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Daniel 1:3-4

The Seductions of Babylon

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 16, 2023

Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make Babylonians out of the Jews. He could have learned an important lesson from Moses. Pharoah’s daughter plucked him out of the Nile, adopted him as her own, gave him an Egyptian name, raised him in Pharoah’s household, educated him in the best courts and schools of Egypt, and gave him a place of great honor in the country. But he was not assimilated into the Egyptian culture. He chose instead to identify with the people of God. But notice that Moses was the exception. Most of the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt once hardships began. They couldn’t get over the “leeks and melons” of Egypt. All but two of Moses’ generation died in the wilderness longing for Egypt. I can’t help but wonder if Nebuchadnezzar knew Moses’ story. He tried to change the worldview of the Israelite youth also. Daniel 1:3-4 says, “Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.”

There are a lot of strange names to our ears in the Old Testament. The book of Daniel has more than its share. One of those names is “Ashpenaz.” He was the “Chief official over Nebuchadnezzar’s school for training the bureaucrats who administered the Babylonian Empire, who was responsible for the training and instruction of Daniel and his companions.”[1] He would change Daniel’s name as well as the names of others who went to his school. He was charged with teaching them the Babylonian culture and history. Smith says, “By putting them in another place, and filling their minds with another learning, and calling them by another name, he was attempting to erode the roots of their distinctive faith in God so that at the end of three years in the royal college, they would emerge with flying colors and a thoroughly Babylonian worldview. They would still be Jews, of course, but they would think, act, behave, and respond exactly like Babylonians.”[2]

Ashpenaz is in America today! The secular education system in America has followed that path and is using the tactics of Nebuchadnezzar. It took a while to get here, but here we are. Most education in early America was private. The exception to this was the public schools in New England. However, even these were run by the local community. They were founded by Christians, and teachers prayed in class and used the Bible for instruction. But today in our much larger public school system, prayer and religious instruction are not allowed. So what happened? Local schools came under increased state control in the mid-1800s and were proclaimed to be religiously “neutral.” But in reality, Christian education had been replaced with agnosticism, and the schools would be thoroughly secularized within 100 years. The Supreme Court put the final nail in the coffin in the 1960s by federally banning prayer and the Bible in schools.[3]  Many parents learned during the pandemic that the main curriculum at public schools was not reading, writing, and, arithmetic. It was the woke culture of the liberal left. It was the gender blender agenda of the gay community. It was the rewriting of American History to suit the demands of minority groups. It was the pervasive focus on sex education at the earliest possible point in children’s lives. “The strategy is very simple. Intoxicate the people of God with the sheer fascination and splendor of this world. Spread the assumption that what they believe could not be true. Gradually erode their distinctive practices and values, and it will not be long before they are so assimilated into the culture that their distinctive calling to live for the glory of God will simply be overwhelmed.” There may be some heroes like Daniel who can resist the draw of the world, but they will be the exception, not the rule.” Most will be unable to resist the seductions of Babylon.[4]

[1] Richards, Larry. 1999. Every Man in the Bible. Nashville: T. Nelson.

[2] Smith, Colin S. 2002. Unlocking the Bible Story. Vol. 2. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

[3] https://teachdiligently.com/articles/the-secularization-of-american-public-schools

[4] Smith, Colin S. 2002. Unlocking the Bible Story. Vol. 2. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

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Ezekiel 1:1-3, Hebrews 1

The Heavens have opened to us!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 15, 2023

 The “opening of heaven” is mentioned several times in the Bible. To bring about the flood, the windows of the heavens were opened (Gen. 7:11).  The heaven opened at Christ’s baptism, and God spoke. (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21; John 1:51). Heaven opened to Stephen at his death, and Jesus stood to welcome the first martyr home (Acts 7:56). Heaven opened before Peter. A blanket of unclean animals was lowered for Peter to eat from (Acts 10:11). In the Gospel of John, he saw the heavens open and was given a vision of God on his throne. He also saw the heavens open in Revelation 19:11. Malachi calls the people to give their full tithe to God. If they do that, God says, “See if I will not open for you the windows of heaven (Mal. 3:10).” Ezekiel recounts the heavens opening to him in the first three verses of the chapter. It says, “In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.”

