Devotion 2.37/09: Ecclesiastes 12:8: Groundhog Day

Presented to River Street Cafe, 03 February 2017

Read Ecclesiastes 12:8-14

February 2^nd: What happens on February 2^nd? What day is February 2^nd? I have some friends from Wiarton, Ontario; I usually send them a note on February 2^nd. February 2^nd is Groundhog Day. What happens if groundhog sees his shadow? What happens if he doesn’t? What happens if one sees his shadow and another doesn’t? What happens if they disagree? What happens if the groundhog is blind? Is that cheating? When we lived in Manitoba, groundhogs were everywhere; how do we decide which one did or did not see his or her shadow and which one’s view matters more than the next? Yesterday 2/3 of the famous groundhogs did not see their shadow; so do we just say 2 out of 3 ain’t bad and assume that Spring will be early this year? What does it really mean if a groundhog sees its shadow? Nothing.

I once heard Canadian elections cynically described in terms of metal bars. You have four metal bars in front of you: a Liberal Red one, a Conservative Blue one, an Orange NDP one, and a Green one. On Election Day you choose which of these four metal bars you will be beaten with for the next four years.

I saw a comic on one inauguration day in the US. It was a picture of the devil sitting on a throne with the American Flag behind him. He was in the process of taking off a mask of the outgoing president and putting on the mask of the incoming president. There is a line in a favourite song of mine by White Lion, that says, ‘no more Presidents and all the wars will end; one united world under God’

This week we have seen some potentially horrific things – depending on how it all rolls out – in the US. The new president has signed a ban on immigrants and refugees from 7 countries; he has signed into construction a wall to keep others out of their country. I think sometimes people think that all of this would change if the devil just wore another mask, if they had elected someone from the other ruling party. Did you know that the leading candidate from the other party, while she opposed the ‘wall’, instead supported a ‘fence’ – same thing different name; and did you know that that other party put a ban on Iraqi children entering their country when they were in the most need. The events of this week may be horrible but really we are just being hit with a different colour stick than we have been hit with before.

Now I am not saying that we don’t need to stand up to horrible things: we do! As Christians we are told that we do need to stand up to against injustice. That is part of what shows the world that we are Christians.

What we need to remember is this: don’t to look to politicians or parties or philosophies or groundhogs to solve all of our world’s problems. They won’t do it. They can't do it. As interesting as they are, they really are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What we need is to stand up for the poor and the marginalized, but let us not do so in the name of party or a philosophy but in the Name of Jesus Christ because that is where our help comes from. There is no other name by which mankind can be saved.

www.sheepspeak.com

Proverbs 3:13-18: Advertising Haikus for Life.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 04 Nov. 2012
and 614 Warehouse Mission, 07 April 2018

By Captain Michael Ramsay

 

The passage today would be a wonderful teaching pericope on wisdom.  Ellen F. Davis has referred to the book of Proverbs as a series of short haikus or poems.[1] If we had more time or if this was a class that I was teaching rather than a homily, I would actually have us all writing haikus about wisdom before its conclusion but since it is not I won’t make us write haikus… about wisdom. I will still let us each try to write a haiku but it can be about anything you want. You each have a pen and paper so I’ll give us each a chance to see how we do. Now so that we all know what we are doing, we will look at a few sample haikus to start us off today. First, can anyone sum up for me roughly, what is a haiku? A haiku is a short Japanese poem that often has 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third line; and the last line is supposed to make you think about the first 2 lines in a whole new way. I am going to have at least one person read out the haiku that we each write here; so be prepared - think about it. Here are some examples for us by Udiah:[2]

 

The Rainbow (Gen 9: 8-17)

after summer's rain (5 syllables)

God's promise is remembered (7 syllables)

glorious rainbow (5 syllables)

 

The Tree of Life (Gen 3:22)

Partake of The Word (5)

The Tree of Life, Jesus Christ (7)

And live forever (5)

 

I’ll give everyone a moment to come up with a haiku and when you have one ready that you are willing to read out, put your hand up. Let me know. Here is one that Sarah-Grace and Susan shared with me earlier this week that I think sums up haikus quite nicely.

 

Haikus are easy
but sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator

 

Davis writes that, “like a haiku, [Proverbs] does not require a lot of scholarly explanation.” She states, “Biblical proverbs represent language in its most condensed form. Their stock characters are the wise and the foolish, those who yield to wickedness and those who practice righteousness.”[3]

Today we are taking a cursory look at verses 13-18 of Proverbs 3 and we can read this passage as a series of haikus or as one poem about Biblical wisdom.[4] Before we do this though, who can tell me what is wisdom? Holman Bible Dictionary refers to it as ‘the art of learning how to succeed in life’ or ‘study of the essence of life’ but ultimately “wisdom comes from God (Proverbs 2:6).  Thus though it will involve observation and instruction, it really begins with God and one’s faith in Him as Lord and Saviour (Proverbs 1:7, Job 28:28).”[5] In basic language, wisdom is the ability to discern God’s will and action in our lives and the world. It is the way to figure out how to live our lives. This is what Proverbs is speaking about: how we can decide in what way to live our lives.

With that in mind, we are going to re-read our pericope and we are going to listen to this short poem on wisdom and let’s see what we can discern about how to live our lives. Let’s read our poem from Proverbs and see what it says about wisdom:

Blessed are those who find wisdom,

those who gain understanding,

for she is more profitable than silver

and yields better returns than gold.

She is more precious than rubies;

nothing you desire can compare with her.

Long life is in her right hand;

in her left hand are riches and honour.

Her ways are pleasant ways,

and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;

those who hold her fast will be blessed.

What strikes us about this poem? What does God say about wisdom and how we can actually figure out what’s important about how we should live our lives? In the first verse, the author of Proverbs says that this wisdom is pretty important (v.13). Making our life decisions by God’s wisdom rather than by our own whims and fancies or by our own pocket books or by any other means (v.6); the poet says this is more profitable than silver, yields better returns than gold, and is more precious than rubies (vv.14-16).[6] Following God’s wisdom, he says is pleasant and she, wisdom, leads to peace not to war (v.17). Godly wisdom – look how the poem concludes - Godly wisdom is a tree of life for those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed (v.18). We remember the Tree of Life from Genesis 2-3 (cf. Revelation 2:7; 22:1-21; cf. also Proverbs 11:30, 13:12, 15:44): the one that in order to protect it, God threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden before they could of eat it. This Tree of Life, our proverb says today, is wisdom. The fruit of the Tree of Life is relying on godly wisdom to make our choices.[7] Wisdom that comes from the Lord leads to this fruit of everlasting life.

