2002-11-12
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
The issue is never belabored when we spend time looking at how God interacts and intervenes to help us as we wage spiritual warfare. There is more I directed to say on this vital subject. Once again we are reminded of the blessings of our salvation when we recognize that our Lord has invited us to a personal relationship with Him, one that is a life-giving covenant relationship. We need never be concerned that He won’t keep up His end of the covenant. His problem is all too often with us keeping up ours.
Wisdom and stupidity are brought up in a section of PR 9. A metaphor of a woman, Sophia [Wisdom] who built a house with seven columns and who lays out a feast for her guests is used. To lend understanding to this section, it won’t hurt to be reminded of some definitions. Information/knowledge is raw data; understanding is a way to organize it; and wisdom is the godly application of it in our lives. Somewhere along the way of learning things, Satan sometimes interferes, making people think they know more than they do or are wiser than they are [PR 3: 5-6]. At times, he interferes with how they apply what they’ve learned. He may even interfere keep people from learning something that is vital for them to know. One such example is a person who hears the Gospel and then rejects it out of stupidity. Satan also is capable of placing alluring blocks in the way to a person learning the truth. An example of that is a person who hears so much convincing false teaching that he is sucked into a group that will lead him to sure spiritual death, if he doesn’t escape from it. PR 9: 5 is the invitation of Sophia to her guests. “Come, eat my food and drink the wine that I have mixed. Leave the company of ignorant people, and live. Follow the way of knowledge.” PR 9: 9-10 combines knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. “Anything you say to a wise man will make him wiser. Whatever you tell a righteous man will add to his knowledge. To be wise you must first have reverence for the Lord. If you know the Holy One, you have understanding.”
The contrast to this is given as the metaphor continues in PR 9: 13,15-17. “Stupidity is like a loud, ignorant, shameless woman…[she] calls out to people passing by, who are minding their own business: ‘Come in, ignorant people!’ To the foolish man she says, ‘Stolen water is sweeter. Stolen bread tastes better.’ The result of accepting this invitation is seen in PR 9: 18, “Her victims do not know that the people die who go to her house, that those who have already entered are now deep in the world of the dead.” I hold that this woman is just another form of Satan. We must remember that Satan is capable of taking on many different forms to further his ability to deceive [GN 3:1; EZK 28:2; MT 7: 15; REV 12: 9, 34]. His message is always evil, no matter what form it takes.
Let’s look at a practical example from the RO 2 of how some of these principles applied to legalistic and hypocritical Jews at Paul’s time. Paul, who we must remember has characterized himself as “a bondservant of Christ set apart for the Gospel” [RO 1: 1] addresses himself to the Jews and the Law in RO 2: 17-29. RO 2: 1b-2, “For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself. We know that God is right when He judges the people who do such things as these.” Paul asks in (3b-6) Do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or perhaps you despise His great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because He is trying to lead you to repent. But you have a hard and stubborn heart, and so you are making your own punishment even greater on the Day when God’s wrath and righteous judgments will be revealed. For God will reward every person according to what he has done.” The kicker in this condemnation of Jewish hypocrisy at the time comes in (14-16), “The Gentiles do not have the Law; but whenever they do by instinct what the Law commands, they are their own law, even through they do not have the Law. Their conduct shows that what the law commands is written in their hearts. Their consciences also show that this is true, since their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them. And so, according to the Good News I preach, this is how it will be on the Day when God through Jesus Christ will judge the secret thoughts of all.” Although this example takes place with the Jews of Paul’s time, the principles Paul espouses here apply just as well in our time. Each of us needs to examine how well our thoughts and actions conform to Christ’s teaching and whether or not we are being wise or foolish, whether we are on our way to eternal joy and fellowship with the Lord or sure eternal torment in the lake of fire and sulfur. How will we know God’s will for us? Just read RO 12: 1-2 for the answer.
PRAYER: O Lord, in RO 1: 18-32 You showed us how we have no excuse for making wrong choices in our lives and rejecting You. In the same passage, You went on, through Paul, to show us how evil begins as a wrongful idea and gets translating into improper action. Satan is the source of all that trouble, and yet, You still love those people who are Your enemies to have given them the opportunity through the death of Your Son on the cross to mend their ways, finding a way out of their slavery to sin. That way through the narrow gate leading to a hard path [MT 7: 13-14] is repentance and coming to faith in Christ. Satan’s greatest desire is to establish his strongholds in our minds. One way he does this is to make us believe that because we have some information, we are wise. Real wisdom, as PR 9: 10 indicates, comes from having reverence for You. If we are not discerning, Satan will deceive us into believing we know the truth. The real truth comes from God, not from the adversary. No external practices such as circumcision or even, baptism bring us salvation. Our genetic heritage doesn’t guarantee it either. JN 14: 6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me,” Christ tells us. This, indeed, is the truth we must live by. When we judge others, we are leading to our own condemnation, for that is arrogantly usurping the right and authority that You gave to Your Son [DN 7: 13-14]. We also breaking the new commandment that Christ gave us in JN 13: 34-35, “And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are My disciples.” Today, we come before Your altar in humility to confess our sins, to promise to seek discernment from daily study of Your word, to communicate with You in prayer first listening for Your wisdom, to act on Your commands, and to offer You our heartfelt adoration, worship, diligence, loyalty, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks, and praise. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I am led to share more wonderful citations that allow us to see the real blessings of our salvation-how God interacts and intervenes to make our spiritual warfare bearable and to keep us in touch with the bigger picture of His wonderful plan for us. While King Solomon didn’t remain wise all his life, the gems of wisdom that he gave us in Proverbs help us to see God’s teaching in a very important way. The very fact that King Solomon’s life ended with his losing his godly wisdom is in itself a valuable lesson that we need to remain ever vigilant against Satan’s attacks, so that the same thing won’t happen to us. We don’t want to end up as King Solomon did. Our Lord Who loves each of us from the bottom of His heart wants us to remain centered on Him, knowing that it really is the only way to eternal life. His compassion and patience for our mistakes is that of a loving Parent and diligent Teacher, Who wants every one of His children to eventually gather close to Him and be showered with eternal blessings. That is the kind of love that is truly life-giving and unselfish. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn