Emergency Reserves

(Proverbs 2:7 KJV)  He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

As I was reading this chapter I again wrestled with the meaning of “wisdom” (8454).  Traditionally most cultures have associated wisdom with advanced age because older people have more experience.  At the same time we are aware that many people just become bigger fools as they move through life. 

So what is wisdom?

We know it is rooted in a fear of the Lord which means a person must know enough about God to fear Him.  This chapter up until now talks about listening and learning from the words and teaching given by God.  We would associate that with the Bible.  My thought for today is that wisdom is based on knowing the right principles and standards.  In some cases wisdom is kind of obvious.  Look at the list of the Ten Commandments.  There is little to argue with unless you are an atheist who rejects God or a rebel who refuses to worship God.  But there are bigger principles, more subtle if you will, that need to be applied in complex situations. 

What do you do when you need to chose between two principles?  The standard example is the people who were hiding Jews from the Nazis.  They lied.  They disobeyed the government.  Most of us understand that.  The situations we face are a little more complex.

So?  No guru is going to give us answers for every little crossroad we come to.  We need to build our own reserve of principles that we can apply to cloudy paths.  We need to walk “uprightly” (in integrity NASB) (8537) so we develop skill in applying the principles.  We need to be listening so that the discernment is available as the Holy Spirit speaks.  Be Wise.