Another 30 Days of Wisdom. Preserved.

Nathan: 00:00

When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your

soul, Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, To deliver

you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things,

Solomon. Proverbs 2:10-12. Hi, it’s Nathan, and this is day 17 of ANOTHER 30 Days of Wisdom. Just a couple of lines earlier, Solomon wrote that God guards and preserves his saints. Now he expounds more specifically on HOW he does that. This certainly won’t surprise you, but here it is: God preserves us from evil, in large part, through the gift of wisdom. Certainly there’s biblical evidence for God’s supernatural intervention, but often his intervention is far more practical. Here are a couple of examples. First, the command, honor your father and your mother.

Quite simply, if kids it would preserve them from making a lot of stupid, perhaps life-altering mistakes—and much more. Or this one: don’t eat bats (yeah, that’s in there—Deuteronomy 14). Recent studies of disease origins, point to bats—and other wild creatures—as possible vectors for new contagions. Thus, protection from some deadly diseases could be as simple as dietary choices. Solomon also has a different kind of protection in mind: protection from the consequences of following bad influences. Wise counsel can preserve us from joining forces with bad actors—and the attending consequences of such a course of action. Thus, wisdom protects us from various dangers in life—as well as from joining forces with those following an inherently destructive course. Wisdom is a rich gift.