Prayer

Mighty God, full of compassion and grace, I worship you. On this new day, I look again to you, from whom all my help and supply of strength and grace comes. O Lord, please lavish your love upon once again today for the sake of Christ my Saviour. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. I rest my soul in you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Reading

Proverbs 1:7.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...”

Meditation

So what is the Fear of the Lord? As we embark on this series of meditations on the fear of the LORD, the very first thing we need to realise is that the fear of the LORD is to acknowledge God. That’s where it starts. In Psalm 14:1 we read: “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”” The essence of folly and the opposite of wisdom is to deny that God is there, to suppress the truth of his existence (Rom 1:18). Everybody has this knowledge of God, “For what can be known about God is plain to all people, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened”(Rom 1:19-21).

Just as the heart of foolishness is basically characterised by denying God exists, so the beginning of wisdom finds it’s opposing starting point in acknowledging that he is there. Fools live as if there was no God. Wisdom perceives and acknowledges his existence, and then lives life in light of that. A wise person lives in the awareness of God, and makes his decisions in light of who God is.

Be ye doers of the word…

Two applications follow on from this insight. First, don’t deny God exists. It is the heart of foolishness. For those who persist in denying the God who is there, their foolishness will be shown up, and they will be answerable in the end. Thus we read in Psalm 2:10: “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” If you are living a life where you do not acknowledge God, and you continue on that road, you too will perish in the way. Come instead to Christ, kiss the Son, and you will find refuge in him in the day of judgment. And as Christians, we must flee from sin, for every sin is, in a sense, a statement of denial as to the existence of God. But God is not mocked, we must fear the folly of denying God in the way we live.

The second application flowing out of this is: don’t doubt that God is there. There is immense pressure from the world against our faith. Christians are mocked as simpletons who supposedly believe in an imaginary friend. Atheists, whom the Bible calls fools, demand that we make the case for God – as if the case needed to be made. The tragedy, however, is that many Christians are actually tempted to buy in to this worldview and answer the fool according to his folly. But when an unbeliever asks us to prove God exists, Proverbs 26:4 gives us an important insight to keep in mind: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.”

When a fool demands evidence for God, we must not answer him according to his folly by trying to prove God exists. God is not subject to our scrutiny, and he is not beholden to stand in the dock of human reason to be proved or otherwise (to borrow, I think, an image from C S Lewis). He is rather the very precondition of every breath that we take. Do not answer the fool according to his folly, instead answer him according to his folly by calling him to repent and kneel before the God of heaven who made him. Likewise we must also lovingly, patiently, and gently destroy his worldview. As 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, we must “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ”. I think that it was Greg Bahnsen who commended the practice of repeatedly asking the question “Why?” of unbelievers. Let no unstated assumption of folly remain uncovered. A “why” on repeat will unravel the folly of their worldview and reduce them to making ridiculous and unprovable statements based upon their groundless, atheistic faith (e.g. “Everything came from nothing”). And in all, pray. For they will not see their folly unless the Lord opens their hearts to do so. To fear the Lord is to acknowledge God. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

O Lord, I am sorry for the many times when I live out a lifestyle of practical atheism, making sinful choices as though you were not there. Please forgive me for my folly, and lead me in the way everlasting. Lord, please make me to live my life fully before your face, aware that you are with me, and seeking to please you in all things. I pray too that you would forgive me for my cowardice before unbelievers. Help me to testify powerfully to your grace, that souls may be saved from eternal wrath, and your glory may shine all the brighter in this sin-dark world. These things I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Prayer

Lord God, thank you for the gift of life. We praise you and we thank you. You've made us. You knit us together in our mother's wombs. We have been fearfully and wonderfully made in your image. Lord, please help us to consider the gift of life today and help us that we may not take it for granted. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Reading

Genesis 2:9.

“And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Meditation

Life is a gift from God. We must never be mistaken into thinking that God’s grace was given to us only after the fall. There is a redemptive sense in which grace did come after the fall, because after the fall we needed forgiveness for our sins. Nevertheless, even if salvation wasn’t in the picture – life has always been a gift from God right from the beginning. Grace is a condition of life, because life is and always will be a gift. It’s not something we gave to ourselves or made for ourselves, we don’t innately deserve it, we’re not entitled to anything because everything belongs to God. Anything and everything that we receive is a pure gift.

The Tree of Life clearly teaches us this principle, it’s a symbol of grace, if you like. In the garden of Eden, man needed to eat from the tree of life in order to sustain his life – that’s why it’s called the tree of life. In Gen 3:22 we see this very clearly. One of the reasons God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden is so that they wouldn’t eat again from the tree of life and live forever.

Now what all this means is that life wasn’t something that Adam and Eve had in and of themselves, they needed to receive it as a gift. Life is, and always has been, sustained by God. Your life is a gracious gift from God.

