SEARCHING FOR WISDOM
By Pastor Jim May
Wisdom – What is it and how can you get more of it? It is defined in one dictionary as being “The ability to apply, or use correctly, all knowledge gained, every experience of life, and all understanding born of knowledge and experience, along with insight. It is also defined as being “common sense” and “using good judgment”.
I venture to say that the one word in this definition that comes closest to defining wisdom is the word “insight”. How do you get insight? Where can it be learned? How can it be found?
Is there any doubt that all of us need more wisdom? Look at the person sitting your right and tell them, “You really could use some wisdom”! Now look to the person on your left and say, “You sure need some too!” Who ever you examine, whether it is your neighbors, your family, your friends, or yourself, don’t you think that everyone could use just a little more wisdom? I have done some pretty dumb things in my life, and I dare say that all of you have too. We could all use a lot more wisdom.
But wisdom is a very elusive thing. It isn’t easily obtained. It seems to hide just around the corner from where I live. I’m ever reaching out for it, ever searching for it, but never quite getting to it. At best, it seems that every once in a while I manage to catch just a corner of wisdom and learn from it.
For most of us, we gain wisdom only through making a lot of mistakes. We get a little wiser if we stick our hand to a hot stove, or walk barefoot through the grass and step on a thorn, or get in too much of a hurry and wreck the car or get a traffic ticket. All of the experiences of life help us to gain a little wisdom, but only if we allow those lessons that we learn to govern our actions after we learn them. Knowledge without action on that knowledge doesn’t do much to help us.
You can learn that a hot stove will burn but if that knowledge isn’t put into practice and you still stick your hand on a hot stove, or if you continue to drive in a manner that will bring the wrath of the traffic cop down on you, then your knowledge doesn’t give you wisdom, but exactly the opposite.
Therefore, experience, knowledge, education, and understanding alone are not wisdom. Wisdom only comes when they are used with that little word called “insight”, to make us change to use what we know correctly.
People, through long experience, and trying to learn from their mistakes, often make up one-liners; little sayings that will sum up what they have learned so that the lessons learned won’t be so easily forgotten. Those little one-liners are called “Proverbs”.
There was a 1st grade teacher who had a collection of well-known proverbs. She decided one day to give each child in her class the first half of a proverb, and then let them finish those proverbs in their own words. Listen to their answers.
-Better to be safe than...Punch a 5th grader.
-Strike While the...Bug is close.
-It’s always darkest before...Daylight Savings time.
-Never underestimate the power of...Termites.
-You can lead a horse to water but...how?
-Don’t bite the hand that...looks dirty.
-No news is...impossible.
-You can’t teach an old dog new...math.
-If you lie down with dogs, you’ll...stink in the morning.
-Love all; trust...me.
-The pen is mightier than the ...pigs.
-An idle mind is...The best way to relax.
-Where there’s smoke there’s...Pollution.
-Happy the bride who...gets all the presents.
-A penny saved is...not much.
-Don’t put off till tomorrow what...you put on to go to bed.
-Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and...you have to blow your nose.
-Children should be seen and not...spanked or grounded.
-If at first you don’t succeed...get new batteries.
-You get out of something what you...see pictured on the box.
-When the blind leads the blind...get out of the way.
The Book of Job contains one of the most beautiful poems in the Word of God concerning wisdom.
Job 28:1-3, "Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone. He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death."
Mankind will search diligently for those things that he believes will bring him wealth and power. Some of the greatest industries that we have are mining and refining industries. Wars have been fought over the resources found in the earth beneath our feet. How many people have been killed for their claim to a vein of gold or silver? How many have seen their lives ruined when they robbed or killed to gain a few shiny rocks called diamonds?
Mankind will search out the silver, the gold, the iron and brass. In our day it seems that the most sought after thing in the earth is a thing called oil. Many of our recent battles have been based upon the need for oil. Oil now seems to be lifeblood of a nation for all of our machines, and many of the goods that we have would not be possible without oil to either make them operate or give us the raw materials to build them.
Do we understand that these things have been in the earth all along? We don’t make gold, iron or oil. It is in the earth because God put it there in the beginning. Is God still putting resources in the earth? Some are being renewed, such as the forests and clean water, but not all are. Scientists tell us that oil is being produced all the time but that it takes millions of years to become a useful resource as plants and animals die and are covered by the earth under tremendous pressure and all the right dynamics are in place.
I believe that God created the earth and placed within the earth all that man would need, including the ability of the earth to replenish its resources as needed.
The only reason that we are seemingly using our resources faster than we can find or produce them is that we are a wasteful people. Why are we wasteful? It’s because man is sinful and rebellious and chooses not to serve God who has the only perfect plan.
Why would God create man on the earth, tell him to multiply and grow, and fill the earth, and then not give him the resources that man would need to live on this earth forever? Is that not what God intended? Don’t we believe that God is intelligent enough to know what we would need to build a world to worship Him forever?
