WHAT IS WISDOM?
Wisdom means knowing what is true and right together with doing what is true and right. The Bible idea of Wisdom brings together a number of different ideas and we find them all here in Proverbs chapter 8.
Proverbs 8 Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?
5 You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, gain understanding.
WISDOM the opposite of foolishness
UNDERSTANDING
PRUDENCE
6 Listen, for I have worthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right.
7 My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness.
RIGHTEOUSNESS – the opposite of wickedness
TRUTH
8 All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse.
JUSTICE – the opposite of being crooked or perverse
9 To the discerning all of them are right; they are faultless to those who have knowledge.
10 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold,
12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion.
DISCERNMENT
KNOWLEDGE
INSTRUCTION
DISCRETION
13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behaviour and perverse speech.
14 Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have understanding and power.
15 By me kings reign and rulers make laws that are just;
16 by me princes govern, and all nobles who rule on earth
COUNSEL- good advice
SOUND JUDGMENT
JUST LAWS
Wisdom is all about knowing the right things to do – right for individuals and personal morality and right for society and the legal system – the opposite of evil behaviour or perverse speech. So wisdom brings together a whole cluster of concepts:
UNDERSTANDING, PRUDENCE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, TRUTH, JUSTICE,
DISCERNMENT, KNOWLEDGE, INSTRUCTION, DISCRETION, COUNSEL, SOUND JUDGMENT, JUST LAWS
For thousands of years human beings have valued wisdom and pursued wisdom. They have valued understanding and truth and knowledge and justice. But our world is changing in this post-modern generation in two important ways. The first way is that people are being told that the pursuit to wisdom is pointless – everybody can have their own wisdom. Knowledge and understanding and truth will be different for each person and we have to appreciate and even bow down to everybody else’s wisdom. It is politically incorrect to suggest that your own wisdom or understanding or knowledge or truth is better than anybody else’s!
So instead of pursuing wisdom, people are pursuing experience. Decartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” So many people today in this post-modern world believe instead, “I feel, therefore I am.” Even in church life many people aren’t so interested in knowing and understanding what is true any more – they just want the latest “experience.” People measure truth by experience – if something gives me a good experience it must be true. And if folk don’t find the experiences they are looking for they move on to somewhere else. There are football fans who transfers allegiance to whichever team is winning this season. They are very enthusiastic about “football” but don’t support any particular team. And this can happen in church life as much as in the world of entertainment or spectator sport.
So in this world obsessed with experiences, very many people have stopped even looking for wisdom or understanding or knowledge or truth. And then we live in a world of spin. Where appearance counts for everything and truth counts for nothing.
Groucho Marx expressed the attitude of many people very well when he said,
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing..if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
People are so easily fooled – because they no longer care about what is really true – only about what seems to be true – about what appears plausible. Which is very sad, because as the Bible makes clear in so many places that wisdom is what we really need!
THE BLESSINGS WISDOM BRINGS
Proverbs 8
Wisdom is PRECIOUS
10 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold,
11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Wisdom brings WEALTH AND PROSPERITY
18 With me are riches and honour, enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,
21 bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full.
Wisdom brings BLESSEDNESS
32 “Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.
34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.,
Wisdom really is A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
35 For whoever finds me finds life and receives favour from the LORD.
36 But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”
Wisdom brings so many blessings! Proverbs is one of the Books of the Old Testament which is described as Wisdom Literature. In our Protestant Bibles the other Wisdom Books are Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs.In the Roman Catholic Bible and in what we call the Apocrypha there are two more books called the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus.
Throughout all these Books of wisdom we find quite a remarkable thing. The people of Israel saw wisdom as so vitally important that at times they even began to give wisdom a personality of its own. And we see that here in Proverbs 8.
V4 To you, O men I call out, I raise my voice to all mankind.
V6 I open my lips to speak what is right, my mouth speaks what is true.
V12 I wisdom, dwell together with prudence, I possess knowledge and discretion.
V17 I love those who love me.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness.
Wisdom calling out, having a lips and mouth, loving, walking. Wisdom a person!
But then listen to this quite remarkable passage:
WISDOM IN CREATION
Proverbs 8 22 “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old;
23 I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.
24 When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water;
25 before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth,
26 before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world.
27 I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
28 when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
29 when he gave the sea its boundary so that the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
30Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, 31 rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind..”
The writer there speaking about wisdom as if it had personality! It is as if Wisdom was a person who actually played a part alongside God in the work of creation!
He does the same in Proverbs 1 and also later in these words in Proverbs 3.
3:19 By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;
3:20 by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.
In the same way the Books in the Apocrypha, the Wisdom of Solomon chapter 7 and Ecclesiasticus chapter 24 present Wisdom as a person. All of this helps us to understand some words of Paul to the Corinthians.
1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25
PAUL GOES ON TO SAY…..30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Paul was drawing on that picture in the Wisdom literature of wisdom as a person to say – Christ is the fulfilment of wisdom personified. Christ is wisdom born as a man.
Remember what the New Testament says about the part Christ played in creation.
JOHN 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Now hear again the words of Proverbs 8 – speaking remember about wisdom
Proverbs 8 22 “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old;
23 I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.
27 I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
30Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, 31 rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind..”
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Since Christ is the Wisdom of God, the things we have said about wisdom are true of him.
Wisdom is about UNDERSTANDING, PRUDENCE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, TRUTH, JUSTICE, DISCERNMENT, KNOWLEDGE, INSTRUCTION, DISCRETION, COUNSEL, SOUND JUDGMENT, JUST LAWS. If we are looking for these things we will only find them in Jesus Christ, who said “I am the way the truth and the life.” Jesus who said, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
And all the blessings we spoke of which wisdom brings come to us through Christ – the Wisdom of God
Wisdom is PRECIOUS – Christ is precious
10 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold,
11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Wisdom brings WEALTH AND PROSPERITY – Christ gives us everything we need in this world and the next!
18 With me are riches and honour, enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,
21 bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full.
Wisdom brings BLESSEDNESS – in Christ we are truly blessed!
32 “Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.
34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.,
Wisdom really is A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH – knowing Christ is that matter of life and death!
35 For whoever finds me finds life and receives favour from the LORD.
36 But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”
Wisdom personified – foreshadowed the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:13
23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25
IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.
“Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Bow down and worship – for this is your God!