It doesn’t tell us how we, too, can see the heavens open to give us a glimpse of God or a revelation of the future. Some ancient Jewish prophets, referring to an inter-testamental book, “The Testament of Levi,” argue that there is a process by which we can entice a vision from God. It might be the source of theurgy. Theurgy is the “Manipulation of the supernatural through certain rites, deeds, and incantations.”[1] Some Jews had formalized the process. “What begins in the Testament of Levi as a description of what Levi did that brought about the vision (meditate, pray, sleep) eventually becomes, in the Hekhalot, a set of prescriptions for the visionary ascent.”[2] There are even some Christian sects that practice certain routines thought to manipulate God’s behavior. Prayer is sometimes presented as the means by which God guarantees a specific action. The New Testament teaches that if we pray according to “God’s will,” it will happen. Since God wants none to perish, to pray for the salvation of someone guarantees that they will eventually come to faith. There is a thin line between the power of prayer and theurgy.

There are no rituals or routines we need today to see God.  The heavens have been opened to you and me. Duguid explains, “All this is possible because to us too, in our contemporary exile, God speaks and reveals himself. Whereas in the past, he spoke to the exiles through the prophet, now, in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, Jesus (Heb. 1:1–2). In the coming of Jesus, God has definitively drawn aside the curtain and revealed his heavenly purpose to all of his people—that in all things, God is working for the good of those who love him so that in Christ we may ultimately be more than conquerors (Rom. 8:28, 37). As we look around us, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Jesus (Heb. 2:8). That is part of the experience of living in exile. But by faith, we do see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor at the right hand of the Father, and believe that our present suffering is part of God’s perfect plan to mold us into the image of the one who suffered first for us (2:9–10).”[3]

[1] Kurian, George Thomas. 2001. In Nelson’s New Christian Dictionary: The Authoritative Resource on the Christian World. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[2] Manning, Gary T., Jr. 2004. Echoes of a Prophet: The Use of Ezekiel in the Gospel of John and in Literature of the Second Temple Period. London; New York: T&T Clark International.

[3] Duguid, Iain M. 1999. Ezekiel. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

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Lamentations 1:2

I Am Jerusalem!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 14, 2023

Jeremiah gives us a bleak picture of God’s chosen “Lady,” Jerusalem, as she bears the consequences of her rebellion against God. “She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.” I like the way Wright begins his commentary on this passage. He says, “Perhaps it’s because I’m a man, but few things are more emotionally moving than a woman in tears, sobbing out some desperate pain or loss. Perhaps only the tears of a seriously injured or bereaved child are more unbearable. This chapter (of Lamentations) assaults the eyes and ears of our imagination with both a weeping woman and destitute children. The Poet presents the city of Jerusalem as a woman in the deepest depths of mourning and pain.”[1] Even though Lady Jerusalem has brought hardships on herself, there is still a sense of pity for her. She had placed her loyalties with those who only used her for their benefit.  She sought fulfillment and meaning in life by worshipping other gods while ignoring the one God who delivered her from Egypt. When she needed the help of the gods or her physical neighbors, they deserted her, leaving her to the mercy of the Babylonians, who killed her young or carried them off to slavery.

In many ways, we are like Israel, watching the destruction of our nation. The things that have made us great are vanishing before our eyes. Statues of America’s heroes are being replaced by modern interpretations of the past, followed by a rewriting of our history. The patterns of life that made America great are disappearing. The make-up of a traditional family and the roles of husbands and wives are changing radically. American influence around the world is eroding. The standard acceptance of the heterosexual norm and the associated assumptions are in doubt. Sexuality, medicine, education, justice, and just about everything else that has made America great are all in jeopardy. There is a sense of profound loss among us. Brueggemann observes, “There is a deep loss among us that gives way to deep anxiety that produces deep resentment and in many quarters brutality. The big losses, so public and seemingly cosmic, spin off into immediate, local losses in the neighborhood. The index of violence and fear issues in public rage.” There is senseless violence in our streets and gross disregard for the law as millions of illegal aliens invade our southwest while the government applauds or tolerates them. Our wealth and prosperity accumulated through our ancestors’ blood, sweat, and tears are being eaten away by inflation and taxation. So, we are left with a “kind of fearful hollowness at the center.”[2] If the direction of this trajectory is not changed, the statue of liberty will be the lady weeping bitterly in the night.

I know that the weeping of Lamentation’s Lady is a figure for the Nation of Israel, but sometimes I feel I’m the disobedient lover who has brought upon himself some catastrophe in life.  I have had a similar experience as Barry. He writes, “I saw myself as Jerusalem. I was her. I had walked away from God’s desire for my life, and I deserved destruction. Sometimes we must break before we can be rebuilt. Sometimes we must fall before we can rise to the greatness God has called us to. Are you Jerusalem? Call out to God like the prophet did. Tell God how you feel. Be honest with your mourning and your sadness. It may not make the fall easier, but it will surely make you more eager to accept the grace that God has offered. God wants you to experience His grace, including salvation in Christ. He wants you to live it.”[3]

[1] Wright, Christopher J. H. 2015. The Message of Lamentations: Honest to God. Edited by Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. England: Inter-Varsity Press.

