Wisdom beyond Proverbs

Transcription

1 Wisdom beyond Proverbs Do you really think that this life is all there is? Do you really think that this life is limited to what we can see in this world? Do you really think that you re just 62% of water, 16% of fat, 16% of protein, 6% of minerals, and 1% of carbohydrate is that right? Do you really think that this life is all there is? Listen to what Harvard professor James Wood writes in an article published in The New Yorker an American magazine: I have a friend, an analytic philosopher and convinced atheist, who told me that she sometimes wakes in the middle of the night, anxiously turning over a series of ultimate questions: How can it be that this world is the result of an accidental big bang? How could there be no design, no metaphysical purpose? Can it be that every life beginning with my own, my husband s, my child s, and spreading outward is cosmically irrelevant? 1 Just before dying, this is what Steve Jobs confessed to Walter Isaacson (his biographer): For most of my life, I ve felt that there must be more to our existence than meets the eye. It s strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures. [ ] But on the other hand, maybe it s like an onoff switch. Click! And you re gone. Maybe that s why I never liked to put on-off switches on Apple devices. 2 What about you? Do you like on-off switches on your Apple devices? More seriously, if you feel that you re not just a random bag of chemicals, if you think that life isn t just an accident but meaningful and points to something greater, the Bible confirms what you feel and what you think this life isn t all there is. And in the same way, the wisdom which is at the heart of the book of Proverbs isn t all there is either it points to something greater. In other words, there s wisdom beyond Proverbs. As we ve seen, the main author of the book of Proverbs is Solomon son of David, king of Israel (1:1), one of the wisest man of his time. Solomon basically knew everything: He spoke about plant life [ ], about animals and birds, reptiles, fish and AFL [maybe not actually]. From all nations people came to listen to Solomon s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom (1 Kings 4:32-34). One day, a famous queen the queen of Sheba came to test Solomon s wisdom with hard questions Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, New York: Simon & Schuster,

2 Now, we don t really know which questions she asked but she talked with him about all that she had on her mind and Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. (1 Kings 10:1-5) But do you know what? There s someone who was wiser than Solomon there s wisdom beyond Proverbs. This wisdom isn t a religion, a tradition or a spiritual practice like yoga but a person who is now alive and rules over the world. Ultimately, Proverbs points to Christ and that s what I d like to see with you in the rest of our time together. Christ is the wisdom we need to know God (Colossians 2:2-3) In the book of Proverbs, we ve seen that, if we accept the words of wisdom, if we listen to her, if we look for it as silver and search for it as a hidden treasure (remember this word), we ll find the knowledge of God, we ll know God (Proverbs 2:1-5). And in the New Testament, listen to what the apostle Paul writes to Christians who are tempted to find a deeper knowledge of God in visions and the worship of angels: In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). It s in Christ, the mystery of God revealed, that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. In other words, Christ is all we need to know God because he s the one and only Son, who is himself God and [ ] has made him known (John 1:18). So if you want to know God, all you need is Christ, not love even if God is love. As Blaise Pascal (one of my favorite authors) wrote in his Pensées: We know God only through Jesus Christ. Without this mediator all communication with God is broken off. Through Jesus we know God. So if you want to know God and grow in your understanding of his will for your life and of his plan for the world, you know where to go, you know where to look, don t you? Read the Bible, which is God s word revealed to us, and it will lead you to Jesus because what is written in this book ultimately points to him there s wisdom beyond Proverbs. One day, a man was given a Bible by a Christian from Madagascar the island in the Indian ocean, not the movie with the lion, the zebra, the giraffe and the hippo! Even if this guy wasn t really interested in reading the Bible, he accepted it politely as a gift. Later in his life, he didn t know what to think about an issue and wanted to find answers to his questions. So he found the Bible which he had put away somewhere and started to read it: - Genesis Isn t it the name of a rock band from the 1970s? - Exodus Isn t that the title of a song by Bob Marley? - Leviticus Isn t that a type of dinosaur in Jurassic Park? So he kept turning the pages and came across Proverbs I know some proverbs, everybody knows some proverbs! Don t judge a book by its cover. 2

3 Too many cooks spoil the broth. A stitch in time saves nine. Great minds think alike but fools seldom differ. So he started to read the book of Proverbs and he was shocked. Do you know why? Because he had always been told that the Bible was full of non-sense. But when he read Proverbs, he found that this book was actually full of wisdom and it was the first step of his conversion to Christianity never underestimate what God can do with his word in someone s life! And if you think that the Bible is full of non-sense, why don t you read the book of Proverbs to have a look for yourself? So there s wisdom beyond Proverbs there s Christ who is the wisdom we need to know God. Christ is the wisdom we need to be saved by God (Matthew 12:42) As human beings created by God, not only do we need to know God our Creator but also to be saved by him because, in our foolishness, we think there s no God or we think we know better than him. And that s why Jesus came to save us the from the terrible consequences of our foolishness, of our pride, of our rebellion against God. Listen to what Jesus says about himself in the book of Matthew: The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here. In the context of this passage, the Jewish leaders of the time have seen Jesus heal two people but they want to see another sign/miracle from him. But Jesus refuses to give any sign except the sign of Jonah, which is not just Jonah himself but his message of repentance to the pagan people of Niniveh, who listened to Jonah, repented and believed in God (Jonah 3:7-9). In the same way, Jesus says, when the Queen of Sheba a pagan queen came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon s wisdom, she listened to him and believed in his wisdom (1 Kings 10:6-9). Do you get the point? If pagan people like the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba listened to Jonah and Solomon and believed in their message, how much more should Jewish people and everybody else in the whole world listen to and believe in the one who is greater than Jonah and greater than Solomon! Solomon was a great king full of wisdom but he was just a man who can t save us from our sins because he was a sinner himself: He had seven hundred wives [ ] and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. And as he grew old, guess what happened? His wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart wasn t fully devoted to the Lord his 3

