September 4 – Wisdom is Far More Valuable than Rubies
By Audrey Bauman
Proverbs 8: 6 - 11 (NLT)
“Listen to me! For I have important things to tell you.
Everything I say is right,
7 for I speak the truth
and detest every kind of deception.
8 My advice is wholesome.
There is nothing devious or crooked in it.
9 My words are plain to anyone with understanding,
clear to those with knowledge.
10 Choose my instruction rather than silver,
and knowledge rather than pure gold.
11 For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies.
Nothing you desire can compare with it.”
If you happen to keep track of the chapters in Proverbs that I’ve been writing about, you may have noticed that Proverbs 7 was omitted. That chapter again reinforces the principle that sex outside of marriage is disastrous. Solomon touches on that theme frequently, and we will look at it again before we’re done with Proverbs. It seems so repetitive, but when you think about it, sexual issues really do have the potential to do a lot of damage to one’s personal emotional, physical, and mental health. So I’m sure we’ll come across that topic again – just not today.
Do you know someone you consider to be wise? Stop and think about this for a minute. Who is someone that you would go to for advice? Now that you have a specific person in mind, what do they do, or how do they live, that makes them wise? What are the characteristics of that person that made you think of them when you think about wisdom?
When I try to answer those questions, I can think of a few people who I think are very wise and have lived life well. I can also think of people who are wise in specific areas. I might ask them for advice on financial matters, or I might ask them for advice about how to fix something, or I might ask them for advice on child development. There seems to be two kinds of wisdom there. One kind is more like knowledge – a person knows a lot about a specific topic. The other is more general – an ability to make good decisions in many areas of life. I think the general one is the wisdom being talked about in these verses.
Read those verses again. Is there any characteristic of wisdom that seems to stand out the most? “For I speak the truth and detest every kind of deception. My advice is wholesome. There is nothing devious or crooked in it.” (verses 7 – 8) Those are the verses that stand out to me. Honesty and integrity are the foundation of wisdom. I need to make decisions based on what is right - not on what is convenient, not on what seems beneficial at the moment, not on what is in my interest primarily, not on popular opinion, etc. … .
So how do I know what is right? By reading God’s Word and finding out what God thinks about all kinds of things, getting to understand God’s values. And that’s exactly what we’re doing by reading the verses posted each day. So let’s pray that we’re getting smarter, wiser as we keep in touch with our Heavenly Father and what He wants for us.
Our song for today is Word of God Speak by MercyMe.