At the Crossroads

Listen as wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice! She stands on the hilltop and at the crossroads.

Proverbs 8:1-2

A bright red sports car screeched to a halt at a country crossroads, and the driver shouted to an old man sitting on a bench, aCan you direct me to London, please?a aNo, I canat,a he replied. aThen which road to Oxford?a he asked. aCanat rightly say,a answered the old man. aYou donat know much, do you?a asked the young man sarcastically. aNo, I donat know much,a replied the uncommunicative local man. aBut Iam not lost!a The problem with crossroads is that they present choices and require that they be made, and unless you make the right choice you end up being hopelessly lost. It is at the crossroads that we need somebody who, unlike the old man, has a word of wisdom to impart.

Life is full of crossroads; it is all about choices. When we are young they are made for us, hopefully by wise, loving parents. As young people grow up they need to learn how to make good choices. Often they fail to do this, and they suffer the consequences for a lifetime. Even in the golden years, there are still crossroads to be faceda"choices which become increasingly difficult as faculties decline and fears increase. The need to make choices never ends; thereas a crossroads just around the corner.

Fortunately, there is a word from the Lord on the subject: aListen as wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice! She stands on the hilltop and at the crossroadsa (Prov. 8:1-2). This wisdom is also called acommon sensea and aunderstandinga (8:5), aexcellent thingsa and arighta (8:6), atrutha (8:7), and aadvice [that] is wholesome and gooda (8:8). This wisdom is more than knowledge. There are learned people who lack wisdom, and uneducated people who display the wisdom of which Scripture speaks.

The key is found in Proverbs 9:10: aFear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in understandinga (9:10). True wisdom is available to those who afear the Lord.a This does not mean living in mortal terror of a cold, merciless Deity, but rather loving with reverence and awe a great and gracious G.o.d who longs to be deeply involved in lifeas journey and consulted at lifeas crossroads.

The Lord does not even wait for us to ask directions. aWisdom calls out. . . . understanding raises her voicea (8:1); aListen to me! For I have excellent things to tell youa (8:6). It takes a wise man to listen to the right voice and make the right choices. This way heall find the right road. This way he takes the high road.

February 23

TO READ: Proverbs 8:12-21

Private and Public Morality

aI, Wisdom, live together with good judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment.a Proverbs 8:12

Presidential candidates usually start out talking about athe issues.a As the compet.i.tion becomes tighter and the stakes get higher, though, such n.o.ble concepts as aissuesa tend to get lost in a welter of more personal issues. Then attack ads fill our television screens, charges and countercharges fill the air. It doesnat take long before matters of private behavior are aleakeda and indignant reb.u.t.tals are voiced. Usually the reb.u.t.tals claim that what a man does in his private life is of no concern to the public.

The idea that a line can be drawn between what a man is in private and what he does in public is worth exploring. It has its roots in the majority opinion in America that there are no absolute truthsa"72% of young Americans think so! They overlook, of course, the nonsense in this self-defeating statementa"the statement purports to be an absolute truth!

If there is no such thing as absolute truth, then everyone can make his own truth and develop his own morality. It may be necessary for the sake of appearances and social integration to have some nebulous public standards, but private standards are just thata"private. Since there are no absolutes, this can mean that what is morally acceptable in private is morally wrong in public!

Proverbs would beg to differ. There is in biblical truth an inescapable link between private and public morality. aAll who fear the Lord will hate evil. That is why I hate pride, arrogance, corruption, and perverted speecha (Prov. 8:13). Pride and arrogance are private issuesa"they are all about what a man is in his heart when he is on his own. Corruption and perverted speech can be either private or public. But Wisdom goes on to say, aBecause of me, kings reign, and rulers make just laws. Rulers lead with my help, and n.o.bles make righteous judgmentsa (8:15). These are public actions.

Both the private motivations and the public actions spring from the same roota"wisdom. There is no dichotomy here. For what is right is right, whether in public or private. What is evil is evil, whether anyone sees it or not.

Politicians are sitting ducks in such matters, but the average man needs to search his own heart concerning the possible contradictions between what he does in public and what he is in private. The aim of the G.o.dly man is to awalk in righteousness, in paths of justicea (8:20), both in the darkness of his inner sanctum and in the blaze of public scrutiny. One standard fits all.

February 24

TO READ: Proverbs 8:22-36

Approval

aWhoever finds me finds life and wins approval from the LORD. But those who miss me have injured themselves. All who hate me love death.a Proverbs 8:35-36

The story is told of a young pianist who was making his professional debut in a famous concert hall in one of the capitals of Europe. The fashionable audience were most responsive to his playing, and at the end of the concert they gave him a resounding, standing ovation and called for an encore. Backstage, the young man refused to return to the platform despite the pleas of the stage manager and the concert sponsors. aBut they love you!a they expostulated. aTheyare on their feet.a The young man replied, aI know they are, but thereas one man sitting in his seat. He isnat standing.a aWhatas one man in a concert hall full of people?a they replied. Quietly he responded, aHeas the mastera"my teacher!a The approval that really mattered to the young pianist was missing.

