Thoughts on Proverbs 25

Today's reading: Proverbs 25-26; Romans 1

Reading through Proverbs chapters 25 and 26 this morning I found it encouraging to consider how much of Jesus' wisdom came from this book.

It is easy, in reading the gospel accounts, for me to put Jesus into a completely different category than myself. I mean, on the one hand, He obviously is in a different category, being God and all, but on the other hand, despite being God, He specifically condescended to put Himself into our category as a regular human. When I am seeing Him as too "other," it is easy to write off His wisdom and quick wit as more divine than human. Situations like when the Pharisees tried to back Jesus into a corner asking about the Jewish lawfulness of paying taxes to Caesar, when He completely routed their attempt, are things I can easily put in the category of, "He can do things like that because He's God." The problem is that this attitude excuses me from expectations that I could/should look like Jesus in this regard.

So when I read this morning, in Proverbs 25:

Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence

or stand in the place of the great,

for it is better to be told, “Come up here,”

than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.

I immediately thought of when Jesus used this proverb when dining with some of the Jewish elites and watching them scramble for the places of honor at the table. Jesus was not introducing new wisdom into that situation, He was bringing forth God's wisdom, already available to all of them, and calling them to live out of what they already knew.

I think this is where my categories need to change.

Jesus wasn't able to so wisely conduct Himself because He was God, He was able to so wisely conduct Himself because He was so deeply steeped and invested in the Scriptures. Jesus' view of the world was God's view of the world, not because of His divine identity, but because His perspective was so thoroughly permeated by the Word of God.

I have access to those same Scriptures Jesus did. I have access to the same Spirit that guided and empowered Him. I have just as much ability to steep myself in the Word and choose to assume God's view of the world over my own and my culture's.

I can't play the, "Yeah, but Jesus was God card," to get out of the expectation that I would grow into this same kind of wisdom, and that I would live a life characterized by it.

When I think about that, it's a mixture of both really challenging and really exciting...