September 8

Sep 8 - Today from Proverbs 8 we look at verse 8

"All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse."

Anyone who has ever taken a very young child fishing should get a sense of the picture the Teacher is presenting here. The fish-line serves the purpose of connecting the control end of the vehicle (rod & reel), to the business end of the vehicle (hook and bait). When the child properly follows instructions, they should eventually enjoy the thrill of catching their first fish. More often than not, the child watches the adult cast and thinks that might be more fun. Soon there is whining voice, pleading for help. The adult turns his attention to the child only to discover that there is something drastically wrong between the control end and the business end - a big knotted snarl of fish-line. The frustrated adult may be able to identify the two ends, but to follow the line through the snarl is impossible. Often in such cases I have found the pocket-knife to be the best solution. (Maybe the zoo wasn't such a bad idea after all.)
Verses 1-3 of Proverbs 8 identifies who is speaking in verses 4-36; it is wisdom personified. If wisdom was given a personality and was enabled to speak, this is what she would say about herself. All of her words would be 'just'. This adjective speaks of moral equity and righteousness. The antithesis of 'just' would be 'crooked or perverse'. These adjectives also bear looking at. In the Hebrew, crooked gives us the picture of winding and twisting. The word perverse goes even farther, it gives us the picture of a knot. Thus, from the contrast of the adjectives we can gather that those who embrace wisdom not only understand things the way God meant them to be, but they are committed to honestly pursue living out that understanding. Those who understand God's purposes but would rather live for themselves tend to twist and turn God's Word in order to have it fit their self-serving desires. Eventually their reasoning ends up in a knot - a snarl which is so bound up that it becomes impossible to follow the reasoning from where it begins to where it ends.
Our 'reasoning' is meant to connect us from the control end (God's Word), to the business end (our service). When we consistently apply wisdom to our reasoning (“trust in the Lord with all your heart”), sooner or later we will enjoy the fruit of our labors. We get into trouble when we begin to twist what God has said in order to fit our own scenarios (“lean not on your own understanding”). We begin to add to His Word to make it flex a little more. We begin to subtract from His Word in order to give us a little more wiggle room. Pretty soon our reasoning is so knotted and snarled that it becomes impossible to follow. Moral justice and righteousness is not that complicated. It is our fallen nature that complicates it. We were created to be worshipers of God and servants of one another. That's what Jesus lived and taught. He is the Word that became flesh (John 1:14). He and the Word agree - always. He warned us that there are dire consequences in adding to or taking from His Word (Revelation 22:18, 19). When we do, we get things snarled between the control and the business ends. Jesus has called us to be fishers of men. He has provided the ‘proper rod, reel and bait’ to accomplish it. We are to keep the line from getting snarled by applying wisdom.