Wisdom - Arrogance or Ignorance
for you do not know what a day may bring."
Proverbs 27:1
[This is the 22nd message in this series]
In this series we are highlighting two-liner verses from the Book of Proverbs.
Arrogant
Scriptures tell us that pride goes before destruction. Arrogance comes from pride. And shame is not something in the vocabulary of the arrogant. They are shameless.
A typical example is Pharaoh when he failed to acknowledge that the God who is with Moses is the One true God while that the spirits and the gods that his sorcerers and magicians call to are nothing but fakers, counterfeiters and copycats.
We see this as well during the time of Jesus, when many teachers of the law and religious leaders who spend all of their time studying about God and the prophesied Messiah did not acknowledge Him when He arrived, He lived and He taught among them, and even as He suffered, died and rose again, just as how it was written and just as they have meticulously studied.
Ignorant
Scriptures also warns us about those who do not know of these things. Those who know nothing of God and what He is like. Scriptures tell us God's people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge. Ignorance, pretty much have the same result of arrogance.
Hardness
Another thing both the arrogant and the ignorant share in common is a hardened heart. Jesus came to trade our hearts of stone to a heart of flesh. Do not be a fool, we were all both arrogant and ignorant before Christ picked us up, washed us, clothed us and walked with us.
We could do nothing right in God's eyes before His Spirit was in us. In our eyes we could do no wrong and we are grossly mistaken (doesn't matter if we are aware of it or not).
Acts 17 Paul in Athens
"Although God overlooked the periods of ignorance, now He commands everyone everywhere to repent. For He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness, through a Man whom He has appointed. He has brought forth evidence of this to all men, by raising Him from the dead.” Now when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began scoffing. But others said, “We will hear from you again about this.” So Paul left from their midst. But some men joined with him and believed—among them Dionysius (a member of the council of the Aereopagus), a woman named Damaris, and others with them."
Let us be like Dionysius and Damaris.
And let us not be among the scoffers and not get behind the likes of Pharaoh, his magicians (Jannes and Jambres), Caiaphas and his like minded fellow religious leaders, Herod and Pilate.
"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.” Psalm 95: 8, Hebrews 3:8, and Hebrews 3:15
We Know Nothing
Whether we are the most educated person or the least intelligent person on earth, we all do not know what tomorrow may bring. (Technically tomorrow never comes, because when it does, it is called today. Tomorrow will always be the next day.)
We can have our predictions, we can have our forecasts, we have our best hypotheses. But we really do not know what tomorrow will bring, we do not even know if we'd still be here. We can boast that we will do this one thing tomorrow but what if tomorrow never comes? Today (the present) is what we have. We do not have a guaranteed promise of tomorrow. So let us not be so arrogant or so ignorant.
We have now, the present, God's gift to us, we do what we can do now. We can plan for tomorrow, but we take care of the now. Tomorrow will take care of itself, for that is God's work. Ours is right now.
The Parable of the Rich Fool
"Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’
“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
Blessed are those who go to sleep at night knowing that whatever happens they will wake up walking with God here on earth or walking with Him for eternity.
We have now, the present, God's gift to us, we do what we can do now. We can plan for tomorrow, but we take care of the now. Tomorrow will take care of itself, for that is God's work. Ours is right now.
The Parable of the Rich Fool
"Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’
“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
Blessed are those who go to sleep at night knowing that whatever happens they will wake up walking with God here on earth or walking with Him for eternity.
#EverydayWisdom
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