I've Been Thinking About This…

God who knows everything has no need to search – all is in plain sight to Him. We work and struggle, on the other hand, to uncover His secrets – not often meeting with success!:

We are not alone in searching – the prophets and even the angels themselves tried to uncover certain things:

And although many things remain hidden for now, some are revealed by the Holy Spirit and bring glory to God at the revelation. For instance:

On the human side, there are things that must be uncovered. It was the duty of a king in David and Solomon’s time to sit in judgment. People throughout the land would come for justice that was both impartial and insightful. Solomon in particular was famed for his powers here, and it is perhaps not surprising that this chapter of Proverbs is titled ‘the proverbs of Solomon’. His most famous case seemed impossible at the time – the case of the two prostitutes (1 Kings 3:16-28) – and it was the wisdom of the king that uncovered the secret.

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The idea of ‘building a house’ implies to us Westerners a literal building; but that is not the sense intended here – this is something more than bricks and mortar. In the first place, the word ‘house’ can refer to a home (of Mary & Martha, Luke 10:38); secondly it can be a family (Prov 14:1); it can also mean a dynasty (the house of Ahab, 2 Kings 8:27) or descendants (the house of David, Luke 2:4).

So there is an intimation of family welfare and growth in these verses; wisdom will enable the family to put down the roots needed to grow and flourish and endure through generations. In the house built through wisdom, there is safety:

Again, wisdom should be seen as walking hand-in-hand with righteous thinking, and elsewhere there are warnings about folly and greed regarding the building of one’s house:

Not to mention the warning from Christ Himself:

God employed wisdom to build His universe, as was mentioned in an earlier post, and as Jeremiah also tells us:

… and His house is not limited to Heaven, or to the universe as a whole, but includes His people specifically:

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I’m pretty sure this means neither “Be a student, never a teacher,” nor “acquire knowledge, but then horde it.”

The emphasis here is ‘acquire it’, and the sense is, ‘at any cost.’ See also Prov 2:2-4; Prov 4:5-7

Total Commitment

And what must you pay to acquire truth? Can money really buy it? In the West, we pay for tuition and are taught a set of facts, and we consider that to be knowledge. But to the ancient Hebrews the word ‘know’ was an inculcation – an absorbing or experiencing. ‘Knowing’ meant becoming one with that which was to be known – hence ‘Adam knew Eve’ and they became ‘one flesh’. Similarly, to know God means more than learning facts – we must commit wholeheartedly to obedience; like diving, it is a total commitment to Him – what Jesus called “losing one’s life” (“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” Luke 9:24, ESV).

As such, the type of acquisition of truth, wisdom and understanding intended in today’s verse was an intimate and personal one; it cannot be gained through money, and doesn’t come from within. It must be bought with a journey, and possibly an arduous and even painful one at that. It is a characteristic that is gained through humility, observation, diligence and a host of other efforts. All of these characteristics take a great deal of labor and self-discipline. In the end, though, the author says it will be worth it.

Solomon was clearly someone who coveted wisdom beyond merely a set of facts. And to turn out as wise as Solomon, we must too.

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A funny-sounding proverb today. Not an excuse I’ve used a lot, myself, but then we don’t have a lot of lions around here. Of course, that was the point – there wasn’t a lion outside the sluggard’s house either. Rather than do anything like work, he came up with an excuse that would require him to stay in the safety of his house.

Having finished Batterson’s In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day ¹, I can now comfortably point to 2 Sam 23:20 as the example of what to do when you see a lion – chase it. Although not every lion’s paw is against us:

I’ve got a barn full of other excuses, of course. In fact, if you need one, give me a call – I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and spend a half-hour hand-crafting one just for you. My pleasure.

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Yesterday we read about how the Lord guides a person’s spirit through life as a lamp guides someone in darkness. This verse expands on it, by noting that He guides kings as well as peasants – politics and history alike are unfolding very much according to His will.

Rice Paddies (unattrib.)

The image of ‘runnels of water’ is a farming reference. On the steep hillsides of Judea, water runs off quickly. To collect it and use it for systematic irrigation was essential, and so it was guided from the pool downhill through a series of channels across the land that needed it. The water itself remained unchanged; its nature was to flow downhill and so it continued to do; its nature was to be absorbable by the crops and that didn’t change either. But the farmers channeled it in useful directions; it followed a plan.

The Lord can take someone whose idea is to go in a certain direction and to turn him so he moves in the direction that the Lord wants. In fact, the Lord can make it so that the person earnestly desires to move in the new direction. The significance of this is that kings are, by reputation, the epitome of arrogance and determination – this presents no problem to God, however. He will redirect the minds of the ten kings that rule with the beast:

… just as He guided Cyrus (king of the Medea-Persia empire) to allow the Jews to return from captivity and rebuild the Temple:

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Man is made in the image of God (Gen 1:27), and that image is a spiritual one. This image lies at our core, and it acts as a light for us – God’s lamp. God is the Creator, Originator and Father of all of our lamps:

Sometimes our lamp searches us like a conscience, urging us on when we are reluctant to go, or convicting us when we have acted improperly:

Or the light can be a beacon – we keep moving forward because we know we are on God’s path even when others deny it or when we are confused. Sometimes it illuminates a wonderful insight that God chooses to reveal to us at this time:

Or we can snuff it out through constant denial of God’s nature within us. We can say we are only beasts, and if we say it for long enough, we become … only beasts.

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