The Source (Proverbs 8:22-36)

Many people across our country have been watching the devastation caused by the fires in Southern California … which have been described as apocalyptic. 

Entire sections of towns and cities have been completely destroyed.  As I was preparing my sermon over 10,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed.

The fire has burned over 37,000 acres — which is almost 50 square miles …

However, the amount of destruction is beyond comprehension …  you see the pictures and videos and all you see is chimneys where there was once houses. 

Quite frankly it reminded me of the pictures of Tokyo following the firebombing of the city during WWII or Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bombs. 

The fire fighters have labored to try to get these fires under control … but they have been limited by circumstances that are beyond their control … 

… so many people are casting blame — and rightly so — at the politicians in California … where decisions that they have made over the years have resulted in some the consequences that they are now facing.

I believe that it is a combination of things that SHOULD have been done … and things that WERE done.

Will the people of California … keep electing the same people?? … I don’t know … but I doubt that they will change..

It reminds me of the Biblical account of the Exodus. 

God had just delivered His people from Egypt by doing miraculous things … including the Passover … and they get to the Red Sea and complain to Moses … “weren’t there enough graves in Egypt that you had to bring us out here to die?”

It’s like the definition of insanity … doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result!

Regardless of who is at fault … the people need our prayers … those brave fire-fighters … and the people who have lost all … material possessions … and irreplaceable memories.

However … as we know … hindsight is always 20/20 … but I really believe that the root of it all is that people think that they know better than God in what they should do … or ignore Him altogether.

In situations like this … I often think of Romans 1 where it tells us that the wrath of God comes because people serve the created thing … rather than the Creator.  

And then I look to the Scriptures to see where true knowledge comes from.

A couple of verses in Proverbs really stand out …

Proverbs 1:7 says: ““The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”” … and 

Proverbs 9:10 says: ““The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”” 

What we see clearly is that true wisdom and true knowledge begins with God … and we see that the two are essentially synonymous … 

Someone could have a long list of degrees by their name … but if their knowledge and wisdom does not begin with God … if it is not rooted in God’s Word … then it really isn’t knowledge and wisdom.

… in fact … it says they are fools. (I could say that looking at the politicians in California that is good definition of them … but I won’t say it!)

And so we read:  ““The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge … ““The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.””

Now … when the Scriptures talk about “the fear of God” … it does not mean that we are afraid of the terror of God … it does not mean living in fear of punishment or the wrath of God … although that is definitely there …

… but reverence and awe IN God and OF God … thinking always about who He is and what He has done … ESPECIALLY in two aspects … in creation and in our salvation.

The introduction to the book of Proverbs makes this perfectly clear.  As we read:

““The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding,  To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion — A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,   To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles.”” … 

… with the concluding words of the introduction, 1:7 that I read: ““The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.””

But then in Proverbs 1:8 … we see the context of all that is to follow in the book of Proverbs: 

““My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother; For they will be a graceful ornament on your head, And chains about your neck.””

Here we see the analogy of parents giving instruction and direction to their children … because they only want the best for them.

God only wants the best for His children.

You have heard me say this multiple times … that God has not only created this world that we live in … but has given us the instruction manual on how to live in the world that He has created … and how to gain access to the world to come — eternity in heaven — through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This truth is no where more clear than in the book of Proverbs … which gives us the practical application of living in God’s World.

True knowledge and wisdom means following things as written down for us in the Book of Proverbs.

This knowledge and wisdom has been there BEFORE the dawn of creation.

Consider our Old Testament lesson from Proverbs 8:22-23:

““The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.””

What we should clearly see is that those who deny creation … those who deny Genesis 1:1: ““In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”” … do NOT have true wisdom and knowledge.

If you deny creation … and just to be clear … I personally believe in 6 day creation … then everything else in God’s creation falls apart …

If there is no creation … there is no Adam and Eve …

If there is no creation … there is no entrance of sin into the world …

If there is no creation … there’s no need for Jesus.

It’s like the bumper sticker … life is tough and then you die!

But … because we believe in creation … consider what Proverbs 8 continues to say:

““When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was brought forth; While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, Or the primal dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep, When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight,””

Wisdom … true knowledge … was already in existence when all these different acts in creation too place.

It never ceases to amaze me that people can look at the created world … and deny a Creator.

It never ceases to amaze me that people can look at the vastness of the universe … and deny a Creator.

It never ceases to amaze me that people can look at the human body … and deny a Creator.

Just think about the human heart … it beats on average … 100,000 times PER DAY … which translates to 2.5 BILLION times in the average life span.

The heart … is a wonder machine … and people think that we just evolved … I think not!

And those who know a lot more than me … tell us that it is mathematically impossible for humans to have evolved from nothing … and yet many still believe it … because they refuse to see God in His Creation.

Again .. as Romans 1 tells us the reason for God’s wrath … ““For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, …””

So … as Christians … what does this all mean for us?

First … and I believe … foremost … we need to be thankful … eternally thankful that God has revealed His creation to us.  

As I have said numerous times in my tenure here at St. Peters’s … it is God who has chosen us … 

It is God who has given us salvation.

I again read the familiar words in Ephesians 1: 

““Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.””

And Peter … in his introduction to his first letter tells us what we have received :

““Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,”” 

And then in addressing Christians in general … Peter describes our status before God and in the world … and says:

““But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”” 

There is the fact that we know God through His Son … the Lord Jesus Christ … that we have been adopted into His family … and are recipients of all the benefits and blessings of our salvation … 

So … YES … we NEED to be thankful … that God … through His Holy Spirit has called us out of darkness into the light of His salvation.

As a result of God calling us … we are then … as the Scriptures say … to walk worthy of the calling that we have received .

Whether we like it or not … we are on display to the world around us … the non-Christian world who is looking us … what we do … what we don’t do … how we act … how we react … what we say … what we don’t say …

But that brings to those who don’t know Christ as Savior and Lord … maybe our children … other family members … co-workers … neighbors … anyone in our circle of people that we know …

We need to pray for them … we need to pray that God would give us the opportunity to tell them about the Christ who came to earth … to die and rose from the dead for the sins of those who believe in him as Savior … and that God would open their hearts and minds so that they can receive His salvation.

I know that I have said on numerous occasions … we don’t know what the next moment will bring!

But think about those in California … or in North Carolina and other afflicted areas … where one minute they are going about their daily lives … and the next minute … all that they have acquired is gone … sometimes even their lives.

As Christians … we know that even if we lost everything materially … we still have our relationship to God through the Lord Christ … and that is something that no one can take away from us. 

So my friends … again … let us be thankful … and let us pray for those who don’t know Christ as Savior and Lord.