Be ye doers of the word…

The plain application we ought to draw out from this principle is that we must treat life as a gift from God. We must not live with a sense of entitlement, we must not live our lives with the aim of fulfilling our own desires and purposes. We must treat life for what it really is: a gift from God. We are here at his good pleasure and for his good pleasure (Col 1:16). Jesus said: “Not my will, but yours be done.” We must have the same attitude. We’re not here to do our will and accomplish our desires, we’re here to serve and please God.

In addition to this, as it turns out, our greatest joy will also be found in the centre of the Father’s will. When we follow our own will, it leads us to one place: death. That’s what happened for Adam and Eve. When we do things our way, it tends to be destructive. Instead, we need to do things God’s way, because our life is a gift from him. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Our loving Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the gift of life and we pray that you would forgive us for the times when we have misused this gift and served ourselves. Lord, forgive us for our sins and please lead us by your strength, power, and wisdom. Help us to use life to serve and please you in every way. Lord, we pray for your help in this. It's not something we can do in and of ourselves. We need your grace and strength. And so we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.

Prayer

Lord God in heaven, praise and thanks be to you for this wondrous world that you've made and for the lives that you've given us and for sustaining and keeping us in our lives. Lord, as we open your word now, we pray that you would renew our vision of this world. Help us to see and seek your beauty and glory, and to praise you in response to the beauty that you have made in this world. Lord, please pardon our sins and lead us in your ways. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Reading

Genesis 2:9.

“And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food...”

Meditation

God has given us a place to dwell, and what a place it is! There is so much beauty in the world isn’t there? There’s just something pleasing about the world isn’t there? As we walk by quiet trickling streams, as we enjoy a picnic in the shade of a tree, swimming in the surf, feeling the warmth of the sun on a sunny day, standing on top of a mountain – we could go on! There’s a little pathway next to my house, and along that pathway there are ferns and plants of the rainforest. Sometimes I like to just go and stand there, and just enjoy the green. It’s a small snippet of beauty.

There is beauty everywhere if we would just take a moment to look. The beauty of stars in the night sky, of clouds moving through the heavens. The beauty of birds – the colours of lorikeets and the songs of magpies. The taste of fresh strawberries, the sun glinting off the dew in a field at sunrise, it’s there to be seen in trees and flowers and plants. Life reflects God’s beauty. As Psalm 19:1 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” At the very beginning, Eden was designed to be a place of beauty. “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Gen 2:9a).

Be ye doers of the word…

Now here’s the question: What should we do with all this beauty? What should our response be? Are Christians supposed to be sour, stoic people with no time for beauty or pleasure? Did God put all this beauty into the world just so that we could deny ourselves? Or, on the other hand, do we follow the world’s pattern and make the pursuit of pleasure the reason that we live? Do we idolise beauty?

I want to put to you that those are both the wrong response. Very simply, here is how we should respond, we should: pursue God’s beauty. Beauty is personal, and more specifically it flows out of God’s personality. All that beauty we see in the world is intended to be part of our experience of dwelling with him. The response to beauty should be worship, and the pursuit of more of God’s beauty. The world pursues beauty, but they do that apart from Christ. That’s nothing but idolatry, and it’s destined to be an empty pursuit (see Ecc 2). Our response should be that when we see God’s beauty in creation, we enjoy it with thanksgiving and take it as an opportunity to lead us further on into seeing more of God’s beauty.

Perhaps we can put it this way: beauty in creation is always a sign post. It’s a sign post that points us to that which is most beautiful of all, that which is infinitely beautiful: God himself. So, let me ask you: Is that part of your experience? Have you seen, even in a limited way, something of the beauty of the Lord? Do you desire his beauty? In Psalm 27:4 we read: “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”

This world was designed to be a kind of garden temple, a place where we would pursue and delight in God’s beauty. So make that your aim: to pursue God’s beauty. 1 Timothy 4:4 says: “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” Pursue God’s beauty – but do so with thanksgiving, with prayer, and with a mind continually sanctified by the Word of God. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Our Lord and our God, we thank you for this beautiful world that you have made. Lord, we confess to you, we're sorry that we have walked through this world and so often we walk through this world with little thought for you and little thanksgiving to you. Lord,we pray that you would forgive us for the sin of idolatry in this way and that you would help us and turn our hearts unto you, turn our eyes upon you. Lord, may all the beauty of this world serve to be a signpost of praise and worship in our pursuit of your beauty. Please help us in these things to see your beauty everywhere we look. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Prayer

Father in heaven, I praise you for this day, and for your manifold mercies. I praise you for fresh life today, that you preserved me through the night, and that your enduring patience and mercy has sustained me in Christ Jesus my Saviour. Father, I praise you that I belong to you, and I pray that you would be continually merciful to me for my many sins and failings. Lord, I am sorry for reserving space in my heart for the sins that I have loved, please help me to live in the true fear of you and turn away from sin unto Christ. May you bless your word to me now, please unite my heart to fear your name. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Reading

Proverbs 1:7.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...”

