Proverbs 9:3 [ESV] She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town,
I was sitting in a basement café having tea and a square sausage roll with a friend. He was talking to me about Jesus, and I was interested in an academic sense. I wanted to understand what this meant to him, and we got into some deep (and a little weird to me at times) discussions about war, and principles and values.
My life was a mess behind the scenes. The scenes everyone saw had me as a successful manager in a large business on a generous salary living a full life. What no-one really saw was a drug and alcohol fuelled hidden life behind the scenes.
What struck me most was the gentleness of my new friend. His voice, his mannerisms, his nature, and his seeming interest and care for me.
I had been looking for something I could not find for years, and I had looked hard for it in all the wrong places.
That Sunday I did something strange – I went to a local church. Maybe something here would help. I saw many of the people I saw in the pubs in the church – but in different clothes singing different songs. The message from the man at the front was full of good intentions and was a moral teaching about being a good person.
I knew that putting on different clothes and singing different songs would not be much help for me, what was wrong with me was on the inside not the outside. And I had tried to be a good person so many times, and failed every time. I left disheartened – there was no answer for me there.
But wisdom was not about to let me go so easily……(stay tuned)
KNOWLEDGE
There is a sound to wisdom that is distinct, and has a unifying effect. Wisdom calls us to congregate, to listen, to obey, and to care. Wisdom is out in the open, it’s proclaimed, shouted from the highest places. Heaven brings to us the ultimate in wisdom, God, and his nature, his thoughts, his words, his actions, revealed in his only Son, Jesus. The world chooses not to look there, the culture of the day regarding Heaven’s wisdom as foolishness and myth. I wonder if in the time this was written people would have expected wisdom to be shouted from the rooftops by young servant women?
UNDERSTANDING
Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?
The word for “call” in Hebrew is pronounced as “qara” and carries the meaning, to call, summon, announce, proclaim – there is an invitation.
In the LXX the servants are all calling together, and the word in Koine Greek used is “συγκαλούσα” [sugkalousa] – the appearance in the New Testament is συγκαλέω [sugkaleo] – with the meaning of “calling together” such as calling friends together (Luke 15:6) or calling the council together (Acts 5:21).
WISDOM
What voices am I choosing to listen to? Wisdom is not hidden from me – and it’s my choice to lean in.
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Activator is a fantastic Gallup Strength, with a strong call to collective action, when the time for talking is complete, the time for action is on hand – be careful not to fall into the trap of ready, fire, aim, though.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – She has released and sent her serving young women to summon, announce, call and proclaim, from the high places in the city.
She has sent out – she has released and sent
her young women – her serving young women
to call – to summon, announce, call and proclaim
from the highest places – from high places
in the town – in the city
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to have my ears open for the sound of your voice and to be ready to act when I hear you.
To chat to me as a professional coach/mentor – allan@theallankey.com
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