Understanding God's ways from the book of Proverbs (part 2)

21/10/2018

Have you ever claimed a reward?  Found someone’s dog, or wallet?

When someone sets a reward amount, it’s usually in proportion to the value of the thing that’s lost. A dog might have a reward of €100. A valuable painting might have a reward of thousands of euro. At one point in the story of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, there was a reward of £2.5m for information leading to her safe return.

So in general, the greater the value of the person or thing that needs to be found, the greater the reward on offer.

We’ve been looking at Proverbs and Wisdom, and we discovered that Wisdom and Understanding are to be highly prized.

Wisdom is worth more than rubies, silver or gold. 

We’re told to search for Understanding as if we were searching for hidden treasure.

Chapter 4 says: “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” 

How much is all you have?  If as a church, we decided to pursue Wisdom and Understanding at all costs and we all sold up everything we had in order to finance the venture, how much would we raise?  £240m.

So Wisdom and Understanding are very valuable indeed!

And Proverbs takes the view that most people don’t have much Wisdom or Understanding of God’s ways and so they have to seek them out diligently. Proverbs encourages you to devote yourself to the quest for God’s Wisdom and Understanding. 

So here we have these two related things – Wisdom and Understanding, they are extremely valuable, they need to be found and like all valuable things that need to be found, there is a big reward on offer.  But before we talk about the reward, let’s talk about how we should go about finding these valuable spiritual commodities.

Last week we looked at some different methods of learning.  Firstly, we looked at the “live and learn” method, which is ok for some things in life but doesn’t work in the whole area of personal morality. Then we looked at the “listen and learn” method, which is much better because we can benefit from the advice and experience of others and so avoid life’s pitfalls. And in particular, when the advice comes from God, we can trust it completely and avoid getting ourselves into all kinds of bother.

But then we looked at the best method of learning, the “understand and learn” method. Because when you understand the principle behind something, you are more likely to put it into practice and you can apply what you’ve learnt to different situations.

So last week I arrived at the conclusion that the key to putting God’s ways into practice is to gain an understanding of them. 
For example, I believe that fasting is an extremely beneficial spiritual discipline. Fasting occurs throughout the Bible. Jesus fasted and encouraged others to fast.  Although Jesus disciples didn’t fast while he was with them, Jesus indicated that when he returned to heaven, they would include fasting as part of their spiritual disciplines and he gave them some advice about it. Jesus said “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do…

Notice He said “when you fast, not if you fast”.  So why do most Christians not fast regularly? Because they don’t understand the point of it.  What’s the point of going hungry?  Why would you want to do that? What good would that do anyone?  If you don’t fast, it’s probably because you don’t have a spiritual understanding of what fasting is all about.

You could say the same about other spiritual practices like speaking in tongues, prophecy and sacrificial giving. Most Christians today don’t speak in tongues, or prophecy or give sacrificially (I’m talking about giving over and above the tithe) because they just don’t see these things as relevant for today.

One of the things that the Holy Spirit does, is to “open our eyes” to spiritual things. The Holy Spirit gives us insight into God’s ways.  The Holy Spirit gives us a spiritual understanding of things like fasting and tongues and prophecy and giving generously and so forth.  Without the Holy Spirit, they don’t make sense to us.  That’s the essence of our reading from Corinthians earlier:

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to them, and they cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 

Now, just because you don’t have a spiritual understanding of one particular aspect of the Bible or Christian life, doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have the Holy Spirit at all.  When we become a Christian, we receive the Holy Spirit, but we don’t instantly understand every spiritual concept.  Some Christians are what Paul calls “infants in Christ” and they are not expected to have all the answers.  Others, however, are mature Christians who over time, have built up a level of spiritual understanding of God’s ways.  And so we have to be careful not to be judgemental but to be patient with each other and encourage each other along the journey towards spiritual maturity.

So back to my point: The key to putting God’s ways into practice is to gain an understanding of them, a spiritual understanding of them. The Holy Spirit can give us this understanding, but we must do our part – we must ask, seek and knock, searching for understanding as we would search for hidden treasure.  We must give the Holy Spirit some room to work in our hearts. We must spend time in stillness, meditating on Scripture and listening to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit.

