Month: July 2025

How do you get wise? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Recently, I was watching an episode of Million Dollar Password, with one contestant being someone who had three Guinness records for youngest to graduate from high school and college.

He still lost. He didn’t even qualify for the main game.

Of course, that could be because he’s teamed up with a celebrity, but also because sometimes people can be really intelligent and miss out on simple things everyone else catches on to.

So let’s compare that with the Teacher today. in Ecclesiastes 7:23-24.

²³ All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. ²⁴ That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

I do hold the Teacher is Solomon, but to show no bias here throughout these posts, I simply refer to him as the Teacher. Even if he is not, I am sure most critics would say he at least was writing in the guise of Solomon. After all, he describes himself as the king of Jerusalem and as someone very wise. Who else comes to mind but Solomon?

Solomon is the guy who was told by God that his wisdom would not be matched by anyone before or after. (Hyperbole of course. Jesus had far greater wisdom as He literally IS God’s Wisdom.) Imagine being told that and yet you describe wisdom as something far from you.

Yet Solomon does just that.

Proverbs tells us that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It could be Solomon wrote this after his numerous relationships and his apostasy and realized he did not fear God. He writes the book as a sort of message of regret. He realizes what he missed. When one strays from fearing God, they start going against wisdom.

Wisdom also comes from living by it. The more your practice and cultivate wisdom, the more you will develop. That can also include listening to those who are wiser than you. If you read this blog and admire my work, please understand that I have plenty of people that I admire and I try to learn from them. If I have something I’m curious about and a professor comes by the Post Office, I don’t hesitate to ask them about it.

This also entails reading good books. Read material that will stretch you and make you grow. Read also material that you disagree with. You can learn something from it. Maybe you are wrong and reading the other side will point that out. Maybe you are not, but as you read the other side, you do see cracks in your own position you need to work on or have a better refinement of your system. If your goal is truth, you win either way.

Our world is struggling with a lack of wisdom. We have learned that we can have all access to knowledge, but if we do not have the wisdom to use it, that knowledge could be more destructive than helpful.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Is there a time to not listen? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

We’re going to look at Ecclesiastes 7:19-22 today.

¹⁹ Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

²⁰ Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

²¹ Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. ²² Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

For the first two verses, the Teacher always seems to prefer wisdom to foolishness. On the other hand, his second sentence here could be answered, “Actually, there is.” There has only been one and the world crucified Him.

As for the last part, we have been told most of our lives to listen to others. However, there is a time when one should not listen. It is not as simple as “Never listen to your critics.” After all, the wise man will accept rebuke when it is given. We will have critics and sometimes we should listen to them.

One time to not listen would be when you have no business listening in on someone. I remember growing up seeing a device you could use to listen to things at a distance that you cannot hear easily. For some scenarios, this could work well. If you are in a church service or a classroom or anywhere where you are hearing one person and you’re just not close enough, you can listen in that way.

However, there are other times you shouldn’t be. The commercial showed a guy working out at a gym using the device to listen in on a conversation between two women where they’re talking about him and praising him as being attractive. That sounds good and can sell devices, but what if it was the other way around? You would know that they were giving their honest opinion as they have no idea that you are listening in. What do you do then?

Second, there are critics who do not know what they’re talking about. These people want to insult you just for the sake of insulting you. In ancient Greece, there were people called Sophists who would get up one day and argue for X and it would be a persuasive talk. The next day, they could get up and argue for non-X just as persuasively.

Online, there are people we all call trolls who want to just get under the skin of people and they will say things they don’t even believe. The whole purpose is just to get a rise out of people. This is a scenario where the more people react, the more that they get what they react to.

While there are no 100% clear and fast rules, I consider these valid general guidelines. Wisdom will tell you that there are times you should not listen to critics as they don’t know what they’re talking about. However, if they do not know what they’re talking about, and especially so if they care about you, listen. They may not be right, but at least consider what they say.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

How should you live? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Ecclesiastes 7:15-18 is a rather difficult read:

¹⁵ In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. ¹⁶ Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? ¹⁷ Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? ¹⁸ It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.

What? Is the Teacher actually telling people to not be overly wicked? Is he saying “Be somewhat wicked. A little bit is okay. Throw some spice into your life that way.”?

I don’t think so. I think right off, what he is saying is there are no guarantees. You can be a righteous person and die young. Because you are righteous, it does not  mean that you will find favor in this life. On the other hand, being wicked doesn’t mean you will live to be 100. Sometimes wicked people do die because of their wickedness, by putting themselves in situations where they pay for the consequences of their actions.

It does not matter how wise you are. You cannot tell what will happen in any life. You can see a person who is righteous and having a great life and the next day they are hit by a car and die. You can see a person who is wicked and doing self-destructive behaviors and somehow they cheat death numerous times and die of natural causes at an old age. Life is strange. There is no such thing as karma.

But that doesn’t answer what is being said.

For the wicked, I think he’s saying, “If you want to walk the path of wickedness, at least try to have some sense. Don’t put yourself in stupid positions. Your arrogance will overtake you.”

However, for the righteous, I think he has something to say to people like myself who are overly scrupulous and can make a big deal out of any perceived wrong. (Think also of how much Martin Luther went to confession for everything.) He warns us to not overdo things to the point that we cannot even function. The Pharisees were also people who tried to be righteous in everything and yet they were the ones in the wrong in the end.

The Teacher’s preference lies with those who are on the side of righteousness as he says fearing God will deliver you from both errors. Walking in wisdom can help you see when things matter and when they do not. If you come here wanting to find specific answers, you won’t. This is part of the struggle that we have in our day and age where we think we should have a clear answer to every question. (Another reason I think people think God is telling them stuff. They think they have to have clear answers instead of using wisdom. That could also explain why it’s not found so much today.)

Next time, we’ll talk about listening to others and when to not do so.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)