A Word to the Wise

Proverbs 3:1-18

Study Guide for August 29, 2004

It is not unusual to personify things. We have personified (1) justice with the blindfolded lady holding the scales. We personify (2) freedom with the Statue of Liberty in New York City. In the U. S. Navy, ships are referred to as (3) she, while the Russian Navy refers to their ships as (4) he.

In Proverbs, as in much of Jewish Wisdom Literature, Wisdom is personified. This is a personification of one of God’s attributes. This adjective describing God took on personal qualities. Wisdom is personified in extended passages in Proverbs. This personification is (5) female.

Our reading today speaks well to the world of (6) investment. This wisdom, according to the NIV, is (7) more profitable and yields (8) better returns than gold. When we invest in something we make a (9) commitment. IF we invest money in the markets, we commit resources for future (10) returns. If we invest in our children, we are committing to their (11) future in order to help them achieve all they can. We invest in their academic life, their sports life (they play every game that has a ball in it) but do we take the time and effort to invest in their eternal destiny?

Wisdom doesn’t fall from the sky It is (12) sought (Proverbs 4:5). It doesn’t seek us out; we have to look for it.

A young boy and his father were out driving and the little saw an airplane taking off and so he asked his father, “What makes an airplane fly?” His dad said, “I don’t know.” Later, the little boy looking up at the blue sky, ask his dad what made the sky blue. The father replied, “I don’t know.” Seeing the sun in the blue sky he asked his dad what made the sun burn so hot. The father replied, “I don’t know.” Finally the son asked, “Does it bother you when I ask so many questions?” To which the father replied, “No, how else are you going to learn anything.”

Here in Proverbs, wisdom is not limited to (13) knowledge. Knowledge refers to those “things” that we learn. 2+2=4 is knowledge. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. How we use what we have learned. Wisdom here has the sense of living with God in the way God wants us to live with him. That kind of wisdom comes from God.

We gain that kind of wisdom by (14) trusting God and (15) acknowledging him in all we do. We must learn to blend our (16) dependence on God with the innate (17) reason God gave us.

The need to attain more wisdom never (18) ends. We never (19) graduate.

A few years ago, a member of the church we were serving at the time called and asked me who Cain and Able were. He had heard their names mentioned in a country and song and didn’t know that they were the sons of Adam and Eve. At first I thought that was a little funny and said that it was no big deal that he didn’t know that, after that is not that important in the grand scheme of things. But then, I got thinking, if he didn’t know that, what DOESN’T he know that is important.

Wisdom, how we live with God is just as important for parents and grandparents, because your children spend more time with you than they do their Sunday School teachers, or the brief children’s sermons with the pastor. You parents, and grand parents, need to have your level of biblical knowledge and wisdom deepened so that you don’t just say “I don’t know” to your children when they come home and school and ask why we don’t do the same things as Susie’s church down the street. Parents, nothing will substitute for you’re knowing what you believe and why.

I hear comments, and have made them myself, that it’s boring. Well, go and ask questions and make your teacher a better teacher. Your teacher will get better by working to answer your questions. Put yourself into the learning process.

Parents, we need to be as concerned with our children’s (20) spiritual education as we are about their (21) 3R’s. Parents, you need to (22) model that concern by making Christian Education a priority.

Remember Wisdom comes from God. The best place to grasp that wisdom is with (23) God’s People in worship and learning.