The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/proverbs/8.htm

One of the reasons I like the New King James Version, is that they capitalize all of the pronouns referring to God. Whenever God says something, for example, “Take care that you obey My commands”, I automatically know that it is God speaking because the pronounce (is it a pronoun?) “My” is capitalized. It is the same for “Me”, “My”, “Our” (when referring to the Trinity), and others. Obviously if you own a red print Bible, all of Christ’s words are printed in red, but the words of God, in the OT, are not.

That said, as I was reading this proverb, I had to stop a couple of times and look at the capitalization to see if it was God speaking or if it was the personification of wisdom speaking. You could very easily read this proverb again, this time in the context that it is God speaking.

“Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding, I have strength. By me kings reign, And rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, All the judges of [c]the earth. I love those who love me, And those who seek me diligently will find me. Riches and honor are with me, Enduring riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, And my revenue than choice silver. I traverse the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice, That I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth, That I may fill their treasuries.”

That, is wisdom speaking, but could it also not be the words of God? And that is why this proverb tells us that God possessed wisdom, even before He created the earth. God is wise, therefore following His laws and commands is also wise.

As I said before, Solomon was wise to ask for wisdom. But where did this wisdom come from? If we are made in God’s image, and God is wise, I contend that we are born with wisdom in our souls, just like we are born with the ability to love (which sets us apart from other animals in the kingdom). (Not to say domesticated animals do not have the ability to love, it’s just a different love than what we have.) But just as we can lose our ability to love, through mental illness, we can lose our natural wisdom. And it is usually lost through Satan.

Adam and Eve had to be born with wisdom. God told them not to eat from the Tree of Life, and they initially had the wisdom to obey God. But then along came Satan, and tempted Eve, and her wisdom vanished. Satan wants this. He wants us to be foolish. When we are foolish, we do stupid things, like sin.

That makes it even more important to ask God to return the wisdom to us that we lost through sin. And this proverb spells it out pretty plainly; it’s better to be wise and poor than rich and foolish, wisdom makes our mouths stay on track and not say things we will regret, wisdom means to be in awe of our God and His awesome love and mercy.

Father, restore to us the wisdom robbed from us by Satan. give us the wisdom to make the right choices. Give us the wisdom to resist temptation. Give us the wisdom to repent. And give us the wisdom to realize that leading a life of righteousness on this earth is not a burden, but rather the door to an eternal life with You in a Heaven so marvelous our human brains cannot fathom. Amen!

Happy Sabbath. And be wise.