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Thoughts of a saint and slave
by Sam Isaacson
We're in Proverbs 2, and in our third week of looking at an extended passage in which the character Wisdom, who represents God, is instructing us in how to become wise. Two weeks ago we looked at how our level of wisdom is essentially based on our attitude towards Scripture, and last week we looked at how our wisdom is only found in God, and our identity found in Him. This week we see the results.
'Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.' (Proverbs 2:9-15)
You will understand
It's fair to say that some parts of the Bible are a little bit cryptic, but this passage is not. If God gives you wisdom, knowledge and understanding there is a simple promise: you will understand righteousness and justice and equity. To put this another way, our consciences become truly awakened when we become Christians. One of the defining factors of being a Christian should be that we understand righteousness, justice and equity. It should make us uncomfortable when we see injustice.
I'm sure we're aware of the recent disaster in Japan; the company I work for had a week of fundraising to make a donation to one of the charities. We raised something like £15,000, which is good, but I know that some people in my company would personally earn thousands of pounds in a week, and this donation is meant for enormous populations on the other side of the world! Something within me screamed out 'injustice!' Of course this gives us an uncomfortable challenge. My non-Christian coworkers do not 'understand righteousness and justice and equity' so you could argue that they have an excuse; I do not. Are you aware of injustice and should be standing up for what's right?
No mention of the mind
Something which stood out to me from this passage is the fact that intellectual understanding is not mentioned. Solomon mentions wisdom coming into your heart and knowledge being pleasant to your soul, but there's no talk about our minds understanding anything! This seems odd; aren't we talking about knowledge here? Surely that's all about our minds? Someone once said that the longest distance was the distance from the head to the heart, and that rings true for us. As good Christians we love to engage in Bible studies where we talk about what the Bible says. We study, and talk, and learn, then go home feeling good about ourselves...but we've not changed a bit. The Christian walk is not one in which we can sit back and simply increase in knowledge, it's one in which our lives must be changed! 'Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind' (Romans 12:2)! We must pray, seek God, and do everything in our power to pursue that difficult journey from 'head knowledge' to 'heart knowledge'.
Protection
If we truly develop this heart knowledge of God, this passage suggests that we get an impenetrable armour against attack. We will be protected against 'the way of evil', and we'll be protected against 'men of perverted speech'. The description of these men is detailed but the underlying message is this: if we allow this knowledge from God to become written on our hearts, it doesn't matter what temptation gets in our way, and it doesn't matter what anyone says to us - we will not be moved from the centre of God's will. That sounds like a good result to me.
By meditating on God's Word, and by allowing Him to change us we will become shining lights for His Kingdom in our world. We will stand up for righteousness, justice and equity. We will not be led astray by false teaching or temptation. We will embrace purity and be so different from the world around us that unbelievers will be led to ask, 'who is your God who gives you such strength and wisdom?' Let's allow ourselves to be inspired by the triune God to increase in wisdom and everything that brings with it.
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