Day 47, Year 1 Listen Attentively to Wisdom

“Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding.” (Proverbs 2:2 NASB)

One of John’s missions was to turn “the disobedient to the wisdom of the just” (Luke 1:17 NKJV). The key to this process is to listen to the wisdom of God’s justice. But how do sinners truly listen to the wisdom of the righteous? Sometimes, those who rebel against God have to experience the consequences of rebellion before they are willing to turn to just wisdom. Alternatively, some might see the good fruit of righteousness, and thus decide to follow the righteous to learn wisdom. Or some might realize their lack of wisdom and be willing to seek it. Besides, we could be moved by the Spirit to turn from rebellion to obeying God and listening  to His righteous wisdom.

“Make … attentive” in today’s verse, qashab in Hebrew, also translates to “incline to, pay attention, listen, or heed, etc.” “Incline” in Hebrew is natah, which means “to stretch out, spread out, bend down.” This verse describes the state of eagerly learning and practicing the truth when seeking understanding and focusing on wisdom. Indeed, we need to open our minds to reach and listen to what we don’t want to hear so as to grow in faith. Conversely, people who only listen to what they find agreeable or pleasurable would surely have difficulty advancing their faith.

For rebellious people to cross the boundary and listen to the just, requires a great deal of courage. Since two types of people, one obeying God while the other against Him, live in two different value systems and ways of life. Hence, it takes a lot of effort for people from two different worlds to understand each other. Today’s verse encourages us not to assume we have all the wisdom, but to incline our ears to the wisdom; while not thinking we already understand everything, but to open our hearts to understand divine justice and wisdom. “Make your ear attentive to wisdom …” calls us to be humble and open in heart and mind to understand God’s words, and to live a life with His wisdom. I believe learning wisdom from the Bible, for most of us, is essentially a kind of cross-cultural learning. We need to change our mindsets and turn from the rebellious to the righteous who obey God. Then, we need to replace our inner foolishness and closed-mindedness, if any, with wisdom and understanding, making the right changes in our attitudes and values—this is often the very first step in repentance. Moreover, the righteous need to understand the rebellious so as to help them effectively.  It can be seen from this that the wisdom of the righteous and the thinking of the rebel are incompatible, if not opposite. However, I believe that the wisdom of the righteous man is sufficient to facilitate this kind of cross-cultural learning and constructive dialogue.

Reflection questions:

1) Is there any difficulty in opening your heart and mind to reach out and learn more wisdom and understanding? If so, how would you overcome it?

2) Do you think it is more difficult to learn the wisdom of the righteous or to understand the thoughts of the rebellious? If either one is, how could you attain it with the help of God?