What do you think "success" is? Do you think that "success" in the world and "success" in the Bible are the same or do they differ? If they are differ, how do you think they are different? Have you asked these questions to yourself? I personally think that "success" in the world and "success" in the Bible are different. But the problem is that even we Christians seem to be blind to worldly successes rather than biblical successes. If we look at the book ‘Be successful in God’s standard’ written by Tony Nelson, this is what he said: ‘Our human-centered society is captivated by success. Everyone talks about success and aspires to success. But why are so many people living hard in their self-defeating and regretting bitterness of failure? It is because they do not know the true success of the Bible. True success is not wealth. It is not living a happy life. Success is not something we achieve, but it is our being. Success is not that people are impressed with us, but God is pleased with us’ (Internet). Do you understand? Do you know the true nature of the Bible's true success? Tony Nelson emphasizes in his book that we must have the biblical success of God's standards, as we are constantly thinking of success in terms of money, and of the worldly successes of prestige, honor and prosperity. And he introduces twelve biblical techniques of success in his book. Regarding the first of the twelve successes, he says: ‘First, the skill of biblical success starts with adjusting our view. The starting point of success is to fear God and gain wisdom. The basis of our success is desperately dependent on God's presence so that the consciousness being with God dominates our lives. Because we know God's character and status, we do not take even one step in our life by trusting ourselves’ (Internet). What do you think of these words? Do you agree?

 

Whenever I think about Joseph's story in Genesis chapter 39, I believe that in the biblical success there can be suffering and pain. And the true Biblical success is the "prosperity", and the essence of that prosperity is God with us. The Bible says in Genesis 39 that “The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered” (v. 2), “When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did” (v. 3), “the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden” (v. 21) and “… because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did” (v. 23). This is the secret of the success to us. Because Immanuel God is with us, we are enjoying blessing of success in this world. This is what the Psalmist prayed to God in Psalm 118:25 – “O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.”

 

This is what King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 10:10 – “Wisdom has the advantage of giving success.” What is this wisdom that has the advantage of giving success? It is the wisdom that applies to everyday life. In today's text King Solomon speaks in two things:

 

 

Look at Ecclesiastes 10:8-9: “Whoever digs a pit may fall into it; whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them; whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.” The world we live in has too many dangers. There are many factors that make us dangerous here and there. One of those factors is that those who devise to harm us set traps and make us to fall into that traps. Listen to a Psalmist who went through this experience in Psalm 140:5 – “Proud men have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path. Selah.” The proud men have hidden the snare for us, have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for us. Among these traps I particularly think that the words of Proverbs 23:27 are threatening: “for a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well.” The reason that this trap of the prostitute is very threatening is because many of us fall into that trap and sin against God. What causes it? It is because of our folly (Prov. 7:7). By our foolishness, when a woman who dressed like a prostitute (v. 10) sets a trap and deceives us with various words, we follow her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose (vv. 21 -22). What should we do in this reality? In Ecclesiastes 10: 8-9, King Solomon uses the words “digs a pit”, “breaks through a wall”, “quarries stones” and “splits logs”. These words describe the destructive acts and these destructive acts can put us in dangers. What are we to do when these dangerous factors are trying to cross us on every side? What should we do when those who are trying to harm us will pit the traps to endanger us, tear down the walls, unleash the stones, and split the trees? We must seek God. Look at Psalm 141:9 – “Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evildoers.” We must ask God to be delivered as the psalmist. We must pray to God to rescue us from those who are trying to destroy us by setting up the traps. And we must abandon our foolishness and seek wisdom from God. The reason is that when we receive the wisdom of God, we can escape from the trap of those who try to harm us with that wisdom. Look at Proverbs 13:14 – “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.” Look at Proverbs 2:16 – “It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words.”

 

 

Look at Ecclesiastes 10:10-11: “If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success. If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.” What this means is that, no matter what a person does, they have to prepare a lot from beforehand to succeed. Anything that is not planned and not ready will fail inevitably (Internet). Here King Solomon has two examples: (1) The point of the first example is that if the knife is dull, a person who uses that knife has to use more strengthen. What does it mean? It means that the person has to sharpen the knife in advance in order to use less strengthen. The famous slogan says “Do not work harder - work smarter!” (Wiersbe). I think many times we work foolishly. But we need to be clever. The wise work so smartly. Like sharpened knife, a wise man does all the works well without using a lot of strengthen and saving his strengthen. (2) And the second example is that the charmer should use his methods and techniques first in handling the snakes. It means that the wise charmer must first learn the methods and techniques and then treat the snakes. Last week, I thought about the cost of discipleship, based on Luke 14:28 – “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?” What does it mean? It means that we have to budget how much it costs before we start to build the tower. And we have to figure it how much do we have right now in order to build the tower. The reason why Jesus mentioned this was to say that we must prepare thoroughly to become his disciple. In other words, we have to anticipate and prepare our mind about how much sacrifice is required to be his disciple. How should we prepare our mind? As disciples of Jesus, we must be prepared to sacrifice in our hearts. In other words, we must offer our lives to him and follow Jesus. When I was meditating on wisdom that has the advantage of giving success, I remembered the church being built in Namyangju, South Korea. The name of the church is ‘Prepared Church’. And the pastor of the church is a friend of mine who grew up together with me in the church where my father served as a senior pastor. When I saw the prayer subjects that he asked me to pray for, several prayer requests has the word ‘prepared’ in them. Last time I went to see the church building with my father’s friend pastor, we went into the church building and my father’s friend pastor prayed to God. When I heard from another pastor that God had prepared my friend for several years, I became more firmly convinced that God prepared the servant whom he wanted to use. And I think that the prepared God’s servants are beautiful and precious. Let’s remember that wise men prepare a lot. And God bring success to the wise man who is prepared.

 

There was a lot of apology from a pastor, who seemed like successfully carrying out the ministry of young people but stumbled. After he acknowledges his mistake on the internet, many people talked about him on internet. In the meantime, I was thinking that the first of the twelve skills needed for Biblical success that Tony Nelson said: ‘The starting point of success is to fear God and gain wisdom.’ I think it applies not only to the pastor who apologized on internet but also to all Christians. I think it is true that the starting point of success is to fear God and gain wisdom. The reason is because wisdom has the advantage of giving success (Eccle. 10:10). And we must accept that wisdom that has the advantage of giving success protects us from danger. It is the wisdom that God gives us protects us from the work of Satan and many temptations and pitfalls in this world. We must also accept the fact that we must prepare a lot of wisdom that has the advantage of giving success. This is because we who are not well prepared become too famous with big church, too rich eventually become proud, and fall into the trap of Satan to sin against God. Especially when we look at us who are trapped and sinned, I think it is a character that is not well prepared. No matter how much Biblical knowledge and a lot of theological study he has, if he doesn’t resemble Jesus, especially the humble personality, he tends to fall into temptation and sin against God. I hope and pray that we all take the word of wisdom “Wisdom has the advantage of giving success” humbly in our hearts and seek that wisdom so that we may live wisely for the glory of God.