“Because of wisdom your days will be many and years will be added to your life”
 (Prov. 9:11)
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During the time in which Solomon wrote his proverbs it was widely assumed that there was a correlation between the way a person lived and how long they would live. I think that most of us would agree that in a broad sense the connection is still applicable. We would argue that the balanced life will outlast the rogue. However, apart from that probability I would like to check out other considerations related to the extension of life.
      Life is good. It provides us with time to follow a profession that is not only rewarding in itself, but repays time spent with financial benefits that make creature comforts possible. If we hadn’t been “on the job” today we never would have been able to eat at that nice restaurant, drive home in our new car, and plan the next cruise.. Time allows us to moderate our days with favorite pastimes such as gardening, music, reading, hiking, etc. But in what way does wisdom relate to all this? Good common sense (my definition of wisdom, rather than the dictionary’s “an advanced state of mental agility) encourages moderation in life style and that normally increases our number of years. So, live a normal life and you will probably have more years to do those things that make life here on earth more enjoyable.
      That, having been said, I would like to suggest that there are ways to expand life regardless of its length. Watched a really good movie the other night, the South Korean documentary, “My love, don’t cross that river.” It chronicled the relatively short period before the couple’s 76 years of marriage ended with his death. It was authentically honest, morally uplifting, beautifully done by Jin Mo-young, the filmmaker who, like a fly on the wall, was right there for the final 15 months, catching all the precious moments of true love. My point is that the experience of watching that film “expanded” the days of my life. Numerically my days remain the same, but realistically they were extended. Had I spend the same amount of time on some worthless activity (like watching weather on TV for umpteenth time) my day would have been “shorter” to say nothing of being deprived of a meaningful involvement in the life of another.
      Put it this way: wisdom will lengthen your days not only by giving you more of them, but also by allowing you to enrich them with all things worthwhile. The expansion of time is qualitative, not simply quantitative. Time being irreplaceable calls on the wise person to fill it with activities that bring the rich rewards of the brighter side of life.
 

The other evening Dr. Phil reminded one of his guests, “You can’t unwring a bell.” Once the clapper hits the bell, that’s it; there is no way to stop the ring. Actions inevitably have consequences. We all recognize the truth of this in our everyday world. Touch a hot stove and you burn your finger. But when it comes to the world of relationships, we tend to act as though consequentiality doesn’t exist.
      Why is that? Why do we keep doing what experience has clearly shown to produce the same unwanted result. Do we hope that next time it will be different? Perhaps 2 + 2 will = 5 . . . after all. I don’t think that’s the answer. We know that excessive speed will in time end up in an accident or a traffic fine. But we exceed the posted speed limit anyway.
      I think we ignore the law of cause and effect because we want so desperately to do whatever we want to do. Consequence doesn’t matter.
        “Go ahead and have the extra drink; don’t remind me how gruesome an accident on the road can be.”
        “Pass on the bit of gossip you’ve heard; don’t make me think about integrity being undermined by “sharing information” that may be damaging to another.”
        “Check out the questionable picture on the internet; at the moment I don’t care about the life-destroying power of addiction. I’m going to go ahead and do it because I want to.”
      We know it will never bring any lasting satisfaction, but we do it anyway. Desire dominates and we lunge forward. However, there is an alternative to failure. The bell won’t ring unless it is struck. The unwanted consequence won’t happen unless the action is taken. We understand that intellectually, but insight seems always to be trumped by desire. The missing ingredient so far is volitional – nothing less than the strength to say No. For the Christian, that strength is provided by the abiding presence of the Spirit. However, even then his help must be requested.
 

