“Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” – Proverbs 3:7
I’m one of those kind of guys who always tears into a new project, quickly finding the instruction, only to wistfully toss them aside, all the while thinking to myself, “Aww, this can’t be that hard to figure out”. Yet, after several minutes of frustratingly struggling with the project, I will begrudgingly, even feeling defeated, finally pick up the instructions and learn how to do the project correctly.
The Bible cautions against being wise in our own eyes. The fallen nature of man often has too high opinion of itself. We come to believe we can handle just about anything on our own. We can see this attitude in very young children. They will sometimes pull and jerk away from the offer of assistance from a parent or adult – thinking they’ve got it all figured out.
Our passage today suggest that such an attitude is evil. One might interpret this verse this way; “Don’t think you know it all, get rid of your arrogance, trust in God, for to do otherwise is to abide in evil thought.” In other words, to continue to dwell in your own wisdom is evil; we are to fear God, His knowledge, His wisdom, and depart from the wickedness that is ourselves.
Allow me to end this week with a quote from the great Puritan commentator, Matthew Henry,
“There is not a greater enemy to the power of religion, and the fear of God in the heart, than conceitedness of our own wisdom. Those that have an opinion of their own sufficiency think it below them, and a disparagement to them, to take their measures from, much more to hamper themselves with, religion’s rules…To fear the Lord, so as to depart from evil, is true wisdom and understanding; those that have it are truly wise, but self-denyingly so, and not wise in their own eyes. For our encouragement thus to live in the fear of God”.
And to that I only add, AMEN!
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