The 5th

You can learn wisdom from the testimony of others. You can listen to what they have come to understand. Remember, wisdom is skill in living. Understanding is learning what to give attention to. These can come from Bible stories, and testimonies. Ask God for wisdom and understanding and He will grant it to those who are ready. You can even be a sermon junkie or Bible scholar and learn these on paper, but be sure to put them into practice.

Proverbs 5 starts off by telling us that wisdom and understanding can be learned second hand. Solomon exhorted us in chapter four to acquire them ourselves, but in the chapter five he tells us to give attention and observe them from others also, specifically from a father to a son.

That’s very fitting because we can see the mistakes of our fathers the clearest. It’s in hindsight and we have similar tendencies. Their faults unfortunately stick out like sore thumbs. You’ll hate your dad in your teens and swear you’ll never be like him. You may have success in certain areas, but you’ll probably overcompensate with that attitude. Then you will grow older and realize he knew a little more than you thought. Then you will hit your late 30’s and you’ll see that he was the man! Skip all that, don’t get angry and judgmental, and learn from his mistakes and triumphs. We should look into the wisdom they learned and pick up things from their understanding. More often than not they learned from trial and error, but don’t forget to learn from the triumphs too.

Your father wants you to be wiser than him. Guess what? My dad taught me that U thing in the grain of the wood, after I screwed it up at my house of course. He taught me how to frame U down so the long hump has weight and screws forcing it down (which is opposite) but we never had to do deck boards before. He even surprisingly asked me when he saw what I did, “You didn’t know that?”

“My son, give attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding; that you may observe discretion and your lips may reserve knowledge.” Proverbs 5:1-2

This could have been lessons from David to Solomon that Solomon used when he framed Proverbs. Who knows? David fell into many traps with women and pride. It sounds like something he would tell Solomon after you read the rest. Solomon pulled a lot of wisdom and understanding from his father David’s downfalls, but it still didn’t fully help. Solomon still took after his dad with women and such. However, God’s grace was still strong for the both of them. What a good Father we serve!

You can gain wisdom from others rather than having to acquire it for yourself. Much wisdom comes from our heavenly Father through His Word. He even puts in stories of failure and triumph. We should observe the discretion that comes from these experiences. David may have been Solomon’s father, but if you don’t have a dad you can learn from David’s follies and triumph. God made it so David could be your dad.

In our life today, not everyone interprets their own experiences well, but God can still teach you when the person is absent of wisdom. If you know the Lord, you will pick up on lessons from everyone and anyone.

You could have been fatherless and still pick up on things from your own dad. One of my buddies doesn’t touch alcohol, and is fiercely loyal to his wife and mom. He loves, protects, and works hard for them. Mike learned these things by observing his alcoholic dad who left when he was young. He observed and reserved what he needed and then put his own goals into action.

Mike is an unbeliever and he was more wise and understanding than me in our youth. Go figure! God calls the weak to confound the wise because we all need Him as a Father. The fact remains, you can run off with these lessons without God and end up nowhere profitable in the end. Solomon even tried and learned for us all to have that hard lesson. No other good pursuit in this world is worth it unless you know God. We all need Jesus to train us in these things with the right motives. If you broke me and Mike down in our 20’s you would find evil motives in both of us, but I was on the right track by getting to know the only One who is good.