We should pause and think about this for a moment. Godly wisdom is so important: it is what leads to the everlasting Tree of Life. It is a key to eternal life with Christ Jesus our Lord. Knowing that godly wisdom is this important, we should reflect: In 21^st Century Canada, do we generally seek the wisdom of the LORD in making our life choices? In making our daily decisions, do most Canadians pray and read the Bible? Does the majority in our culture and society reap the available benefits of Christ, the Tree of Life, and everlasting life through making our decisions based on Godly wisdom; do we reap the available fruit of the Tree of Life by praying and reading our Bibles – or do we make our decisions in other, lesser ways that do not lead to this everlasting life?

What are some of the ways that 21^st Century conventional Canadian society can tempt us to make decisions? There are a lot of ways, many of which we have addressed from this pulpit on more than one occasion. But, for our purposes today, we will just concentrate on one rival to wisdom and the Tree of Life. How do many in our culture decide: what cars to buy? What movies to see? Where to eat? What new gadgets to buy? What brand of cereal to try? What is one way that Canadians these days often decide what products are popular and what we should spend our money on? For those who watch TV, what is it that interrupts the shows every few minutes? Commercials: advertising has a great influence on us all. Just think about how much money the Americans have spent just this past week on election ads alone: I understand that the two sides down there have spent more than 4 billion dollars this year on advertising. In the journal article by Ellen F. Davis, which we have already cited today, she tells us this story that I find quite interesting:

A few years ago I was invited to lead a day-long workshop at a church in Beverly Hills; to my surprise, the requested topic was Proverbs. It was early autumn, and the day dawned crystal clear and slightly cool, perfect for being in the garden, at the ocean, or on the hiking trail. I therefore expected a small and likely reluctant group to turn out for the workshop: the planning committee and a few loyal friends, perhaps. Yet surprisingly, the room filled, and people became so engaged with the topic that I had to insist they take a break. "Tell me," I asked, "where does all this energy come from?" Immediately someone responded: "Oh, most of us work in Hollywood. We write commercials and advertising copy. And when we were in training, they told us to read Proverbs." She smiled a little self-consciously before continuing: "But now I see that most of what we write is aimed at the people Proverbs calls 'fools.'"

If more professors of Bible and homiletics had seen what the advertising industry has seen, we would doubtless hear and do more preaching on Proverbs, and it might be some of the most helpful preaching in the church. Both Biblical proverbs and advertising slogans are designed to speak directly into the heart of a culture, to ordinary people in their daily lives. With just a few words, they epitomize certain core values, and if they catch on, they become a powerful way of communicating those values…

The most telling point of correspondence between biblical wisdom and the advertising industry is that both are directed toward shaping and stimulating desire: more people should want something they do not yet have, or else want more of what they already possess. So a proverb and a well-crafted advertisement are both forms of the poetry of acquisition.

And these poems of acquisition, these advertising sound bites are very effective as shown by how memorable they are. Capitalists have discovered the ancient secret of the proverb and they are using it in the service of Mammon. Let’s take a look here and see how good they are at it. Here are some examples from some old ads; let’s see if we can associate these sayings/slogans with their products:[8] 

a)      “breakfast of champions”,

b)       “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”,

c)      “Takes a lickin’ and just keeps tickin’”,

d)      “Finger lickin’ good”,

e)      “Plop, plop; fizz, fizz; oh what a relief it is.”

f)        “Don't leave home without it.”

The ad executives know what the ancient scribes of antiquity knew and what we, as readers and doers of Scripture, should remember. They know that these short little sayings can easily convince and that once we are convinced of them, they can remain with us for a lifetime.

This is what Proverbs is all about. This sequence of short poems is like a series of quick commercials enticing us to try Wisdom –instead of money, or our own desires, or anything else. It is like a series of short commercials enticing us to try Godly wisdom as a means to Salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. For the Christian, the new and the old believer alike, as we immerse ourselves in these Divine advertisements, these Scriptural proverbs should come rushing to our minds as quickly and as easily as any of the capitalist ones that we have mentioned today. That is a point of Proverbs. The proverb is the wise sound bite of antiquity and Proverbs has some great lines that we should remember as easily as any product slogan or TV jingle.

Let’s re-read our text, Proverbs 3:13-18 for a third time today and let’s picture it as that TV commercial interrupting our regular life’s programming for a moment. Picture with me as I am reading this ancient commercial for Wisdom here, that there is a person sitting on a beach in a lounge chair and then another person climbing a mountain followed by another person sitting at their desk managing their investments – maybe flipping from scene to scene here and there as we have sentimental music playing in the background. Picture this ancient ad for Salvation with God’s Wisdom:

Blessed are those who find wisdom,

those who gain understanding,

for she is more profitable than silver

and yields better returns than gold.

She is more precious than rubies;

nothing you desire can compare with her.

Long life is in her right hand;

in her left hand are riches and honour.

Her ways are pleasant ways,

and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;

those who hold her fast will be blessed.

As the last words of the announcer are being spoken, the TV screen then fades to black with only the silhouette of the tree remaining.

Proverbs is like a collection of antiquity’s greatest commercials and finest poetry combined to point us to the glory of God’s wisdom and salvation. And our text today reminds us that as we gain wisdom, as we make our decisions based on praying and reading our Bibles that our life will be a lot different. It will make a lot more sense.

We know this; so my question for us today is, do we pay even as much attention to Proverbs, the Bible’s poetic commercials for wisdom as we do to the ads on our televisions? Do we pay so much attention to the Bible’s advertisements for wisdom that we just want to rush out and get that eternal life from the Tree of Knowledge that God has provided for the whole world? …Or do we just skip over these Devine commercials that point us to the eternal Tree of Life?

My encouragement for us this week then is this. I encourage each of us to read and re-read Proverbs, enjoy the sayings like we enjoy our favourite poems or our favourite TV commercials; let us run them over and over again in our minds like we do a well-written jingle. Proverbs are as artistic as any poetry and Proverbs are as effective as any ad; so let us take a break today from life’s regular scheduled programming, let us read through these Heavenly Haikus and then let us, in response to them, let us -at the next opportunity, let us if we haven’t already - let us acquire for ourselves what Proverbs is advertising: the eternal wisdom of the Tree of Life that leads to Salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

---

---

[1] Ellen F. Davis, ‘Surprised by Wisdom: Preaching Proverbs’, Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 63 no. 3 (July 2009): 265

[2] Accessed 30 October 2012, available on-line at http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/haiku/

[3] Ellen F. Davis, ‘Surprised by Wisdom: Preaching Proverbs’, Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 63 no. 3 (July 2009): 265, 266.

