The Value of Wisdom

I am intrigued by an interesting phenomenon on my blog.
I have a site meter that tells me how people find my blog and I have been noticing that almost every day someone links to my site by typing into their search engine the words ‘wise words’.
Today it was someone from the United Kingdom, yesterday it was someone from Pakistan. The day before there were three, one from South Africa, one from Indonesia and one from the Philippines.

I wrote a post on March 13,2007 entitled Wise Words and it is this post that comes up in response to their typed search words.

I wonder at the universality of this search for wise words.
What are people looking for? What prompts this search?

In my scripture reading today I came across King Solomon’s observation on the subject of wisdom .
In Ecclesiastes 9:13-18 he writes,
“ This wisdom I have also seen under the sun and it seemed great to me.

There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it, besieged it and built great snares around it.
Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man.

Then I said, ‘Wisdom is better than strength,
Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised,
And his words are not heard.
Words of the wise spoken quietly should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools.
Wisdom is better than weapons of war but one sinner destroys much.”

I pondered on these words by King Solomon .
Of all the words we listened to today…. how many of them were wise words?
Truly our day is filled with a multitude of words. Have you ever evaluated them in terms of wisdom?
Are we listening for the quietly spoken words of the wise or are our ears tuned to the words that entertain?
The TV programs we watch, the lyrics of the songs we listen to, the conversations we take part in, the books or magazines we pick up…are the words wise? Are they worth remembering ?
How much time in a day do we focus on gaining wisdom in comparison to simply gaining earthly goods or information to make our lives more enjoyable?

I was interrupted - just now -(after 10:00 pm) by a telephone call from our bank.
We were just informed that the criminal element has obtained information allowing them to withdraw money from our bank account. Our cards have been frozen and we need to go to the bank tomorrow to get new ones. The money stolen from our account will be restored. The police have caught the offenders.

The thieves were smart enough to figure out how to obtain the information they needed to access our account from a ATM machine…. But they were definitely not using wisdom!!
The last line of the above quoted passage is quite fitting here…”but one sinner destroys much!”

I am very thankful that the thieves were caught.
I am thankful that I can trust in God’s wisdom….thankful that He rules over my day!
I am thankful that I have laid up treasures in heaven, where no thieves can break in and steal!!
I am thankful that in the middle of posting about wisdom....I am reminded that money is not of eternal value and that wisdom is a much more worthy pursuit!!

Prov. 3:13 “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding, for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver and her gain than fine gold……”