The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Ecclesiastes 9:10-12, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

11 I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.

12 Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.”

Our world has experienced the ultimate dichotomy. Man, the paramount figure in God’s creation, has severed himself from wisdom, the supremely divine principle of all time.

Take, for example, the man who hooked the bumper of his pickup to an Automatic Teller Machine. He was going to abscond with the machine and all its money. But as he sped away, the bumper ripped from the truck, leaving behind the license tag to be discovered by the police. They did.

Then, there was a man who intended to rob a confectionery. He entered the store barefaced. Then, after everyone had seen him, he donned a ski mask and announced, “This is a ‘stickup!”

Or take the girl who entered a convenience store under the pretext of asking for a job. She then robbed the store, discarding her resume as she left. Yes, you’re right; it contained her full name and address.

In the first edition of his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Noah Webster, who, incidentally, was a committed believer in Jesus Christ, defines “wisdom” as, “The right use or exercise of knowledge… the knowledge and fear of God and sincere and uniform obedience to His commands. This is the wisdom which is from Above.”

Yet, long, long before Webster, the wisest of all Old Testament saints said, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding” (Pro 4:7). From what we’ve learned from the three above, it seems Solomon is the one to follow.

Heartily in Christ,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

“We will never know that Christ is all we need, until He becomes all that we have.” –Corrie ten Boom