April 27th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Last week we started looking at Wisdom Literature. After looking at the genre and purpose of wisdom literature a bit, today I’d like to think about what it means to be wise.

This brings to mind for me the end of 5th grade. The teachers in our Christian school would give out character awards to certain students – I vividly remember receiving a certificate that said they had observed that I had wisdom, and the teacher explaining that this meant not just intellectual ability, but understanding of spiritual truth. For most of my life, this is what I considered wisdom to be. But it is more than that.

The most commonly used Hebrew word used for “wisdom” in the book of Proverbs is “chokmah.” Check out some other interesting occurrences of this word:

Exodus 28:3 skill in embroidering
Exodus 31:3-6 working skillfully with metal, wood, and stone
Isaiah 10:13 understanding military strategy
2 Samuel 20:22 shrewdness diffusing conflict

Barbara Mouser, in 5 Aspects of Woman, explains two types of wisdom that we see in Scripture:
• Skill – mastering the physical principles which allow you to produce with skill in a certain area (such as the embroidering, metal working, etc mentioned above)
• Insight – Understanding of the world around us (ie: Solomon’s ponderings about why there is suffering, what is the purpose of life, etc.)

Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary adds a third facet to the definition of wisdom-
• ‘The terms “wisdom” and “wise” apply to men and women who represent a way of thinking and conduct that is orderly, socially sensitive, and morally upright.’

Thinking of wisdom in this way, can an unbeliever be “wise”?

My husband’s supervisor earlier in his career was an older Chinese man. He is brilliant and had trained in law, medicine, and psychology. He is a wealth of information, and because of his oriental background, constantly teaches in “proverbs.” My husband would be looking for advice about which method to take toward a particular problem, and his wise advisor might say, “you can cut down tree with steak knife – very difficult. Much easier – use an axe!”

This man is not a believer, but in many ways he is extremely wise. He has training, skill, experience, and an understanding of the world around him that is uncommon and refreshing. He has observed God’s created order and has recognized certain principles by which God created the world to work; he understands these principles and has, in many ways, mastered using them. He is as wise as one can be without fearing the Lord.

If an unbeliever can, in many ways, be wise… can a righteous person be a fool?

In many ways, yes! Again from Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary , ‘Several Hebrew words are rendered “fool,” with nuances ranging all the way from the naive but teachable person to the hopelessly incorrigible person who deserves no corrective efforts since such will be in vain.’

Those who have been saved by faith in the redemptive work of Christ can still be very, very foolish – naivety and failure to implement wisdom principles in their lives will produce foolish Christians. I find it extremely humorous (in a sad, ironic way) that Bill Mouser uses church committee meetings as frequent examples of righteous foolishness! He points out that often you will gather a room full of church leaders who might be wise and successful in their secular workplaces, and the meeting becomes a comedy of errors when it comes to wise leadership! Time is squandered, interpersonal skills are lacking, decisions are poorly made.

Now, you might be objecting, “But Kristi, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom!” True! No unsaved person can have the full scope of wisdom, just as a righteous person will not be the incorrigible fool. We’ll deal with this topic more in future posts.

So, if these things are true, how do we become wise?
• Mastering skills - Obviously this applies in countless areas, but for our purposes I want to reflect on what this has to do with Titus 2:5′s admonition for the older women to teach the younger to be workers at home. There are so many home-making skills that have been largely lost in the younger generations. From menu planning to sewing, there are countless skills that we as “workers at home” need to seriously think about. And older women, we need you to teach us!

• Pondering and gaining insight - I am in the midst of reading Pride and Prejudice – what great examples that book offers for silly, simple women who do not ponder things of value or gain insight about life! We might not be consumed with the town gossip or who is marrying whom for what fortune, but then again… how much time do we spend watching The Today Show or TLC or Clean Sweep compared to pondering, praying, reflecting? Our society is not a pondering society – gaining insight takes silence, it takes time alone in your head, and we do not do that well!

