The book of Proverbs was written mostly by King Solomon (a man uniquely blessed by God with wisdom) because he wanted to pass on what he knew about the world and how it worked to future generations. Lately, I’ve been going through this book with my own sons (so expect more proverbs posts) and one of the first themes found in the book must be understood before any of the rest of it can help.
The Fool Says There is No God
The book of Proverbs introduces a concept early and often to drive home the point that there can be no wisdom without a fear of God.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7
Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord
Proverbs 1:29
yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
Proverbs 2:3-6
If you believe what the Bible says, than you may accept that being God fearing is important to being wise, but it’s not a mystical connection that can’t be explained or understood. As people living our lives out one moment at a time, we learn based on our experiences. However, two people can have the same experience and come to wildly different understandings.
This is because what objectively happens gets filtered through our subjective perception of that reality before making its way into our understanding. A person who is not a respecter of God has a terrible foundation from which to build a view of the world, because the whole of the world was created by God and for his glory!
When Solomon wrote about the way of the world to his offspring, he was certain to ensure they knew it wouldn’t be valuable unless they first started with a reverent respect for who God is and how the world relates to him.
Not Life Hacks
Surely, there is wisdom in these passages that would benefit even someone who rejects God right? Absolutely! A person will always benefit from staying away from one who is tempting them into adultery. We would all benefit from people remaining silent and listening first before giving voice to their opinions. It’s always a good idea not to make rash promises.
However, I’m sure many of you (perhaps against your will) have been subjected to the “life hacks” trends where people give advice about how to simplify or improve everyday activities and make your life easier. Have you implemented all of the ones you’ve seen?
You’d have to be crazy to try! There’s no end to advice and not all of it is good. To one who views Proverbs as simply another list of life hacks, they will not see the point of avoiding an affair if they believe they could get away with it. They may have a “righteous” indignation over what they think is a major issue in society that keeps them from listening before passing loud judgement (and looking a fool later, when more information comes out).
If you don’t have a fear of God, true wisdom can look like just more advice that can be taken or left. Sexual morality becomes merely an issue of public perception rather than right living. Virtue signaling is great for upvotes rather than being the abominable act of bearing false witness.
We see people treating the wisdom of God as situational at best all the time!
How One Becomes Wise
Rather than trusting in our own understanding, we must seek to honor God first in everything. That means, when a moment comes when we need to choose between trusting what God has said and what we think might be more pragmatic, we go with God. The foolish in our society will scoff at the idea. How can pragmatism be a bad thing?
One need only look at every major historical atrocity to see how people thinking they could bring about a good end by bad means to see what happens. How many millions of people have died because their leader thought they would bring about a utopia? Had to break a few eggs to make the omelet, right?
While the fools (this is a Biblical term!) continue to attempt to convince us every day that bad behavior is acceptable because, in the grand scheme, it’s still kinder or more beneficial than the alternatives, we must instead turn to what God has had to say about every matter.
Sin clouds our perception of reality to the point where, when we’re not trusting, we will stumble into all sorts of terrible situations that looked a lot like the promised land to our blurry eyes. As we seek to better understand the will and goodness of God, our vision is cleared up and we start to see things a bit more realistically.
Don’t fall for the mirage! Submit to the Lordship of Christ.
