Sermons
A Message by the Rev. Harvey G. Throop
Palisades Presbyterian Church
San Diego, California
June 14, 2009
Blessed Are the Wise
(1 Kings 3:3-14)
“Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil…”
(1 Kings 3:9)
This is that wonderful season when commencement and graduation ceremonies are bringing another school year to its climactic ending. Diplomas are being handed out, mortarboard hats are being jubilantly tossed into the air and celebrations are being held to honor the members of the Class of 2009.
Our culture rightly affirms that education is important. That is because we all recognize that it's a great asset to have our heads filled with megabytes of data, figures, facts and philosophies.
It's an obvious fact that you and I live in a time when knowledge is escalating at an unprecedented rate. New learning continues to affect our lifestyles, and the young person who is not equipped with the educational tools necessary to participate in all that is happening soon discovers that he or she is at a distinct disadvantage.
Yet, as important as education is, it has not improved our quality of life as much as we had hoped. We have more poverty and hunger per capita than ever before.
With our expanding knowledge of our environment, we seem to have no less contamination of our air, water and foods. With the development of more and more sophisticated computers, we have become so dependent upon the accompanying hardware and software that, when the system breaks down, we are helpless -- be it in air traffic control at the airport, in the hospital, the grocery store checkout line, the payroll department or when the sermon I've worked on all week won't print out!
Our vast amount of rapidly accumulating knowledge has far outrun our ethics. We know how to transplant increasing numbers of body organs, but we do not have the wisdom to decide who gets these limited added chances for life. We know how to keep severely injured or diseased patients clinically alive to see if there is a chance for their recovery, but we often fail to have the wisdom to know when to cease the super-heroic efforts of medicine and let the patient die naturally.
With all of our medical knowledge, we continue to see the spread of AIDS in epidemic proportions, as well as such new highly contagious respiratory diseases as the Swine Flu, now classified as a “pandemic.” In spite of our new knowledge in biochemistry, pharmacology and psychology, we have increased depression and suicides.
All of this makes us realize that knowledge -- by itself -- is not humankind's salvation. As wonderful as our contemporary knowledge may be, knowledge unaccompanied by wisdom can be the most dangerous thing in the world.
But what is wisdom? The Hebrews thought of wisdom as being "God-sense" -- the common sense that God gives to all who will seek it in order to live a useful, happy and fulfilled life. To the Hebrew mind, wisdom involved all the virtues of hard work, honesty, self-denial, morality and a concern for integrity in God's sight.
Wisdom has been called the "sixth sense" -- the sense of the principles of right living. Wisdom and righteousness are synonymous traits.
Sometimes, the more knowledge one has, the more miserable one can be. But always, the more wisdom one has, the more content one will be!
In the Old Testament, Solomon always stands as the symbol of wisdom. Solomon was about 20 years old when he became king over Israel and bore the heavy burden of responsibility for that great nation. One day, he went to the altar of God to worship the Lord God of Israel. Later, that night, God appeared to Solomon and said, "Ask what I should give you." Without any hesitation, Solomon answered, "I am hardly more than a youth. I don't know how to rule this great people. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil…” (1 Kings 3:9)
The Lord was so pleased with Solomon's choice that the Lord said, “ Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches … but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, … I will give you a wise and discerning mind…” (1 Kings 3:11-12).
There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge. In the words of one writer: "Knowledge is the content of the mind. Wisdom is the discernment of the heart. Wisdom is knowledge guided by understanding.”
There is no question but that knowledge is important! And yet, without wisdom, all the knowledge in the world will lead us to nothing other than our own self-destruction. Nothing is more dangerous than knowledge that is not guided by wisdom.
It is one thing to have much learned knowledge; it is quite a different thing to know the right things to do with it.
In the Bible, wisdom and righteousness are synonymous. Wisdom is knowing what is most worth knowing, and doing what is most worth doing.
The Arabs have a saying, "He who learns the rules of wisdom without conforming to them in his life is like a man who plows his fields but does not plant it."
Knowledge is potential wisdom, but is by no means the same as wisdom.
The writer of Ecclesiastes went so far as to claim, "Wisdom is better than health." Throughout the Bible, happiness is linked with wisdom. One of the proverbs reads, "Happy is the person who seeks and finds wisdom."
We know where to go to find knowledge, but where do we go to seek wisdom? Jesus' brother, in his New Testament letter, advises, "If anyone lacks wisdom to meet any situation, let the person ask of God and God will give you all you need" (James 1:5).
The apostle Paul had the best university education available in his day. He could converse with the most learned Greek philosophers or with the common persons of the street. He knew that one could be educated in the best of schools and still be stupid.
Who among us does not know academically-credentialed persons who don't seem to know the first thing about living? We call them “book-smart but street-dumb.” Paul insisted that all of our academic learning is foolishness if we don't have the wisdom and motivation of God to use it for good. Paul wrote: "The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God."
The wise person is the one who knows what to value. The New Testament speaks of Jesus as being the wisdom of God . To know Jesus Christ for who he is, is to have wisdom (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). When we reverence God for who he is in all our doings, we are tapping into wisdom and true understanding.
How wonderful it would be if we were as concerned with getting God's wisdom as we are concerned with getting the world's knowledge. How wonderful if parents were as conscientious about making certain that their children absorbed God's wisdom at church as they are about ensuring them a quality education in public school! Knowledge comes and goes but wisdom remains forever. Many of the textbooks that were used in classrooms five years ago are out-of-date and out-of-print today. The words and wisdom of God are the same yesterday, today and forever!
I am so grateful that there are parents here who are certain that their children are involved in Sunday School and in our young peoples' programs as they seek to know God's wisdom.
What does the Bible mean when it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"? The word "fear" here means "reverential awe." What the Old Testament refers to as "the fear of the Lord," the New Testament describes in the words, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 15:10).
One can know all there is to know in mastering the sciences, computer programming, making the National Honor Society, scoring high on the SAT tests and achieving academic excellence -- and still not know the wisdom of God – Jesus Christ. One can have incredible knowledge and end up only a learned fool.
True wisdom is reverencing God and accepting Jesus Christ as the wisdom of God and making him Lord of our life.
It is not what we have accumulated in our heads but Who we have in our hearts that will make all the difference!
