Providence Points Devotional: Jan. 21, 2008

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Providence Points eNewsletter
January 21, 2008
Vol. 2 No. 1

Chapter VIII: The Cry of Wisdom
[Law from Heaven for Life on Earth, Arnot]
i. 20-22.

THE evil doers are not left without a warning. The warning is loud,
public, authoritative. But who is this monitor that claims the
submissive regard of men ? WISDOMS.--Wisdom from above is the teacher:
the lesson that follows is not after the manner of men. We recognise
already the style of that Prophet who came in the fulness of time,
speaking as never man spake. It was in this manner that Jesus, in the
days of his flesh, stood and cried to the multitude--to the simple who
loved simplicity, and the scorners iwho loved scorning--" if any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink." Before He was manifested to
Israel, His delights were with the sons of men. In the provisions of
the well ordered covenant, He had the means of sounding an alarm in
human ears before He became incarnate. He found and used a willing"
messenger to preach righteousness to rebellious spirits in Noah's
days. Neither did He leave Himself without a witness in the time of
Solomon. The eternal Son of God is not only wisdom in himself, He is "
made unto us wisdom." He who was seen by Abraham afar off, was heard
by Abraham's seed in later days. In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was God. The Word and Wisdom of God made Himself known to
menat sundry times, and in divers manners, before He took flesh and
dwelt among us.

n the Scriptures, Wisdom cried to men. " They testify of me," said
Jesus. The prophets all spake of his
coming, and prepared his way. The sacrifices offered year by year, and
day by day continually, proclaimed
aloud to each generation the guilt of men, and the way of mercy. The
history of Israel, all the days of old, was
iteelf Wisdom's perennial articulate cry of warning to the rebellious.
The plains of Egypt and the Red Sea, Sinai
and the Jordan, each had a voice, and all proclaimed in concert the
righteousness and mercy that kissed each other in the counsels of God.
The things that happened to them, happened for ensamples; and the
things were not
done in a corner. In the opening of the gates, in the city's busiest
haunts, the proclamation was made to
unwilling listeners. The cry of Wisdom, in those days of old, if it
did not turn the impenitent, was sufficient to
condemn them. It was so manifestly from God, and so intelligible to
men, that it must have either led them
out of condemnation, or left them under it, without excuse.

But the wisdom of God is a manifold wisdom. While it centres bodily in
Christ, and thence issues as from its
source, it is reflected and re-echoed from every object, and every
event. There is a challenge in the prophets, '' Oh,
earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!" The receptive earth
has taken in that word, and obediently
repeats it from age to age. The stars of heaven, and the flowers of
earth, facing each other like the opposite ranks
of a choral band, hymn, alternate and responsive, the wisdom of God.
He hath made all things for Himself.
He serves Himself of criminals and their crimes. From many a ruined
fortune, Wisdom cries, " Remember the
Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." From many an outcast in his agonies, as
when the eagles of the valley are picking
out his eyes, Wisdom cries, " Honour thy father and mother that thy
days may be long." From many a
gloomy scaffold Wisdom cries, " Thou shalt not kill." Every law of
nature, and every event in history, has a
tongue by which Wisdom proclaims God's holiness, and rebukes man's
sin.

But is there any prophet of the Lord besides these? Is there any other
organ by which Wisdom cries to men ?
There is one. Giving force to all other intimations there is a prophet
of the Lord within every man--his own
conscience. We are fearfully made. That witness within us is often
feared and shunned, more than armed men,
more than gates and bars, more sometimes than the dungeon, the
scaffold, and the drop. It is the case of the
ancient king over again. He is a prophet of the Lord, " but I hate him
because he never prophesies good concerning
me."

Three classes of persons seem to be singled out here, and to each is
administered an appropriate reproof:
1. The simple who love simplicity; 2. The scorners who delight in
scorning; 3. The fools who hate knowledge.

