Chapter 6
TWO SOURCES OF WISDOM:
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND GOD’S GUIDANCE INCLUDING OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCE
In this part of the world, personal experience often refers to going through many mistakes, and less on experience of obedience to the laws of God.
We ignore or do not seek to know God’s will. God’s will are known to our parents and elders but we, the youth, often do not honor our father and mother enough to listen to their advice according to God’s will.
So, instead of avoiding costly mistakes, we repeat them. For this reason, our progress is slow and our pains are many, our poverty acute.
Personal experience often connotes ignoring God’s revealed ways. But among those who are humble to listen to God’s guidance from His word, laws or from His conduits including our parents, personal experience is positive. Here, personal experience is about obedience.
There are two sources of wisdom, according to Elihu, Job’s young but wise friend. They are: experience and God’s Spirit.
“Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom…[1] But it is the Spirit of God in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right.”[2]
“We can come to know the deep things only God knows but which He prepares to give to His beloved through His Holy Spirit. The Spirit searches all things even the deep things of God – the mysteries – the profound wisdom. For if by our human spirit, we come to know human knowledge, so, by God’s Spirit we can come to comprehend the cosmic and heavenly wisdom of God. In a word, Christ’s mind be in us! We would have Christ intelligence!”[3]
Strictly speaking, the two sources of learning or wisdom are: (1) our own experience which is more on guideless experiment as symbolized by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and (2) God – His revelation, His teachings, His advices, His teachings, symbolized by the Tree of Life.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is Science, Experiment, Trial and Errors, personal experience, disobedience. These are synonyms.
The Tree of Life refers to God’s revelation, truth, teachings, guidance, and our obedience.
Today, we see that science is really good and evil and we have a hard time distinguishing which good and which is evil. Only through experiencing – read: suffering – first the bitter fruits could we usually know which of scientific knowledge is evil. And this is often late; much harm and damage has been done.
The ideal is to be making the most of positive personal experience focused on obedience, and learning from the negative experience of others to serve as our warning to avoid similar mistakes, and to choose the positive experience of others to apply them in our own lives, and above all, to listen to God for His wisdom.
That will ensure a happy and very successful life here on earth – spiritually above all!
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