Helping the Wisdom Challenged
- David Fairchild
- Feb 6, 2005
- Series: Ecclesiastes
INTRODUCTION
Grace and I were getting off our exit for our house and there was a guy in front of us that had a bumper sticker that said “Jesus Save Me From Your Followers.” We laughed because it’s true…sad but true. As Christians, you and I can be…well, for lack of a better word- stupid. Now I know that’s not nice to say, but I looked up the definition for the word stupid and here’s how the American Heritage Dictionary defines the word stupid- it’s an adjective and it means:
1) Slow to learn or understand
2) Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes
3) Marked by a lack of intelligence or care; foolish or careless
4) Dazed, stunned, or stupefied
5) Pointless, worthless
So, now you know I’m not trying to be mean spirited or overly harsh. I’m simply stating a fact that doesn’t need much field testing to prove my hypothesis. Christians can be to the unbelieving world and to each other, slow to learn or understand with a tendency to make poor decisions and careless mistakes. We are often described as individuals with a lack of intelligence or care, and we can seem a bit dazed, confused, stunned, and stupefied. I have to admit after surveying my own life and laboring in ministry for a while now, that’s a pretty generous assessment. I could use better adjectives, but I want to keep my job.
Solomon in his strange and difficult wisdom is going to do for us a great favor by helping us to combat Wisdom Challenged.
Now up to this point, Solomon has attempted to find a meaningful purpose to his existence apart from God, or in his words “under the sun.”
Philosophically, Solomon has dabbled in:
- Existentialism
- Pessimism
- Hedonism
- Agnosticism/Atheism
Here is his conclusion about life so far:
1. It’s utterly futile
2. It’s filled with boredom
3. It’s permeated with sorrow
4. It’s grievous and frustrating
5. It’s uncertain
6. It’s without purpose
7. It’s incurable
8. It’s unjust
9. It’s without hope
10. It’s on the level of animal existence
Experientially, Solomon has tried a variety of ways to find purpose:
1. Human wisdom
2. Pleasure
3. Alcohol (40 year old frat guy on a perpetual spring break)
4. Great architectural projects (put Trump to shame)
5. Beautiful gardens and parks
6. Sex (700 wives, and 300 concubines)
7. Massive wealth (beyond Bill Gates)
8. International reputation
9. Literature
- Natural Science
- Military Power
- Music
- Cattle and sheep breeding
- Personal indulgences (which is his hedonist junk drawer)
This morning Solomon is going to tell us about his experience in giving religion a go adding to his list of adventures, and how it turned out.
But he isn’t speaking about the kind of religion that James talks about which cares for widows and orphans and keeps you from sin (James 1:27). He’s talking about the kind of religion that causes people in our pluralistic, post-Christian, post-modern, relativistic culture to view us as knuckleheads.
We usually dismiss the critiques that we view as “outside the camp” because we don’t think we can learn, or we don’t think they have a right to talk about our faith or our works, when they neither believe what we believe, nor attempt to do the works that we do.
If you snub your nose at bumper stickers like the one Grace and I saw, then you’re going to have a hard time listening to Solomon. He was able to make such cutting observations because he was one of them, and frankly so were, and perhaps are, you and I.
It’s hard to listen to non-believers curse our God and point their finger at us isn’t it? Paul doesn’t give us much comfort in this area because he speaks directly to the religious knuckleheads and says:
Romans 2:21-24 you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? 22 You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? 24 For "THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU," just as it is written.
Let’s listen to what Solomon has to say about those of us who are Wisdom Challenged
STUDY
Ecclesiastes 7:15-8:1
Verse 15-I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.
Solomon, as he loves to do frequently, starts us off with jovial words of encouragement. Except on this occasion he is speaking of his own life instead of all our lives in general. I think this is fitting since Wisdom Challenged will undoubtedly lead you into a lifetime of meaninglessness and frustration.
Solomon wants to shock his listeners so his word choice is very careful. He cuts against the grain of wisdom literature which often teaches that a righteous life will produce a long life, and a wicked life will produce a short life.