It doesn’t take much understanding to realize that if man had obeyed God, then our discoveries and achievements would have been vastly more advanced than they are now. Man has accomplished much, even under the influence of a sinful nature. But that same sin nature has caused us to abuse our discoveries, turning many of our inventions into weapons, and wasting much of the resources that God meant for our good.
It’s a fact of history that many of our modern conveniences were born out of research for weapons of war then adapted to everyday life once the war was over. How much more could we build; how much greater could our society be; and how much more wisely could the resources of the earth be used, if mankind would only use them as God intended?
God knows what resources are there. He hid them in the earth, in the rocks, the mountains and under the seas, until it was time for man to discover them and use them. At the right time, and the right place, at the precise moment when history, need, technology and learning came together, man learned of gold, silver, oil and even uranium. Until all the dynamics were in the right place, the resources were hidden from sight.
Do you understand that man cannot create natural resources? That’s why they are called “natural”. The Creator of nature is the only One who can create resources. What He gives us the power to do is to use them wisely.
But where do we get the wisdom needed to use them? Wisdom is so elusive, so hard to obtain. It must be mined continuously and still it is in short supply! Why can’t mankind find the wisdom he needs?
The reason is that he refuses to look at the source of wisdom! Man will dig, mine, drill and search for the resources of the earth so that he may consume them, use them unlawfully, and have power over other men to rule and reign over them, or to enslave them through forcing people to pay for those resources with ever rising prices.
But mankind will not search for wisdom that would teach him what the real reason is for all of the resources of the earth. He will not search for the One who can give him “insight” that will tell him what to do with his discoveries to better mankind. He will not search for the wisdom that comes only from God who created all things for a purpose.
Job 28:9-22 tells us about God’s power to bring the resources forth in his own time, "He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots. He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing. He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
Then Job continues on by saying, “But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears."
Mankind will search for wealth in the gold, silver and precious stones. He will dig for oil. He will go to the greatest depths and the highest heights to search for wealth and power, including into the regions of outer space and other planets.
But what he refuses to search for is the greatest wealth of all – Wisdom to know what the resources are there for and how to use them rightly.
All of the things that are hidden in the ground are easier to find than wisdom. Wisdom much be searched for, not in the ground, not in the regions of space, not under the sea, but in the knowledge of Almighty God, for only in the Creator can true wisdom be found.
Job 28:23-27, "God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out."
God created the earth and all that is in it. He knows where every vein of gold and silver lies. He knows where every pool of oil exists. He weighed the atmosphere and determined how much air and wind that man would need to live forever and gave that much to us. He weighed and measured the waters that are on the earth to support life forever for that was His intention for man. He spoke forth the rain to water the ground to bring forth living plants, or the fountains of the deep that would spring forth with water to grow living plants, which in turn, constantly purify the atmosphere. God created weather to give the lightning and thunder so that the right nutrients would fall to the earth and replenish the ground so that plants could grow.
God saw it, spoke it into existence, prepared it for mankind, His most beloved creation, and searched out, determined, and decided how it would all come together to create a perfect world.
Then we messed it up through sin, and Satan perverted it all so that it would ultimately come to destruction and death – because he hates everything that reminds him of God including mankind, made in God’s own image, and the earth that God created for man.
What we need is wisdom. We need to search it out, dig for it, drill for it, mine for it – not in the earth, but in the Word of God and the knowledge of Him who is wisdom personified.
Job 28:28, "And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."
Behold – pay attention! Hey dummy, listen up! Here’s what you really need! A neon sign flashes, bells ring, trumpets blow and the earth trembles as the cry comes forth – HERE IS WHERE YOU CAN FIND WISDOM!
Fear God, the creator of all things! Reverence, worship and serve Him! THAT IS WISDOM!
Get away from sin, repent and follow the Lord, leave the things of this world to the god of this world, Satan and let it burn with him! Understand the end of all things and serve God! That’s the ultimate wisdom, and when you have that wisdom, everything else will fall into its proper order and place in your life.
Let God, the Creator, be your God, and learn of Him. Let God’s understanding fill your heart and life and you will be a much wiser man or woman because you fear Him!
Why do we search only for those things that are temporary, only those things that we think will satisfy the desires of the flesh in this present world? Do we not know that all of this will be burned away, destroyed by the holiness of God, under the fires of judgment?
Revelation 20:11-15, "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
We should mine for the wisdom of God and worship Him. Fear Him, reverence Him for there will be a new world one day; a world created for you and I to live on forever, just as God intended from the beginning. Only now there will be no more Satan to pervert it.
Revelation 21:1, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea."
True wisdom can only be found in God. True wisdom will search out the things of God, the ways of God and the will of God.
Do you need or want more wisdom? You can find it by getting closer to Jesus. Draw closer to God and you will be amazed at how much wisdom you will gain.
