WWUTT 1389 Wisdom With Prudence and Discretion (Proverbs 8:12-21)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Proverbs 8 -12 says, I wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.

00:08

What do these words mean? How do we apply them to our lives? We know when we understand the text.

00:24

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary, to help encourage your time in the

00:30

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

00:37

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. For our Thursday study, we have been in the book of Proverbs, listening to the voice of Wisdom Personified.

00:50

And to start off with our reading, let's look at verses 12 -21. I wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.

01:02

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance, and the way of evil and perverted speech

01:09

I hate. I have counsel and sound wisdom. I have insight.

01:15

I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just.

01:22

By me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.

01:33

Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness.

01:39

My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.

01:45

I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.

01:57

Well, this sounds a lot like the section that we were studying last week, doesn't it? In fact, when

02:02

I sat down and was preparing the lesson for today, I was thinking to myself, didn't I cover this already? I had to double check and make sure

02:08

I wasn't doing the same section twice. So last week, we looked at verses 4 through 11, and that starts and ends much the same way as verses 12 through 21.

02:20

How does wisdom begin her address in verse 5? Oh, simple ones learn prudence.

02:27

And how does wisdom begin today? I wisdom dwell with prudence. How did we end the section last week with verse 11?

02:36

Wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. And how does the section today end?

02:42

Granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries. Wisdom with the promise of a treasure that is beyond anything that the world can offer, but rather has eternal value.

02:54

We see that in both sections. So we're going to see some very similar things, and a lot of this is going to sound like we covered this last week.

03:02

But as the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3 .1, to write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and it is safe for you.

03:12

So it is good for us to repeat these things again. Let's come back to verse 12. I wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.

03:23

What is prudence? Well, if prudence did not appear in the same verse with discretion,

03:29

I would tell you that prudence is discretion, because the two are rather synonymous of one another. This is what we would refer to as a parallelism in Hebrew poetry.

03:39

It's where you have the same statement repeated. You see it in every single psalm. All 150 psalms begin with a parallelism, and here we have it also in verse 12.

03:50

I wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.

03:56

It's kind of the same thing said twice, but we still have two different words. So if it's repeating one another, why two different words?

04:03

What would be the distinction between these two words? Well, first of all, let's consider prudence. It means that you're not letting yourself get carried away with all kinds of random thoughts and flashy ideas, and whatever sounds good for the moment, or whatever would be the most extreme or catch the most attention, that's a person that lacks prudence when they just give themselves over to all sorts of fanciful concepts.

04:29

But a person who is sober -minded, who has prudence, will be more measured in their thinking.

04:34

They will be far more reserved, a lot less boisterous and loud.

04:40

And it's interesting to consider that, where wisdom says to learn prudence in verse 5, and I dwell with prudence.

04:49

So you find prudence when you seek and find the wisdom of God. And yet, wisdom began this call, back in verse 4, by saying, to you,

04:58

O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man. So if prudence is going to be something that's more reserved, why do you have wisdom calling out?

05:09

Well, the cry or the calling out would be when the time is right, when it's appropriate.

05:15

It's not always loud and boisterous. That's not the reputation of godly wisdom.

05:20

But when it's called for, it is going to make itself known. Contrast this with the adulterous woman that we read about in Proverbs 7, and remember that she's described in Proverbs 7 -11 as someone who is loud and wayward.

05:37

Her feet do not stay at home. Loud and obnoxious. That's the adulterous woman.

05:43

She has no shame in the sins that she does, that she's willing to proclaim them and make them known.

05:49

She even wants attention for her sins. But a person who is wise, who dwells in the wisdom of God, is not trying to draw attention to themselves.

05:59

There are times when they are going to have to raise their voice and make the truth known, but it is not for the purpose of making themselves known.

06:08

It is for the purpose of teaching and guiding and directing to God and His truth.

06:14

This is the way wisdom deals knowledge. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.

06:25

So that's prudence. How about discretion? What does that mean? Well, the word discretion comes from the word discreet, and you might understand discreet a little more than discretion.

06:36

You might hear discreet more often than discretion, right? So what does discreet mean? Discreet is someone who's a little more quiet, a little more reserved.

06:46

They are careful with their speech and their actions. Sometimes I'll hear the word discretion used this way.

06:53

He threw discretion to the wind, and he just blurted out how he felt. That's a person who lacks discretion.

07:00

But a person who is more discreet will be measured and peaceful.

07:05

There's a certain decorum that they have about themselves. In the way that they share their thoughts, transmit information, they're not trying to offend.

07:14

That's not their objective. There will be times when the truth will need to loudly be proclaimed, but it's at the right opportunities, and it's not all the time.

07:23

Otherwise, a person who has the wisdom of God is so content with knowing the truth that there's not a reason to have to shout down or overpower anybody else in order for the truth to be known because they know the truth has power by itself.

07:40

Truth doesn't have power by a person to be louder, by the ability of a person to be louder than someone else or call somebody names or use pejoratives or things like that.

