The wise (1)
[Proverbs 3:1-10]
In our church membership, there is a “spiritual attitude” section. In that spiritual attitude section, the spiritual attitudes that our church members need are “obedience”, “humility”, “faithfulness”, and so on. There is a phrase written before the contents of this spiritual attitude. The phrase is none other than “The kind of person you are is far more important than the kind of work you do”. I value this phrase. It's deeply engraved on the plate of my heart. That is why I focus more on “Being” than on “Doing” in my own life of faith as well as in the ministry. For example, what I care about is not what we have done for God, but rather what kind of person we are in God's sight. The reason I value this is because I believe that our doing must come out of our being. If we are now being more transformed into Jesus and become a reminder of Him wherever we are and wherever we go, this is more important than what we are doing for Jesus and His church. Therefore, I want to challenge you today. The challenge is 'Am I resembling the character of Jesus right now?' rather than the question of 'What am I doing for the Lord?' When we become more like Him, we will be able to act like Jesus. Likewise, when we become wise, we can walk wisely. Therefore, we must be wise. In particular, as we continue to meditate on the words of Proverbs, we must receive the heavenly wisdom that God gives us and become wise.
We thought about the benefit of wisdom centered on Proverbs 2:10-22 at the Wednesday prayer meeting last week. The benefit of the wisdom is that it is pleasant to our souls (v. 10), protects and delivers us (vv. 11-12), and it makes us to walk in the way of good men (v. 20). Today, I would like to receive 4 lessons from God as we meditate on the wise, centered on Proverbs 3:1-10. The first thing we want to consider together is the attitude of the wise. The Bible Proverbs 3:1-10 teaches us in four ways:
First, the heart of the wise keeps God’s commandments.
Look at Proverbs 3:1, 3 – “My son, do not forget my teaching, But let your heart keep my commandments; ... Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.” The wise person doesn’t forget God's laws or commands but keeps them. As a result, he engraves the love of God and the absolute truth of God on the plate of his heart. Because this wise man loves God, he obeys His word (Jn. 14:21), and because he obeys the word, he experiences God's love more and more deeply. In other words, the motive for the wise to obey God's word is he loves God, and because he loves God, he has no choice but to dive deeper and deeper into the love of God by listening to and keeping His word. However, a fool cannot experience God's love. Rather, he has no choice but to experience God's hatred more and more deeply. What is the reason? The reason is because he loves being simple-minded, delights himself in scoffing, and hates knowledge (Prov. 1:22), hates listening to God's word (v. 24), and disobeys His word. Because he doesn’t love God, he disobeys His word. And because he disobeys God's word, he cannot experience His love. Rather, he has no choice but to eat the fruits of God's mockery (v. 26), of God's disregard (v. 28), and of their own way (v. 31). However, the wise will experience God's love more deeply by obeying the word of God's truth. Not only that, the wise loves God and loves his neighbors with His deep love. Furthermore, the wise seeks more and more truthful life before God and people. In other words, the wise lives a life of personifying His word by keeping the God’s absolute truth. And that word personifying life is truthful life. But the fool lives a false life. The reason is because he hates and dislikes the word of absolute truth (vv. 22, 24), and falls into the temptation of the evil one (v. 10, 2:12) and the adulteresses (2:16). We must be wise. We must obey God's command and act with our hearts. Therefore, we must inscribe the love and truth of God more and more deeply on the plate of our hearts. And we must give glory to God by living truthful life and love by keeping His word.
Second, the wise trusts God with all his heart.
