Hopefully you read this passage before your reading this because this passage is strikingly similar to another Biblical book written by Solomon; Proverbs. This passage not only sounds like Proverbs as it is essentially made up of the short proverbs that the book is also made up of, but it also has the same theme of a contrast between wisdom and foolishness. Verse 4, 5: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to the praise of fools, verse 7 extortion turns a wise man into a fool.
Wisdom and foolish in this context shouldn't be thought of as we normally do however. I titled this "wisdom is meaningless" because what I'm getting at, conventional wisdom, or simply knowing a lot, is meaningless in comparison with the wisdom that Solomon speaks of. In the book of Proverbs and also in this passage, wisdom and foolishness could also be understood as knowing God and not knowing God. So therefore, we are wise when we know God and place our foundation in him. Why is it wise to do this? I think it is because at the core of our humanity, we truly need God. I was watching the show Chuck this weekend and in one scene it flashbacked to an older episode where it showed the protagonist Chuck sitting on the ground with his head in his hands, heartbroken because he thought he was never going to be with the girl he loved. I was struck by that image because I think deep down, we all feel the same way. Not about a girl or a boy, but I think at the very core of our hearts, we know that we are broken and need something bigger than us; that "thing" is God! We are broken because we have sin. God is perfect God and we are imperfect humans, meaning that we are separated from God because we choose to make ourselves the God or our lives. We reject God, we disobey God and we fill our lives with things that aren't God trying to bring ourselves happiness. Verse 29 reads but I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path (Ecc 7:29, NLT). Because of this we stand separated from God and under his judgement for our sin. But God in his great love and mercy sent Jesus, his only son, who lived a perfect life, something we cannot do, then died on the Cross for the sins of mankind and rose from the grave after three days, becoming our great high priest, forgiving us and cleansing us of our sin! By putting our faith in Christ, by knowing God, we can find forgiveness of our sins and be made right with God. Those who do this are no longer under his judgement. So that is why it is wise to know God, because it brings you into relationship with him, and cleanses you of your sin!
Similarly to how Chuck sat there broken, longing for something to fill his life with joy and happiness, mankind sits broken in its sin, longing for something more. Jesus Christ is that "something more" and putting your faith in him gains you wisdom, forgiveness, relationship with God, eternal life and countless blessings.
So if you aren't a Christian, I would ask you to consider this new idea of wisdom. Do you feel a longing for something more?
If you are a Christian I think it is important to remind ourselves of what Christ did for us. Verse 28 reads I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright women among them all. This is not to say that women are evil, in fact in Proverbs, wisdom is personified by a women. Rather, this is to be understood as making a reference to the fact that all humanity is sinful, if not putting more weight on the lack of righteousness in men. Keep in mind that at this time period women didn't receive a religious education like men did. So if this so called religious men were just as righteous as the women, what does this say about the men of the time? Anyways, without asking which sex is more righteous, I think the main thing to take away from this is that everyone stands a fool in God's eyes, but thanks to Jesus, you and I have received wisdom from God and the grace and mercy of God as he forgives us of our sin. Remember this, cherish this and meditate on this and as chapter 8 verse 1 says: Wisdom brightens a man's face and changes its hard appearance; as we continue to get to know God, we will truly be changed more and more!
No comments:
Post a Comment