07:50

Truth has power on its own. It is going to change the mind of a person because that's what truth does.

07:56

And a person who gains wisdom or seeks after wisdom will therefore be compelled by the truth because it's the truth.

08:04

You think about an instruction that Paul gave to Timothy, and I've shared it many times on this program.

08:09

In 2 Timothy 2 .25, he says that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to speak, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness, and God may perhaps grant repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

08:30

So the ability for the truth to persuade is in the truth itself.

08:36

It's not in the truth teller. The person's ability to be louder than the next person in order for the truth to be conveyed.

08:43

And the person who has that confidence in the truth, knowing that truth is something objective, it is outside of myself.

08:50

So it's not in my ability to convey the truth that makes it truth or makes it compelling.

08:57

Now that doesn't mean we should not invest ourselves in coming up with good persuasive answers.

09:02

We do need to know the arguments and how to communicate the truth to somebody. But it isn't in our shouting a person down or being louder than they are or cutting a person down by calling them names or things like that.

09:16

That's not what makes something true and that's not going to compel anybody. In fact, that tends to repel people rather than compel people.

09:23

I just got an email the other day. This was from a woman at a university who was upset at something that I said.

09:31

So she sent me an email with her contact information on there and everything, what college she was a part of and all of that.

09:37

And it was expletive laden. She called me all kinds of names, called me ignorant that I was wasting my time on being a pastor because I'm investing myself in something that was just absolutely nonsense.

09:50

On and on and on and on it went. I looked this woman up, the college that she was a part of, and it turns out that she is a teacher of rhetoric and communication.

10:01

I was like, wow, that's not very good at her job, is she?

10:07

I ended up turning the email over to her dean. I don't know if they're going to do anything about it or not, but it's like, hey, here's what one of your employees is doing on company time and contacting me and calling me all kinds of names.

10:19

Do you think that this is a good look for your university? Anyway, so we remember what Peter said about Christ as our example, that though he was reviled, he did not revile in return, but continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly.

10:34

That's prudence and discretion, and that comes from the wisdom of God. And where else are we going to find the wisdom of God but in Christ Jesus, our

10:41

Lord. So the person who seeks after wisdom will find prudence and knowledge and discretion.

10:50

And it goes on in verse 13 to say, the fear of the Lord is the hatred of evil, pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech

11:00

I hate. So if we have the wisdom of God, we're likewise going to share in this hatred for those things that God calls evil.

11:09

And it's interesting to say that the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil here, because remember how we started

11:16

Proverbs. Proverbs 1, verse 7, the fear of the Lord is what? It is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.

11:24

Here it says that by finding the wisdom of God, we find knowledge and the fear of the

11:29

Lord is hatred of evil. So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.

11:35

And in that wisdom and knowledge, we come to know what is evil and we hate it.

11:41

With God, we hate it, but we hate it with prudence and discretion.

11:46

That's not often how we think of the word hate, right? We don't think of the word hate as being prudent and discreet.

11:55

Often the hateful person is going to be like that woman who emailed me. It's just throwing out all kinds of expletives and cutting down and calling names.

12:02

That's what we typically think of as hate. But by hating what God hates, we want to have nothing to do with it.

12:09

In fact, we want to expose it, but we expose it with prudence and with discretion. Again, like with what

12:16

Paul said to Timothy, we're patiently enduring evil and correcting opponents with gentleness.

12:23

In Ephesians chapter 5, verse 11, it says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret.

12:39

That's encouraging us toward discretion. They're not going to be discreet about the evils that they do, but we must be discreet, not taking any joy in it, not talking openly about it.

12:52

We even need to be careful about how we address these things, because what they do in their sinfulness and their wickedness is so vile that to describe it could be to lose prudence and discretion.

13:05

And so we must be wise in how we even employ the discussion of these kinds of things.

13:12

Back to Ephesians 5, verse 13, when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.

13:20

Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

13:27

Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

13:38

So again, we don't dwell in the evilness of this world. We desire the righteousness of God.

13:44

So the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, not walking in that way, but going in the way of righteousness.

13:50

Notice that it says, back to Proverbs 8, verse 13 again, Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech

13:58

I hate. So we're not going in the way of evil. We're desiring to walk in the paths of righteousness.

14:05

Think of the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 23. You lead me in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.

14:12

And how do we know what is good? How do we know what is righteous and pleasing in the sight of God?

14:18

It is according to what we read in his word. Wisdom goes on in Proverbs 8, 13 to say the way of perverted speech

14:27

I hate. Now, when we talk about perverted speech, we're not necessarily saying expletive -laden speech, like the email that foul woman who teaches at that university said to me, but rather the way of perverted speech is that which is not true, that which is contrary to the wisdom of God.

14:45

Anything that is against God is going to be the way of perversity.

14:50

It's lies, it's manipulations, it's deceptions. All of that is perverse.

