Tag Proverbs

Wisdom, “in Quotes”

Todd R Leave a comment

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

The God of Intended Consequences

Todd R 1 Comment

Case studies, detailed write ups of real-life business situations, are a common teaching tool for business students.  From these examples, students are supposed to draw lessons for their own job and for management.  One case study I read covered Nordstrom; a large retailer famous for their strong customer service[1].  At the time studied in the case, Nordstrom had recently hired an up-and-coming manager with a strong track record and trusted him with a lot of power to run the business.  Since the purpose of a retailer is to sell things, management decided to pay every employee in every store more if they sell things.  Seemed to make sense.

However, there’s a thing called the “Law of Unintended Consequences,” or more simply, a lack of foresight.  In the Nordstrom case study, this Law led to disaster.  Employees stopped cleaning the store.  They stopped stocking shelves and organizing displays.  Customers couldn’t find what they wanted, but they were hounded by enthusiastic employees who were eager to sell them something (and get credit for it).  Instead of each employee doing what they specifically needed to do, they all swarmed around annoyed customers.

Photo by Viktor Bystrov on Unsplash

Not only did sales go down as a result, but Nordstrom damaged what had been its key strength of customer service.  This happened decades ago, and Nordstrom has recovered, but what an interesting story.  More recently, JC Penney had a similar disaster when they decided to back off their aggressive discounting strategy – the entire reason many people shopped there.  A lack of foresight can lead to disastrous unintended consequences.

Nordstrom’s problem was what economists call a “coordination problem,” where a group of people aren’t properly organized to achieve a goal.  Even if you have a theory that sales are the sole objective, making everyone focus on sales might not be the right way to coordinate.  As Yogi Berra apparently said: “In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.”  Humans don’t usually behave the way theory says they will.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-11, titled “The God-Given Task” in my study Bible, says this:

“What gain has the worker from his toil?  I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

The point is the scope of man’s awareness, in his business, or economically.  Man works, and sometimes it looks like pointless toil, and sometimes it is beautiful.  But, as an image-bearer of God, man knows there is more to it – eternity in his heart.  Therefore, we have some sense of a bigger picture, but the whole picture can’t be seen, only bits of it.

God on the other hand sees all, and nothing appears as unpredictable chaos to Him.  His foresight includes all future circumstances, and everything is predictable.  In the movie Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum’s character explains chaos by putting drops of water on the back of someone’s hand and saying there’s no way of knowing which direction the water will flow.  But, when God watches Jurassic Park, he knows exactly which way the water would go.  Every.  Single.  Time.  And not because He’s seen the movie before.  We look at water and see chaos, but God looks at it and says “Peace!  Be still!”

Proverbs 3:19 tells us:

“The LORD by wisdom founded the earth;
            by understanding He established the heavens;
 by His knowledge the deeps broke open,
            and the clouds drop down the dew.”

Because the world was created with wisdom (and not by accident), gravity does what it’s supposed to do, photosynthesis does what it’s supposed to do, and likewise with many “laws” of science.  God as omnipotent creator orchestrates all those laws of science how He wants, but in terms of people He has the same raw material as the managers of Nordstrom.

However, God doesn’t get blindsided by anything, including but not limited to:
People not doing what they’re told – He can, and does, include this in His plan.
Second- and third-order effects of rules, such as employees not stocking shelves.
Theory that might not apply in practice.

Managers of your company or organization don’t have perfect foresight.  They can’t be certain that their strategy is correct, and they probably don’t know what every employee does on a daily basis, but God as CEO of the entire universe knows all and has a personal relationship with every member of the “company” – and all its competitors.

He has a plan, and while He doesn’t tell us the entire plan, He “has put eternity into man’s heart” that we may learn to trust Him and know that everything will be fixed in the end.  Therefore, dedicate more of your time, treasure, and talent to God and see what happens.  He intends that there will eternally be good consequences, and when He intends something, it happens.  Guaranteed.

Our God is the God of Intended Consequences.

[1] I can’t find the case online or in my files so I’m going from memory here.  Forgive me if I go astray, or if you work at Nordstrom.

