Not just what, but why?

Human beings sure are smart! 

Bob and I went over to the church to see if we could help our assistant pastor and some friends who were busting up the concrete getting ready to put in a new parking area by the daycare center.  Kevin, who is also a farmer, had brought in his own Bobcat and was adroitly ripping up the ground and dumping it into the truck.  Bob and I are always so impressed by this guy’s expertise in all things concerning the practical working of dirt.

I’m also pretty amazed at how people invented and manufactured the Bobcat.  Or the concrete it busts up for that matter!  Or how about Apollo 13?  A popular movie from years ago, I just admire at the ingenuity of bringing them back home safely—with slide rules.

Now a-days, gotta question?  Just Google it.

Yeah, we’re a pretty intelligent species.  God made us that way; it’s part of being “in His image”. 

Unfortunately, what doesn’t keep pace with our overt intelligence is something much more valuable—His wisdom.  In all of our drawing boards and conferences and laboratories, we’re so good at pursuing knowledge, but not necessarily the sense to know how to use it.

Knowledge is an entity endemic to humanity; wisdom, however, is a different matter.

I am weary, O God;
    I am weary and worn out, O God.
I am too stupid to be human,
    and I lack common sense.
I have not mastered human wisdom,
    nor do I know the Holy One.

I find it intriguing that God would put this in the book of Proverbs.  It sounds more like it belongs in the Psalms somewhere, right?

Until I remember that earlier on in the book we are told that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, (which is also found in Psalms).  And this fear of the Lord, or deep respect and reverencing awe, can only be found in the context of true humility. 

Which is what the writer of this chapter is experiencing.  Burned out from trying to do it on his own, he finally admits that he doesn’t “know the Holy One”, the One from whom all wisdom originates.

But, thank God!  We are on this side of the Cross, and have a different perspective:

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 

Asking still involves humility.  It means we’re saying, like the writer, that I don’t have what I need.  That, in fact, I can’t have what I need by my own intellectual efforts.  God’s not angry when we lack wisdom but He must be pretty disappointed when we don’t realize that we lack it, or are too stiff-necked to ask for it.  Especially when He’s so ready to give it, paid for in blood. 

His Son’s, in fact. 

Proverbs 30:1-3, James 1:5   Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.