Good morning, Imagine Church Family and Friends,
The wisest person who ever lived (besides Jesus) was named Solomon. The third king of Israel, he was David’s son; he lived and ruled during the golden age of Israel, when Israel had a strong army and was a world power. The Bible says that “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore” (1 Kings 4:29). “From all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom” (1 Kings 4:34).
Here are some of the tidbits from Proverbs that Solomon wrote: “Instruct the wise, and they will be wiser still” (Proverbs 9:9). “Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance” (Proverbs 1:5). “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice” (Proverbs 12:15). Here’s one you may have heard before: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22).
Solomon’s story starts off so very well. But at the end, Solomon ignores his own advice. He starts going it on his own. Though he had spent his whole career saying, “No matter how wise you are, you always need outside input,” toward the end of his life he decided, “Since I’m the wisest man in the world, I don’t need to listen to anyone!” And he began to make terrible decisions.
In fact, the summary of Solomon’s life is that one of the wisest men who ever lived made some of the poorest decisions ever made. He wrecked the economy of Israel, he undermined the military authority, he set the next generation of his family up for failure because of treaties he engineered with surrounding nations and decisions that he made. The prophets warned him, the law of God warned him, the people around him would have warned him if he had listened, but he said, “I am the smartest person in the world; why would I listen to anyone else?”
Solomon himself wrote, “Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice” (Proverbs 13:10). If only Solomon had heeded his own words. In truth, wise people know what they don’t know, and they’re not afraid of seeking advice from others. God will often use the voice of other people to guide you, to guard you, and to assure that you will never look back on a season of your life and wonder, “Why didn’t I see this coming?”
May God give each of us the courage to be honest with ourselves and be willing to say, “I’m ready to listen.”
Sometimes others can see what you can’t see,
Bruce Jones, Pastor Imagine Church