When we do these things, we will gain Wisdom and Understanding and all the rewards that go with them. 

So what are the rewards? I found at least three in Proverbs 2, and very briefly, they are:

1.    Right Relationship with God

Proverbs 2:1-5

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God and find the knowledge of God.

When we gain a spiritual understanding of God’s ways, the first reward is that we will enter into a right relationship with Him.  The right way to relate to God is to fear Him. 

Remember Psalm 25:14:

Friendship with the LORD is reserved for those who fear him

If you still haven’t got your head around what the fear of the Lord is, then let me encourage you to do the research, find out for yourself, and the Holy Spirit will give you a spiritual understanding of it.  You will get a revelation from God about what it means to fear Him and it will open up a new dimension to your relationship with Him.

2.     Victory

Proverbs 2:6-7

For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright…

When we gain a spiritual understanding of God’s ways, another reward is victory!

If I was a prosperity teacher, I would be getting very excited about this verse.  In some Christian circles, victory is all about success – especially financial success, and there are verses that point in that direction, however, let’s be very careful of the context here.

Proverbs is a book about morality, about right living, and so when it talks about victory, I’m inclined to believe that it’s talking about moral victory.  I’m sure you’ve watched a football match where one team plays dirty, the full forward dives in the box to get a penalty and they win the match.  The other team played fair – they lost the trophy, but they can claim a moral victory.  They did the right thing, even though they lost.

You might be up for a promotion at work and then you see something happening in the company that’s just not right. Customers are being misled. Sales are up but for the wrong reasons and so you speak out about it and suddenly you’re not in line for promotion any more.  Taking a moral stance is a moral victory in God’s eyes, but it could cost you your job.
In fact, you can lose everything that the world values – your job, your savings, your pension, even your family.  You can lose it all and still have a moral victory as far as God is concerned (it happened to Job).

Countless saints throughout the world have stood up for Christ and lived victoriously even if that meant a victorious martyrdom.  Victory can be costly.

3.    Protection
Proverbs 2:6-8
For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

When we gain a spiritual understanding of God’s ways, yet another reward is divine protection!

This is another concept that can be misunderstood. We like to think of God’s protection in terms of keeping us healthy, and out of danger and away from suffering and hardship, but that’s not necessarily what God has in mind for us. If we never face trials and tribulations, then we won’t grow in our faith.  Jesus said “in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world”. We see this in the book of James, where he seems to welcome suffering!

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

So what sort of protection are we talking about here?  Again, I come back to the context. Proverbs is a book about morality and so I believe that what we are promised here is protection from moral failure.  If we take the advice in Proverbs to heart, then we will avoid moral failures. 

“The Lord … is a shield to those whose walk is blameless”

I’m reminded about the shield in Ephesians – the shield of faith. What is its purpose? To
extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

The devil is out to lead you astray through his flaming arrows of lies & deception & false accusations, but if you have invested time in understanding God’s ways, you won’t be led astray by these, you will stay on the right track, you will be protected from moral failure.
So those are just some of the rewards of understanding God’s ways, my prayer is that you will experience them for yourselves.

Let’s Pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word which shows us how to live and we confess that so often we question it or ignore it altogether.  We thank you that you love us and that you want the best for us.  We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who convicts us of sin and teaches us the hidden truths of Your Ways. Help us to make room for the Holy Spirit in our lives. Help us to make time for stillness and reflection, that we might hear His voice and grow in our understanding of Your ways. For we pray in Jesus name.  Amen.

Understanding God's ways from the book of Proverbs (part 1)

14/10/2018

 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’declares the Lord. ‘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

God does some things that we would never do (we would have let Ananias and Sapphira off with a caution). God doesn’t do some things that we would do (remove evil dictators).

If we were in charge, then we would do things differently – but then we’re not God, we don’t know everything, we don’t know the end from the beginning. We have the Bible as God’s revelation to us about Himself, about ourselves and about what God is doing in and through humanity. Until we get to glory, our quest should be to seek God’s presence and His Power and His kingdom, but also to seek an understanding of God’s heart and God’s nature – why does He act differently to how we would. In short, we need to try and understand God’s ways, as revealed to us in the Scriptures. We sit under the authority of God and under the authority of His Word. 

