FBC Daily Devotional – November 18, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:05

Well good Thursday morning to you. Are you wise? Are you wise?

00:11

Now when we ask that question, we generally think of passages like the book of Proverbs, the wisdom literature of the

00:21

Bible. But even when you think about Proverbs, what do we mean by wisdom?

00:27

What do we mean by wisdom? We might generally gravitate to the thought of a sage, a person who's kind of got that sage appearance, you know very profound, a deep thinker.

00:41

Every time he says something it's just profound and we say wow that person is really wise.

00:48

Well that's true and that is an appropriate description of one aspect of wisdom or one area of wisdom to be sure.

01:00

But what's interesting is in 1st Kings 7, which really focuses on the building of the temple, we're introduced to this man

01:09

Hiram in verse 13 and 14.

01:17

Hiram comes from the city of Tyre and verse 14 says that he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill.

01:31

Not so much in navigating life, but look at what it says next. He was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working with all kinds of bronze work.

01:45

He had a great deal of wisdom in working with bronze work, the metal bronze.

01:54

Now the reason this is significant is it helps us get a good broad understanding of what wisdom is.

02:03

Wisdom could be defined as the skill of using knowledge correctly or appropriately or most effectively.

02:18

Here's the thing. There are people whose heads are full of knowledge.

02:24

They may have a great deal of knowledge about certain things in manufacturing, technology or whatever.

02:36

Well let's take for example something very common to us today. The whole internet technology for example.

02:45

There are people whose heads are filled with the ability to know how to build websites and to build them so that they are powerful and accessible, easily accessible all over the world.

02:59

But as I'm sure you're well aware, there are all kinds of websites that you really have no business going to and you want to stay away from because they're harmful and destructive in multiple ways.

03:15

So there's somebody who has a great deal of knowledge but they don't have wisdom because they're not taking their knowledge and skillfully using it in a way that is appropriate or effective and beneficial to their fellow man, to other people that's going to build up and strengthen and help and so on and so forth.

03:36

So they have a great deal of knowledge but not wisdom. Wisdom is the skill to use knowledge correctly, appropriately, most effectively.

03:47

So Hiram had this wisdom in dealing with bronze to use it in a way, to shape it in a way that it would be effective.

04:00

The result would be a thing of beauty and appropriateness. All right?

04:06

And so he comes to Solomon's employ so that he can take the bronze, the metal work stuff that Solomon has, the metal that he has acquired, and Hiram can shape it, manipulate it, and use it in the construction of the temple in a way that is going to reflect well upon God.

04:30

Hiram has the skill to do that. He's wise with his knowledge.

04:37

The other thing I wanted to mention about this chapter and its description of things going on with the temple is you cannot read that passage without coming away with a sense of awe at the grandeur of it all.

04:53

I mean this must have been an absolutely magnificent structure. Everything covered in gold, you had cedar wood covered in gold, and just a big huge structure, costly stones, on and on and on.

05:10

So in the description of it you read this stuff and you say this must have been an incredible place.

05:15

I wish we had pictures of it. I wish I could have seen this. And the thing about it is that grandeur was fitting for the house of God, for the temple, to reflect his glory in a small way because even no matter how beautiful and majestic and glorious a human structure could be, it can only reflect

05:41

God's beauty and glory and majesty in a small way. But I think there is in that a message to us and that is to consider what is our attitude when it comes to our places of worship, those places we set aside and dedicate to God for worship, for God's collective people to gather.

06:06

What's our attitude about those places and the building of those places and the maintaining of those places?

06:13

I'm suggesting that those facilities ought to reflect well on our

06:22

God. They ought to cause others to have a good opinion of our God, that he is important to us, that he is a

06:30

God of beauty and a God of order and majesty.

06:37

So as much as possible we can reflect that in our gathered place of worship.

06:43

I think we should do so. But even more so in the New Testament temple of the

06:50

Holy Spirit. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So I think we need to ask ourselves, what's my attitude toward the temple?

07:01

You know, we talk about stewardship. We often talk about the stewardship of our time, our talents and our treasure.

07:10

But we also need to talk about our temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Does it reflect an attitude toward God that says, our taking care of our temple, does it reflect an attitude toward God that says he is worthy of our best?

07:32

Shouldn't we take care of that temple? There's an awful lot that could be said about that,

07:37

I suppose. But I think I'll just leave the question hang there and let us ponder, you know, how am

07:43

I taking care of the temple of the Holy Spirit? And is it really honoring to the

07:52

God who dwells within? Well, with that, let's pray.

07:58

Our Father and our God, I pray that we would be wise. We can have our heads filled with knowledge, but I pray that we would be skillful in using that knowledge rightly, correctly, and particularly in relationship to our temple, the temple of the

08:16

Holy Spirit. And Father, I pray that how we take care of our bodies would be honorable to you, honoring to you.

08:29

We wouldn't be neglectful. We wouldn't be abusing of them. But we would be careful in how we care for this temple that you've given to us.

08:43

And we pray these things now in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, have a good