Aug 27, 2019
by Joshua Coleman
Shiloh SDB Church, NJ
To start, I wanted to give a rundown of the past few years of Conference themes and messages starting from 2015, the last time we were in Lancaster. In that Conference, we talked about being “Steadfast” in our faith and asked God to purify our hearts and make us steadfast in Him. In the next year, we were in Houghton for “Faith, Family, and Education,” revisiting the pillars of our belief and asking God to return them if we have removed them. Following that year, we were in California for “Life on Mission.” There, we learned to live in God’s mission —live the way God wants us to live—no matter where we are. We met the following year in Wisconsin for “Less Talk, More Action” and learned to act more for God rather than just talking about acting for God.
Finally, we are back again in Lancaster in 2019 for “People Get Ready.” This theme was inspired by the words “the church is returning to the Sabbath.” What a day that will be, when the church returns to the Sabbath. I truly believe that God has been preparing Seventh Day Baptists for a time like that—for this time, later on, and the past. Therefore, I wanted to revisit some of the wisdom we have gathered and look at what the Bible says should be the basis for that wisdom.
Our scripture for today is in Proverbs 4. Proverbs was written by Solomon, the second good king of Israel and the third king overall. Solomon devoted his life to gaining more knowledge and wisdom. At one point, he decided to aggregate all the wisdom and knowledge he had gotten and put it in the book of Proverbs. In Proverbs 4, Solomon writes:
Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. 2 I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching. 3 For I too was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother. 4 Then he taught me, and he said to me, “Take hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands, and you will live. 5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. 6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. 8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. 9 She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.”
10 Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many. 11 I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. 12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble.
13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.
In this chapter we can see that Solomon is talking to his sons and is giving them the piece of wisdom that has guided both his life and his father’s life before him. That most important piece of wisdom is “get more wisdom.”
While I was reading this passage, an unexpected question popped into my head. I was wondering, how does wisdom protect us in the way that Solomon talks about in verse 6? Wisdom doesn’t pick up a sword and fight off an enemy. Although wisdom can keep us out of trouble, at some point we will find ourselves in an undesirable situation. Further,
my mind drifted to Ecclesiastes 2:12-16, in which the Teacher is saying wisdom is meaningless because the wise man and the fool succumb to the same fate. Whether you are wise or foolish, at some point you will die. So, again, I asked, “how does wisdom protect us?”
To answer this question, God led me to Proverbs chapter 1.
In verse 7, it says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” There is a reason why Solomon chose to put a verse about knowledge at the beginning of a book about wisdom. Wisdom is based in knowledge. Knowledge is the tool that a wise man uses to make something beautiful. A wise person takes knowledge—whether it is in the form of proverbs or data—and uses sound judgment to make a wise decision. With these verses together, Solomon is saying wisdom only works if you have the knowledge of the fear of the Lord and the knowledge that Jesus is king. Wisdom only works if Jesus is at the center of that wisdom.
As Christians, we know that it is the same for everything else that is good in this world. Take, for example, the fruits of the Spirit. Compare what the Bible says love is to what the world says love is. Like the fig tree, the world advertises that it has love: and yet, it has none of it. Take joy: constantly people are buying things and consuming things more and more because they are looking for the joy the world says it can give. However, that joy is fleeting; that joy is not real. Real joy only comes from Jesus. Take patience: many people talk about how they look calm and collected on the outside, yet they are a wreck on the inside. This difference is because the only source of true patience is Jesus Christ. And it will be the same for the eventual return to the Sabbath. God at the center is not just a message for Seventh Day Baptists. It’s not just a message for the people who are Christians right now. It is a message for the whole world and everyone in it.
People may return to the Sabbath for multiple reasons. They may return because they are looking for a spiritual experience. Maybe they are looking for health and protection. Maybe they are just returning because other people are returning. Without God at the center all of that means nothing; with God at the center you can get the greatest thing that has ever come to this world, and you can get the good things you have been yearning for.
At this point, Solomon slightly changes what he is talking about. Starting in verse 14, he writes:
14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. 15 Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way. 16 For they cannot rest until they do evil; they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble. 17 They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
18 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. 19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.
This section of Proverbs 4 is a warning against the pervasiveness of evil. Notice that he is not saying “if you find yourself walking on the path of evil, return to the path of righteousness,” he is saying do not even go near the path of evil. His words show that it takes devotion to stay on the righteous path. The question is, what does that devotion look like?
In verse 7 he says, “though it cost all you have, get understanding.” It is the same with this devotion: it will cost all we have. Usually we think of that cost as devoting more time and effort to God, but it is a little more than that. If we continue reading the chapter into verse 20, we see that Solomon writes:
20 My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear
to my words. 21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep
them within your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
The word “heart” is written twice in this section—once in verse 21 and once in verse 23. In the original Jewish text, this is two different words. The first one, in verse 21, is the conscience—the thing that tells you what is right and wrong. In that verse, God is asking us to continually focus on and practice what He has taught us. In verse 23, Solomon is actually talking about the inner self—our soul, our nature, our determination, disposition, our will, and what we put our attention on. He is asking us to guard that heart, or to test what goes in and out.
This passage is asking us to have God at the center in all parts of the second definition. Yes, that is praying more, studying the word more, and generally devoting more time to God. In fact, I believe that is the area in my life that God is working with me most right now. At the same time, God should be your source of joy and your desire. He should be what motivates and what guides you. He should be the reason you wake up in the morning and the reason you fall asleep and prepare for the next day. God should even be at the center of the business that’s done during Conference and in our homes. If we have a project that we feel is from God, but we don’t have the money to do it at this time, the answer is not to say, “We don’t have the money so don’t do it.” The answer is to say, “We don’t have the money right now so let’s see if God provides the money for us and opens the door.”
In this chapter, Solomon is just talking about the beginning of wisdom. If the beginning of wisdom can bring the life that is talked about in this chapter, imagine how much more life we gain with Jesus at the center of our lives. If God can spread goodness throughout this world, even when people barely believe in Him, imagine how much goodness He can spread when we put Him at the center.
This year is the time for the Seventh Day Baptist denomination to take the wisdom that we have learned over the past few years and apply it as we move forward. I ask us to make a habit of seeking God in everything we do. We also need to make sure to get ready to tell people that the source of their return to the Sabbath should be Jesus. We must make sure
to pass on the lesson and information we have learned in Conference to the rest of our churches. That way, we can be united as we move forward in God’s plan for us.
Joshua Coleman attends Shiloh Seventh Day Baptist Church, NJ, and is currently studying to become a mechanical engineer at Princeton University.
