Below are the chapters to read this week if you’re following along in my Bible in a year schedule, divided into morning and evening readings. Follow along any way you want: you can just do the evening reading, flip the morning and evening, or read it all. Whatever works for you and your schedule! It doesn’t have to be Bible in a Year for everyone.
Monday, October 14 Morning: Ezekiel 24-25 Evening: Job 42
Tuesday, October 15 Morning: Ezekiel 26-27 Evening: Isaiah 1
Wednesday, October 16 Morning: Ezekiel 28-29 Evening: Isaiah 2
Thursday, October 17 Morning: Ezekiel 30-31 Evening: Isaiah 3
Friday, October 18 Morning: Ezekiel 32-33 Evening: Isaiah 4
Saturday, October 19 Morning: Ezekiel 34-36 Evening: Isaiah 5
Sunday, October 20 Morning: Ezekiel 37-39 Evening: Isaiah 6
Corporate training booklets are great sources of interesting quotes. I came upon this one from Greek philosopher Socrates (470 to 399 B.C.) in a training session on presentations: “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” This makes a lot of intuitive sense because if people can’t agree on something as basic as definitions, it’s difficult to move forward.
However, I think there’s something even more fundamental – closer to the real beginning of wisdom -than the “definition of terms,” and that is: who gets to define the terms? Doing that requires wisdom, so we can’t really be wise until we find someone worthy to define the terms. Socrates probably considered himself a good candidate to provide it! For most of us, in moments of honesty, we might admit that most of the time we are either trusting our own judgment, or maybe just improvising.
There’s another necessary factor. If we find someone we can trust to define wisdom for us, but when it comes time to act we go against their advice, their definitions do us no good. Therefore, we don’t begin to be wise without having the will to choose rightly. Although we say we trust someone’s wisdom, by not acting on it we disrespect them, and perhaps Wisdom itself, by not following through. We might have more knowledge, but not more wisdom.
So, I’ll suggest a better quote (there were no Bible verses in my training booklet). In the Old Testament book of Proverbs, Solomon – another historical figure (like Socrates) famous for wisdom – wrote that:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” – Proverbs 9:10
Solomon neatly fills in what the earlier quote is missing, because:
There is a Holy One, whose very character of holiness is the definition of terms we need. His decision making has no flaw and is trustworthy.
He is the LORD, who has authority, and uses it to lovingly advise His people on how to live wisely.
Fear of the LORD means that respect for Him is required for us to not just go off on our own, but to follow His perfect advice. This fear turns the abstract knowledge into useful wisdom.
Wisdom ignored isn’t wisdom. As I’ve written earlier, “Wisdom is about taking the right action, not about accumulating facts.” The verses leading up to Solomon’s above saying are Proverbs 9:7-9, which say:
“Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”
We cultivate wisdom by considering God’s works and His will for our lives (through the law and the Holy Spirit). We cultivate wisdom by allowing Him to define our terms as only He can. It is the presence of the fear of God – respect for His wisdom – that determines whether we scoff at correction (verses 7-8 above) or increase in learning (last verse).
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!” – Psalm 111:10
Regular readers will know that I am a fan of Douglas Adams’ science fiction comedy novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Adams makes a comic art form of extreme absurdity, and one such creation is the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. In the book, intergalactic hitchhikers are urged to always travel with a towel, and among the reasons is that a towel is handy to wrap around your head to “avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you)”[1] By simply covering your eyes, you can escape being devoured by this Beast, one of the least intelligent creatures in existence.
I thought of this Beast when reading Psalm 50:17, which says: “For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.” Why cast words behind us? So we can’t see them, and if we can’t see them, we think we can safely ignore them. Perhaps God will leave us alone, as if He does not exist. But the verse is a warning not to be like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. God can’t be swept under a rug and ignored.
There is an episode in the book of Ezekiel that would be comical if it weren’t so tragically similar to this Beast. Ezekiel’s many images, object lessons, and visions are designed to stir God’s people from complacency and turn back to Him. To fully convince Ezekiel that the nation was casting God’s word behind them, Ezekiel was taken in a vision inside the temple in Jerusalem, and this is what he saw:
“So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’” – Ezekiel 8:10-12
Ezekiel was a prophet to Jews already exiled to Babylon, but Jerusalem itself had not yet fallen, and many Jews thought it was impossible. But inside the temple, the very place symbolizing God’s presence and glorious light, the elders of Israel were worshipping Egyptian-style animal deities and using incense to ward off evil spirits. They sinned, while saying God couldn’t see them because they don’t see evidence of Him in their circumstances: “the LORD has forsaken the land.” How like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal!