[4] Katharine J. Dell, ‘Proverbs 1-9: Issues of Social and Theological Context’, Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 63 no. 3 (July 2009): 238

[5] Harry Hunt, ‘Wisdom and Wise Men’ in Holman Bible Dictionary. Editor, Trent C. Butler, (Holman Bible Publishers: Nashville, Tennessee. 1991), 1412.

[6] Derek Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1964 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 17), S. 62

[7] Alan P. Ross, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Proverbs/Exposition of Proverbs/II. A Father's Admonition to Acquire Wisdom (1:8-9:18)/E. Admonition to Follow the Way of Wisdom in Relationships With God and People (3:1-35)/3. Commendation of the way of wisdom (3:13-26)/a. Wisdom the most valuable possession (3:13-18), Book Version: 4.0.2. But cf. Roland Murphy, Proverbs. (WBC 22: Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, 1998), 22

[8] a) Wheaties, b) M&Ms, c) Timex, d) KFC, e) Alca Seltzer, f) Amex 

1 Kings 1: Election Debate 970

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army

By Captain Michael Ramsay, 21 October 2012.

Today’s pericope is about an awkward family situation and an awkward political situation. Now, I don’t really follow politics like I used to once upon a time. I no longer put my faith in the idea that whoever happens to win a popularity contest every so many years will or even can do anything to better a nation. On the contrary, as a 21^st Century Christian, I recognize as the Scriptures say that ‘I know from where my help comes; it comes from the maker of heaven and earth’ – not from some politician (Psalm 121).

That being said, there have been some interesting things happening in our world in politics recently. We in this city are in the throes of a municipal election and while no one is officially challenging Mayor Jared Schafer and the work he is doing, there are 11 people – I believe – vying for just six city council jobs and there are school board elections as well. In Ontario, I understand that there is quite a tempest brewing in that the relatively recently re-elected premier has just offered his resignation. In the United States, they have just finished another round of presidential debates and they are in the midst of another very close election.

The situation in the United States right now actually does have some parallels to our text today and it has even more parallels to elections south of the line where a sitting president isn’t up for re-election. Does anyone remember the election campaign highlighting Al Gore and George W. Bush? That was a very tightly contested race. In the end it was actually left up to the courts to declare who would be president of their country.

Then and there you had a sitting President, Bill Clinton, who was no longer able to wield his official power. He was on his way out. His own party put forth his Vice President as a possible successor to him and the other political party put forth the son of another past president as their choice. There are many states that always seem to support the same party and only a few swing states for the taking in any election. That country then, like their country now, was divided.

It is the same in our text today. King David is the leader of the Kingdom of Israel. In the early days of his reign he was a political force to be dealt with; he was involved in no shortage of scandals and political intrigue and he managed to hold his office as long as he possibly could: winning some really close contests for his job and sacrificing a lot of innocent lives in the process (1 & 2 Samuel). Even as a young man in all his victories, errors and sins though, he seemed to always return to God and was actually remembered as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). In our text today however, David is no longer a young man. David is old. David seems impotent.[1] The country is once again divided.  David’s term is coming to an end and a new leader will be chosen to succeed him.

David is from Judah (1 Samuel 17:12). Just like there has been an historic East-West or French-English division in Canada and an historic North-South division in the United States with the Democrats and Republicans fighting for control since the time of their second civil war (1861-1865),[2] there is a similar traditional divide in Palestine between the Israelites in the North and the Jews in the South (cf. 1 Samuel 16 - 2 Samuel 5). David is from the South. The conservatives, the old guard is from the Hebron area in the south. Their stronghold is the state (tribe) of Judah. Many powerful people are there. There is Joab, David’s nephew and the leader of David’s fighting men; he is the person who was used as much as any other person to put and keep David on the throne. There is Abiathar, the last high priest in the lineage of Aaron, Moses’ brother.[3] And joining their ranks now is David’s oldest surviving son, Adonijah. This is the old guard, the conservatives. They are the Judah Party and they figure that they have all of these important electoral votes locked down for the coming contest (cf. 1 Kings 1:5-9).

Now about the other side, the Jerusalem Party: even though David himself is from Judah, for political reasons, he relocates his capital to Jerusalem, which is on the border between the states (tribes) of Benjamin and Judah (2 Samuel 5:1-16). David abandons his old guard and David becomes surrounded by the new Jerusalem Party. This faction is made up of other members of David’s family as well as the traditional opposition groups to the Judah Party (1 Kings 1:28-40). In this Jerusalem Party we have the prophet Nathan; he was the one who – without asking God first - told David that he should go ahead and build a temple for God; God then vetoed Nathan (2 Samuel 7:1-17, 1 Chronicles 17:1-15). Later, however, Nathan did speak on God’s behalf. We remember that it was Nathan who God spoke through condemning David for having an affair with Bathsheba and killing her husband in the ensuing cover-up (2 Samuel 11-12). This brings us to our next Mandarin (or at least an instrument of them) in Jerusalem of our text today: It is Bathsheba herself, the woman whose husband David murdered after he impregnated her and tried to cover it up; She is now one of David’s wives (2 Samuel 12, Matthew 1:6). Our next member of the Jerusalem Party is Bathsheba’s son Solomon. Then there is Benaiah, an Army officer, assassin, and Solomon’s personal enforcer; Zadok, a new High Priest who in all likelihood was not even an Israelite;[4] and a number of foreign mercenaries.

That is the situation leading into Chapter One of First Kings: the country is potentially divided. We have David’s old guard in the South of Judah and we have the Jerusalem Party to the North who some even suggest are even holding David hostage in his palace in a similar way to the way that the Shoguns of old held the Emperor of Japan hostage.[5]

Now there is something else that we have to mention about David before we get to the events of our pericope today. David was known as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). David was a great warrior (1 Samuel 16 – 30). David could have been a great king. David was not a great dad. His failure to discipline, limit, instruct, guide, teach, direct, or even actually really help his children contributed to the deaths of many of his country people -including more than one of his sons (2 Samuel 12-19). We remember the murder of Amnon (2 Samuel 13), his oldest son, and we remember the rebellion and slaying of Absalom (2 Samuel 15-18), his second oldest son: both of these tragedies in all likelihood could have been avoided if David had looked to God for help instead of just letting his family run wild and these tragedies in all likelihood could have been avoided if David had learned what we know from the food bank ministry here: sometimes the most loving answer is ‘no’. There are limits to what God finds acceptable. There are guidelines that point to life. If we know them, if we know where our help comes from we will be okay. If we rebel however, trying to do things for and by ourselves, things can go terribly wrong. Today’s pericope reminds us of this.

