Why We Should Believe in Wisdom's Claims. Proverbs 8:12-21
Chapter 8:1-11 focuses on the fact that
the wisdom of God as given in His Word is available to all. The issue is not a
lack of availability but it is volition. Wherever it may be God has an unspoken
non-verbal witness in His general revelation that is backed by His special
revelation within the Word of God.
The question that comes up in the mind
of some is: Why do we really need to value wisdom? Why is wisdom so
significant? Why should we yield to the offer of lady wisdom, as wisdom is
personified in these chapters, and not the offer of the adulterous, unfaithful
woman—the contrast between chapters 7 & 8.
So in this next section to be looked at is why we should believe in wisdomÕs
claims. Why should we make wisdom this overriding priority in life, something
that is more important than anything else that we do in life? It is because it
pertains to our relationship with God.
In verses 12-21 we get another look at
more of the attributes, the values, the blessings that come from wisdom. And
the point in all of this is that even though the illustrations relate to the
highest levels of leadership in a nation, how much more it should apply to
every citizen in the nation. To the degree that a nation is
populated by people who exhibit wisdom from the Word of God it will
experience tremendous prosperity. That is not to say that GodÕs blessing is
restricted to prosperity but that is one of the side effects, the unintended
consequence that comes—expansion, growth, blessing that comes as a result
of living on the basis of wisdom. And that wisdom applies to anybody, whether
it is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ or not. In many ways, as we will see,
wisdom is related to those spiritual laws and economic or social laws that God
has built into the framework of creation. So that to the degree that anyone
lives consistent to those absolutes that God built into society we are going to
experience blessing, because we are living in the realm of reality. But when we
reject God, reject those absolutes, and try to redefine life on our own terms
(a type of arrogance) we get further and further away from the way things
really are and we are trying to work out our lives on the basis of falsehood,
and eventually that leads to a collapse. It leads to self-destruction.
The offer that the writer of Proverbs
has is to align yourself with wisdom and you will be blessed. But we know that
ultimately blessing comes in a much greater form. As the Scripture teaches God
recognizes the basic problem that everyone has: the problem of sin. The problem
of sin means that we are all born spiritually dead. Our understanding, as Paul
says in Ephesians, is darkened so that we donÕt understand reality as it is and
we donÕt want to understand reality as it is. We Òsuppress the truth in
unrighteousnessÓ (Romans 1); we donÕt want to know reality as it is, we want to
reshape it on our own. That is the mark of the fool. The fool says in his heart
there is no God, and the point of that is not claiming that the one who is an
atheist is a fool nut that when we live on the basis of values predicated on
the absence of ultimate accountability and the reality of the creator God, then
we are living foolishly. And what we learn from Proverbs is that the path of the
fool is the path of death. The only solution for life, as we have seen again
and again in these Proverbs, is that the direction of life is the direction of
living on the basis of wisdom.
What is wisdom? Wisdom is not
knowledge. And knowledge, in fact, is not simply the awareness of information.
We live in an era of information overload and people have confused the
knowledge of facts and the awareness of facts with knowledge. Just knowing
information and knowing facts is not what the Bible refers to as knowledge.
Knowledge is something that is able to take the raw data of facts and
information and then do something with it. Wisdom takes knowledge to an even
greater level, and wisdom in the Scripture is the idea of taking your knowledge
base and being able to produce something of aesthetic beauty with what you
know. It is a skill, and it comes from practice. So with knowledge we can apply
the Word of God but with the continuous practice of applying the Word of God we
become skillful at it, and we produce something in our spiritual life something
that is of beauty, something that truly brings glory to God.
So wisdom is something that goes beyond
simple knowledge. Wisdom only comes as a result of a personÕs faithful,
consistent walk by the Holy Spirit and as a result of continuous, regular
application. The result of living a life of wisdom, then, is something that you
canÕt put on a flow chart. A flow chart is going to describe certain
measurable, quantifiable cause and effect relationships. But what happens as
you take in the Word of God is that the Word of God shapes your thinking,
values and decisions, is that through the years of growth something develops
within our soul that gives us the ability to make wise decisions. We also as a
result of the accumulation of good decisions and better decisions find
ourselves not so much in the traps we create for ourselves from sinful
decisions where we have better options in life. With better options and better
choices we then make wiser decisions. There are a lot of byproducts to a life
of consistent application of GodÕs Word, byproducts that you donÕt chart in a
direct cause-effect manner. And as a result at the end of a personÕs life, a
person who has dedicated himself to the study of GodÕs Word and to using it, they
have created a life of beauty and a life of value.