Words of Life and Death

Todd R 1 Comment

Rummaging in the basement for a book recently, I found a book I wasn’t looking for: Encouragement: The Key to Caring by Dr. Larry Crabb and Dr. Dan Allender.  It was a good find.  The authors define encouragement as “the kind of expression that helps someone want to be a better Christian, even when life is rough.”[1]  This is the kind of expression recommended in Hebrews 10:23-25 – “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  (emphasis mine)

However, if we don’t believe our words matter – that they have real power – we might think such encouragement is pointless.  Making a case for the power of our words, the authors cite these Proverbs:

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” – Prov. 18:21
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” – Prov. 12:25
“A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” – Prov. 15:4
“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” – Prov. 16:24
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” – Prov. 25:11[2]

In these Proverbs, words have the power of life and death.  Power to lift or break a spirit.  They have real power to influence others for good, or for bad.  They can influence our health, bodily and spiritually.  Our words are one of the hardest things for us to control – especially online – and unless we realize their power, we’re too likely to take them lightly.  James wrote that taming our tongues may be our biggest challenge, and if we can tame it, we can tame our whole body.  (James 3:2-3)

Therefore, pray for more encouraging, more powerful words today, and that God would cleanse our hearts, the spring from which our words come[3], so we may praise Him and provide “sweetness to the soul and health to the body” of those around us.

It won’t happen all at once, and all will stumble, but as the saying goes:

Yard by yard, life is hard!
Inch by inch, life’s a cinch!

Photo by Kevin Luke on Unsplash

[1] Crabb, Larry and Dan Allender.  Encouragement: The Key to Caring (1984).  P. 10.
[2] Ibid.  P. 19.  See also Proverbs 25:20 and James 3:5-6.
[3] James 3:11

“The Way to Death”

Todd R Leave a comment

Is everything a matter of life and death?  In Deuteronomy 30:19, Moses said to the people of Israel about God’s law: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.”  This idea of things being a choice between life and death also shows up in wisdom literature, like the Proverbs, and elsewhere.  Paul wrote in Romans 5:12, “as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”  These verses don’t mean that every time you sin lightning will come down from heaven and strike you dead.  They also don’t mean that whether you choose to have corn or peas with dinner is a life-or-death decision.  But they do mean that, absent God’s grace, the necessary, inevitable consequence of sin is death.

Paul also wrote, in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Because of this gift, our bad choices and bad intentions don’t have to lead to eternal death, but we still make bad choices, and the verse(s) I’m going to highlight today is(are) a good reminder that we get tricked into bad choices.

In response to a reader suggestion, I’m writing a series about the verses I’ve quoted the most on this blog.  Today’s post is #4 of the series, covering the verse(s) quoted the 4th least out of the 10 most quoted:

“There is a way that seems right to a man,
            but its end is the way to death.” – Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25

Yes, Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 say exactly the same thing, as if the point being made was so important that it needed repeating.  This Proverb tells us that we make bad choices because they seem right.  Here I’ve used this verse a few times and in a few different ways, which I’m listing below:

Sometimes what “seems right” is physically bad for us
In one post, I explained the famous “Marlboro Man” advertising campaign begun in 1954, where a cigarette with a red filter designed for women was changed overnight into a cigarette for “manly” men, who usually had a cowboy hat and a horse.  I wrote “To make Philip Morris money, the ads declared that smoking was not a “way to death,” but that it was “right to a man” to be like the Marlboro Man.”  However, smoking can literally kill you.  Not a very spiritual point, but still true!

What’s right is not always what we’ve always done
I’ve also written about the dual Proverb that what “seems right” might be keeping us stuck in a rut and not progressing in life or in holiness.  Rather than do what’s actually right, “It’s easier to do what others have done before, or to continue what you’ve already done before, especially if repeated for a long period of time.”  While what’s comfortable may be the easy thing to do, 1 Peter 1:14-16 says (quoting Leviticus 11:44), “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””  Since none of us are holy yet, getting there requires change, and therefore staying where we are can be “the way to death.”

Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash

What’s right is not always what’s popular
In most (maybe all) cultures there are popular assumptions and ideas that just go unchallenged.  Anyone who speaks against them suffers some kind of consequence, from being shunned to even being killed in some places.  I wrote a list of quotes called “Popular Orthodoxy” about this, which included today’s Proverbs.  Popularity and peer pressure can be powerful things, giving us constant signals about what “seems right to a man”, but I’ve also written that “Sometimes wisdom flashes a red light while others are flashing green.”

What’s right is not always what we think is in our own best interest
For this one, I used an extreme example, where Herod ordered the killing of every child under 2 that lived where Jesus was born.  He didn’t want any rivals to his rule, and he didn’t want a populist uprising, so as I wrote: “Herod saw [the killings] as in his own best interest, and in the interest of Rome, but this is one of many examples of “a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.””  As I said this was an extreme example, but if you study economics, you usually learn that it assumes that people are “rational,” meaning they act in their best interest.  So, the economic theory of what “seems right to a man” is self-interest.

However, the Bible teaches us that what’s best for us is to defer our judgement of what’s best to God.  Too often we’re wrong, and Proverbs 1:7 declares:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
            fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

This “fear” doesn’t mean we are afraid of God, but that we feel a reverent awe toward Him.  This fear leads to wisdom and leads us to choose the way that is right to God, not what “seems right” to us.  Only the omniscient God has the perspective needed to know what’s right.  Psalm 25:12 says:

“Who is the man who fears the LORD?
            Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.”

As Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 tell us, we are easily misled to believe there is a better path than the one God chooses for us.  It’s so important that Proverbs tells us this twice, and I agree, which is why it/they make my list of most-quoted verses.

The God Over All Government

Todd R 2 Comments

We’d all like to live under a better government, but the only perfect, Godly government we’ll ever see is a monarchy under Jesus in heaven.  Until then, like it or not, we all have to live under imperfect governments.  We hope and pray for our government to be more Godly, more like the perfect government, and we should, as Paul wrote:

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” – 1 Tim 2:1-2

In addition to praying, there are many ways we try to influence our government.  In a democracy, we can seek to do this: by voting, by contributing money to political candidates, by working on a candidate’s campaign, by donating to lobbying organizations, by convincing others to vote differently, etc.  God may lead different people to participate politically in any of these ways, not at all, or in other ways.

However, none of these actions will be effective unless God is behind them, and the outcome we seek is what He also wants.  Only He can decide what are the right actions for us to take, and only He can decide which outcomes are best for His people, who He seeks to make perfectly Godly by His own definition of the word.  His purposes are to purify His people for eternity, not to bring about a perfect government in this broken world.  His purposes may not be our purposes, and where our influence is limited, His is unlimited.  Proverbs 21:1 tells us:

“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
            he turns it wherever he will.”

Therefore, regardless of whether we think our government is Godly, our government is actually Godly in one way: that He is in charge behind the scenes regardless of how it looks to us.

There are a couple of verses in the book of Ezra that acknowledge this, but first just a little background.  Ezra was a priest and scribe who likely wrote the Old Testament book bearing his name, in addition to Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and possibly Psalm 119.  It is also thought that he helped compile the Old Testament canon (the list of which books do and don’t belong).

Ezra lived at the end of the Babylonian captivity of the nation of Judah, an exile that ended not because of the vigorous efforts of Judah to break free, but because God used foreign kings to free them, and later to pay for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

After returning to their own land, the people of Judah were thankful for King Cyrus and King Darius, but ultimately, they knew God was behind it, and they determined to worship only Him, not Cyrus, Darius, or any other gods or men.  Ezra 6:22 says:

“And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the LORD had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.”

Ezra repeats the point in Ezra 7:27, referencing the principle from Proverbs 21:1 –

“Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem”

Our government is always in God’s hands, and He can do whatever He wills with it.  Pray that He will use it to bless God’s people, but also praise Him for all the benefits we may have, even under a hostile government.  Remember that God was behind Israel’s defeat by the Assyrians and Judah’s by Babylon, not just the return from exile.  It is by worshipping only God, not particular people or forms of government, that God’s people find their joy and peace.

“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;           
he turns it wherever he will.”