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MEDIATIONS ON WISDOM CHAPTERS 17 THROUGH 19 WISDOM 17:2-3 2 For when lawless men supposed that they held the holy nation in their power,they themselves lay as captives of darkness and prisoners of long night,shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal providence.3 For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobservedbehind a dark curtain of forgetfulness,they were scattered, terribly alarmed,and appalled by specters. MEDITATION This recalls the story of how wickedness imprisons a wicked people in darkness and fear. It recalls the plague of darkness visited on the Egyptians in Exodus 10:21-29. WISDOM 17:7 7 The delusions of their magic art lay humbled,and their boasted wisdom was scornfully rebuked. MEDITATION No matter the magic arts performed by Pharoah’s sorcerers, again and again they were defeated by God’s overwhelming power. I am reminded of the foolishness of today’s pagan environmentalism touted as wisdom while its adherents live in fear of the fiction of anthropogenic global warming. WISDOM 17:11-13 11 For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by its own testimony;distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated[c] the difficulties.12 For fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason;13 and the inner expectation of help, being weak,prefers ignorance of what causes the torment. MEDITATION Wickedness makes you a coward. Cowards live in fear. There is no logic, no reason in fear. Furthermore, as 1st John 4:18 states, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” WISDOM 18:11-12 11 The slave was punished with the same penalty as the master,and the common man suffered the same loss as the king;12 and they all together, by the one form of death,had corpses too many to count. MEDITATION There is no partiality with God whether it is punishment for the disobedient of blessing for obedience. Exodus 12:29 states: At midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle. And Romans 2:9-11 states: 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. WISDOM 18:13 13 For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts,yet, when their first-born were destroyed, they acknowledged thy people to be God’s son. MEDITATION When you willingly believe in any fictional idea, any pagan conviction, then you will believe based on your pagan ideology that nothing can be objectively true. It is the old false paradigm that “what is true for you may not be true for me.” GK Chesterton gave the converse of this by phrasing it another way: When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything. WISDOM 18:19 19 For the dreams which disturbed them forewarned them of this,so that they might not perish without knowing why they suffered. MEDITATION God will always let you know why you are being punished. They will be no doubt. God does nothing in secret. WISDOM 19:1-2 1 But the ungodly were assailed to the end by pitiless anger,for God knew in advance even their future actions,2 that, though they themselves had permitted thy people to departand hastily sent them forth,they would change their minds and pursue them. MEDITATION God is in charge and being the Creator of space and time, He sees everything all at once. He knows when you are going to do evil even before you do it just as He knew Pharoah would renege on his decision to release the Hebrews from captivity in Exodus 14:5. WISDOM 19:13 13 The punishments did not come upon the sinnerswithout prior signs in the violence of thunder,for they justly suffered because of their wicked acts;for they practiced a more bitter hatred of strangers. MEDITATION God gave the Egyptians 10 signs in the form of plagues to release the Hebrews from captivity, and still Pharaoh reneged. God always warns before ultimate punishment. The Egyptians turned against the Hebrews after the time of Joseph and his brothers, hating their descendants as strangers. And God warned them of the consequences of their hatred. WISDOM 19:18-20 18 For the elements changed places with one another,as on a harp the notes vary the nature of the rhythm,while each note remains the same.This may be clearly inferred from the sight of what took place.19 For land animals were transformed into water creatures,and creatures that swim moved over to the land.20 Fire even in water retained its normal power,and water forgot its fire-quenching nature. MEDITATION Many modern people programmed with the false ideology of scientism, a poor caricature of what science really, is proclaim that to believe in the text of Sacred Scripture is to be anti-science. Nothing could be further from the truth. Verse 18 points to a process of stellar nucleosynthesis whereby one element is converted into another by the fusion process in the hearts of stars. The first part of verse 19 alludes to the process whereby some land animals that were ancestors of today’s modern pigs and boars returned to the sea and become today’s whales, porpoises, and dolphins. Likewise, the second part alludes to the process whereby some animals in the sea by transforming into amphibians came onto dry land. Verse 20 about fire existing in water and water no quenching fire is seen when the element sodium or potassium or any alkali is immersed in water. The element burns and the water does not quench it even though it flames while submerged. CONCLUSION – WISDOM 19:22 22 For in everything, O Lord, thou hast exalted and glorified thy people;and thou hast not neglected to help them at all times and in all places.