YODA: A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger... fear... aggression. The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.
LUKE: Vader. Is the dark side stronger?
YODA: No... no... no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.
(and then Luke asks this great question)
LUKE: But how am I to know the good side from the bad?
In the theology of Star Wars, there is much that is wrong with it, but this image of the dark side being a path, one that is quicker and more seductive, is a similar image in Proverbs. As we have seen so far, there are two paths. One is more seductive, but it will destroy you in the end.
And the question Luke asks, “how do you know the good side from the bad”, is a key one. How are we to know if we are walking down the wrong path? What temptations from family and society are drawing us away from the good side of things? What help is there with this?
In Proverbs 4 there are three poems. We have encountered some of the ideas before, but here, the tone seems to be more urgent, and there is a new emphasis on guarding (4:13), especially guarding the heart (4:23) (Proverbs Bridging Contexts)
And this is super important for us today. For if we can not guard our hearts, our whole body, our whole lives will be affected.
Each poem in this chapter has its own image for wisdom. Wisdom is a bride, a path and a guard.
The instructions are to get wisdom, choose the right path and to guard your heart. And is this our break-up for today.
Here in Proverbs, we have Solomon passing down wisdom from his Dad, David. The father tells the son that he, too, was a son to his father, and his father told Him about going after wisdom.
Today, in areas of maths, English, science, art etc… we have outsourced much of our teaching to the schools. But that is not to say that parents do not pass down any instructions to their kids. Parents do this all the time, mostly passively by incidental conversations and behaviour.
Every family has traditions and things that they do, and we are still affected by them. I always find it interesting to ask people what their family does for Easter and Christmas. Who gets to decide who visits whom, and what routines they do every year?
G. K. Chesterston said that
This grandfather's instruction, passed down from the father to now the son, isn’t just for its own sake. It is not simply about keeping a strong sense of family identity; it is for gaining wisdom, because wisdom gives life.
And we can be on about this passing down today. The faith that is entrusted to us all is to be passed down to the next generation. We can do this a parents to our kids, and we can do this as being part of the church. Our whole goal is to help invite more people to be children of God, to be part of God’s family.
The Grandfather's instructions goes on:
And we are told how to begin. We do this by sentence 7
LUKE: But how am I to know the good side from the bad?
In the theology of Star Wars, there is much that is wrong with it, but this image of the dark side being a path, one that is quicker and more seductive, is a similar image in Proverbs. As we have seen so far, there are two paths. One is more seductive, but it will destroy you in the end.
And the question Luke asks, “how do you know the good side from the bad”, is a key one. How are we to know if we are walking down the wrong path? What temptations from family and society are drawing us away from the good side of things? What help is there with this?
In Proverbs 4 there are three poems. We have encountered some of the ideas before, but here, the tone seems to be more urgent, and there is a new emphasis on guarding (4:13), especially guarding the heart (4:23) (Proverbs Bridging Contexts)
And this is super important for us today. For if we can not guard our hearts, our whole body, our whole lives will be affected.
The instructions are to get wisdom, choose the right path and to guard your heart. And is this our break-up for today.
Get Wisdom v1-9
In the first poem, we have the grandfather's instructions.Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction;In one Bible Study group last week, we were reading the bit in 1 Kings 2, where David tells his son Solomon to do what the Lord requires, to walk in obedience to Him and to keep His commands.
pay attention and gain understanding.
I give you sound learning,
so do not forsake my teaching.
For I too was a son to my father,
still tender, and cherished by my mother.
Then he taught me, and he said to me,
“Take hold of my words with all your heart;
keep my commands, and you will live. (Proverbs 4:1–4 NIV)
Here in Proverbs, we have Solomon passing down wisdom from his Dad, David. The father tells the son that he, too, was a son to his father, and his father told Him about going after wisdom.
Today, in areas of maths, English, science, art etc… we have outsourced much of our teaching to the schools. But that is not to say that parents do not pass down any instructions to their kids. Parents do this all the time, mostly passively by incidental conversations and behaviour.
Every family has traditions and things that they do, and we are still affected by them. I always find it interesting to ask people what their family does for Easter and Christmas. Who gets to decide who visits whom, and what routines they do every year?
G. K. Chesterston said that
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.”I am Anglican, so I do like a little bit of tradition. I like that in our service, we say creeds. These are traditional words about the faith that have been passed down through many centuries. This lets us know that we are not making things up, we stand in a long line of believers in unity, believing the same things they did for centuries.
This grandfather's instruction, passed down from the father to now the son, isn’t just for its own sake. It is not simply about keeping a strong sense of family identity; it is for gaining wisdom, because wisdom gives life.