It says that Adonijah, rather than relying on God, it says that Adonijah exalted himself: verse 5. He is testing his dad. It says that his dad, – verse 6 – David never bothered to rein him in while he was growing up. Adonijah has been given no way to figure out what are the boundaries in life. He has been given no way from his dad to figure out what are the parameters. David, it says, refuses to help. David does not name an heir to the throne and David’s health is failing. Something must be done. A new leader must be chosen. Adonijah decides that he should be the next leader of God’s people. The election campaign is underway.

Adonijah prepares well for his campaign, as recorded in the verses 5-8 of our story. He is handsome. He is the oldest surviving son. He organises first; he gathers around him prominent people from his father’s rise to power. He has a big leadership campaign kick-off. He invites almost all the high profile people of Judah who are his supporters: princes and royal officials alike (1 Kings 1:9). The Judah Party: the grand ole party of the old days of David’s reign, they have had their leadership convention and Adonijah is their man. They don’t however invite the Jerusalem Party and the election is on.

Now, in all this preparation, do you notice what it doesn’t say that any of them do in planning all of this? Even though it does mention that the last Aaronic High Priest has endorsed Adonijah’s candidacy, it doesn’t mention anywhere that anyone prays or even consults God in this matter.

The election fight is on and Nathan gets wind of this and he mobilises the Jerusalem Party in response, giving them their plan of action. Notice here too that nowhere does it say that Nathan or anyone in the Jerusalem Party is praying or seeking God anymore than those of the Judah Party. Verses 11-14: Nathan goes directly to one of David’s queens: Bathsheba, the one –we remember- who many years ago he condemned David for sleeping with and murdering her first husband. Nathan goes straight to Queen Bathsheba. Nathan, like any great political organizer, seemingly exaggerates his case as he tries to enlist her in his plot. He tells Bathsheba that Adonijah, David’s son by another wife, has ALREADY become king. Nathan apparently gets her all worked up and then he tells her to go to tell King David, who is very old and who is seemingly politically and/or physically impotent; Nathan gets her all worked up and he tells her to go to tell King David, who is very likely suffering from arteriosclerosis and is very weak;[6] Nathan gets her all worked up and he tells her to tell David that David had already promised that her son, Solomon, would be the next king.[7] Nathan says, you do this and then I will come running in while you are still speaking with the king and I will confirm everything that you have just said. These is quite a plot and again notice that nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that this plot is endorsed by the Lord anymore than were Adonijah’s plans.

This is just the beginning. There is more. Look at how and where Nathan unleashes his plot to put Solomon on the throne. David is in his bedroom when Bathsheba comes running in and David is not alone. Abishag, who it says in Verse 2, is a young woman who used to lie with him to keep him warm (cf. 1 Kings 2:22, Josephus, Antiquities vii.14.3);[8] Abishag, it says in verse 15 is attending him right at this moment when in they come running. Here is this possibly senile seventy-something year old man, who is suffering from a number of ailments, cuddling this concubine in his bedroom when in comes his wife who tells him all that Nathan told her to tell him, making sure to inaccurately state that Adonijah had already been made king and to implicate by name David’s old guard in this and to tell David all that Nathan had told her tell David including the idea that David had previously agreed to make Solomon king. This has got to be more than a little awkward –like our comics from the beginning of the talk today - and more than a little bit confusing for David – even if he is not ill (1 Kings 1:15-21).

Nathan then joins the party in the bedroom and the Jerusalem Party carries the day in the election to the throne: Solomon is named co-regent with his father (1 Kings 1:38-40). In the next few chapters, like new Presidents and Prime Minister’s in our part of the world today fire their predecessor’s chief staff, Solomon sends out his assassins to consolidate his power, killing off the key members of the Judah Party and anyone else he sees as a political threat (1 Kings 2:13-46).[9]

This is quite a way to start the book of 1 Kings and you will notice that God isn’t really mentioned in this story at all. God isn’t mentioned until Chapter 3 and by that time Solomon is already begun his undoing: Solomon is already king and Solomon is already married to Pharaoh’s daughter. If we had the time to address the rest of Solomon’s story, it ends in the same tragic way it begins, with conspiracies and death as the Lord Himself raises up adversaries to Solomon (1 Kings 11). As we read through 1 Kings over the next week we will notice that Solomon at times in his life loves God (1 Kings 3:3-15, 9:1-14, 2 Chronicles 1:1-13), Solomon at times in his life serves God but Solomon’s heart is turned away to other gods by his foreign wives and his rejection of God is so complete that God eventually tears the whole kingdom from his line… except two tribes for the sake of the promise that God made to King David (1 Kings 11-12; cf. 2 Chronicles 10). Solomon turns away from God (cf. TSA doc. 9).

But in the midst of the tragedy of the life of Solomon, who we will be reading about over the next few weeks, and after having just read today about the political intrigue of his rise to power what can we learn that applies to us today here in Swift Current, 3 millennia later? I think our lesson is this: God foreordained that David would have a descendant as a king forever (2 Samuel 7, 1 Chronicles 17). God had even planned that that descendant would not only be king of the tribe of Judah, that king would not only be king of the people of Israel. That king would be king of the whole world because that king would be the Son of God and that King would be God (cf. Genesis 12:1-3).

Even though Solomon and his friends and colleagues, like his adversaries, plotted and killed in our story today and even though before the end of Solomon’s life, his heart would turn after other gods, The LORD is still faithful and the LORD still provides a descendant of David and a descendant of Solomon to sit on the throne forever. Even though Solomon, who once was faithful, becomes faithless (Romans 3:3-4; cf. Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5),[10] God is still faithful to His promises to save the world through the lineage of David – this he does through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.[11]

The question for us today then is, ‘what are we going to do about it?’ Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Are we going to serve Him? Are we going to read our Bibles and pray on a regular basis? Are we going to love God and love our neighbours and so enjoy being a part of His Kingdom forever – or are we going to plot and scheme on our own to achieve our own goals and then ultimately be led astray to follow other gods like Solomon (cf. Matthew 25:31ff., TSA doctrines 6,10,11)? Today the choice is ours. We can look to ourselves and our own plots, schemes, plans, and agendas, that will lead us where they lead us or we can lift our eyes up to the heavens to where are help comes from. It comes from God the maker of heaven and earth. Today let us serve Him.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

---

---

[1] Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings, (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), 14

[2] The first civil war lasted from 1775-1783.

