seeking wisdom

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Proverbs 5:15-23 Dance with The One Who Brought You

After warning us off the path of the seductress, Solomon goes on to talk of faithfulness, of the wisdom of dancing with the one who brought you.  Sometimes we can convince ourselves that things are better and the water is sweeter in someone else’s yard, but usually, if we go ahead and climb that fence, it doesn’t take long the realize what’s what.  That beautiful field of green with luscious fountains is in reality only painted asphalt with flowing streams of vinegar.  Wise council advises us that not only should we be wary of the enticements of temptress, but we can also find the happiness we seek right in our own back yard with those to whom we have pledged our faithfulness.  Solomon instructs us to “drink from our own well” and to be “intoxicated” with the love of our wife/husband, to delight in their affection. This is the path to contentment, this is the way of the wise, and all esle is but foolish thought.

Here again the subject matter can be interpreted on many levels. At the surface it’s about marriage, about honoring your commitment to your spouse, but on another level, it’s also about life’s commitments, about keeping all the promises you make.  Christ made many allegorical statements about our relationship to God as that of the bride to the bridegroom, and in that light, Proverbs 5 becomes a guide for not only our personal relationships to each other, but also our relationship to God.

 

~SLM

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Proverbs 5:1-14 Beware The Seductress

Most commentaries associate this section of Proverbs 5 with the most common and widely held definition of adultery, which is specifically sexual sin, but the Latin root word adulterare (a-dul-ter-air) simply means to adulterate or to corrupt something. In ancient times, it was applied to sex outside the marriage bed between any man (married or not) and a married or betrothed woman, thus “corrupting” the issue (baby) from said woman. In other words, since they didn’t have paternity testing, and since fatherhood had legal and moral ramifications, they had a less cavalier attitude about the “Baby-daddy!”

Here again, Solomon uses the image of a woman to illustrate his point, and it’s interesting to me that he can so masterfully enliven the personification of the seductress. He describes her as having lips that drip with honey and a voice as smooth as oil, evoking the portrait of a beautiful woman who entices with sweet words and smooth promises of ecstasies untold.  It’s a powerful, provocative image, one that is meant to convey how dangerous seduction can be, because while she appears to be smooth and polished as sweet as honey, she is, in reality, bitter and distasteful, as dangerous as a double-edged sword, and highly unstable, enticing us down a wayward path that leads to death and destruction.

While I understand the strong legal and moral associations linking adultery to sex, adultery is so much more than just sex.   In fact, idolatry, covetousness, and apostasy are spoken of as spiritual adultery in many places in the Old Testament (Jer. 3:6, 8-9; Ezek. 16:31-32; Hos. 1:2; Isa. 1:21), and we can be seduced into all sorts of corruption. We can be enticed into compromising relationships, into nefarious activities, into revering anything and everything but God. Corruption abounds in this world in many forms, and it’s through listening to the voice of God through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and steadfastly striving to live the life He would have us live that we may avoid following  in the wayward footsteps of the seductress; a road that leads to bitterness, regret, loss of respect and ruin.

~SLM

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Proverbs 4: A Simple Prayer

Dear Lord, show me the face of wisdom and help me to keep her voice in my heart.  You alone are the master of all that exists; you alone can create with just a word, speak to my heart and create in me the desire to follow your lead. Help me to see and understand with crystal clarity your will, show me the light of your love, that I may share your love and honor your great name.  Amen.

~SLM

 

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Proverbs 4:10-19 A Matter of Attitude

It’s all about a mind-set, a way of looking at the world, a pattern of behavior, and how that mind-set affects our relationships.  To get along in this world, to live a long and fruitful life, we must first understand what it means to be wise.  Wisdom is not an innate part of our being; it is something that must be sought after. We are not born with it, we must acquire it. It is not something we find on the beach, at the mall, or hidden in our grandmother’s closet.  It’s the result of quiet contemplation, of seeking the inner voice of God in our hearts and applying his spiritual guidance to the every-day situations in our lives. It is only through our passionate attention to the voice of wisdom that we can understand what is true and right, that we can recognize wickedness and therefore avoid it, setting our feet in the opposite direction from it.  

Jealousy, anger, greed, envy, pride, all consuming lust for anything, these are the precursors to wickedness and evil. When we are ruled by this way of thinking, it is so easy to get sucked into doing the wrong thing, especially if we cannot recognize what is happening to us. We hang out with nefarious characters, who care little or nothing about much else than themselves, we go along with popular trends, we participate in troublesome activities, and we willfully reject what we know to be honest. Evil is like a contagious disease, it infects all that it comes in contact with, and spreads easily. The only way we have to guard ourselves from its effects is to live according to God’s wisdom.

To be wise, we must search for the light; we must carry it in our hearts and hold it high for the sake of others. We must keep it as we would keep a precious and valuable jewel, lest we lose it and be adrift in the dark, getting tossed on every wave that crashes toward us, pushing us closer and closer toward the desolate shores of misery. Wisdom is the light that shines in the darkness, illuminating our way, showing us where to step, guiding us out of the shadows, and into the clear, calm land of spiritual fulfillment.