There are basically 3 ways to learn: 

1. Live and learn

School of hard knocks. The way we learn a lot of things in life – once bitten twice shy

Advantages:

First hand experience – your mother can tell you not to go out without your coat when it might rain, but when you get wet yourself, you’re more likely to do it.

Disadvantages:

Can be very damaging – experiment with fire can burn your house down, experiment with drugs can lead to serious addiction, experiment with adultery can destroy your marriage. “Live and learn” is ok for some aspects of life, but not for others.

2. Listen and learn

Take advice from others, do what the teacher says, do what your parents say and if you go on to college, you get training for your career. So we all listen and learn to some extent in order to avoid the drawbacks of the “live and learn” method.  

If an electrician adopted a “live and learn” attitude to his training and to his work, then he’d probably electrocute himself and burn down a few houses before he got it right!  An electrician has got to listen and learn very carefully for his own safety and the safety of others.

This method actively seeks advice e.g. buying a stereo or computer, look at customer reviews, research.

Advantages:

Benefit from the advice and experience of others.

Disadvantages:

You may not be convinced by what others have to say.  You might think that you know better or you want to find our for yourself.

The advice we receive might be untrustworthy. (could be from a salesman! Could be an advertisement that emphasises the pros and doesn’t mention the cons).

3. Understand and learn

Superior method!

Not only do we listen, but we take the time to think about what we hear and to understand it. When we come to an understanding about a certain concept, whether it’s farming, or engineering, we are far more likely to apply what we have learnt correctly.

What’s more, when we understand the principle behind something, we can then apply the same principle to all sorts of different circumstances.

Example: 12 times 13?  How did you work that out when you didn’t learn it in your multiplication tables?  12 times 24?

Another example – 2 principles behind most financial products.

(1) Find out the APR (Annual Percentage Rate) “true interest rate” as opposed to the misleading interest rates that people quote.   [25% after 5 years is not 5% a year, 4.56%]

(2) Stay within the rules. [early withdrawal from fixed rate interest rate will incur penalties] 

Credit card limit, pay late, overdraft, free banking, pension contribution holiday can remove terminal bonus.

You see you learn all sorts of things when you come to church!

What’s all this got to do with Proverbs?

Let’s compare “Live and Learn” to “Listen and Learn”. Proverbs was written from a father to a son to give moral guidance and it’s basic premise is that when it comes to morality and right living, “Live and learn” doesn’t work. “Live and learn” will let you down. “Live and learn” may look attractive at the time but in the end it will destroy you. In the language of Proverbs, “Live and learn” is folly. “Live and learn” might be ok to teach us certain things in life but when it comes to the business of personal morality, “live and learn” is inadequate.  

Throughout Proverbs there are seemingly endless warnings about falling into bad company and adultery and gossip because these are exactly the kind of things we do when we’re left to our own devices, when we think we know best, when we say to ourselves “if it feels right, do it”, when we don’t heed good advice, when we “live and learn”.

And there’s the first application for us today. When it comes to issues of personal morality, we cannot afford to just do what seems best to us at the time and learn from our mistakes, because those mistakes can be too costly. Instead, we should find out what God has revealed to us about each issue.  In this case, you don’t need to wait for a voice from heaven or a visit from an angel – all the moral guidance we need is contained in the Scriptures. That should be our first port of call.

What about the “listen and learn” method?  Well, Solomon is much more in favour of this.  Seventeen times in Proverbs, you’ll find the word “listen”. Here are just some of them:

• Listen, my son, to your father's instruction
• Listen, for I have worthy things to say;
• Listen to advice and accept instruction
• Listen to the sayings of the wise
• Let the wise listen and add to their learning

I said earlier that one of the disadvantages of “listen and learn” was that the person giving the advice may be untrustworthy, or they may be a perfectly genuine person who doesn’t have all the facts and is passing on bad advice in good faith.

The other disadvantage I mentioned is that we might not be convinced about the advice we receive, we might think that we know better.

When it comes to listening to advice from the Bible however, there’s a simple verse in the next chapter (3) that you all know, and that knocks both of those shortcomings on the head.

