A woman in a contemporary play is complaining about her hollow
living, and she says to another, "Don't you get the feeling that this is a
broken world, something like a watch? The parts are all there, and it
looks all right, but the main spring is broken and it no longer has
meaning. Life looks right, but it's meaning is missing. It's main
spring is gone." Many modern people feel like her that meaning is
missing. The result is all kinds of wild and ridiculous ways to recover
meaning, or at least to establish some goal.
In another play called Catch 22 one of the characters named
Dunbar makes long life his goal and the only purpose for which he
lives. His goal leads him to unbelievable nonsense. He is depressed
because time goes so fast, and since his goal is longer life he goes to
any length to make life seem longer. He notices that when he does
things that he dislikes the time drags, and so he figured if he fills his
days with tasks that he dislikes and even despises, life will seem so
much longer. Without a doubt, he is right. And unpleasant life would
seem longer, but to sacrifice all quality for the sake of mere quantity is
certainly eligible for the label of folly.
The Christian, of course, is committed to a life of growing quality.
Jesus came that we might have life abundant, and both Old and New
Testaments make it clear that the believer is to advance in wisdom
and in favor with God and man. Solomon has already made it clear
that the fear of the Lord is the beginning, or principle part, of
knowledge, but now in chapter 2 he gives us a list of prerequisites,
which are necessary to gain this key factor, which makes the believer's
life meaningful and purposeful. Notice that in verse 5 he says, "Then
you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of
God." What is that? It is what comes after one has fulfilled the
conditions described in the first four verses. If we fulfill these
purposeful living is guaranteed. The firsts prerequisite is that we
must be-
I. RECEPTIVE.
This, of course, is the first requirement in gaining the benefits of any
teaching or philosophy of life. Even God's own children do not
benefit by His abundant provisions if they do not receive them. Notice
that the father recognizes that he cannot compel his son to receive his
words. He can only seek to convince him of the value in doing so, and
of the folly of not doing so. Receptivity is totally the responsibility of
the individual. You can talk about giving your child an education, but
this is not really accurate. All anyone can do is make an education
available. Only the child can make it actual by being receptive to that
which is made available.
Knowledge and wisdom, like Christ, can stand at the door and
knock, but they only gain entrance when we open the door and receive
them. The Gospel was available to the Auca Indians through the 5
missionaries who flew to them, but they were unreceptive, and the
result was death for the missionaries and continued darkness for
them. It was only when they became receptive that they were
redeemed. We see that from the very beginning of one's encounter
with God, to the highest degree of fellowship and sanctification,
receptivity is a basic requirement. Solomon says, "Son, if you will
receive my words, you can reject them or ignore them, but if you are
receptive you will fulfill the first prerequisite for purposeful living."
The second is to be
II. RETENTIVE.
If you store up my commands, or as the RSV has it, "..treasure
up my commandments." This is just another way of saying the same
thing as was said in the first clause, but it carries with it the thought of
retaining what is received. Store up is stronger than receive.
Solomon goes from the general to the particular, and his second clause
strengthens the first and fills up the weakness of the first if it is left
alone. The Bible is not wordy and does not just repeat the same idea
in another way for no good reason. This added emphasis is necessary,
for it has to be recognized that it is possible to be receptive and still let
what has been received be lost.
It can go in one ear and out the other. A sieve and a sponge are
both receptive, but only the sponge is retentive. If what we receive is
not retained for application when it is needed, you are no longer off
than those who have never been taught. It is possible to pass a test by
cramming, but you cannot live a purposeful life on that basis. You
must retain what you receive, and day by day build up a reservoir of
knowledge and wisdom.
It is hard for young people to get the vision of how important it is
to learn and retain what they learn. I can recall saying of so many
things, "What good is this stuff? I will never use it. It will never do
me any good. Why do I have to waste time studying that?" Youth is
impatient and wants to see a connection of all they learn with their
today. It is a condition of future success, however, that they learn that
most truths, ideas, values and principles cannot be immediately
utilized. No one would ever buy a set of encyclopedias if they were
only interested in today. No one has ever has use for all that
information at any one time. It is a storehouse of knowledge for one's
needs through all of life. You don't have to know anything about
Beethoven today, but next year, or ten years from now, you may, and
so you treasure of this information now.
So it is in learning godly principles of purposeful living. They
don't all apply today, but when you hear any truth of God's Word
expounded, treasure it up, for some day you will need it, and if you
have received it but not retained it, you have not met one of the basic
conditions for arriving at a totally meaningful life. It is today that you
build your tomorrow. If you do not retain the bricks of wisdom you
receive today, your castle of tomorrow will be diminished. For
example, teens ought to be learning now all they can about marriage.
