True vs False Wisdom

Theme for service: Wisdom vs Foolishness

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbour bitter envy/jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven/above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. James 3

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God. Matt 5:9

Main idea: Wisdom - not about being smart. It is about the crop of peace and the gentleness life produces.

Intro

The irony of being asked to give a talk on taming the tongue. Me, the external processor. The one who has ten ideas a minute. The one who needs to be held back from over-committing.

I was recently in a meeting where I had someone on WhatsApp advising me on what to say. Most of the advice was along the lines of ‘stop talking’! The more we talk, the more foolish we can sound. It is better, as James says, to listen first, then weigh the whole situation, then speak (James 1:19). And to let our words be few (Ecc 5:2, not Matt Redman).

Contrast between earthly and heavenly (‘comes from heaven’) wisdom.

Amazingly, this is the only occurrence of the term ‘wisdom’ in the book! Despite the fact it is a ‘wisdom’ literature book (or heavily influenced by wisdom literature like Proverbs, Ecc, Job in the OT). The audience is mainly teachers: those who teach will be judged more harshly. Not just on a Sunday in the main meeting but also in kids’ church, life groups, your work… Most of us teach!

False Wisdom

Envy/jealousy - The term zēlus, translated “envy” (NIV, NRSV) or “jealousy” (ESV). This is the term for “zeal” used by the Zealots.

Selfishness/selfish ambition

Leads to disorder and ‘every evil practice’

Story - Pt 1

David will read 1 Sam 25:1-42.

1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Paran.

2 A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. 3 His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.

4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5 So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. 6 Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!

7 “ ‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. 8 Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’ ”

9 When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.

10 Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11 Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

12 David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 13 David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.

14 One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. 17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”

18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. 21 David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”

23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. 25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. 26 And now, my lord, as surely as the LORD your God lives and as you live, since the LORD has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal. 27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.

28 “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The LORD your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the LORD’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. 29 Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. 30 When the LORD has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, 31 my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the LORD your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”

32 David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 34 Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”

35 Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”

36 When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak. 37 Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. 38 About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died.

39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the LORD, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.”

Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife. 40 His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”

41 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42 Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife.

Nabal, whose name means ‘fool’. 1Sam 25. In a context where honour and shame dynamics are very important, Nabal does all the wrong things:

He questions David’s honour. Who is his father anyway (“We don’t want some jumped-up rural goat-herder as a king!”)? Why has he broken away from Saul’s entourage? Is he some kind of cheap rebel, whose uprising will soon be put down? v10

He responds to David’s hospitality with meanness v11

He doesn’t listen to advice v17

He gets v drunk just at the crucial moment, the moment when he needed to be sober vv36-37. Drunkenness often leads to shameful behaviour. In places where honour & shame are important dynamics, people of honour don’t drink alone, and it is considered extremely impolite to get drunk as a guest.

True Wisdom

Humble

Pure

Peace-loving

Considerate

Submissive

Full of mercy

Impartial

Sincere

Leads to good fruit.

‘Children of God’ - those who show God’s attributes in their lives - are peace-loving.

Story - Pt 2

Nabal’s wife, Abigail. She manages to correct her husband the Fool’s stupid actions by bending over backwards to be hospitable:

She considers David and his men’s needs, in that they were nomads v18 (all the food is non-perishable in the heat of the Sinai desert, which is probably where ‘Paran’ is located v1)

She does not submit to her foolish husband v19. Men, it’s much easier for your wives to submit to you when you are living upright lives!

She greets David with humility (v23) and kind words (vv25-31)

She is a believer (v30) and ends up not only following him, but marrying him (v42)

As a result of her peacemaking efforts, a potentially disastrous situation is averted.

How often have you been in a dire situation, where only acting in grace can save the day? How did you respond? Did you act foolishly, like Nabal? Or wisely, like Abigail?

Challenge

What kind of a life are you going to lead? Wise or foolish? Will you exhibit earthly wisdom or heavenly wisdom?

Are you, like David, from humble origins? Do not despise those simple beginnings - if God calls you, he will equip you and use you. He is faithful to his promises to us.

James is ‘a beautifully crafted punch in the gut for those who want to follow Jesus’. Sometimes we need that punch in the gut to help us see better how to live, how to follow the teaching of the Torah (Pentateuch) to love God with all our hearts minds and ‘muchness’ (or strength), and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

At the end of the day we have a choice, you see, to follow our own desires, or to follow God’s path:

The kingdom that I seek

Is Yours so let the way

That leads to it be Yours.

H Bonar