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Your Greatest Need
Wisdom From Above / Proverbs 1: (New Series)
The Prologue (Passion Version)
1 Here are kingdom revelations, words to live by, and words of wisdom given to empower you to reign in life, a written as proverbs by Israel's King Solomon, b David's son.
2 Within these sayings will be found the revelation of wisdom and the impartation of spiritual understanding. Use them as keys to unlock the treasures of true knowledge.
3 Those who cling to these words will receive discipline to demonstrate wisdom in every relationship, and to choose what is right and just and fair.
4 These proverbs will give you great skill to teach the immature and make them wise, to give youth the understanding of their design and destiny.
5 For the wise, these proverbs will make you even wiser, and for those with discernment, you will be able to acquire brilliant strategies for leadership.
6 These kingdom revelations will break open your understanding to unveil the deeper meaning of parables, poetic riddles, and epigrams, and to unravel the words and enigmas of the wise.
Intro:
All of us carry with us the collective wisdom passed on to us by the people who've been most significant in our lives.
We've picked this wisdom up from parents, friends, teachers, pastors and coaches...all the people who shaped and molded us as we were growing up. Some of this wisdom is very helpful. But some of is just plain wrong.
Today we start a new series called Your Greatest Need...Wisdom From Above.
In this series we're going to look at God's wisdom from the Bible's book of Proverbs. Each week we're going to look at what the Bible's book of Proverbs says about one subject.
For example, next week we'll be talking about God's wisdom about sex.
But today we're going to start by talking about God's wisdom for our lives in general. Today we're going to find out what true wisdom is, what the proverbs are, and then some prerequisites to living wisely.
1. What is "Wisdom"?
What exactly is "wisdom"? The dictionary defines "wisdom" as the ability to discern what is true or right. So our English word "wisdom" has both moral implications--discerning what's right--and intellectual implications--discerning what's true.
The Hebrew word translated "wisdom" in the Bible is a bit more colorful than our English word.
The Hebrew word translated "wisdom" is hochma, and it usually refers to some kind of skill or ability. So the Hebrew word distinguishes wisdom from knowledge, because a person can have a mind full of facts, yet lack authentic wisdom.
Often the authors of the Bible use this word hochma to describe people who are skilled in a trade or a craft, like wood working, metal working, embroidery, or weaving (New International Dictionary of Old Testament Exegesis and Theology, Vol. 2, p.133).
This same word is used for people who are particularly skillful in tasks like trading, leadership, and even sailing.
Now with that background to the word hochma, look at Proverbs 3:19-22.
Wisdom's Blueprints
3:19 The Lord laid the earth's foundations with wisdom's blueprints. By his living-understanding all the universe came into being. 20 By his divine revelation he broke open the hidden fountains of the deep, bringing secret springs to the surface as the mist of the night dripped down from heaven.
Wisdom, Our Hiding Place
21My child, never drift off course from these two goals for your life: To walk in wisdom and to discover discernment. Don't ever forget how they empower you. 22 For they strengthen you inside and out and inspire you to do what's right;
These three verses represent many verses in Proverbs that describe the relationship between wisdom and God's creation.
Using construction terminology, the author of Proverbs pictures God as being like an architect and wisdom as being like the builder. As the architect, God designs the blueprint for the universe, but then its wisdom who actually builds off that blue print.
Let me give you a definition of biblical wisdom.
Wisdom in the Bible is the art of skillful living by understanding and living within the order of creation.
Wisdom is living with the grain instead of against the grain.
Wise living is discerning the structure and order that God built into the world, and then living our lives in harmony with that order and structure.
We'll talk about how to gain this kind of wisdom a little later, but for now think of wisdom as life skills that come from understanding how God created the world around us.
When God used his wisdom to create the world around us, wisdom put her mark on the world. All of God's creation has within it the fingerprint of God's wisdom.
You see, God is a wise God, so much so, that you can almost talk about God's wisdom as if it were a person in its own right.
And since the Hebrew word for wisdom hochma is a feminine noun, Proverbs personifies wisdom as a woman. Lady wisdom is the one who puts God's creative blueprint for the world together.
Because of this, wisdom isn't just an attribute of God, but it's also an attribute of God's creation.
2. What Are "Proverbs"?
Now the book of Proverbs are part of the Bible's wisdom literature.
So we come to the question, "What exactly are 'proverbs'"? There are actually three books in the Bible that belong to the category of wisdom literature.
One of those books is Proverbs, which will be the basis of our study the next few weeks. But the other two books are Job and Ecclesiastes, which look at the darker, more cynical side of wisdom.
Let me give you a definition of proverbs.
Proverbs are short, memorable sayings whose meanings are relevant to many different situations.
Every society has its own set of proverbs that represent the collective wisdom of that society. Let me give you some other examples that come from our culture.
"Look before you leap."
"Easy come, easy go."
"A penny saved is a penny earned."
"Live one day at a time."
The Bible's book of Proverbs represents the collective wisdom of ancient Israel. And because as Christians we believe the whole Bible is inspired by God, the collective wisdom of Proverbs represents God's angle on wisdom.
Most of the proverbs comes from King Solomon, the guy who was the king of Israel during her golden reign. But Proverbs also has wise sayings from other people as well.
It's likely that the book of Proverbs started as a book to help parents instruct their kids in life skills. In fact, the first nine chapters of Proverbs are a father instructing his son in how to live wisely in the world.
So Proverbs was originally a parenting strategy as moms and dads tried to equip their children to live God centered, successful lives according to the grain of God's creation.
But it's also likely that Proverbs later became a textbook in ancient Israel to prepare people to serve as leaders.
In this sense, it was a textbook for equipping emerging leaders who could serve as advisers in government posts.
3. Prerequisites about Wise Living
Now let's look at some prerequisites to living a wise life.
We begin with Proverbs 1:7.
7How then does a man gain the essence of wisdom? We cross the threshold of true knowledge when we live in complete awe and adoration of God. Stubborn know-it-all's will never stop to do this, for they scorn true wisdom and knowledge.
In this verse, the words "knowledge," "wisdom" and "discipline" are all being used as synonyms, to describe the same thing. Most Bible teachers view this verse as the motto or theme of the entire book of Proverbs.
Every wise saying we find in Proverbs goes back to this foundation principle.
Now the first word to focus on in this verse is the word "fear." The Hebrew word fear/awe can have one of three meanings: It can mean terror, it can mean respect, or it can mean worship (New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, vol. 2, p. 527).
Clearly the meaning here isn't terror or dread, because that would be inconsistent with trusting God. You can't trust someone you're terrified by.
So the meaning here is closer to respect or worship. Fear of the Lord is a posture of reverent worship of God.
Next week - Wisdom for Sexual Relations
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