But this is a simple fact of life- we see righteous people die abruptly, and we see wicked fools living for what seems too long. Think about it…Jesus lives to be 33 and Hugh Heffner seems as if he’s going to outlive all of us, along with Dick Clark.
Wisdom Challenged Principle # 1-
Don’t have a Christianized Karma theology. Unless you want everyone to hate you…
In other words, adopt a view that only religious people live long and smooth lives, and only wicked people live short and painful lives.
This is essentially a Christianized karma. If you want to annoy everyone around you, be sure to tell people that the reason they lost their job or the reason they were in a car accident is due to their wickedness. That wins friends and influences people.
How many of you have come from ministries that you were sure were led by Job’s friends? They talk constantly about how to avoid pain, how to avoid poverty, how to avoid suffering, how to avoid disappointment, how to avoid failure, and guess how you avoid it? By being perfectly righteous just like them! Everyone just loves those people.
Here’s the kicker…if you don’t get better through more self-righteousness than it must mean that you are not a Christian. Isn’t that great! So not only is God punishing you in this life, but you’re also on your way to hell.
God graciously tells us the story of Job so that all the word-faith preachers have at least one book dealing with this very issue.
Job is the most righteous in all the land, yet he has all his possessions, as well as all his children taken from him. The only thing left is his toothache of a wife to who tells him to curse God and die. Ladies, if you unsure, that is not good advice.
His three friends show up on the scene, and instead of loving Job through his time and simply weeping with him and helping him by being gracious, they start questioning him like he’s a prisoner of war. They are sure that the reason behinds Job’s suffering and loss was due to unconfessed sin or unrighteousness.
The whole point of the book is to show that harsh things happen to the righteous and through it all God will be glorified in our joy and in our suffering.
If good things only happen to good people, and bad things only happen to bad people, what are you going to do with all of the men we love in the Bible who were murdered for their faith? What are you going to do with Jesus?
Only in our weird, prosperity driven culture, would we adopt such Wisdom Challenged.
It gets worse…
Verse 16- Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?
After Solomon teaches that righteousness is no guarantee you will live tomorrow, and wickedness is not guarantee that you will die tomorrow because the same God is sovereign over the life of the righteous and the wicked, he now says not to be righteous and wise to extremes.
Solomon is not saying don’t be righteous and don’t be wise since he has already commended righteousness and wisdom in this book. What Solomon is saying, is to stay away from excessive righteousness that becomes about self and not God, and to stay away from an excessive wisdom that puffs up the individual instead of humbles them.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #2
Don’t be a self-righteous know-it-all. People just love that!
This is exactly why people think we are judgmental hypocrites. Not because we have the example of Jesus given to us in the Scriptures, but because we often use ourselves as the example of righteousness and wisdom and call everyone else to be just like us because we are so glorious.
Religious fools are always self-righteous, and religious fools always know everything. They can’t help it because it’s not about the glory of God found in Christ, it’s about their glory found in themselves. We become the standard of goodness instead of Jesus, and we become the standard of wisdom and truth instead of Jesus.
There comes a time in your walk where you need to realize in all of your Christianese, in all of your one-upmanship in religious matters like prayer and reading and fasting, that you have because a self-righteous and religious jerk. I hate to say it, but it’s true. How do I know? I was the biggest religious jerk of all. You see how it hasn’t left me because I didn’t say I was “one” of the religious jerks, I have to characterize myself as the “biggest” religious jerk of all.
Individuals that have to know everything that’s going one, have to give their input on every issue, have to outdo each other in spiritual disciplines, are not doing these things with right motives and for God’s glory.
These people are the ones that thumb their nose at drinking wine, even though Jesus first miracle was turning 180 gallons of water into wine, and even though it’s commended in scripture for health, and even though the disciples and Christ Himself drank it they won’t. Why? Because their righteous!
How can you tell? Because if you ask them they’ll tell you that the reason you can’t drink wine is because it gets abused and therefore you refuse to drink or do something that gets abused. Really? Does food get abused? Should we then not eat? Do women get abused? Should we outlaw them as well?
It no longer becomes an issue of liberty and conscience, they have to force their self-righteous behavior onto everyone else around them. And they do it all with abstract biblical passages that they rip out of context, or they create laws out of reactions to sin that are not biblical.