Those who do will be prepared to apply what they have learned, and
not just learned by trial and error. Those who wait to learn often only
learn that it was folly to wait. Don't wait until a drought to fill your
reservoir, but receive now and retain for the future. Those who are
receptive and retentive of godly teaching are well on their way to a
truly purposeful life.
Verse 2 elaborates on how to fulfill these conditions. First of all,
to receive you must have ears that are attentive to wisdom, and a
heart that is active in securing understanding. It takes the
cooperation of both the internal and external man. If one does not pay
attention he can never fulfill the prerequisite of being receptive. All
kinds of wisdom can be in your presence, but you will be none the
better if you are not attentive. This is one of the real values of note
taking. If I didn't have notes of all the lectures and messages I have
heard, I would retain little of conscious value from it all. Many great
messages I have heard are only vague memories because I did not
take notes. Those I took notes on are very real and practical value,
for I have retained key ideas and thoughts that I can refer to and be
stimulated all over again. Note taking will help you incline your ear,
for one cannot note what he does not hear.
Eusebius records of Constantine the Emperor that he would stand
for hours to hear the Word, and when requested to sit he replied, "He
thought it wicked to give negligent ears when the truth handled was
spoken of God." Foxe records of Edward VI, King of England, "That
never was he present at any sermon commonly, but would excerpt
them or note them with his own hand." He who is not attentive will
not be receptive, and he who is not receptive cannot be retentive, and
so we see how the very foundation to purposeful living is built on a
most simple truth. It amounts to this: Pay attention or you have had
it. You can go to Sunday School all your life and still wind up as so
many do-totally unaware of what God's will is for you. This can happen
by simply not turning your ear to wisdom, and not paying attention.
The second clause again strengthens the first. You must apply
your heart to understanding. In other words, listening is basic, but
mere listening with no active hunger to learn will not be effective.
Passive attention gives only momentary value. It can be interesting
and enjoyable to hear truth and wisdom, but if one inner man does not
make a deliberate effort to make those truths working factors in life
and thought, there will be no retention of what is received, and so no
treasure from which to draw in the future. Not only must the ear hear
wisdom, but the mind and heart must digest it and use it. The heart in
the Bible is the seat of reason and intellect. The brain is not used in
the Bible. A life of meaning and purpose does not just happen, but it
is gained by positive and active commitment and hard work. Next we
have-
III. AGGRESSIVE.
Verse 3 gives us the third prerequisite for purposeful living,
which approaches the same ideas from another and more aggressive
angle. The first 2 verses picture one with plenty of wisdom at hand,
and his responsibility is to be open to it, and to take full advantage of
its availability. Now we move on to greater fields, and into fathomless
depths and measureless heights where we know we can only know in
part, but where we long to expand that part. We come to a situation
here that implies the fulfillment of the first. In other words, many can
either listen or not to what is available, but this verse applies only to
those who have already opened up to receive what is available, and
there appetites are wetted to go out and search of what is not at hand.
In the first 2 verses wisdom waits to be received, while in the
second 2 verses it is hidden like treasure. The first requires that only we
open the door and let it in. The second demands that we open the
door and go out searching. Solomon is recognizing that there are
limitations to what can be gained by receiving alone. This will never
be adequate to fulfill all one's needs if they want to truly make all of
life purposeful. Some things just cannot be taught, but must be
caught. There are insights, attitudes and understandings which no one
can give you, and so you cannot just receive them. You have to go
searching for them. Life is complex and each person is unique, and so
they need distinctive insights to fit their own unique life.
We must go beyond what is general and common wisdom
available to all who will receive it, and we must cry out for specific
insights for our own lives. We must have a definite hunger and thirst
for understanding that drives us across the barren desert of worldly
wisdom to the fruitful oasis of the wisdom of God. We must not be
content to merrily pay attention when the wisdom of God is presented.
We must pursue it. We must go crying after it. If at first you don't
succeed, cry, cry again, is what Solomon is saying. Lift up your voice
and call out for insight, and cry aloud for understanding. Go and
search for it as you would search for hidden treasure. When we cease
to cry, we will cease to care, and could end up missing God's best. We
must begin by being receptive and retentive, but not until we are also
aggressive have fulfilled the 3 basic requirements Solomon lays down
for his son as prerequisites for purposeful living.
