Subtlety to the simple

In a very literal way, the future generation, just as with Believers today, will need to be able to perceive and identify w-o-r-d-s of understanding from w-o-r-d-s of deception and foolishness.

One of the most-quoted lines from the ever-popular movie V for Vendetta that protest-types are so enthralled with is, "Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth."

When the Democrats talk about "purging" conservatives, you wonder, "Are they thinking in terms of the movie The Purge?"

God says to Job in Job 38, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel with words without knowledge?"

The message is, "Words without knowledge—words that don’t give understanding—darken your mind. They darken counsel. They darken the ability to know what to do."

When the Book of Proverbs says its aim is “to give subtlety to the simple,” the issue of subtlety is the issue of craftiness.

“You remember in Genesis 3:1 what it says about the serpent; that ‘he was more subtle than all the beasts of the field’?” says Jordan. “He was a crafty, cagey guy who was hard to catch and easy to be caught by.

“Jesus says to the apostles in the Great Commission, ‘I’m going to send you out as sheep among wolves; be wise as serpents and harmless as a dove.’ You need to have some subtlety. Some craftiness so you can avoid being caught by the snare of the Adversary.

“Now, why would simple people be in danger of being caught in craftiness? In Chapter 14:15, he says ‘the simple believe every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going.’

"And in Proverbs, when it talks about the simple . . . even like we saw when Wisdom called the religious leaders simple, it’s because they just believed every word instead of checking and looking and finding and understanding. They just took their word for it and you can easily be deceived that way.”

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David gives four purposes the proverbs were collected together to accomplish. The first purpose, which is to know wisdom and instruction, is amplified in Chapter 1: 7-9. The second purpose, to perceive the words of understanding, is amplified in Chapter 1:10 to the end of chapter. The third purpose, to receive guidance in judgment and equity, can be found in Chapter 2. The fourth purpose is “to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.”

“Beginning in Chapter 3, all the way down to the end of Chapter 9, or at least to the end of Chapter 7 (chapters 8 and 9 is a monologue where Wisdom speaks again), you have the focus on that fourth purpose,” says Jordan. “David was the most concerned . . . You know when you give your kids instruction, you got some things you want them to know about. You tell them to do this, this and this, and, ‘This one here, man, we need to talk about!’

“The most demanding one of these things—the one that David wanted Solomon to know the most about—is the one that God through David and Solomon wanted the ‘believing remnant’ in the last days to know the most about. Have subtlety. Have the ability to know and have knowledge and discretion.

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“And that’s the reason that all through Chapters 3-7 . . . that’s where that stuff about that ‘strange woman’ comes up. That strange woman, folks, in Revelation 17, is that religious system.

“That apostate religious system that starts back in Genesis and is introduced to the nation Israel through the tribe of Dan and is called Baal worship goes all down through the Bible and becomes the religion of the Antichrist. Part of the seduction is that thing in Revelation 2:14 and 20 where that woman Jezebel seduces the servants of God to commit fornication in the context of religion.

“These proverbs are designed to equip these people to be aware of the problems and these (four purposes) are going to give the ability not to be seduced. You and I today face that same religious system. It doesn’t make any difference what God’s doing, Satan has his religious system out there and it adapts; it doesn’t change what it’s doing, it just adapts its tactics.

“What the Proverbs were going to do for Israel, and what they will do for the believers in Israel, is give them the capacity to stay out of the trap and not step in the snare of the Adversary. That’s what Paul’s epistles do for us. (II Timothy 2:24)

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Among Proverbs’ fascinating aspects is how both wisdom and folly are personified as women. When wisdom speaks, for instance, it’s in three different formats.

“First she speaks in the city; in the streets to the leaders of the nation. Then she withdraws herself and talks in private. She builds herself a house and goes into her own chamber and talks to just the people who are willing to come into her house. And then she sends her emissaries out into the city to invite other people into the house.

“There’s going to come a time in Israel when Wisdom will cry in the streets and do what she does in the latter part of Chapter 1 (beginning in verse 20), which is to talk to the religious leaders of the nation and say, ‘Come and repent because the wrath of God’s coming, and if you don’t get right and hearken to me, the wrath of Almighty God is going to destroy you.’

“When they don’t hearken, Wisdom cries again (in Chapter 8), but this time she’s not out in the streets; she’s gone over and built her a house, and it’s from her house that she cries and invites people, ‘Psst! C’mon over here, I want to talk to you!’ and they go in the house.

“Of course, all of that is exactly what happens in the earthly ministry of Christ. He starts out publicly in the streets calling the nation to repentance. Then, in the middle part of His ministry, about Matthew 11 and 12, He withdraws, and just at the point in Matthew 12 when the Pharisees and Sadducees—the religious leaders—begin to develop a plot to kill Him, He withdraws Himself from them.

“In Matthew 16, Peter says, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus says, ‘You’re right; don’t tell anybody.’ Isn’t that strange? He goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John and is transfigured from them, and they see His kingdom glory and majesty and, as they’re coming down from the mountain, He says, ‘Now you guys have seen it, but don’t tell anybody.’

“Wait a minute! Before, they’d been going around saying, ‘Hey, He’s here! He’s here! Trust him!’ Now He’s saying, ‘Psst! Come over here guys. Let’s regroup.’

“When He does go outside to talk to people, He says, ‘From now on I’m only gonna talk in parables so you guys can’t understand it. People in my house over here, they can understand it.’ "

(new article tomorrow)