdom; in fact, common sense might be its closest impersonator. The Book of Proverbs is full of common sense. "A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid one who talks too much" (20:19). "A hot tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again" (19:19). "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (15:1). These are sensible sayings, to be sure, but in themselves are not fully wisdom.

 

Once again we must return to the question of purpose and direction: what is the goal of our good sense? One can have common sense without wisdom. Knowing intuitively how to get a job done has no bearing on what job should be done. A thief with sense will not quickly be caught, but is he or she, therefore, wise? Common sense is important, yes. But even common sense, alone, is not wisdom.

 

Where is wisdom in our world today? Proverbs tells us where we can look to find it: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." We modern folks don't like to talk about fear too much; we like our God loving and playful and oh-so-very-patient to the point of appearing ignorant of our faults. But the God of the Bible is a God to be feared. Moses hid himself in the cleft of a rock when the Lord passed by. Isaiah cried out, "Woe is me! I am undone!" when he saw in a vision the Lord upon his throne. Fear is a stern condition, but one we need to heed. To fear the Lord is to be certain that his "yes" means Yes! and his "no" means No!

 

But in the biblical language of Hebrew in which this Proverb was written, "fear" has other connotations besides our English sense of cowering terror before the Almighty. In Hebrew, "fear" also has the connotation of a healthy respect, the sense that there is a rightness to saying, "Yes," to God's yes and saying, "No," to God's no. And a step further, in Hebrew "fear" also has the connotation of a wonder-filled awe, the awareness that one is in the presence of something or someone greater than oneself.

 

The closest human analogy I have experienced to biblical fear is being at the top of a huge, breaking wave: there is terror for I know one misstep and I will be hurt; there is respect for I know what this wave is capable of doing and that I must follow its rules; and there is wonder-filled awe for I know that I am riding a power and energy greater than myself that can deliver me unto exhilaration. I've never ridden a bull before but I imagine the feeling is similar. Perhaps skiing a double black diamond creates a similar rush. In any case, "fear" in Hebrew is terror and respect and wonder-filled awe. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

 

We see the beginning of wisdom in the life of David. But before we can deal with David we must consider his predecessor, Saul. Knowing Saul is the first step toward knowing David. In Saul we see the limitations of human excellence, be it knowledge, experience or common sense. In Saul, we see that human giftedness, alone, falls short of achieving divine wisdom.

 

The story of Saul begins when the people of Israel tired of belonging exclusively to the Lord and asked, instead, to be under the lordship of a king; in other words, when they desired to move away from God's wisdom and become like the nations around them. As one might expect, such a decision led to a bad result. But not at first. It took a while before things fell apart. At first, it seemed the Israelites' desire for a king worked out well. Saul was chosen by the Lord to be king. And Saul was a good king, at first. Saul was effective. When the first crisis of his reign came and the call went out to deliver Jabesh-Gilead in a military expedition, the people came out one and all, or at least most of them. That first military effort, the deliverance of Jabesh-Gilead from the Ammonites, was a resounding success. The defeat of the Ammonites was followed closely by victories right and left over the Philistines.

 

As matters developed, it turned out that Saul was not only a good general, he was also a good person. Following that first victory, when he was still riding high on the zealous enthusiasm of his supporters, the cry went up to purge the riff-raff, the "worthless fellows" who had refused to join in the earlier efforts. But Saul, gracious and generous in his exercise of power, refused to do it. Saul was on a roll. As the story of Saul continues, however, we begin to sense something is wrong. Oh, Saul continues to be effective in defeating his brutal enemies, the Philistines and Amalekites, but we begin to see another side to Saul, a disobedient Saul. In each instance, the prophet Samuel confronted Saul with an act of disobedience against God that took place in the course of Saul's very effective work (1 Samuel 13 and 15). Neither act of disobedience appeared sinful. Neither involved immorality or injustice. Both of them made perfect sense in terms of military strategy; in fact, both acts were dictated by good military strategy. Not only that, but both acts of disobedience involve something seemingly unrelated to Saul's official duties: worship.

 

In the first instance, Saul is told to wait seven days for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice to the Lord before Saul and his men go off to make war against the Philistines. But the men become impatient and begin to scatter. Saul panics and takes matters into his own hands and offers the sacrifice himself. In the second instance, Saul is commanded to utterly destroy the Amalekites and all they possessed, but such destruction seems like a waste to Saul's soldiers. And besides, they want some animals and jewelry as war booty. So Saul orders his men to destroy only the sick and worthless animals and, because it sets a nice diplomatic precedent, allows the Amalekite king to live.

 

There is something common to both of these acts of disobedience. Saul's concern is first and foremost people: in the first instance he wants to keep his men focused and united; in the second instance, he wants to keep them happy. The people loom large in Saul's vision, far larger than God. Saul was, it seems, trying to do a good work, and he saw bringing God in as a way to do that good work. But "bringing God in" reversed reality. Saul was treating God as a means, as a resource. And God will not be used. Saul's demise as king begins with the words of Samuel's rebuke: "You have acted foolishly...now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart...."

 

That man after God's own heart is, of course, David. David enters the biblical picture when Samuel comes to Bethlehem in search of David's father, Jesse, to look for a replacement for Saul from among Jesse's boys (1 Samuel 16). Jesse parades his boys in front of Samuel one by one, beginning with the oldest Eliab. Tall, dark and handsome, Eliab dominated all who saw him with his charisma and presence. Samuel too was enthralled. "Surely the Lord's anointed stands before me," he thought to himself...until he heard the Lord's rebuke: "I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things humanity looks at. You look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." There would not be another Saul.

 

One by one Jesse paraded seven sons in front of Samuel, but none were chosen. Samuel was confused, "Are these all the sons you have," he inquired of Jesse? "There is the youngest," Jesse replied, "he is tending the sheep." We can almost here the disdain and dismissal in Jesse's voice: the youngest, the baby brother, the family runt, surely you can't mean him? David was so ignored that no one had even thought to bring him into Bethlehem that day. Yet David was chosen. Chosen and anointed. Chosen not for what anybody saw in him-not his father, not his brothers, not even Samuel-but for what the Lord saw in him. The Lord saw his heart.

 

The difference between Saul and David is subtle, yet cavernous. Saul was a good man doing a good work, bringing in God to help him. David was an ordinary boy doing ordinary work, but he was willing to deal with God first. Saul would later become angry, jealous and, eventually, insane. David would become his nation's poet prince, writing such words as "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1), and "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it; the world and all who dwell therein" (24:1). and "To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God" (25:1), and "The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid? (27:1).

 

Where is wisdom in our world today? Wisdom is found right here, in the heart devoted to the Lord. Wisdom is found in the God-dominated, God-directed judgment that uses our knowledge and our experience and our good, old fashioned common sense to help us first desire-and then to choose-the good, the true and the beautiful. Wisdom is found in the willingness to submit all of one's life to the reality of God. Wisdom is found in the understanding that we are never more fully alive than when we are dealing with God.

 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths... Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold...She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; and those who lay hold of her will be blessed" (Proverbs 3:5-6, 13-14,18).

 

Return To Sermons Menu