Inclining Our Heart

“My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,

Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding…” 

--Proverbs 2:1-2

As we grow in Christ, one thing that will always be apparent is our need for wisdom from God. We must recognize our own complete deficiency of understanding in every matter of life and, therefore, cling closely to the Word of God.

How do we make ourselves more apt to learn from God’s Word? One answer is given in Proverbs 2:1-2, where Solomon instructed his hearer in this regard. Solomon gives us two pieces of counsel to help us apprehend the precious truth of God’s word and commandments.

First, Solomon told his hearer to ‘make his ear attentive to wisdom.’ According to a biblical worldview, no one is able to grow wise on their own. At the very least, a wise person must be willing to listen to advisers and mentors who can direct them to God’s way. This requires that every wise person listen to wisdom. Solomon instructed us to make our ears attentive to wisdom—that means that we must diligently seek it out and pursue it. We must expend energy to pay attention when we hear wise speech, and upon hearing we must also actively ponder what we have heard. Our ear must attend to wisdom, not give it a cursory audition. We must devote our ears to hearing what is wise.

Second, Solomon wisely told us to ‘incline our hearts to understanding.’ This means that our internal posture must be predisposed to desire understanding and knowledge. In our heart and our mind, we must be strongly desirous of gaining insight. In order to do this, we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, recognizing that we are not wise of ourselves and that we need help. We must desire that help, even when it takes the form of correction and rebuke (for the contrast, see 1:25 and 1:30). Our inner man must be predisposed to heeding wisdom—and this predisposition can only come from God’s humbling Spirit.

In light of this, let us cry out once again for the help of God in order to grow in Christ. This is something that we cannot do on our own (cf. John 15:1-5), but God is gracious to help us once He humbles us (James 4:6-10).

--Dean of Admissions

Ritualism

It is odd that we often think of the Old Testament as supporting a type of ritualistic religion, because such a view could hardly be farther from the text. We picture the ancient Hebrew religion as one that seeks to serve God via the performance of established duties yet that lacks internal principles of worship. When we examine the Scriptures we see that this is certainly not the case.

An examination of God’s Word shows that He did clearly value the rituals which He commanded the Israelites to perform. Such acts as the Day of Atonement, Sabbath rituals, and sacrifices were established by God as the preferred means of serving Him. When these duties were left undone, there were blameworthy motives present in the people that always led to apostasy or discipline. God valued the rituals that He established.

On the other hand, these rituals were never divorced from the internal acts of worship that we often think of as related to worship in Christ. This can be clearly seen in many places; Isaiah chapter 1 is a perfect example.

Isaiah rebukes the people of his day for their failures to worship God rightly. He uses strong language of condemnation to demonstrate that their failures were not just slight shortfalls, but rather a complete abandonment of God’s principles.

Specifically, he says that they have continued to perform the ritualistic duties that God established but that they have refused to worship God in their inner persons. Look at his words: “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” (v. 11). Isaiah refers to their burning incense (v. 13), new moon and Sabbath rituals (v. 13), the blood of different types of animals (v. 11), and their multiplied prayers (v. 15). In every way, it seems that they were abundantly obeying God’s commands to perform these rituals…and at the same time, utterly failing to perform them. How can this be?

This was the case because they had abandoned the true worship of God in righteous obedience—not the perfect obedience that could save them, for that was impossible (cf. Is. 64:6)—but in the true yielding of their whole selves to His purpose and saving intent. They no longer regarded His law as worth their attention (cf. 1:16-17), they failed to know God (1:2-3), they turned away from God instead of toward Him (1:4). Everything about them had been corrupted (1:5-8), but they did not have the sense to seek His forgiveness (1:18-20). They did not understand that it was not the rituals that mattered, it was the God who gave the rituals who mattered most, and without whom they were left bankrupt and hopeless.

We must understand that the danger of this sort of false religion extended beyond Isaiah’s day. Even Jesus used Isaiah’s words to rebuke the Pharisees of the first century (Matt. 15:8, from Is. 29:13). We must watch that our religion has not become mere outward zeal—if it does not penetrate to the depths of our person and our understanding, it will be worthless ritualism that cannot save, and that can only damn. Worship must be in spirit and in truth, both in the inner person and the outer person. It is with this kind of religion that we may truly know God, and knowing Him, we may serve Him rightly. May the Lord grant us a right heart of worship!

--Dean of Admissions

Wisdom's Target

When God speaks, to whom does He speak? When God provides wisdom, to whom does He provide it?

It seems intuitive that God intends to bless the naïve and youths with wisdom, because those are the two groups that especially need it. God blesses them by giving them His word which contains wise principles and instructions. We should all be mindful to bless those younger and less mature than us with the wisdom which God has given us.

At the same time, we must be careful to define our opening questions according to God’s Word. Sometimes God does surprising things; He does things that seem counterintuitive to us as fallen human beings. This is a case like that.

The book of Proverbs is arguably the greatest single body of direct wisdom writing in the Scriptures (though all of the words of God demonstrate His wisdom, without a doubt). Proverbs is targeted wisdom, directing us how to live before God in a wise and righteous manner. To whom is the book of Proverbs addressed?

We see, just as we expected, that in Proverbs 1:4 the author says his words are directed to the naïve and to the youth. What we may not have expected is that he also wrote Proverbs for the “wise man” and the “man of understanding,” that is, for those people who had advanced far in the wisdom enterprise (cf. 1:5). Think about the implications of this for a moment.

What this means is that God’s Word (in this case the book of Proverbs) is something that we can never outgrow. We will always need the wisdom of God to help us understand the world in which we live. We will always need God’s wise instructions to help us live a life that pleases Him (cf. 2 Cor. 5:9, Eph. 5:10). Whatever our stage in life or maturity, we must rely on the Lord.

Whether we are wise or naïve, old or young, let us humble ourselves underneath the mighty hand of God. Let us submit to His Word in joy, trusting that our God knows best, and ever growing in reliance on Him. Truly, He is good to help us (Prov. 3:5-6).

--Dean of Admissions

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

               --Solomon the Son of David, King of Israel

               Proverbs 1:7