Proverbs 8 -- Remember Those Tourist Trap Signs?

It’s not like wisdom hides itself from us.  “On the hilltops along the road and at the crossroads” reminds me of all the signs we used to see for at least a couple of miles before the tourist traps while on vacation.  If our parents weren’t reading them, the kids sure were!  Rather than touting tourist junk for sale, though, wisdom is shouting out, “Be smarter.  Get understanding.  Choose my teachings and knowledge.  Do what is right.  Follow the path of justice.  Listen to my teaching.  Don’t ignore it.”

 

There was one sentence, though, that really caught my eye in this chapter:  “If you respect the Lord, you will also hate evil.”

 

It should be like a coin toss – it either lands heads or tails.  You’ll never get a combination of the two.  Instead, I think all too often we feel that it’s okay every now and then to mix them.  “Sure, I respect God!  But I want to do this.”  We see no problem with both sides living in our souls.  But there is a problem.  God wants complete control.  (So does Satan, but he’ll settle for a little control and gladly work his way up.  After all, he’s all for anything that will spoil what God is doing.)

 

There’s an implication in that sentence, too.  If you don’t hate evil, then you aren’t respecting the Lord.  That tells us an awful lot.

 

Father, help me to resist any efforts to compromise, thinking that it is okay to allow evil in my life and still think I’m respecting You.  Just like those old signposts and billboards, keep shouting out Your wisdom to me all along the way.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford