Proverbs Experiment: Day Nine

Proverbs Chapter Nine:

Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get a smart retort. Anyone who rebukes the wicked will get hurt. So don't bother rebuking mockers, they will only hate you. But the wise, when rebuked, will love you all the more. (vs. 7-8)

I'm pretty sure we have all faced this situation before: arguments with someone that got you absolutely nowhere. No matter what you said, no matter how well-reasoned your argument was - the other person thought they were right.

Back in my early ministry days, I faced this on a regular basis with a guy I'll call Don.

Don knew everything about the Bible. He knew everything about Christianity. He knew what was right, what was wrong. His way of winning debates and arguments was to talk louder and faster than you. Don, when it was his turn to lead the singles group I was in, always picked some obscure passage in the Bible to talk about or some topic that was on his mind that the rest of us didn't really concern ourselves over, like the Masons or the OT sacrificial system. He would preach to us for about forty minutes, ask for questions, and then pick apart each person's question in a belittling, "I know more than you know" kind of way.

I will always remember hanging out with Don and some others at the local Dairy Queen one night after singles group. Usually I could avoid the one-on-one arguments that Don liked to have, but this time we both got our ice cream first. Don asked me a question starting with the phrase, "What do you think about...?" When I told him what I thought about it, he said, "That's the wrong answer," and then proceeded for the next five minutes to tell me what the right answer was. He did this for about half an hour until I mumbled something about needing to pick up something at the grocery store and made my exit. Don was the most conservative person politically I had ever met, and he labeled anyone who didn't agree with his political views as a "flaming liberal."

I hadn't thought of Don much over the last ten years, but when I was in Colorado, I happened to hear a news story on the radio about a high school kid who was suspended from school because he wore a "Nobama" shirt. When they interviewed the kid, and said his name (which is a very very unusual name), I knew it was Don's son. The words that came out of his mouth on the radio were exactly the words Don would have said ten years before.

Like father, like son. Sad, really.

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in understanding. (vs. 10)

Walter Brueggemann once said that wisdom ends in doxology (or praise), but then goes on to say this:

"only if long-term, patient, discerning attentiveness begins in the right way at the right place. In order to end in praise, wisdom must begin in obedience. "

To me, that's what fearing God is all about. That we show that we fear God by obeying what He tells us to do. In this passage, "fearing God" does not mean "to be afraid of," it means to show respect, awe and reverence for. We show that we respect God by doing what He has commanded us to do. And when we do these things, we show that we are wise and that we are making the right decisions in our life.