The Proverbs :: A Guidebook for MenSample

Written in 1883 by Emma Lazarus, the poem “The New Colossus” was once memorized by schoolchildren across the United States. Not unlike the Gettysburg address, boys and girls would stand and recite the famous Statue of Liberty’s poem until at least the final stanza made its way into the cultural zeitgeist of America:

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Like the original colossus before her, the Statue of Liberty has towered as a declaration of welcome, a larger-than-life symbol that what you were about to enter was different than what you previously knew.

Proverbs 8 tells a similar story, one of Wisdom’s position at the entrance to a city with a message to convey. But while the Colossus at Rhodes and the Statue of Liberty were imagined with human minds and constructed with human hands, Lady Wisdom’s beginning is of a much more ancient origin, brought forth by much more powerful hands.

Why does this matter to us? Why does Solomon transition immediately from warning us about the disadvantages of sexual sin into the tremendous, divine history of Wisdom? Perhaps it is because we are fickle creatures, too easily swayed by the allure of the new and now. We fall in love easily and out even more quickly. We know it, and God certainly knows it. Our attention must then be called entirely to something far more ever-lasting than ourselves.

The Colossus at Rhodes was a world marvel and yet only stood for 54 years. The Statue of Liberty has only endured for 135 years. The Lord brought forth wisdom as one of His first works, formed before the creation of the watery depths that would eventually take shape and become the Earth. She was there before the mountains settled and before the hills emerged. She was before we were, constantly at God’s side, rejoicing in His presence and eventually delighting in His creation, Humanity.

No human mind imagined this Wisdom who is calling out to us today, and she certainly was not created by human hands.

So when you read her words today, when the ancient path to a God-fearing and prosperous life is laid out in front of you on the page, heed her call. Rejoice that God is sharing this eternity-old wisdom with you freely, that he is doting on you as a devoted Father who wants nothing more than to bless His child.

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Lord God, Ancient of Days, thank You. Thank You that You see me, know me, and still love me so thoroughly that You are giving me the wisdom to live a life worthy of being called Yours. I bless Your Name, God, You who deserve all my affection and attention. Please return my eyes to You and my feet to Your path when I am prone to wander. Help me to turn away from the cries for attention thrown by the wind of a desperate and dying world.