Godly wisdom is uncommon sense, unlike the wisdom of the
world and our own natural inclinations,
yet it promises success, wealth, honor and life. Get
wisdom!
Today I propose to give a first cut at answering three
questions:
- What is wisdom?
- Why get wisdom?
- How do you get wisdom?
First, what is wisdom?
- The Hebrew word for wisdom is chokmah.
- One of the first uses of chokmah is in Exodus 28:3,
where it describes the work of skillful weavers charged
with making priestly garments:
- “Speak to all the craftsmen [literally, chokmay lev,
wise or skillful in heart] to whom I have given the
spirit of wisdom [ruach chokmah], and have them make
Aharon’s garments to set him apart for me, so that he
can serve me in the office of cohen (priest).”
- The skill of these craftsmen who were called “wise in
heart” and “given the spirit of wisdom” is that they
were able to follow God’s design for weaving the
priestly garments.
- Hence, wisdom, chokmah, may be defined as “the skill
to live life according to God’s plan.”
- Again, wisdom is skill for living according to God’s
plan. Wisdom is practical.
- A wise person is one who patterns his goals, his
relationships, his finances, and every other aspect of
his life according to the specifications revealed in
God’s word or Torah.
Godly wisdom is uncommon sense.
- I have another book called Proverbial Wisdom & Common
Sense, yet I call godly wisdom uncommon sense!
- It’s uncommon because it often the opposite of our
natural inclinations.
- It says the way up is down (that is, through
humility), the way to rule is to serve (just as Yeshua
came to be a servant to all), the way to live is to die
(that is, dying to selfishness, pride, greed, lust,
etc.)
- Our natural desires attract us to pleasures of sex,
food, wine, and easy living, but wisdom says whoa!
- Proverbs 21:17, for example says, “He who loves
pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil
will never be rich.”
- Wisdom also uncommon sense because most people don’t
have it. Indeed, Christians and Messianic believers
don’t automatically have wisdom.
- When the rate of divorce is as high among believers as
unbelievers that’s a lack of wisdom.
- When believers are as likely to lie as unbelievers
(rather than tell the truth because it might seem, at
the moment, unsafe, or unprofitable or just
uncomfortable), that’s a lack of wisdom.
- When believers are in as much debt as unbelievers,
that’s a lack of wisdom.
So, you might wonder, if it’s uncommon sense, why get
wisdom?
- After all, getting wisdom isn’t necessarily easy or
comfortable or fun.
- Do most children like listening to parents talk about
wisdom? A wise child does.
- But few children are wise! Getting wisdom requires
discipline. Do children like discipline?
- OK, do you like discipline?
- So you see, this a legitimate question: why get
wisdom?
The answer is that wisdom has many benefits:
- Success, better health, better quality of life, better
finances, better government, and better relationships
with spouses, with family, with neighbors and above all
with God.
- That’s quite a list of benefits.
- But wisdom promises all this and more. Listen:
You want success in life?
- Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD whatever you
do, and your plans will succeed.”
- 22:4 says, “Humility and the fear of the LORD bring
wealth and honor and life.”
You want better health?
- 3:8 promises that wisdom will “bring health to your
body and nourishment to your bones.”
- 4:20, Words of wisdom “are life to those who find them
and health to a man’s whole body.”
- And 17:22 gives some good practical advice, “A
cheerful heart is good medicine.”
- Medical science confirms it, but a lot of
half-glass-empty people don’t get it.
You want more security?
- Proverbs 4:6 says, “Do not forsake wisdom, and she
will protect you; love her, and she will watch over
you.”
- And 10:29, “The way of the LORD is a refuge for the
righteous.”
You want to live long and happy?
- 10:27 The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but
the years of the wicked are cut short.
- 19:23 The fear of the LORD leads to life: Then one
rests content, untouched by trouble.
You want better finances?
- In 8:18 Wisdom says, “With me are riches and honor,
enduring wealth and prosperity.”
- Then in verse 19, “My fruit is better than fine gold;
what I yield surpasses choice silver.”
- So wisdom is not necessarily promising to make you
into a millionaire.
- But she is promising contentment, which is hard to
have if you are worrying or scraping:
- As 15:16 says, “Better a little with the fear of the
LORD than great wealth with turmoil.”
- And 19:8, “He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he
who cherishes understanding prospers.”
You want better sex?
- Like I said, godly wisdom is very practical.
- The JCC just had a Rabbi come speak about “kosher
sex.” He even wrote a book about it!
- Proverbs 19:18 says, “May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.”
You want to really know God?
- Wisdom is also very spiritual!
- Proverbs 2:2 and 5 promise that if you “turn your ear
to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding … then
you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the
knowledge of God.”
How many of you have all these things in abundance? How
many want more? So, get wisdom!
Now for the third and hardest question: how to get
wisdom?
- It’s not hard because it’s so hard to understand. Any
teachable person can get it.
- Wisdom offers herself to children: “My son,” she says
in Proverbs 2:1, “if you accept my words and store up my
commands within you…”
- Wisdom is just like Yeshua, who has the spirit of
wisdom and the spirit of truth, when He said, “"Let the
little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for
the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Luke
18:16).
- Much of Yeshua’s teaching and the teaching of his
apostles is about godly wisdom.
- It’s not hard because it’s hard for us to understand,
but because it’s hard for us to do.
- As Ya’akov 1:22 says, “Don’t fool yourselves but being
just hearers of the word; be doers!”
- But most people fool themselves.
- Proverbs 1:7 says, “Fools despise wisdom and
discipline.”
- Proverbs 10:21 warns, “Fools die for lack of
judgment.”
- In part that’s because, as Proverbs 13:19 says, “Fools
detest turning from evil.”
- When you are tempted, do you turn away from your
desire or towards it? Who is a fool?