This is not necessarily someone who is
out there in front of people. It is not necessarily the pastor, not necessarily
the obvious leaders in a local church, not necessarily the successful leaders in
business, in government, or in the military. It may be somebody who is just an
unseen but powerful force of spiritual maturity living out their life in
relative obscurity—which is probably true for the vast majority of mature
believers in the church age.
The first part of this chapterÕs
emphasis was on the offer of wisdom. Wisdom is available to one and all. Then
in vv. 12-21 we see the emphasis on the characteristics and qualities of
wisdom. Proverbs 8:12 NASB ÒI, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And
I find knowledge {and} discretion.Ó We can get a sense of what is being said
here from a translation but there is a little bit more to it than what appears
on the surface.
The ÔIÕ is the personification of
wisdom. This is just a literary device used by the writer in order to capture
somebodyÕs attention. Rather than sitting down and writing a sort of dry legal
treatise on wisdom you take the character of wisdom and personify it as a
person. It is not a person, not someone separate from God; it is a personification
of one of the attributes of GodÕs omniscience. God knows everything, and that
is not a sort of raw academic knowledge, it is a knowledge of all of the
intricacies, all of the details and relationships of every piece of minute data
governing all of the universe in such a way that when God created everything it
was a work of incredible, awesome beauty. So wisdom really relates to that area
of thought that is aesthetics. Whenever God creates anything it is not only
functional, it is beautiful.
Some other verses give us the same
connections. For example, Proverbs
4:5-8 NASB ÒAcquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor
turn away from the words of my mouth. [6] Do not forsake her, and she will
guard you; Love her, and she will watch over you.Ó Wisdom has an aspect that
keeps us. When we are walking in wisdom we are not going to make stupid,
foolish decisions that end up bringing self-destruction, calamity or misery in
our lives. Wisdom is living well on the basis of your application of the Word.
Proverbs 4:7 NASB ÒThe
beginning of wisdom {is:} Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get
understanding. [8]
Prize her, and she will exalt you; She will honor you if you embrace her.Ó
These are the side effects of wisdom: honor, respect and value because of the
Word of God in your life.
In Proverbs 8:12 we read that what is
associated with wisdom is prudence. But the word used there, ÒI dwell with
prudence,Ó is the Hebrew word shakahn. We know it in a different form of the word. When we refer
to the physical glory of God we refer to it as the Shekinah. Shekinah is from the word meaning to
dwell or to tabernacle, to live, to abide, to have intimate fellowship with
someone. And so have this closeness: two sides of the same coin between wisdom and
prudence. The word for ÒprudenceÓ is the word orma, which is related etymologically to
a different form that we find in Genesis chapter three talking about the
serpent as the craftiness creature in the garden. So it has a broad spectrum of
meaning—shrewd, cunning, and it can have a negative sense of somebody who
is full of guile or is crafty in a negative sense, or someone who is prudent.
The idea of being prudent is the idea of someone who has sharp powers of
judgment, is astute, clever, ingenious. They can look
at a situation and come up with alternative ways of handling one than just what
appears on the surface. They are clever at the way they approach problems in
life and they donÕt just take the path that is the most superficial. That is
the idea here. Wisdom is entwined with prudence.
But it is not just ingenuity in and of itself, it is an ingenuity that comes from the Word of God.
Of course, in this church age we have God the Holy Spirit who helps, enables,
prompts and leads us in the application of GodÕs Word. ÒI find out.Ó It is not
just finding out. That has the idea of discovery, but the nuance that we have
here in the Hebrew is the idea of obtaining in close association with knowledge
and discretion. There is a synonymous parallelism here that wisdom dwells with
prudence. There has to be another verb that is a synonym for
ÒdwellÓ because prudence is parallel to knowledge and discretion. The word
here that means find out or discover is really the idea of owning or finding or
making something part of what you are. So wisdom has as part of its components
knowledge and discretion. It is a discretionary knowledge, as it were; it is
not just two separate things. It is a kind of knowledge; it has discretion in
its use and application.
Then we immediately go into a
fundamental factor for the acquisition of any wisdom, and that is the fear of
the Lord. This word Òfear of the LordÓ is another one of those words that has a
range of meanings. That is one of the difficulties an interpreter faces in
interpreting poetry. Words have a broad range of meaning than in more direct
literature. In poetry often the words are chosen by the writer in order to pick
up certain other shades of meaning that will also be brought to the mind of the
writer, just because they fit within the context a little more because of
rhythm and meter and things of that nature.
The word ÒfearÓ often comes to our mind
in thinking of being afraid. But that is not the idea present in fear here.