And we can be on about this passing down today. The faith that is entrusted to us all is to be passed down to the next generation. We can do this a parents to our kids, and we can do this as being part of the church. Our whole goal is to help invite more people to be children of God, to be part of God’s family.
The Grandfather's instructions goes on:
Get wisdom, get understanding;The son, and by extension us, are told to go after wisdom. Wisom is a loving life-long partner. Wisdom will protect. Wisdom will watch over you, love wisdom and she will love you back.
do not forget my words or turn away from them.
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
love her, and she will watch over you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
Cherish her, and she will exalt you;
embrace her, and she will honor you.
She will give you a garland to grace your head
and present you with a glorious crown.” (Proverbs 4:5–9 NIV)
And we are told how to begin. We do this by sentence 7
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.Though it costs all you have, get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7 NIV)
This may seem a little unhelpful, maybe a little bit of a tautology. The beginning of wisdom is to get it, but it seems that the first step in the pursuit of wisdom is to determine to obtain her (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (5) The Fourth Exhortation: A Father’s Plea (4:1–27))
It is a decision to go that way, and then it is a continuing decision to keep going that way. Like a relationship. You don’t just arrive at a relationship; you have to continue in it. You don’t forsake your friends or family; you stick with them, you love them, which is an ongoing thing, as you cherish them.
In all three images of wisdom in this chapter, they are symbols of lifelong commitments that direct everyday choices (Proverbs Contemporary Significance)
And going after wisdom will cost. Going after wisdom will mean you will be going against the crowd, it will mean having different ideas on how life is supposed to work.
As one preacher said:
That seems worth going for. So listen to the tried and tested ancient ways. Go after wisdom, again and again, seek after it, for it will protect and give you life.
Today we think the heart is the part that drives our emotions where as the mind is the logical part of our body. Back then, the heart was both. The heart is the core of our being: mind, emotions and will. (Proverbs: Everyday Wisdom for Everyone C. He Appeals to the Basic Principles of Wisdom (vv. 20–27))
It was like the control room of everything in the body.
Today, we sometimes say things like: “Do what your heart is telling you”; and Proverbs would say we already do that, but what we need is to guard it, to protect it, so when it tells us to do something, it is wise, because it affects the rest of what we do.
In ancient China, the people wanted security from the barbaric hordes to the north. So they built the Great Wall of China. 28,000kms of it. It was too high to climb over, too thick to break down, and too long to go around. The only problem was that during the first hundred years of the wall’s existence, China was invaded three times. But not once did the barbaric hordes climb over the wall, break it down, or go around it. They got in by bribing a gatekeeper and then marched right in through a gate. As someone noted, the fatal flaw in the Chinese defence was placing too much reliance on a wall and not putting enough effort into building character into the gatekeeper. (1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Integrity)
We are to guard our hearts, we are to put effort into building our character, to watch what we are putting in and watch what we are letting out.
There is like a feedback loop, what we put in affects our heart, but also what goes out of our body shows and reinforces our heart.
We are to be careful with what we are saying, to not let any corrupt talk from our mouths. From the overflow of our hearts comes what we say. The rest of Proverbs has much to say about our speech; here are just two:
Jesus said:
We are to do what sentence 4 says:
Now, we may feel like we don’t measure up. My eyes look in the wrong places; in conversations, I gossip; in the heat of the moment, I say some things that are not thoughtful.
You might feel like another proverb:
Near the end of the Old Testament, God made new promises that His people would get a new heart. That His ways would not be written on tablets of stone, but on hearts.
God promised that He would do a spiritual heart transplant for His people, He will clean and replace it, so that they could live in a right way.
In Jesus, that promise came true. By His death and resurrection, He took on our sin, cleansed our hearts. And the Holy Spirit came and dwelled in us, so that we can live for Him.
Now we can offer our bodies as a living sacrifice back to God.
We have two choices in Proverbs, we have two paths - and how are we to know the differences? By our hearts, how we live and what we go after.
One path is to go our own way. To do our own thing and trust in our own heart; the other is to turn to Jesus, let God change our hearts so that we can worship Him. Both ways will cost us, both ways affect your whole body.
But listen to the grandfather, go after wisdom. Put it in your heart. It will give you life. Walk on the good path, and it will bring you into the light.
Think about your body, your arms and your feet. (This may be strange and I don't do things like this much.) Look at your arms, hold them out in front of you (or look down at them). What are they capable of? How many years of use do you have left in them? What good things could they be used for? Today, dedicate your body to Jesus. He died for you, to redeem all of you - your heart and your body. Today you can be a living sacrifice for him, and in the end, all of you, your heart and body will be redeemed in the new creation.