[3] But cf. R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Kings/Exposition of First Kings/I. The United Kingdom (1 Kings 1:1-11:43)/A. Solomon's Exaltation as King (1:1-2:11)/1. Adonijah's plot to seize the crown (1:1-10)/b. Adonijah's attempted coup d'etat (1:5-10), Book Version: 4.0.2 

[4] J. A. Soggin, ‘Der Offiziell Geförderte Synkretismus in Israel während des 10 Jahrhunderts’, ZAW 78, 1966, pp. 179–204 in Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1993 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 9), S. 75

[5] cf. Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings, (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), 14

[6] Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings, (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), 14

[7] Cf. Jonathan Burnside, ‘Flight of the Fugitives: Rethinking the Relationship between Biblical Law (Exodus 21:12-14) and the Davidic Succession Narrative (1 Kings 1-2), JBL 129, no.3 (2010): 419

[8] Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1993 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 9), S. 74: The use of a youth to restore vital warmth was an ancient medical practice

[9] Cf. Tim Gorringe, “David's Big Ideas 1Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; Ephesians 5:15-10, John 6:51-58”, Expository Times 120 no. 10 (July 2012): 498

[10] Cf. N.T. Wright, “Romans and theTheology of Paul,” p. 37. See also N.T. Wright, “The Law in Romans 2.

[11] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today'. Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army. Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/Ramsay%20Praise%20the%20Lord%20for%20Covenants.pdf

Proverbs 1:7,9:10: The Fear of The LORD

Presented to the Nipawin Corps 17 May 2009
and Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 27 May 2012
by Captain Michael Ramsay

Click HERE: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/05/proverbs-17-910-yirah-fear-of-lord.html

Psalm 146: Trust The Faithful Orange

Third homily in the Heaven Scent series.

Presented to the Swift Current Corps 12 December 2010.

By Captain Michael Ramsay

.

Last week we spoke about the justice that comes with salvation and how it is our responsibility as servants of the Lord to be just (Psalm 72:1-7)[1] and verses 5-10 of Psalm 146, which we read a little bit earlier, tell us how and what this holiness looks like when we do put our trust in the Lord. These verse 5-10 are actually the verses of the psalm that are associated with the third week in advent this year but I was struck by verse 3: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.” So that is what we will talk about today.

Trust is an interesting thing and it is important. I love wearing my uniform, it is a symbol of trust and as we who are wearing them continue to deal openly and fairly with people, it continues to grow as a symbol of trust in the community. The trust that we wearing the uniform garner for it comes in direct proportion to our service to the Lord while wearing it. God has been able to use me to help diffuse many varied and difficult situations involving armed people, disgruntled people, intoxicated people, and violent people, through the trust embodied in this uniform of one who serves the Lord in His army. In one community in which I served, our soldiers were doing such a solid job of living up to that trust that was placed in our uniforms that other evangelical clergy lamented to me that they did not have a uniform to wear. At times it can be like a Superhero costume.

I did not always have my Superhero costume though. I was not always an Officer. I was not always a soldier. I remember once when I was in elementary school. We were at a Christian camp. They were teaching us this very important value of trust and reflecting the truth and the trustworthiness of God. We did a number of these trust exercises, some of them involving blindfolds. We were to take turns being blindfolded and being led around. When it was my turn to be blindfolded – well, I peeked. Trust took a little while to develop for me but my partner – he passed with flying colours. This guy was the epitome of trust and trustworthiness. I led him everywhere and he never once peaked. How do I know he never peeked? Well, I led him into a building and we walked through a door and when he took off his blindfold I wasn’t there and he happened to be in the middle of the girls change room – he was quite surprised when he took the blindfold off. He was more than a little embarrassed but this person really did pass the trust test. He trusted me in those days. He passed the trust test not only in letting me lead him into this spot without even peeking; but after I did this I said to him, “Okay, okay, let’s do this properly this time” and he put the blindfold on and he didn’t peek this time either. How do I know that he didn’t peek this time either? Because… When we were back outside, I walked right behind my trusting blindfolded friend climbing ever higher and higher on the steps in the centre of the camp and out on this platform when all of a sudden one of the leaders called out ‘get off of that diving board…’

Psalm 146:3 “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.” Actually I don’t think I got right to the diving board; I don’t remember getting any closer than the pool deck in reality but the idea is the same. My partner passed the trust test with glowing colours – I, however, did not. Praise the Lord that I changed - not only because of my life and my job nowadays but because there is absolutely nothing worse than an untrustworthy person. A person, who misrepresents the truth for whatever self-righteous reason, is a person that you can never give any responsibility to. That being said the lesson for today that is technically outside of the Advent reading (one has to love the freedom of being an evangelical at times) is from Psalm 146:3: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.”

Last week we spoke about King Solomon. There were these great blessings that were available to him and his reign, provided that he was just faithful in serving YHWH by providing justice and salvation to the poor (Psalm 72). One who reflects the love and life of the Lord, our text tells us today will uphold the cause of the oppressed and give food to the hungry (Psalm 146:7; cf. Psalm 9:9, 10:18, 103:6 and Psalm 17:14, 34:10, 107:9, Isaiah 49:10). The LORD will set the prisoners free (Psalm 146:7; cf. Psalm 68:6, 79:11, 102:20, 107:10-14; Isaiah 42:7), give sight to the blind (Psalm 146:8; cf. Isaiah 29:18, 35:5, 42:7, 43:8), watch over the marginalized and frustrate the ways of the wicked (Psalm 146:9; cf. Psalm 104:35, 145:20 and Deuteronomy 10:18; Isaiah 1:17, 9:17; Jeremiah 22:16; James 1:17). None of Solomon’s successors did this (until Jesus! See Matthew 11:4-6) Solomon did not do this. Solomon failed. Instead of setting the captives free, he actually enslaved his own people (1 Kings 5:13, cf. 4:6, 9:15, 12:1-4). In the end this political leader from 1000 BCE, was remembered by the author of 1 Kings as one who did evil in the eyes of the Lord (1 Kings 11). Not an epitaph that any leader should want. And a good reminder for us: Psalm 146:3, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.”

Speaking of (evil?) political leaders, in my home province of British Colombia something interesting has happened in the last couple of months. They had an election not too long ago. The governing party was returned to power. Almost immediately afterward they won, they rid themselves of the person who had just led them to victory in that election – they pushed the premier to resign. Now this political turmoil is not uncommon in western democracies; I think we can all name off the tops of our heads politicians who have been metaphorically stabbed in the back and politically purged in Canada: Stephane Dion, Jean Cretien, Joe Clark, ... Backroom dealings and underhandedness – at least since the 1950s - sometimes seem to be inherent to Canadian politics and many politicians. The interesting thing in BC right now is that this week, after the government had purged itself of its leader there was a successful revolt in the opposition party too and they also sacrificed their leader. Usually in Canada when one party decides to kill itself by falling on the sword of party revolt, the other one just watches and rejoices in its good position. In BC this past week, the opposition party decided otherwise: they thought, I guess, if the government is going to implode with internal decent, maybe we should too. Politics. Democracy.[2] These comments are all somewhat tongue-in-cheek of course, and I haven’t lived in BC in quite a while so I really don’t know what has been happening there or why these revolts are taking place but it struck me as interesting that the two parties with seats there would ditch their leaders at exactly the same time. I think some of this is because we put our leaders on pedestals and have unreasonable expectations, forgetting the advice of Psalm 146:3 “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.”

