March 27 ▪ Day 86

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 14:8
Jeremiah 1–2
Luke 15
Psalms 86

Verse Focus (Proverbs 14:8)

The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways,
     but the folly of fools is deception.

Meditation

Our verse focus today contrasts fools against the wise. This is one of the most common comparisons we will see in the book of Proverbs; however, each instance will reveal a slightly different aspect of the difference between folly and wisdom.

Proverbs 14:8 says, in the NIV, “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.” The NRSV says, “It is the wisdom of the clever to understand where they go, but the folly of fools misleads.” It took me a little while to understand what the verse means by “the folly of fools.” I think, in English, we’d typically say, “the wisdom of fools” — not that we mean fools are wise, but what passes for wisdom in a fool. Yet the Bible doesn’t want to call the reasoning of fools “wisdom.” Scripture is very clear. They do not possess wisdom. Period. Fools possess folly.

So we know that the prudent or the clever give thought to their ways and they understand where they go. If I looked at more translations, I’m sure I’d come up with another half dozen ways to express this concept. But, basically, the wise consider and make plans, they reevaluate if those plans don’t pan out exactly, and they understand where they’re headed. They have purpose, and they have direction.

Fools, however, are deceived and misled by their own thinking. That sounds pretty damning, doesn’t it? Fools live in a fantasy world. They are not in touch with reality. Their assumptions are faulty; their plans go awry. They live in folly. What more can you say?

I suspect, however, that many times when we look at fools we may not see the deception and wrong paths that they go down. It is just like Psalm 73. The deception may not be revealed until life ends and the fool stands before the Judge. But whether I personally see the deception in the folly of fools or not, I know what Scripture tells us is true. And I do not want to be someone who is misled by my own reasoning.

Father God, I pray that I may grow in wisdom and understanding. Help me to consider my path, to make real plans, and to work for eternal profit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today we begin reading Jeremiah, one of the major prophets in the Bible. He is sometimes called “the Weeping Prophet” and he is also known for writing the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah prophesied to the kingdom of Judah for approximately 40 years, from about 627 BC through the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The northern kingdom of Israel, also called Samaria, had fallen to the Assyrian invaders in 722 BC, nearly 100 years earlier. But Judah continued as an autonomous kingdom. When Jeremiah started prophesying, it was during the reign of King Josiah. King Josiah was the last “good” king that ruled over Judah. He became king as a child of 8 years, but as he grew to a young man he started making reforms. Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet just a few years before a great national revival began. Unfortunately, King Josiah died young at the age of 31, to be followed by four evil kings in the 23 years before the Babylonian captivity.

The book of Jeremiah contains prophecies in poetic form, as well as historical and biographical passages. From his writing we get a picture of the last days of the kingdom of Judah.

As we learn in chapter 1 of Jeremiah, the prophet was a young man when God first called him. We don’t know exactly how young he was — some estimate that he was 17 years old, although some think he was even younger than that. Most assume he was born after 650 BC, so the oldest he would have been was about 23 years old.

God’s call to Jeremiah is pretty remarkable. Scripture tells us in verse 5:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
     and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

Jeremiah expresses his lack of ability for this mission — he is, after all, “only a boy.” But God tells him that He will strengthen and deliver Jeremiah. He touches his mouth, giving him words to speak. The LORD tells him in verse 10, “See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” The LORD further tells Jeremiah that He has made him “a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall (v. 18).”

When the LORD asks Jeremiah what he sees, Jeremiah says that he sees an almond tree. God tells him that this is well done, for He is watching over His word to see it fulfilled. This is a play on words. In the Hebrew, the word for almond tree (shaqed) is very similar to the word for watching (shoqed). Next Jeremiah says that he sees a boiling pot, tilted from the north. Again, the LORD tells him that Jeremiah has seen well: for He plans to make disaster break out from the north. The LORD pronounces judgment against Judah for their wickedness and idolatry: “They have made offerings to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands (v. 16).”

Chapter 2 records the charge that God brings against Judah. They “went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves (v. 4).” Verse 13 details the problem: they have forsaken God and their source of living water only to dig water storage tanks that are cracked and unable to hold water. Verse 21 cuts me, as does verse 35.

Jeremiah’s call affects us profoundly. Even though we understand intellectually that God is omniscient and outside of time, to hear that God knows you as an individual and has plans for your life even before you were conceived is mind-blowing. Most of us are not called to be prophets to governmental leaders; we don’t act on an international stage. But God still has detailed plans for each one of us. Not only has He prepared good works for us to do; He also appoints us to play certain roles as we go through life.

