SOUNDING OUT:
Is There Controversy?
Do you love dramas? In Proverbs chapter
one, we encounter a wonderful animation trying to make
an important impression on our minds. Wisdom wants to
be our friend. God personifies her, and she pursues
us.
Proverbs 1:20,21
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the
streets:
21 She crieth in the chief
place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in
the city she uttereth her words, saying,
Divine wisdom is available.
She does her best to get our attention. Wisdom is not
hiding out in the Himalayas waiting at the end of a
long dangerous trek up the mountainside. Rather she
is in the street, in the square. She cries out in the
noisiness of life at the entrance of the gates of the
city which is the busiest place in town. Wisdom is readily
available, and she’s pursuing us. Once she gets
our attention she asks a very pointed question.
Proverbs 1:22
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and
the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate
knowledge?
Right there in Act 1,
scene 1 we are confronted with a choice. Wisdom has
gotten our attention. Are we going to spurn its availability?
Are we going to continue on without her? She pleads
with us, even reproves us.
Proverbs 1:23
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
That’s the heart
of wisdom. She promises to make herself known if we
will respond to her reproof. There is no real reason
to be ignorant about the truth of Scripture because
it is available, it is not hidden. It is readily available
for everybody in the street. God will meet us where
we are promising to assist in the process. He will pour
out His Spirit so that His words can be known. However,
when wisdom’s overtures are refused judgment follows.
Proverbs 1:24-33
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But ye have set at nought
all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at
your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
27 When your fear cometh
as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;
when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28 Then shall they call
upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early,
but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge,
and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would none of my
counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they
eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with
their own devices.
32 For the turning away
of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of
fools shall destroy them.
It doesn’t have
to be that way. If our hearts are not hardened, there
is a way out.
Proverbs 1:33
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and
shall be quiet from fear
of evil.
If there is trouble, it’s
not because God hasn’t pursued us. We decide what
scene two in our lives will be like. It depends on how
we respond in scene one. Hosea takes up in a similar
fashion. His offer or proposal indicates a readiness
to undertake a course of action or open a relationship.
Again the question is how God’s people respond.
Hosea 4:1
Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for
the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of
the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor
knowledge of God in the land.
Sound familiar? There’s
a controversy. This public dispute has God and His people
holding opposing views. It is never good when we are
involved in disputes with God. It is not good to be
the party of the first part if God is the party of the
second part and the parties have adverse interests.
Hosea 4:2,3
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and
committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth
blood.
3 Therefore shall the land
mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish,
with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of
heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken
away.
The first step is to realize
there is a controversy. Things are not going as they
should. Do we let them just continue, or does someone
do something?
Hosea 4:4
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy
people are as they that strive with the priest.
5 Therefore shalt thou fall
in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee
in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
6 My people are destroyed
for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest
to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy children.
They were destroyed for
lack of knowledge. That, of course, is knowledge of
God and His Word. When one rejects the law of your God,
he ejects God from his life. God allows us to choose.
Unfortunately our decisions may adversely affect our
children. Like we read in Proverbs one, there are consequences
on those who turn their back on the available revelation
that God has made clear and plain.
The knowledge of the Word of God equips us to
live for and with God without controversy. That knowledge
is available to the one who desires it and who comes
to the truth of Scripture. James encourages us to get
what we need.
James 1:5
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and
it shall be given him.
We live in a most wonderful
day and time. God has made known so much to us. The
revelation of the mystery of godliness allows for life
that far excels anything previously available. How do
we respond to what God has made known? Does He have
a controversy with us?
Ephesians 1:8,9
Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and
prudence;
9 Having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good
pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
God has abounded toward
us. His grace and mercy has been extended to us. It
was His good pleasure to make it known. It should be
our good pleasure to live according to it.
Ephesians 3:1-6
For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ
for you Gentiles,
2 If ye have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to
you-ward:
3 How that by revelation
he made known unto me the mystery;
(as I wrote afore in few words,
4 Whereby, when ye read,
ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5 Which in other ages was
not made known unto the sons of men,
as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets
by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should
be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers
of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Our loving heavenly Father
has done so much for us. Let’s learn from the
records of God’s Word and not repeat the same
old mistakes. There should be no controversies with
God. He has placed us in His family and equipped us
with all that we need to live as more than conquerors.
It is important to us and to our children that we do
not reject the knowledge He has made available.
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