The Wisdom of Solomon
This is part of the ChristianWriters.com blog chain, with the June theme of “Pursuit”. Please check out the list to the right for other blogs during the month.
Sharon and I were checking out the furniture before the auction. As we walked through the aisles, she noticed a beautiful oak chest-of-drawers. She called me over to see it and let me know she loved it. Of course, since she loved it, I did too – so, we decided to bid on it and determined what our maximum bid could be.
About an hour into the auction, they took the chest to the front of the room. Sharon squeezed my arm and whispered, “There it is!”
The bidding started and we let a couple of rounds go by before we jumped in. The bids were lower and slower than we expected and were still much below our planned price. I made a bid that was countered by a slightly higher one. We looked at each other, and since we were still well within our limit, I raised the bid.
We waited excitedly as the seconds ticked by with no other response – then, really got excited when we heard “sold”. The chest was ours for half the cost we thought it would be!
We relaxed and settled back triumphantly to watch more of the auction. The helpers at the front picked up a chest and walked away with it. Then, two others picked up “our” chest and moved it to the center. The auctioneer started with “now, we have this beautiful oak chest – what am I bid?”
I stood up and started to shout, “Wait, we just bought that one!”, but quickly deduced the mistake was ours. We had not been paying attention through most of the auction, and now realized “our” oak chest had been in the waiting area where the items coming up next were set.
We hadn’t even noticed the chest that really was now ours. I had to go walk through the aisles of sold stuff and search for our number. I found a plain pine chest of drawers – probably worth what we paid for it, but we had no desire to take it home. We left it there on consignment to be sold at the next auction.
The results of the waylaid process were:
- The pine chest sold at the next auction, but when they took the seller’s fee out, we lost money.
- The oak chest sold for about twice what we said we could afford to pay for it, so our plan wasn’t realistic from the beginning.
- We learned the lesson that we need to be sure what we’re bidding on before we jump in.
Our pursuit of the chest had gone astray, and it was obvious a pursuit of wisdom would have served us better.
“Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore, get wisdom…” Proverbs 4:7 NKJV
We spend much of our lives pursuing knowledge – through school, workshops, reading, and training at work or elsewhere. That’s not a bad thing, because knowledge is necessary for what we need and want to do.
The Bible has several passages that emphasize the importance of knowledge. But, as critical as it is, knowledge isn’t an end in itself. As the verse above states, we should take knowledge and move beyond it to wisdom – wisdom is to be our principal pursuit.
It takes wisdom to understand that we need knowledge, and to determine what knowledge we need. It takes wisdom to understand how to use knowledge. A great example of that is Ephesians 4:15 where Paul encourages us to speak the truth in love. Speaking the truth is knowledge. Speaking it in love is wisdom.
It is wise to understand that having more wisdom would be helpful. (As I get older, I am getting wiser, if only because I can see how much more wisdom I need). Like King Solomon, who showed that God had already given him some wisdom – he had enough to know he needed to ask for more.
Where does wisdom come from? God does use situations (like auctions) to help us learn wisdom. But, the principal place for us to pursue wisdom is in God’s Word, for it is wisdom. Getting wisdom, as stated in the Proverbs verse above, is learning, understanding and obeying God’s Word.
The auction experience did make Sharon and me wiser (at a cost of money and embarrassment). But, a better way to pursue wisdom isn’t through experience. King David wrote in Psalm 119:98-100, that God, through His commandments, had made him wiser than his enemies. Meditating on God’s testimonies and obeying God’s precepts gave him more understanding than his teachers or his elders.
Then in that same passage, we are given instructions on how we should be guided, not just in our pursuit of wisdom, but in all our pursuits here on earth:
“Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” Psalms 119:105
Pursue wisdom by the light of God’s Word.
I Was Thinking the Other Day About... 
Your post itself was filled with wisdom! Your story made the whole thing come alive. Wisdom, indeed is worth pursuing. Thank you for the post.
Thank you very much for the kind words Carol
What a wonderful kick off to “Pursuit” topic Bill. Great story of how we sometimes jump to conclusions and then suffer the consequences. I search Proverbs and always find gold! Thank you for sharing your story, not many would be brave enough to admit they’ve made a mistake. Peace and Blessing!
Thank you, Terrie – Sharon and I have thankfully made it to the point that we think it’s pretty funny (perhaps the wisdom did sink in)
Great start to the month, Bill. Your story sounds like something I might do. 🙂
It’s good to have knowledge, but without the wisdom to apply it properly, we’re about as useful as an encyclopedia to a four-year-old.
Thanks for sharing your experience and wisdom.
You’re very welcome and thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
WE met a man once who told us he’d started out his search for truth with the premise that the Bible is flawed or mis-translated. So he’d done a comparison between the KJV, Luther’s translation and another old translation; he wrote out every place where there was a “difference” in meaning.
Then he examined all these “discrepancies–and came to the conclusion there really wasn’t enough difference to amount to anything. ‘Knowledge’ gave way to ‘understanding’ and he concluded that God’s Word has stood through time and translation. Finally came true wisdom; he gave his life to Christ. 🙂
Thanks Christine – and thank you for the wonderful story of his journey to wisdom (The Holy Spirit continues to take people on that journey!).
Great post. That must have been a very frustrating experience. It’s great that you were able to learn some wisdom from it though. Good on ya!
Thanks Adam – it was frustrating and humbling – thankfully we can look back and laugh now.
I love auctions! My poor hubby has to sit on his hands during the whole event, however, as he can’t talk without waving his arms around. Once he almost bought a pair of hogs… and our freezer was already full! 🙂 Fun post to read. All sorts of things can happen at an auction.
Thanks Pegg – glad you enjoyed it.
Great Bill !! Proverbs Ch’s 2, 3 and 4 really speak to me about wisdom. I need these… daily 🙂
Thanks Chris – I agree with that!
A fun story, Bill…and a warning for those attending an auction. Great overall post. Peace and Blessings.
Thanks EG
Excellent post on our need for the word of God. The older I get, the more I find myself depending on the wisdom of the Bible. I’m so grateful that God gave us His words; recorded and passed down through thousands of years. What a treasure!!
Thanks for the encouraging comment Sandi – and amen to your thoughts on the Bible!
great pursuit blog shame about the chest
auctions can be tricky
biiiiiiiiiiig hug
Thanks Jack – we pretty much stay away from them these days.
I enjoyed this Bill. Our sense of success in an auction is to a large extent defined by others. It amazing that once we win we now have something that nobody prizes as highly
Thanks Mike – good take on auctions
I had a good chuckle over your experience at the auction. It certainly serves as a great object lesson, though, so it really wasn’t for nothing!
Thanks Tracy – glad you enjoyed it and thought is was a good lesson – it was for us!
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Awesome post, Bill. My husband and I used to go to auctions. It’s so easy to overlook something like this. And although you lost money, you gained something more valuable, which, in turn, you were able to share with us. 🙂 More good came out of this than you thought.
Thanks very much Deborah – I agree that it was a valuable lesson. On the “lost money” part, I did have a side thought in being thankful that the Lord has blessed us materially enough that it wasn’t a disaster, just a detour.
Wow! So sorry about the chest. Great post! Sorry I’m so late in responding. Life has been happening!
Thanks Lynn – glad you enjoyed it. It was a great learning experience.
Don’t worry about the timing (I understand life) but I also like getting comments later through the month too. Thanks for taking the time.