"Whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD. But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death."

Proverbs 8: 35-36, NIV

If offered the choice between a life of favor or a life of harm that ends in death, most of us would find the choice very easy: we would choose life every time. Or so we might think, for this is the offer that wisdom presents to all of God's creation, but so few people will actually take the time to pursue wisdom. As a result of rejecting God's wisdom, they harm themself and literally love death.

The Proverbs are interesting, because here more than anywhere else we learn of the beauty of God's wisdom. Within this book we find that wisdom protects, and that wisdom allows us to see what to do in some very difficult situations. We also are told that it is the fear of the LORD that is the beginning of both knowledge and wisdom. But what is wisdom? Isn't it the same thing as knowledge? The answer to this is that they are not the same, that knowledge is an awareness of what the facts are, while wisdom gives us the ability to use those facts.

This ability to properly use facts is critical to our everyday lives. There are some who are very good at gathering evidence, but they are lousy at using it or even of coming to reasonable conclusions. A prime example of this is the "Theory of Evolution". Some of the most intelligent people ever have looked at the fossil records, the different layers of soil, and the subtle differences between some of the animals and they have concluded that it is all a result of a random accident rather than the result of the intelligent design of a loving Creator. This is the equivalent of a four-year-old observing her mother shopping at the store for various ingredients, getting out a recipe book and measuring devices, mixing these ingredients together, putting them in a pan, placing them in an oven that is set to an exact temperature, pulling the pan out after an exact amount of time, allowing the results to cool, mixing together a pink, delicious substance which mother allows her to taste, and then being sent off to bed for a nap before the baking is decorated.

Then, upon waking from her nap, the tot views the beautifully frosted cake and decides that it must have just "happened" by some strange and wonderful accident. Now, even a four-year-old should know better, but when scientists under the extreme peer pressure of their world of their fellow scientists in the world of science in which they live, all conclude after careful and scientific examination that this incredible world in which we live just "happened", then what are we to conclude? Perhaps I am naive and superstitious like they will claim, but my conclusion is that the world was intelligently designed by an intelligent Creator and that this Creator is the God we read of in the Bible.

They use their knowledge in one way, and I use my knowledge in another, but I am firmly convinced that they have misused their knowledge because they have not combined it with wisdom. As a result, they and their followers do all sorts of harm because they reason that there is no God and therefore there are no standards by which to live except for those that they decide upon. And since men's standards are ever shifting with the situations that they find themselves in, they never have a fixed standard. So, abortion and sexual deviancy are bad in one era, and these same things are considered virtuous in another. These paragons of intellect end of harming themselves and everyone they come in contact with because they refuse the benefits of wisdom because wisdom is a direct result of fearing the LORD, and as a result, they cannot properly assimilate true knowledge which has its source in that same fear of God.

That's a long way around the barn to say this: We need to be reading the Bible, for God is the only source of true wisdom that will allow us to properly handle the knowledge that He freely gives us. Those who do not read and accept the Bible are, by the strictest definition of God's Word, fools! This is not my conclusion; it is a clearly stated principle contained in God's Word. Fools are dangerous because they cannot properly handle the knowledge that is critical for them to please God and to survive. In effect, those who reject God's wisdom love death. This is the inescapable conclusion of the passage above.

But for those who will seek out the knowledge and the wisdom that God freely offers to all of His beloved creation, there is favor and life. And given the choice between favor or harm, and between life or death, the choice seems an easy one to make. But you have to have wisdom to make that choice, or you will never see, and you will eventually lose your life because of that blindness. But, for those who will choose wisdom and life, the life you have chosen is pretty good indeed. And then, there will be Heaven! This is why we read the Bible!