The lips of the wise spread knowledge,
but the hearts of fools are not so. 

Proverbs 15:7

I know we know that there is great disparity between wisdom and folly, but no one has compiled such an amazing array of contrasts like The Proverbs! Here is yet another!

Not only do fools deceive themselves and bring harm and pervert just about everything; they don’t even have it in themselves (the heart) to share wisdom’s knowledge! Our western culture is looking more and more foolish each day we dig into God’s wisdom.

We need to stay committed to God’s wisdom and committed to sharing or as this verse says, spreading, His wisdom and especially the Good News of His Gospel!! We used to say, “Spread the news about __________(fill in the blank); whether it was about a potluck supper or who won an election. Remember back in the dark ages we still shared a lot of news word of mouth, phone…just a phone connected to a wall… or letters or the fax machine was a wonderful technological breakthrough! LOL

The word ‘spred’ in Hebrew is zara (H2219) and has several meanings. “To scatter, to fan, to cast away, winnow, disperse, compass”

I think there is an interesting nuance between the word ‘share’ and ‘spread’. When we share news, it is usually quite specific and to a specific person or persons. It has the idea of being more reciprocal and expecting a response of some sort; like sharing a favorite recipe. 

Thinking of the definition of the word spread…when we spread news, it seems to be more widespread to a larger audience or a more varied audience either by time or space. It is less personal or communal. Think of a college class of hundreds or a preacher standing before dozens of people or thousands of people. 

Both avenues of communicating news and information are needed. I find it interesting that in our key verse of communicating knowledge, the use of spread knowledge is the chosen way. In other of our wisdom verses sharing wisdom is the idea expressed. I surmise that each way of communicating wisdom is viable and vital.

I actually love the idea of ‘casting away’ knowledge or news in the sense that it leaves the end result totally with God. Think of it this way. When I share the Gospel with someone over lunch, I do find it challenging when my friend just doesn’t seem to get it and I worry and fret and ponder how I can do better the next time we meet. Will there even be a next time? But when I write a book or these blog posts to spread the Gospel, it really is almost, a shot in the dark. I am sharing the light of the Gospel out there…everywhere God sees fit to let my feeble words be used by Him. That in itself is quite scary, but I have to leave it with Him. I cannot control who reads my words and who doesn’t, nor can I control who will respond toward God and who will not. It can be a bit dispiriting not to know the ‘end game’ of my work, at least not in this life.

Way too often I give up and stop writing.

But with my friend, I wrongly think that I have something to do with what God does with my words. Pride sets in and that causes its own world of trouble for me and maybe even for my friend. The bottom line is, both sharing the Good News and spreading the Good News are very important! And it is also very important for me to do what God tells me to do with each form of communication and then leave the results completely and totally up to Him! Amen!