Every election in the western world many of us who bother to vote seem to continually forget the wisdom of Psalm 146:3. The recent myth of Obama is a great example of this. Leading up to the previous US presidential election, reading their press, it sounded like they thought he was the second coming of the Messiah. The world too seemed to buy into this: you remember that they gave Obama, who is the leader of the world’s most expensive and most active armed forces; they gave Obama, who in one of his very first acts of office bombed a foreign country – they gave Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. What were they thinking? We’re they thinking that the tiger of a Superpower would change its stripes as fast as it changes its president. Obama is no Prince of Peace. He is no Messiah. In the last election his party was trounced. This is no knock against him personally; he is just a mortal man. Psalm 146:3: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.” Lest you think I am partisan, I have another example of people becoming disillusioned with leaders after putting a false hope in them. After George Bush Senior invaded Iraq in the first Iraq War he, I seem to recall, had the highest popularity rating ever to that point in US history, many people put their faith in him; he lost the next election. Psalm 146:3: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.”

In King Solomon’s reign as King of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah his responsibilities and his failures are compounded by the fact that he is not just a political leader; more importantly he is also supposed to be a spiritual leader just like the Queen of the UK is given the title ‘Defender of the Faith’ (cf. Deuteronomy 17:18-20).[3] The English monarch is traditionally in charge of the military, the government, and the Church of England: even more so with Solomon. People had high expectations of Solomon and his reign and he did not measure up (cf. Psalm 72, 1 Kings 11).

In our world today we see this all the time. We see people wrongly believing that if a certain person is elected as leader of one of the world’s superpowers that overnight the nature of that superpower will change from a profit-seeking, war-making machine to a God-fearing, peacemaking regime that looks after the poor. It is just not true.[4] Likewise in Saskatchewan and in Canada, as good as our local MPs and MLAs may or may not be, they will not significantly change the course of history and save us all from poverty, sin, and the evils of society. They will not heal the lame and give sight to the blind (cf. Matthew 11:4-6) therefore, Psalm 146:3, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.”

Likewise we can’t put any spiritual leaders on a pedestal. I cannot save anyone. Your favourite author cannot save anyone. Your favourite televangelist cannot save anyone. When we look to political leaders or spiritual leaders for our salvation, we will be disappointed. They cannot save us. I have heard many stories of people who have wrongly put their faith in their pastors instead of in Christ and when their pastor sins, they become disillusion and fall away (cf. TSA Doctrines 2,6,9). Can anything be more sad than that? Psalm 146:3: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.”

In The Salvation Army soon and very soon we have a High Council meeting in London, England; where we will attempt to discern God’s choice for the next General of The Salvation Army. While trusting that God will raise up the right person for this role and that our leaders will acknowledge God’s choice in this we must not forget the warning of Psalm 146:3: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.” We must put our faith in God, not in men and women.

This brings us to our ‘heaven scent’ for today. First let’s review. What was our ‘heaven scent’ last week? (Gingerbread) And what did that represent? (Justice and Salvation). The first week of Advent, what was our ‘heaven scent’? (The Evergreen) And what id that represent for us? (Everlasting Life) This week I have a little quiz for us – sort of a word association, rhyming quiz. I will say a word and we will see which side of the congregation can come up with a rhyming word first:

1) Fruit
2) Heat
3) Monkey
4) Grape
5) Orange

There isn’t an English word that rhymes with Orange. Just like, as Psalm 146:3 says, there isn’t a person who can save us. Only God can save us and He does this through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord for whose return we are eagerly waiting and this waiting is what Advent is all about. The scent today in our ‘heaven scent’ series today is oranges. Oranges, we are going to associate with the faithfulness of God (Psalm 146:3, 6). We cannot put our trust in people for they cannot save us. We must put our faith in God who is faithful even when we are faithless (Psalm 146:6; Romans 3:3,4). He is the Orange – the one for whom there is no rhyme. He is the Orange – the one for whom there is no match. He is the Orange – the one for whom there is no equal. He is the Orange. His faithfulness stands alone and Salvation comes from no one other than from God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no other name by which (hu)man(kind) can be saved (Acts 4:12; cf. Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13). So then, this week and forever more let us not put our faith in princes, in mortal men and women who cannot save but instead let us put us faith in Christ and in Christ alone.

Let us pray.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

---
[1] Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Psalm 72:1-7: Gingerbread Cookies of Justice and Salvation’, presented to the Swift Current Corps, 05 December 2010. Available on-line at http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/12/psalm-721-7-gingerbread-cookies-of.html
[2] God’s country is to be ruled as a theocracy (rule by God) not as the people-centered rule of the other nations (i.e. democracy ‘rule [by] people’). Cf. Isaac Watts, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Psalms/Exposition of Psalms/BOOK II: Psalms 42-72/Psalm 72: The Glory of the Davidic Kingdom/I. Prayer for Davidic Kingship (72:1), Book Version: 4.0.2
[3] cf. Isaac Watts, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Psalms/Exposition of Psalms/BOOK II: Psalms 42-72/Psalm 72: The Glory of the Davidic Kingdom/I. Prayer for Davidic Kingship (72:1), Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Vote for Jesus’ in the Journal of Aggressive Christianity. Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_JAC.htm#Vote for Jesus

Proverbs 1:7, 9:10: Yir’ah, The Fear of the LORD.

