Innocence and Wisdom

I was greatly encouraged by today's reading in Matthew on the Daily Audio Bible and the host's comments on it. He does a reading from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. So, you would have to wade through all of that to find his reading out of Matthew and later his comments on it in the broadcast. The OT reading is about Jacob and Laban and specked goats and black sheep and kids being born of Leah and Rachel plus their women servants with Jacob...all that is, is a mess. Yet out of this mess, comes the Messiah.

The verse in Matthew that the host spoke about was Matthew 10:16

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

If we read what Jesus promises to His Disciples before that verse (healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons) and after that verse (floggings. whippings, persecutions) it makes if clear that when we stand for the right the wrong does not go "Well, OK, have your way." Nah, evil bares its fangs.

I don't want to put my current trials quite in this light, especially with the tragedy in Haiti, but I do think that confronting wrong will never be a "fun" process, whether it is a "who cares" Lancaster Police Department or a shoddy Home Inspector or an unethical EPS or disengaged students and parents. Innocence means that we seek to be honest and caring in our interactions with others, being wise means that we know what is in the heart of man...and it is not good.

John 2:23-25

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

We are not only naive about others evil, we are naive about our own. My own naivete and lack of wisdom in engaging these 4 situations can also be questioned. Experience is a hard yet best teacher (I believe that we are quite a bit more right than wrong in these confrontations yet I cannot clear myself in good conscience from any recrimination).

With spiritual power comes problems. God gives his People problems (or permits them) so that His power can be manifested in our weakness. To accomplish His purposes. If we think that the purpose our lives are to be ones of "personal peace and affluence" we are neither innocent nor wise.