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

God is completely trustworthy.  You may not be able to trust a double-glazing salesman or an estate agent or even a minister, but God is completely trustworthy and he has all the facts – he knows everything. He knows how the world works and He know how we work and His advice is completely reliable, even when it doesn’t make sense to our own understanding. So what are you going to place your trust in? God’s insight into moral issues, or your own ideas?

So, I’m just reinforcing what I said earlier:

When it comes to moral issues, we can’t afford to experiment with our own ideas, we can’t afford to “live and learn”, we need to “listen and learn”.  We need to read God’s Word and find out what God says about a particular issue.  “Listen & learn”.

But even that’s not the whole picture … God gave the Israelites the Law – it was straightforward, they believed it was from God, they learnt it off religiously, they could recite it by heart… but they didn’t always put it into practice. 

And Solomon knew this and he realised that “Listen and learn”, while being much better than “Live and learn” still had its deficiencies as a learning method.

And so in the book of Proverbs, although Solomon says “listen closely, listen well, pay attention”, he also places great emphasis on the need to understand why his advice is to be heeded.  Solomon wanted his son to “Understand and learn”. 

Chapter 1, verse 1

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight.

It’s one thing to listen to words of insight, it’s quite another to understand them.

We read from Chapter 2 earlier, where Solomon said to his son: “store up my commands” (that’s the listen & learn part) and then “apply your heart to understanding”.  “Call out for insight… cry aloud for understanding”   “search for understanding as you would for hidden treasure” 

Live and learn doesn’t always work. Listen and learn is much better but Understanding is the key to putting God’s ways into practice! “Understand and learn.”

We have to remember that Solomon is writing Proverbs in the context of the Old Testament Law.  Although the Law was intended to bring life, it became a religion of rules and so Solomon is saying, don’t just obey the rules, understand why you should obey the rules, because then you’re far more likely to follow them.  And much of Jesus’ teaching was about correcting commonly accepted misunderstandings about the Law.  When Jesus was only 12 years old, he was in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions and everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

In the Scriptures, God has given us a vast storehouse of knowledge and wisdom. He has shown us His ways, we know how we should live, but like the Israelites, we don’t always do it.  We question it, we look for loopholes, we try to justify alternative courses of action or we simply ignore it, and it seems to me that one of the main barriers to putting God’s Word into practice is a lack of understanding.

Which brings us back to Isaiah. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.

God’s ways don’t always make sense to us, and rather than invest time in trying to understand where the Bible is coming from, we tend to just do what seems right to us at the time and then regret it later. But thank God that Chapter 2 has some good news in this regard because it says that “Understanding God’s way of doing things” is possible, it is attainable.  It requires effort and diligence, but if we look hard enough, we will find it. Verse 6 says that the Lord gives wisdom, knowledge and understanding. He doles it out.  In the book of James we read “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. “

So God is in the business of dispensing His wisdom and understanding to people – but what kind of people?  The ones who really want it and will search for it as for hidden treasure! 

I often come across a verse or a passage that doesn’t make sense at face value. So I meditate on it, read around it, look at it in context, then look at the cross-references in my Bible and look up other verses.  I read some commentaries to see what other people think the verse means and finally, after much searching and meditation and prayer, the Holy Spirit gives me insight into the verse or passage. I can see how it fits in. I can see how it is consistent with the rest of Scripture.  It takes time and effort but the search for understanding is rewarding because you learn so much along the way.

You’ll never understand all the mysteries of God, but if you search diligently, the promise of Scripture is that you will understand more and more about God’s ways and you will find yourself wanting to put them into practice.  There are many rewards associated with this – we’ll look at them another day but let me leave you with just one of them - God’s protection, which is promised in verse 11. To those who gain insight and understanding into God’s ways, the promise is that:

‘…wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.                      (v 10-11)

Let’s pray.

Father we thank you for your Word which reveals to us the truth about your Ways.  We confess that we don’t always take the time to find out what it says or do what it says.  We often lean on our own understanding instead of trusting in You and Your Word.  Help us to be a people who want to know more and more about You.  Give us a desire for wisdom and knowledge and understanding so that we will be equipped to live lives that will honour you and to pass on spiritual wisdom to the next generation. For we pray in Jesus name. Amen.