More about Wisdom...

'Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding...Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand riches and honour.' Proverbs 3: 13, 16
 

The Bible says in Proverbs 4: 7 that 'Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.'

Wisdom is, therefore, something to pursue.

So what is this wisdom?

In a recent post I drew our attention to King Solomon who, as a young man, was faced with a God who was giving Him the greatest of opportunities. In 1 Kings 3: 5 it is recorded that God Himself in all His glory and power was standing before Solomon in a dream and was saying 'Ask what you wish Me to give you.'
Solomon asked wisely and requested an 'understanding heart' so that he could judge the people of God and God granted him his request for wisdom and with 'it' gave him riches and honour.

Solomon had riches and honour, he had the left hand of wisdom but he didn't have the right hand.
In 1 Kings 3: 14 God said to Solomon that 'if you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments...then I will prolong (lengthen) your days.'
Solomon, sadly, was under the Old Covenant and so the terms of his walk were conditional upon him walking in the ways, statutes and commandments of God and history records that Solomon was unable to do it.
Solomon had the left hand of wisdom but not the right hand.

So what about you?
If you believe in Jesus, as this is the ONLY commandment that you have (1 John 3: 23), then you are under the New Covenant.
Under the New Covenant Jesus Himself is the 'right hand' and therefore to pursue wisdom is to pursue Jesus.
HE is our wisdom!
When we have Him we possess the two hands of wisdom. Those that possess the two hands have length of days and riches and honour.

Now how do we 'pursue wisdom'?
You cannot earn wisdom. You cannot deserve it. You cannot study for it and receive it as a certificate. You cannot buy it.

Wisdom, that is Jesus Himself, ONLY comes by His unmerited favour, His grace, that which we don't deserve but comes purely on the basis of the love of God and under the terms and conditions of the New Covenant, ratified in the blood of Jesus, which says 'their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more' (Hebrews 8: 12) the foundation upon which God says He will 'put, write and be' our God (Hebrews 8: 10).
Oh the freedom of this! Can you receive it? This is freedom.
No longer relying on me and what I do or don't do but TOTALLY and UNDENIABLY relying on Him, our Jesus, and His finished and completed work at the cross. There He bore my sin once and for all and in His shed blood I am the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5: 21).
There are many religions in the world and they all have factors that make them interesting, maybe even desriable, but none have the eternal factor of the person of Jesus. He is the difference. As we appropriate Him we rise above the religions into the difference that is Christianity (because as I have said before Christianity and religion ARE NOT the same).

So receive the word of God.
Pursue wisdom for this is the principal thing...what is wisdom?
Wisdom is the person of Jesus.
Pursue Him, He is EVERYTHING!
Beloved, this is the day of the Lord's favour (Luke 4: 19), this is the day of Grace, this is the day of Receiving, this is the day of sitting in the place of rest (Ephesians 2: 6), this is the day that the Lord has made...why do you strive so hard to achieve wisdom?
No longer is the command to do, or don't, but simply to believe.

Receive Him and in the receiving receive the promise of the two hands...length of days and riches and honour.
They are yours to take...do not walk by the blessings that litter your life and pursue an alloyed 'religion' mixing law and grace.
Throw out the law and receive the grace...receive Him who is everything, receive Jesus Christ.

God bless your day.