Later, in Ezekiel 9:9, the prophet records:“Then [God] said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see.’”
Sometimes by casting His words behind us, we may think we are forsaken. We interpret His word in light of our circumstances, instead of interpreting our circumstances in light of His word. It is when the church acts like God doesn’t see that we should be fearful. When the church claims Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. When the church trusts in worldly power, not God’s power. When the church struggles to see how their very Maker and King is, as they say, “relevant.”
In Ezekiel chapter 10, the glory of Lord departs the Jerusalem temple entirely, and all of Judah was exiled, but Ezekiel’s message wasn’t finished. He also proclaims hope, most dramatically in chapter 37, the “Valley of Dry Bones” vision. Ezekiel sees dry bones scattered everywhere across a valley, symbolizing how spiritually dead God’s own people appear. The vision is a test for Ezekiel: would he look at the valley and assume, based on the immediate circumstances, that “The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see”? In verse 3, he writes: “And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’” Ezekiel doesn’t jump to conclusions but trusts that God knows best: “And I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, you know.’” Symbolizing new life in Christ, even from death, God re-assembles the dry bones, adds sinew and flesh and skin, then breathes life into them, “and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”[2]
In the Valley of Dry Bones, Ezekiel learned that God does see our dire situation, and He has a plan, even if we choose to look the other way. This plan is infinitely and eternally more “relevant” than any present (and temporary) circumstances.
In the New Testament the plan continues with an Ebenezer[3] moment, as the apostle Paul wrote: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6)
[1] Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (1980). [2] Ezekiel 37:10b [3] Ebenezer, the ‘But God…’ Squirrel, is the blog’s mascot and a reminder that, no matter the situation, God can overcome it, and the words “But God…” in the Bible are often moments where that happens.
Below are the chapters to read this week if you’re following along in my Bible in a year schedule, divided into morning and evening readings. Follow along any way you want: you can just do the evening reading, flip the morning and evening, or read it all. Whatever works for you and your schedule! It doesn’t have to be Bible in a Year for everyone.
Monday, October 7 Morning: Ezekiel 9-10 Evening: Job 35
Tuesday, October 8 Morning: Ezekiel 11-12 Evening: Job 36
Wednesday, October 9 Morning: Ezekiel 13-14 Evening: Job 37
Thursday, October 10 Morning: Ezekiel 15-16 Evening: Job 38
Friday, October 11 Morning: Ezekiel 17-18 Evening: Job 39
Saturday, October 12 Morning: Ezekiel 19-21 Evening: Job 40
Sunday, October 13 Morning: Ezekiel 22-23 Evening: Job 41
Reliable knowledge of good and evil is hard to come by, and the wisdom to follow it even harder. A well-known and oft-quoted Proverb is 1:7, which says:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
This Proverb tells us that we only gain useful knowledge, wisdom and instruction when we have an attitude of reverent respect for God, and that we are fools if we do otherwise. Fear of the Lord should be the rudder that guides us through the waves and storms that buffet us in this world. Every decision we make should have as its foundation: does this honor God? No other foundation is good enough for our lives to rest upon.
What’s left unsaid here in Proverbs is that we can’t expect this to come easy. We are constantly tempted to not fear the Lord in our minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, and day-by-day decisions. It’s hard, and not just because we aren’t perfect.
In the account of the serpent’s confrontation with Eve in the garden in Genesis 3, the serpent’s whole objective was to get Eve to make one decision that wasn’t based on fear of the Lord. “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””[1] “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’”[2] Eventually he wore her down and she ate from the tree God told her not to eat from, all because her reverence for God had been worn down by constant criticism of God by the serpent. He wanted her to decide for any reason other than the fear of the Lord, to become a fool, and thus bring down humanity.
When we make decisions, are we always being guided by the fear of the Lord, or do we sometimes think “He didn’t really mean that”? If you’re like me, you find yourself constantly confronted by influences that oppose God. Are we foolish when we follow these influences? Yes. Do we do it anyway? Yes. Could there be a hostile spiritual influence pulling us in that direction? Sure, but it could also just be our own broken wills, prone to go our own way.
However, in 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul assures us that “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” And if we fear the Lord, we will believe it.
If we fear the Lord, when we’re tempted, we will know that “he will also provide the way of escape.” We need to look for it and pray for it until we find it. When we do, God will remain in the driving seat of our decisions and knowledge and wisdom will be ours. He can overcome any of our temptations if we let Him and we fear Him.
Let the fear of the Lord be your guide. There is always a “way of escape.”
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 