Morning Light – September 30th, 2016: Accessing the Path of the Righteous

Morning Light – September 30th, 2016
Today: [Proverbs 2] Accessing the Path of the Righteous. Proverbs 2 speaks of the attributes of the wisdom of God and the benefits of acquiring it in our lives. Wisdom in God is more than being witty or crafty. Wisdom is not rooted in an ability to get ahead of others or step on others to achieve your success. The wisdom of God is a spiritual something. It is one of the 7 Spirits of God. It is according to Paul in 1 Cor. 1:30 something that God made Jesus to be to us when He went to the cross in our behald. The wisdom of God is a force that once it enters in our hearts will change the entire trajectory of our lives.
[Pro 2:1-22 KJV] 1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, [and] apply thine heart to understanding; 3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, [and] liftest up thy voice for understanding; 4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as [for] hid treasures; 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding. 7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: [he is] a buckler to them that walk uprightly. 8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. 9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; [yea], every good path.
In chapter 1 of Proverbs Solomon speaks as a father to a son, directing his heir to seek out wisdom and respecter as the instruction of a father and the law of a mother. In chapter 2 he continues showing the benefits of being a wisdom seeker and one who respects the knowledge of God that can be found out by any earnest seeker. We are not just speaking of natural, human wisdom or knowledge but of the wisdom rooted in God and the knowledge found out in the mind of God.
In the book of James we see the contrast between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God:
[James 3:15-17] This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Many see wisdom as the means of getting over in life at the expense of others – as though we are to view all others as competitors to be defeated in the pursuit of attainment and success. This is the earthly wisdom based on sense knowledge. Sense knowledge or sensual wisdom is based on experience, opinion and human, rationalistic deduction. Sense knowledge says “I will believe it when I see it…” The God kind of wisdom and knowledge is exactly the reverse: “I have believed and therefore I will see…”
The very basis of God’s wisdom is purity, peaceableness, gentleness, mercy, good fruits, impartiality and is without hypocrisy. God’s wisdom is easy to be entreated. In this world those who are considered to be wise project themselves as inapproachable. This is seen very strongly in the clergy / laity dichotomy in Christian culture. We are to be approachable. Jesus was approachable. He was the embodiment of wisdom but so unassuming that little children in His presense would instantly want to go to Him, climb and climb up in His lap. This shows the faith that works by love. This wisdom is not sterile like the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of God is fraught with emotion and without the stern, artificiality of the affectation of those who see themselves as imbued with the wisdom of world.
Verse 5 tells us if we seek wisdom we will find knowledge. Many seek knowledge without consideration of seeking after wisdom. Sir Francis Bacon, the 16th century Lord Chancellor of England said “knowledge is power”. This maxim dominates western thought in the information age. We think even as believers if we just KNOW what God thinks or what God wants for us that this is the key to breakthrough, change and shift in our lives. The writer of Provers is saying to us that wisdom precedes knowledge. Wisdom is more than philosopher and more than artful cunning. Proverbs 4:7 says wisdom is the principle thing but in our learning systems and academic culture we spend billions on filling young minds full of the mush of knowledge and then leave them to founder in the darkness when it comes to the wisdom traditions that will actually put them over in life. Let us change our minds and begin to acknowledge as does the writer of Proverbs – the supremacy of wisdom over knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, according to 1 Cor. 8:1 but wisdom will put you over in life. Wisdom is so esteemed in scripture that 1 Cor. 1:30 tells us that God made Jesus to be our wisdom. He didn’t say He made Jesus to be our KNOWLEDGE but rather He made Jesus to be our wisdom. Jesus is our savior and our Lord. Wisdom will save us. Wisdom in the person of Jesus Christ is to be esteemed by us from a position of Lordship in our lives.
10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: 12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil [man], from the man that speaketh froward things; 13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who rejoice to do evil, [and] delight in the frowardness of the wicked; 15 Whose ways [are] crooked, and [they] froward in their paths: 16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words; 17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. 18 For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. 19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. 20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good [men], and keep the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. 22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
Verse 10 says that wisdom makes knowledge pleasant. Knowledge without wisdom is not appealing and produces nothing but sour outcomes for us. You can have all the knowledge in the world but without wisdom it will avail you nothing. Wisdom however is like salt on a tasteless meal. Wisdom makes knowledge palatable to our hearts and useful in our lives. When wisdom is received and takes root in our heart and in our thinking then several things happen. Verse 11 tells us when wisdom finds it’s rightful place in our hearts that discretion will begin to preserve you and understanding will keep you. Keep you from what? Keep you from trouble. Keep your foot from being taken in a snare. When wisdom enters into your heart it will deliver you from the evil man and from those that speak perverse things. The wisdom of the world and the knowledge of the world is seen as something hidden to be found out. The idea of hidden knowledge is what the word “occult” means. The world portrays wisdom and knowledge as something deep that cannot be found out by casual inquiry. Proverbs contradicts that. Proverbs 1 says that wisdom is like a woman crying at the corner of every street to instruct us and bring us out of the ignorance of the world from being simpletons to being those that speak the words of God and become those who have the mind of God. When wisdom, then enters into your heart:

1. Discretion will preserve you.
2. Understanding will keep you.
3. Will deliver you from the person speaking perverse things
4. Will deliver you from the strange woman.
5. Will cause you to keep the paths of righteous.

These things will happen or be made manifest in our lives when wisdom enters into our heart. Again 1 Co. 1:30 says that Jesus is our wisdom. Remember and reinforce in your thinking that wisdom is not about pithy sayings or proverbs such as “Confucius says …” Wisdom is a person. Wisdom is who God makes Jesus to be to us. Wisdom according to Isa. 11:1-2 is one of the 7 spirits of God. Wisdom is a force beyond the mind of man or even the spiritual nature of the inner man. Wisdom causes you to keep the paths of the righteous. Who are the righteous? 1 Co. 1:30 also tells us that Jesus is our righteousness. In John 14:6 we see that He is also our path. When Jesus is our path then we are living life in the Jesus style. The path of the righteous is more than moral excellence. The path of the righteous is the path of those who are walking in entitlement with God. When you are walking the path of righteousness you are in the current of a process initiated in God that causes everything you say and do to be as effective as if God said it and did it.