Another sense of fear is the idea of awe, the sense of respect. But it is not
just simply awe and respect; there is also a sort of tinge of frightfulness
surrounding that sense of fear. It is as when a mother says to a child, just
wait until your father gets home. There is a sense of fear there. There is a recognition that he is the ultimate authority, his
decision counts and that if I violate his rules then my life is in serious
jeopardy. There is a recognition when we look at this
sense of the fear of the Lord that it includes the idea of being oriented to
the authority of God in our life. We are not living apart from that, and that
idea runs through this particular section. Authority orientation to God is
fundamental to leadership. Everybody can have a leadership role; it depends on
oneÕs environment. Maybe it is not a large role, but the way in which a person
conducts himself, the way he does his job, the way he conducts his life, is a
form of leadership. You can be an example to others; you can encourage others;
you can be a leader in the home as a father, as mother, as a husband. You can
have a leadership position just among your peers.
But you canÕt be a good leader unless
you are one who can submit to authority. Those who canÕt submit to authority
are arrogant and prideful, and that always leads to destruction. So the
starting point of being able to function well is wisdom is to recognize the
authority of God.
Proverbs 1:7 is
the opening statement on the fear of the Lord as the foundation for
assimilating the truth of Proverbs. ÒThe fear of the LORD
is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.Ó Notice
the contrast, there is no middle way. You are either on the path of wisdom or
the path of foolishness. The fool is arrogant, he
thinks he knows it all.
Proverbs 9:10 NASB ÒThe fear
of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And
the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.Ó In other words, knowledge of
God is fundamental to everything else in life. But we live in a world today
that has sort of relegated the knowledge of God, the study of theology, the
study of the Bible to some sort of secondary aspect of our life. We can know
everything that there is to know in life but if we donÕt know God then all of
that is irrelevant. What matters first and foremost is our knowledge of God
because that is going to give shape and meaning and value to everything else
that we know.
Job 28:28 NASB ÒAnd to man
He said, ÔBehold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil
is understanding.ÕÓ There is an ethical aspect to wisdom because it makes
choices. It chooses that which is righteous and just and it avoids and rejects
that which is evil.
Psalm 19:9 NASB ÒThe
fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The
judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.Ó
Psalm 34:11 NASB ÒCome, you
children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.Ó
It is something we learn, something that grows and develops over time.
Psalm 111:10 NASB ÒThe fear
of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all
those who do {His commandments;} His praise endures forever.Ó There is an
ethical dimension to wisdom in terms of obedience.
The fear of the Lord
1.
Defining
it. The fear of the Lord is a profound respect and awe for GodÕs person. We
have to know Him. The only way we can know Him is to know His Word. That means
we have to elevate the knowledge of His Word. That means not just coming to
church and Bible class, it means reading the Bible, not being biblically
illiterate. If we donÕt know the facts of the Bible then we canÕt ever get
beyond that to really get to know God. The ultimate issue in knowing and
studying the Bible is not to know and study the Bible. That is the path to
knowing God. The goal is to know God and have an intimate relationship with
God, but the only way we can do that is to know His Word because that is how He
has revealed Himself to us. If we donÕt learn to know His Word so that we can
think His Word and trust His Word all the time then we are never really going
to get to know Him. We may know a few things about God but we wonÕt develop
much of a relationship with Him. So the fear of the Lord is a profound awe and
respect for GodÕs person, especially as righteous judge whose will and ways
must be followed or face serious consequences.
2.
This
respect for the power and authority of God is a manifestation of humility and
submission to God. Without humility we canÕt achieve anything of value in life.
3.
What
we see here is a contrast of the fear of the Lord with arrogant rejection and
disrespect for GodÕs teaching and instruction.
4.
The
fear of the Lord emphasizes the immediate necessity of knowing GodÕs Word in
contrast to an attitude that may range from something as benign as ignoring His
Word—to busy to go to Bible class, etc.
5.
GodÕs
wisdom makes an ethical demand upon us. It is not just academic knowledge or
abstract knowledge but there is a demand to do it right. There is a demand for
righteousness and to avoid evil. We have to choose to obey Him and follow the
paths of righteousness and depart from evil.
6.
Evil
is not only a synonym for sin but it also includes superficially good deeds.
Much evil is wrapped in the cloak of humanitarian ideals. Like socialism: we
just want everybody to have equality in everything. It sounds so good in the
abstract but it is evil because it can never happen. It doesnÕt take into
account that people are sinners and in total depravity.
Proverbs 8:13 NASB ÒThe fear
of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way
[path] And the perverted mouth, I hate.Ó The second
line moves from the arrogance of evil to the perverse mouth: talking about it.