[2] Brueggemann, Walter. 2004. Inscribing the Text: Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann. Edited by Anna Carter Florence. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

[3] Barry, John D., and Rebecca Kruyswijk. 2012. Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

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Jeremiah 7:16-19, Romans 1:21-25

The Goddess of Sex

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 13, 2023

God tells Jeremiah not to bother prayer for the people. “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame?” The prophets were known for interceding with God on behalf of his people. But God is telling Jeremiah not to bother. It’s too late! This is corporate. It’s for the nation of Judah not for individuals. There is always hope for an individual to repent and come to faith in Jesus. But for the Jews in Judah, during the days of Jeremiah, they had crossed the Rubicon. There are individuals that will be taken as captives into Babylon that have not bowed the knee to other gods, but the nation, in general, had crossed the point of no return. The whole nation is involved, the children, the men, and the women. But Huey is probably right. “No one would be so foolish as to use these words as a proof text to cease praying for others. God knew that the hearts of the people of Judah were so hardened that they had already made their irrevocable decision to ignore his warnings. Therefore, prayer was useless. Sometimes it is too late to pray for another person. We are not privileged as Jeremiah was, however, to know by special revelation when that time has come.”[1]

The “Queen of Heaven” that is mentioned here is the goddess of sex, associated with Ishtar.  Walker says, “This is probably Ishtar, an astral goddess of love (Venus, in the Targum) worshiped by the Babylonians, and later by the Assyrians, who in Jeremiah’s time occupied the territory of northern Israel.”[2] Venus, even in our day, represents female Beauty and sexuality. She is also called Aphrodite. “Aphrodite was the ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty, desire, and all aspects of sexuality. She could entice both gods and men into illicit affairs with her beauty.” “The Roman poet Ovid recounts that Aphrodite bore Hermaphrodites by Hermes, who was the epitome of effeminacy and androgyny.”[3] I can’t help but fear for our own country when I think of the direction the liberal left is taking us with regard to sex education and the blending of the sexes in the woke agenda.

The degradation of humanity into the elevating of sex to a divine level and ignoring the instructions of the creator of mankind will always result in shame and disgrace and eventually judgment. When Paul addressed the Romans who worshipped the sex goddess under the name of Venus, he wanted them to know that these vile sexual practices did not shame Him. They shamed themselves. In Romans 1:21-25, Paul tells us, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

[1] Huey, F. B. 1993. Jeremiah, Lamentations. Vol. 16. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[2] Walker, Larry L., Elmer A. Martens. 2005. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, & Lamentations. Vol. 8. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

[3] WWW. Worldhistory.org/venus/Aphrodite

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Isaiah 1:2, Romans 3:10f

The Gospel in Isaiah

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 12, 2023

The 66 chapters of Isaiah represent a complete presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. It will include the announcement of the one who was crushed for our transgressions and was beaten for our iniquities. The book begins, however, at the same place the preaching of John the Baptist began, and Jesus’ message began. They preached “repentance.” In Deuteronomy, Moses calls heaven and earth as witnesses to the covenant the children of Israel entered into with God. Deuteronomy 4:26 says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” They agreed to keep the commands and statutes of the Lord. They broke their covenant with God and worshipped other Gods and were expelled from the Promised Land. But there is still hope. Isaiah’s message comes to Judah while they are still living in the land and they still have time to repent. So in Isaiah 1:2, he calls on the witnesses to testify, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: ‘Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.’”

Several commentators, like Friesen, see this as a court of law. He writes, “The introduction leads immediately into a summons of heavens and earth (1:2). The summons may be compared to a lawsuit in which witnesses are served with a subpoena to appear in court. The prophets sometimes depict the Lord in litigation with his people (Hillers: 124–42; cf. Deut 32; Isa 1:2–3; Mic 6:1–8; Jer 2:4–13). In Isaiah 1:2–3 and in Deuteronomy 32, for example, there are similar words and phrases (Rignell: 140–58). Both Isaiah and Deuteronomy call heaven and earth to witness (Isa 1:2; Deut 32:1). Both regard Israel as foolish and senseless (Isa 1:3; Deut 32:6). This suggests that Isaiah stands in solidarity with Moses, calling heavens and earth as witnesses to God’s raising up of a people and to this people’s failure to understand the One who sustained them (cf. Delitzsch, 1:55–59).”[1]

