The Beginning of Wisdom 2

SO IT WAS FOOLISHNESS!!

2Chronicles 16:1-9

1. IN THE thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built (fortified) Ramah intending to intercept anyone going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.
2Then Asa brought silver and gold out of the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who dwelt at Damascus, saying,

3Let there be a league between me and you, as was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending you silver and gold; go, break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.

4And Ben-hadad hearkened to King Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.

5And when Baasha heard it, he stopped building Ramah and let his work cease.

6Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.

7At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, Because you relied on the king of Syria and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you.

8Were not the Ethiopians and Libyans a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied then on the Lord, He gave them into your hand.

9For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him. You have done foolishly in this; therefore, from now on you shall have wars.

In the last article, we discussed about the fear of God as being the foundation and the first fruit of wisdom in the life of any man. While in our own human judgment, we classify as wise, men of expertise, experience, vast knowledge and high intelligent quotient but as we press through the Scripture we saw that God's view of wisdom is different from ours.

In the passage above, we saw a king who employed a very powerful strategy in handling the challenges of his domain. Looking at the strategy, it seems innocent and yet powerful. I was glad when I saw that the strategy won fit him what he desired. The enemy of his kingdom was overpowered and rendered helpless and he seemingly became a winner.
However, we saw that God is more concerned about the means than the end. He checks the means to reward the end. After the victory won, the Lord spoke pointedly to this king saying that "even though your strategy was perfect and productive yet all you have displayed before Me is utter foolishness. While you could have looked up to Me for help in reverence for Me, you acted in your strength forgetting that human efforts (the flesh) profits nothings before God. It's only His Spirit that quickens.

This verdict of God became an issue for me as I studied. So I could labored ceaselessly and produced results and yet God is saying I have been foolish. I could have used several methods to drag men to my church for increase all in the name of Church growth and yet the One I am suppose to be serving could be saying that I have been so foolish. I could have been moving from mounts to mountains to pray against some family demons and God is saying that I have been foolish.

The folly to God may be what other men around will revert and honor. The principles employed might have even worked for someone else yet I heard Jesus saying that "I must only live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord to me per time". The word of God from the mouth of the devil can be destructive hence you must be sure that Gods words from God's mouth is what you follow per time.

Alas! The Lord rewarded his folly by declaring that his kingdom will not experience peace. Could it be that the fact that you have not been experiencing peace in life and business is because you have acted foolishly? Could it be that the recent quarrels in your church committee is because of a foolish step you have taken which might have even produced a seemingly good result? How I wish you will check your life thoroughly under God's light so that He can help you as you respond to Him.

Prayer: My Father, I am very sorry for neglecting You and acting and taking steps in my own wisdom. I plead that You forgive me and help me to live my life always placing You as first in all things about and around me. Amen

The Beginning of Wisdom

How confused and confusing we can become if we do not learn how to see the scriptures from the light of God. It's so easy to misconstrue what the Spirit us saying to us through His words in print.

It seems that It's not a tough thing to distinguish between a fool and a wise man in our world, however from the little light I have received from God into His word I have come to see that our way of judging who is wise and foolish is different from how God views same. We use to think that it is how vast and deep a person's knowledge base is or how confounding he applies and practices truths that makes them wise before God. High intelligent quotient, success and achievement, eloquence speech and powerful philosophical depth are all good but doesn't really basically define wisdom with God.

While all these may also be a part of the components of wisdom, they are not the basic parts. Wisdom according to the scripture has a foundation that it lays in the life of any man who would be called wise. The scriptures reveals that wisdom would be justified by her fruits. Hence, the wise king Solomon revealed to us that the first fruit, foundation and the first installment of wisdom in the life of any man is the fear of God. (Proverbs 9:10). This truth was also confirmed in Psalms 111:10 thus giving us a basis for the witness of truth.

Knowledge, intelligence, brevity, time management, mentoring, acumen are all powerful attributes of wise men but the foundation that carries all these loads and benefits of wisdom on it is the fear of God. Anyone who appears to be wise but doesn't fear God is a very big fool. Even though he may seems to possess worldly characteristics of wisdom but before God he is nowhere to be found.

The basis attitude that a wise man has is the recognition of the sovereignty of God by revelation and responding to this God with humble reverence not out of fear but out of a revelation of divine worth and love.