Proverbs 1:20-33
“Give Ear To Wisdom’s Voice”
To begin the preparation for today’s message, I came up with a list of 12 things I think are stupid.
You may agree or disagree with some or all of my list.
You may want to add your own perceptions to my list.
At any event, here is my list.
1. Hurling oneself on a motorcycle over a row of 15 tractor trailers to beat the record jump of 12 tractor trailers and ending up crashing into the 13th tractor trailer while your motorcycle and your body crash all at the same time.
2. Jumping onto the railing attached to a flight of steps while riding a skate board and crashing onto the cement without wearing any safety pads or a helmet.
3. Voluntarily entering into a plastic box and allowing someone to cover you with poisonous snakes.
4. Entering a live worm eating contest.
5. Robbing a bank and smiling at the cameras taking your pictures.
6. Asking for an aisle seat on an airplane so your hair doesn’t get messed up sitting too close to the window. (Really happened.)
7. The following label on a Sears Hair Dryer: “Do Not Use While Sleeping”
8. The following label on a child’s Superman Costume: “Wearing This Costume Does Not Enable You To Fly”
9. Setting up a business in Las Vegas in which men pay $10,000 to hunt and shoot naked women with paintball guns. The pellets travel at 200 mph and cause welts and bleeding when they hit the naked women’s flesh.
10. Women who want to participate because they get paid $2,500 if they are able to evade the paintballs, and $1,000 if they are hit.
11. Playing the arcade game at the shore in which you pay money to hold onto two metal rods while jolts of electricity are shooting through your body to see how much you can take.
12. Participating in a reality show to find the person you’re going to marry while competing against other contestants who want to marry the same Bachelor and then being told the Bachelor is not a Millionaire, and getting depressed because you were dumped.
Now I comprised this list because our sermon text from Proverbs, just happens to be talking about wisdom.
Wisdom is personified as a woman..
“Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:”
I believe that the examples I gave from my list of 12 things that I think are stupid, proves that not everybody hears wisdom’s voice crying.
Or if they do hear wisdom’s voice crying, they choose to ignore it.
Now, I cannot say that I am exempt from doing stupid things.
If we’re honest, I believe that most of here today would admit to doing at least one stupid thing in their life.
In fact, in one of my favorite episodes of Stargate S.G. 1, a science fiction drama on the Sci-Fi channel, Colonial O’Neale is stuck in a time warp pattern and he keeps repeating a segment of his life.
How many of us would jump at the chance to redo a portion of our lives?
In fact, I heard on the radio that that is the theme of the next reality series…
Individuals are given a sum of money, and somehow given a chance to do a part of their life over.
I discovered in seminary, that Wisdom is a concept that I could spend the rest of my life studying.
To me, wisdom is fascinating.
My studies taught me that understanding is the key to wisdom.
Without understanding, words of wisdom have no voice.
One can say or shout words of wisdom to another, but unless the other person hearing the words of wisdom understands, the words are of no value to that person.
Most parents have probably said to their kids at one time or another, “Don’t touch the stove, it’s hot!”
But the concept and the lesson will probably not be learned until understanding is imparted…in other words, once the child touches the stove, the stove burns them, and they feel the pain from the burn, that is when they will understand why you teach them not to touch the stove because it is hot.
I’m sure almost any parent of a teenager could come up with a list of at least 12 items of wisdom to share with their son or daughter about growing up during the time of adolesence.
How wonderful it would be if we had the knowledge, wisdom, and experience we have in our 30’s and 40’s before we enter our teen years.
How many of our choices would have been very different?
And so as parents of teenagers, most moms and dads will try and impart their wisdom to their children in hopes that their children won’t make the same stupid mistakes they made when they were young.
But you see, each generation it seems, has to learn wisdom for themselves.
Wisdom cannot be transferred.
Knowledge can be taught.
Facts can be taught.
But wisdom takes understanding.
What is incredible about wisdom, is that it often takes a Divine Being, that of the Holy Spirit to receive understanding.
Practically anyone these days, old enough to read, can read the Bible, because as our confirmands are learning, it has been translated into several different languages.
But just because you read the Bible, doesn’t mean you are going to understand it.
It is the Holy Spirit that imparts wisdom to us as Christians, in order for us to receive the understanding of the scriptures and unlock the keys to their meaning.
While in seminary, I was in a class teaching the New Testament.
The Professor was a well known and very knowledgable scholar.
He wrote several books about the New Testament and could translate on the fly, directly from the Greek Textus Recepticus.
One day, he lectured for 3 hours about Jesus being the Son of Man.
I can honestly say, I didn’t learn one thing in that 3 hours.
He just wasn’t getting through to me.
He was teaching, but I cannot say I was learning or understanding.
Then one day in class, about 3 weeks later, we were studying the scriptures in Revelation.
He made the comment that he didn’t understand a specific concept in chapter 20, verses 1-3 about Satan being thrown in the abyss.
Here is where wisdom and understanding in my heart took precedence over the knowledge of a very accomplished seminary professor.
You see, you can spend a life time studying a concept, but unless the Holy Spirit imparts understanding to wisdom, we will remain in the dark.
I believe it was the Holy Spirit who imparted wisdom to Thomas Edison to understand the concept of electricity.
I believe it was the Holy Spirit who imparted wisdom to Alexander Graham Bell to understand the concept of communications.
I believe there are numerous concepts in our universe, just waiting to be understood.
But it is the fool who lives without acknowledging God.
Verse 26 is a tough message to receive.
“I will also laugh at your calamity.”
Let’s put verse 26 it into context, beginning with verse 24.
“Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded, and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you, when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices.”
There’s a saying in life, that we reap what we sow.
We can turn our backs on God.
We can “pretend” God does not exist.
We can make up all kinds of excuses and theories about how the universe was created without Divine Intervention.
We can be ordered to hide a monument of the 10 Commandments in a closet.
But ultimately, God will have the last word.
Each of us will have his or her turn to meet his or her creator face to face.
There is good news at the end of Proverbs chapter 1….
“For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”
Let us all heed wisdom’s voice and give ear to her words.
Amen.
