The ways of God, and therefore, the ways of earth, are
inscrutable. We are to use common sense
in this life but things that make perfect sense don’t always turn out the way
they should. Since sin entered the world
it is less orderly, less predictable, we need the wisdom of God, His counsel,
now more than in the beginning for this very reason. We cannot make truly right judgment based on
our own wisdom and knowledge alone, there are variables, unpredictability, that
we can never anticipate. Solomon knows
these things and is coming to the conclusion that if we are to make right
judgments we need heavenly guidance and wisdom.
We cannot even truly judge whether a thing is good or bad for we only
see in part concerning the thing whereas God alone sees the future and knows
truly whether the thing is ultimately good or not. We are to do our best here and in all things
know that God will determine the outcome of all things. Luther wrote, concerning ethics, “Sin boldly
but love God more.” His argument
understood that sin was inevitable because of the reality of the fall, we are
incapable of completely altruistic motives, so we should choose the right or
best action and move forward boldly in and for the love of God. Solomon would agree here that we are to use
the best information available to us, act on it, and leave the rest to the
Lord.
Why did Jesus ask the disciples who He was and then charge
them not to tell anyone? The one thing
they would all have wanted to tell everyone is that they had been right to
hitch their wagons to Him, He was indeed the Messiah and He said so
Himself. As always in the Gospels, the
time had not yet come for such proclamation, His work was not complete and the
world had to first conclude that He was not the Messiah but instead a
pretender. Abraham and his family had to
wait 400+ years to inherit the Promised Land because the Canaanites sin was not
yet complete and had not filled the land with abomination, the time had not yet
come. Until the sin of rejection of
Messiah had come He had not finished the work, there was still the opportunity
to accept Him on His merits. Common
sense and man’s judgment had to come based on evidence not testimony and in the
end it would find against God. Right
judgment failed.
Walk by the Spirit.
That is the one thing needful in this life if we are to serve Him and
glorify Him. If we walk by the flesh we
will consistently fail to make right judgments and take right action. We have that spirit available to us that
Solomon had when he walked in true wisdom but he chose to follow the flesh and
strayed from wisdom. Those
characteristics Paul speaks of in verses 19-21 as works of the flesh describe
the world around us. We are to be
different from the world and yet too often the world sees exactly those same
things in the church. How are you doing
on crucifying the passions and desires of the flesh? I have a long way to go.
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