Meditation

The Fear of the LORD is central to wisdom. If we don’t understand the fear of the LORD, we will not understand the Book of Proverbs, and we will not get wisdom. It comes up again and again. Verse seven brings this key theme to us for the first time in the book, and where it sits in the book of Proverbs as a whole says a lot. The Book of Proverbs basically divides into two sections. In chapters one through nine, we have this collection of speeches from a father to his son. These speeches lay the foundations of wisdom. Chapters 10 through 31 then lay out the proverbs proper, the body and collection of wisdom sayings given for our growth in wisdom.

With that bigger picture in mind, zooming in we find that Proverbs 1:1-6 serves as the introduction to the book, and verse seven comes to us as the central thesis. We know that, in the first place, because the verse itself makes that clear: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge”. Without the fear of the LORD there is no starting point! In Proverbs 9:10 (at the conclusion of the first section of the book) we find a similar statement: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight”. Placed at the end of chapter nine, it brackets the entire first section of the book with the fear of the LORD, which shows us it’s importance. My thesis here is explicitly and implicitly confirmed frequently in the rest of the book – the fear of the LORD is the central, unifying concept of wisdom. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, another wisdom book of the Old Testament, we find further proof. In Ecclesiastes 12:13 we read: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

Let me try and illustrate what I mean here by stealing an analogy from another pastor I know of (thank you Pastor Brian Borgman!). The fear of the LORD is to wisdom what the ABCs are to language. Letters in our language are so basic that we all know them, and yet without them there is no language! The fear of the LORD is similar when it comes to wisdom. In Job 28:28, Job himself rightly said: “the Fear of the LORD is wisdom.” So too in Proverbs 15:33 we read “The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom.” If you don’t understand the Fear of the LORD, by definition you can’t understand wisdom. To have wisdom is to fear God.

Now having said all of that, because fear of the Lord so central to Proverbs and wisdom, we need to give this topic some special attention, which we will do across the course of the next few meditations, so be sure to pay close attention.

Be ye doers of the word…

How much thought have you given to the fear of the Lord? I have a simple challenge of application for you today: read John Bunyan’s small volume entitled “the Fear of God.” You can even listen to the audio version available on www.sermonaudio.com Being a fairly short book, it is not overly onerous, and it will do us good to read it. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Lord my God, unite my heart to fear your name. I do exhibit areas of living where I am not fearing you, but am rather pursuing my own desires. Please forgive me for my brazen self-worship. Lord teach me truly to fear you. I am yours, save me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Prayer

Our Lord and our God we come before you in prayer now and we give you thanks for this day. We thank you for the world that you have made and all the things that you have given to us. Lord we pray that you would please help us to see this world and even our homes as you see them, that we might be more and more conformed to your will and that we may live in a way that is pleasing to you. Please be merciful to us today. Forgive us for our sins and lead us in your ways. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Reading

Genesis 2:8.

“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.”

Meditation

Where is home for you? Maybe you’ve lived in the same place most of your life, and it very much feels like home. Maybe you’ve lost count of how many rental places you’ve lived in, and you feel like a nomad in a foreign land. Maybe childhood comes to mind, maybe something else. As we consider Genesis 2, there is a very immediate and practical observation we ought to make. Wherever you live at the moment, the fact remains: your home is a gift from God. We’re going to explore that insight in this meditation.

As look back on Genesis 2 from our standpoint in history, in a sense we’re looking at a lost world of the past. To quote the title of Milton’s great poem, it is: “Paradise Lost.” It’s obvious to say, but still potent: we’re no longer in Eden. But while the bliss and paradise of Eden is lost to you, there is still grace and mercy, because God has made a place for you in this life. You have a place right now, you’re sitting in it. Or walking in it. It’s your home. Now just stop and think about that for a moment. Think about the place where you are living now. That place is a gift from God. It’s a place to live, a place to work, and a place to worship – it’s all a gift from God.

If we were jobless, homeless people, roughing it out on the cold streets of Melbourne tonight, we would have nothing to complain about, because we don’t deserve what we already have. Everything that we have is a gift from God – that’s the point here. Adam didn’t ask for Eden, God gave it to him. Your home is the gift he’s given to you at this time in your life. That may change, it will change eventually, but it is nonetheless true in this moment.

Be ye doers of the word…

Every time you walk through the doors of your house when you get home, don’t take it for granted. That house does not belong to you, you are not entitled to it. It is a gift. Give thanks to God for that give, because he has provided that place for you. Make it a habit every time you walk through your front door to give thanks to God for that house – maybe say it out loud. The word of God says: “Give thanks in all circumstances…

But in addition to cultivating gratitude, remember this as well: you’re not home yet. The paradise that we read about in Eden was lost. Humanity was exiled. But don’t lose hope because of that, because there actually is a pathway back to paradise. Yes, God has given you a home. But as a disciple of Jesus, you are also living in exile. This is why the Bible sometimes describes Christians as pilgrims, because we’re on a journey. We’re not home yet. Our home is not in this life. We look by faith for a city whose designer and builder is God, the New Jerusalem. Yes, your home, the place where you live right now, is a gift from God. But it’s also a temporary residence, because he has a better place in store for you – a mansion, his Father’s house, in which there are many rooms.

