There are other kinds of noises, including those that are beneficial.
White Noise
Sometimes when we were travelling and our room wasn’t far from a busy highway, we would turn on the fan of the AC to blot out the noise of the vehicles. I read that fans, rain, or ocean waves are the best white noise for helping one sleep. Often, in Papua New Guinea, the sound of rain on the grass roof would lull me to sleep.
Wisdom Shouts (Proverbs 2ff)
Let’s imagine a bit. Picture a man walking up and down the streets of Waco, in the markets and malls and shouting that the people are stupid because they aren’t paying attention to what he is saying. He offers them advice and knowledge and they sneer and ignore him instead. He points out what they are doing wrong, and they avoid him. He claims that he represents God, and they show no respect to his warnings. So, he gets mad and shouts louder and more frequently. He tells them that they will have disasters and troubles and when they ask God for help, he will make fun of them. However, if they listen to him, they will be safe and won’t have to worry about disasters. He is like John the Baptist, and he isn’t whispering, he is shouting.
The man wants the listeners to beg as loud as they can for the wisdom he can give, to search for it like they would a good investment. He admits that he wants to control their minds so that they will learn to do what is honest and fair, have good common sense and be protected.
The people may not admit it but there is evil all around them, because people are mean and deceitful, crooked and dishonest. There are prostitutes and immoral people who live among them, even when they are tempted with “stolen water.” Wisdom is trying to persuade men to circumvent evil, follow her teachings, to help their neighbors, to stop arguing and to not be jealous of cruel people.
Wisdom doesn’t give up: now he is represented as a young boy, who tells his story. He was the favorite child, and his father told him to follow his teachings and memorize them. Then he would have good sense that would be like wearing an expensive Stetson. Not only that, but his father also told him that if he listened to his advice, he would have good health and he would live a long time. In addition, with good sense and judgment,he would find a good wife to stay in love with all his life. He wouldn’t have to worry about bad women that would lead him astray or have sexual relations with someone he hadn’t married. His wife would remain as beautiful and graceful to him as the day he married her.
Stupidity Shouts (Proverbs 9.13-18, etc.)
But wait, someone else is shouting for attention. This person is reckless, senseless and foolish. This person is like a prostitute that stands on the street corner and invites the men who pass by to come inside. She claims that stolen water tastes best and the food eaten in secret is the best of all.
This person is stupid, but then so are we—we do stupid things and say stupid things. Stupid people are lazy, they talk all the time without making any sense, so they often say the wrong thing. They become crooked and are trapped by their own dishonesty, ultimately destroyed by their own sins.
Loud voices in heaven
We shouldn’t think of heaven as a quiet place. Loud voices like trumpets, millions of angels singing, a voice like thunder, and so on. And when there is silence (Rev. 8.1) for a half an hour, it is deafening.
Loud voices on the earth
Yelling at us today here, on the earth, where we live, comes from our TV, newspapers, our computer messages, our phone, and the Internet. We are told to invest here, and God will double our income in two months. Buy this and feel happy. Enjoy sex indiscriminately. Everything is yours and you earned it. Join the health club, take vitamins and supplements and live forever, or at least until you are 90 and can’t remember to take your vitamins or remember where the health club is located.
Competitive shouting
Who is going to win? Is there only one battle and then perhaps wisdom has won forever? Or is there even pain? Sometimes, as C.S. Lewis reminded us, pain is God’s megaphone. It is loud, unceasing and it gets out attention.
Paul at times felt like a wretched man: he knew what he should do, but he didn’t do it. In fact, he sometimes did the opposite of what he wanted to do. Two parts of his nature shouting for attention. And only Christ could get him out of the mess.
The bottom line and my final comment is that there is a battle going on for our minds, representing the sins that are lived out in our culture. So, who wins the competition? Wisdom, shouting at the gate, or stupidity, shouting just as loudly (and not just at the gate)?
Sometimes, only in silence can we listen and hear the voice of God.
There are of course other sounds that I love to hear: wind whistling through the trees, thunder in the distance, water rushing over stones in a stream, birds calling, the loon on a lake, hymns and the prayers of the faithful, the once soft breathing of my wife beside me, the gurgling of a baby, and so on. I’m sure you can compile your own list.
It should be sacred and simple.
Karl Franklin
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