The verse ends with “why should you ruin yourself?”. It doesn’t say how you will ruin yourself, but I speculate that it’s because everyone around you will want to kill you if they hang out with you for too long.
Let’s keep going.
Verse 17- Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
Wisdom Challenged Principle #3-
Don’t be wicked and hide behind stupidity. Don’t do things that you know are wrong and then say “is that wrong?”
Do you remember in the move Tommy Boy when Chris Farley was trying to fight with the large moving steel hooks and his dad asked him what he was doing? Tommy’s answer was: "I was checking the, uh, s... specs on the end line for the rotary girder. I'm retarded."
These kind of people remind me of college cheerleaders act in some horrific way, click their heels, smile and put their index finger in their dimple and say “was that wrong?” Of course it was wrong!
Stupidity is never an excuse for wickedness. How many of you have tried the “I didn’t know the speed limit officer” line? I did, and you know what he said? Funny, in the time I was following you, you passed two of them!
Verse 18- It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #4
Don’t be so extreme in everything you do. Instead, fear God.
How many of you know someone that has been extreme all their life, and now they’re a Christian and guess what? They’re extreme! Did their extreme behavior go away overnight? Nope.
Some of you are these people. You drive everyone around you nuts, but at least you’re consistent.
If someone is conservative, you become more conservative and make the conservative look like a liberal. If you’re a liberal, you make the other liberals look conservative. You’re extreme.
It really is a lack of fear for God. Solomon says that you should fear God and you will avoid extremes.
Why? Because someone who fears God walks very carefully and moves thoughtfully and prays deeply and reads widely and is careful not to go to extremes.
A God fearing person doesn’t abandon his family because he got an inner voice to do ministry in Tahiti.
A God fearing person doesn’t quit his job because he went to a prophecy conference and they told him Christ could come back any day.
A God fearing person doesn’t commit to ministries out of emotional impulse and then abandon their post at the first hiccup or disappointment.
A God fearing person doesn’t stay at home and practice being left behind.
A God fearing person doesn’t have a wall dedicated to a guy named Jabez.
No, a God fearing person is careful not to go to such extremes that are led by spur of the moment decisions. This isn’t a lack of faith, it’s a true faith. A faith that is willing to say; “I trust God and will wait for Him.” Not; “I’m going to make it happen and ask God to close the doors if it’s not His will.”
These people are so extreme that they think asking for forgiveness is better than asking for permission.
If you are an extremely organized person that has to have your underwear pressed and starched and ordered by their purchase date, this God of the Bible is going to drive you crazy.
Our God doesn’t seem to have the same watch on that we do and He thinks His timing is better than ours. This God doesn’t press well so we can hang Him nicely in our theological closet. He has a tendency to break out of our boxes, do what He wants, and not consult us when He does! Outrageous I know, but that’s the way He works.
If you are looking for a God you can manage and stick in a spreadsheet, this God will mess with your extreme goals, extreme organization, extreme timing, and extreme theology.
How do I know? Hi, my name is David and I’m a recovering extremist, welcome to our meeting.
C.S. Lewis says “Heresy is truth taken too far.” Yep, that’s true.
You know what happens to you if you are extreme? You end up living in house with other extremists, sleeping on a bunk-bed, lacing up your new black Nike’s while the pastors wife walks carrying a drink tray with cool-aid. That’s the problem with cults, you never know you’re in a cult until about 10 minutes before the end. Extreme people do extreme and unbiblical things.
Verse 19- Wisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
Solomon commends true wisdom as strength. His point is that even though we may see political figures, religious figures, corporate figures, celebrity figures, as being important. A truly wise, God fearing man is stronger and more important than any of these figures.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #5
Don’t make power more important that wisdom.
How many of you come from ministries that talked incessantly about “power?” They had “power,” you too can get the “power,” pray that Holy Spirit would come upon you in “power.” It wasn’t the Holy Spirit that they wanted and treasured, it was the “power” that the Holy Spirit brought. And since getting this kind of “power” is only through the Holy Spirit, I guess we need to ask for more of Him.
