Daily Bible Study: Proverbs 9:10-12

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
For by me your days will be multiplied,
And years of life will be added to you.
If you are wise, you are wise for yourself,
And if you scoff, you will bear it alone.”

Proverbs 9:10-12 (NKJV).

Simply put, to understand reality will mean that you are best prepared to deal with the circumstances that reality will bring your way. To know that you are not God, to know who God is, and to make choices in how you live your life to reflect such facts will always work in your favor, not in that you will never have difficulty or strife, but in that regardless of what difficulties you face, you'll be ready.

Survival for the finite is selfish, and you really need to come to terms with that fact in order to understand the latter portion of this passage. What I mean by this is that, unlike God, we are contingent beings, we rely on circumstances working out in our favor in order for us to continue existing on this material plane. God does not have such a relationship with existence, in that while even the reality itself that we exist in is contingent on God, God does not have any external contingencies.

If I eat a portion of food, nobody else can eat that same portion of food. Now, the total quantity of food that can or could exist is not based on my having ate that one portion, so it's not a "zero-sum", but that particular finite resource is now "gone", it's a "sunk investment" into my continued existence and it cannot (easily) be recollected and used to support anyone else's existence.

This does not prevent us from growing more food, or exchanging currency for food that others have already grown, but even if I repeat the ingredients list, it's not the exact same food, and even if I provide the same meal to someone else, it's not the same exact food, it's just like the food I already ate.

Our choices work out in similar fashion. When I make a choice and commit to act, there is no way to "undo" what has then been done. Even if others may face similar choices, or find themselves needing to make choices in reaction to the decision I have made, reality is still going to operate on the decision I have made and the consequences will flow from that.

This is why wisdom is ultimately "for yourself", in that while others will experience the byproducts of living wise in physical or relational proximity to you, the wisdom is of benefit to you.

God does not benefit from you being wise, nor does wisdom gain anything from more or less people listening to her, it's specifically in the lives of those who heed wisdom that the benefits are seen. Your life changes for the better, and from the possible surplus your having applied wisdom in your own life can benefit others.

There is a catch to this though, seen in the "messianic complex", where we try to believe that we are able to completely extricate ourselves from the equation and that all of our choices will benefit only other people. The ideal is that we could sacrifice to only someone else's benefit and doing so would reflect well on us.

The problem is that even Jesus "got something" out of his sacrifice on the cross, in the glorification and honor bestowed upon him by God the Father. Jesus does not denounce this title, the place at the right hand of God, but accepts the honor due unto him. Think about that. If even the greatest demonstration of "love", of sacrifice, still brought reward to the one who made the sacrifice, why does anyone here who is not living a sinless life think that they can make choices which will only benefit others and not themselves?

Are they going to be a better savior than Jesus Christ? Thus the "messianic complex" label.

Do not believe that there is anything you can do which is entirely self-sacrificial, on your part or anyone else. You cannot help anyone else from a position of weakness, of foolishness, of death.

Rejecting wisdom hurts you and you alone for all the same reasons that it benefits.

So, make peace with the fact that the wisest choice for you in any circumstance will indeed help you first and foremost, and that from that place of strength and provision you will then have the opportunity to help others as well.