“And (God) said to man, the fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”
In one of his long discourses, Job spoke of wisdom and understanding. In verses 20-21 he said: “Where then does wisdom and understanding dwell? 21. It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds of the air.” Wisdom and understanding seem to be hopeless quests for people. In verses 23-24, Job gave the key to wisdom and understanding: “God understands the way to it and He alone knows where it dwells, 24. For He views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.” Out of his misery, Job gave a clue as to where we can hope to find wisdom and understanding in this world: It is found in God! Job said that “The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom.” In the prologue to Proverbs, Solomon wrote: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Real wisdom begins and ends with fearing God. This does not mean that we are to be afraid of God as we are of ghosts. It means that we are to hold God in great reverence and accept Him in all of His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. We must see God as all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present. To limit God in any way is foolish. This means that wisdom begins in holding God in great awe, and accepting that all of our hopes and dreams reside in Him. Wise people depend on God and look to Him as the source of all of the things that they seek out of life. Throughout the Bible, and throughout human history, we see how badly things go for people when they ignore God and leave Him out of life. That is why we have constant chaos in the world, because the world is not right with God and seek to do things on their own without God. Great empires have risen and fallen because they did not fear God, but went their own way. A lot of lives are in chaos right now because they do not hold God in great reverence and worship Him as they should. People are so busy seeking what they want, trying to get through life on human wisdom alone, that they are finding futility. There might be momentary joy in reaching our human goals, but we soon discover that earthly joy comes and goes like smoke. If we want to live truly wise lives, we recognize that God is all-important, and that true wisdom is to hold Him in reverence and awe. People go to great lengths to try to find wisdom and understanding in many different ways. Self-help books abound on the shelves of bookstores and libraries. Today, we have the internet to help us find out about almost anything that we want to know. The problem is that no matter how many books we read, and no matter how many internet sites we go to, we will not find wisdom and understanding until we find it in God – in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we find wisdom through God we learn to shun evil and to find understanding. Many people are committing suicide today because they just come to their wit’s end and find that life has no meaning. Until we discover the wisdom of God, and use that wisdom to find understanding through shunning evil, we will not find the illusive wisdom that we need. God sent Jesus into the world to enable us by faith to gain His wisdom and understanding. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in shunning evil. What the world needs today is to go way back in time and discover Job 28:28 and discover the true route to wisdom and understanding. We are far away from that now, but God will ultimately prevail and the “earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habukkuk 2:14) Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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