“Khandai Tripura, 35, of Chinchharipara village in Ramgararh district, Bangladesh, caught a cobra on 20 July and started playing with it. The snake bit him on the hand, and in his anger, he bit the snake’s head. He died in the hospital the next day. The snake also died. No word on whether they were buried together.” – Independant [sic] 22 July 1998
Why do people make the choices that they do? There are people we will invariably run across who will make really poor choices as if there was no thought process involved at all. Some decisions, like that of Mr. Tripura, leave us shaking our heads and longing to cry out, “what were you thinking???” The truth is they weren’t. The truth is that they are woefully lacking wisdom and their folly confirmed that.
Solomon wrote of Lady Wisdom crying out yearning for people everywhere to heed her voice. She says, “He who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:36). If we offend Lady Wisdom by not listening to her voice, we will be hurt, but we can create chaos and suffering and reproach for the people around us.
God has offered wisdom. God has said, “there’s an alternative to being bitten and biting the snake.” Though He did not extend a “ask whatever you want” type of offer as He did to Solomon, He has absolutely made it freely available to each one of us so that we might do less snake-biting and that we should be bitten less (Prov. 1:7, James 1:5-8).
Here is a brief list of resources that are available to give wise counsel. God offers wisdom through prayer (James 1:5-8). God offers wisdom through His word (Jeremiah 8:9). God offers wisdom through the words of Jesus (Col. 3:16). God offers wisdom through wise counselors (Prov. 11:14; 15:22; 24:6). God offers wisdom through careful consideration of the path we are on (Haggai 1:5, 1:7). God offers wisdom through considering the alternatives (Isaiah 1:18-19). Is foolishly playing with and then biting that snake what you really want to do?
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