How blessed is the man who finds wisdom.

Proverbs 3:13-26 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

How blessed is the man who finds wisdom And the man who gains understanding.
¹⁴ For her profit is better than the profit of silver And her gain better than fine gold.
¹⁵ She is more precious than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her.
¹⁶ Long life is in her right hand; In her left hand are riches and honor.
¹⁷ Her ways are pleasant ways And all her paths are peace.
¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who hold her fast.
¹⁹ The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens.
²⁰ By His knowledge the deeps were broken up And the skies drip with dew.
²¹ My son, let them not vanish from your sight; Keep sound wisdom and discretion,
²² So they will be life to your soul And adornment to your neck.
²³ Then you will walk in your way securely And your foot will not stumble.
²⁴ When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
²⁵ Do not be afraid of sudden fear Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;
²⁶ For the Lord will be your confidence And will keep your foot from being caught.

There is a big difference between having knowledge and having wisdom. Our society and culture tends to focus on having knowledge, on gaining education. The problem with knowledge which is gained through education today is that it is dependent on someone else’s opinion. It is important to know and consider the source of information before we accept the information as fact and consider knowing it having knowledge. Many people in today’s society and culture get most of their information and so most of their knowledge from media. There is little if any integrity and regard for truth in the media today. TV, including news broadcasting is a multi-billion dollar industry, driven by ratings and profit. Even in education curriculums there is an underlying agenda in what is written into the texts. The knowledge today’s students are being taught is very different than the knowledge of previous generations. Who has not experienced the cashier who is unable to give back change if the system doesn’t provide the answer?

The Bible says:   The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)   Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, Teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning. 10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:9-10) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. (Psalm 111:10)   For nearly 2000 years most of western society was founded upon the truth that true wisdom, knowledge and understanding has its foundation in God. Education, science and medicine were all primarily established on Biblical truth and values. The Bible itself was a primary element of curriculum.

The problem that exists when people stray from God’s wisdom to human knowledge and understanding is that there is nothing to fall back on when there is no answer. A person who believes in God, a follower of Christ can fall back on faith when man has no answer.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.     There is a peace and a comfort we have in trusting God, knowing that we don’t need to have all the answers as long as we know the One who does. When a person of faith has come to the end of human knowledge and understanding he trusts in God and so is at the beginning of true wisdom. For those who place their trust completely in human knowledge and understanding there is nothing left to do when there is no answer but to guess or to make something up. It might be called speculation. Science might call it theory or hypothesis, but what it really amounts to when men speculate, theorize or hypothesize about things they cannot answer for certain is guesswork at best and flawed self serving agenda at worst. Far too much human knowledge today, even in science is based on agenda rather than truth.  Far too often even in medical science the agenda of human motives trumps the pursuit of wisdom. Far more time and money is delegated to the things which will turn the biggest profit than those which can most benefit humanity. Greed and human agenda has taken over most of science and most of our culture and society.

James 3:13-18 says:  Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.        As for me, I have no problem acknowledging that there are many things I don’t understand. When I have no answer, I’ll fall back on faith rather than theory. I have no problem with others thinking me a fool for having faith. The Bible says: the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. (1 Corinthians 3:19)       the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ²⁶ For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; ²⁷ but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, ²⁸ and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no ^[t]man may boast before God. ³⁰ But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, ³¹ so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:25-31)

Call me a fool, I’ll put my faith, my trust and my confidence in God rather than man and I will boast in the Lord.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, You are truth. I trust wholly in You.     Amen.