We just read in Proverbs 10:19, “When words are many transgression is not lacking, but the prudent are restrained in speech.” I suppose that means I need to keep the sermon short!
People are fundamentally foolish. At least they are according to Proverbs. People will insist they know what is best for themselves. They think they know who they are. They think they know where they are going in life. They will insist they can be their own source of fulfillment. This is why religious beliefs fall off as a society’s prosperity increases.
Right along with people thinking they can be their own source of self-fulfillment is the belief that they are basically good people. It fits. If you’re your own source of self-fulfillment then you’re also going to be your own source of what is right and wrong. Again, a reason why people turn away from religions. They don’t want anything outside themselves critiquing their morality. But since they’ve created their own morality of course they think they’re moral! But that is circular logic that is doomed to fail.
It is also tragic ultimately. When you’ve convinced yourself that you are basically good, and that since you’re basically good that you deserve to go to heaven, then you’ve made grace something unnecessary and have a fundamental misunderstanding about a relationship with God.
Here's how Proverbs says that’s all foolishness.
Proverbs is a collection of wisdom sayings. Proverbs is often attributed to King Solomon. King Solomon was known for being wise. And indeed, it is possible that parts of it go back to him. But parts of Proverbs also cite other authors. As a whole, Proverbs is a composite work that was assembled over centuries. While Proverbs is a collection of wisdom sayings from the ancient Hebrews it is not unique to them. Many other nations and religions of the time has wisdom literature. Proverbs shows it has been influenced by these other cultures. There are two large sections of Proverbs that are almost certainly taken from the writings of other religions. That is where we start to see the core of what Proverbs is trying to teach. Where it appears material has been borrowed from other cultures or religions, it has been given a clear Hebrew reinterpretation. These Hebrew writings are about God the creator, and about the way God’s wisdom may be found in the world. Ultimately living by that wisdom is what gives a person a fulfilling and solid life.
Everything in Proverbs is about living in right relationship with God. It is about recognizing that God is God and we are not. God is the creator. We are not. God has power. We do not. God is important. And this is very important point - our importance only derives from God. God gave us an identity, and only in relationship with God can we truly understand who we are.
Think about it. This world seems like a big place. Political issues seem important. Economic issues seem important. Environmental issues seem important. Social issues seem important.
You’ve seen pictures of the Earth taken from the Moon. Huge as the Earth seems to us, we know that it is a small planet orbiting an ordinary star near the edge of an average galaxy. In the grand scheme of things we are a speck of nothingness. God’s power and size is beyond our comprehension. Who are we that God should pay attention to us? What claim do we have on God? None.
It is only by God’s choice and God’s grace that we are anything at all. We do well to remember that God could create a less troublesome, more capable, more faithful creature at any time. And we do well to remember that we live and we work only by the graciousness of God. An easy to overlook miracle of the coming of Jesus is that God bothers with us at all; let alone lives a lifetime like one of us, and then wrongfully dies at our own hands. Psalm 8 says, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them?” (Vs. 3-4)
Indeed, what are we really? Of what value are our individual lives in the vast machinery of this universe? We are kidding ourselves if we think we are important! We aren’t. It’s that simple. Our only value comes because God chooses to give us value.
So, from there everything else starts to come into place. True wisdom, as Proverbs would have us understand it, is recognizing that God is God and we are not; and that living in right relationship with God is the only way to do anything meaningful. I’m being repetitive here, but everything in Proverbs is rooted in a right relationship with God. And the only way anything can truly succeed is if it’s done in right relationship with God.
Foolishness is the opposite of wisdom. In Proverbs to be foolish is not to be unintelligent. In fact, intelligence and wisdom are not linked. You don’t have to be smart to be wise. You don’t have to have a lot of knowledge to be wise. You don’t have to have a lot of formal education and diplomas hanging on your wall to be wise.
Ever filled out a form that asks your educational level? Whoever created the form thinks there might be correlations between your other responses and how much education you have. There is probably truth to that in general. Still though, I’m waiting for one of those forms to have the option, “Baptized Child of God.” That is truly the core of all other education!
I think there are lots of intelligent and highly educated people who, despite all their brains, are fundamentally foolish. They can be very insistent that they are right. They can use their brains and cite all sorts of research and studies to back their point of view. But they cannot find what it means to be truly alive without God.
According to Proverbs, foolishness is doing things outside of a right relationship with God. That is foolishness because it’s a rat race to nowhere.
Doing things in right relationship with God guarantees that what you are doing is going to have lasting value, even if the world doesn’t recognize it; and even if the world seems to want to destroy it. Proverbs reminds us that God knows. What God sees and God knows God will use for lasting good.
Next week we’re going to look at an amazing thing about Hebrew wisdom. Wisdom is not just a concept for them. It is personified as a living being of God’s making at creation. It is a powerful concept, and it is one that I think deserves far more attention than it gets these days. But that is for next week. I do want to take one verse from what we’ll be reading next week.
It is Proverbs 9:10 which reads, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
This concept flows throughout Proverbs. Of course “Fear of the Lord” does not mean to be so afraid as to be frozen into inaction. It means proper respect and understanding.
Notice that Proverbs 10 does not promise an easy life. It does not promise a life above hardship. It does not say that if you are moral your life will be one of fairness and ease that is divinely protected. No, it calls for hard work. “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” And, “A child who gathers in summer is prudent, but a child who sleeps in harvest brings shame.”
It is also not about somehow getting life right and then being right always. Verse 17 almost seems to speak of constant learning, “Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but one who rejects a rebuke goes astray.”
And stormy times will happen to both the righteous and the wicked, “When the tempest passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are established forever.”
In other words, Proverbs 10 calls for: humility, a strong work ethic, diligence, smart decisions, careful words; and all done with a life focused on God. There are no short cuts. There are no easy streets.
The chapters in Proverbs that follow continue in the same vein. I suggest you read them. There aren’t necessarily new concepts introduced, but the things introduced in 10 are made richer.
Be wise. Have faith in God. Don’t expect quick and easy solutions. But do expect a life of meaning and the satisfaction of working in line with God’s kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment