The Clever Couple Series

A young couple who had just gotten married, and who

had received many valuable wedding gifts, established their

home in the suburb. One morning they received in the mail

two tickets for a popular show in the city. A note said,

"Guess who?" The couple were amused as they tried to

find the identity of the donor, but they could not find out

who sent them. They used the tickets, and they had a

delightful evening. On their return home, late at night, still

trying to figure out the mystery, they found their house

stripped of every article of value.

On the bare table in the dinning room was a piece of paper

on which was written- "Now you know!"

Crooks have so many clever ways of robbing people that

it has given the word clever a bad name. Vincent Teresa in

his book My Life In The Mafia tells of numerous clever

schemes he used to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars

from innocent people, and sometimes not so innocent

people. One that shows the thought and planning of these

people is one I want to share. There was a big horse race

called the Constitution Handicap. They put a fortune on

Flauntless Light to win. Non-clever people would give their

horse drugs to help him win, but the Mafia knows the

winner will be tested for drugs, and so they bribed the

stable boys of the other five horses in the race. They juiced

those five with a depressant. Their horse won by 7 links,

and they made a hundred and sixty three grand. There was

a big stink over the race, but the only horse that was

checked was their horse, and he was clean. Clever schemes

like this enabled them to rip off billions of dollars a year.

Because history is full of the clever schemes of con men,

and because the fall of man began with the clever, cunning,

and crafty scheme of that old serpent the devil, we have a

tendency to put cleverness in the category of vice rather

than virtue. The Jews did not do so, however, but

recognized cleverness as a great virtue, and one of the most

powerful weapons in the cause of righteousness. Yes,

they said, evil is clever but it is the task of the righteous to

outwit the evil. The book of Esther is about a very clever

man named Haman, who out of personal pride almost

succeeded in getting the Jewish people exterminated. He

was only foiled in his plot because Mordecai and Esther

were even more clever, and they were able to turn the tables

on him, and he was hung on his own gallows.

The whole theme of wisdom in the Old Testament deals

with the virtue of being clever enough to outwit the clever

appeals of evil. The fool falls for the wiles of the devil, but

the clever stay one jump ahead of him. After all, what is the

battle of life all about? It is about outwitting all the clever

ways of the evil one to keep us from fulfilling the will of

God. Cleverness is part of the image of God in us. He is the

most clever of all Persons in the universe. His wisdom is a

marvel as we study His creation. His cleverness in figuring

out how to outwit Satan, and save a lost world, when Satan

seems to have all the advantages of a fallen free willed

creature who tends toward evil.

Jesus faced the clever tempter, but He was more clever

than the first Adam, and He outwitted the old serpent and

all his agents. No trap set for Him by the Pharisees could

ensnare Him. Jesus said that we are to be wise as serpents

and harmless as doves, and He practiced what He preached.

He lived His whole life outwitting the devil, and He died a

spotless Lamb of God for the sin of the world.

He was, without question, the most clever man whoever

lived. He was a perfect man, and a perfect man by

definition is clever. There are few, if any, who become key

links in the plan of God who are not in some way clever,

and this goes for both Ruth and Boaz. They were just

ordinary people, but they were clever people, and from

their story we can learn why it is important for us to strive

at being clever. By their cleverness they got themselves into

the blood line of the Messiah. The first thing we want to see

is that-

I. COMPLEXITY DEMANDS CLEVERNESS.

Boaz and Ruth had something of a romance going, but it

was not what you would call a whirlwind romance. He

watched her labor in the fields, and they ate lunch together.