WISDOM, IGNORANCE, AND FREEDOM

No one has an excuse for ignorance. Why not? We are surrounded by wisdom. It is a tree filled with fruit for the taking:

• Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud: "To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man. O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense. Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right, for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. They are all straight to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge. Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate...My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.” (Proverbs 8:1-13, 19-21)

If wisdom is so precious, why don’t we snatch it up by the truckload? Because, even though it is free, it comes with a price. It can hurt by revealing things we don’t want to know or see. It reveals the truth about ourselves and humbles us. However, unless we are first humbled to see ourselves, we cannot see anything else.

Humility is the cloth that removes dust from our lens. It teaches us self-control by revealing our foolishness. However, many reject the voice of wisdom but might later lament:

• "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin..." (Proverbs 5:12-14)

Wisdom is a dictator. It tells us what to do and what not to do. It is a disturbing alarm, an uninvited taskmaster, and we find many ways to reject it. 

Some have embraced the idea that certainty about such things is not possible. In this way, we find freedom from the counsel of wisdom. Others find their “freedom” in the shadows of postmodernism, which denies that truth and wisdom are either knowable or existent.

However, real freedom lives within its limitations, as a fish lives within the limitations of water, which maximizes its freedom. The mountain goat remains on rock-covered mountains, free from its predators.

Wisdom and truth provide the water within which we must remain to be free. Serving our Maker and Lover is a game with rules to be followed. As long as we follow the rules of a chess game, the game is meaningful and satisfying. Once we reject the rules in favor of “freedom,” and insist that we should be free to move the pieces wherever and whenever we want, the game becomes meaningless and unsatisfying.

Instead, we were created for relationship, for love, but for a love which has rules. To reject the rules is to reject love and the very meaning of life. Instead of freedom, we condemn ourselves to eternal homelessness.