Searching for Wisdom - Evangelical Caucus/Devotional

In ancient days men would drill a shaft deep into a mountain or the ground, suspend themselves with a rope, and hang in the shaft while they tried to find some metal or precious stone to mine. In the Old Testament Job described the process this way: “He [man] sinks a shaft far from habitation, forgotten by the foot; they hang and swing to and fro far from men” (Job 28:4). The miner searched far below the earth’s surface for “anything precious” (v. 10).

Man goes to great efforts to search for precious metals. “But,” Job says, “where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living. . . . Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it, nor can silver be weighed as its price” (vv. 12-13, 15). Nothing in the world can buy wisdom, and it can’t be found in the things of the world.

So where does wisdom come from? Job says, “It is hidden from the eyes of all living. . . . Abaddon [Destruction] and Death say, ‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’ God understands its way; and He knows its place” (vv. 2123). If you are searching for wisdom, go to God. He knows where wisdom is because “He looks to the ends of the earth, and sees everything under the heavens. . . . And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding’” (vv. 24, 28).

What is true wisdom? To fear God and depart from evil. Wisdom isn’t a question of how much you know, but of whether you love the Lord your God and depart from sin. Only when you pursue God will you know true wisdom.

Ask God to help you adorn your life with the ornaments of His true wisdom and have a winsome testimony that attracts others to Christ.

Read the following verses, noting how both the Old and New Testaments tell us that God is the source of true wisdom: Job 9:4; Psalm 104:24; Proverbs 3:19-20; Romans 11:33; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 1:17 (NKJV).

Folks,

You are flying and the plane drops 6000 feet. Driving down the interstate a loaded semi crosses the medium and heads straight for you.

The two things you know is that your life is on the balance and you are not in control.

That is the essence of fear. That is what we deserve. That is part of our relationship with God

Now, you don’t live in that fear because of Jesus. But we ought to visit it more often than not.

A very wise fellow worker, who was also the pastor of a little fundamental Baptist church in the most western mountains of the Old Dominion, counseled me thus fufty years ago when my footsteps were faltering on the path of progressive sanctification (maturing in spirit) as I asked him for guidance on James 1:5-7:

"⁵ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. ⁶But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. ⁷For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord."

His pronouncement?

"Do not pray for wisdom!"

The reason? Even what I've written here will not be understood at first by the worldly person, or by a newly born babe in Christ.

Here John MacArthur has perfectly understood that the way to wisdom is getting very much closer to our Heavenly Father and His God-Begotten-in-the-flesh Son, as led by His Holy Spirit, from His wise counsel will imbed itself.

The Spirit-inspired wisdom of Isaiah, voiced in the well-remembered choir anthem of my youth, is this:

"Seek ye the LORD, while He may be found;
Call ye upon Him while He is near!
Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts:
And let him return unto the LORD,
And He will have mercy upon him; and to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon."

When one begins to undertake the thought process that is meant to address one's overwhelming difficulties of body or mind, the Savior invites us to seek and apply His wise counsel (Isaiah 1:18, 55: 55:8-9; bolding added for emphasis):

" 'Come now, and let us reason together,' saith the LORD: 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' "
" 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' saith the LORD. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"

Thus, it is unwise to attempt to apply human reasoning without God's overall involved conversational exchange. Here Thomas Aquinus faild in postulating that though Adam failed in the flesh, his ability to reason did not; from which the false stance of Romanistic religion fails with it.

It is according to Jesus' urging to the forlorn sinner (Mt. 6:33; cf Lk. 12:31) that spiritual overcoming results:

"But seek ye first the kingdom^(kingship) of God, and his righteousness; and all these things* shall be added unto you."
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* the preaching of Jesus redemptive activity; a permanent irreversible saving change of mind; rescue from spiritual death; pardon from the commission of all one's crimes; imputation of the perfection of His Son; rebirth as a new entity into the spiritual realm; embarkment on the journey of ongoing sanctification; comfort of the unceasing presence, preference, and care of the Master and Father in the perpetuity of His pleasure

That is, seek the nearness and sense of His Presence and Saving Power,from which the knowledge of all things, the understanding of it, the wisdom to apply it, and the joy of its consequences of being in fellowship with Him never palls.

This is wisdom.

Selah.

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