~SLM

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Proverbs 4:1-9 Solomon Speaks

One of the things I like best about Solomon’s verse is how he illustrates wisdom. He speaks of wisdom as a woman, and the phraseology is, for me, the picture of a loving mother, one who embraces us, guards us, guides us, exalts us, reprimands us, and honors us. I find it so spot-on that wisdom is described in this manner, a comfort that her realization is imperative to our living a blessed life. Solomon promises that if we do not forget her, she will keep us. If we love her she will guard us. If we prize her she will exalt us. If we embrace her, she will honor us.

Solomon’s lesson for his children is that we should seek, above all else, understanding, insight, wisdom. We should listen to the intelligence our ancestors have collected and recorded for our benefit. He tells us to never forget this: The primary goal in life is to obtain wisdom, therefore we should set our intention on acquiring it, and the purpose of its attainment is understanding.

Once again, we are reminded that the root of wisdom is the application of understanding in our daily lives, and to secure wisdom, we must gain insight. Insight is inspired understanding. Inspired understanding comes from our reverence for all that we do not know, all that is beyond our grasp, for our reverence of God, for God is the master of all that is incomprehensible to us. So here we are, again, back to square one – the beginning of knowledge, understanding and wisdom is the “fear” of the lord.
~SLM

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Proverbs 3:27-35 The Golden Rule Applies

If we are to receive God’s wisdom, we must seek his favor, and we seek his favor by honoring others, by doing good for them whenever it is in our power to do so, by sharing with them of our “first fruits,” by watching out for our neighbor and keeping him from harm, by not accusing someone unjustly, or struggle with them when they have done us no harm. We are warned not to be jealous of those who willingly hurt others, to turn our backs on their ways and to not follow in their footsteps – an interesting idea in today’s society where the “gangster” lifestyle is widely emulated, where professional sports figures are paid by how well they cheat, where the truth is twisted and turned inside out for the sake pride.

If we are to actively seek God’s wisdom, it seems that the “golden rule” applies: Love your neighbor as yourself. It’s through our single mindedness to respect God’s laws, to treat others fairly and justly, to give of our possessions, our talents, our gifts, to live our lives in humble awe of God’s power and love that we receive true wisdom.

~SLM

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Proverbs 3:13-26 Obtaining Peace

True understanding and its application to our daily lives is a commodity more valuable than silver or gold and more precious than rare jewels. Nothing we can accumulate can serve us better than wisdom. She forces us to turn inward, to be introspective and to understand the difference between those things which we can and cannot change. When we accept the unchangeable, the unknowable, and rely on trust, on the omnipotence of God’s plan for all things, and have faith in his ability to provide, then we can walk securely, we can sleep soundly, we can have no fear of wickedness when it visits, and we will sit in the seat of sound discretion with confidence.

When we find wisdom and have true understanding, exercising it daily with all whom we meet and in all that we do, our lives become a blessed expression of the holy spirit of God, a sacred song of compassion and love. For it is wisdom which guides us through the obstacle course of life and through her we find peace.
~SLM

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Proverbs 3:1-8 It’s a Matter of Trust

At first glance, this chapter seemed to me a repeat of the first 2, a rehashing of the concepts previously discussed. I’m not fond of covering ground twice, so I glanced ahead a few chapters, and I discovered that chapters 1-10 cover a lot of the same principles. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent girl, and I’m not opposed to expounding on a theme, but, on the surface, the reiteration looked rather excessive to me, and had this been a novel, I’d have stopped right there. But this is not a novel, and I have committed myself to this study. I wondered what could be so important. There must be a reason that Solomon found it necessary to repeatedly stress the concepts of faith, love, and the fear of the Lord. I decided to take another tack.

I find that writing verses in my own words can provide insight into their meaning. So I set about writing the verses, praying over their meaning, asking to be given awareness, knowledge, and comprehension of their deeper meaning. And then I slept on it, as is my habit when I’m really engrossed in trying to understand.

This morning, it dawned on me (quite literally, in fact), it’s a matter of trust. Verses 5-6 cover trust, and what my closer look showed me is that until you really, really get the concepts of faith, obedience, love and “fear of the Lord” embedded into your very being, it’s very hard to really, really trust. When we’re children, it’s so easy to trust, but as we grow and mature, we tend to get the trust “experienced” right out of us. We learn to be skeptical, suspicious, and faithless. We have to get the ideas expressed in verses 1-4 so ingrained in us that they are “written on our hearts, as if they are written on stone,” before we can move on to trust. Verses 3-4 are about love and faithfulness, but before love and faithfulness, we have to learn to keep the teachings of wisdom, the commandments of God, which must first be written on our hearts.