Presented to the Nipawin Corps 17 May 2009
the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 27 May 2012

and The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 15 May 2022
by Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the original version. To view the 2022 version, please click here:  https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2022/05/proverbs-17-910-yirah-fear-of-lord.html
 
 This week – for those of us who have been reading through the Bible together as a community – we started on the book of Proverbs. As I was considering these readings, I ran across a number of more or less contemporary proverbs about optimists and pessimists:

– In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip. ~Daniel L. Reardon

– Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. ~Oscar Wilde

– Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute. ~Gil Stern

– An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan

– Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back. ~Author Unknown[1]

My favourite: This is more of a definition than a proverb actually but both Susan and Rebecca read this quote to me in the past couple of weeks so I thought that I would share this from Lemony Snicket:

– An Optimist is a word which here refers to a person…who thinks hopeful and pleasant thoughts about nearly everything. If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well, this isn't too bad. I don't have my left arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me whether I am right-handed or left-handed," but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!" ~Lemony Snicket[2]

A proverb is a wise saying with instructions for living an effective life. The book of Proverbs – along with Job, Psalms, and some apocryphal books (Wisdom, Sirach) – are classified as wisdom literature. Wisdom literature offers insights for living while pondering the difficulties of life. Proverbs are characterized by short, memorable statements that reflect the world as we know it, as well as the relationship between God and people.[3]

It is significant that proverbs use the divine of God (YHWH), the tetragrammaton, or other such names (ie. Elohim) which specify the LORD, the maker of the heavens and earth.[4] The writer of these proverbs and the writers of all the wisdom literature have no doubt that indeed, as Doctrine 2 of TSA affirms, ‘there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.’[5] And the compiler, the teacher of proverbs often contrasts the wisdom of following God to the folly of following our own will or of following generally bad counsel that does not display reverence for our Lord.

Proverbs do not pretend to represent a systematic theology; a proverb rather ‘imagines the moral life as presenting two ways, each with an intrinsic dynamism.’[6] There is no separation of Church and State. No matter what we tell ourselves, in reality there is no separation between the sacred and the secular realm.[7] Proverbs champions the truth, with many different examples, that people have very real choices in life but they all boil down to this: either we follow God and live or we can follow ourselves or anyone else for that matter and die (Cf. also Deut. 30:11-20, Judges 21:25, Ps 56:13, Prov 11:19, 13:14, 14:27, 18:21, Jer 21:8, John 5:24, Rom 2:1-16, 6:13, 1 John 3:14).[8]

The theme of Proverbs can be summed up in Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10 (Cf. Job 28:28, Ps 111:10, Eccl 12:13).[9] Proverbs 1:7: ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.’

Before we can be wise (Prov 9:10), before we can have any real knowledge (Prov 1:7) about the way the world works we need to fear the Lord.[10] The beginning of any understanding in this world is a fear of God. Well what does that mean? What does it mean to have the fear of the LORD’?

Does it mean to panic? Does it mean to be timid? No. It is different. To be timid is to cower. To be timid is like…have you ever seen an abused animal who has been terrorized? She pulls back as soon as you reach out your arm. Like the battered spouse, the timid person is walking on eggshells at all times. This concept shows up in scriptures in the book of Timothy, where Paul tells us that this timidity (Greek: deilia) is not from God. Timidity is not the beginning of wisdom. [11]

The timid person is like the person in the parable of the talents that the servants were given. Remember that parable that Jesus tells (Matt. 25, cf. Luke 19)? The king gives three people talents (money). The third one is so afraid (Greek: phobeo) that he does not even invest his talents. He is paralyzed with fear. This timidity creates what the Apostle Paul calls in Romans 8:15, ‘a spirit of bondage’, like a phobia. In Romans 8:15 (like Matt 25:35), the Greek word Paul uses is actually ‘phobos’ – from which we derive the word ‘phobia’, and this as we know refers to an irrational fear.[12] This kind of irrational fear is not the beginning of wisdom. It is not from God: phobia. A spirit of timidity (deilia) Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7, God has not given us; He instead gives us power and love and a sound mind. Sometimes even we Christians forget this.

Many –but not all- Christians believe in the so-called ‘rapture’. (The word is not mentioned in the Bible at all actually.) The idea behind the rapture is that at some point in time, God will snatch up either those He loves (the more popular belief) or those He hates (a less popular belief) and leave the rest behind. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have a popular book series entitled, ‘Left Behind’[13] that I believe follows the fictional lives of characters who were indeed left behind. Now there may be merit to the idea of the rapture and I am certainly not arguing against it here[14] but I have heard of people and denominations that concentrate so much on the rapture that they actually paralyze people with fear, creating phobias and timidity.

We had a professor at College (William and Catherine Booth College) who was raised in that phobia-producing kind of church environment and he tells us that one night (I think when he was a young adult) he heard a car horn or a train whistle and he woke up in absolute terror. He was so frightened that that sound was the trumpet of the Lord and that he had missed the rapture: he wasn’t chosen. He was left behind. He was terrified that he might have been left behind.

Last week I met a friend when I was walking to church. He told me a similar story. He was raised in a similar type of phobia-producing environment. He told me that as a child often he would wake up in the middle of the night and walk or run to his parents’ room, dread-filled, terrified that maybe they were raptured and he was left behind. Phobias, timidity and this panic: these are not representative of the fear of the Lord that Proverbs is talking about. This is a terror that people, often well-meaning people (sometimes unintentionally) put into the minds of innocent souls.

That being said, the word for fear here in Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10 is not totally absent of the concept of a terror of sorts. The Hebrew word is yir'ah – Allen P. Ross tells us that, “The term yir'ah can describe dread (Deut 1:29), being terrified (Jonah 1:10), standing in awe (1 Kings 3:28), or having reverence (Lev 19:3). With the Lord as the object, yir'ah captures both aspects of shrinking back in fear and of drawing close in awe. It is not a trembling dread that paralyzes action, but neither is it a polite reverence (Plaut, p. 32).”[15]

Strong’s dictionary and concordance both define yir'ah as this ‘fear’ or ‘moral reverence’ acknowledging that yir'ah encompasses more than that – it can refer to a sense of moral dread or even of an exceeding moral fearfulness.[16] What does this mean? What is the difference between this reverent, moral fearfulness that leads to knowledge or wisdom and the fearful, panic-stricken, timid phobia that leads to cowering?

We are all familiar with the word ‘deference’, right? Deference means respect. People often have a certain amount of deference (respect) for our uniforms. I have had many people alter their language and try not to swear in my presence because of my uniform that represents my office as a representative of God. Even non-believers tend to offer this token of deference to The Salvation Army uniform.

In many other countries or in private or still in some public schools here, students generally have a certain amount of deference for their teachers. They respect their authority. They seem to be a little less likely to speak out than children in most North American public school systems. I remember once when I was working at an international private school, there was this joke among the staff. It went like this: ‘How do you get a visiting private school student to be quiet?’ The answer: ‘You ask them to be quiet… please.’ This is respect.

I have witnessed deference firsthand in courtrooms too. You would be surprised at how quickly a person removes his hat or turns off her cell phone with just one sideways glance from that judge. I have seen people talking big outside the courtroom and then a moment later I have seen them inside bowing quickly to the authority and power of the courts. I have seen even your most law-abiding citizens who are not in the court on charges but simply there to assist someone else – I have seen people who know the judge quite well – when they are addressed by the judge, immediately defer to her position. This deference is not entirely without fear. Our courtrooms are probably one of the best parallels to the emotions that accompany yir'ah in contemporary western society.

