the smartest person in the room

The Word for today:
2 Chronicles 5:2-6:11

I'm the smartest guy in the room.

Before you burst into gales of laughter, be careful. Because you might be laughing at yourself.

Be even more careful, because you might be laughing at scripture.

I recently read (1) that President Obama "always considers himself the smartest person in any room." And you just read--right here--that if he's smart, give me stupid.

Solomon, indeed, was the smartest guy in the room. But he didn't do much with it. He got swept up in lusts of all kinds--wealth, wine, women, song, horses, you name it--and watched the splendor he was handed fade away. His idolatry would eventually chase the Glory right out of the temple. Once again, if that's smart, give me stupid.

I'm the smartest guy in the room because the Bible tells me so:
We have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

The careful reader will note the plural subject of that sentence: We.

Which means that if you're in the room at the same time, I'm tied for the smartest person in the room.

Everyone talks about the great wisdom of Solomon, as if it were some special dispensation. The wisdom given to Solomon is a precursor--a picture, a prediction, a prophecy, a promise--of the wisdom which was to be given to the "church."

We've been given the total package. Identified in Proverbs 8:1 as "Wisdom," he walks--incarnated--into the New Testament as "Jesus"--

When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man. (Proverbs 8:27-31)

You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God. (1 Corinthians 1:30)

So let's make sure that we don't waste Wisdom, like Solomon did; like many of our brothers and sisters in the church still do, as they live lives which, in their own ways, are as idolatrous as Solomon's life became--lives which chase away the Glory from the church.

Let's follow Wisdom where He leads. For what does it profit a man if he should be granted all the wisdom in the universe, but still follows the folly of his shriveled heart?

***

Now, if you feel up to the task, I want you to do something which you might at first call 'radical,' but scripture calls it 'fact.'

Go to the mirror. Take an index finger and point to your head. Now say out loud, "Something greater than Solomon is here." (2)

You just took a step--perhaps your first step--into the limitless realms of supernatural wisdom. For we have the mind of Christ.

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(1) "The Education of a President" by Peter Baker. NY Times. October 12, 2010.
(2) see Matthew 12:42