So give thanks for your home, but in addition to this: don’t seek paradise in this life. I think we often do that don’t we? We’re often wrapped up in our lives with making life now all we want it to be. We want to build the perfect home, get the perfect job, do all things we want to do, make our home just the way we want it to be. We want to get all the features, decorate it according to our tastes, invest in it, make it ours, and we pour a lot of time into our homes and lifestyles. But always remember that this life, this place, it’s passing away like wind. Don’t seek paradise in this life. Don’t live your life looking for constant fulfillment in the things of this earth. Don’t get wrapped up in your life here. In a sense, we’re like the children of Israel in the wilderness, pilgrims on the way to the promised land, and the things of this life have nothing lasting to offer us. You’re marching to Zion, Christian, and we need to live like that. Live like your dwelling place is still ahead of you because, as a matter of fact, it is. Don’t seek paradise in this life. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Almighty God, we thank you that in the eternal home that you have prepared for us, there are many rooms. And Lord, we look forward to that day when we will at last come to our final home. Lord, help us now not to set our hearts and minds and affections upon the good gifts of this life, but Lord, to look beyond to the life that is to come. Give us an eternal perspective. Oh Lord, forgive us for loving the things of this world. Help us to love you alone instead. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Prayer

Gracious God in heaven, as we open your word again, we give all thanks and praise to you, our Maker and Creator, our Sustainer and our Redeemer. Lord, please renew our minds by your word. Sanctify us in the truth of your word. That your name may be exalted and glorified and that your kingdom may come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Reading

Genesis 2:8.

“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.”

Meditation

Location, location, location! I don’t know much about the real estate market, but I have heard that catch phrase before. As Christians, maybe we don’t think about location much, and perhaps we see it as a somewhat earthly concern. Physical places, perhaps, do not seem to have much spiritual significance. I think, though, that there is something important that we’re missing if we give no attention to the spiritual significance of physical places. God put the man in a garden – in Eden. The first two chapters of Genesis make it clear that God’s main purpose is to fill the earth with life, but there’s also a very close relationship between the man and the place where God put him. Location, location, location!

If God’s plan is to fill the earth with life, we have to realise that land is a condition of life. Without land there are no plants, no air, no food, no home, nothing. Without land, you’re just floating in an ocean of water. So God made a place for us to dwell, a place where life can flourish. But what do we learn about this dwelling place? In the big picture sense, we need to see that man was made to dwell with God. That’s the central purpose of the land. Let me explain this a little more!

When we read scripture, we must always remember the original audience. When it comes to Genesis 2, that audience was the people of Israel in Moses’ day. Specifically, the people of Israel as they waited on the verge of entering the promised land. That was the point at which these words were being finalised – as we know from a consideration of the end of the Book of Deuteronomy As Moses completed the Pentateuch and handed it to Joshua, it was given to that generation of Israelites. These words were written for a people about to enter the promised land.

Now here’s the thing about the promised land: as the Israelites learned about what God had in store for them in this new land, as they read the books that Moses had written, they would have understood that there was a parallel between Eden and the promised land. Let me explain why I say that. Adam and Eve had been exiled from the garden, they came under the curse. But, as Genesis 12 makes clear, God’s blessing was to be restored through Abraham and his descendants. That knowledge alone comes with an edenic expectation. Part of that blessing would also be tied to the possession of this promised land – the very land that they were about to enter. And if that were not enough, Moses even uses the imagery and blessing of Eden to describe what Israel’s life in the promised land would be like – we see this very clearly in Deuteronomy 8:7-10 and 11:8-17.The promised land was to be very much similar to Eden. We can be confident, then, that God’s intention through the promised land was to give Israel a shadow of how Eden could and would be restored. From a New Covenant perspective, that promised land shadow would be ultimately likewise fulfilled through Christ in the New Heavens and the New Earth (as we see in Revelation – more edenic imagery used to describe the new heavens and the new earth).

Now here’s the thing about both Eden and the promised land: both Eden and Canaan were designed in God’s purposes to be a place where he would dwell with his people. In Eden we see that God walked in the garden to commune with man (Gen 3:8), and likewise God designed the promised land to be a fruitful place where he and his people would dwell together. Numbers 35:34 makes this clear, as God says to Israel: “You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel. When God made Eden to be our dwelling place, the intention was that we would dwell there with him. It’s always been God’s design and intention that we were made to dwell with him.

Be ye doers of the word…

You were made to dwell in God’s presence. In a sense, that statement represents a summary of the whole Bible. God made us to dwell with him. We were exiled from the garden due to our sin, and the story of redemption is the story of how God will reconcile us, and bring us back to himself so that we can dwell with him. You were made to dwell in God’s presence. The application is simple enough: dwell always in God’s presence. It’s what you were made for! So we read in Psalm 27:4, which says: “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”

What is your aim in life? Our constant aim ought always to be that we might dwell in God’s presence. Every day, and every night. There is no secular sacred divide, there is only God’s world, and our calling is to dwell in his presence. Now that starts with coming to Christ and believing in him. In this sense, Christ has opened up the gates of Eden again, which is why he said to the man on the cross next to him: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” However, for us who have not yet gone to be with him, we still look forward to entering paradise. For now we walk with him in this life as he dwells in us through his Holy Spirit.