Anyone that needs this kind of power for their religious experience to mean anything, really should be seeking a job with the WWF, not with the Church of God.
Do I deny that wise, God fearing, Christ followers who are filled with the Holy Spirit are not powerful or have a powerful influence in the lives of those around them? No.
What I’m saying is that if this is a prerequisite for your relationship with God, you may find yourself carrying the banner of Wisdom Challenged.
As a rule of thumb; any time you begin to pray for more of what God can give you instead of more of God Himself, you may have crossed the line into Wisdom Challenged.
Another thing that power driven people need to have are titles. They need to be called Senior Pastor, or Reverend, or President of Janitorial Services. Why? Because they derive their worth from the power of their position, not the wisdom of following Christ.
This is why I introduce myself as an elder that gets to preach. I’m not against being called a pastor, but I am against being the “Senior Pastor.” Why? Because Jesus Christ is the Senior Pastor, not me. He does a much better job than I do, and I don’t ever want their to be confusion in this church.
Why do we have a plurality of elders? Is it because neither of us want to make the final decision? No, it’s because we always want to make the final decision and the only way to combat that is to have more than one elder that we are accountable to.
If you seek true, Christ-like wisdom over power, you will not only be wise, you will be powerful in the lives of those around you.
Verse 20- Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.
Solomon doesn’t deny the presence of the righteous who follow God. But righteous people are not consistently righteous without fail.
A truly righteous person realizes their utter dependency for God’s grace. Why? Because there is no one who is without sin. Not one person. Everyone needs Christ, because everyone is born a sinner and sins in this life.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #6-
Don’t act as if you don’t sin!
A person who lacks true wisdom, is a person who never confesses sin, and does not see themselves as sinners.
Some of you don’t like that I just said that because I don’t know you. You’re right. I don’t know you, but I know the Bible and it’s pretty clear that every human being sins and falls short of God’s glory.
Since God is the Creator of man, and since we are His creatures, I’ll put my money on His view of mankind and not on yours.
Wisdom Challenged is painfully experienced by those that know or have known individuals who act like they have mastered all their sin, and are shocked when you tell them you haven’t.
These are the people that say things like “I don’t really have a problem with sinning.” Sure you do, it’s called pride and lying of which you just committed!
Have you ever sat under the teaching of someone that never confessed their sins, never acted as if they struggled, and never asked for your prayer for their struggles?
These individuals think if you’re a pastor you should never confess sin behind the pulpit. They assume that it’s looked at as a weakness.
I don’t know about you, but this is the best place to confess my sin. I’m not a Catholic, but it’s like confessional for me on Sunday sometimes. I can’t in good confidence and without hypocrisy stand and preach something that I am struggling with while acting as if I’m not. I’m not that talented an actor. Plus, I’m too close to many of you and you would heckle me!
But someone who has to put on an air of religious superiority will need to take measures to ensure they are not found out. One of them is to not get to close to those individuals in the congregation. Another is to make sure they learn how to smile and lie at the same time. And another is to either lower the standard of what sin is or to elevate their own righteousness so that it looks like they want.
Someone who is wise is careful to watch out for hypocrisy in their own life.
Verses 21-22- Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you. 22 For you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #7-
Don’t stick your nose in everybody else’s business!
People are self-absorbed and obsessed with what other people think and say about them are almost always miserable people. Why, because if you’re obsessed with what others think, you will always find a way to find out what others think and when you do, you will probably not be very pleased with their opinion.
How do I combat this? I already assume when you come in that you’re thinking- “He thinks he’s funny and he’s not, he yells a lot and I’m hungry, couldn’t he have said that with less words.”
So, since I already know that’s what you think, I don’t need to ask.
There is a beauty in not caring about the opinion of others. I’m not advocating that you ignore Godly counsel that comes your way by a godly person.
I’m simply saying that you shouldn’t spend you’re time eavesdropping through channels called the “prayer chain.” To find out gossip about yourself or others.
I know there are times you complain about me. I’m ok with that because there are times when I complain about you. I have no illusions that you assume I’m perfect and without fault. Please have not illusions that I think you’re perfect and without fault.
