Exodus 26:1-27:21, Matthew 25:1-30, Psalms 31:1-8, Proverbs 8:1-11
Today is the 7th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you as we take the next step in our journey. And we…we’ve wound our way to the end of another week friends. They just keep moving by day by day step-by-step. So, during this week we arrived at the mountain of God in the Sinai Peninsula and the children of Israel, over a million people are surrounding this mountain and Moses is on the top of the mountain receiving instructions from God and He is, God, is orchestrating the construction of what will be known as the tabernacle. What God is revealing here is that it is His intention to dwell among His people. So, He’s giving instructions for what that should look like. We’re reading from the Voice this week. Today Exodus chapters 26 and 27.
Commentary:
Alright. Let’s talk about Proverbs today. The voice of wisdom, which is a feminine voice in the Scriptures clearly outlined. In this translation she’s called Lady wisdom. She’s speaking today and when she speaks, honestly, we should listen. So, let’s just look at this eighth chapter of Proverbs. Lady wisdom is calling and she says, “listen”, right? So, we should. “Don’t to hear the voice of understanding crying out. She’s taken her stand at the highest place in the city at the crossroads where everyone can see her.” There and at the gates at the entrance to the city right in front of the city doors she cries out.” So, what we’re being told here is that she is not hidden. Wisdom is not hidden. It’s right in front of everyone. It’s at every crossroads and it is. We come to junctures in our lives every single day, crossroads, big and small, and wisdom is there at those crossroads. The question becomes whether or not we slow down enough to listen or whether we just zoom by making whatever turn we’re gonna make, but we’re clearly being told that wisdom is available. And then she goes on. “oh people, I am calling to you. I have a message for all humanity. You, gullible people, acquire insight. You, naïve ones.” And she’s not…she’s not being…she’s not shaming us. She’s calling out to naïve and gullible people who are confused about the way to go. I can raise my hand. I know lots of things but I’m naïve in lots of areas and I’d like to think I’m not gullible, but everybody can be tricked. But wisdom, she’s saying, “yeah, but I could help you with that if you would listen to me.” In fact, she goes on to say, “what I’m about to say to you will set things right.” And then she begins to pour out herself for us to see wisdom. She says, “I despise evil.” So, in other words, wisdom despises evil. If we’re participating in any sort of evil, then we are not walking with wisdom, we are participating in foolishness. She says, “evil will not pass through her lips.” So, wisdom does not speak evil. Speaking evil is foolishness. She says, “everything I say promotes justice.” Okay, wisdom promotes justice in every way. So then, participating in injustice is participating in foolishness that leads to destruction. And she says, “not one word is crooked, and nothing is distorted. Wisdom is not conniving, is not manipulative, is not deceptive, and is not this honest, right? If your words are crooked and distorted, then they are not straight and true. And wisdom says that she will only speak the truth. She’s not nuancing things to be manipulative, to get something, or to hide something. Wisdom doesn’t do that. Doing that is foolishness. She says, “each and every word is straight talk to perceptive people, upright and honest to knowledge seekers.” Okay. So, the perceptive upright honest knowledge seekers understand clearly what wisdom says. So, we’re invited to consider whether we are slowing down enough to be perceptive people, whether we are walking an upright and honest life, whether we do seek wisdom’s knowledge or whether we keep getting trapped in our own folly. She says to accept her correction and of value and treasure it as our most prized possession. The correction of wisdom is the most valuable treasure we can possess for navigating life. She says that we should treasure authentic knowledge. In other words, the truth more than pure gold. She tells us that nothing that we can acquire, nothing that we can acquire will be more valuable than she is to our lives. And we could look at this and go, “well…yeah…but I’m just…I’m trying to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, like God is more valuable to me than wisdom. But we’re gonna find in the book of Proverbs from the lips of wisdom herself is that she was with God in the beginning and witnessed His creation. He used her to create the world. In other words, through wisdom God created the world and the wisdom of God permeates the world and everything that He has created. It’s at every juncture. It’s available at every crossroads of our lives, the question is whether or not we listen. I want her. I know that sounds odd. I want a relationship with wisdom because the Bible is telling me that is more valuable than any other thing I can acquire, and I’ve lived long enough to know that that is true. In fact, for me I think wisdom is the only thing, the only companion in life that…that will make things make sense. And it might sound like I’m like personifying a concept like the collection of all the knowledge that we could attain and personifying that as female but I’m not the one doing it. It's…this is how the Bible reads. So, she is here, she is available, she is at every crossroads, she’s screaming from every height, she is not unavailable or hidden. And if we acquire her, if we acquire wisdom then we can acquire anything. And we know that, you know, we haven’t got to the story of King Solomon yet, but it’s a famous story that he’s the wise man, he’s the wisest one because he asked for wisdom from God instead of anything else that he could’ve asked for. He was the king after all, he could’ve asked for anything. But God told him, “since you asked for wisdom, I will give you wisdom and everything else you could’ve asked for.” So, my friends, we may want to pay attention to this. This may change the rest of our year. Maybe that job promotion is less important than acquiring wisdom this year. Maybe all of the experiences that you’re trying to arrange to have inside of this year are way a less important than acquiring wisdom. She’s telling us that nothing we desire could compare to her. So, let’s do this. And this isn’t something that’s just going to happen to us. Wisdom doesn’t operate that way. But if we start practicing, we’ll get good. And all we have to do is slow down in those curves, right? Crossroads are…are upon us every day. We have to make choices continually and those choices write the story of our day. What if we slowed down enough just to consider wisdom? Is this the right choice right now? Is this true? Am I saying crooked and distorted words to hide or to manipulate? Is this thing that I am deciding just and true? These are the questions wisdom asks. And when we find ourselves out of alignment with wisdom then she tells us to accept her correction as being more valuable than our most prized possession. In other words, if we’ll listen to her, she is rescuing us from a bad road. I want this. I want this in my life more than ever, don’t you? I mean, let’s become wise together as we move through the Scriptures this year. Let’s actually for once believe that wisdom is to be desired more than gold, more than gems, more than anything we could want and see what happens to our lives in the process by the end of the year because we don’t have to overcomplicate this. We just have to slow down and make the next right choice and keep doing that.
Prayer:
Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit into this. We desire a relationship with wisdom, and she is calling from everywhere. So, it’s not like we can’t find her. Holy Spirit lead us on the path of wisdom today. Help us to slow down and listen for her. And we acknowledge we’re not going to hear with our physical ears. We’re going to come to a crossroads where we need to make a choice and we’re either going to just make it and keep going or we’re gonna slow down and listen for what is wise. Help us to make the next right choice again and again and again and again, over and over and over until it is absolutely our lifestyle, until we wouldn’t ever make a choice without considering wisdom. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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