The Main Thing
Introduction
It was the day after Christmas. Small children played while villagers went about their usual chores -cooking, washing, farming, fishing. Merchants in the market were displaying their wares in hopes of getting a good price for them. Adults were discussing, even arguing about, politics and religion. The blazing sun filling the clear sky brought perspiration to the brow. The cool water that perpetually lapped at the shore beckoned.
On this day, however, something was amiss. At first just a few people noticed it. Word spread quickly, however, and soon it was on everyone's lips. Did it mean what they thought? Could it really be happening? What should they do?
Elders hurriedly conferred and made their decision. They had to take the signs seriously. After all, they knew their history and remembered what had happened to those who had previously ignored them. Hoping for the best but fearing the worst, they issued their order: Head for high ground.
Within minutes, a giant wall of water surged across the village, leveling everything in its path. The Asian tsunami of December 26, 2004 had struck. One of the deadliest disasters in history, it killed hundreds of thousands of people and caused massive damage across thousands of miles.
On the island of Simuelue, however, the death toll was reportedly not nearly as severed as elsewhere. Incredibly, only seven of 78,000 inhabitants died, even though the tsunami hit there just eight minutes after an earthquake in the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra, Indonesia, spawned it.
Why? Because a century earlier, another earthquake-induced tsunami had hit the village and survivors of that event had passed down word of the warning signs-a series of larger-than-normal waves, for example, accompanied by unusual quantities of marine life on the beach and a marked recession of the sea.
These villagers recognized the signs and fled for their lives while they still could. Their vigilance and responsiveness paid off. People living in other areas that had even more time to respond but did not, however, suffered horrific casualties, with populations of entire towns being obliterated.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to recognize the signs of impending trouble and to be able to avoid trouble in life? Wouldn't it be good to live in such a way that vigilance and responsiveness paid off in everyday relationships and decisions?
We have been discussing the issue of wisdom. Wouldn't you agree that the people of the village in the story exercised great wisdom? This wisdom led to the ultimate physical salvation of almost everyone on the island.
Wisdom and living is an issue of extreme importance. Let us see what the Bible says about it.
Even though the book of Proverbs is more or less a rapid-fire, quick-hitting list of wisdom, there are key verses inside that sum up the whole thing. This is one of them, and it basically has one message: Wisdom - Get it! You'll need it! Proverbs 4:7 states, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding."
That's because life is made up of choices, and wisdom is essential to making sure those choices are the right ones, the best ones. Who you are today is the sum total of the choices you've made. We could wish this weren't true, especially when things aren't going well, when we want to retreat from the consequences of our own decisions, blaming it on our parents or our upbringing or our spouse or ... anybody but us.
"This can't be all my fault, can it?"
This practice of shifting blame to others is fueled by those psychologists who make their living endorsing personal memberships in the "Not My Fault Club." They don't seem to agree with people who study these matters carefully and biblically, who tell us that life is 10 percent what happens to us, and 90 percent how we choose to deal with it.
We all want to make good, solid choices with every opportunity we have. Therefore, we need wisdom. And we need to go get it!
Remember, the Hebrew concept of wisdom is immensely practical. To the Greek, wisdom was to know! They considered the accumulation of factual data a worthy end in itself. To the Hebrew, however, wisdom was not in the knowing but in the doing. Solomon knew this.
You'll remember when God appeared to him and said, "Because you've got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, I'm going to give you any one thing you ask for," this son of the great King David could have wished for anything: long life, wealth, prosperity, you name it. But he knew it wasn't going to be enough just to have something. He needed to know how to do something - to lead the great nation of Israel.
So he asked God for a heart of wisdom.
This worked out great for us, too, because Solomon's book of Proverbs reflects God's wisdom on all kinds of things: our marriages, our children, our money, our work, our friendships, and dozens of other topics from everyday life. The wisdom of the Proverbs is "ancient" only in terms of when it was written down. It is old only in its historical and cultural context. In truth, it's as here-and-now as the morning paper or the afternoon mail.
I. Recongnize The False Sources Of Wisdom
You can't find true, lasting wisdom just anywhere, so where do you go to get it? All true wisdom is God's and comes from God. If you have a thimbleful of wisdom, it's not because you've figured stuff out on your own but because God in his grace has revealed it to you. Any other knowledge we pick up along the way that is not God's wisdom is what the Bible calls the "world's wisdom," which amounts to "foolishness" in God's eyes" (I Corinthians 3:19). It is stupidity by contrast.
So let's not get bogged down in the world's wisdom. You'll hear it spouted on afternoon talk shows, at the gym, at the hair place, or on prime-time. Seek after God's wisdom alone, because it's absolutely essential to life.
II. Recognize Wisdom's Definition
Look with me to Luke 1:17. "And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." This is speaking of the ministry of John the Baptist. Tucked away in the description of his ministry is a beautiful phrase. The angelic messenger proclaims that this forerunner of Christ will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children in the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous in order that people will be made ready or prepared for the Lord.
I believe that this is a powerful statement. It points out that wisdom is a part of the life of the righteous and it prepares people for the Lord. In other words, wisdom is truth personified in such a way as to make us more like Christ. Others say it this way, "wisdom is the best choice with the best result in every situation." If we build within our heart a passion for wisdom, a hunger and thirst for Godly perspective and understanding, we will become increasingly wise, not because we are so smart, but because we are acting as God wants us to. This makes us more like Him.
Therefore, the words of Proverbs 16:16 are powerfully true, "How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!" How many of you think you would hear those words on the news channel that talks about the current state of the Dow Jones Industrial Average? How many people in our world make it as their life's passion the acquisition of wisdom rather than silver and gold?
III. Recognize Wisdom's Worth
Get wisdom, Solomon said. "If you find yourself close to it, reach out and grab it. Don't let it pass you by. Stop and listen, then get it for yourself where you can take it home and let it sink into your life."
Get wisdom. "Whatever else you get," make sure this pursuit comes first, learning from God, learning from wise followers of Christ, learning and putting God's wisdom into practice.
Get wisdom. Most of the true wisdom you come across is going to be found in the Bible. Yet many of us spend little time reading the Word of God. If you truly want the ability to make sound decisions and well-placed choices, then invest a lot of time studying, understanding, and listening to God's Word.
Get wisdom, my friend. Get it because God wants to give it. Get it because it's essential to life.