Proverbs: Everyday Wisdom - Better Than Gold

Sermons Blog - Calvary

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PDF Manuscript: Proverbs: Everyday Wisdom - Better Than Gold

In 2012, a 19-year-old man from Washington state named Dakoda Garren was charged with stealing a rare coin collection worth at least $100,000. After Garren had completed some part-time work for a woman living north of Portland, the woman reported that her family coin collection was missing. Her collection included a variety of rare and valuable coins, including Liberty Head quarters, Morgan dollars, and other coins dating back to the early 1800s.

Initially, Garren denied any involvement, claiming that the police didn't have any evidence against him. But then he started spending the coins at face value, apparently unaware of the coins' worth. He and his girlfriend paid for movie tickets using quarters worth between $5 and $68. Later on the same day, they bought some local pizza with rare coins, including a Liberty quarter that may be worth up to $18,500.

The news article reported, "Garren has been charged with first-degree theft and is being held in jail on $40,000 bond. Which, technically, is an amount he could easily afford if the valuable coin collection were actually his."

When we fail to see the value of something, we will never be able to enjoy all that it has to offer. That applies to the area of wisdom—more specifically biblical wisdom. At this point in our series, you’ve perhaps noticed that the book of Proverbs takes a long time before it gets to what we normally think of as proverbs. The first nine chapters comprise a long introduction. It’s only in chapter ten that we get to some of the short, pithy statements that we expect to read.

Why do you suppose Solomon spends so much time introducing wisdom? I’m convinced that he knew something about us that makes him come back again and again to why we need God’s perspective on all of life. He knew that unless we understand what wisdom is worth, we won't pursue it like we need to.