Understand prudence
[Proverbs 8:1-11]
Personally, as I live in this world more and more I realize that I am so foolish and I feel more and more that I need the wisdom from God. In the light of the words of Proverbs, my foolishness is a lot. But I just want to share only three:
(1) My foolishness is not loving knowledge. In other words, my foolishness is hating knowledge.
Look at Proverbs 1:22 – “"How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge?” I can know that I hate knowledge rather than love it by looking at my foolishness. My foolishness is not standing firmly on the word of God, forsaking God’s instruction and teaching (v. 8), falling into Satan’s enticement (v. 10), and sinning against God by being swept away by sin.
(2) My foolishness is backsliding in faith due to my complacency.
Look at Proverbs 1:32 – “"For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them.” Restlessness or complacency means being satisfied with the current state. When my passion for growth such as progress in faith and gospel in my life of faith cools down and I am satisfied with my current state of faith, there is no choice but regression of my faith. And the regression of that faith is result of hating God's knowledge, instruction, and reproof, and the cause is because I turn my back on God's love and forsake God. The result is that I sin against God by disobeying His word. The kind of sin I commit against God is to make the world (people) friendly (Jos. 23:12) and live in harmony with the world amid the decline of faith like the Israelites in Joshua's day.
(3) My foolishness is impatience.
Look at Proverbs 14:29 – “A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.” There are many times when God lets me see myself in a hurry. Those who are impatient like me quickly emit bloody anger (Park). Especially in my case, there are many times when I emit internal anger rapidly. Therefore, as I meditate on books of wisdom such as Proverbs, while my own foolishness is revealed, I feel little by little that I desperately need the wisdom from God. In the midst of such situation, God gives me wisdom and discipline through Proverbs (1:2), and I enjoy the grace that makes me prudence (v. 4).
In the process of this, God is telling me in Proverbs 8:5 – “You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, gain understanding.” So, I would like to receive two lessons from God under the heading “Understand prudence” so that we can understand how we can be prudent. I hope and pray that we can humbly receive and obey God’s instructions so that we can live this world wisely with the wisdom that God gives us.
First, in order for us to be prudent, we must hear wisdom calling us.
Look at Proverbs 8:1 – “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?” What does it mean here that wisdom and understanding raise the voice and call out? The meaning is a sighing about why we don't know God even though the whole universe is filled with the wisdom that God makes known to all of us (Park). That's why King Solomon says in Proverbs 8:2-3 that wisdom is calling out “On the heights along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances.” The similar word is found in Proverbs 1:20-21: “Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech.” Isn't it interesting? In Proverbs 7, the cunning adulteress seduces the foolish young man by standing in the streets, in the squares and lurking by every corner (7:12) and is loud (v. 11). In Proverbs 8:1-4, wisdom calls out on the heights along the way, where the paths meet, beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances. After all, all of us are living by hearing two voices: one is the voice of Satan's foolish temptations and the other is the voice of God's wisdom. What are we listening to and living now? Wisdom is calling out on the heights along the way, where the paths meet and beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances. But the problem is that people don’t hear that wisdom’s calling out, so they don’t have spiritual wisdom to fear God and to know God. As a result, they are sinning against God while walking in their sinful ways. However, the problem is that not only unbelievers who don’t believe in God aren’t listening to the sound of wisdom, but we the believers are also turning away from the voice of wisdom. As a result, we Christians also lack spiritual wisdom to discern the right path that God shows us and aren’t walking that path. Instead, we are now walking the wrong path in our folly. What is the reason? The reason is because we aren’t listening to what wisdom calls out.
What should we do? We must hear the call of wisdom (vv. 1, 5). In order for us to be prudent, we must hear the voice of wisdom. Why should we hear the voice of wisdom? The reason is said in four ways in Proverbs 8:6-9:
(1) The reason we should hear the voice of wisdom is because it tells us the noble things.
Look at Proverbs 8:6 – “Listen, for I will speak noble things; ….” Here the Hebrew meaning of “noble things” is worthy thing, i.e. words that are valuable and proper and so true (Swanson). In the end, I think this word means that the more we hear the voice of wisdom, the more we will establish the right values with the wisdom of God. In other words, the more we hear the voice of wisdom, the more we become wise and prudent. And with God's values, we can distinguish between what is of eternal and beneficial value and what is instantaneous and useless. In a word, when we hear the voice of wisdom, we have the right values. Therefore, a prudent Christian who hears the voice of wisdom chooses things of eternal and beneficial value and does what is worth in the sight of God.
(2) The reason why we should hear the voice of wisdom is because it reveals right things.
Look at Proverbs 8:6 – “… And the opening of my lips will reveal right things.” Here, the meaning of the Hebrew word “right things” is “integrity” or “honesty/integrity/rectitude” (Koehler). Speaking of a line, it is straightness that doesn’t bend or deviate from a linear direction (Swanson). In the end, this means that the more we hear the voice of wisdom, the more we become wise and prudent, so that we can distinguish between a crooked path and a straight path. In other words, the more we hear the voice of wisdom, the more we become wise and prudent, and we will walk the straight and the honest path, not left or right. In a word, when we hear the voice of wisdom, we are on the right path. Therefore, a prudent Christian who listens to the voice of wisdom doesn’t choose the bent and the perverse path, but rather chooses to walk the right path.
(3) The reason why we should hear the voice of wisdom is because it utters truth.
