Wisdom's Call: 30 Days in the House of LifeSample

LEAN ON ME

Our first parents knew wisdom through intimacy with Christ. When temptation and sin slithered into the garden, so came Folly— Wisdom’s envious and unfortunate partner throughout Scripture

They chose instead to dwell with folly and foolishness, and we as their children dwell with the foolishness of our own understanding of the world, apart from the One who created the world. Folly was not a part of the “very good” created order. It was forced upon the man and the woman by a hostile and deceitful enemy, hell-bent on frustrating the first couple’s God-given shalom.

Wisdom’s world of obedience was disfigured. Everything that made her a haven of rest and safety contorted into something grotesque, the product of fearsome rebellion.

In an instant, the lights dimmed a bit, the trees drooped, and creation uttered her first weighted groan. Relationship became brokenness, affection became resentment, trust turned to suspicion, unity morphed into discord, security decayed into danger, balance yielded to oppression, abundance evaporated into paucity. To echo Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the sweet bells of harmony with creation became “jangled, out of tune and harsh.”

Put another way, wisdom and truth brought them peace and harmony; folly and lies brought chaos and disorder.

As a result, the tuition for biblical wisdom ever since has now become astronomically high; we can take fire in our laps and experience the pain on our own flesh, or we can trace inquisitive fingers along the burn scars of others and ask, “What hurt you—was it your folly, or someone else’s foolish flame that jumped on you?”

And then we listen for the wisdom. But, however the knowledge of consequence comes, someone has paid the price to know what is good and what is not.

Imagine if our first parents had followed the old proverb, stitched and hung on many a wall for generations:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Prov. 3:5–8)

Imagine if we better followed these wise words today!