Category: Lessons from the Wise Guy
Do not become wise in your own eyes; fear Yahweh and turn aside from evil. Healing it will be to your bellies and drink to your bones. (Proverbs 3:7-8)
Once again, we find a correlation between wisdom, fearing the Lord, and rejecting evil. The three together form a strong bond in the teaching of Proverbs, and they have much to teach us about what true wisdom looks like.
Anyone who has studied (or even read once) the book of Judges will know that the recurring motif is "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." I suspect that some historian in the distant future will utilize a similar thematic phrase when summarizing American behavior from the 20th century onward. For the priests of the modern American religion constantly advise us to follow our heart, to look deep inside for the answers of truth, morality, meaning, hope, significance, and what two plus two equals. "Look within," they say. "Get in touch with your inner feelings." "Self-actualize." "Come to grips with who you are." "Do what's right for you." "It's all good!"
Dr. Omniscience and all of his students at Darwin University are persuaded that our species is evolving, moving in an upward direction. We are progressive. The sky is the limit. No wait! That's too limiting. There is no limit to what the human animal can achieve if we devote ourselves to its improvement. We can do it if we put our minds to it. The evolutionist's version of this proverb is "Become wise in your own eyes. Ignore the Lord and stop believing in evil (except the evil of calling something evil). It will make you feel really good, and someday we will find cures for all of man's diseases."
Solomon has a more honest evaluation of the human heart. He knows its potential for evil. He knows that the discerning capabilities of a man will lead him to write a book on how he would have killed his wife and to adore Britney Spears. Therefore Solomon exhorts his son to resist the temptation to act according to his inward desires and intuitions. The wiser course is to know what God considers evil and run far away from it, to define right and wrong from the divine perspective and reject all that displeases God. This is to be done with the full knowledge that there are consequences to our decisions. That's where the fear of the Lord comes in. Any person who knowingly and willingly chooses to do evil should be afraid of God. He will in no wise let the wicked go unpunished, and no amount of scientific advance will be able to cure the pain that God inflicts upon the unrepentant.
Furthermore, the writer says that the benefits of pleasing God will be felt in our guts, right down to the bone. This is what so many people (even Christians sometimes) misunderstand. When we do what feels good to us, we end up with ulcers, eating disorders, and morning sickness. When we obey God, we avoid His wrath, and we feel good to boot. How could there be a wiser choice?