Wisdom – Part 4

Don’t Ignore Wisdom

Wisdom is available to all who seek it. How many of us have looked back at the ruins of failure and said, “I knew better. Why didn’t I listen?” or a good friend has said, “I told you so.” Solomon offers an essential warning about not heeding wisdom’s invitation:

            Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words: “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.” Proverbs 1:20-33 (NKJV)

How many times do we politely listen to someone with more experience than us and say, “It will be different for me,” only to later wish we had taken the advice? Do we seek wisdom? Do we listen for the voice of God? Do we search for godly counsellors who have been on the same path before us?

God does not offer shortcuts, but there is a faster way to learn wisdom. Solomon tells us: “He who walks with the wise grows wise” (Proverbs 13:20a). We are given the opportunity to learn wisdom from others who are further down the road than we are. We don’t have to live and learn; we can learn and live.

Wisdom calls (Proverbs 1:20-21); some listen (1:33) and some don’t (1:21-32).

When writing to the young men who were being educated for leadership, Solomon told them that wisdom was essential for their future hope. Was this the kind of wisdom that they could reproduce in a test? The kind of wisdom that they could recite in front of an audience? No – that’s a better description of information than wisdom. As much as students prepare for leadership, there is no textbook that will give them a technical answer to every difficult situation they will face. Still, Solomon instructs:

            So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; If you have found it, there is a prospect, And your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 24:14 (NKJV)

People whose minds are saturated with God’s Word and submissive to His thoughts have a wisdom which will prove superior to all the secular wisdom in the world.

          Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding. Proverbs 3:13 (NKJV)

Our culture is fat on information but thin on wisdom. Godly leaders must know how to take the raw material of knowledge and refine it into wisdom. Wisdom perseveres; it lasts beyond all the currents of culture, beyond the fashions of the day. Wisdom seeks that which will last and is willing to trade immediate gratification for an eternal reward. Failure to acknowledge this will result in leaders who carefully spend their lives constructing a house of cards. Let’s learn to seek out wisdom in every situation and heed her voice.