WISDOM AND FOLLY (1)
[p. 262] WISDOM AND FOLLY (1)
It is very interesting, though humbling, to note carefully the history of each year. We are told “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness” (Deuteronomy 8: 2). We are to remember how we have been constrained by wisdom, or turned aside by the world, for there are these two currents running side by side of us.
Wisdom (see Proverbs 9) is assiduous in inviting us to the festival where Christ is the centre of everything, and where there is joy unspeakable; the Hebron - the resting place of His love - the only spot where the heart of God can be fully satisfied, because there only could we be in full undistracted enjoyment of His presence. There they begin to be merry.
Love has reached us in the depth of misery, but it is not satisfied until it has seated us in the circle where wisdom orders everything. It has done its most in entering into death for us; and it has done its best in setting us in glory where every item is the perfection of wisdom. One cry (that of wisdom) is ever inviting us to regale ourselves in these supreme delights.
The Lord points out in Luke 14 how natural mercies (the ground, the oxen, the wife), and natural ties, our relations, and even our own life, may draw us aside from the great supper - the festival of accomplished grace.
May you ever be accepting this constant, pressing invitation. It involves separation in a world of evil. The path of faith always begins with the evening, but breaks out into day. You must, when attending to the voice of wisdom, “Forsake the foolish, and live”; but in the end you will find, “by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased” (Proverbs 9: 6, 11). The other cry - the world, invites us, passengers who go right on their way, by something alluring, something pleasant, not righteously acquired: the very opposite [p. 263] to wisdom, which requires self-denial at first. May you be greatly entertained by wisdom this coming year. “Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her” (Proverbs 4: 8). The two cries are ever sounding in our ears, and as we are in the light, and on the wing, we are preserved from the snare of the fowler.