The New Testament teaches us that Christ gave us his Spirit so that we could dwell always in God’s presence. We are likewise instructed to “pray without ceasing”, I think it’s getting at the same thing: to life lived in the constant awareness and presence of God. We are called to live a life where each moment we are living in a constant state of communion with him. That’s the aim. And so, whatever you are doing, wherever you are in the world, be sure to pursue this: to dwell always in God’s presence. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Our Lord and our God, please forgive us for being so carnally minded. Frequently we go through large chunks of our days with no thought for you. Oh Lord, please forgive us and spare us and help us in our weakness. Lord, we desire to be living moment by moment in your presence with constant prayer, communion with you. Lord, opening your word, hearing from you and speaking back in the language of the soul, seeking your face. Help us, Lord, in this thing. Help us not to be distracted. Help us to set our eyes firmly on you. Oh Lord, this would be indeed heaven on earth. Please help us in this by your Spirit's power. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Prayer

Almighty God, Heavenly Father, as I turn my eyes upon Jesus this morning, as I look to your word and seek your face, my need is desperate. I am utterly unequipped and unable to do anything with the new day that you have given me. Rebel desires even in my own heart would overwhelm me, and I have not the strength to repel them. Give me strength, O Lord, please meet me in my need with a fresh deluge of your grace, such as will be sufficient to see me safely through this day and the temptations and trials that lay before me. O Lord, such sins as have gained a powerful foothold in my life, Lord, please turn my will fully against them to devote them to destruction. And again I pray – please give your wisdom unto me. Please fill me to overflowing with insight and understanding, that I may live my life with prudence and in all godliness. O Lord, there is much to do, my life is so very far from what it ought to be. Please lead me in the way everlasting, Amen.

Reading

Proverbs 1:6

“...to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.”

Meditation

There are many different types of literature, and they are each designed to have different and various effects on us. Poetry is designed to move us with the beauty of its imagery, stories compel us and give us examples to imitate; the Epistles of the New Testament are didactic often for the intent of instructing us. Newspapers inform us (supposedly…), joke books are intended to give us a laugh, and proverbs are intended to give us wisdom. In Proverbs 1:6 we read that Solomon puts pen to paper in this book: “to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.”

A question that we might then go on to ask is: How do proverbs do that? How do they give understanding and wisdom to us? I believe that the most basic sense in which they achieve that goal is as they are repeatedly ingested through slow, constant meditation. As we’ve already noted, proverbs are mysterious – and that is a deliberate aspect of their design. They’re not mysterious to confuse us, but to slow us down and make us think, to chew those proverbs over again and again. And as we do that, as we think about them again and again, they have an effect on us. They impart insights into our hearts, they click into place in our minds, they affect our emotions. As you ponder the proverbs, and you come to understand these words of the wise and their riddles, you will begin to accumulate wisdom for yourself. You will start to become the person described in these pages. Your life will increasingly become exceptional, if I can put it that way. SDG.

Be ye doers of the word…

And so that question, the one that has repeatedly demanded an answer, is still there demanding it’s place in your life: Do you want to live an exceptional life? Do you want to be able to look back at end of life, and look back without regret? We won’t get to that place by accident, we will get there by prayerfully receiving God’s wisdom, and the book of Proverbs is instrumental in that goal. In Proverbs 1:20-23 we read that: “Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?””.

Perhaps you think that this application is becoming repetitious by now, that you get the point. Something we will discover as we move in to this book is that repetition is one of the keys of learning and growth. And how few people truly learn it’s lesson! How few are willing to discipline and drill themselves in the daily gym of wisdom. Yet that is what is required. It might not be a bad idea to think of this as a kind of spiritual gymnasium. Just as our bodies require regular physical exercise, so also our minds, our hearts, and our affections – our spiritual faculties – require diligence in exercise as we feed upon and are directed by the word of God.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Lord as I commit myself to daily exercises of the soul in your word, and as I focus at this time upon the Book of Proverbs, I ask that you would please greatly bless me in these things. Unless your Spirit is at work, unless you yourself give me wisdom through your reading of your word, I will make no progress at all. Lord, please – give me wisdom! Have mercy upon me and forgive me for my many sins. These things I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Prayer

Lord I come to you now for strength and food for my soul. I give all thanks to you for your goodness and care this day, and I pray that you may please help me now. Lord, without you, my soul perishes. Please unite my heart to fear your name, show me wonderful things from your word, and let your Holy Spirit have full residence and sway in my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Reading

Genesis 2:5-7.