In this oft-quoted section of Proverbs (6:16-19), Solomon lists seven things that God simply will not tolerate; they are “detestable to him” (v. 16). We need to pay attention to the seriousness of this statement because God’s concern is so great that words can hardly express his disgust. The first six form a group to which a seventh is added. Unless this six-plus-one is simply stylistic, it places emphasis on last mentioned thing that God detests – that is, “stirring up conflict.” My plan is to list the first six and comment on the seventh.
       Solomon begins his list of things the Lord hates with “haughty eyes,” that is, the proud look of the arrogant. Second is the “lying tongue” – he regards truth so highly that any deviation is an abomination. “Hands that shed innocent blood” refers to the customary manner in which people kill one another (some would feel that abortion belongs in this category.) God detests the “devising of wicked schemes” because it undermines the stability of family, group, or nation. “Feet that are quick to rush into evil” pictures the readiness of the rebel to break the established rules of society. And the first six end with God’s abhorrence of “lying under oath.”
      A terrible list of six malevolent practices, but there remains one more that’s in a class by itself – “stirs up trouble in the community” (read family, friends, home-owners association, church, community, colleagues in any group). It would appear that social turmoil is a condition that is unacceptable to God. God the creator set everything in motion in such a way that there would be a quiet efficiency in all the “running parts” of the universe – personal and in nature. You will remember that in the creation story, at the close of each day, God surveyed his accomplishment and declared it “good” (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, etc.). But in Romans 8, Paul pictures creation groaning as in childbirth and waiting to be set right. In addition, unrest exists everywhere in human hearts because we tried in Adam to do it “my way” and the history of the human race has turned out to be one of conflict and dissension.
       Well, that’s the theology of it – dissention is despised by God because it affects everything in a negative way. In the perfect plan, everything runs exactly as it should, but when humans are factored in, we bring with us the sand and gravel of our fallen nature and the giant gears begin to groan and threaten to collapse. Family life becomes more tenuous, friends separate, communities draw up battle lines, and nations take up arms against one another. Discord is a major force working against God’s plan and one in which each of us by nature finds ourselves.
       May God grant us the strength of character to resist the instantaneous temptation to “tell our side of the story.” Others, getting their offense in order, will probably not listen to it anyway. Understanding, harmony, and goodwill should be characteristic of the various groups in which believers find themselves. It is how God planned it all.

“The evil are trapped by their own sinful acts; they are caught in the net of their own sin.” (Prov. 5:22)
 
In a passage like this we should think of sin in personal terms. In this verse, picture the sinful act as a person laying out a trap for the unwary who happen to pass by. What this amounts to is an inner spiritual civil war in which the sinful acts of a person become the sinners’ own enemies. People sin and then find themselves caught in the net of their own actions.
      A sinful act is not some isolated thing that a person does. It always has consequences. This helps build an even more complex net that continues to entangle and imprison the sinner. We do it to ourselves. In a certain way we are our own worst enemy. Until we understand the deceptive nature of sin’s opposition to righteousness, there is little hope to escape the trap. For the uninformed, sin appears to be something they happen to do now and then. It is separate, without personal consequences, not something intrinsically involved in who we are. Granted, this is as gloomy subject, but until we discover the nature and source of sin, we will never understand how it can be rendered impotent.
      Here is the biblical picture. It began with Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey God. The result was an alienation from God that became the determining factor in human nature. Created in God’s image, but at odds with our Creator. As a result history became an extended narrative on our propensity to act contrary to God’s will. It is not that people do things that are wrong, but that wrongness is part of who we are. Any attempt to formulate a righteous world is doomed to failure unless this point is understood. Society’s answer is to correct what we do, but the right answer is to correct who we are. And that, of course, is where biblical truth is rightly understood as the only successful answer. God entered his own creation in the person of Jesus Christ. A perfect life was climaxed with a sacrificial death followed by a victorious resurrection. Now a righteous God announces to his wayward children that by faith they can return to that rich and rewarding relationship that was his intention for us. Nothing short of Spiritual renewal – and I capitalize the word because nothing but the Holy Spirit can provide the necessary power – can overcome our tendency to sin. Restoration and renewal is the result of taking God at his word.
      We began with the picture of mankind ensnared by their own native tendency to do what is wrong. I don’t mean to say that people don’t do good things, only that, apart from God, sin remains in control. The forces of evil allow us to appear to be on the bright side of life but, if Christian theology is correct, the world is infected by sin and only faith in Christ can offer the transforming power for recovery and renewal.
 

“Guard your heart before all else, because that’s where your life is shaped.”
 
