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Exchanged Glory III: Wise as Serpents
I had exchanged His glory for a view of Him in which He didn’t speak to me regularly through wisdom. This made it hard to sense His love and care, and human hearts need love and care.
Then you will discern the fear of he LORD, and discover the knowledge of God.
(Proverbs 2:5, NAS)
When I memorized Proverbs 2:5, I thought back to the first eight years of my Christian life.[29] I had been unable to discern the fear of the Lord. There were issues of sin, judgment, and grace that I couldn’t seem to grasp. I read the words of the Bible, but they didn’t make sense to me until the Lord opened my heart to understand them.
Many people have similar difficulties. Some, especially those with harsh parents or from legalistic churches, view God as an overbearing tyrant. They don’t correctly discern the fear of the Lord, because they can’t see Him in the light of His love. Their misled dread blinds them.
Others have been influenced by a culture of permissive-love. To them, fear is such a cruel emotion that any God who inspires it is not worthy of His title. They are blinded by misguided “kindness.”
In order to break through our darkened hearts, we need to treasure wisdom, cry out for it, and seek it. Our flesh will resist the difficult changes that wisdom requires, but if we humble ourselves and practice what Proverbs teaches, we will eventually discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding …
Like Proverbs 1:22,[30] Proverbs 2:6 thundered through my heart and changed me forever. As I memorized it, I was struck by the fact that the LORD is the One who speaks knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. I had not thought of these gifts as coming directly from God. They were more like a second rate-kind of guidance, earthly information and reasoning that we had to rely on when we didn’t get a direct prophetic message from the Holy Spirit. This verse told me that I was mistaken. They were as much a word from God as if He had stepped down from His throne and delivered them to me in person.
When I finally comprehended this, my interaction with my Father in heaven took a quantum leap forward. I had always believed that He wanted to be involved in every part of my life, but I couldn’t figure out how to practically live in this promise. Aside from the guidelines in Scripture, He didn’t appear to have much to say to me. Though I often sensed Him while I read the Bible, prayed, or worshipped, in my daily grind He seemed far away.
Proverbs 2:6 changed that. My Father had been speaking to me through knowledge, understanding, and wisdom for years. I just hadn’t recognized them for what they were. Whenever I had properly understood my situation, found a useful skill, or gained knowledge – this was a message from His heart to mine. He was showing that He loved me enough to explain life to me. From His mouth I was receiving His instruction.
I, of course, couldn’t give everyday wisdom equal weight to what I learned in the Scriptures. The Bible was the wisdom by which I judged all other wisdom. Nevertheless, the fact that the practical insights entering my heart through experience were less reliable than the written word didn’t keep them from being valuable. I didn’t need them to be 100% authoritative in order for the love behind them to impact me.
It was the emotional force of Proverbs 2:6 that transformed me. It told me that my Father was involved with my life – teaching me, training me, and taking me step by step into His purposes. This inspired me to do whatever was required to hear from Him.
As I understood this, something in my heart fell more in love with my confusing Creator. He had seemed so hesitant to speak, close in a spiritual sense but distant concerning practical life. Now I saw that He was revealing Himself in many ways; I just hadn’t learned to recognize the many sounds of His voice.
As you may recall, the theme of this series of books is that when we replace God with false images our foolish hearts become darkened.[31] As a result we are given over to sinful habits that we become too foolish to escape. In order to find freedom, we must exchange our idols for a relationship with the True God.
As a young man, my view of my Heavenly Father had become distorted. I had exchanged His glory for a view of Him in which He didn’t speak to me regularly through wisdom. This made it hard to sense His love and care, and human hearts need love and care. It’s no wonder my life was so difficult.
Our Heavenly Father longs to interact with us by helping us to understand how to live. He wants to teach us to practically walk in His ways. There is great healing as our darkened hearts become filled with the light of His truth and find the ability to follow Him. We discover in everyday living that He cares about us.
The book of Proverbs helped bring that together for me. I grasped the connection between my growing practical insight and my spiritual union with Him, and He became more personal. Words like knowledge, understanding, and wisdom were no longer sterile and unconnected from His presence. Now the process of learning was an expression of His desire to show His kindness to me. I still had a long way to go, but the train tracks in my heart[32] were carrying me down paths that could enable me to consistently experience His love.
He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly …
God has a whole storehouse full of wisdom that He wants to hand out. If we do our part, He is more than eager to do His. As we persevere day by day in His classroom, He will move knowledge from His storehouse to ours.
Wise people store up knowledge, …
For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul …
(Proverbs 2:10, NAS)
Pleasant. It wasn’t a word I used to describe my walk with Jesus. My life was increasingly taking on the qualities of a street-fight. It was exciting, and I could experience great rewards, but it wasn’t pleasant.
I was at a stage where I had to endure unpleasantness in order to escape from my hedge of thorns. It tore at my flesh while I pushed forward to God’s delightful highway. My heart longed for the day when I would see the fulfillment of Proverbs 2:10. I wanted to peacefully smile and say, “Knowledge is pleasant to my soul”.
As I write this book, I can describe my life as “pleasant.” I still have struggles, but the inner thicket is largely behind me. God’s truth has reached down to my deepest spirit and emotions, transforming my experience and healing much of my pain. Pushing through the hedge of thorns has been worth the trouble.
This wisdom stuff works. It’s tough to find better promises for life on this planet than what we find in Proverbs.
Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her. …So they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; for the LORD will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.
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