Wisdom the Cure-All?

We had an interesting study the other night. We were reviewing a "Respectable Sin" (based on the book by Jerry Bridges): the lack of self-control. Self-control is a promised fruit of the Holy Spirit and something that appears (like love, joy, peace...) if you cultivate your submission to the Holy Spirit. We recognize that we need self-control in our eating (duh!), sedentary lifestyle, use of time and use of money (another duh! especially as you look at credit card usage!). We also need self-control in what we say and what we do in response to things that trigger our uglier emotions.

There were a couple of actions we thought might help with self-control:

• more knowledge (though 60-90% of us don't do what we know we should do, especially in terms of eating and exercising)
• more discipline
• changing habits (e.g. stop driving by the bakery if you want to exercise control of eating donuts--and here we all struggle to change habits even heart disease patients)
• more wisdom on when to apply our knowledge (common definition of wisdom is knowing when to say something and when not to say it)

But then we looked at the life of Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 11. "God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore. In fact his wisdom exceeded that of all the wise men of the East and the wise men of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else...and kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon." (1 Kings 4.29-34) However, Solomon angered the Lord and caused the kingdom to be split into two after his death. "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharoah's daughter [and Naamah, an Ammonite woman, at least one year before he became king--11.42; 14.21]...he had 700 wives and 300 concubines [of Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonite and Hittite origins]...and...they did turn his heart away from the Lord...they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the LORD his God...Solomon did what was evil in the LORD's sight; he refused to follow the LORD completely..." (11.1-6)

Solomon had all the wisdom he needed and all the knowledge. God had warned Solomon "specifically about worshiping other gods, but Solomon did not listen to the LORD's command." (v. 10)  He obviously couldn't stop himself from marrying foreign women and being sucked into the evil practice of worshiping their gods.What he needed was self-control...to know when the continued path was leading to destruction and that he needed to change direction. It's like a lung cancer patient who continues to smoke (I've known one) or a heart disease patient who refuses to go for walks and continues to eat bacon and other fatty foods with every meal. It's just too enjoyable and the consequences aren't immediate, are they? 

Our group was struck that even Solomon didn't face the consequences except that the last year(s) of his reign were uncomfortable with Hadad, Jeroboarm and Rezon causing problems for him. God didn't smote him or make him give up the throne (because of God's love for his father, King David). Likewise, if we insult another person or continue in our bad habit of sarcasm and hurt others, we may not face immediate consequences. Yet, we should take warning. "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." To continue isn't going to make it any better.