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Nuggets

• It isn’t enough to just have the wisdom — head knowledge isn’t enough.
• We show God living in us by showing love to those with whom we come into contact.
• The flip side of compassion is violence, deceit, and scorn.

In Proverbs, Solomon gave his son advice on retaining wisdom. He told him that wisdom produces compassion. This devotion looks at that passage of Scripture.

Let’s Put It into Context

“The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew” (Prov. 3 19-20 ESV)

We’re starting with verse 21, and it has a big old these in it. So what are the these Solomon is talking about?

Solomon is continuing the themes he has had for all of chapter 3: wisdom and understanding. He has been telling us that we need to trust God’s wisdom and understanding, not our own.

To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.

The Rewards of Faithfulness
Finding Favor by Acknowledging God
Rewards for Focusing on God
How Should We Handle God’s Discipline?

Solomon’s point was exactly what Kingsley said. He wrote, “Man’s true wisdom is a pattern of God’s wisdom.” Our wisdom has to align with God’s if we are going to flourish in the world.

Resource
Kingsley’s Earthly and Heavenly Wisdom
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/kingsley/earthly_and_heavenly_wisdom.htm

We’re going to chase a rabbit a second. We might not be familiar with what verse 20 is talking about. So, Neil is going to help us out.

Resource
Neil’s The Sea Night-Mist of Palestine
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/neil/the_sea_night-mist_of_palestine.htm

There is no rain fall in Palestine from the end of April until the end of October. Accompanying this is ten to twelve hours of sunshine. Needless to say, it gets hot and dry.

The sirocco winds, which happen in May and October, are called the east wind in the Scriptures. In September and October, the west winds blow. These bring moisture from the Mediterranean Sea, which Neil said come in the form of “… low-lying clouds of mist …” Occurring only at night, the precipitation they leave behind has been mistakenly called dew instead of a gentle mist.

Don’t Lose Sight

“My son, do not lose sight of these — keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught” (Prov. 3; 21-26 ESV)

Solomon cautioned his son to remain faithful to these beliefs. It isn’t enough to just have the wisdom — head knowledge isn’t enough. We have to get it to heart level so that it fosters an obedient life.

To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.

Getting Obedience to the Heart Level

We said in The Rewards of Faithfulness that His laws and commandments are supposed to affect our character or our core – our heart level. That is how we get a pure, godly life. That makes wisdom what Parker called “… a life-generating force, living ever in the soul for its enlargement and establishment in goodness.”

Resource
Parker’s Securing Wisdom When We Have It
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/parker/securing_wisdom_when_we_have_it.htm

This life-generating force gives us security so we don’t stumble when the trials come. It gives us peace so we can sleep peacefully.

Isn’t that one of the first things to go when we are struggling? We may can keep the doubts and fears at bay during the day. But stop and lay down at night? Here they come flooding in to wreck our sleep.

Disciples can take heart because we have a confidence in God. We have our our trust in Him. Trust is assurance that the promises of God are true.

God wants us to have courage. “This is my command — be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1: 9 NLT). Wisdom in Him will give us this courage.

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it” — when you have it with you. Do not plan evil against your neighbor, who dwells trustingly beside you. Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm” (Prov. 3: 27-30 CSB)

Like a Good Neighbor

Okay, let’s back up a second. We get the obedience to a heart level so that we work on a pure, godly life. Godliness, equated with the Old Testament term fear of the Lord, is an attitude of reverence that is promoted by walking in His Spirit.

Glossary
Fear of the Lord

But while we are walking — living our lives — we need to let that godliness bubble out of us, so we show those around God living in us. We do that by showing love to those with whom we come into contact.

When we look at the “do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it” (Prov. 3: 27 CSB), I bet we generally think of payment for services or some other monetary issue.

What if Solomon was talking love? Bridges reminded us that “every one has a claim upon our love. Every opportunity of doing good is our call to do so.”

Resource
Bridges’ Withholding Dues
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/bridges/withholding_dues.htm

We talked about this in Goodness as a Virtue. We are told that goodness comes from God. He works with us to instill His goodness within us.

To read a related devotion, click on the button below.

