Proverbs 4a

4: 1-4a.              Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,                                    and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

  for I give you good precepts:                       

do not forsake my teaching.

When I was a son with my father,           

tender and my mother’s favorite,

he taught me and said to me,

A father pleading with his child to listen to what he has learned and wants to pass on to his children. There is something here that tugs on the heart, and seems to be a bit of wisdom itself.

What is the place, and the value, of multi-generational channels of knowledge and wisdom? One reading of contemporary American culture would give the answer, ‘Not much’. How did we get this way, with a world view that discredits familial and ancestral wisdom?

An easy answer, but certainly not the whole answer, is the influence of media. We have gone from parents being a source of wisdom, think “Father Knows Best” (1950s), to parents being woefully out of touch, think “All in the Family” (1970s). Somewhere in the ‘70s, the media switched to smart kids and dumb parents, and the TV shows and movies haven’t got much better. But does the media influence culture or just reflect culture?

Since the Fall, and without media, children have often refused to listen to their parents. I have noted before that, if the author is King Solomon and if the child that he is pleading with is Rehoboam, then we know that his pleas did fall on deaf ears. As I noted elsewhere, Rehoboam alienated the ten northern tribes with his arrogant attitude, and they seceded to become the nation of Israel leaving Rehoboam with just Judah in the south, which later became Judea.

What did David say to Solomon that Solomon now wants to pass on?

4: 4b-9.           “Let your heart hold fast my words;

keep my commandments and live.

Get wisdom;

get insight:

do not forget nor turn away           

from the words of my mouth.

  Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;           

love her, and she will guard you.

  The beginning of wisdom is this:

get wisdom,           

and whatever else you get,

get insight.

  Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;           

she will honor you if you embrace her.

She will place on your head a fair garland;           

she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

Do not confuse this with, “Get knowledge.” The accumulation of facts is a step in the right direction, assuming that what you get is not just sound bites and misinformation from social media or peers. What is more difficult to get is the wisdom to sort and arrange the facts into a plausible understanding of the world. Youtube is rife with video clips like “Ten Amazing Things You Didn’t Know about the World.” I flipped through some the other day and most should be titled, “Ten Pieces of Rubbish that it is Amazing Anyone Would Watch.”

I agree with Solomon, whatever else you get, get wisdom and insight. These are gifts from God, but these gifts, like plants, they need to be cultivated or they die.