Consecrate your body and everything you are to Christ and his wisdom. If you go after wisdom like a lifelong partner, if you walk along His ways and guard your heart for His sake, Christ will fill you with his springs of life. With a heart filled by Christ, you will not lose your way. (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works How Not to Get Lost along the Way)
It is a decision to go that way, and then it is a continuing decision to keep going that way. Like a relationship. You don’t just arrive at a relationship; you have to continue in it. You don’t forsake your friends or family; you stick with them, you love them, which is an ongoing thing, as you cherish them.
In all three images of wisdom in this chapter, they are symbols of lifelong commitments that direct everyday choices (Proverbs Contemporary Significance)
And going after wisdom will cost. Going after wisdom will mean you will be going against the crowd, it will mean having different ideas on how life is supposed to work.
As one preacher said:
Every day we are being told that, if we want to live, we need to be young, thin, tanned, sexually active, rich, and smart-mouthed. There is our cultural ideal, the wisdom of our age. Just one question. Is it working? (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works How to Get Going)There is the worlds wisdom, which we can look around and see how that is playing out and then there is God’s wisdom, which we are told will make you alive (v. 4), his wisdom will protect you and watch over you (v. 6), his wisdom will “exalt” you and “honor” you and crown you with beauty (vv. 8, 9). (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works How to Get Going)
That seems worth going for. So listen to the tried and tested ancient ways. Go after wisdom, again and again, seek after it, for it will protect and give you life.
Choose the right path v10-19
The next image is how wisdom is like a clear pathListen, my son, accept what I say,
and the years of your life will be many.
I instruct you in the way of wisdom
and lead you along straight paths.
When you walk, your steps will not be hampered;
when you run, you will not stumble.
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;
guard it well, for it is your life.
Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
or walk in the way of evildoers.
Avoid it, do not travel on it;
turn from it and go on your way.
For they cannot rest until they do evil;
they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble.
They eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know what makes them stumble. (Proverbs 4:10–19 NIV)
This path analogy is used a bit in Proverbs. We have seen it before. The way of wisdom is a straight path. On it you will not stumble. It is well lit and gets brighter and brighter like the midday sun.
And by contrast, there is a strong warning not to go on the other way. Just in sentences 14 and 15, there are six different ways of saying, “Don’t go there” (four in v. 15 alone!) (Proverbs Paths of Righteousness and Wickedness (4:10–19))
Don’t set foot on that path, avoid it, do not travel on it, turn from it. Go as far away as you can.
That path is evil; those on that path are addicted, they can not rest till they do harm. They want to cause others to stumble, but in the end, their path will be dark, and they will stumble themselves.
Like with Star Wars, there is a light and a dark path. When framed in such a stark contrast, it is clear which way is the best way. But sometimes you may not feel like it. It is hard sometimes to walk the straight path. Sometimes that is the narrow way, where few choose to go, where your willpower might be tested. But consider the end goal. It is life, it is light.
Jesus conquered sin and death and rules over everything. And while looking around the world, it may not seem like such a victory has been achieved. But we can trust Him who has died and risen again, that in Him is life. We have a glorious hope in Him. So keep your eyes fixed on Him and keep walking with Him. Do not go the other way, it is only darkness and death.
There might be only a glimmer of light on your horizon right now. But the sun is rising, the darkness cannot stop it, and Christ will bring his good work in you to noon-day brilliance: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). That bright gospel confidence is how you keep going, step by step, moment by moment, on the right path. (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works How to Keep Going)
And by contrast, there is a strong warning not to go on the other way. Just in sentences 14 and 15, there are six different ways of saying, “Don’t go there” (four in v. 15 alone!) (Proverbs Paths of Righteousness and Wickedness (4:10–19))
Don’t set foot on that path, avoid it, do not travel on it, turn from it. Go as far away as you can.
That path is evil; those on that path are addicted, they can not rest till they do harm. They want to cause others to stumble, but in the end, their path will be dark, and they will stumble themselves.
Jesus conquered sin and death and rules over everything. And while looking around the world, it may not seem like such a victory has been achieved. But we can trust Him who has died and risen again, that in Him is life. We have a glorious hope in Him. So keep your eyes fixed on Him and keep walking with Him. Do not go the other way, it is only darkness and death.
