Hearts and Minds Desire for God
By: Angie Jarratt
Wisdom is the application of knowledge. Knowing something doesn’t make us wise. Putting our knowledge to action, exercising good judgement and learning from our mistakes cultivates wisdom. The world teaches us that wisdom is acquired only through experience, largely from reflection on past experience. That is why our elders are usually esteemed the wisest of all, those who are older have seen more, experienced more, made more mistakes and earned their wise owl badges. I absolutely agree that we have much to learn from others, and counsel from people who have walked before us is something we should absolutely treasure and not take for granted. But I have to ask what does God’s Word teach us about wisdom?
Wisdom is an attribute of God: God knows what is best and acts accordingly. He cannot choose wrongly.
The books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job are generally referred to as the Books of Wisdom. These books individually and collaboratively give us a unique perspective on doing life. Each book, though very different in approach, carries the same objective:
All Wisdom is God’s and true Wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 2:6-8, 1:7, 9:10).
In the book of Proverbs we are given a healthy respect of God’s definition of good and evil. We learn that true wisdom is learning God’s boundaries set before us and understanding the importance of not crossing that line. True wisdom is visible in our lives when we stop working against God’s statutes and start seeking God’s will in our everyday actions. In the Proverbs we find practical wisdom worth applying to our lives, and many examples of the stark contrast between living wisely and living like a fool. Verifying that free will and personal choice does play a definite role in our quality of life and more importantly the intimacy we have with our beloved Creator.
The book of Ecclesiastes takes a very different turn and reminds us that life isn’t always as we think it should be. Even when we make the right choices, choose wisely, and desire holiness, life can be uncertain and sometimes straight up unfair. Not to mention that, death is a certainty for all of us one day (Genesis 3:17-19). We learn that we can’t control what happens around us and that trying to control life and its outcome is always done in vain. (Even though at times we might feel a disillusion of control, ultimately control is God’s and God’s alone). The only thing in our control in this crazy world is our own reactions, we get to choose joy in the good times and the bad times. At the end of Ecclesiastes the author of the book speaks up and reminds us that life does have meaning and that God will one day set all things right in His perfect wisdom and justice. (Ecclesiastes 12:14)
The book of Job gives another viewpoint of God’s wisdom yet in this story we are humbly reminded of the fact that even the wisest of humans cannot comprehend the wisdom that belongs to God. We meet Job, a God fearing, good man. We see Satan make a point that Job is only good because of his blessings. Job is a wise man, and like the Proverbs explains, his good choices and God honoring life has bestowed him with great blessings (Job 1:1-3). Satan puts this to test by implying that if everything is stripped from Job he will curse God to His face. (vs 2:5) Job’s life changes in an instant and gives us a very vivid picture of exactly what the Preacher in Ecclesiastes is talking about. Life is unpredictable and misfortune is inevitable. Job goes through many emotions during this trying time and is criticized by others in the story. He ultimately remains faithful, undoubtedly earning the wise owl badge. Yet even in all of Job’s good intent, in his reverence and relation with God he (and we) just can’t grasp the true depth of the incomprehensibility of God. Once again humbly pointing us to the fact that wisdom is God’s and true wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
While these books do a great job of explaining wisdom, I’d like to focus on the fear of the Lord to ensure our understanding before we move forward. Fear of the Lord is one of those “Christian lingo” phrases that we all know but I’m not quite sure we all understand fully. I think it’s either cast in a light of all are damned and punishment is coming our way if we make a mistake and sin against God; or we’ve been taught that we aren’t to be “afraid” of God but just revere Him. I can say that I’ve claimed and lived under both. So what’s the right definition of Fearing the Lord? If fearing the Lord is wisdom then it’s vital to today’s teaching to really get this.
Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell”
John Piper paints a most terrifying picture of hell in his book What Jesus Demands from the World. He says “Jesus spoke of hell more than anyone else in the Bible. He referred to it as a place of “outer darkness” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12) In other words, all the joys we associate with light will be withdrawn, and all the fears we associate with darkness will be multiplied. And the result will be an intensity of misery that makes a person grind his teeth in order to bear it.”
