All the words of my mouth are righteous
Tue, 21 March, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
1 Does not wisdom call?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
4 “To you, O men, I call,
and my cry is to the children of man.
5 O simple ones, learn prudence;
O fools, learn sense.
6 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right,
7 for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
9 They are all straight to him who understands,
and right to those who find knowledge.
10 Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold,
11 for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.”
In the previous chapter, we meet the harlot, who stands in the open square seeking to lure someone to his destruction. In this chapter of Proverbs, we meet her counterpart: wisdom. Wisdom also stands in a public spot and calls for people to follow her.
What do we learn from this?
The book of Proverbs presents wisdom sayings. Here we see wisdom personified. She points people to obedience to God. All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. And so we see that Godly wisdom challenges us to change our conduct and leads us to grow in obedience to God’s word.
Notice the value of obeying God’s word: It is better than silver, gold and jewels. All that you may desire cannot compare with her. Think of whatever it is that you desire the most in this world. Fame, fortune, or whatever it might be. God’s word tells us that whatever we may love in this world, to learn obedience to God’s word is better. We might not think so. We might not believe it to be true. But according to God’s word, if we seek godly wisdom, we will grow in our obedience to Him, and we will have gained something of the greatest value.
Where is Christ in this passage?
As we seek godly wisdom, and desire to live lives of obedience to God’s word, we find that we still sin. We continue to fall short of the goal of perfect obedience to God’s law. Hopefully we will sin less, but we still sin.
What hope do we have? How does God’s wisdom help us when we keep sinning, when we keep offending against His law? We are heaping up further judgment against ourselves even as it is our goal to obey. Who will save us from our hopeless predicament?
Jesus Christ has come to pay the price for the sins of all those who come to Him in faith. As we trust in Him for our salvation, He pays the price for our sins, past, present, and future, on Himself on the cross. Our hope for release from the punishment from our continuing sin is in Jesus Christ. We still desire to obey and live the perfect life He has commanded. We still repent of our sins and humble ourselves before Him. But we do not have to despair of our salvation, because He has paid the price for our sins. We must not presume upon His grace, but we must also never despair of His mercy, for His grace is greater than all our sin.
