Proverbs 3:3–8 (NIV)
3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Then you will win favor and a good name
in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and shun evil.
8 This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.
Some seek wisdom from those those who are successful, seeing that their finances, or fitness or leadership skills equates to wisdom, but sometimes success just comes from being lucky. Others turn inward to seek some sort of personal enlightenment, thinking that wisdom comes from self-discovery, but to rely solely on oneself can lead to a narrow perspective. Others may simply follow the culture, assuming the majority must be right, but culture changes all the time and what is accepted at one time isn’t always right or accepted at a later time.
But today, here in our proverbs passage or poem, we see where wisdom can be found - it comes from God. Wisdom is found in a commitment to God, in a trust that He who made this whole thing, knows how it is to be lived in. See, God has made the world a certain way. There are laws of physics and chemistry which we can discover and learn about, and that all come with natural consequences and reactions. And likewise, for our lives, there is a wisdom that is baked into this world, and we are to look to Him who made it all.
These Proverbs aren’t promises, but principles. In a general sense, if you live a certain way you will live longer and happier. There are lots of studies that point to this, as well as may youTube videos that demonstrate the exact opposite that certain unwise behaviors can bring about immediate consequences. In general terms, wisdom pays you back. Obedience pays you back. (Paul Carter, Proverbs 3)
Our passage is part of a poem that is about being in a faithful relationship with God. Israel was in a covenant relationship with God, which is sort of like a marriage relationship, there were vows and promises that were made at Mount Sinai between God and Israel. This covenant involved a commitment that was to be upheld by each partner. In our passage, you could say the odd-numbered verses give the obligation of the human partner and the even-numbered verse give the obligation of the divine partner. Or that there are conditions and consequences to wisdom. And this is a great passage for today, as these are good general principles for basing your marriage on.
Love and faithfulness
Our section starts off with employing you to not let love and faithfulness to leave you. Love and faithfulness are huge powerful things, on their own they are strong but combined they can be unstoppable.
Sodium, as I understand it, is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined forms, it always links itself to other elements. It is useful in cleaning agents and baking soda. Chlorine on the other hand is a pool-cleaning chemical, helps with refining oil and can give off a poisonous gas. But when sodium and chlorine combine, it makes sodium chloride which is common table salt - this is what we use to preserve meat and to bring out the flavour in everything else.
We are to mimic God in this, and in doing so it says we will win favour and have a good reputation with God and others. So in your marriage, let love and faithfulness never leave you, not just for each other, but also for God. Follow His ways, and the next section goes on as to why you should.
Trust and lean on God's wisdom
Our next two sets of instructions and promises, from verses 5-8 say that we should trust in God’s wisdom and not our own. We shouldn’t be wise in our own eyes.
I take great comfort in this because I know I am an idiot. I can look back five, ten, fifteen years and every time I see that I did and thought some really stupid things. And so, I also bet in 5 or 10 years time, I will look back to now and think the same thing. I need wisdom beyond myself. I think we all do. I am also not sure if we just put more minds together, it will help reduce the silly ideas individuals can have. I don’t think that if we just have more people involved this would in some way improve us and our culture.
In the first stanza of T. S. Eliot’s poetical play, called “The Rock” he says:
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion,but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? W
here is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.
T.S. Eliot says, that our world hasn’t gained much wisdom, through all its cycles, our knowledge is ignorance and has brought us closer to death, with no wisdom to be found.
Trust God and His wisdom. Our world have some foolish ideas. It says hold a grudge so that others knows you were hurt by them, but God says, forgive your enemies. The world says promote yourself and use your power for you, where God says be humble and consider the other. Seek God and His wisdom, don’t be wise in your own eyes. If you merely agree with what the Bible says most of the time, "then your response is not obedience but coincidence. It’s just that the prejudices you have soaked up from your culture happen to line up with the Bible at that point." (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works The Trust God Demands)
Trust, deep down in God’s ways. Sometimes they may seem topsy-turvy to the world, but that is because the world is upside down. A big part of wisdom is learning to distrust yourself. Wisdom involves becoming suspicious of your own desires. It says to your self “alright self, I have heard from you, but now I want to hear from the Lord” (Paul Carter, Proverbs 3)
Choose humility and not pride. Know that you don’t know everything, instead trust in the one who made everything. Pray about the decisions you need to make. Seek God’s wisdom in determining what is right and wrong.
The promise here is is that God will make your path straight. God not only will be our Guide "but also our Road maker, showing us the way and clearing obstacles from it" (Esther–Ecclesiastes The Secret of Well-Being (Proverbs 3:1–10))
He will point you in the right direction, so seek His wisdom and not your own.
Ultimate Promises
So, as you trust in God, and live in His ways, you will shun evil. The promise in this whole bit is that if you obey wisdom, you will win favour with God, God will guide you to make right decisions and you will receive health.
"The picture of all of these verses is that wisdom reverses the curse of sin, death, and sickness. Wisdom is a return to paradise." (Exalting Jesus in Proverbs Does Proverbs Preach a Prosperity Gospel? (Proverbs 3:1–12))
Now, N and N, while these promises are true in a general sense, I don’t know your future and the ups and downs your marriage may have with health and tricky decisions and involvement with others, but as Christians, I can say confidently tell you that in an ultimate sense, these promises are definitely true. And from the perspective of eternity, such distinctions may seem less important than in the present. Wisdom is about seeing the whole board and playing the long game. (Paul Carter, Proverbs 3)
Right relationship with God leads to these promises in an ultimate sense. If your story is limited to the blessings here and now, you are in trouble. Your name and reputation will be forgotten, your body will age and break down. But because of Jesus, the one guy who was truly always loving and always faithful. The one guy who shunned evil and obeyed the Father and went to the cross to die for the world. Because of Him, Jesus, He took our foolishness and ignorance and gave us His correct and wise life. We can know that our names will not be forgotten. They will be written in the Book of Life. The Bible ends with a city prepared like a beautiful bride, and in that place, there will be no more death. We will have health and nourishment in our new resurrected bodies.
So N and N, this is a brilliant passage to kick off your marriage. You want to be wise in your marriage? Trust in the Lord. Love Him and be faithful to Him, and in doing that towards Him, you will get the strength and have practice to do it to each other. Seek God’s wisdom in your marriage, pray about decisions, and shun evil. Know that in doing so, in trusting in God’s wisdom you will be blessed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment