Walking with the Wise #453: First Things First

“Do your planning and prepare your fields

before building your house.”

—Proverbs 24:27 (NLT)

Some questions in life we just don’t know, such as the fun, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” The question is one of origin, which came first? Did God make the chicken fully formed? Or did He make an egg to hatch from? (I personally think it was the chicken that came first—something had to sit on the egg!) It’s fun to talk about and debate, but for all practical purposes, the question doesn’t have any effect on our daily lives. However, there are other questions that are more serious and do affect how we live. Some are silly—do I brush my teeth before I have breakfast or after? And others are much more serious—Do I have kids first and then get married? Do I get a job and then go to school? Do I buy a car and then get a job? Some answers used to be pretty commonsensical, but not today. It used to be that people would grow up, get a job, get married, and have kids—all before the age of 30. Not any more. People are growing up physically, but living with their parents until they are 30 or even 40. They have kids, go to college, then get married, and on and on. Speak to any of them about their life choices and if there is any whiff of judgment that says something is wrong, immediately there is an uproar—accusations of being judgmental or intolerant, subsequently followed by us being denounced as “bigots,” “anti-intellectual,” or “haters.”

God’s Word is true and intensely practical without the slightest hint of apology. God gives us the order of how things should be, and if we decide to go against it (which as a loving God, He allows us to do), then we are doing so to our own hurt. That’s what today’s passage is about, giving us the proper order to proceed in life. Before we can build our houses, we have to have the money and resources. And if we are to have money and resources then we must have a steady job. Such thinking seems pretty clear, but in our world, it's not. With the proliferation of credit, entitlement, and little or no understanding of personal responsibility, we now have a generation that does everything backwards—after graduating college they want (and think they deserve) a brand new home and everything their parents have taken 30 years to accumulate.

Such questions seem silly, and the answer obvious, but in our world today where wisdom is lacking and knowledge of sin is well-known and celebrated, a good dose of God’s wisdom is needed to keep us on track from making the disastrous decisions like many of those around us. God has prescribed that life have a certain order to it, and we are wise and blessed if we follow it. To try and fight against it, exalting ourselves as gods and masters of our own universe, does nothing but bring us harm.

If you want to find peace, follow His Word. Surrender to Him and He will transform you. Follow the order that He has prescribed in His Word and you will find the true path of peace and joy, escaping the pain and heartache of the countless individuals who are lemmings pursuing a fleeting and noxious dream. Let God be your satisfaction, let His Word be your guide, and take up your cross to follow Him—for His glory and your joy. Amen.