Daily Devotional for Sunday, November 16

A Wise Man’s Heart

“A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left,” Ecclesiastes 10:2.

Our devotional verse showed the right and left hands used to show us the difference between wisdom and folly. In the ancient world, there were serious cultural implications regarding the right and left hands. Generally, the right hand symbolized power, authority and honor; the left hand symbolized weakness and even evil. So, saying that wisdom is at the right hand and folly at the left held weighty symbolic meaning. It may even be a way of illustrating that wisdom and folly have no place together. I like that one, since they clearly do not belong together.

It is no accident that God talks a lot about the importance of wisdom. Reading God’s Word instructs us to be wise and not foolish. Proverbs and surrounding books are referred to as Wisdom Literature. Further, the Bible repeatedly teaches us the source of true wisdom. Of course, the only valid source of real knowledge and wisdom is God. He has it and will gladly give it if we ask.

Is your wisdom from the world or God? Our passage teaches that we cannot mix the two; it is one or the other. Which will you choose?

JUST A THOUGHT

Like one bad apple spoiling the barrel, a little bit of folly can spoil an otherwise good situation.

Wally Fry