14:56

We think of perverse speech as being like filthy jokes, right? That's not necessarily the context here.

15:03

Anything that's going to be contrary to the wisdom of God will be perverse speech. It's that which perverts.

15:10

Rather than rejoicing in what is good, it rejoices in what is evil. So going on into verse 14,

15:16

I have counsel and sound wisdom. I have insight and I have strength.

15:22

So that's the contrast to what we had in verse 13. Pride and arrogance are the way of evil and perverted speech

15:29

I hate, but rather the way of wisdom is a way of counsel. It's a way of good advice.

15:35

It's a way of speaking of those things which are true and right. And I have sound wisdom.

15:42

It's wisdom that is solid, unchanging, should be the foundation of the knowledge that we possess.

15:49

It's timeless truth. And it's cross -cultural. It applies to no matter who is reading it or receiving it or seeking after it, they gain from it.

16:00

And it is good for every person who finds it, which is why this truth that we're reading about here in the book of Proverbs is able to cross 3 ,000 years of history.

16:10

It is still just as true to us now as it was when the father who was advising his son gave it to him.

16:17

So the father in heaven advises us as sons and daughters of God with his wisdom, which we find in the pages of scripture.

16:26

In this wisdom that comes from God, we gain sound wisdom. We have insight.

16:32

We're able to know the mind of God when we read the pages of his word.

16:38

We know what his will is, what he desires for us, what he wants us to do, what he's planning on doing, even what his intentions are for the future, what his character is, what he has done in the past.

16:53

All of this we find in the Bible. I have strength, the wisdom of God.

16:59

We have strength, the ability to endure, to continue on, to have confidence in today and in tomorrow because we have the wisdom of God through his scriptures.

17:12

Verse 15, By me, kings reign, and rulers decree what is just.

17:18

We read last week in verse 6, Hear, for I will speak noble things. Why do we refer to this wisdom as noble?

17:26

Because it is the wisdom that even kings use. It's something regal.

17:32

It's royal. If God's wisdom is good for kings, then it is certainly good for the rest of us as well.

17:38

So it is by this sound wisdom of God that kings reign and rulers decree what is just.

17:46

Now that word justice is a word that has unfortunately been perverted. We were talking about perverse speech a moment ago.

17:52

Justice has been twisted and redefined to mean something that the Bible doesn't mean. And anytime the word justice comes up in the

18:00

Bible, that does not mean that the Bible is speaking about the justice that our culture is speaking of at the present.

18:08

And unfortunately, I hear a lot of preachers that twist the word justice that way. Like right now, you hear about social justice and critical race theory and things like that.

18:17

And some of these preachers, when they say, hey, you need to go back to the prophets and the Old Testament and where you read about justice, that's what we're doing.

18:24

No, it's not. The word justice in the Bible does not fit the modern liberal leftist critical definition of justice.

18:35

How do we know what is just? We read about it in the Bible. God is the one who defines what is just.

18:43

Deuteronomy 32, four, the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice.

18:51

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. We don't learn about what justice is just by going to the

18:59

Bible and finding all the occasions in which the word justice appears and then fitting that with a modern definition of justice.

19:05

We learn about what justice is when we look at the character of God, go to the

19:11

Bible and read about who God is and what he has said and obey his commandments and his word.

19:18

For by the wisdom of God, rulers decree what is just.

19:24

Rulers decree what is unjust as well. But when they decree what is just, it is by the wisdom of God.

19:30

Verse 16, by me, princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly, all who govern justly governed by the just wisdom of God.

19:43

I love those who love me. It says in verse 17, and those who seek me diligently find me.

19:49

That's James one five. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach.

19:57

Verse 18, riches and honor are with me. Enduring wealth and righteousness.

20:03

And this goes back to what we were reading about last week, the eternal benefits and treasures that we receive from seeking after the wisdom of God, even greater than anything that this world has to offer.

20:16

Verse 19, my fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, even the best gold that you can get and my yield than choice silver.

20:26

I walk in the way of righteousness in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me and filling their treasuries.

20:38

And that's where we will conclude and we'll pick up with our study of wisdom next week. Proverbs eight, verse 22.

20:46

Let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you for showing us what is right and good according to your word.

20:52

And I pray that we not just consider these things as part of a Bible study today, but we seek to apply them to our lives and do them to the praise of your great name.

21:03

And because we love God and we desire to see your truth known in the world, help us to be measured and patient in the way that we convey the truth of God.

21:14

Not so much that we just sit back and don't talk about it at all, but we know how to communicate it in a right and a gentle and loving way with others.

21:23

Your truth will transform the heart to those whom you mean to turn to your ways.

21:29

And may they listen and hear and be convicted of heart and know the truth and be saved.

21:35

For our Lord Jesus Christ has said to us, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

21:41

Help us to live free in Christ today, rejoicing in his name. Amen. This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

21:52

For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

21:58

.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

22:07

and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word, when we understand the text.