Wisdom: Blessings for Life and Ministry

by Beverly Kay

After coming away from a weekend around the table with the Study Commission on Doctrine; after looking at the areas of concern our pastor’s face daily in the front lines of ministry; after becoming more fully aware of the current financial needs of the FMCiC (or of our local church, or personal family); after praying over fellow ministers in the Family who are battling disease or broken bodies I have become keenly aware of our great need to ask God for wisdom.

As the Lord would have it, I find my own personal quiet times with Him have brought me to the Book of Proverbs. Today I carefully studied the principles for life found in the father’s admonition to find, gain, preserve; to hold tightly to Wisdom. As I looked into the face of Wisdom and its many benefits, I felt compelled to share my insights with my fellow followers that we might all be encouraged to understand the depth of our need, and the breadth of blessing that comes through this great gift of our God.

What is Wisdom? Its root is in the ability to be wise; to have good judgment, sound (full, complete council), to be prudent. Wisdom is the power to judge rightly based on full council of knowledge, experience, and understanding. It is following the soundest, surest, most beneficial course of action. In other words, as a Christ follower, to gain wisdom it takes time, perseverance, and determination to pursue and never settle for anything short of God’s very best course of action.

Why make the effort and take the time to pursue wisdom? Although this is far from exhaustive, looking at Proverbs chapter 3, verses 13 – 26 reveals that the list of blessings for our lives and ministries is great. Wisdom is (14) more profitable, yielding greater benefits than either silver or gold. Wisdom is (15) of greater value to our lives than rubies. Wisdom is (18) a tree of Life and a source of blessing to those who embrace, fully accepting its authority in our lives.

Wisdom is accompanied (13, 21) by understanding (insight), and discernment (the ability to separate and clearly recognize differences), and therefore are Life for us. Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge were in God, with God and used by God as He laid the foundation of the earth, gave order to the heavens, and separated the waters on the earth so that we might know good life on this planet (19, 20). Therefore it seems only logical that we will need them to safely journey through the troubles and trials, temptations and theories that we will face while we endeavor to do Kingdom work in a fallen world.

If we preserve sound judgment and discernment (protecting it, keeping it from corruption – 21) then our lives are blessed with safety (23), sure footing (23), rest (24) and peace (lack of fear – 17, 25) due to a confidence that is ours in the Lord (26), Who is at work through wisdom to keep our feet from being caught up in the snare (trap, danger, twisted truths) of the enemy. As a believer, this confidence can be sure because of the guarantee of all that is ours in Christ Jesus. Colossians chapter 2, verses 1-4 reveal to us that we “may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that we may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Paul wrestled in prayer for the believers that they would be unified by the complete understanding that can be ours as we are untied with Christ, us in Him and His Word (spoken, written, Holy Spirit illuminated) in us (John 15:7) Paul’s purpose was that “no one may deceive you by carefully crafted arguments.”

I must confess, my experience is limited; my knowledge incomplete; my understanding often restricted by my own bias. Only in Christ Jesus can we have fullness of understanding, and gain the deep treasures of wisdom. James reminds us that we can freely come, and ask God for wisdom, who gives generously to all without finding fault (James 1:5). God’s desire is that we would be mature and not lack no good thing necessary for living out the Life that we have in Christ. He wants us to discover the sure path, to never settle for anything less than His best response or course of action.

As we move forward in Life and in ministry, I pray that we will become workmen approved by God, who always seek to rightly handle the Word of Truth (II Timothy 2: 15, 16). That we would fully submit to its authority in our lives, being influenced through it by wisdom over the trends, godless chatter or carefully crafted arguments that would trip us up, cripple our faith and cause us to move and act based on fear rather than boldly walking in the confidence and blessings of godly wisdom. Be rich and abundantly fruitful in your walk with God, as you gain, preserve and walk in godly wisdom no matter what it is that you are facing or wrestling with these days in your journey with Jesus.

A City of Refuge, a Priestly Inheritance

I've been thinking a lot these days about the levitcal cities of refuge described at the end of the Book of Numbers (chpt 35).

In case it's been a while since you waded through the Book of Numbers, let me refresh your memory. It's right at the end of the desert wanderings, and the new generation of Israel is about to enter the Promised Land, Israel's ancient inheritance. So the Lord gives Moses instructions about the boundaries of Canaan, and some general directives on divvying up the land to the 12 tribes. Namely: they are to assign the land by lot to the nine and a half tribes of Israel entering Canaan (keeping in mind that two and a half tribes have already received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan).

But then Numbers 35 reminds us that the tribe of Levi isn't going to be getting an allotment in Canaan because, as 18:20 has already indicated, Aaron (and by extension, the whole tribe of Levi with him) will have no inheritance in the land. Instead, the Lord himself is going to be the priestly tribe's inheritance among the Israelites. Rather than receiving a portion of the land, Levi is to receive simply "towns to live in from the inheritance of the [other] Israelites." These towns are scattered evenly throughout the Promised Land, seeding (in effect) a priestly presence in-and-among the whole people of God.

You can read in Joshua 20:1-9 how this command is carried out, but what strikes me here is that the Lord specifically identifies six of the Levitical towns as "cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone may flee." The idea is quite simple: in the case of murder, tribal codes of the sort especially prevalent among a nomadic society like Moses' Israel would require a blood relative to maintain tribal honour by avenging a murdered family member (see Genesis 34 for dark evidence that such codes were well known among nomadic Israelite society).

But such tribal customs and the violent blood feuds they inevitably perpetuate are deeply at odds with a civil society like the one Israel will become, as she stands at the threshold of the Promised Land and looks ahead to her future. In civil society, justice must be carried out by an impartial assembly according to a standard code of law; retaliation and vigilantianism has no place in a society governed by God's Shalom.

So God sets aside six of the Levitical towns as cities of refuge-- cities of asylum to which an accused killer can flee until he has stood trial and his case has been heard; and cities of shalom, where the innocent can escape the tribal custom of honour killings.

Now, I don't want to read too much into this, but here's what I can't get off my mind today: the priestly tribe had no inheritance in the land other than a special place in the Lord's plan to mediate his Shalom to the people. And with this inheritance came the cities of refuge; and with them came a calling to be a people among whom the accused found shelter, where the guilty found asylum and the harried found refuge until God's Shalom had obtained in their lives (in this case in the form of a fair and impartial trial).

And you can't reflect on all this very long before you remember that 1 Peter 2:5-9 specifically identifies followers of Jesus Christ as the priesthood of believers that the tribe of Levi prefigured and foreshadowed in the Old Testament. And if it's true, what Peter says about Christians there, and it's true what Numbers says about the inheritance of the priestly tribe here, then it would mean that in Christ we have inherited a calling to be "cities of refuge." Our communities are to be places where the accused, the guilty and the harried can find shelter so that the Shalom of God can obtain in their lives (in this case in the form of the unmerited, all-gracious justification of God through faith in Christ); what's more, this calling specifically and directly precludes any material inheritance "in the land" (i.e. the comfort, wealth, privilege and security that such an inheritance would have meant for an ancient Israelite).

And the obvious questions are staring me in the face: am I part of a community of faith that has traded in the wealth and security of its "inheritance in the land" for the privilege of being a "city of refuge" like this? And harder still: Am I willing to belong to such a community of faith? And hardest of all: what's my role in helping my church be the city of refuge that God in Numbers 35 is calling it to be?