I have a personal example of that same idea too. I have mentioned from this pulpit before that I regularly attend an AA group here in town. The Lord has ministered greatly to me through that. Now like most participants in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, I have a past that involves alcohol and not just a little alcohol.

I remember my late teens. I was at a party at a friend’s apartment and I was drinking quite a bit. It was late. Most of the people had gone home but a few of us remained. Things went bad. (This is actually a long story but I will give you the Coles Notes version.) A friend and her boyfriend started fighting and when I say fighting, I don’t mean that they were just yelling at each other. She was hitting him quite hard and repeatedly and then he struck her with a violent punch. He gave her a black eye. Other than them, I was the only one there who wasn’t passed out. I pushed him out on the tenth storey balcony with me and I locked the door behind us so that she would be separated from him. I did not want to be in the middle of this. Well, I thought that I had locked the sliding balcony door but next thing I know she comes through the door and attacks him and in the ensuing scuffle, I am knocked off the tenth floor balcony. Literally, I am dangling by my fingertips. I am just hanging there as they are fighting, trying to kill each other. Now I am a believer. I have been a Christian since I was a child. But I have had way too much to drink and I am dangling from this balcony. I remember. I pray. I pray ‘God, please don’t let me meet you like this’ – what I mean is ‘God, please don’t let me die in this state;’ ‘God, please don’t let my last act at this time on earth be something so unglorifying to you.’ He answered my prayer obviously and saved my life as I climbed back onto the balcony and into the apartment with my friends and I sobered up and He used even me in that time and place to minister to my friends and I still pray for them whenever I recall this event.

In that moment when I am dangling over the edge of the balcony and coming before the LORD in prayer, I have the fear of the Lord. I have a moral, dreadful fear of the LORD. I am not afraid that He is going to punish me because I was bad. I am not afraid that I am going to go to hell. (I am after all in a real relationship with the Lord.) I do have that moral dreadful fear of the LORD though that I – in this moment, in this state – am letting my saviour down. I am not living up to my heavenly potential. I am not holy as I could have been holy. I am in the process of falling short. When the Lord saves me, He lets me hold onto not only the memory of these events but also the real memory of the moral, dreadful fear of the Lord. From that experience, I am able to learn so much. I no longer find myself drinking too much and dangling from balconies nor am I committing other such errors. I have grown in knowledge and wisdom from the fear of the LORD. This experience of the fear of the Lord has been with me before and since in my life but this moment is probably my most intense. It is one example of the fear of the Lord that I may always remember.

When we love someone we don’t want to fail him or her. When we serve someone we don’t want to let him or her down. When we love and serve someone we want to do everything we can for them because we love them. It is this fear of the Lord that keeps us holy. It is this fear of the Lord that causes us to follow the rest of the wisdom put forth in the book of Proverbs and the other wisdom books in the Bible. It is this love, this respect, this fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom for only when we have this real love for the Lord, this real intense desire to serve Him, it is only from this real love for and deference to the loving and the only real God, that we can possibly be wise enough to serve Him. If we want to be wise it must begin here. It must begin with an intense love for the Lord. Deference and, Prov 9:10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, …”

What is wisdom then? What is this knowledge that is contrasted with a lack of wisdom? What is it? It is this. It is how to survive in this world. It is an understanding of how the world works. The Bible and Proverbs are not books of do’s and don’ts randomly generated to organise a society or to earn our way into heaven. The ‘Scriptures… were given by inspiration of God, and…they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.’[17] The Scriptures explain to us the mystery of how and why the world works. The more we read them the more we know about God, just like the more time we spend with God, praying and reading His Word, the more we know Him.

As we read through Proverbs, we will notice that indeed each proverb is a brief glimpse into the reality that is our life. These are words to live by as is the whole canon of Scripture but we can only understand that when we really do love the LORD with all our heart, mind, body, and soul, when we love our neighbour as ourselves (Lk. 10:17; cf. Dt. 6:5, 11:13, 30:16, 30:20) and when we honestly do have a healthy deference, yir'ah, a fear of the LORD, because the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.

Amen.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

 

---
[1] The Quote Garden! Quotations about Optimism and Pessimism: http://www.quotegarden.com/optimism.html Cited 03 May 2009.
[2] Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill. (New York, NY: Scholastic, 2000), 26-27.
[3] Cf. DA Hubbard, ‘Wisdom Literature’, NDB, p. 1334
[4] Richard J. Clifford, NIB V: Proverbs-Sirach, ‘Introduction to Wisdom Literature’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1997), p. 9.
[5] Doctrine 2 of The Salvation Army.
[6] Richard J. Clifford, NIB V: Proverbs-Sirach, ‘Introduction to Wisdom Literature’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1997), p.12.
[7] Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, NIB V: Proverbs-Sirach, ‘The Book of Proverbs’, (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1997), p.34.
[8] Cf. also. Michael Ramsay, ‘Paul and the Human Condition as reflected in Romans 1:18-32 and 2:1-16’. Presented to William and Catherine Booth College (Winter 2007). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Paul%20and%20the%20Human%20Condition
[9] Derek Kidner. An Introduction to Wisdom Literature: The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job & Ecclesiastes, (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985), p. 17.
[10]Warren E. Berkley, Expository Files 4.9 (September 1997), available on-line: http://www.bible.ca/ef/expository-proverbs-1-7.htm: You must carefully consider the context in order to assign the proper meaning to the word. It is one of those words that is context sensitive. So, the "fear" we are concerned with in Prov. 1:7 is not identical to the "fear" of Rom. 8:15 or 2 Tim. 1:7.
[11] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘1167: deilia’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.20.
[12] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘5401: phobos’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.96.
[13] Tim F. Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Cambridge, UK: Tyndale House Publishing, 1996).
[14] But I will argue against it here: Michael Ramsay, The Sheepspeak Commentary. Farewell to the Rapture! March 19, 2009. Available on-line: http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html#1407993155574202234 Cf. also N.T. Wright, Farewell to the Rapture! Bible Review, August 2001. Available on-line at: http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_BR_Farewell_Rapture.htm
[15] Allen P. Ross, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Proverbs/Exposition of Proverbs/I. Introduction to the Book of Proverbs (1:1-7)/C. Motto: The Fear of the Lord (1:7), Book Version: 4.0.2
[16] Yirah, in The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words. (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1966), p. 395. Cf. also Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘5374: yir’ah’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.59.
[17] Doctrine 1 of The Salvation Army