In Romans 3:10-12, Paul wants the indictment of Isaiah to hit home for his readers also. He quotes from the book of Isaiah and applies the truth of man’s sinfulness to all of us. Heaven and Earth would testify against you and me as well as against the children of Judah. Paul says, “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’” Then in verse 23 he simply says it, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There is no exception. This truth, and Paul’s pointing it out, make Isaiah a very important book for all of us in every generation. The salvation Isaiah will present to his readers, and that Paul elaborates on for you and me begins with the recognition that we need to be saved. We must agree with God’s appraisal of us. The Greek word for confession is “say the same thing” about our situation that God says. The Greek word for repentance is “to change the way we are thinking.” Confession and repentance might include admitting that we’ve done something wrong, but it is more of an acceptance of the truth that I am a sinner at the very core of my being. No power within me can save myself. I’m hopelessly drowning in an ocean of sin and I desperately need someone to save me. I am helpless and all is hopeless unless God acts. As we see in the book of Isaiah and throughout the New Testament, God sent his son, the Holy Life Guard, to jump into the ocean of our sin and pull us out. He doesn’t throw a life-saver, or a life jacket, or give us instructions on how to swim. He dives into the ocean of our sin and through His perfect life, and sacrifice of himself for our sins drags us hopeless and helpless beings from the torrent of our sin and places our feet on solid ground.

[1] Friesen, Ivan D. 2009. Isaiah. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, PA; Waterloo, ON: Herald Press.

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Song of Solomon 1:2

Kisses Sweeter than Wine

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 11, 2023

When I was a kid growing up, my older sister bought Jimmy Rodgers’s popular song, “Kisses sweeter than wine.” If you remember that song, you go back to the 1950s. I was pretty young, and I had never been kissed. Well, I had never been kissed by a girl. I quickly identified with the first part of the song, “Well, when I was a young man, and never been kissed, I got to thinkin’ it over- how much I had missed. So I got me a girl and I kissed her and then, and then Oh, lordy, well I kissed ‘er again, because she had kisses sweeter than wine. She had, mmm, mmm, kisses sweeter than wine.” The first girl I kissed was wearing cherry-flavored lipstick or something sweet. And I remember thinking about that song. Yep, it was sweet, OK!

I had never tasted wine, so I had to take that part for granted! Of course, as I grew up and kissed other girls (not that many!) I discovered that their lips weren’t sweet tasting at all. But the experience was sweet. It was figurative language. When Solomon recounts the words of his love, he recalls her saying, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.” Now I know where Jimmy Rodgers got the name for his song. There’s one thing that both Solomon and Jimmy Rodgers have in common: they both wrote songs.

But the Song of Solomon is the song “of all songs.” A song has long been acknowledged as the only adequate way to communicate such deep feelings. Hubbard writes, “Overwhelmed by our desire to give ourselves away for the sake of another and to receive from that other more than we dare ask, we do not derive a formula, concoct a recipe, recite a ritual, draw a map, lay out a graph. We sing a song. In the Song treasured in Holy Writ, we sing the best song possible.”[1] Solomon’s song has lyrics about tasting and touching, but they are not crude or immodest in any way. Unlike many of the X-rated lyrics of today’s music (if you can even call it that), O’Donnell says, “This Song guides us to see with Scriptural sensibilities ‘that the way of a man with a woman is too wonderful” (Proverbs 30:18, 19), and that marriage is not simply a concession to the necessity of procreation but an affirmation of the beauty, chastity, and sacredness of human love. Amen and amen.”[2]

But not everyone wants to read the Song of Solomon that way. They ask, “Is this an appropriate subject for the Bible?” Many think not! Nicholas of Lyra (1270–1349) could speak of the love between a bride and groom as “proper” but not the proper subject of Scripture and thus not of this Song. In his words, such fleshly love even within marriage has “a certain dishonorable and improper quality about it.” Similarly, Theodoret of Cyrus (c. 393–c. 457) wrote that those who give the Song a “corporeal [fleshly] interpretation” have committed an “awful blasphemy.” Yet, I can’t help but agree with Hubbard, “A document that elevates the beauty and purity of marital love is surely charged with holiness. So idyllic is the mood of the Song that it sounds like a return to Eden. Nothing foul, vile, filthy, nor selfish tarnishes the scene.” Could not this be the song that Adam sang when God brought Eve to him? There were no fig leaves before the fall, and they had no shame. Hubbard goes on, “The fall that triggered such lust and fear and perversion in our human attitudes to sexuality seems suspended” in the attitudes of the two lovers in the Song of Solomon. “Sin appears to be excluded. What once was, what again can be, in the pure desire of one partner for another, is described.”[3]

[1] Hubbard, David A., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1991. Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Vol. 16. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

[2] O’Donnell, Douglas Sean. 2012. The Song of Solomon: An Invitation to Intimacy. Edited by R. Kent Hughes. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

