Week of June 1

Treasures often are buried and are discovered through much sacrifice. The treasure of wisdom, however, is abundantly available and easily discernible if one follows the One True Guide. My favorite Old Testament example is God’s daily provision of manna when Israel was wandering in the wilderness! In similar fashion, God feeds the spiritually hungry with wisdom, and this is good, for it is a vital nutrient of His world and holds the key to a successful life. Let’s learn more about godly wisdom today.

This section in Proverbs is “a two-proverb collection with elements of both parallelism and inclusio, in which the proverbs together form an ethical merismus” (NAC). An inclusio is something like an envelope structure, with a similar beginning and end. Now, can you quickly say “ethical merismus” five times?! In all seriousness, the word, merismus, describes a figure of speech in which two parts of a thing, perhaps contrasting or complementary parts, are made to stand for the whole. For example, “finds me” (v. 35) is paralleled by “fails to find me” (v. 36) and “life” (v. 35) is answered by “death” (v. 36). Overall, obtaining the Lord’s favor contrasts with embracing death (NAC). Let me tag on to this literary analysis and explain the ethics in these verses.

Choose biblical wisdom as a way of life. We typically use ethics-laden language in church and never know it. I do hope that we know there is more to a pecan than just the shell, so to speak, however. The parallel claims in this chapter lay out before us what we often term “the wide” and “the narrow” path in the New Testament (Matthew 7:13-14). This ethical concept is termed the “doctrine of the two ways.” Life is not just about goodies and games, but is a moral path (worldview) that shapes the decisions we make and the direction we ultimately follow. Got it? 

Apply it each day. Solomon used the familiar poetic structure in his day to present this powerful moral point. You will either be so devoted to wisdom, personified as a woman, that you will cling to her every word (cf. v. 34, “watching daily at my doors”) or you will hate her (v. 36)! No one, in direct contrast to contemporary claims, is ever truly able to straddle the moral fence. “Wisdom is a matter of life or death” (NAC). Let me explain.

View life through godly wisdom. Solomon invites us in Proverbs 8 to receive a gift from God—wisdom. It helps us to get our ethical application correct. “Woman wisdom” in the Proverbs represents an “attribute” of creation (cf. 1:20-33; NAC). She personifies the fact that the world has a rational structure and was not the result of some chaotic origin with no meaning or purpose. God created wisdom, and this attribute will help us to see order in the world (v. 8:22). Our search for moral meaning in a confusing existence is aided by wisdom, which is always to be subordinated to the one true God. Therefore, our faith in God enables us to rightly apply wisdom to our understanding of the way God has ordered His creation and to lead successful lives.

I have visited museums where I was handed a listening device that enabled me to appreciate more clearly the art I was viewing. I moved from painting to sculpture and clicked on the appropriate icon on my touch screen to listen to a deeper and richer explanation of the art that was before me. Obviously, some “Bill the barber” was not the voice on the recording! Experts provided me with an analysis of what I was viewing. 

Here is the spiritual point that will transform your world. God has built into this world a “voice” named “wisdom” that provides explanation of what we “see” in the world and instruction in the best way to live. We hear the voice through the listening device of faith. Both wisdom and faith are God’s gift to us, and they are to be subordinate to Him. Our lives are successful when we follow “this path” (see 3:5-6).

1. Ponder for a while what “recording” is speaking into your ear as you live in our world. Friends? Social Media? A certain nightly newscast? Wisdom, very often, can become misaligned, and you will veer off the straight path if you resort to your unaided human perspectives (3:5-6). This is why Christians subordinate their human reasoning to God’s will and seek His direction through faith.

Faith sometimes will require us to wait to make a wise decision! Of course, wisdom will tell us immediately to speak the truth or to love our neighbor, but the point is to train ourselves to wait on God through faith, as necessary, to make wise choices. Seek godly wisdom and ask the Lord to help you to use it to see how to live successfully. 

2. For Families: The good old game, “Simon Says” provides a great application of this passage. We can learn to ask God for wisdom in our “every-day-walking-around-lives” and He promises to give us wisdom. Remember how to play?

The leader calls out different commands of things to do (touch your toes, turn around, dance, etc.), prefaced by the phrase, “Simon Says.”
If the leader speaks the phrase, “Simon Says,” the followers must do what is suggested. If the leader does not use the phrase, the followers do not do it. If someone goes ahead and does something without the “Simon Says” signal, they are out of the game. (Here is a brief video that teaches young children how to play.)

This game is fun for our kids, and it can also show us how we are to listen to God. After playing it for awhile, explain how this game is similar to listening to God. Learning wisdom takes a careful ability to pay attention and to hear God speak (through our daily Bible reading, in prayer for God’s guidance in decision-making, through wise counsel from mature Christians, and as we see God working all around us). We learn wisdom by asking God for it, and then by paying attention to what God does next. If we live without listening to God, we will not become what He intends for us to be. But if we do what God says, it will always be exactly right!

May your paths be straight,
Larry C. Ashlock