Verses 1-2 look more closely at wisdom’s teaching. It’s through the keeping of God’s commands, by writing them on our hearts, that we can remember the teachings of wisdom, and by following wisdom’s guidance, we can live long and prosperous lives. Such a simple concept: Live by God’s commandments, remember them, write them on your heart, and by doing this you open yourself to God’s wisdom, and opening ourselves to wisdom enables us to practice discernment, helping us to consider who we associate with, and how we can live honestly and fairly. Living this way leads to prosperity, not just physical prosperity, but more importantly spiritual prosperity, brought to us through love and faithfulness.

Verses 3-4, to me, convey a very good description of what Christian thought is all about – Love and Faithfulness. They are core concepts and you should be so attached to them that you and they are inseparable, that they become second nature to you, that you express them in everything you do. They are an outcropping of keeping God’s commands and the remembrance of wisdom’s teaching, a natural result listening to the voice of wisdom. By showing love and faithfulness in everything you do, you will find favor with God, and be held in good esteem with him, and by your friends, acquaintances, and mankind.

And all this leads to trust. It’s all about trust. Trust God with all your heart, with all your being. What does this mean? I think that it means to be able to say “Lord, I know you see this situation, and while I have no idea how it could ever resolve itself, I know that you do, and I’m putting the ball in your court, you take, because I know and have faith that you can and will provide for it and work it out according to your plan.”

And, after all that, verses 7-8 warn us about the importance of keeping our own greatness in perspective. It reminds us that we shouldn’t think too much of our own genius, because when we get caught up in our own idea of how brilliant we are, we are usually setting ourselves up for a little slice of “humble pie.” We should reverence the source of our “wisdom” and give credit where credit is due. By humbly acknowledging that we are merely the channel for God’s spirit, we bring sustenance and strength to our very beings.

It’s funny how, when you really take the time to study something, how much more that can be seen, than when you make only a cursory glance, like seeing the individual threads in the tapestry, and how they work together to make a complete picture, an image that would not appear the same, if just one of the threads were only slightly different.

I guess I had a lot to say about it afterall! 🙂
~SLM

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Proverbs 2 What Wisdom Offers

Proverbs 2 is a discourse on why it’s important to seek insight. It begins by advising that we should “take to heart” the counsels of God and make them a priority in our lives by keeping our ears tuned to the voice of wisdom. Insight and understanding are precious and rare, and we should look for it as one would search for hidden treasures. If we take to heart every day the will of God, seeking his advice, as if it were the most precious thing we could possess, it is then that we will realize his awesome power and be filled with reverence and respect for the fullness of his knowledge.
God is the source of wisdom, and He gives it freely to those who keep him in their hearts. He takes care of those who seek his counsel and pays close attention to them in all they do. All we need is a sincere desire to look for truth and understanding, to live our lives honestly, committed to Him. He is a deep well, a rich mine of common sense and good advice. By listening to God we can know what is true and fair. We can find our way, because wisdom will be our constant companion, knowledge our friend, good sense and insight our guide. They will warn us of those who would steer us onto roads that go nowhere, and keep us from being seduced by the empty promises of a wayward world.
It concludes with the promise that wisdom will help us to do what is good and right, and that if we “walk in the way of good men,” we’ll live a life that is full and blessed.
~SLM

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Proverbs 1:20-33 When Wisdom Speaks…

This portion of Proverbs 1 conjures up such mental images for me. I’m reminded of the scene in The Matrix, where Neo wants to run, and Trinity opens the car door and tells him he’s free to go. The camera pans toward the open door, and a long dark road can be seen through the pouring rain. As they both look toward the deserted road, Trinity says, “is this what you really want Neo? You’ve been down that road before, and we both know where it ends.”

Even though the scene in the movie is a dark and deserted street, I see a correlation with the description in verses 20-23. I can just see wisdom standing at the end of a bustling street, shouting for all she’s worth…”listen, listen to me.  Don’t do it, don’t go there, you won’t like the result! Turn back now, while there’s still time! Listen, LISTEN!”  And, as the people all rush past her, they look at her as if she’s totally lost her mind and her insanity is a contagious disease that they might contract by being near her.  But later, when all of her predictions have been realized, they lament their predicament, and ask where she was when they needed her, why was she not there to help them? Both of these scenes are about choices, about listening to that inner voice that wants to “pour its heart out and make its thoughts known.” Wisdom was there all along, they just didn’t recognize her as they rushed past with a disgusted look on their faces, and they never took the time to stop, to seek, or to listen.

So this is what I think the riddle means: When seeking wisdom it’s so important to stop, to consider, and to listen.  Seek the counsel of God, of your parents, your trusted friends. So many times we rush head-long into situations, never considering the consequences of our actions, and when it all turns out wrong, we’re ready to blame anybody, everybody, but ourselves. We wonder why Wisdom (or God), seems to have abandoned us, and in reality, we never sought her out, or if we did, we didn’t heed her direction.

The chapter ends with “but he who listens to me will dwell in safety, untouched by the terror of misfortune.”  Such truth these words speak. To live a “wise” life, we must seek wise counsel, be still and listen, hear what Wisdom (AKA God) has to say about it, and do not turn from the truth because it presents itself in a form that we may not recognize.

~SLM