“When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Meditation

Who are you? According to the theory of evolution, man is nothing but an animal. For those who believe in evolution, that belief will inform how they see themselves. If man thinks he is nothing but an animal, it should come as no surprise when he starts behaving more like an animal. In Psalm 73:21 the psalmist says: “When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.” Man cut adrift from God becomes like a brute – we’re going to see that later in Genesis 4. But that is not the way it was supposed to be. We’re not animals. So – what are we? There are three things I’d like to draw to your attention in response to that as we consider our text for today.

Firstly, we see that man is an earthly being. We are made of earth, and our bodies return to earth when we die. We live on the earth, we work with the earth. Everything you see in your life, in one way or another, is a product of the earth. Grains and food, cars made out of metals, houses with clay tiling and bricks, timber bookshelves, everything – we are earthly. Furthermore, we are called to fill the earth. We’re called to work the earth to the glory of God.

Secondly, man is a heavenly being. God is not earthly, he is not of this earth, he is holy and set apart from his creation. God is Spirit (Jn 4:24). God made the earth to be good, and to reflect his glory, but he himself is infinitely higher and exalted over that which he made. This ought to humble us as we consider we are part of this world. However, God also crowned us with glory and honour, because while we are made of earth, we are also made in his image – and we have a spiritual nature as well. You are a spiritual being.

In Luke 12:22 Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” Earth, in a sense, is merely a carrier of something heavenly and more excellent. Your life is more than food and clothing. True life is to know and love God. In John 17:3 Jesus said: “...this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Thirdly, man is a union of heaven and earth. We are earthly, and spiritual, and God has brought the two together in us. He has exalted us and glorified us by making us in his image, and by giving us life through Christ. But he has also made us to live in his creation. Even in the next life, we will live in the new heavens and the new earth. We will not be bodiless floating spirits in some cloudy heavenly realm, these fallen bodies of dust in which we now live will be glorified – but they will still be bodies. In fact, scripture says that they will be “heavenly bodies” (1 Cor 15:44), though what exactly that means I have little idea! We are a union of heaven and earth.

Be ye doers of the word…

How then shall we live? As we’ve already seen, our spiritual nature is of a higher order than our physical nature, and so the physical must be ordered by the spiritual.

To start with, don’t despise earthly things. There was once a Greek philosopher named Plato, and one of Plato’s big ideas was that there is a realm of ideas, a spiritual realm if you will, and then there was the physical realm. As Plato’s ideas were developed by those who came after him, the split between spiritual and physical became more and more pronounced in their teachings. For many people, the physical realm came to be thought of as an inferior and corrupted realm, to be shunned and put off. Unfortunately, Plato’s ideas proved to be very influential even in the church. The Roman Catholic doctrine of celibacy for priests is an example. The basic thing to look out for on this is any doctrine that looks down on or despises the things God has created. Whether it be food, or wealth, or beauty, or dancing, or drinking, or work – these things aren’t bad in and of themselves. God created them all to be good, and as Paul says in 1 Tim 4:4: “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”

So let me give an application here… and this is a later part of Luke 12 that we’ve just been looking at: seek first the kingdom of God. As we’ve seen, the things God made on and out of the earth are good and to be received with thanksgiving. But we must never get our priorities wrong. When we love or prioritise the things of earth over and above God, it’s idolatry. Our spiritual nature is of a higher order than our physical nature, and it is our spiritual nature that must receive the prioirity. More specifically, that means that our specific and highest priority must be to abide in Christ. Without Christ, our spiritual nature is dead. Seek first the kingdom of God. Live and breathe the word of God, let his words abide within you. In Deuteronomy 8:3 we read: “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” In John 8:31 Jesus said: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.””

Without Christ, without his word, we cannot rightly order ourselves in body and soul. And so in closing, let me read from John 15. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Without him, we can do nothing, but as his word abides in us, we will know him, we will hear him, we will see him, and we will increasingly come to know what it means to have life in him. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Prayer

Our Lord and our God,

our Heavenly Father,

we pray as we give our attention to your word now that you may open our eyes and

renew our minds and hearts.

Lord God, may your name be exalted and magnified to our vision as we turn our attention to your word.

Lord, be merciful to us and forgive us for our many sins, and lead us in your ways.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Reading

Genesis 2:5-7.

“When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Meditation

What are the most important things in your life? Now I want you to think seriously about that, don’t just give cliché answers to yourself. Really think – what are the things, in your heart of hearts, that you treasure the most in your life? Is it the work you do? It it the things you have? Is it the hopes that you’re looking forward to? Is it the people you love? Life is a gift. Life is precious. We are launching into the narrative of Eden in these studies, and the theme of life is very much front and centre here. We’ve already seen that God is the author of the story and of history, it is “his-story”, the story that he is telling, and it is the story in which we find ourselves to be characters, so to speak.

