Following the Path of Wisdom

¹³ I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. ¹⁴ There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. ¹⁵ But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶ But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. 

Ecclesiastes 9:13–16.

¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, 

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. 

Proverbs 9:10.

What makes you tick? What makes you keep going? I think it’s easy to be carried by all the circumstances around us and not see our verses this morning. In the book of Ecclesiastes, we see the preacher highlight something that is really important for us as we think about our spiritual well being. He makes us wonder why we do what we do. You could read a few verses before verse 13 in chapter 9 where he observes that it’s not always the fastest person who wins the race and it’s not always the strongest one who wins the battle and the wisest person doesn’t always have food and the smart person’s not always rich. 

What gives? 

His point is that if you are simply pursuing these things, then you’ll struggle. We have got to build our lives on things that aren’t just fame and fortune or even survival. Instead, both Solomon in Proverbs 9 and the preacher at the end of Ecclesiastes reminds us that we’ve got to always go back to wisdom. And wisdom is found by fearing the Lord, by following his path and not ours, but obedient faith, by living humbly counting others more highly than yourselves, by outdoing one another in showing honor. 

Now we usually don’t think about winning wars, but we do fight to be right in our relationships. We don’t give charity and love to our neighbors. Instead we hold grudges (even pastors do this!) when we shouldn’t. We live to make people happy when we should see how we encourage each other to grow in the Lord. There’s always more examples to give, but at the end of the day, we’re called to follow the quiet wise path of humble faith in Christ that is not loud and looks to walk in wisdom. This is what we will learn as we go through the gospel of Matthew, we’ll see that humble path that is defined by repentant faith in Christ, which is then how we relate to one another. Instead of assuming wrong, we prepare ourselves to forgive and to admit our own sins to one another. This isn’t easy, it takes a lifetime, but it is the truly good and wise life. Let’s follow that path.