A Word about Little Lessons in Wisdom

Today I want to share a word about little lessons in wisdom.

God’s Word is lamp to our feet and a light to our path and it is the best source of wisdom for our everyday lives. Today, let’s explore how to reach our potential in Christ as I comment on Proverbs 30:24-28. Specifically, today, I want to share a word about little lessons in wisdom.

Our focal passage reads:

Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer; the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank;  the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings' palaces.

We can be surprised when we discover wisdom in unexpected places. The phrase, “out of the mouths of babes,” is often used when we find wisdom in ways we did not expect. This comes from Psalm 8:2, which says, “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.”

In the same way, Solomon, in Proverbs 30, relates how we can learn some lessons in wisdom from observing some of the smallest creatures. God gave these tiny beasts a form of wisdom, and if we observe their habits, we will open a window into the very wisdom of God.

First, we can observe the wisdom of the ants. Individually, they are tiny, small, and weak. Ants are also slow and not very smart, at least in human terms.

Collectively, however, ants are very strong. They band together for defense and to collect their food for the winter. Together, they can complete tremendous feats of excavation, and working alongside one another, they can move objects much larger than themselves.

A single layer of Kevlar material is not strong, but multiple layers that are bonded together can stop bullets and shell fragments on the battlefield. In the same way God’s people. Like ants, are stronger when they work together than when they go their own way.

Solomon would reject the line from the song that says, “Me and Jesus, we got our thing going, me and Jesus, we got it all worked out.” He would agree with Paul who taught in Galatians that we should bear one another’s burdens.

Next, let’s observe the wisdom of the rock badgers. These creatures are small and weak animals who are vulnerable to all types of predators. They are much larger than ants, so they can’t hide. They can’t fly like the locusts, so they can’t escape their threats. What are they to do?

God gave them the instincts to live in rocks, and in other inaccessible regions which give them places to hide and which reduce the mobility of predators. They have strongholds which are safe and reliable.

People are a lot like badgers. We are weak spiritually and morally, and we often find ourselves helpless, hapless, and hopeless. We too need a stronghold to fortify us again the evils of this world and of our own sinful natures.

What are we to do? Psalm 46:1 tells us that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

• God is our stronghold where we can turn for grace and mercy.
• God is our stronghold where we can turn for peace and comfort.
• God is our stronghold where we can turn for safety. 

Let’s also observe the wisdom of the locusts. Locusts have no visible king and no visible social order, yet they are the most efficient harvesters in the world. A cloud of locusts can pick a field clean in mere minutes. How do they do that? They all play their parts and simply do what God has taught them to do. God is their real King.

• Societies must have order to protect members rights and to protect them from violence and theft.
• Societies must have order to provide ways to achieve goals and prosperity.
• Societies must have order to protect members rights and to promote obedience to God.

While we have visible rulers, our real King is God. Human leaders represent the authority of God and He can change their direction the way a rider uses a bit in the mouth of a horse to direct its path.

We all need to do our part to carry out God’s plan for humanity and then we will have orderly families, and orderly churches and orderly communities. All of this will glorify God and also bless us!

Finally, let’s observe the wisdom of the lizards. Lizards are small and insignificant creatures. They are harmless, but they can be a nuisance. Lizards are found everywhere, even in a king’s palace.

Lizards go where God’s design leads them, and they do what God has designed them to do, which is to eliminate flies. This does not sound very important but think how bad it would be if they did not do what they were designed by God to do!

We, too, are insignificant. Few of us are rich, powerful, influential, or exceptionally skilled. Yet, each of us has a unique calling from God, so we need to go where God’s design for our lives takes us. We also need to do what God’s design for our lives equips us to do.

If nothing else, each of us is designed by God to be salt and light in this world. These, too, seem to be insignificant, until you don’t have them!

Let’s close with 1 Corinthians 1:26-31:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt