Well, this theme that we're going to look at next is a lot like the previous one. When you're reading the Proverbs, you shouldn't just read for gaining nuggets of wisdom or just not look at the context of Proverbs, but you should step back and ask yourself the question, "What is the world that is being described by this portion of the Word of God? What do I learn about life, what's the big picture that's being presented to me here?"
And there is just glorious big picture stuff in Proverbs that picks up the glorious big picture themes in the rest of Scripture. And one of those themes is that we live between the 'already' of our conversion and the 'not yet' of our home going, in a right here, right now, glory war. The Proverbs is all about glory.
Now, let me say something about this. We human beings were created by God with a glory orientation. We are attracted to glorious things, every one of us. That's why a toddler is attracted to that light that flashes on that cell phone; it's this glorious attractive thing. That's why we like the triple mousse cake, or the dramatic movie, or the triple overtime NBA game, or a compelling piece of music. We are oriented, magnetized to glory. Animals are not like that; the penguins don't score one another as they dive off into the water, "That was a 9.5!" The rhino doesn't say to the zebra, "Dude, that's the most awesome coat I've ever seen; where did you get that cool coat?" It just doesn't happen, but we do that. And so, you're always hungering for glory.
And the Proverbs would present to us that there are only two kinds of glory. There's the ultimate glory, that is the glorious glory of the glory of God, His presence, His power, His wisdom, His mercy, and listen, the glory of everything else. Whether that's power, wealth, sex, food, the list is endless.
And the Proverbs does something for us, I think this is very helpful. All the wisdom truths that Proverbs is trying to teach, are illustrated by physical, natural illustrations. Now if you step back, what you learn is that every physical created thing is not a glory in and of itself, but it's meant to be a finger that points you to the greater glory of God. That's why the ant can teach me something about life, God's designed it that way, that all those things pull me toward Him. Right now, your life is shaped by a hunger for glory, and you're trying to satisfy that glory with the physical, created things that were never meant to satisfy your heart.
Proverbs tells you these things will not satisfy your heart. Wealth won't satisfy your heart, power won't satisfy your heart, sex won't satisfy your heart, winning the deal, no matter how hard, whatever you had to do to win, won't satisfy your heart. Satisfaction is only found in the Lord, in submitting to His will and His way, living for His glory. Today, you woke up to a glory war and tomorrow you will again, and you have to ask yourself, "What glory captures my heart? What am I trying to feed my glory hunger with? Is it God or is it something else?" Everything created will never satisfy your heart but is a finger to point you to the one glory that will bring contentment and satisfaction to you!