Look at Proverbs 8:7 – “For my mouth will utter truth; And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.” Here, the Hebrew word for “truth” is the word “amen” we often use. Its meaning is 'to be firm', ‘endure’, 'be faithful', 'be true', 'trust', ‘believe’ (Vine). So, when we say “Amen” while listening to the word of God during worship or while we pray and praise, it usually means “I believe.” The more we hear the voice of wisdom, the more we become wise and prudent, and the more we can discern between truth and lies. And we detest wickedness in the fear of God (v. 7). In a word, when we hear the voice of wisdom, we get the right knowledge. Therefore, the prudent Christian who listens to the voice of wisdom puts away lies and chooses the truth. And if he speaks the truth with his lips, he will also live a true life.
(4) The reason why we should hear the voice of wisdom is because is speaks just.
Look at Proverbs 8:8 – “All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse.” The word that comes out of God's mouth is just. As we have already meditated on in verse 6, the reason we need to hear the voice of wisdom is because wisdom speaks what is “right”, verse 8 says that we need to heard the voice of wisdom because wisdom speaks what is “just”. Both the words “right” and “just” have something in common. And the coming thing is that both words, if we speak as a line, it is a straight line that isn’t bent. So King Solomon says that “All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse” (v. 8). In a word, when we hear the voice of wisdom, we can do what is right. Therefore, the prudent Christian who hears the voice of wisdom walks away from the crooked and perverse paths, choosing only the path of just.
We must hear the voice of wisdom coming out of God's mouth. When we hear the voice of God that is the noble things, right things (v. 6), truth (v. 7) and righteousness (v. 8), we will gain knowledge and understanding (v. 9). Furthermore, as we hear and obey God's word of wisdom, we become more and more wise and understanding, knowing what is the noble things, right things, truth, and righteousness, we will be able to choose the noble path, the right path, the true path and the righteous path and walk on that path. In other words, when we hear the call of wisdom, we can do the right knowledge, the right values, the right path, and the right actions. I hope and pray that we all become such prudent Christians, listen to the voice of God's wisdom, and choose the path to live a life that is noble, right, true and righteous in God's sight.
Second and last, in order for us to be prudent, we must listen to God's instruction and gain knowledge.
Look at Proverbs 8:10 – “Take my instruction and not silver, And knowledge rather than choicest gold.” If there are two choices ahead of you, one is silver and fine gold, and the other is God's instruction and knowledge, what would you choose? When I think of this question, it reminds me of the words that we have heard and known to teach our children how to catch fish rather than give them fish. In other words, we know that it's much better to teach the skills how to catch the fish than just give the fish. Nevertheless, looking at our real life, it seems that we are choosing the fish itself. We can know this when we see that we are pursuing gold and silver treasures, or riches, rather than God's knowledge and instruction. The key point of Proverbs 8:10-11 is that God's wisdom is much better than gold, silver, or pearls. The reason is because gold, silver and pearl treasures are fish, and God's wisdom is the way or skill to catch it. It means that if we become wise by obtaining God's instruction and knowledge, God's wisdom is better than wealth itself because God gives us the ability to earn wealth. When I read an article about the patent filing between Samsung and Apple on the Internet news a while ago, I think of what Mr. Chul-Soo Ahn said, ‘There is no chance with hardware now.’ As the times change, they are saying that we should focus on software rather than hardware. Here, hardware refers to all things that can be touched with the hand, such as the computer body, CPU, hard disk, mouse, monitor, etc., which are the computer or peripheral devices attached to the computer. And software is simply “program”. For example, if we try to play a game on a computer, we cannot do it all with hardware. We must have a program that can play computer games. Someone made this comparison to humans like this: human body is hardware, human knowledge is software (Internet). I think the human body is also very important. But the body of a person without knowledge would be like hardware without software in a computer. Both are important. However, when we consider the body of a person without knowledge, we are concerned that this age is trying to abandon the knowledge of knowing God and obtain wealth.
When I say “wealth”, I think of Deuteronomy 8:17-18: “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.' "But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” Clearly, the Bible says that God gives us the power to acquire wealth. Isn't that the ability to acquire riches more important than the wealth itself? Therefore, in Proverbs 8:10-11, King Solomon urges us to obtain God's instruction and knowledge rather than silver or fine gold. In other words, the Bible urges us to use our strength to acquire God's wisdom to obtain riches rather than wealth. Look at Proverbs 8:18-21: “Riches and honor are with me, Enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, And my yield better than choicest silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice, To endow those who love me with wealth, That I may fill their treasuries.” God's heart wants us to get rich in wealth in the end because we are prudent by the wisdom of God and walk on the path of righteousness and just. Therefore, we must be prudent by obtaining God's instruction and knowledge rather than wealth. We must know that prudence is better than wealth.
Not long ago, I read an editorial written by one of our presbytery pastors in a Christian newspaper. And in that editorial, I first heard the word "digital dementia". What "digital dementia" means is that science has developed these days, we have difficulty using our brains as we rely on machines. And as a result, we keep forgetting. For example, a lot of people are used to using a smart phone these days. So it seems that there aren't many things to use our heads especially because that phone does everything for us. As a result, we depend on the machine, so we don't use our heads that much anymore. So we have symptoms like dementia. I think it's an interesting observation. There is a side that I agree with. But when I think of “digital dementia”, I think of “spiritual dementia”. When we don’t meditate on the word of God well and live busy day by day without listening to the voice of God's wisdom, then we have no choice but to live without remembering God's instruction and knowledge. As a result, there are times when we can't live a true and upright life as we walk on the crooked path, leaning left or right. And we are guilty of living unrighteously and practicing unrighteousness while pursuing the best material in our eyes rather than the best in God's eyes. What should we do? We must be prudent Christians. In order to do that, we must hear the voice of God's wisdom. And we must acquire God's instruction and knowledge that are worth more than wealth. I hope and pray that all of us become prudent people in God's sight.