[3] Hubbard, David A., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1991. Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Vol. 16. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

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Ecclesiastes 1:2, John 10:10

Jesus turns smoke into abundance

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 10, 2023

According to Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, everything in life is meaningless as the New International Version puts it, “meaningless, everything is meaningless.” Most English translations preserve the original rendition of the Hebrew and translate it as “vanity of vanities. Everything is vanity.” The Hebrew word for “vanity” is often translated as “mist” or “smoke.”  Ryken says, “Taken literally, the Hebrew word hevel refers to a breath or vapor, like a puff of smoke rising from a fire or the cloud of steam that comes from hot breath on a frosty morning.” Eugene Peterson actually uses the word “smoke” in his modern paraphrase of Ecclesiastes. He writes, “Smoke, nothing but smoke. There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke.”

But when Solomon says “vanity of vanities, everything is vanity,” I believe he means more than simple “emptiness” or “meaninglessness.” He means there is nothing in this life that brings lasting satisfaction and happiness. He means that riches, possessions, power, pleasure, and even our accomplishments are all misleading and deceptive. They are all “smoke and mirrors.” They take our attention from what matters and put it on something untrue or unreal in order to mislead or distract us. But Solomon offers another perspective.  It’s the solution to the apparent futility of life.

The key to understanding Solomon and the entire book of Ecclesiastes seems to be found in one three-word phrase: “under the sun.” This phrase is unique to the book of Ecclesiastes, appearing nowhere else in the Bible. Don Glenn, in his commentary, explains, “By the phrase under the sun, he meant ‘down here on the earth.’ He used this phrase repeatedly (29 times) throughout the book, often in connection with man’s toil.” So you see, Solomon does not leave us with a suicidal complex, as some commentators suggest. Instead, he says there is a heavenly perspective that makes sense out of everything. Ryken puts it this way, “But when we look to God with reverence and awe, we are able to see the meaning of life, and the beauty of its pleasures, and the eternal significance of everything we do, including the little things of everyday life. Only then can we discover why everything matters.” Jesus once said that he came to give us life, not just regular life, but a truly “abundant life.” It is Satan, the thief, that comes to make our lives miserable. Jesus said as much in John 10:10. Jesus says, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

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Proverbs1:2

To Know Wisdom

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 9, 2023

The first verses of Proverbs give us the writers purpose. We can identify three purposes in the second verse: “To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight.” First, the writer wishes his readers to become intimate with wisdom. Then to relate appropriately to instruction. Third, to recognize and appreciate what lays at the heart of an issue, not just the apparent outward presentation. Becoming intimate with wisdom is mentioned first. If we look at the word “know” in a biblical sense, we understand that it’s not to be able to identify something from afar but to have an intimate acquaintance with it. It’s not just intellectual but applicational. “It offers the significant benefit of acquiring the key to attaining capability in life. This book teaches the principles that determine success or failure in the major arenas of human activity, including business, personal relationships, family life, and community life.”[1] In some ways, it refers to common sense. It’s sound, practical judgment concerning everyday matters or an essential ability to see things as they are. But in the Bible, it also refers to the ability to “do” something. It was used of the craftsmen who were able to do intricate and creative work in the tabernacle building. It is competence and skill in any domain.

Solomon wants his readers to be wise and competent, but he knows that nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. How a person deals with his mistakes is crucial, and that’s where “instruction” comes in. How do we respond when someone corrects us? Verse 7 tells us that fools “despise instruction.” It is wisdom that will ask for help, directions, and receive instructions. It’s not always easy to accept advice. It sometimes makes our pride bristle. Whether intended as constructive criticism or not, if one could learn always to take it that way, he would become wise. We need to recognize and acknowledge the wisdom, experience, skill, and knowledge of others. If we are recipients of negative criticism, we will do well to handle it politely and move on with our lives. The book of proverbs attempts to teach us these skills.

Solomon also wants his readers to be able to look beyond the surface of an issue and identify the roots of the problem. He calls this “insight.” When Solomon was confronted by the two women fighting over the one live baby, he exercised insight into the heart of the issue. He presented a solution that would reveal the truth in the matter. This is insight. But in the end, all this common sense, skill in living, and understanding are all part of the overall theme of “wisdom.” It takes wisdom to live a happy and satisfying life.  The New Testament tells us that it takes Jesus.  Colossians 2:3 tells us that “in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Jesus is the personification of wisdom, and we find real life through our faith in Him. I like how The Message translates 2 Corinthians 5:15. It says, “He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.”

[1] Garrett, Duane A. 1993. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Vol. 14. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

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