In the human heart there is a thirst for approval, a longing for belonging, a hunger for acceptance. Children seek to please their parents and are insecure if they sense disapproval. Teenagers move from seeking to please parents to seeking peer approval. They must be with the aina crowd, dress as they dress, listen to what they listen to, and conform to their patterns of behaviora"all in order that they might have their peersa approval.

Men do not easily grow out of this longing for othersa approval. No one likes to be thought weird, to be socially outcast, to be ignored or discounted. The tragedy is that sometimes the applause of the crowd drowns out the approval of the Master.

Wisdom says, aHappy are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home! For whoever finds me finds life and wins approval from the Lorda (8:35). Approval from the Lord is what matters. No matter how many peers stand and applaud or how many bosses issue good reports, if the Master is not pleased, all is in vain. The whole world can stand, but if the Lord stays seated, all is lost.

How do we gain the Lordas approval? By listening attentively to what he is telling us, absorbing the truth he proclaims, and making practical application. Problems arise when what he says does not agree with the audience that we wish to impress. Teenagers vacillate between doing what is right and behaving in a way that is acool.a Businessmen wrestle with doing what is right and doing awhat it takesa to close a deal, knowing full well that the Lord does not approve of the methods used.

It comes down to this: Whom do we wish to please? Whose approval do we crave?

February 25

TO READ: Proverbs 9:1-18

Teaching the Teachable

Teach the wise, and they will be wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn more.

Proverbs 9:9

The late Tom Landry, legendary football coach of the Dallas Cowboys, used to tell his players that the coachas job is to teach grown men how to do what they donat want to do in order for them to become what theyave always wanted to become. Anyone who has gone through the rigors of training has no difficulty remembering the things they didnat want to do that the coach required them to do. Many aspiring athletes have dreamed of holding the championship trophy but have had nightmares remembering the aching muscles, the torn ligaments, the endless repet.i.tions, and the long hours on the treatment tables. There have been some whose natural talents were so huge that they thought they could make the grade on ability alone, only to discover that ability was not enough to carry them to the top.

So it is in life. Proverbs says, aTeach the wise, and they will be wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn morea (Prov. 9:9). The wise man is wise enough to know his own weaknesses, while the foolish man either refuses to acknowledge his faults or a.s.sumes he can succeed in life without paying attention to them. The wise man in his wisdom has learned so much that he recognizes how much there is to learn and how much he doesnat know. By contrast, the foolish man either thinks he knows it all or a.s.sumes that he knows enough, and what he doesnat know wonat hurt him. Wise men are open to correction; in fact, athe wise, when rebuked, will love you all the more.a That is not the case with those who mock at learning: aDonat bother rebuking mockers; they will only hate youa (9:8).

Of course, wise men arenat born wise. Somewhere they heeded and responded to the invitation, aLeave your foolish ways behind, and begin to live; learn how to be wisea (9:6). No doubt many of them had formerly subscribed to Follyas enticements and believed, aStolen water is refreshing; food eaten in secret tastes the besta (9:17). The adventure of eating forbidden fruit was so exhilarating, the joy of cutting corners to achieve easy results so smart, the dishonest practices that had outwitted the honest paid such rich dividends, that the foolish didnat see the deadening of the soul, the downward spiral of character.

But where to start being smart? aFear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in understandinga (9:10). Get to know the Lord, and you get to know yourself. In so doing, you learn how to learn and you never stop learning.

February 26

TO READ: Psalm 12:1-8

Endangered Species

Help, O LORD, for the G.o.dly are fast disappearing! The faithful have vanished from the earth!

Psalm 12:1

When Portuguese sailors arrived at the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean in 1507, they saw a large, rather clumsy bird called the dodo. It weighed approximately fifty pounds, had a huge black bill and blue-gray plumage. But it had one fatal shortcominga"it couldnat fly. Its short stubby wings were not made for aviation. This may well have contributed to its demise. Long before we began to think about endangered species, the dodo had disappeared entirely and only fragmented remains of the bird are to be found as relics in European museums. Hence the expression, aAs dead as the dodo.a The dodo was not one of the most beautiful birds in G.o.das creation, but it is sad that it became extinct. It had a role to play, and in its demise the whole of creation is a little poorer. While environmentalists have worked hard to preserve disappearing species, often to the chagrin of land developers, the steady march of aprogressa has contributed to the relentless trend of environmental regress. The dodo is not the only thing that is dead for ever.

