http://www.fox.com/are-you-smarter-than-a-fifth-grader
Are you smarter than a fifth grader?
is a show on fox that makes some of us nervous.
What if I am not smarter than a fifth grader?
What if I am smarter than a fifth grader? Will I then have to be smarter than a freshman? A Ph.D.?
James 3:13 asks a similar question, "Who is wise and understanding among you?"
James, who wrote to the twelve tribes (James 1:1), may have picked this question up from Deuteronomy 1:13 where Moses says, "Choose wise and understanding men. . . . as your heads."
Imagine in your church or your community or even your extended family or friends picking the wise ones to be the leaders? Who would you choose? Would you want to be picked? Would you pick a fifth grader?
It is one thing to be picked as wise and another thing to prove that I am wise. James loves for us to prove things, and so he writes further in 3:13, "By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom."
Those men picked by the Israelites as their leaders did not seem to lead them very wisely in the next forty years of wandering. Can I lead any better than they did? What is my proof?
For James the proof is "the meekness of wisdom," and to understand that we need to look a a leader who was also a fifth grader. No one knows for certain how old Solomon was when he became king, but some say he was 12 years old. Even though most fifth graders are 10-11 years old as fifth graders, where I come from plenty of kids were 12. Some people say Solomon could not have been 12 when he became king because he had a child a year before he became king, but again, where I come from some babies are born to some young kids, and looking at the family Solomon was brought up in, it is easy for me to imagine he had a child at a young age. So play my game with me assuming that Solomon was a fifth grader when he became king.
In 1 Kings 3:5 God says to Solomon, "Ask what I shall give you."
Solomon's reply in the Danny Smith Paraphrase in 1 Kings 3;6-9 goes like this:
"You loved my dad, David. You put me on His throne, even though I am just a fifth grader. I can't even unlock the door or put the toilet seat where it should go. I don't know what I am doing. Give me wisdom because I do not have any and you, God, have all wisdom. Without Your wisdom, I am likely to lead this people of Yours off a cliff."
The meekness of wisdom is Solomon saying, "I have no wisdom. God has all wisdom."
Personalize that by inserting your name for I: "_______ has no wisdom. God has all wisdom."
Contrast the meekness of wisdom with the jealousy of wisdom, and jealousy and selfish ambition was something Solomon saw in his family growing up. If you want something take it. If someone is in your way, get rid of them.
James 3:14-16 "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice."
James speaks of a wisdom that is from above, hinting that it is from God, and also a wisdom that is from the earth, from us, from demons, or in contrast, from below. The wisdom from below is in competition mode: "Who can I beat? (Maybe a fifth grader.) The wisdom from above knows that the One Who is above has blown out the competition, and that the game is over! The only wise God has all wisdom. The wisdom from above is described in very humble and meek terms in James 3:17 "pure. . . peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy" and the list goes on. No need to be in competition when the only Supplier of wisdom is giving it out free to those who ask.
Solomon, the fifth grader, would tell us that the first step to getting wisdom is realizing you don't have any. The second step to getting wisdom is asking the One who has it. When I recognized that I was not worthy to sit in any seat, God placed me in the seat, the throne, over His own people.
When we realize that we shouldn't even be allowed to sit in any seat, God puts us in the best seat in the house. When I was a fifth grader, I was getting an F in citizenship. My dad came to school, and wow was I in trouble. I was kicked off the basketball team, and I had to wake up early in the morning to run with my dad before school. But for one week I was an angel at school and raised my grade to a D-. My dad decoded to do something for me that I did not expect. He worked at a University and had dealings with a law office in Indianapolis. He talked with them and they gave him tickets to a game in Market Square Arena to watch the Indiana Pacers play the Chicago Bulls. This was 1987. The main poster on my wall was #23 sticking his tongue out. My dad walked me toward my seat and I couldn't believe it. We were just a few rows back from Michael Jordan himself. I saw his sweat. I had a great view for his breakaway dunks. I knew that I did not deserve that seat. I knew that I had done nothing to sit there, but that my dad just loved to bless me, and to sit together in amazing places.
Our Father in Heaven, Scripture says in Ephesians 2:6, "seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Our Father has seated us in heaven. We did not climb there. We did not fly there. He just loves to lift us up to be with Him.
We do not deserve to sit with Him, to know Him, to have our eyes opened, to learn of His Wisdom, to have His wisdom poured on us so that we know what path to take, know what word to say, know what pitfalls to avoid.
How do we get this wisdom? Step 1. We realize we need it. Step 2. We realize that only God has it. (Danny has no wisdom. God has all wisdom). Step 3. We ask for it. Pray. Step 4. Recognize that God's wisdom can be found in the pages of the Bible. Read the Bible. Read it again and again. Make it become a part of my bloodstream, not to be the smartest Bible person, but because I recognize that I need it to survive. That it is truly my food.
Am I smarter than a fifth grader? Not the fifth grader of Luke 2:46-47 who while his parents were looking for him, he was sitting among the teachers, teachers who probably thought they were wise, and they were amazed and both his questions and his answers. What a turning of the tables! It's the fifth grade Jesus Christ who teaches the teachers, shows wisdom to the wise. No, I am not smarter than fifth grader Jesus. In fact, I have searched all over the place to find someone greater, and I have found that no one can match that fifth grader. If you truly want wisdom, ask the fifth grader Jesus. If you would never ask a fifth grader anything, truly you will never receive the free gifts of wisdom, love, understanding, grace, forgiveness that He alone can give.
