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.