Think about Mary, the mother of Jesus – Luke 2:19 tells us, “But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” What a task God had given this young girl from Nazareth – to raise the Son of God from conception! Mary treasured the message of the angels, the visit of the shepherds – she pondered these things in her heart and sought insight from God.

As we discussed in What’s Steeping in your Soul?, meditating on the Word and ways of God will make us “taste” like Him! Meditating on God’s Word is so much more than reading my paragraph-of-the-day in a devotional and checking off “quiet time” from my list of to-do’s. As we memorize His Word, ponder on it, turn it over and over in our minds, consider the mundane and extraordinary things in our daily life in light of it, we will gain wisdom and insight – we will begin to become truly wise.

So, although I greatly appreciate my fifth grade teacher’s attempt to commend me for being “wise” beyond my years, as a child I was still really a fool in most ways. Mastery of skills? Understanding of human behavior and society and the application of God’s moral code? Insight into God and His Word, His ways, His world? We all begin life as fools – my own children are little fools, and it is our great responsibility to train and discipline and seek to raise them to be not only righteous, but wise.

April 24th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Oh, I am EXCITED to start talking about wisdom literature! I have always been drawn to wisdom literature, but especially over the past few years, I just can’t get enough of it! Ie: we’ll be talking about wisdom literature for a long time!! Before we really get into it, though, we need to spend some time talking about what wisdom literature is.

So, what is wisdom? God created the universe according to a set of orderly principles that govern not only the natural world and the laws of math and science, but also hold true in human societies and relationships. Unlike more direct forms of Scripture that will teach Truths directly given by God (“thus says the Lord,”) Wisdom teachers observe the truth and order in God’s universe and then teach it to us in a memorable way.

Wisdom literature starts with the base assumption that God is Creator. As Creator, He embedded truth within all reality. In Biblical wisdom, there is no dichotomy between secular and sacred. It presents a comprehensive worldview, a picture of the universe (Uni-Verse = “one truth!”) where all of life and all of truth fits into one big picture. Ie: Because God is the Creator and source of all Truth, this not only should affect how I worship and relate within the body of Christ, but it should also affect how I work and rest and play.

I think that this particular aspect is part of what draws me to Wisdom Literature. The typical Christian view of the world has, for far too long, separated the secular from the sacred. Without really realizing it, we typically separate our “Christian life” from the rest of our lives. Does knowing God affect how I use my time? Does it have something to say about leisure? How about politics? From a Biblical perspective, each and every tiny detail of our lives should be influenced by knowing God and His Truth.

Wisdom literature assumes that essential answers can be learned from experience. Proverbs emphasizes that if we search diligently for wisdom like a treasure, we will find it! Rather than appealing to Divine directive, the wisdom teachers seek to persuade us to live lives in accordance with God’s principles by appealing to consensus – we all know it to be true, it is observable. As such, we are urged to avoid adultery not on the basis of it violating the 7th commandment, but rather because it is a stupid choice that will ruin our lives!

Because God embedded order in His creation and His character is the standard for what is “good,” if we live according to His ways, life generally will go smoother. To ignore God’s principles is foolish and will usually destroy us.

Now, keeping this in mind, one thing that we must understand before venturing into wisdom literature, and particularly into Proverbs, is that these are not promises. When Proverbs tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it,” (Prov. 22:6) this is not a promise!

I’m sure almost everyone reading this can name families they have known who have done their very best to train their children in righteousness, and their children have departed from it! Does this make Proverbs 22:6 untrue? No! As a general rule, this statement holds true – if parents do well in training their children in the truth, the vast majority of the time their children will continue to walk in the right way. Wisdom literature is an observation of the world God created, restated in a memorable way. They are not promises, and they will not accurately describe every instance – that is not the intention.

I will wrap this up today for the sake of time. I want to pose a couple of questions for you to consider before the next post.

• Can an unbeliever be “wise”?
• Can a righteous person be a “fool”?
• Which comes first, the fear of God or wisdom? (see Prov 1:7 AND 2:1-5)

*Image from wikipedia.org