In biblical terminology the heart represents the center and source of a person’s entire inner life, the seat of the will and its decisions, of moral life (both virtues and vices) and the direction it takes, and the emotions with their consequences (BDAG). The heart is at the very center of the influences that shape a destiny. One could say, “My heart is who I am.” No wonder we are to guard it, and especially so since from The Garden it has a predilection to error.
      What we do and what we say is simply an expression of who we are. If I respond vocally to some personal assault, it is my tongue doing what my heart tells it to do. Should I take advantage of someone when the opportunity presents itself, I am doing only what my heart recommends. Everything centers in the heart, so how misguided it is to attempt to correct an injustice by setting guidelines on what the body is allowed to do. The mind, emotions, and will are carrying out a response coming from the heart. Solutions happen when we deal with the “heart” of the matter, not the results.
      So, it is reasonable to ask how we are to guard this heart, how to address the source of every difficulty. We might say, “My heart made me do it,” but that won’t work because the heart is precisely who we are. Our most effective counteractive method is to recognize our “prone to wander, Lord I feel it” nature and redirect our oversight to what it is that would lead us ultimately to our own total defeat. The crucial thing is that we understand who we are by nature, why we tend to say what we say, and how we are enabled by his Spirit to, as Solomon puts it, “guard our hearts.” I believe the first and most important step is that we genuinely surrender to God; that means living moment by moment in a personal and authentic relationship to Him. On one occasion I attended the little kirk near Balmoral, Scotland and at the close of the service stood facing the royal pew and sang “God save the Queen” in her presence. Enjoying God on a personal basis is like that unusual Scottish experience intensified beyond measure. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, not in what you understand from your limited perspective. Consult him about everything in life and he will keep you on the right path.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
 
We have come to a verse of scripture that is almost as well known as John 3:16. It would be hard to find a Christian adult who has not recited this verse in a time of decision. Should I or should I not? Is this what God wants me to do? What about its impact on my family? Then comes the verse and we hear God telling us to trust him completely in the decision. It’s okay to think about the options, but when push comes to shove, don’t trust your own insights. What you know is only a part of the story; God knows the entire story and wants to help you make the right decision. And it doesn’t matter whether that decision is really big and important or relatively mundane; he knows best. Our role is to “submit to him” (NIV) so he can direct our lives as he wishes.
      I have the feeling that quite often, when teaching a portion of scripture or using it for a sermon, it would be best for the expositor to step aside and allow the reader to use the time for personal meditation on the text. In the long run we really know only that which is revealed to us. Spiritual truth is personal and fulfills its purpose when it becomes active in a person’s life. So I will stop here . . . or should I risk interfering with how God may be speaking to you through the above verses of scripture? Perhaps we may be able to achieve both.
      I suspect that my decisions throughout life have not been much different than yours. When faced with the reality of sin and it’s penalty, I quickly “headed down the aisle.” I questioned where to go for higher education, what professional job I should take in life, who I should marry, etc. As I look back there is one thing I can say with certainty and that is, when I did what our passage for today says, I found that the result was always good. And I mean always! But when I didn’t listen, I got into trouble. Christian’s agree that God’s plan for life is the best, and the fact that we sometimes veer from this path simply validates the scriptural teaching that the old nature is flawed and wants us to repeat indefinitely the mistake in the Garden of Eden.
      So let’s reflect for a few moments on what God has to say about guidance in these two verses. How about at least two minutes for each? Ask yourself (1) What is God saying to me in this sentence? and (2) How is it going in my life?
 
        “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”
 
        “Don’t lean on your own understanding.”
 
        “Submit to Him in all your ways.”
         
      “He will keep you on the right path.”
 
I’m glad you took my suggestion and if you jotted down what God was saying to you, it would be interesting to compare notes – one sinner saved by grace to another.
 

