My dear readers,

The Pacifying Power of Wisdom

Proverbs 16:14: “The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it.”

To persuade someone out of a wrong way of thinking is one of the most difficult things to do in life. Those who have the ability to do so are usually called counsellors. They work at telephone help-lines. They take calls from strangers who are struggling in life, some struggling to the point of suicide. It is a most daunting task to talk someone out of such a dire mind-set that must have taken some time to develop to such a point of no return. Yet within that few minutes of time over the phone, the counsellor needs to convince him that the situation is not as bad as it seems and that there is a way out of his dark and deadly dilemma. If the counsellor succeeds, he saves a life.

Proverbs 16:14 speaks of a wise man who can talk a king out of doing something in anger. When a king is angry, the nation suffers. When a king in Israel was angry, he could destroy the holy witness of God. The world would die in sin without a holy nation to witness to them. A king by nature is sovereign. There is no one above him that he answers to. He does what is right in his own eyes. He is above the laws of the nation since he makes the laws. What happens when an angry king makes a decision that impacts the lives of millions of people? The warning from the LORD is that “the wrath of a king is as messengers of death.”

Messengers of death are people who send death decrees to others. Their message brings death to all who receive it. For example, when the king of Persia via Haman passed the law to kill all the Jews within the Persian Empire, messengers were sent throughout the four corners of the vast Persian Empire. Once the law reached that part of the empire, every Jew feared for his life. He had just received his and his family’s death warrants. In this case, the Persian king was not angry but was deceived by Haman. This illustrates the power of a king over the lives of his people.

A king is supposed to protect his people but when he is angry and he takes his anger out on them, they can die. When a king is angry and makes faulty economic decisions, he destroys the economy and his people are plunged into poverty. Diligence and the generations of hard work of his people are rendered useless. When a king is angry and makes hasty military decisions, his people and their way of life can be destroyed by foreign invaders who will plunder, ravage and massacre his people. Sons and husbands, wives and daughters will die in a most heinous manner. Generations of nation building can turn into rubble overnight.

A king should always not make any decision when he is angry. But who is there to prevent that from happening? A king is all powerful. He can kill anyone who contradicts him. He can kill anyone who is not his “yes man”! Yet what a king needs is a wise counsellor who can help him during the king’s worst emotional outbursts. The LORD describes the counsellor as “a wise man who can pacify.” Who is “a wise man”?

Wisdom comes from God. When Solomon was given the wisdom to rule Israel, he was able to solve an apparently insoluble problem. Two mothers came to him, each claiming that the baby was hers. Solomon said to bring a sword to cut the baby into half, knowing that the baby’s mother would not allow it to happen. The true mother chose to let the other mother have her baby. By this one act, Solomon solved the problem of the identity of the true mother.

We see that true wisdom from God enables a wise man to know the mind, heart and psyche of others. He understands human nature. He is also able to evaluate a situation and what the best way to deal with it is. He is also guided by truth and righteousness according to Holy Scriptures. Solomon wanted to restore the baby to the real mother. All these can be accomplished only if the person is born again in Christ. This is wisdom from above and not below.

God the Creator of man knows man the best. The ones who are born again in Christ have the mind of Christ which is the mind of God. Solomon had the mind of Christ that allowed him to be given the wisdom needed to rule God’s people. The more believers study the Word of God, the wiser they become. The believers’ mind will be filled with the knowledge of God so that they can walk aright and help others to walk aright too. They will also have the ability to even help an angry king make a right decision after pacifying him, even in the case of righteous anger. A faithful wife who has been betrayed by her adulterous husband might do something foolish in the heat of anger. But a wise Christian friend can calm her down through faithful biblical counsel such as to forgive her husband for Christ’s sake. Additional counsel will be needed to bring about reconciliation after the husband has been counselled to stop his adulterous relationship. Parents who are angry because of rebellious children need to calm down before making decisions that might potentially heal or hurt the relationship between parent and child. “Be ye angry, and sin not…” (Eph 4:26) is wisdom from God to all who are angry and to those who need to help others to calm down when they are angry.

All church leaders and heads of homes must take heed to this warning from God so that the lives of people under our care are protected and not hurt by hasty decisions made in times of anger. Pray also for wisdom from God to help others who might make disastrous decisions when angry that might ruin their lives and the lives of others. Amen.