Guidance

We were reminded, in a new topical sermon series at church on the Lord’s Day, that guidance is a promise, not a problem. We were referred to Psalms 23 and 119, although one might equally look in Proverbs 2.

In Proverbs 2, we have an extraordinary promise from God:

If you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity and every good path;
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed,
none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.

So you will walk in the way of the ood
and keep to the paths of the righteous
For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

The Triune God gives wisdom to his people when they ask him for it. But Biblical wisdom, as we are so often reminded, is not so much concerned with what job I should do or where I should live or what vegetables I should buy, but is first and foremost about rightly relating to God, fearing him and knowing him, and then walking in his ways. God promises to his people who ask for wisdom that he will protect them like a shield, he will guard them and watch over their ways so that they walk in the way of justice and righteousness. Such wisdom, knowledge and understanding will be theirs, and so they will be protected from dark and evil works and deeds. The wisdom that the covenant God gives to his people protects them from sexual immorality and what leads to death, and instead do what is right, and receive their inheritance of salvation from the Lord, in the language of the Proverb, ‘dwelling in the land’ and in the light of the coming of Christ, life in him and the hope of resurrection and eternity in the New Creation.

So as St. James tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting.” I take it that means we must ask God, trusting his promise to give wisdom to those who cry out to him for it, and prizing wisdom, the knowledge of how to live righteously and justly, above all else, not wanting to go both God’s way, and the way of darkness.

Wisdom

The Prayer Book lectionary has moved me on to Proverbs, and a couple of things have struck me. These thoughts are not especially profound or original.

In chapter 1.20-33, we have Wisdom personified crying aloud in the streets, rebuking the simple ones, scoffers and fools (i.e. those who do not fear the Lord, see the contrast in 1.7), and calling them to turn, or, if you like, repent. Wisdom promises to pour out her spirit to the one who does, and make known her words. Those who don’t listen, will experience calamity, terror, distress and anguish and at that point it will be too late; they will face the consequences of their choice of action and be destroyed. In contrast, the one who listens to wisdom (and by implication acts on what he or she hears) will be at ease and will face no disaster.

Although Wisdom here is personified as a woman, it is quite clear we have in these verses the gospel in shadow form. When we come to the New Testament, everything comes into focus and we see the Word incarnate, Christ the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1.30, Colossians 2.3), who walked the streets and marketplaces of Palestine calling sinners to repent and listen to him. Christ pours out the Holy Spirit on those who do and he makes known his word to them (Acts 2.17). The Holy Spirit is, of course, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding (Isaiah 11.1-2). Those who reject Christ will face the consequences of their actions and experience God’s judgement, whereas those who listen to him and respond to him find security and know that no ultimate disaster will befall them, because Christ has been raised from the dead, as will those who belong to him. I wonder if this passages goes some way to explain why St. Matthew and St. Luke report Jesus using that curious phrase, when after describing the unbelieving response to the Son of Man, he says that ‘wisdom is justified by her deeds’ or ‘children’ (Matthew 11.19, Luke 7.35). The Son of Man is the Wisdom of God who is rejected by men, but is ultimately vindicated by what he does and achieves: his perfect life, atoning death and glorious resurrection, ransoming sinners for God.