Now when we write our stories, our characters are just that: they are made up stories. They are reflections of ourselves. But in God’s story, he writes with living characters. People created in his image. Whereas we write on paper, he writes on pages of earth and stone, of flesh and blood. He writes with living words, and above all his story is about THE living word. Because as we see in scripture, God himself stepped in to the story. As the Word became flesh, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, walked upon the earth. But at this point in our studies, we’re still at the very start of the story. So God is the author, but the question remains: what’s going to happen? That’s what we want to know in any story isn’t it? What’s going to happen?

In our previous studies of Genesis 1, we saw the overall goal of this story that God is telling: that God wants to fill the earth with his glory and presence. That’s the big picture. He wants the earth to be a place where He will dwell and His glory and excellence will shine. In Genesis 2 we begin the journey of finding out just out how this story will unfold, and where we will find our part to play as well. So, the scene has been set, the world has been made, but what happens next? It’s very simple: God starts filling the earth. That’s the first, and most basic thing that we see God doing in v5-7 as this story of history begins to unfold: God starts filling the earth.

Verse five, as we’ve previously noted, focuses not so much on what’s happening as it is on what’s missing. What’s missing in verse five? There’s no water so that the plants can grow, and there’s no man to work the earth. The ground is not yet productive because there’s no water and no worker, and so there’s a real lack here, a kind of emptiness. God responds to this emptiness by filling the earth with life.

You see, one of the most basic things about life, is life itself. It’s the basic thing about our planet. What would this place be without life? Life itself is thus at the heartbeat of God’s purposes for history. There’s a doctrine about God that theologians call “the aseity of God.” The aseity of God is really talking about God’s self-existence. It’s talking about the fact that God is life, and that he is and has life in and of himself. In fact – that’s what he is. God is life. Aseity is a latin word that basically means “from self.” So God’s aseity is talking about the life that he has from himself. When you start studying it in the scriptures, it becomes very obvious that this is a biblical doctrine. John 5:26 says that God “has life in himself”; Revelation 1:4 says that he’s the one who was, who is, and who is to come; Daniel 4:34 says that he lives forever. As God reveals his name to Moses, the covenant name by which he would be known, what is the name that he reveals? “I AM THAT I AM”. That names reveals God to be the self-existent one, the living one. Life. Everything is about life! Because God is life! As the first scene in history begins to unfold, that is where God starts: by filling the earth with life.

Be ye doers of the word…

There is a very basic application that flows out of this insight for us, and the application is this: promote life. In a sense, this is God’s most basic aim for history – to fill the world with life. And if that’s his basic aim, it ought also to be our basic aim. In every possible way, our over-arching goal in life should be to promote life. Now that’s much broader than just protecting the physical life of others, although that is incredibly important. God’s commandments reveal that we must not murder, and so we ought to uphold the value and sanctity of life. In particular today, that means that we should be passionately pro-life and anti-abortion. Abortion is diabolical and anti-God.

But promoting life is something that includes the whole of life as well. God wants to see life flourish on every level. He wants to see well kept gardens full of flowers and birds and bees and colour. He wants us to take care of the creatures that he has made and develop the world that he has created, which is why Proverbs 12:10 says: “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” He wants us to take care of our health, and of the health of others. He wants each of us to flourish in our gifts and abilities, and to help one another to flourish as well. He wants you to develop your gifts and abilities in service to him and – above all – he wants us to come to Christ.

In this post-Eden fallen world, Christ is our life. In the garden of Eden God began to fill the earth with life. But upon rejecting God in Genesis 3, man entered into a state of death. In other words, sin sets itself in direct opposition to what God has planned. The wages of sin is death. And so it should come as no surprise that Christ came, and the gospel is now preached, so that we may have life again. Christ came so that what was freely given in Eden – life – could be restored. John’s gospel is very clear about this, as we read in John 20:30: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” So Make it your aim in life to promote life, to see life in Christ flourish and grow. That’s why we share the gospel – that others may life. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Lord God on high, as I begin to understand a little more your purposes for creation, I also begin to see and understand a little more how little aligned I am with those purposes. I begin to feel and suspect that I am desperately out of touch. Do I promote life by sharing the gospel? Do I promote life by fleeing from my sin? O Lord, I see that I am least of all the saints, and that my understanding is like a bleary-eyed blindness. My situation is desperate, Lord, give me life according to your word! Lord, please fill me with your life, that my life – body and soul – may so overflow with your love and life that others may receive your life through me. Please help me Lord. Please help me to promote life, both physical and especially spiritual, to the glory of your name. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Prayer

Almighty God, my loving Heavenly Father, thank you for a new day of life. I praise and worship you, thank you for the privilege of this life. As I start out on this new day that you have given me, whatever this day may bring, O Lord, thou art God. You alone decree and determine all things, only help me I pray to be faithful with whatever is allotted to me. O Lord, meet me, I pray, in the midst of my great weakness. I am not sufficient unto the doing of this day. Unless you preserve me, I can do nothing. Again I cry out for wisdom, my wisdom is profoundly lacking. Please cause me to abound in wisdom, that I may know and discern how I must live to please and serve you. So may it be in the lives of all the saints, in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Reading

Proverbs 1:2-5.