There might be only a glimmer of light on your horizon right now. But the sun is rising, the darkness cannot stop it, and Christ will bring his good work in you to noon-day brilliance: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). That bright gospel confidence is how you keep going, step by step, moment by moment, on the right path. (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works How to Keep Going)
Guard your heart v20-27
And in our last image, we see that wisdom is like a healthy body that needs to be guardedMy son, pay attention to what I say;Notice all the body parts mentioned here. The ear, body, eyes, feet and heart. Of all these parts we are told in sentence 23
turn your ear to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body.
Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil. (Proverbs 4:20–27 NIV)
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23 NIV)Only the continual beating of the heart enables the rest of the organs and parts to function. (Proverbs: Everyday Wisdom for Everyone C. He Appeals to the Basic Principles of Wisdom (vv. 20–27))
Today we think the heart is the part that drives our emotions where as the mind is the logical part of our body. Back then, the heart was both. The heart is the core of our being: mind, emotions and will. (Proverbs: Everyday Wisdom for Everyone C. He Appeals to the Basic Principles of Wisdom (vv. 20–27))
It was like the control room of everything in the body.
Today, we sometimes say things like: “Do what your heart is telling you”; and Proverbs would say we already do that, but what we need is to guard it, to protect it, so when it tells us to do something, it is wise, because it affects the rest of what we do.
We are to guard our hearts, we are to put effort into building our character, to watch what we are putting in and watch what we are letting out.
There is like a feedback loop, what we put in affects our heart, but also what goes out of our body shows and reinforces our heart.
We are to be careful with what we are saying, to not let any corrupt talk from our mouths. From the overflow of our hearts comes what we say. The rest of Proverbs has much to say about our speech; here are just two:
Those who guard their lips preserve their lives,
but those who speak rashly will come to ruin. (Proverbs 13:3 NIV)
The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent,
and their lips promote instruction. (Proverbs 16:23 NIV)
And later Jesus would say:
For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. (Matthew 12:34–35 NIV)Not only are we to watch our words, we are to watch what we watch. Our eyes are to look straight ahead, so that we can walk the straight path in front of us. With so much access to screens, a wise person today would consider what they are consuming and how that is affecting their heart.
Jesus said:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22–23 NIV)What are we watching? What are we speaking? The wise know what they put in affects their heart, and their heart affects what comes out of them.
We are to do what sentence 4 says:
“Take hold of my words with all your heart;
keep my commands, and you will live. (Proverbs 4:4 NIV)
We are to fill our hearts with instructions and commands from God.
Now, we may feel like we don’t measure up. My eyes look in the wrong places; in conversations, I gossip; in the heat of the moment, I say some things that are not thoughtful.
You might feel like another proverb:
Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure;
I am clean and without sin”? (Proverbs 20:9 NIV)
If I am honest, I can’t say that. We all need wisdom; we all need to guard our hearts. We all need help with this.
Near the end of the Old Testament, God made new promises that His people would get a new heart. That His ways would not be written on tablets of stone, but on hearts.
God promised that He would do a spiritual heart transplant for His people, He will clean and replace it, so that they could live in a right way.
In Jesus, that promise came true. By His death and resurrection, He took on our sin, cleansed our hearts. And the Holy Spirit came and dwelled in us, so that we can live for Him.
Now we can offer our bodies as a living sacrifice back to God.
We have two choices in Proverbs, we have two paths - and how are we to know the differences? By our hearts, how we live and what we go after.
One path is to go our own way. To do our own thing and trust in our own heart; the other is to turn to Jesus, let God change our hearts so that we can worship Him. Both ways will cost us, both ways affect your whole body.
But listen to the grandfather, go after wisdom. Put it in your heart. It will give you life. Walk on the good path, and it will bring you into the light.
Think about your body, your arms and your feet. (This may be strange and I don't do things like this much.) Look at your arms, hold them out in front of you (or look down at them). What are they capable of? How many years of use do you have left in them? What good things could they be used for? Today, dedicate your body to Jesus. He died for you, to redeem all of you - your heart and your body. Today you can be a living sacrifice for him, and in the end, all of you, your heart and body will be redeemed in the new creation.
Consecrate your body and everything you are to Christ and his wisdom. If you go after wisdom like a lifelong partner, if you walk along His ways and guard your heart for His sake, Christ will fill you with his springs of life. With a heart filled by Christ, you will not lose your way. (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works How Not to Get Lost along the Way)
Heavenly Father,
Help us to prize wisdom, and to go after it above all else.
Keep our steps from the path of darkness, and help us to continue to walk in your ways towards light and life.
Guard our hearts about all things, let our eyes look straight and our mouths speak good news, until we come into our eternal home, bright as day.
Thought Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
0 comments:
Post a Comment