Jeremiah’s prophecy is as relevant to us today as it was in 627 BC. I read the charge in verse 16 that the people “worshiped the works of their own hands” and I thought about how we do that today in America. We celebrate big business. We worship those that create profit; we honor man-made achievements. We talk about workaholics without recognizing that behavior is but a symptom of the disease where we worship what our own hands create. Previously I understood this verse as the ancient world making idols, but now I see the “work of their own hands” as glorifying the results of human effort and ingenuity.

Luke chapter 15 tells us three parables of Jesus: the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the prodigal son. Matthew also tells the parable about the lost sheep, but the stories of the lost coin and the prodigal son are unique to Luke’s gospel. In fact, I was a little surprised to realize that the parable of the prodigal son is only found in Luke. It’s such a quintessential parable, one of those stories we teach young children, even as we tell them the stories of the Tower of Babel and Noah’s Ark.

Part of the reason why I was confused about the parable of the prodigal son is because when this parable is re-told, many times we leave out the part about the older brother. In fact, I’d heard it told so many times without the older brother that I remember the surprise I felt when I was reading the parable one day in college. At the time, I just figured that another gospel must have told the version of the story without the older brother. And that misconception persisted until today. I saw commentators mentioning that the prodigal son only appears in Luke, and I thought, Really? I was so sure it was in more than one gospel, in the two versions I mentioned. But today I sat down and verified it for myself. Indeed, the parable of the prodigal son exists only in the Gospel of Luke.

Certainly, if you have been a Christian for any length of time, you have probably heard a sermon that mentions the prodigal son. There’s a lot of fruitful application from this one little story. Even I have already mentioned it twice as we’ve discussed other passages in Scripture.

We are shocked at the prodigal son’s arrogance and at his contempt for his father, demanding his inheritance early. The other day I stumbled across an essay that talked about how the son was essentially telling his father, I wish you were dead. In this parable, we take comfort at how the father rejoices at his son’s reappearance. How he loved his son! And we see a picture of God, who loves us just as lavishly, no matter how poorly we have treated Him.

However, the older I get, the more I begin to identify with the older brother. His response felt a bit alien to me at first. Perhaps because I’d heard the story so many times previously, always ending with the father celebrating the return of the lost son. I had already internalized that love, forgiveness, and celebration were the appropriate responses to this situation. Or perhaps I was simply too young to understand what it is like to have spent a lifetime trying to do the right thing.

And I have to take warning from the older brother and how he reacts to the prodigal son’s return. He isn’t happy that his brother is back — instead, he feels cheated. He feels unappreciated. I was struck by the words he uses in verse 29, “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.” The older brother felt like a slave. He might have been right at his father’s side, but where was the peace and the joy from living faithfully?

Indeed, we assume that right living is its own reward. And to some extent it is. But if that right living is just a matter of rules that you obey then you fall into the trap of works righteousness. And our striving will never earn the Father’s love. The sad part is the older brother already had his father’s love, and he didn’t recognize that. And when we live our lives as Christians without having a firm grasp on just how much the Father loves us, we also are in danger of feeling unappreciated and having our hearts grow cold.

Psalm 86 was written by David. The inscription is simple — just that this is one of David’s prayers. He prays for God’s help, recognizing his own poverty. He prays for encouragement, for forgiveness, for God’s solutions to his troubles. David praises God for who He is. He prays for God to teach him. In verse 16, in a favorite and much-highlighted phrase, David prays, “Give me an undivided heart to revere your name.”

This always strikes me. I see opposite impulses in my own heart: pulled by sin or weakness in one direction, and yet also desiring to follow Christ. I see a mixture of faith and disbelief in all my actions. The centurion’s prayer haunts me: Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! So I also earnestly pray, along with David, Give me an undivided heart to revere your name.

The psalm ends with David asking for a sign of God’s favor so that others may see it and be put to shame. The sign of favor is not to encourage David that he will receive help from God; no, on the contrary, David has already been helped and comforted. And so the psalm ends on a confident and positive note.

Father God, we thank you that you do help and comfort us. We pray that you will give us undivided hearts. And we pray that your Holy Spirit will make us understand just how very much you love us. Keep us from feeling neglected or unappreciated; keep us from seeing godly living as striving to follow a bunch of rules. Help us always to turn to you, our source of living water. Keep us from worshiping the work of our own hands. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.