We see people today talking about and promoting ideas based on twisted logic,
and they reject the basic fundamentals of establishment truth that God has set
forth—rejecting marriage, rejecting family, rejecting the concepts of
sin, rejecting concepts of personal responsibility and accountability. This is
part of the perverse mouth. The perverse mouth is something that twists the
absolute. What it is doing is constructing arguments and rationales in order to
defend an evil course of action.
Proverbs 8:14 NASB ÒCounsel
is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine.Ó So wisdom claims
to be the source of counsel. The wisdom that comes from GodÕs Word is a sense
of counsel. Counsel is direct, i.e. it has a sense of purpose. Counsel has the
idea of purpose, directing somebody in a course of action. The structure of the
Hebrew there is really saying, ÒTo me is counsel, I own counsel, I am counsel,
I counsel in sound wisdom.Ó This sound wisdom is the idea of that which brings
about profit in life. Understanding is the idea of being able to make wise
choices between competing options. ÒPowerÓ [or, might] is the word gebura. It is
a military word and so it has that idea of something that gives power and
strength to a personÕs life. It has the idea of resourcefulness. So there is a
claim here that it is directive, it gives purpose and significance to life,
understanding, decision-making capability, as well as power.
That leads to its application. Notice
both vv. 15 and 16 start with the instrumental preposition ÒBy me.Ó Proverbs
8:15 NASB ÒBy me kings reign, And rulers
decree justice. [16] By me princes rule, and nobles, All who judge rightly.Ó In
other words, wisdom is supposed to be the basis for leadership in the
government realm as well as in the personal realm. Just because the
illustration here is from the rule of kings doesnÕt mean it doesnÕt apply to
all other areas of rule and judgment. This is how we are to live; this is the
basis of integrity and leadership. But when we have a culture, which happened
many times in Israel, where they rejected the wisdom of GodÕs Word the result was
a collapse of government and it brought pain and misery in the life of the
people. They lost prosperity, the value of life; their monetary system
collapsed. It brought military defeat in many cases and eventually is resulted
in the destruction of both the northern and the southern kingdoms through
invasion, because they chose the path of foolishness.
Proverbs 8:17 NASB ÒI love
those who love me ÉÓ There is a mutually beneficial relationship here. This is
something we find in other examples of Scripture where God says, if you seek me
I will provide for you. So we are to love or desire wisdom. In response wisdom
will bring benefits to us. ÒÉ And those who diligently seek me will find me.Ó
That idea is making it a priority, seeking it with energy, seeking it with
effort, making a sacrifice in order to gain wisdom. The byproduct is, [18]
ÒRiches and honor are with me, Enduring wealth and righteousnessÉÓ This isnÕt
limited to physical financial gain. This is the wealth of life. There are
people who have little in life but have great capacity for life. They have much
even though physically and materially they have little, because they have their
relationship with God. They understand where they fit within GodÕs plan. They
have riches that are not measured empirically. ÒEnduring
wealth and righteousnessÓ—that which goes on into eternity. The rewards that are ours as growing mature believers who have
victory in this life.
Proverbs 8:19 NASB ÒMy fruit
is better than gold, even pure gold, And my yield {better} than choicest
silver.Ó The gold is refined gold, gold without the dross, the impurities. It
is valuable gold. So the value of living a wise life cannot be measured, it is
greater than any physical richness. The comparison here is that as much wealth
as you can accumulate materially and physically, the value of wisdom is even
more.
Then we see the ethical dimension
brought in. Proverbs 8:20 NASB ÒI walk in the way of righteousness,
In the midst of the paths of justice.Ó This is a figurative way of saying that
the way of wisdom is governed by righteousness. Righteousness conforms to the
character of God, the standard of God. And it produces justice. Justice is the
application of GodÕs righteousness. And this leads to the result. The result
for those who pursue wisdom is that wisdom will cause those who love me to
inherit, to possess wealth. This is eternal wealth and value, pursuing that
which has eternal value and reaps great reward in eternity. This is the result
of spiritual maturity. [21] ÒTo endow those who love me with wealth, That I may fill their treasuries.Ó
That is the challenge that we have seen
again and again through Proverbs. Are we going to listen to the cry of the
fool, the attraction of the adulterous woman—by application the temptation
to be unfaithful to God—or are we going to pursue the lady wisdom which
only comes from GodÕs Word, applying it in our life consistently over and over,
where through God the Holy Spirit we develop skill in applying GodÕs Word which
reaps consequences in terms of our own spiritual growth and spiritual maturity.