“To know wisdom and instruction,to understand words of insight,

to receive instruction in wise dealing,in righteousness, justice, and equity;

to give prudence to the simple,knowledge and discretion to the youth—

Let the wise hear and increase in learning,and the one who understands obtain guidance.”

Meditation

Why did Solomon write the book of proverbs? In Proverbs 1:2-5 Solomon lays out four major reasons as to why he wrote this book. We’re going to look at these four reasons in this meditation.

The first of these reasons is simply: to make us wise. In verse two we read: “To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight”. What Solomon is talking about here is far deeper than just intellectual knowledge. This is not just about learning information to pass some test. No, Solomon writes that we may “know wisdom and instruction”. That word “know” has a connotation of intimacy about it. Solomon wants wisdom to become a part of who we are. He wants to write wisdom into your spiritual DNA. He wants it to have a profound effect on the way you view the world, and thus to start to change the way you live in the world. This is what it means to become wise, it means that the way we are and the way we live truly starts to change. Wisdom actually impacts your life. In an earlier meditation we talked about “living an exceptional life”. Wisdom is the essential working ingredient in every exceptional life. So that’s the first reason Solomon wrote this book: to make us wise. For that reason, this devotional series of books that I’m writing, as an exposition of the Book of Proverbs, has the same aim: to make us wise.

Here is the second reason that Solomon wrote the Book of Proverbs: to instruct us in how to obey God’s law. Verse three says that Solomon writes that we may “receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity.” There is a close relationship between wisdom and the righteous law of God. Perhaps I can put it this way: the law teaches us what God’s righteousness and justice looks like on a human level, wisdom teaches us how, and is the innate capacity, to skillfully apply and live out God’s law. Wisdom is the ability to rightly apply and live out God’s revealed will. In the course of these studies, we should expect so see numerous parallels with scripture more broadly as Solomon gives practical expositions of God’s righteous law. And remember: the law of God is a revelation of his righteous character as it would look in the life of his creatures. Wisdom is thus the forming of God’s righteousness in our lives – it is a restoration of the image of God within us! Ultimately, it is the formation of Christ’s character within us.

The third reason Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs was to give maturity to the young. In verse four we read that Solomon’s writings are intended to “give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth”. This is also very obvious as we consider the nature of the dialogue in chapters one through nine of the book as a whole – it’s a dialogue of a father speaking to his son. Young people are not naturally wise. We’re not born with wisdom coursing through our veins. On the contrary, as Proverbs 22:15 says “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child.” The book of Proverbs thus has a very special role to play in instructing children and young people. Parents ought to use it in discipling their children, young people ought to pay careful attention to it (give this book to a young person!). If we do not receive wisdom, then in our old age we will still be naive simpletons, unable to exercise discernment. Living foolishly. For those of us who are physically older, but still spiritually immature, the lesson also applies here, for the Book of Proverbs will be a welcome tonic for our spiritual growth.

Prudence speaks to teaching us the best and most effective way of living out and accomplishing righteousness. It suggests that the prudent will be “cunning” unto the accomplishment of that which is good. Similarly, as Paul Washer has pointed out, discretion connotes the capacity to make the right choice in a given situation. This is discernment. In other words, as wisdom is formed in us through our prayerful studies through the Book of Proverbs, part of what this means is that we will become skillful in doing good. That sounds appealing to me! This is moral excellence outworked in our lives.

The fourth and final reason Solomon gives for writing the Book of Proverbs is to give increased wisdom to the mature. In verse five we read: “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance”. There is always more space to grow in wisdom, one never “arrives”. So, yes, the Book of Proverbs especially targets young people in order to give them wisdom, but it is also a constant source of further growth for those who are more mature in the faith. Proverbs is a book to be taken in steady doses for a lifetime of learning and spiritual growth. SDG.

Be ye doers of the word…

As Paul Washer reflects in his meditations on Proverbs, we live in a perilous world. Without wisdom, the world will eat us alive. There will be snares placed before us, temptations, and without wisdom we will walk heedlessly on in to those snares. I’ve sought to impress the importance of being diligent in this study of Proverbs. You don’t have to read these books, but you do have to make a serious investment into the Book of Proverbs, and the Word of God. My hope is that these articles/podcasts, as the series unfolds, will be a serious help to make that investment. Don’t read a few articles and then give up (unless you have a committed alternate and better plan for making this investment!).

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Dear Lord God, our Heavenly Father, we praise you the God of wisdom. Your understanding knows no limits, and your insight is boundless. Lord, we are small and foolish by nature, and stand in great need of your wisdom. Through these studies in Proverbs, please impart to us your wisdom – that we may know instruction, and understand words of insight. Without your power at work within us, we can do nothing. For the sake of Christ who loved us, please reform us anew into your image, that we may have wisdom. Please Lord, spare us from laziness in these studies, and make us increasingly to walk in the ways of wisdom. All praise, glory, and thanks be to you who gives wisdom freely to all who ask. We thank you Lord! In Jesus’ name, Amen.