ATTAINING WISDOM
Wisdom and knowledge are precious gifts:
∑ Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech. (Proverbs 2:9-12; ESV)
From where does wisdom come? The preceding verses in Proverbs explain:
∑ If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. (Proverbs 2:3-8)
Wisdom and knowledge are truly sweet. Today, I was observing birds flying back-and-forth, against the wind and with it. They soared and dived in what seemed to be an effortless display of ease.
The wind was so fierce that I could hardly ride my bike against it, yet these birds were clearly reveling in its fierceness. Despite their diminutive size, they seemed to navigate the wind without a hitch. What knowledge did they have that I lacked? Whatever this knowledge was, they were able to convert what I had experienced as a major obstacle into a source of pleasure.
The wisdom that comes from God also enables us to fruitfully navigate the winds of life. Why then isn’t everyone pursuing wisdom?
Wisdom comes with a price-tag. Wisdom requires that, in order to receive her, we must step out into the light of self-examination, something that few are willing and able to do. Proverbs informs us that wisdom comes with a rebuke. It tells us what is wrong with ourselves:
∑ “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.” (Proverbs 1:22-23)
I too hated knowledge. I couldn’t bear to see myself as I truly was. Instead, I too was a “scoffer.” I built myself up by subtly putting others down. I caused pain but had convinced myself that I was entitled to do this.
I certainly wasn’t open to wisdom’s “reproof.” Instead, I wanted to be complemented not disparaged. While I wanted wisdom (and even had convinced myself that I had wisdom), it was unattainable as long as I continued to love the darkness and hid from the light.
Why do we have to go through pain to acquire wisdom? If we cannot see ourselves, we cannot see anyone else. If we refuse to understand ourselves, how are we going to understand others? If we are blind to ourselves, then we remain blind to everything else! Why? Because we are the lens through which we see life! If the lens remains dirty, it will obscure everything we attempt to see.
How did my blindness turn into sight? My Savior had to humble me, showing me how pathetic I had been and how He was my only hope:
∑ Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor. The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace. (Proverbs 3:34-35)
He had to first break me in order to heal me. If we want wisdom, we have to first pray that God will show us how in need we are of His wisdom. I had to be utterly broken in order to see the light and to come to the light:
∑ The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. (Proverbs 15:31-33)
No pain, no gain. King David recognized this fact and confessed:
∑ It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. (Psalm 119:71-72)
By His precious mercies, I can now say the same thing.
CHRISTIAN DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE
The Mosaic Covenant had permitted divorce:
∑ Deuteronomy 24:1 (ESV) When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house.
Understandably, there had been a lot of disagreement among the rabbis regarding the phrase “some indecency in her.” Did it mean that divorce should be sanctioned for any reason? This was exactly the question they brought to Jesus, who answered:
∑ Matthew 19:4-6 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Did Jesus’ answer mean that there were absolutely no grounds for divorce? However, afterwards, He did mention an exception:
∑ Matthew 19:9 (ESV) And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Earlier, Jesus had articulated this same exception:
∑ Matthew 5:32 (ESV) But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Some commentators suggest that “sexual immorality” also pertains to sexual sins other than adultery. Paul adds an additional exception:
∑ 1 Corinthians 7:15 (ESV) But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
It would seem that, in these cases, the divorced party is now free to remarry. These exceptions represent the understanding that, if the marriage contract has been violated in these ways, the violated party is free from any obligations to it. Why? Because covenants are not always absolutely binding! Paul illustrated this:
∑ Romans 7:2-4 (ESV) For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law [covenant] of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
Does adultery (and perhaps other forms of sexual unfaithfulness) free the violated party from his/her covenantal obligations to the marriage? Death of the spouse certainly frees the surviving party from these obligations. I tend to think that if the marriage has been violated through sexual unfaithfulness or abandonment (by the unbeliever), it means that the husband has already dissolved the marriage covenant and there remains no obligation on the part of the spouse. It seems to be like any contract. If the buyer refuses to pay for the product, the provider is not under any obligation to send it. How else are we to understand the above-mentioned “exception clauses!”