The beauty is that since I already assume that, I won’t loose sleep tonight if I don’t hear it from you and you won’t loose sleep tonight if you don’t hear it from me.
Solomon’s advice is to not take these things too seriously. His motivation is to remind you about your own sin. That helps doesn’t it?
Since you are guilty of speaking poorly of someone, don’t get your knickers in a twist if someone speaks poorly of you.
Someone that is truly wise, will consider the source of information that is negative, and not take it too seriously if it is only gossip. A fool will get on the phone and keep dialing until someone tells them what they want to hear.
Behind every rumor is someone who keeps picking up the phone.
Verses 23-25- I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, "I will be wise," but it was far from me. 24 What has been is remote and exceedingly mysterious. Who can discover it? 25 I directed my mind to know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness.
Solomon says that he tried to figure all of this out with his wisdom and he realized that he still couldn’t find all the answers to all the questions. It’s beyond human reach. He isn’t trying to know just the “what” behind existence, he wants to know all the “why’s” and it’s frustrating.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #8-
Don’t expect to know everything about God and life.
Those that are wisdom challenged don’t realize they are not infinite like God and therefore will never have all infinite knowledge about God or even about finite life.
The most frustrating words that a person who has to know it all could hear is "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
I’m am not anti-intellectual nor am I anti-theology, but I am anti-knowitallandtelleveryonemyviewaboutit!
The beauty of good Biblical theology is the realization that I will never know as much as the God who made me, and that is comforting.
If God were able to be figured out by a guy like me in the 36 years of existence, chances are that God would be a figment of my imagination.
I love debate, I love theology, and I love to lay out a case for what I believe if I’m asked (and sometimes when I’m not). But I also realize my limitations and I’m not afraid to utter three simple words “I don’t know.” Those are hard words to repeat but you should try it, it’s therapeutic.
If you are truly wise, you will not try to fit God into your system, but rather you will welcome God fitting you into His.
We do not stand upon the bible and critique it, we are critiqued by it. We don’t put God under a microscope. We widen our lens and look through a telescope to see how magnificent He is. He is vast and grand. He is not something we can stick in a Petri dish and run experiments on.
This sounds fundamental, but we need to remind ourselves that we are the ones under Him, not Him under us.
If you’re theology is not large enough to handle mystery and paradox, you’re theology probably doesn’t have the God of the Bible in it. Just a rule of thumb.
Speaking fast and using Greek and Hebrew words out of context doesn’t make you smart, trust me I’ve tried.
If any of you have asked my view of eschatology (end times) you realize that I give a tremendous amount of grace over this issue.
Not because I don’t have an opinion or can’t argue positions. I’ve heard all the major arguments, I’ve read the best authors on the subject, and I’ve debated with quite a few people over the subject. But I am not convinced to the degree that I’m going to be dogmatic about it. I can say that there are some positions that I think are stretches of the imagination, but I still am not completely sold on one particular position.
Why? Because the Bible is not exact and precise and it doesn’t spell out a nicely formulated answer for me. Since that is the case, I’m careful not to be dogmatic about things that have yet to pass.
I know Jesus is coming back a second time and if you don’t love and treasure Him He’s opening a can and it’s not going to be pretty for you. I know I’ll get to be with Him after He judges all things since I do love and treasure Him. But when, exactly how, what time, etc. These are things the Bible simply does not give a crystal clear explanation of and I’m o.k. with that.
No I don’t want to hear your position on this issue. I want for us to show grace over non-salvific issues, and on those that are essential for our faith we are willing to fight for and die for.
Verse 26- And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.
Solomon says that a truly wise man will not be trapped by a woman who has a wicked heart and who will be chains to him and not liberating.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #9-
Don’t pursue and marry a woman who is unwise and ungodly.
This could obviously work in either direction but since Solomon speaks of the woman who is wicked, men should especially heed his warning.
Something more bitter than death is someone who kills you slowly with their wicked heart. The fool is caught by her net and is swallowed up in her web. She’s basically a spider waiting for her next victim.
Wisdom challenged people who marry wisdom challenge people end up with offspring that frequent the Jerry Springer show.
A wise man realizes that his wisdom is proven by the woman he chooses. If he is wise in every other area of his life, but is foolish in that area, he will be captured and enslaved to her foolishness.