1. The simple who love simplicity. Probably we would not be far from
the truth if we should accept this
term in the Proverbs as intended to indicate that class of sinners
whose leading characteristic is the absence of good, rather than
positive activity in evil . The root of bitterness has not shot forth
in any form of outrageous vice,
bat it remains destitute of righteousness. They do not blaspheme God
indeed, but they neglect his salvation,
and they cannot escape. Their hearts by a law of inherent evil depart
from Him ; He in judgment lets them
go, and gives them over. The simple for time are always a numerous
class. They cannot be intrusted with money, for it will all go into
the hands of the first sharper whom they meet. They will let the day
pass, with no provision for the night, and never think it needful
until the darkness has fallen down. They will let the summer come and
go
without laying up a store for the time to come. When the winter
arrives they have neither house nor clothing,
neither money nor food. Somehow they did not think of these things.
The sunshine was pleasant while it
lasted ; they basked in its rays ; and it did not occur to them that a
cloud might soon darken the face of the
sky...

2. The scorners who love scorning. This is another feature of the
fallen--another phase of the great rebellion.
This class meet the threatening realities of eternity not by an easy
indifference, but by a hardy resistance. They
have a bold word ever ready to ward solemn thought away,--a sneer at
the silliness of a saint, an oath to
manifest courage, or a witty allusion to Scripture which will make the
circle ring again with laughter.
There have been scorners in every age. There are rnt a few amongst us
at the present day. They may be
found on both the edges of society. Poverty and riches become by turns
a temptation to the same sin. It is not
only the shop of the artizan that resounds with frequent scoffs: the
same sound is familiar in the halls of the
rich. Many of the young men who have been educated in affluence,
belong to this class. The scorner is
generally not so bold a man as he appears to be. He keeps the truth at
arms length. He strikes at it
vehemently before it gets near him. All this betrays a secret sense of
weakness. He cannot afford to
come into close contact with the sword of the Spirit. These violent
gesticulations against the truth indicate the
unerring instinct of the old man resisting that which advances to
destroy him. "What have we to do with
thee thou Jesus, art thou come to torment us before the time?'

3. The fools who hate knowledge. By a comparison of various scriptures
in which the term occurs, it appears that fools are those who have
reached the very highest degrees of evil . Here it is intimated that
they hate
knowledge ; and knowledge has its beginning in the fear of God All the
branches springing from that root, and
all the sweet fruit they bear, are hateful to fools. The knowledge has
come to men, in SO far as to be presented
to their minds, and pressed on their acceptance. Some, the simple,
never think of it at all; and others, the
scorners, bar its faintest approaches; but these fools, after it has
made its way into the conscience, exclude it
from their hearts. They have not been able to keep Truth's heavenly
form out of their minds, but they hate it
when it comes in. Others only live without Christ, keeping Him at a
distance ; but these are against Him,
after He has been revealed in majesty divine. The emphatic " No God"
of the Fourteenth Psalm indicates,
not the despair of a seeker who is unable to find truth, but the anger
of an enemy who does not like to retain
it. It is not a judgment formed in the fool's understanding, but a
passion rankling in his heart...How long, ye simple ones, will ye love
simplicity?" God is weary of your indifference; how long will it
cleave to you ? How long will a man continue to be regardless of his
soul ? Till death ? It will certainly be no longer. He who would not
cry in hope for mercy to pardon his sin, did cry without hope for a
drop of water to cool his tongue. "How long will the scorners delight
in their scorning?" Will they not cease from blaspheming God, until
God, ceasing to be gracious, stop their breath, and take them away? If
you continue this scorning till your dying day, do you expect to
continue it longer? Will you make merry with the judgment-seat? Will
you be able to argue against the wrath of the Lamb ? Depart from me,
ye cursed--that word will crush the scorning out of the boldest
blasphemer. Would that the profane might make the discovery now; for
it will be too late to make it when the day is spent. "How long shall
fools hate knowledge?" Unless they learn to love it soon, they will
hate it for ever. They might learn to love it now; for the same word
that rebukes sin reveals mercy. Well might the fool learn to love the
knowledge which presents Christ crucified as the way of a sinner's
return ; but if a man do not love knowledge revealing mercy, how shall
he love it
denouncing wrath ? The only knowledge that can reach the lost is the
knowledge that the door is shut . How
long will they hate that knowledge ? Evermore.