“Get wisdom!” Those famous words were spoken by King Solomon in the book of Proverbs. Someone once noted that to acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. So, let’s observe…
A famous columnist, Max Stone, was found deceased at his manual typewriter, fatally stabbed in the back. His agent, Roger, found his dead body when he checked on Max to find out why he hadn’t submitted his latest column. He immediately called the police who noticed that Max had been writing his column when he was killed; the last thing typed was “49t34 w5qgg3e j3.” It appeared a random string of numbers & letters created when his body slumped dead onto the typewriter.
The police questioned the people closest to Max and found several suspects: Marisa – the ex-wife, who had been fuming over alimony payments; Max’s current girlfriend – a gold-digger; and Max’s brother Gerald – who had dated Marisa before Max stole her away from him. The police quickly ended the investigation and made an arrest. So – be wise here – can you figure out who killed Max?
Answer: Max’s agent – Roger – did the dastardly deed. The police looked at Max’s last written message again and discovered that the columnist had typed out the identity of his murderer, but his fingers had been just one line up on the keys from where they should have been. Instead of writing, “Roger stabbed me,” he had written “49t34 w5qgg3e j3.” So clever! Did you get it??
Solomon had a similar puzzle to figure out. He is said to be the wisest man in the Bible – a gift from God. The Lord appeared to Solomon one night in a dream and told him, “Ask for whatever you want Me to give you.” Instead of asking for riches or fame, Solomon requested wisdom: “So give Your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” God was so pleased with Solomon’s request that He also gave him wealth & honor – “So that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.” Wow! Talk about the favor of God!
Solomon’s first challenge came as a dispute between two women – both had recently given birth to sons, but during the night one woman accidentally rolled over on her baby, killing him. So, she pulled a “switcharoo” and swapped out her dead baby for her friends living baby, now claiming the live baby was hers. What would Solomon do?
Solomon’s response was to cut the child in two. He gave orders to get the sword. One woman agreed but the real mother shouted an immediate, “NO!” She would give up her precious, sweet baby before seeing him killed. The baby was hers! It was profound wisdom on Solomon’s part.
Down through the ages, wisdom & knowledge have been highly prized and the mark of wisdom for many has been the number of books they possessed. In fact, there was once a man in the 10th century named Abdul Ismael – a ruler in Persia – who had a library that consisted of 117,000 volumes. Adbul loved his books so much he traveled with them. He used 400 camels which were loaded with his library and these canals walked in an alphabetical order so that he could obtain the volumes he wished at a moment’s notice. Thankfully, today we know that wisdom isn’t measured by the number of books we own.
And – the Bible actually tells us there are two kinds of wisdom. There’s a wisdom that comes from heaven (God) and a worldly wisdom. Worldly wisdom limits our vision and thoughts to the things on this earth, which are temporal – ignoring eternal values of God, which always lead to life!
Solomon wrote often about wisdom: “How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!” And, his best one-liner: “Blessed are those who find wisdom!”
But how to get it? James 1:5 instructs us with this: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously…and it will be given to you.” It all starts with God!! All of it.
Bob and Susan Beckett pastor The Dwelling Place City Church at 27100 Girard Street in Hemet, CA. For more information, you may contact them at DPCitychurch.org