SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 1:20-23
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
1. Wisdom (common sense) is not hard to discern, but we have to stop and listen. Solomon describes wisdom like a loving, concerned friend, calling out, warning and pleading with us to pay attention. “Stop, can’t you see, don’t go there!”
2. If we persist in ignoring wisdom, we will eventually pay for it. When we finally crash, then that voice will be heard, almost mocking us – “I warned you, you knew better, you should have seen this coming”. This is not God being cruel, its just that the truth – when rejected – hurts.
3. the message of God has always been, “you reap what you sow”. Judgment and hell are not God’s cruel revenge, they are just the ultimate consequence of ignoring or rejecting God. The temporal consequences we experience in this life are helpful warnings, but eventually, one day, we will see things as they are, and realize that the wisdom of God was right afterall.
4. In the end, there are only two paths, one towards God and one away. No one ever chooses the the right way perfectly, we are all a mix of good and bad, wise and foolish choices. But the general direction in which we are leaning is either towards life or death, either towards wisdom or folly. Like grains of sand on a scale, eventually our choices will cause us to lean one way or the other.
5. In the end, no one will be able to say, “I never knew”. There is enough evidence of wisdom and truth – written in the creation order, written into our conscience, evidenced in the lives of those around us, and spoken in our hearts by the Spirit of God – that no one in the end will be able to complain, “but nobody told me”.
PRAYER:
Lord, ‘open my eyes, my sin show me now, as in Your presence, humbly I bow’. Help me to listen to Your voice, and to move towards You and Your wisdom. Amen.