We love to talk about God’s sovereignty. How much God controls, and how He has the rights to control it. But the two areas that you are not comfortable with God intruding upon is your wallet and your sex life.
You’ll have a great theology of God’s ultimate control of all of history, but you want Him to mind His own business when it comes to choosing your spouse. Why? Because we honestly believe we know better than He does. It’s a lack of faith. We think that He’s slow when it may very well be that He’s being gracious and not allowing you to get trapped by a wicked and sinful woman.
Verses 27-28- "Behold, I have discovered this," says the Preacher, "adding one thing to another to find an explanation, 28 which I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.
Solomon speaks in many other areas very fondly of women. With a great deal of respect. But here he seems to speak in a way that is belittling women. Keep in mind though, it’s not very flattering for the men either. To say that he found 1 man out of 1,000 and no women out of 1,000 is not a good discovery.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #10-
Don’t be a chauvinist religious jerk.
If you are a self-righteous, chauvinist religious jerk, you are assuming that you are that 1 man in a thousand that Solomon was speaking of and you are secretly applauding his assessment of his survey.
Enjoy the couch tonight friend.
If you are a man that thinks you have nothing to gain from women other than sex and hopefully food if she cooks, you are going to be frustrated because that attitude will get you neither.
If you’re wife does not bug you a little bit, you married the wrong woman. A woman is not supposed to simply make you happy, she is instrument from God’s hand to make you holy. If you don’t get that before you get married, you are going to have many, many, hungry and lonely nights.
Do you know how I know that God gave me the right woman? She bugs me a little bit. Do you know why she bugs me a little bit? Because she tells me about my sin. Is she right? Don’t answer that!
My wife says things like “did you pray about that” or “do you think we can afford that” or “do you think you should have said that?” Doh! Why can’t she just put a doily on her head and vote for me? Because she loves me, and God have her to me to make me holy.
If she bugs you a lot, it’s probably because there is a lot of sin to get started on and it’s best you learn how to say “I’m sorry, will you forgive me” now rather than 10 years from now.
I rarely see a woman having a hard time following a godly man who is consistent. I see women having a hard time following ungodly cowards that are selfish chauvinist pigs. That I find often.
This doesn’t excuse you ladies if you are a dripping faucet that is more like Chinese water torture than you are a soothing spring. Solomon’s observation may very well be warranted in his time.
But, I will say that a person who is a religious fool will almost always be a chauvinist who sees women either as exactly the same, which is a form of chauvinism, or less than in worth than the man. Either one of those positions are not healthy nor biblical.
Verse 29- "Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices."
Solomon echoes Genesis 1:27 and 3:6. God made Adam and Eve upright and they chose sin and lies over truth and holiness.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #11-
Don’t seek out sinful schemes.
This seems as if it should be without saying, but obviously God thought we should here it again. Don’t be a fool who seeks out sinful thoughts and schemes.
These are the people that sit around and think of ways to sin and rip you off in their sin. How many of you have watched TBN or have seen other televangelists who find ways to remove you from your wallet?
How many of you have been talked into multi-level marketing? I have.
How many of you have been lured into sin by well though out arguments? I have.
Verse 8:1- Who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man's wisdom illumines him and causes his stern face to beam.
Wisdom Challenged Principle #12-
Don’t live like you are smelling a foul stench.
The kind of wisdom that Solomon is offering is one that will cause the prune juice drinkers to finally smile.
Your countenance is raised if you know wisdom found in Christ. The religious legalist will walk around with a scowl on their face like they are smelling an outhouse at a carnival. Don’t be that guy that everyone says “what’s wrong with him?”
When I am taken to be with Christ, I am assuming I won’t see Him with a scowl on His face. I am looking forward to the smile on my savior’s face as he welcomes me in His rest. Our God is not an unhappy God. Our Savior is a satisfied Savior. We are to be a people that truly believe “the joy of the Lord is our strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
Those who are wisdom challenged will perennially be a frustrated and unhappy people whose countenance is downcast and whose joy is robbed from them. Not those whose wisdom is Christ Himself!
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