Look at Proverbs 3:5-6a: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him ….” The wise person who engraves God's commands on the plate of his heart by keeping them trusts God whom he loves with all his heart. Here, to trust in the Lord with all your heart means ‘exclusive trust.’ This trust is called “childish confidence” (Park). Believing in God like a child and completely relying on Him with simple trust is to trust in God with all your heart (Park). In order to trust God with this kind of trust, we must not rely on our own understanding. The more we rely on our own understanding, the more we cannot trust God with simple heart like a child. An example is Elijah. In 1 Kings 17, God commands Elijah to hide himself by the brook Cherith, which was east of the Jordan (vv. 3-4) in a situation where there would be neither dew nor rain (v. 1). What do you think about this God’s command? Do you think this God's command is a command that our minds can understand? Does it make sense? How could God command Elijah to go to the brook and drink the water of the brook where there was no rain? Isn’t it obvious that if it didn’t rain, the water of the brook would dry up? Of course, God is the Almighty God who can perform a miracle even when it doesn’t rain, so that the brook wouldn’t dry up. God, who dried the Red Sea and made it like land, is the Almighty God who can keep the brook flowing so that it doesn’t dry up in the situation where it doesn’t rain. However, God didn’t perform such a miracle for Elijah. As a result, the water of the brook Cherith dried up (v. 7). Would Elijah be able to obey the God’s command to hide himself by the brook Cherith if he relied on his own understanding since the water of the brook would dry up due to no rain? Eventually, the brook dried up after a while because there was no rain in the land (v. 7). Then, God sent Elijah to a widow who lives in Zarephath. God commands Elijah to arise, go to Zarephath, which belonged to Sidon, and to stay there (v. 9). God made the widow there, who was about to make a last meal for herself and her son and then die (v. 12), to provide for Elijah (v. 9). Is this command of God really understandable through our human minds? No. How could God command Elijah to go to the house of the widow who was about to prepare the last meal for herself and her son and then die? If Elijah relied on his own understanding, I am sure he couldn’t obey the God’s command. I remember Isaiah 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Despite the difference between God's thoughts and our thoughts, there are countless times when we live on this earth by putting Creator God’s higher thoughts into the frame of our creatures’ lower thoughts. As a result, we often fail to trust God completely and rely on ourselves in doubt. But the Bible commands us not to lean on our own understanding (Prov. 3:5). Therefore, we should not lean on our own understanding. Rather, we must trust God with all our hearts. We must acknowledge Him in all our ways. We must commit our works to Him. Then our plans will be established (16:3).
Third, the wise fears God and turns away from evil.
Look at Proverbs 3:7 – “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.” When we rely on our own understanding, in the end we become wise in our own eyes. In particular, we manage our work by relying on our own understanding and often think that the work went well because we are wise. We who rely on our own understanding in this way consider ourselves wise. That is why King Solomon is telling us, “Do not be wise in your eyes” (v. 7). How is this possible? This is possible when we fear God. In other words, when we fear God, we can turn away from evil. Just as when we love God and love the truth (3:3), we turn away from hatred and lies, when we fear God, we can turn away from evil of considering ourselves wise (v. 7). If we don’t trust in God and don’t acknowledge Him in all our ways, it is evidence that we trust in ourselves and acknowledge ourselves. This is also evidence that we are considering ourselves wise. This is the vain faith of a fool who doesn’t fear God (14:16). And the cause of this vain belief that he believes himself to be wise is haughty in mind (Rom. 12:16). Why is our mind in haughty? The reason is because we don’t know the great God intimately. When we don’t have the knowledge of God intimately, we consider ourselves wise (Prov. 3:7) and be wise in our own estimation (Rom. 12:16). When we fall into such pride, we don’t glorify or give thanks to God even though we know Him. Rather, we become futile in our speculations, and our foolish heart is darkened, professing to be wise, we become fools (1:21- 22). Therefore, we should not be wise in our own eyes. Rather, we should fear God and turn away from evil. We must fear God, so that we don’t be haughty in our mind, but associate with the lowly. In a word, the wise who fears God is humble. We must fear God, be humble and turn away from evil. God will raise up these humble people and use them greatly.
Fourth and last, the wise honor God with his wealth.
Look at Proverbs 3:9 - “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.” He who leans on his own understanding to gain wealth is wise in his own eyes and gives glory to himself. He may glorify God with his lips, but with his heart he never glorifies God, nor can he do so. He strives to fill his stomach amidst his pride, never humbly and gratefully give his wealth to God. However, the wise who completely trusts in God and turns away from evil by fearing God is as if wise children (Eph. 5:15), who obey their parents in the Lord and honor them (Eph. 6:1-2), obey and honor God (Prov. 3:9). He honors God with his wealth and the firstfruits of all his crops (v. 9). Why does the wise do that? It is because he knows that God gave him all his wealth and crops. Because he wants to express his gratitude to God (Deut. 26:1-3, 9-11), he honors God with his wealth. This is how the wise acknowledges God and His help (Walvoord). Offering God with wealth is an important act in the life of faith (Park). Both Exodus 34:20 and Deuteronomy 16:16 say we shall not appear before God empty-handed. If the wealth that is the price of our effort is precious, then we must give it to God. Let’s not forget. “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7) (Park).
The heart of the wise keeps the commands of God. The wise doesn’t lean on his own understanding, but he trusts God with all his heart. Also, the wise isn’t wise in his own eyes. Rather he fears God and turns away from evil. And the wise honors God with his wealth. May we become wise in God's sight.