ON THE WISDOM AND MADNESS OF GOD

BY EMMANUEL AMPONSAH

1 - Two great influences in this world

There are two great influences on earth, and each is governed by one or the other: one
is Wisdom, the wisdom of God is Christ (see Proverbs 8 and 1 Corinthians). 1:24); the other
is madness, “The crazy woman”, the one who animates and leads the world. It is of utmost importance
for each of the saints to know how well they are really under the influence of these two influences. The
thing is very simple and easy to discover if we do not forget the path that each offers us, and if we
take care. Each offers something that must revive and satisfy the heart. Wisdom says, "Come, eat of
my bread, and drink my wine which I have mixed"; the mad woman says: "The stolen waters and the
secret bread are pleasant." They each offer something that must rejoice and satisfy, only what Wisdom
offers, it presents it with a warning and a warning: “Listen to the instruction ...; and leave their
foolishness and you will live; and take the path of discernment "(comp. 1:20 and following. ; 4: 20-
27); while Madness, the world, speaks only of that which satisfies nature and its lusts, and to what,
according to God, one had no right: "stolen waters," and "bread eaten in secret”(5: 3).

This is a principle of immense importance, that in the midst of a world formed and governed by
Madness, there is a path that Wisdom teaches, a way of God in which it is known, a path in which the
wise and the righteous advance and grow, but whose beginning is “the fear of the Lord.” There is only
one. If we do not walk, we will bear the consequences, even if, deep down, we love the Lord. But if
we consider the consequences of each of these two great influences for those who yield to it, we
cannot fail to discover if someone is led by Wisdom, or by Madness, that is to say by the attractions
of this world.

2 - Eve, Noah, Abraham, Babel

Eve listened to Madness, when she desired the fruit of the tree, and “saw that the fruit of the tree
was good to eat, that it was pleasing to the eye, and that the tree was desirable to give science.” Had
she been led by Wisdom, she would have turned away from the serpent; she would not have moved
the gates of Wisdom, and kept the posts of her gates: she would have “left there folly” and “lived”; she
had remained in the only sure way.

Noah listened to Madness when he planted a vineyard and drank wine. He became drunk and found
that “there are the dead” and that “his guests go to the bottom of the sepulcher.” Those who built the
Tower of Babel were led by the world, by what is most insidious in its spirit of independence. The
man sought a center and a common interest independent of God and which excluded God.
 Abraham, on the contrary, was led by Wisdom, when he left his country and his father's house,
not knowing where he was going; he was led by her, when he remained in the land of promise as in a
foreign land, and persevered to the end in the path of separation that wisdom reveals. It is, indeed,
the great characteristic of Wisdom, that it teaches us separation, presenting to us a new and unknown
path of men; while the world, on the contrary, has the characteristic feature that it offers what satisfies
the lusts, to which our right is not well established, which is wholly and exclusively for us, for the
"me".

3 - Influence of the entourage

More generally, the influence which veils us the way of God or which turns us away from it, is
exercised by means of someone who is very close to us, in whom we may have a lot of confidence,
who flatters, in one way or another, our self-esteem: and so we become the prey of the world by
following its path. It was so with Jacob: his mother persuaded him to use devious means to obtain the
blessing of his father. So again David: the influence of Joab led him to remember Absalom. In the
same way Peter tried to dissuade the Lord from the cross; but Wisdom rebuked him: “Go back from
me, Satan, you are scandalous to me.”

4 - Walk carefully

If we know how to resist the influence of the persons who surround us naturally here and who
may be of real interest to us, we know what it is to be led by Wisdom; for it is even written, “The
enemies of a man shall be the men of his house” (Matthew 10:36). Once we have truly accepted the
principle of Wisdom, its path becomes easier every day, and our separation from anyone who does
not agree with the Lord's thought becomes more rigorous; our senses become daily more and more
exercised to discern good and evil, bringing us not only to deny the evil in us, but even to hate even
the garment of another soiled by the flesh. We fear then the man of the world as “pitch,” for who can
touch pitch and not be defiled? Bad companies corrupt good morals (1 Corinthians 15:33). Paul breaks
rather with Barnabas than accepting at this time the collaboration of Mark (see Acts 15:38).

“Be careful not to walk carefully, not as unwise, but as wise, seizing the opportunity, because the
days are evil. Wherefore, be not without understanding, but understand what is the will of the
Lord; and do not be drunk with wine, in which there is dissolution, but be filled with the Spirit, etc.”
(Ephesians 5:15 and following).