I’m studying the wisdom literature books this year and last week we studied a thought taken from Proverbs 8:7-9, about how the Devil is fine with using some truth to mislead people. The very next verse has a great little thought of its own, and is also worthy of consideration…
Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
(Proverbs 8:10)
If you had to choose between wisdom and riches, which would you choose? The ironic thing is a fool would choose riches because he’s a fool and thus would stay a fool, and a wise man would choose wisdom because he was already wise. Thankfully for us, the choice is not laid out for us in that way: The choice is almost not a choice at all, in that sense. Of course, this is just an illustration. In reality, we’re not placed in a room with two boxes, one full of wisdom and one full of silver and gold. Life doesn’t happen that way, and that’s good: We’re not tossed into a test without any help or instruction on what to choose or what the consequences of a bad choice will be.
Think about it like this: There’s no way for us to know that wisdom is the right choice (over money, for example) until we have wisdom. If we don’t have wisdom, and if we were left on our own to choose, we’d be doomed. Fortunately, we’re not on our own: There are wise people around to counsel us. We can’t be wise until we are wise, but we can listen to wise people, and that will make us wise.
God does not leave us in a room with two boxes, one containing life and one containing death. God will not leave us without instruction. He will not say “pick one and we’ll see if you win or lose.” That’s not God. Our Father is a teacher. He is an instructor. He is a giver of knowledge.
We don’t always know which path to take, but if we look long enough, we will find someone who has already taken the path, and who can help us choose wisely. There will always be someone or something around to give us wisdom, be it a person studied in the Word of God, or the Word of God itself. We just need the humility to look for them, and to thank God when we meet them.
~Matthew