The only drum I have

“My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,”
-Proverbs 5:1

As we have so often seen in the Proverbs, Solomon again asks his son to pay attention, to listen carefully. And to be honest, part of me is getting a little annoyed. I am trying to write down my thoughts about each verse I come to, but I keep coming to this same verse. The same thing is repeated over and over again.

It’s my instinct to move on to something new, something hipper. Isn’t there some really deep theological debate on which I can opine? Isn’t there some hidden meaning I can decipher?

I wonder sometimes if that’s the sort of instinct that brings about the sermons we often get today. The new pastor will enter a church, talk about sin, talk about Grace, go through the parables, go through a book of two, and then, at the end of it all, really just want to talk about something else.

So we end up with sermons on finances or summer blockbusters.

The Bible is about Jesus. The Bible tells about how God redeemed a people that did not deserve it through the death of His only begotten Son. It tells about His Glory, His majesty, His mercy, and His Grace.

Which are awesome, wondrous topics, topics that should be shouted from every rooftop.

It isn’t about how we earn our way to God’s favor, because we can’t. We have all failed to do that when we sin. In our anger, lust, hatred, selfishness, pride, and envy, we have fallen from His Glory. We are not good enough, and we never will be.

But Jesus was good enough, and in His death He paid the price that was ours to pay. Because of that sacrifice, we can now stand before a holy and just God, clothed in His righteousness. If we repent and believe, we will have eternal life.

Even after we have become Christians, His Blood continues to atone for our mistakes. It’s not that we are suddenly thrown to our own devices. With a new nature and the Holy Spirit to guide us, it is possible to not sin, and yet when we do sin, Jesus is still the one who took the punishment for us.

The temptation is to vary up the message a little, because we love variety. We want to keep people’s attention with something new and different. It’s pride. That sort of thinking is prideful.

There’s only one way to life, and that is Jesus Christ. By His mercy, I will bang that drum for the rest of my life and no other, because it’s the only drum that means anything. People will worry about other things, but it only comes down to Jesus. Those who preach to a felt need end up preaching something that, in the end, will burn up and be destroyed.

I love that Solomon bangs this drum too. Over and over again He points to God. He’s the wisest man who had ever lived, so surely he had something else to say, but he didn’t. Listen. Pay attention. If he repeats himself, it’s for a reason. Solomon is pointing to someone larger than himself.