“But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” (Proverbs 1:33)
Wisdom is speaking. Solomon wrote this proverb. The whole proverb is wisdom revealing to man how sinners are enticed by evil and what wisdom advices. Our Scripture of study is the last verse of the proverb. Wisdom has spoken. If you listened to wisdom, there will be rest, refuge and safety. There will be peace and freedom from the fear of evil.
We have established that the Word of God is Truth. The Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is also Wisdom. Wisdom is knowing when and how to use knowledge. We may have knowledge and not wisdom. An example I ran into was that we may have knowledge of a gun and not have the wisdom of when and how to use it.
In our Scripture, wisdom is saying to “whoso hearkeneth.” So wisdom is for anyone to hears. The Hebrew word Solomon used was “shâma‛” meaning to hear with the intention of obeying, paying attention and hearing intelligently.
The Scripture carries a promise. The promise is to live safely. In this day and age, we need to live in safety. There is no value of life in the world’s streets today. That is knowledge. But what is wisdom telling us? When and how can I use that knowledge? Wisdom will tell you not to travel the streets late in the night or very early in the mornings. It tells you to avoid dangerous places where crimes occur and to be aware of your surroundings. It tells you to lock your doors and not to open the door to strangers. You may be thinking right about now that those are simple things. And they are. And yet people continue to do them. They continue to be out in the streets late at night and early in the mornings. They continue to go to dangerous places. They continue to leave their doors unlocked and open their doors to strangers. Wisdom is calling out to the simple. Ask for wisdom.
God tells us through James to ask for wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8) There is lots of information packed in those four verses.
First, when you don’t know what to do with the knowledge you have about something, ask for wisdom. God is willing and able to give you that wisdom. And He will give you the wisdom that you need and want. He will give more than you ask for. It’s God’s pleasure to give you wisdom. There is one condition to asking for wisdom and that is faith. You must believe when you ask that God will give you wisdom and without any doubt that He is willing and pleased to do so. If you doubt that God will give you wisdom, you will receive nothing. We have Solomon’s example. He prayed for wisdom and God gave him more wisdom than any man on earth at the time. His wisdom astounded men. They came from all over the world just to hear his wisdom. (1King 3:6-14)
Whom do we consider wise? God’s Word is specific about who He considers a wise person. “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (James 3:13-18) A wise person is meek in his behavior and works. But any behavior that is envious and quarrelsome is not the wisdom that comes from God. That kind of wisdom only brings “confusion and EVERY EVIL WORK.” That kind of wisdom is not eternal, it’s temporal, of this world and will perish with this world. James didn’t mince words. He calls this kind of wisdom “devilish.”
The wisdom that God gives is pure, not stained with anything from this world. It’s peaceable in that it will avoid argument and violent conflict. It’s gentle meaning it’s kind, mild and tender. It’s easy to be intreated meaning we can reason with it. It’s full of mercy meaning compassionate. It’s full of good fruits meaning it’s produced by the Holy Spirit in our lives. It’s without partiality, not given because of status, good works or any thing we may do to try to earn it. And it’s without hypocrisy or pretense. With that peace God gives with His wisdom, comes righteousness, right standing with God. It’s sad to say that I don’t know anyone like that, will all those characteristics. But there are some I know that are close to it.
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