Proverbs 2
9. then you will understand right and justice and equity and everything good.
10. when wisdom comes into your heart, and knowledge into your soul, it’s delightful (beautiful);
11. good plans will keep you; understanding will guard you, 12. to keep you from the evil person who speaks perverse things, 13. who leave the upright roads to walk on the paths of darkness, 14. who are happy to do evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil people 15. who’s roads are crooked, and their paths deviant
Beauty (delight), Good Plans & Understanding Guard You
Beauty.
Have you seen Niagra Falls?
The Taj Mahal?
Have you seen majestic Everest, or the Alps from venues in Switzerland?
Have you seen Lucerne, the city on a lake, or Aizawl, city in the clouds?
Driven through the black forest at midday, breathed in the cool evening breezes of Budapest, looked down at the tallest buildings of Chicago, or up at the spires of New York, breakfasted in the Space Needle of Seattle . . . Have you had tea in the Compass Rose in Singapore, sailed the seas between the islands of the Philippines, flown into Hong Kong at sunrise, and looked up at the stars over Japan, then down at the starry landscape at midnight, sat, awed by the glory of Shasta over coffee, taken in sunset on the beach of Newport? Have you viewed the Leonid meteor showers from the top of Saddleback Mountain one year, and the peaks of Arunachal Pradesh another? Have you heard (in person) Beethoven’s 9th performed by a great orchestra, or taken in the tones of some of the greatest performers of our time? Have you performed with accomplished ensembles and felt the rush of glory as you are part of a team recreating some of the most beautiful creations of the human mind?
I’ve experienced all these things. Each time I was in awe of the splendor of God’s creation, on one hand, and human creative genius on the other. Beauty lifts us up and enriches us. Maybe this is part of the reason that research shows that brain degenerative diseases are less debilitating and more delayed among people who have travelled and the same results for those who are musicians. We have a disproportionate experience of beauty that most humans can only imagine.
Yet.
All of these experiences in no way eclipse the amazement of discovering a treasure in a verse of Scripture, an insight after ruminating over a passage, a leap of the soul as the LORD speaks and moves the spirit in prayer. The day-to-day Presence of the One who loves us is a beauty that is only reflected in these mirrors of Beauty. I think in this sense, Plato was right. He envisioned all such things, beauty, good, truth, grace, and even things like horses and fish, as being reflections-imperfect but glorious representations of Models or Forms found in heaven. The idea of forms isn’t exactly biblical. But the concept that all goodness, all truth, all beauty, all love are found most fully in Christ, and that all other forms of these virtuous realities serve to draw us to Him, is biblical. When we have a burst of understanding, we are drawn closer to that Mind from which all understanding flows. It is, as Solomon says, delightful.
The Results of Good Plans & Understanding
Good plans and understanding keep you from people who:
1. Speak perverse things
2. Leave upright roads to walk in darkness
3. Are happy to do evil
4. Enjoy the perversity of others
5. Tread roads that are crooked and deviant. (they don’t walk the straight & narrow)
Here’s the problem.
We live in a world where most people
1. use foul language and tell dirty jokes
2. don’t mind the road that is dark and crooked
3. don’t mind doing things that are “under the table” or involve bribery or grey areas
4. speaking of grey, they don’t mind 50 shades of it, and want to influence you to watch films where others are doing perverse things.
If you’re wise according to this definition, you may end up finding it difficult to find even one good friend-one who walks with you on the straight and narrow, who is careful with words-using them for blessing and good and truth, who shuns evil and embraces good, and simple clean humor, and enjoys beauty and excellence and integrity. If this is so, so be it. Have only a few good friends, and be guarded among those who don’t fit this restrictive definition. This is how wisdom directs us. The good news is, the life directed this way becomes more beautiful and joyous and fruitful as the years pass.
Prayer for Today
Father
We want to walk only on the path that leads to You
Give us wisdom to recognize those who would lead us elsewhere.
We want to know Your beauty and goodness
Give us eyes to see Your truth and wisdom
Open our ears to hear Your voice, the most beautiful song
And to dance only to that tune.
In the name of Your Son, Jesus
Amen
Proverbs 2
16 to deliver you from the strange unfamiliar woman who divides with her words.
17 who leaves the husband of her early life and forgets the covenant of her god.
18 for her house sinks to death and her paths lead to the dead.
True Beauty vs Deceptive Beauty
Beauty keeps us from those who would lead us away from the Straight and Narrow Road, as discussed before. Ironically, paradoxically, the Beauty of Wisdom also keeps us from deceptive beauty.
This is what the different/strange/foreign woman (foreign to the good Way of Wisdom) does:
She divides with her words.