 
In Proverbs 2:1-6 Solomon describes what it means to fear the Lord and to learn about God (v. 5). Solomon gives his advice in a simple If-Then format: If you do this (vv. 1-4), Then this will happen (v. 5). The “If section” states 8 conditions and is followed by a two-fold result. A quick read shows that the prerequisites for acquiring wisdom are to –
      Accept my words – store up my commands
      Listen to wisdom ­– concentrate on understanding
      Beg for knowledge – plead for insight
      Seek it like silver – search for it like treasure
It is crystal clear that the goal is not something that happens accidentally, but requires considerable effort. Wisdom is not a free gift distributed somewhat carelessly to the uninvolved. When it is sought in the way described, the result is a deeper reverence for the Lord and an increased knowledge of God.
        It is important to note that wisdom is not to know all about God, but to experience Him. Solomon is not laying out requirements for learning about the world in which we live, but the way to know the One who created it. Information is important and should not be dismissed as irrelevant but the more important thing is to know God.
        Christian thought assumes the existence of God, a spiritual being. To call that belief an assumption does not make God less likely. All worldviews begin with an assumption, even atheism (since it believes without support of any kind that God does not exist). Since God is a spiritual being our contact with him must be spiritual, that is, by means of the Spirit. The relevance of this is that knowing God, or learning how to fear him, is an experience made possible by His Spirit. Solomon is not teaching us how to be wiser in general, but wiser in our relationship to God. That which we learn from textbooks may be informative and helpful but it cannot make us wise in the way Solomon uses that word. The sage is telling us that to be wise (in the sense of an existential understanding of God who is spirit) we must genuinely desire wisdom and take the necessary steps to make it a reality. It is not that God has a set of ironclad regulations for us to meet, but that we must genuinely desire him to know him. Ultimately that is the only kind of “wisdom” that matters. As we read so often in the Old Testament, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 11:10, Proverbs 1:7, 9:10).

 
In Proverbs 2:1-6 Solomon describes what it means to fear the Lord and to learn about God (v. 5). He gives his advice in a simple If-Then format – If you do this (vv. 1-4), Then this will happen (v. 5). The “If section” states 8 conditions and is followed by a two-fold result. A quick read shows that the prerequisites for acquiring wisdom are to –
         Accept my words – store up my commands
         Listen to wisdom ­– concentrate on understanding
         Beg for knowledge – plead for insight
         Seek it like silver – search for it like treasure
It is crystal clear that the goal is not something that happens accidentally, but requires considerable effort. Wisdom is not a free gift distributed somewhat carelessly to the uninvolved. When it is sought in the way described, the result is a deeper reverence for the Lord and an increased knowledge of God.
         It is important to note that wisdom is not to know all about God, but to experience Him. Solomon is not laying out requirements for learning about the world in which we live, but the way to know the One who created it. Information is important and should not be dismissed as irrelevant but the more important thing is to know God.
         Christian thought assumes the existence of God, a spiritual being. To call that belief an assumption does not make God less likely. All worldviews begin with an assumption, even atheism (since it believes without support of any kind that God does not exist). Since God is a spiritual being our contact with him must be spiritual, that is, by means of the Spirit. The relevance of this is that knowing God, or learning how to fear him, is an experience made possible by His Spirit. Solomon is not teaching us how to be wiser in general, but wiser in our relationship to God. That which we learn from textbooks may be informative and helpful but it cannot make us wise in the way Solomon uses that word. The sage is telling us that to be wise (in the sense of an existential understanding of God who is spirit) we must genuinely desire wisdom and take the necessary steps to make it a reality. It is not that God has a set of ironclad regulations for us to meet, but that we must genuinely desire him to know him. Ultimately that is the only kind of “wisdom” that matters. As we read so often in the Old Testament, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 11:10, Proverbs 1:7, 9:10).

