September 14, 2011
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Who Read the Preface?

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Opening Prayer

Lord, thank You that Your Holy Spirit in me is able to help me to live a life pleasing to You.

Read PROVERBS 22:17-23:14

[17] Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, [18] for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips. [19] So that your trust may be in the LORD, I teach you today, even you. [20] Have I not written thirty sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge, [21] teaching you true and reliable words, so that you can give sound answers to him who sent you? [22] Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, [23] for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them. [24] Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, [25] or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared. [26] Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; [27] if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you. [28] Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers. [29] Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men. [1] When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, [2] and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. [3] Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive. [4] Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. [5] Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. [6] Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; [7] for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. [8] You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments. [9] Do not speak to a fool, for he will scorn the wisdom of your words. [10] Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, [11] for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you. [12] Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. [13] Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. [14] Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Reflect

“Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training wisely….The traditional term for such activities (training) is spiritual disciplines” (John Ortberg).

The collection of wise sayings that starts in our reading contains much that we’ve come across previously, so today’s note focuses on the teacher’s preface in 22:17-21. Notice the verbs: pay attention, apply, keep, and have ready. What is the teacher saying here? Well, he’s saying that the wise life doesn’t come by accident. To illustrate the point, compare it with the process of learning a new language—as if the wise life was expressed by the grammar of prudent conduct, the syntax of virtuous attitudes, and the vocabulary of godly habits.

No one ever passively drifts into fluency in a new language. One friend of ours, learning Chinese, has struggled to survive and thrive in China. He has endured demoralizing setbacks, hopeless despair at the enormity of the task, innumerable tiny frustrations, the elation of recognizing that progress has indeed been made—and then he sees his wife picking up the language with little difficulty! He has persevered through this because it’s the only way to do what he’s called to do. It’s worth it.

Now, substitute “wisdom” for “Chinese.” We are not going to learn wisdom without deliberate and dogged exertion; without, figuratively speaking, getting up off our couch and putting some effort into it, we will slide into the untrusting life and drift into disaster. The uncomfortable question that the preface flings at you in order to test you is this: what are you going to do in order to live wisely? The preface is not about the clichéd journey from the head to the heart, but rather about the more challenging journey from the head to the hands and feet and lips. Biblical wisdom is a “make happen” attribute; it is to be done. If we don’t put it into practice, we don’t have it.

Apply

Evaluate your life before God by this quotation: “The rule … is that we turn each truth we learn about God into a matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God” (James I. Packer).

Closing prayer

Lord, please help me to worship You by doing the wise life instead of merely intellectualizing about Your wise words. I want to live a life that honors You.

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