Whenever we think of safety or security, we may tend to think of being protected from anything that would disturb our comfort physically or emotionally. A generation has arisen in our society that certainly believes this. Authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt examine this obsession with what they call “safetyism” in their book The Coddling of the American Mind. Numerous examples are given from various parts of our society in which people seek the elimination of all threats, real or perceived, to what they consider their physical or emotional well-being. This is particularly true on college campuses, where historically a person goes to be challenged in order to sharpen his mind and skills. Now, we have “safe spaces” on campus. Professors who refuse to use preferred pronouns, question the legitimacy of gender fluidity, or dare confront the absurdities of Critical Theories have their careers ruined by people who are “traumatized.”
The security that God promises through Solomon in Proverbs has no resemblance to this sort of safetyism in our culture. The promise of wisdom’s security is not the promise of safety that a mother provides for an infant child, but the safety a shield and sword provide in war. Wisdom doesn’t shield you from discomfort and difficult decisions. Wisdom doesn’t protect you from challenges that will test your mettle. Wisdom is not a “safe space.” Wisdom is a weapon that protects you while you engage the world.
Engagement with the world is the expectation of Solomon throughout Proverbs. Wisdom is a weapon that is a necessary tool in the mission of dominion of the world, the way we put everything in right relationship. Solomon expects his son to be engaged with the ne’er-do-wells that are the perverted Band of Brothers (Pr 1.10ff.). The son will be in a world where Harlots Folly will be numerous (Pr 5, 6, 7). The weapon of wisdom is given to the son with the expectation that he will be facing all of these because he is engaged with the world. His security will not be found in a safe space or a helicopter parent who tries to shield him all the time from the challenges, potential failures, and consequences of his decisions. The son’s security is found in becoming skilled with the weapons of wisdom as he fulfills his offensive mission to order the world under the lordship of God’s Son.
The first and most fundamental weapon of wisdom is faith, an allegiance that is a whole-hearted commitment rooted in love that expresses itself in being fully given over to everything to the God to whom he has pledged fealty. Faith adopts God’s culture completely: its language, laws, mores, history, holidays, and is willing to stand to the death in defense of this culture against all threats. Those who trust Yahweh in this way are safe, for the name of Yahweh in which they find refuge is a strong tower (Pr 18.10). Faith rests in the word of God that is more real than the ground that we walk on or the air that we breathe for God’s word is what created and sustains all things (Heb 1.3). That Word is revealed now to be Christ Jesus in whom all things now hold together (Col 1.17). To engage the world safely so that you are assured that in life or in death you are secure, you must yield complete allegiance to God.
Studied faith then gives you insight, the ability to see danger coming so that you can hide yourself (Pr 22.3; 27.12). As you trust God’s word, understanding how he put all things together and their purpose, you will be able to see where things ought to be going and where they deviate into destruction. You need not be a prophet receiving direct revelation from God. Your senses will be trained to discern good and evil (Heb 5.14) and their ends. This insight is God’s grace of wisdom that protects you.
God also protects you through wisdom by imposed discipline. Whether from parents, church, or other authorities, correction, though it is unpleasant at times, is wisdom’s means of protecting you from landing in the abode of the dead (cf. Pr 23.13-14).
Counsel is another weapon in wisdom’s arsenal for your protection; that is, receiving counsel from others. A wise man is full of strength for the war, not because he has brute strength, but because he surrounds himself with counselors who help him develop strategy (Pr 24.5-6). The fool who goes down in defeat is the one who is wise in his own eyes, self-conceited and arrogant (Pr 26.12, 16). Wisdom from the aged as you engage in war is more important than your raw, untrained abilities. A sniper with one bullet is more effective than a man with a fifty-round magazine who doesn’t know how to use his weapon. Wise counselors help you become an effective warrior.
Though strength without counsel is ineffective, strength with counsel is potent. Solomon encourages his son to build strength, telling him that if he faints in the day of adversity, his strength is small (Pr 24.10). The adversity is not the problem. Crumbling in adversity is a revelation of your weakness, a weakness that you should have been eliminating through training. This strength is the strength of character. This kind of strength is developed when no one is looking, in times of peace and plenty as well as times of adversity. Strength is built by engaging in daily disciplines that don’t look as if they are doing much at the time but always have the long game in mind. Building this strength involves meditating on the Scriptures daily, praying, worshiping with God’s people, and doing good works. You do these things when you don’t feel like it or when you feel nothing. You do it because you walk by faith and not by sight.
Take up the weapons of wisdom. Engage the world. God’s got you.
