WANTED: Wisdom (and the Courage to Apply It)
There exists in modern society something called the “think-tank.” They operate in places like New York and Washington, or around and within leading academic institutions. They are highly prestigious places boasting deep reserves of intellectual firepower. They specialize in analytical, strategic and specialized thought.
One would think that we could think ourselves out of all kinds of problems and into fruitful pastures of pleasure and harmony and peace. Yea, right! My comment is not meant to be cynical, simply literarily facetious to make a point.
Such institutions are fine places, thoughtful places, even helpful places in many respects, and I would not want our world to be without them. It is simply that the fundamental problem besetting our world is not intellectual but spiritual.
The most educated society in history up to its time was Nazi Germany, and looked what happened! It was a society, for all of its genius and capacity, given over to the pathology of mind and practice known as racial engineering.
Consider, too, the extraordinary offerings stemming from Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The plethora of first-rate intellectuals and profound ideas that have emanated from those idyllic places is astounding. Yet England is now a third-rate power (at best!), one that is beset by societal decay at almost every level.
Then look at America. Tell me — nay, please convince me - we are not in trouble. We have an educational system that has been the envy of the world. Students come from all over the world to study in our colleges and universities. Unfathomable amounts of money are poured annually into the public schools. And then look!
Shall we say it again? The problem is not intellectual in its origin or solution, it is spiritual. We are, as a race, fundamentally in need of spiritual restoration. Our powers of intellection and our capacity for accomplishment are hindered, distorted even, by our spiritual malaise.
A very fine friend of mine returns home from demanding work as a major in the U.S. Army and often announces his need for what he calls a “restorative.” It translates in his case into the manufacture of some kind of flavored ice cream soda.
One such restorative that is desperately needed by our culture is that simple, yet highly-flavored, and deeply-textured commodity of wisdom. You can’t find it in many places, least of all in circles of higher learning or government.
There is too much pride and venality in such places. The powers of mind and authority are too-much ransacked by human corruption. “Power corrupts,” said Lord Acton, “and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
How about good-old, tried-and-true wisdom? Our world is being overrun by knowledge, yet knowledge requires wisdom for its sound application. Haven’t we yet learned that the acquisition of knowledge got us into trouble in the first-place?
Eve understood this, even if she didn’t practice what she preached, when she engaged the serpent in discussion: “We may eat from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die” (Genesis 3:2, 3).
There was something about its fruit that she simply didn’t need to learn, or learn the hard way she would! Yes, the serpent was technically correct when he replied, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4, 5).
Life breeds the understanding, though, that there are some things concerning which we would rather not know, recognizing that the old maxim that knowledge of some things are on a “need-to-know” basis. Too much knowledge is actually a rather muddled, let alone disturbing, thing.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn once remarked on man’s right “not-to-know” such things as gossip and lies and all kinds of other unhelpful and counter-productive things. Who needs his or her mind clouded and distorted by such monstrosities?
There is no greater case than the knowledge of good and evil. God alone is capable of handling the difference. God alone has the wisdom and wherewithal to rightly deal with such distinctions. There are no ethical dilemmas at the level of divinity.
God knew that men and women would be perplexed at best and crushed at worst if they entered into even the shallow waters of such a distinction. But we took the plunge and have ever since been flailing our arms amidst the waves.
Yet there is a life-line of wisdom, courtesy of God’s grace and mercy, as we seek to navigate amidst the waters of good and evil. It presents itself to us at times and in ways that are stark, but for our own self-inflicted obfuscation of soul and sense.
A passage from Proverbs has become a continuous refrain in my head is found It deserves a full and open hearing; therefore, it warrants a full and hearty reading.
“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:
“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.
“But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you — when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.
“Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.
“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm” (Proverbs 1:20-33).
The biblical appraisal is clear: First, wisdom is readily available to anyone who desires her, especially in lieu of the fact that God longs to share His wisdom with us;
Second, the lack of wisdom is the direct result of our lack of desire to appropriate her, and the presence of dismay and difficulty (to put it mildly!) is in direct proportion to our rejection of her;
Third, God is prepared to bless us with wisdom and her fruits, but He is also prepared to allow us to go our own way and pay our own price — It is our choice!
God told the Israelites in those early and formative days of biblical narrative and divine interaction that they were to make a choice of profound consequence: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you and you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life €¦” (Deuteronomy 30:19, 20).
Such was His counsel before entry into the Promised Land. Such was His counsel after said entry. Joshua spoke these instructions before he passed from this earth:
“Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14, 15).
A wise choice! We would do well to heed Joshua’s example. We often don’t make wise decisions or seek wisdom for direction and counsel for the simply reason that we don’t really want it. Our lack of desire for wisdom is one of the hidden secrets of our hearts. We say we want it, but we don’t act like we do.
Jesus said that we don’t have because we don’t ask. We don’t ask for it in large measure because we don’t want it. We want other things, for which we have no problem making ardent and repeated request.
I listen closely to what people bring before God’s altar in prayer. We ask Him for healing, employment, safety and succor, a new home or apartment, a mate and a family, etc. — All worthy things, to be sure, but rarely do we ask for wisdom.
It is a shame, because the value placed upon wisdom by Scripture is telling: “Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her (Proverbs 8:10, 11).
James was quite encouraging when he said that “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who givers generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).
But we also have to believe that God will grant our request, which also means that we have to truly believe that there is a God and that He is listening to us, waiting to lovingly and powerfully respond to our plea:
“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6, 7).
It will take courage born of faith to pursue wisdom. You will buck against your own flesh, this world and the devil to have it. But it is worth the effort.
We will then be truly like God. We will be like Him in the sense that we live our lives on the basis of a God-given wisdom, a wisdom that allows us to know and to bear witness to the privilege and blessings of our walk with Him:
“Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). Amen and Amen.
Bradley E. Lacey
June 11, 2010
The World’s Greatest Message with Pastor Brad Lacey is heard on Philadelphia’s WHAT 1340am every Sunday at 9am. Please pray for our listeners and for the finances needed to maintain this faith-based ministry. Your support is invaluable.