According to a recent study, a ridiculous number of men and women engage in “mate poaching”-trying to move someone from a committed relationship to enter a relationship with yourself instead (http://www.helenfisher.com/downloads/articles/INFIDELITY.pdf) A man goes home and his wife tells him, quite honestly and accurately, all the things he is doing wrong, and all the things he should be doing but isn’t. Then he goes to work and a woman there tells him how wonderful and intelligent and handsome and wise he is. (if you’re a lady, just put husband & man & beautiful in place of wife & woman & handsome) This can be a form of dividing. Beauty, real Wisdom, speaks words that bring people, and especially her family, together. She doesn’t hold back from telling it like it is-as she sees it, and uses honesty to make everyone around her better. Deceptive beauty divides families, and the division is done by words. On the other side-the positive side-of things, wisdom also rejoices in times of celebration. Couples that are happy together tend to rejoice together in accomplishments and good news (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-happy-couple-2012-10-23/). If your partner is with you in the down times, and with you in the celebrations, you’re likely to be happier. Happy couples (those that are really difficult to divide) also tend to idealize their spouse. This is the other end of honesty-if you want a happy spouse, men, tell her that she is Beauty Incarnate-the Platonic Form of Beauty in comparison to which all lesser beauties are, at best, imperfect imitations-or, you know, find your own way of saying the same thing. Ladies, if you want a happy spouse, tell him he’s smarter than Einstein and better looking than the Chris of your choice (Pine, Hemsworth, Pratt, whatever), and MEAN it. :-) (https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/mate-idealization-makes-for-happy-e-11-03-02/) These are words that will bond hearts together. Divisive words lead to divided lives, and, in marriage, divorce.
She leaves the husband of her early life
Divorce is so common in the world today that we forget that most people will get married (apparently still 85-90% in the US will get married. The percentages are higher in other countries like India), and the majority of those who are married will stay together for life, and of those who stay together the vast majority will be faithful to their spouses (https://ideas.ted.com/10-facts-about-infidelity-helen-fisher/). Marriage and faithfulness are the norm. And, surely, there are legitimate reasons for divorce. For example, if you marry a man who promises to love, honour, and cherish you, but he uses you as a punching bag and a door mat, he has broken the covenant and you are free and, I think even obligated, to protect yourself. Yet, the Bible warns against the foolishness of seeking greener pastures. It is this foolishness, of leaving a commitment made in youth for something that seems to be better, it’s the breaking of a covenant for convenience and the promise of pleasure.
She leaves the covenant of her god
This is probably a second way of saying the same thing-that Hebrew poetry habit-that leaving her husband is leaving the covenant of her god. Breaking the covenant with your spouse is breaking the covenant with the God who invented that covenant. Marriage is a symbol, an indicator of God’s nature. The profound unity between Father Son and Holy Spirit is to be portrayed in family. As in the beginning, the first few pages of the Bible, the universe was “without form and void”. It was chaotic. The Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep and God said “Light, Be!” And light was. John tells us that Jesus is the Word that was spoken at the creation of the universe. There is such unity between Father and Son that they are as close as you are to the words you speak. Profound unity. And the result of that profound unity is order from chaos, light in darkness, and life, and beauty, and goodness. This is how God designed marriage to be; His means of expressing these aspects of His nature that could not have been expressed by a monad. To express His fullness, unity, diversity, and creativity, He made humanity male and female, and made them to be united in one to become co-creators of life itself, and beauty and goodness. For this reason a man and woman leave their father and mother and become united with one another. This covenant of marriage is awesome in potential and power and, as uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility, and consequences. Anyone who takes lightly these gifts from God, His creative design for the covenant relationship upon which all other human relationships are based, is in danger of facing unwanted outcomes.
Her house and paths sink toward death
Wisdom cries out in the streets and offers life and peace and prosperity, but the strange, unfamiliar woman, promises good but delivers death. This may be a reference to the diseases associated with promiscuity-more than 38 venereal diseases are fatal if not treated-and it may also have to do with the dissipation of a life, the loss of vision, the reduced productivity that all come from broken relationships. Life in obedience to God results in blessings and leads to healthy family relations, a life-giving environment. Disregard for our LORD leads to broken relationships and decay, chaos and death; this is the nature of the enemy of our souls. Wisdom will keep us in the ways of the LORD and away from the ways of destruction.
Prayer for Today
Father,
Keep us from the ways that lead to death, and people who will lead us there.
Father
Keep us from being one who leads others away from the straight and narrow path that leads to life.
Make us wise.
Make us the people who lead others to life and blessing
In the name of our LORD who is the Way the Truth and the Life, Jesus
Amen!