That's absolutely terrifying. All the fears I associate with the dark? If Jesus is the light, if I associate all the good in my life to Jesus, the Good Shepherd. All the blessings He has for me, the life He came to give me through the conquering of the darkness. Then think about it, what is the opposite of that? All darkness, all sin, and the ugly and terrifying things of this world. Not just what our imaginations come up with as children, but the real awful things that bring us to tears, make us shudder, close our eyes and run away. For eternity, an intensity that makes you grind your teeth, forever. Eternal punishment. Pretty scary, right?
We can very easily misunderstand “fearing the Lord” if we are unfamiliar with the actual nature and character of God. If we don’t know and understand all of His attributes. Is God wrathful and just? Yes. Is He loving, merciful and gracious? Yes. If we read on to Matthew 10:29-31 we see that God is the God that can destroy both soul and body in hell but, He is also a God that cares dearly for His children. Every. Single. Detail. He is Provider, Protector and the Lover of our souls. When we came into relation with Jesus, God’s wrath was removed from us. But we should never forget where we were without Him. Lost and subjected to the nightmare we discussed earlier.
What does fear of God look like in action? Remember if true wisdom (knowledge put to action) is the fear of God then our fear of God should be absolute fear of being apart from Him. Creating an urgency in us to actively pursue God. Seeking Him with an intensity unlike anything else on this earth. Demanding in our lives that nothing else ever comes between you and God. Let me put it this way, have you ever been in a relationship and made a choice knowing it was going to produce damage in that relationship, but you choose to do it anyway? Early in my marriage, my husband would express that certain behaviors or choices really hurt him and even made him want out of our marriage. In my stubborn selfishness I would do it anyway. I would choose to do things that I knew actively would hurt my husband's heart. I had no fear of what might happen if he left, I just wanted what I wanted.
King David is a great example of a man who understood the fear of the Lord. Let’s go to 2 Samuel 6. David is moving the Ark of the Testimony to Jerusalem, he and his men are walking along when the Ox carrying the Ark stumbles, the Ark starts to tip and Uzzah steadies the Ark with his hand. Then God strikes Him dead. Just like that. No warning, no questions, dead. Look at verse 8, and David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. I believe this is a time in David’s life that he gets a better understanding and knowledge of who God is. I believe at that moment David gets a better understanding of the Fear of God, like Job he becomes angry because of his inability to truly comprehend God and what had happened to Uzzah. But I’m confident he learned from his mistake (and it was his mistake that caused Uzzah to die, Numbers 4:15) I believe through this circumstance the Fear of God became more apparent in David’s heart. Actually, we know that to be the case because as we read on we see David go back to Obed-Edom, receive the Ark and treat the Ark with waaaay more reverence. He’s wearing the priestly Ephod, He’s making sacrifices and praising the greatness of God the whole way there. Not only do we see the right reverence, but also the desire for the Ark or dwelling place of the Lord to be near to him, he truly understood God’s power and ability.
Are we like David? Learning from our mistakes, allowing our failures to open our eyes to God’s glorious power, wrath, and justice making us more wise and deeply growing our love for Him? Or are we more like me in the early years of my marriage? We know Jesus, we understand his authority over our lives and the lives of unbelievers yet we don’t fear being without Him. Like me and my marriage we choose things that hurt Him. We take our own selfish desires and stubborn ways and we create separation instead of actively pursuing the one God that holds everything in His hands. We read about hell and choose to allow people we know and love to maybe die and live in a nightmare eternally. We display no fear of the One who can send soul and body to hell. But instead we fear denying ourselves fleshly desires or maybe what others would say if we lived life radically displaying His testimony over our lives. We fear what man might say, not where they might go...
True Godly Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. It comes with knowledge and understanding of who God is. Does experience and age play a role? I won’t deny that, it's true in my own walk for sure, but we HAVE to recognize that it runs much, much deeper than that. In Ecclesiastes we are reminded to remember our Creator in our youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say “I have no pleasure in them.”(12:1) Remembering our Creator, learning of Him and applying that knowledge, trusting Him during uncertainty and accepting that He is God and knows best. Most importantly, fearing being the person we once were without Him and fearing the fate for the people who don’t know Him yet IS truly wise. Don’t wait to actively pursue God, for when we are old it may be too late.
“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” Proverbs 8:12-13
“Prudence is defined, wisdom applied to practice; so wherever true wisdom is, it will lead to action.” -Adam Clarke