Not Just For Warning

“For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.” (Ec 7:12 AV)

 This verse is extremely profound.  Let me paint you a picture.  You are sitting in service after service listening to biblical preaching but all it seems to be is warning against foolishness or sin.  There is nothing wrong with these types of messages.  We need them more than any other.  Or, suppose you are sitting in school and all you hear about is the consequences for bad choices.  Again, much needed.  Not a waste of time at all.  However, if all we hear are the consequences for bad choices, we fail to see there is another side of the coin.  Wisdom keeps us from bad choices.  This is the first part of the verse.  This is a good thing.  Wisdom is a defense.  It keeps us from going to a place we should not.  However, the true excellency of wisdom is not that it keeps us from death.  Rather, wisdom gives life.  This is important to understand.  There is a two-fold nature of wisdom.  The first is that it keeps us from trouble.  The second is that wisdom gives life.  The second is better than the first.

It is important to know that avoiding evil opens up the possibilities of good.  We are often focused on what we cannot do and fail to see all that we can do.  There were many rules my father, in his wisdom, put in place for my siblings and I.  One of the rules was avoiding the mall unless chaperoned by a parent.  This was when malls were springing up everywhere.  It was a novelty.  We were not allowed in the arcade either.  Rather than complain about what we could or could not do, what my father did was to teach us how to fish.  He allowed us the ability of independence by requiring we purchase a ten-speed bike when we turned twelve.  This bike opened up all sorts of independent ventures of which my father would approve.  It was with my bicycle I went to ball practice and played in little league.  It was with my bike I went to the community pool.  It was with my bike I went to my friend's house.  It was with my bike another friend and I would trek over twelve miles to a reservoir.  It was with this bike I would go to the twin ponds, wide-waters, and the nine-mile Creek to fish.  It was with this bike my siblings and I would travel to the public school building to play handball, tennis, or twenty-one.  In other words, wisdom wasn’t merely to keep us from hanging with bad influences doing bad things at the mall or arcade.  Wisdom opened up a whole new life of pleasures and positive experiences.

God gives us the pattern.  In the Garden of Eden, He states, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Ge 2:16-17 AV)  Sure, wisdom would tell you to have a system of three points of contact while ascending and descending a ladder.  Wisdom may state a safety harness would be a smart thing or if we fall, a major hurt may be in our future.  Learning safety, however, opens up the skill set one can use later on to rock climb, repel, or a host of other opportunities.  Sure, as a pastor and parent, we want to teach those who follow that bad choices have bad consequences.  But we also desire, with the warning, to open up to the heart a myriad of other pleasures all within the confines of wisdom.  We are no different from Eve if we think wisdom is only for the discouragement of pleasures of life.  This is simply not so.  Wisdom is life itself!