“Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer; the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in king’s palaces.” – Proverbs 30:24-28
This past January, Indiana University rocked the college football world. They claimed their first ever national championship, steamrolling some of the most storied programs along the way. They did so without a single five-star recruit. Two thirds of their players were 0-star recruits.
The underdog story is written in all of our hearts because deep down, we feel we don’t have what it takes, and the odds are against us. Yet, we perceive there is a way; there must be a way for David to beat Goliath. We long to believe that sheer size and strength are not all there is to the story. There must be a deeper magic. That story is true. The magic is wisdom.
Solomon uses examples from the animal kingdom to see this magic at work. He lists four creatures—all of them quite small, who nonetheless possess skills and advantages beyond many people. The ant works and plans far in advance. A rock badger (really a large rodent) enjoys safety and security in his fortress habitat. Locusts exercise cooperative discipline and order. A tiny lizard enjoys a kingly prominence many elites fall short of.
What’s their secret? How have these animals gamed the system? The Bible points us to their creator. He gives them wisdom that puts them far ahead of many stronger, flashier animals. Part of God’s creational design in these animals is to display the advantages of wisdom (planning, safety, communal order, and prominence) that humans can receive from him. In a sense, this is the purpose of all proverbs. “If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed” (Ecclesiastes 10:10).[1]
Many times, we try to brute-force our way through life. Work harder. Earn more. Go faster. Look prettier. Study harder. Wisdom steps back, picks its head up, and asks: what if there’s another way altogether?
Yet earthly wisdom, the “work-smarter-not-harder” adage, amounts to another trap. You master the skill of efficiency. God’s wisdom, found fully in Jesus, takes you another step back, and asks you to look outside of this visible world. What if there’s another way to think about planning, safety, communal order, and prominence? What if there’s another scale of success for these things that’s measured spiritually and internally?
The delightful magic of wisdom comes in its concealment—it’s not something you can dissect. “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age…But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God.” (I Corinthians 2:6-7). The greatest, most mysterious and subversive magic is treasuring Jesus, who is wisdom itself.
[1] Or see my devotional on Proverbs 28:11: “A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has understanding will find him out.”
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