Goodness as a Virtue

It also touches on what we discussed in the Charity series. Charity means showing others love flavored with acts of benevolence.

Devotions in the What Is Charity? series
What Is Charity?
Disciples’ Duty to the Poor
What is Liberality?
Disciples and Charitableness
The Lenient Judgment of Others

Let’s look at it this way. God is love (I Jn. 4: 8). That is His character.

God’s love is unconditional. Unconditional love is intense feelings of deep affection without limits or circumstances.

To read a related devotion, click on the button below.

Is God’s Love Unconditional?

We are to imitate God’s character. The way we show that love to others is compassion. Compassion, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” Doing acts of benevolence is a good way to do this.

Resource
Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s definition of compassion
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compassion

It is disciples’ duty to be compassionate. The thing is, the compassion has to be genuine. Isn’t it easy for us to think there is some extenuating circumstance that negates us from doing that?

• We don’t have the money.
  
• We don’t have the time.
  
• What is being asked of us isn’t our gift.
  
• There is too much history between us and the recipient.

Disciples are called to do the best we can with the right attitude. If we are are doing the charity work to get some kind of recognition out of it, it is the wrong motive. However, Seed noted that there has to be some recognition; otherwise, he argues, we get discouraged and stop doing the charity work.

Resource
Seed’s The Duty of Charity Stated and Enforced
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/seed/the_duty_of_charity_stated_and_enforced.htm

Compassion, charity, love — they have no sunsets. We will be doing all of those throughout eternity.

The Opposite

“Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways, for the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence. The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor. The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace” (Prov. 3: 31-35 CSB)

The flip side of compassion is violence, deceit, and scorn. A lot of us, though, are probably going to say we don’t know men (and women) of violence.

It is harder to say that we don’t know liars. The gamut runs from little white lies to pathological liars. Liars are like the old Chicken Man radio show said — they’re everywhere!

Scorn is really rampant lately. Express your opinion that is different than that held by the person to whom you are talking and see how quickly you get cut down.

That is not how God wants us to be.

Look what it says the reward of goodness is. “… but the upright are in his confidence” (Prov. 3: 32 ESV). Full circle to the confidence.

We’ve talked about blessings and curses before. Blessed means that the disciple has been perfected. Not submitting to Him because we don’t want to do what He calls us to makes us cursed.

Glossary

Blessed and Cursed

We’ve also talked about being humble. When we are humble, we show our dependence on God.

To read a related devotion, click on the button below.

How Are Disciples Humble?

Let’s look at it the way Pratt did. When human nature is corrupt, we need to view it in terms of redemption. Redemption is where something is used in exchange for something else to gain or regain something.

Some people accept the gift of salvation; others don’t. This, according to Pratt, divides us into two groups: the blessed and the cursed. In the last, we’ve called them the sheep and the goats. Pratt noted there were more goats than sheep, falling into the Narrow Gate theory.

Resource
Pratt’s Different Characters and Destinies
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/pratt/different_characters_and_destinies.htm

Glossary
Sheep and Goats
Narrow and Wide Gates

Making the Connections

Ooo, baby! I feel like we’re run a marathon with this devotion!

Wisdom does produce compassion. As we learn more and more about the character of God, we feel His love and forgiveness in our lives.

In turn, we can be more loving and forgiving to those around us.

How Do We Apply This?

Seed gave us an idea as to how we can apply this.

• Meet the needs of the distressed. We shouldn’t do something just because it is easy. We need to make sure that our work reaps the most good that we can.
  
• Work so those we help can me sustained. What is the saying “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for the day. Teach him to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. God isn’t in the business of handouts. He expects us to work.
  
• Seed felt that “those suffering reverse of fortune are proper objects of charity.” He went on to explain later that beggars may not really be in need.
  
• Meet the needs of orphans.
  
• Meet the needs of those who are sick.

Resource
Seed’s The Duty of Charity Stated and Enforced
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/seed/the_duty_of_charity_stated_and_enforced.htm

God expects us to love as He does. He wants us to help meet the needs of others.

Father God. We want to imitate You. We want to love like You do. Help us to make an impact in our world so those around us can see You in us. Amen.