4 God. Then Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not follow the Lord completely (1 Kings 11:3-6). Solomon was just a shadow pointing to the real thing, pointing to Christ who came to reveal God to us so we can know him and be saved by repenting and believing in him. There s wisdom beyond Proverbs there s Jesus, the perfect Son who listened to his Father s instruction (1:8), who accepted his words (2:1), who didn t forget his teaching but kept his commands in his heart (3:1), who trusted him (Proverbs 3:5) and became obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). There s Jesus who didn t despise the Lord s discipline and didn t resent his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those he loves (11:12) and chastens everyone he accepts as his son (Hebrews 12:6). There s Jesus, through whom the Father laid the foundations of the earth (3:19), in whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16). There s Jesus who never plotted any harm against his neighbor or accuse anyone for no reason (3:29-30), who committed no sin and in whose mouth no deceit was found, who didn t retaliate and made threats when he was insulted but entrusted himself to him who judges rightly (1 Peter 2:22-23). There s Jesus who was surrounded by woman but who didn t sleep with someone else s wife (6:29) and didn t let himself seduced by prostitutes (7:21) in fact, Jesus never had sex. There s Jesus who loves those who love him (8:17) and who will be found by those who ask, seek and knock (Matthew 7:7-8). There s Jesus who will bless and give life to those who listen to him (8:34-35), who is the food and the wine (9:5) we need to live (John 6:35). There s wisdom beyond Proverbs there s someone who is greater than Solomon. There s Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God, that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30) by fearing the Lord perfectly, by living the perfect life we could never live and dying the death we deserve in our place to pay the price of our sins, for of our foolishness. There s Jesus who is the wisdom we need not only to know God but also to be saved by him. So do you want to be wise? Do you want to live God s way? If so, guess who we need? Christ is the wisdom we need to live for God But if Christ is the wisdom we need to know God and be saved by God, he s also the wisdom we need to live for him. Without him, we can do nothing, just like a tree can t bear fruit if it s not planted in a good soil. 4

5 So for example, if you struggle against sin, and if you haven t yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, do you want to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that entangles so easily (Hebrews 12:1) or do you just give in? If you want to be wise, fix your eyes on Jesus who endured the cross: Consider him [think about him] who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2-3). If you re insulted because of your faith or if you re wrongly accused, do you want to avoid falling into the trap of retaliating and making threats or do you just lash out? If you want to be wise, don t argue with those who mock God or muck him around. I know it s very tempting to reply to the sarcastic and aggressive comments of a confident atheist on Twitter and Facebook but if you start arguing, it will only make things worse and cause more damage. It s interesting to observe that Proverbs never shows the wise man arguing with the fool (there s just one possible exception). Why? Because the fool is [ ] unable to see and admit their wrong [ ] to receive a rebuke, even when it is entirely justified. 3 So if you want to be wise, don t waste your breath and your time on Facebook or Twitter but follow the steps of Christ who left you an example and entrust yourself to him who judges rightly (1 Peter 2:23). On a different topic, if you re tempted to commit adultery, well, don t do it! Don t be like an ox on its way the slaughterhouse but rejoice in the wife of your youth instead. If you keep thinking about someone else or if you indulge in pornography, you need to do something about it. John Piper uses a good illustration on his website ( 4 Imagine that a child is playing in a garage and is about to be crushed by the electric door. What would you do? You would hold the door with all your strength and call for help, wouldn t you? In the same way, have you already fixed your eyes on Christ with the same strength when it comes to fighting against sin? Have you already resisted to the point of shedding your sweat if not your blood? Have you already prayed to receive God s mercy and find his grace to help you in your time of need or do you just give in? If you want to be wise, you can approach God s throne of grace with confidence for in Christ, we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet he did not sin. You see, this life isn t all there is it points to something greater. It s points to its creator, its points to Christ who is the wisdom of God by which the world was made. So the point of this life isn t to make a living but to make a life, not to live for ourselves but for the one who created it and who loved us so much that he died for us and rose again to give us life. Jonathan Chaintrier 3 Eric Ortlund, The Pastoral Implications of Wise and Foolish Speech in the Book of Proverbs, Themelios 38, no. 1 (2013), p