- Proverbs 14:9 says, “Fools mock at making amends for
sin.”
- But it may not be so blatant: according to Proverbs
14:8, “The folly of fools is deception.”
- Fools may think they deceive others, but they really
always deceive themselves.
- Anybody know any fools around here?
Now maybe you are ready to begin to learn how to get
wisdom:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but
fools despise wisdom and discipline.”
9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
- Godly wisdom begins and ends with the fear of the
LORD.
- What is the fear of the LORD? In Hebrew, it’s Yeerat
Adonai
- Yeerat Adonai should involve some healthy fear,
because God is holy and awesome and really does hate sin
and I really am a sinner and so are you!
- When Isaiah “saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and
exalted,” what was his response?
- He didn’t say,
“Hi, Dad, what’s happening?”
- "Woe to me!" [he] cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man
of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD
Almighty."
- Luke 5:8 records that “When Simon Peter saw this, he
fell at Yeshua’s knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord;
I am a sinful man!"”
- Godly fear includes an awareness of God’s holiness and
my sinfulness.
- Prov 20:9 says well, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my
heart pure; I am clean and without sin’”?
Yet godly fear is not like worldly fear.
- Worldly fear wants to run away; godly fear is willing
to stay close to God, trusting His mercy
- Neither Isaiah nor Peter ran away, but received God’s
mercy.
- Worldly fear wants to hide; godly fear is willing to
be exposed to God.
- Isaiah received a coal that cleansed his lips. Peter
followed his Messiah to the cross.
- Worldly fear cringes in guilt; godly fear knows that
God is love.
It is this godly fear, aware of one’s unworthiness
before God yet trusting in his mercy—for has he not
shown us his mercy in the sacrifice he made for us?—that
is the beginning of knowledge, really knowing God, and
his way of wisdom.
- Prov 15:33 “The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom,
and humility comes before honor.”
- A man who really has the fear of the LORD doesn’t just
respect him from afar.
- He walks humbly, every day, with God.
- If I am wise, I know I need him. I don’t run away from
him.
- When I sin, I know he could clobber me, but I trust
that he won’t.
- I cry out to God for mercy, and receive his
forgiveness and the atonement of his blood.
- Real faith in Yeshua is the fear of the LORD.
- Do you see it? Have you received it? Anyone need to
stop and pray about it now?
Now that some of you are getting started, here are a few
more pointers about getting wisdom:
Ask for it, prayerfully.
- That’s what Solomon did, and it worked for him!
- (And what else did he get, along with wisdom? Wisdom
produces these things.)
- Yaakov 1:5 says, “If any of you wants wisdom, let him
ask God, who gives to all generously and without
reproach, and it will be given to him.”
- I recommend praying for wisdom every day.
- I ask for wisdom when I put on the helmet of salvation
with rest of the armor of God.
- I figure Shlomo’s mistake was that he didn’t keep
asking for more wisdom!
- You stop asking for wisdom, you’ll start getting
foolish. Amen?
Next tip: study for it.
- Proverbs 3:1-2 “My son, do not forget my teaching, but
keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong
your life many years and bring you prosperity.”
- That’s a wonderful promise, but what does he mean
“keep my commands in your heart”?
- How do you keep God’s commands in your heart?
- The next verse says, “Let love and faithfulness never
leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the
tablet of your heart.”
- The same thought comes in Proverbs 7:1-3.
- “My son, keep my words and store up my commands within
you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my
teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your
fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.”
I don’t know about you, but these verses remind me of
Deut 6:4-9, the Shema and v’ahavta:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon
your hearts.
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you
sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you
lie down and when you get up.
Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your
foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your
gates.”
- We can apply these words literally, binding t’fillin
on our hands and foreheads.
- But wisdom makes it clear that Hashem wants more:
- He doesn’t just want us to put his word in a box on
our heads.
- He doesn’t just want us to put his word in a book on
our shelves.
- He wants us to store up his commands and precepts in
our hearts.
- He wants us meditate on them, every day in prayer.
- He wants us memorize them—memorization is an excellent
way to digest God’s word and get it deep in your soul.
- He wants us teach them to our children (or our
disciples or spiritual children)
- And He wants us to obey them, putting them into
practice.
Will you do that? Do you want to get wisdom or don’t
you?
- Yes, it will take some discipline! Discipline comes
with the territory!
- Prov 1:1-3, “The proverbs of Solomon son of David,
king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for
understanding words of insight; 3 for acquiring a
disciplined and prudent life.”
- Discipline is a recurring theme of Proverbs and all of
biblical wisdom:
- Proverbs 15:32 warns, “He who ignores discipline
despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains
understanding.”
- And Proverbs 19:20 beseeches us, “Listen to advice and
accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.”
- God willing, I will have more to say about the
discipline of wisdom next week.
But first let me urge you to put into practice what you
heard:
- Will you pray about the fear of the LORD, recognizing
your own sinfulness before a holy God and also trusting
in his mercy and acceptance for you, through Yeshua the
Messiah?
- Will you ask God for wisdom? Go ahead, ask him now.
Will you ask him every day?
- Will you study God’s word to get wisdom?
- Specifically, will you read a chapter of Proverbs each
day this month?
- Specifically, will you memorize some Scripture? I’m
memorizing the letter from Yaakov
- And will you be doers of what you study – as well as
what you have heard today?
Proverbs 3:18 says of wisdom, “She is a tree of life to
those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be
blessed.”
- When do we recite the words?
- When we return the Torah scroll to the ark:
- Aytaz chayim he: It (literally ‘She’ is a tree of
live.”
- Torah—the word of God is the source of wisdom—Amen?
- As we approach Simchat Torah with joy, may you all get
wisdom!
|