David worried about another possible endangered species. He called out, aHelp, O Lord, for the G.o.dly are fast disappearing! The faithful have vanished from the earth!a (Ps. 12:1). No doubt we can grant David some poetic license herea"the faithful have not completely vanished from the earth. But from where he was standing, he was beginning to wonder. The trends were all in the wrong direction.

David specifically mentioned the issue of lying. aNeighbors lie to each other, speaking with flattering lips and insincere heartsa (12:2). He talked about athis lying generationa and grieved not only that the people thought truth was irrelevant, but also that they brazenly said, aWe will lie to our heartsa content. Our lips are our owna"who can stop us?a (12:4).

G.o.dly people donat lie, because they believe that truth is precious and that people are important. The person who lies demeans the one lied to. Lying is designed to gain an advantage or to avoid valid repercussions of wrongdoing. G.o.dly people think too highly of others to want to gain an unfair advantage over them, and they know that wrongdoing has consequences which they should rightfully bear. So they donat lie.

In our day, as in Davidas, truth is not honored, lying is endemic, relationships are being destroyed, society is fragmenting, G.o.dliness is discounted, and the future looks bleak. We should pray, aHelp, O Lord, the G.o.dly are an endangered species!a And we should seek to live truthfully ourselves.

February 27

TO READ: Philippians 1:27a"2:4

Get a Life

But whatever happens to me, you must live in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ, as citizens of heaven. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing side by side, fighting together for the Good News.

Philippians 1:27

It is possible to make a good living without putting together a great life, to work hard at providing all the ingredients of a comfortable existence without bringing them all together in a life of purpose and significance. It is possible to spend a major part of your life asking, aWhat is the point of all this?a and waiting to retire with the hope, aNow I can get a life.a A real life starts long before that!

A good life, like a cla.s.sical symphony, has a major theme. This theme will work its way throughout the piece of music in a variety of forms. Sometimes it fades into the background, only to reappear later with renewed force and fresh expression.

Paulas basic theme for the Philippians was, aYou must live in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ, as citizens of heavena (Phil. 1:27). At that time, many of the people living in Philippi were Romans. Rome was their home; Philippi was a distant colony in which they were required to work and live. These people would have had no difficulty recognizing Paulas a.n.a.logy. Since they had embraced the Good News, they had become acitizens of heaven,a with temporary residence in the colony of earth. Their hearts belonged to heaven although their homes were on earth. Their longings and aspirations, their goals and their affections were rooted in eternity, although of necessity they were residing in time.

This core allegiance showed in the Philippiansa willingness to take a stand for what they believed. Paul expected to find them astanding side by side, fighting together for the Good Newsa (1:27). He wanted them to be willing to put their lives on the line and to recognize that in Christ they had found a cause worth living for and, accordingly, one worth dying for. They understood the aprivilege of sufferinga for Christ (1:29). They were not alonea"they lived constantly in the presence of the risen Christ. They experienced great aencouragement from belonging to Christ,a much acomfort from his love,a and afellowship together in the Spirita (2:1). They were learning not to be aselfisha or concerned about making an aimpression,a and what it means to be genuinely ahumblea and ainterested in others, too, and what they are doinga (2:3-4).

All this was because the Philippians had grasped the wonder of Christas self-humbling to the point of the Cross, which provided for them the wonderful model of how to get a life. You give your life to G.o.d, as Jesus did, and then he gives it back filled with himself. Thatas the difference between making a living and getting a life.

February 28

TO READ: Philippians 2:5-18

A Dark World

You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of G.o.d in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them.

Philippians 2:15

Alexander Pope, the crippled eighteenth-century poet, wrote gloomy verse describing his world as he saw it.

Religion blushing veils her sacred fires, And unawares Morality expires.

Not public flame, nor private dares to shine; Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!

Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored; Light dies before thy uncreated word; Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall, And universal darkness buries all.12 The apostle Paul and Alexander Pope possibly held similar views of the worldas darkness, but Paul did not content himself with writing gloomy verse about it. He saw the darkness as a chance to shine! Paul encouraged his friends, aYou are to live clean, innocent lives as children of G.o.d in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before thema (Phil. 2:15). Some men content themselves with cursing the darkness, but Paul challenged it.

How are men to shine in a dark world? First of all, it is matter of downright obedience. aLet your lives shinea is not a suggestiona"it is an order! In his absence from them, Paul instructed his friends, aBe even more careful to put into action G.o.das saving work in your lives, obeying G.o.d with deep reverence and feara (2:12). The problem for many people is that the fear of perverse people outweighs the fear of the Lord, and the pull of the darkness is more powerful than the adesire to obey hima (2:13). Even if the fear of people and the pull of darkness can be overcome, how does one find the strength to live aclean, innocent livesa in such a polluted atmosphere?