It was Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, who condensed the field of personal communications into 6 words, “Speak, that I may see thee.” Since he wasn’t talking about seeing people with his eyes, we understand the word in the sense of knowing. When we say, “O, now I see” we mean that we understand.
       Now why did I bring that up? It has to do with an occasion early in the ministry of Jesus. He was talking with his disciples about two spheres, that is, the heavenly and this tangible old earth where mankind lives. As you would expect, the vocabulary and thought patterns of “earth people” reflect the world in which they live. Jesus says, “The one who belongs to the earth speaks only of things of the earth” (John 3:31: p. 34 in Jesus, In His Own Words). By way of contrast, “He who comes from heaven” testifies to what he has “actually seen and heard” (v. 32) of that sphere. So, if you wish to learn about the spiritual realm, then listen to the one who was always there – except for that brief moment in time when he became one of us so we could be with him up there forever. It makes sense that, while we are qualified to talk about our world, only Jesus can speak with authority about his world, the spiritual world.
       Jesus didn’t come to tell us about heaven, but by adopting the limited scope of human communication, to lead us existentially to experience ultimate truth. He bridged the gap between two “worlds” and made it possible for us to consider the truth of his “native land,” heaven. The spiritual issues he shared were not “spiritual” in the popular sense of being emotionally uplifting, but spiritual in the sense of actually expressing the spiritual in “earthly“ words so we could learn the life in that other “world” – a spiritual existence.
        Although Jesus puts it in simple words, the heart has to be open to this new possibility before anything happens. Jesus says, “Everyone who puts his faith in me, the Son, has eternal life” (John 3:36). Every literate person can understand what the sentence is saying, but only the heart touched by the Spirit and responding in faith can experience the supernatural experience that is taking place just then in the heart of the one exercising faith.
       “Speak that I may see thee” . . . Right, Socrates, you and I can actually reveal to one another who we are, even deep down. Good advice for life here on earth. Now contrast another possible relationship. Jesus says, “Believe in me and something remarkable will happen. You and I will be able to talk together as friends.  You’ll begin to experience a totally different kind of life, a spiritual life. Then when you finish what you call a lifetime, we’ll enjoy heaven together forever. As a person there on earth it doesn’t quite make sense to you, but the Spirit will take over and your eyes will be opened to a brand new kind of life, the spiritual life. Incidentally, that’s a life that never ends! It’s yours as a gift from the One who makes it possible for all who by faith will open their hearts to believe that he is who he says he is.

I remember once back in college days when a girl asked me right out of the blue, “What does it mean to be ‘born again?’” It caught me by surprise. After a bit of stumbling, I said, “I’ll give you a better answer tomorrow.’” We all recognize that every social group seems to have certain “code words” that don’t necessarily make sense to outsiders. Normally that’s no particular problem, but if it touches on something like spiritual rebirth, that’s another story. After all, it was Jesus himself who told us that if you want to go to heaven you have to be “born again.” Let’s review the story as recorded in John 3.
    One evening a highly regarded cleric by the name of Nicodemus came to see Jesus. He was curious about this Galilean preacher, because anyone who could perform the miracles that Jesus did must be uniquely related to God. Jesus told him in a straightforward way that being born again is how you get to heaven (vv. 3, 7). Poor Nicodemus! With all the training it took for him to rise to the top in his field, he couldn’t figure out how a person could return to his mother’s womb and be “born” a second time. Just didn’t make sense.
       So Jesus did a bit of explaining. If he had been a professor in a 20th century classroom it could have gone like this: “You have created your own problem because in your thinking you have limited “birth” to a physical sphere. So you’re right, no one has ever been born a second time physically. But the physical is not the only domain, there is also the spiritual and it is as real as the physical. You would agree, I’m sure, that the only way to get into the physical world is to be born into it. So what about the spiritual world? That’s right, if you want to get into that world you have to be born into it. In short, to know God and ultimately to spend eternity with him in that other realm – the spiritual – you must be “born again.”
       So Jesus was perfectly logical, he didn’t ask Nicodemus to take something for granted. And the Rabbi, a Jew brought up in a highly religious setting, would quickly agree that life was more physical.  But there is something else about the encounter that we should consider, and that is the gentleness of Jesus in response to Nicodemus’ honest question as well as the respect that he showed.  He could have displayed how dumb the Pharisee was with all his so-called learning, by pointing out that he, Jesus, never had any of those opportunities, but grew up in a little fishing village. But there was none of that. Note that it was after sundown when Nicodemus went to talk with Jesus, and that may well have been to escape the notice of those who would question the sobriety of a cleric asking a rural evangelist something about religion.
       And so should we, as followers of Christ, display the same respect for those who come to us to discuss an issue of spiritual importance. Elsewhere in Scripture the impetuous Peter tells his readers to always be ready with an answer for those who ask about their Christian hope . . . and then adds, “but do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). “God is a gentleman!” I once heard from the pulpit at least 75 years ago, and I am convinced from watching Jesus answer Nicodemus, that whoever came up with that insight was, and is, right on target