Proverbs 4:5-9 (KJV)
Get wisdom, get
understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
Forsake her not, and she
shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
Wisdom is the principal
thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she shall
promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
She shall give to thine
head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
Notice that our passage
begins with the admonition, “Get wisdom” and promises very near
the end, “…and she shall promote thee:…”
I understand that a
promotion may not have to do with a financial raise or an advancement in
career, but they would certainly be included in the promise, wouldn’t they?
The Bible teaches that
the way to get a promotion is not to work at getting a promotion but to work at
getting wisdom.
A couple of weeks ago,
in the Sunday night service, I used part of a definition for the word wisdom. I
want to give you the complete definition from Brown Driver Briggs lexicon. By
wisdom is meant:
a) skill (in war)
b) wisdom (in
administration)
c) shrewdness, wisdom
(in personal relationships[1])
d) prudence (in religious affairs)
What impresses me about
this definition is that it seems to me that wisdom is good sense about whatever
it is you are called to do.
Whether our work
involves:
· Warfare (politics)
· Business (administration)
· Management (personal relationships, human resources) or
· Spiritual (religious affairs)
Wisdom is, possessing
the skills to succeed at it.
So the way to succeed is
not to focus on success, but on the skills necessary for success in our field.
With that in mind, let’s
look at Proverbs’ priorities on wisdom
Get wisdom and,
I. DON’T
FORGET HER
Proverbs 4:5 (KJV)
Get wisdom, get
understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
I take this verse two
different ways:
A. Don’t forget to get wisdom
Sometimes a person gets
so focused on doing something they forget to work at the skills to do them.
An example.
I am considering doing a
week-long bike trip this summer. There are some hurdles to overcome that may
prevent me from doing it but I am looking in to it.
Now, there are a couple
of ways of going about this.
One would be to jump on my bicycle and start
riding to – wherever.
The other would be to figure out:
· Where I want to go
· Which roads would be the best routes of travel on a bicycle
· What gear I will need to have with me
· How to carry that gear on my bicycle
· How to use that gear
· Etc
· Not to mention spending enough time on a bicycle to be in
reasonable condition for the ride
All of those things
could be considered – skill, wisdom.
An young or unskilled
person might just jump on their bicycle and head out, without any of those
things that are necessary and without telling anyone what they are doing,
And they might end up in
the hospital or worse because of it.
A skilled person has
calculated the risks and taken step to mitigate them.
Don’t forget to get wisdom.
Then,
B. Don’t forget the wisdom you’ve gotten
This would happen most likely through lack of use
Anita and I both took
Spanish when we were in High school. We both liked it and did well in it.
However, Anita’s first
year of teaching involved teaching a large number of monolingual Hispanic first
graders.
As a result, she used
her Spanish every day for several months. I never used my Spanish again after
High school.
When we made a missions
trip to Mexico, Anita could communicate with the people because she had used
her Spanish and not forgotten it.
I could understand a
word or two now and then, but I could not understand what they were saying and
I sure couldn’t say anything back.
Proverbs says get wisdom
and use her
Get wisdom and
II. DON’T FORSAKE
HER
Proverbs 4:6 (KJV)
Forsake her not, and she
shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
We can do this by neglecting what wisdom
(skill) we have
I watched a short video
on how to survive a dog attack the other day.
One of the things they
said is that, even if you know what to do, you have to get in a frame of mind
to do it, because your mind will want to forget how to fight the dog and just
run.
Panic set in and a
person who has the right training defaults to what is natural rather than what
is wise.
I see this happen in families very often.
People come to church,
hear the Word of God, study books on having a Christian home – all those things
–
But then, whenever
something doesn’t go perfectly with their kid, or they get into an fuss with
their spouse, they default to what their parents did with them instead of what
the Bible says.
They have the training;
they just forsake it when they really need it to use it.
Get wisdom and
III. FOCUS ON
HER
Proverbs 4:7 (KJV)
Wisdom is the principal
thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
This takes me back to
the introduction to the lesson today.
The way to succeed is
not to focus on success, but to focus on the skills necessary for success in
our field.
Get wisdom and
IV. FAVOR HER
Proverbs 4:8-9 (KJV)
Exalt her, and she shall
promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
She shall give to thine
head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
I think this means to make much of wisdom.
I think it means
honoring those who possess wisdom, to promote the gaining of life skills, and
the training necessary to succeed above:
· Charisma
· Enthusiasm
· Youth
· Good looks even
· Success
We teach our young
people the wrong values because we tend to exalt those things instead of
wisdom.
· If we would learn to point out people who have great skills,
training and
· If we would praise them for those skills they learn
We exalt wisdom and we
teach them to focus on getting wisdom instead of trying to ride on the wave of
their youth and natural instincts.
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