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Episodes 1 & 2: Intro to the Wisdom Literature and the book of Proverbs

This series on wisdom has seven episodes but is conveniently broken down into three discussions of books of the Bible. The first is Proverbs, the second is Ecclesiastes, and the third is Job. They are known as the wisdom literature. I am going to split up my posts in this same way. In this first post, we will look into Proverbs.

The three books tell a rich story of human experience. They share unique themes and ideals, stepping away from the main Bible storyline to focus on a more practical view of everyday life. They do this by answering a few questions.

These questions are:

What does it mean to live well?

What does it mean to live wisely?

What can I hope for?

I am excited to dive into these three books because, admittedly I am not well-versed in information about the books of the Bible, their details, and how they connect. My brain has been having to work overtime between listening to this podcast and also learning so many new things in my Theological Foundations course on Tuesdays. I love it though, I feel like recently the more I understand the closer I feel to God, and the more I can have ” conversations” with him about what I believe, which has been really empowering.

Before we start on proverbs I wanted to point out that they discussed the creative tension that exists between the books.

Proverbs teaches that being wise and trusting God leads to good outcomes while being foolish and untrusting results in negative consequences.

The light of the righteous rejoices, But the lamp of the wicked goes out.

Proverbs 13:9

Job gives the example of an extremely righteous man who suffers greatly for reasons he never understands. In Job, there is a call back to this verse from Proverbs. Proverbs is not “working” for him.

“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, Or does calamity fall on them? Does God apportion destruction in His anger?”

Job 21:17

Ecclesiastes explores why the book of Proverbs is effective at times and not at others. It questions the purpose of these teachings if they don’t guarantee results.

I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.

Ecclesiastes 7:15

These three ideals create a complex narrative, especially because they are all within the Bible. It’s almost so that there is an ability to understand that yes this is sometimes true, but is way more complex than just one idea. I struggle with this because I love it when things are straightforward. Just give me the answer! God is not this way. However, built into the Bible is an opportunity to wrestle with these complex thoughts, which I think is such a loving way to acknowledge that as humans we can’t escape doubts and questions and that is okay.

The book of Proverbs is full of sayings that are passed down through repetition. It claims that there is a powerful force in the universe called hochma. It begins with 9 chapters of speeches encouraging readers to seek hochma and the rest of the book is proverbs themselves. Tim and Jon joked that proverbs were the first memes. Which is a hilarious way to think about it. Proverbs is essentially an embodiment of divine wisdom. God’s gift to us, his people, but the content of the divine word is human wisdom. Also, I learned that the idea of wisdom in Proverbs is personified as a woman, which was new to me and I love the idea of it.

Hochma: Wisdom in both a moral sense and in terms of practical skills. Translations: skill

Based on this idea wisdom is then described as a universal principle according to which the universe is ordered. Wisdom is an attribute of God but it is also accessible to humans, which as I understand is reflected in the proverbs that follow the speeches.

In Proverbs Chapter 8, it states that God used wisdom to build the whole universe. It was the first thing he acquired and used as a blueprint for the world. In these verses, wisdom is personified and is speaking. I love when ideas or attributes are written about in this way because it gives them so much more power than we give to them in our minds. Wisdom here is a being. God created it and because of that is woven into everything else he created. It is a guide. This very type of wisdom is accessible to us as humans, which is super awesome. We get to use the same wisdom that God used to create us.

Tim and Jon’s relation of wisdom to the force in Star Wars was an entertaining but also very helpful comparison. Basically, we can either “use the force” or be foolish and live against the grain of the universe.

Wisdom is not just knowledge, but also skill. It is one thing to know about the pattern, but you must also be able to use it to craft your life. It can be used for specific life skills, like creating something, but it must be in a moral way.

Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, But much revenue comes by the strength of an ox.

Proverbs 14:4

I haven’t read a lot of proverbs so the act of determining the lesson or meaning behind them is difficult for me. If I hadn’t just listened to Tim and Jon explain this I would have probably taken it very literally and had lots of trouble determining the deeper meaning. After they explained that it was meant to show that if you want to be productive you most often have to do things that you don’t want to do.

A lot of proverbs point out patterns in the nature of relationships. Some say “this is the way it is”, others are more like riddles, but they all have an underlying pull toward the pattern of wisdom in life. In Chapter 30 there is a collection of 4-6 line riddles. It is a more playful part of proverbs that allows you to contemplate and think deeply about ideas. A majority of the rest of the proverbs paint a picture of how the world works and are meant to persuade you to go with the grain of wisdom.

The beginning paragraph of Proverbs is like a little blurb on what it is for.

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice, and equity;

Proverbs 1:1-6

The goal of the proverbs is to understand and interact with the hochma that comes through in the lessons. Not just to memorize them and say “okay I’m good now I know the proverbs”. You must be able to understand which proverb relates to your current circumstances, which requires responsibility and wisdom of your own.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7

Proverbs also makes it known that humans tend to become “wise in their own eyes”. We must remember that when practicing hochma, we should humble ourselves and honor God and His idea of good and evil. This begins with fearing the Lord.

All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives.

Proverbs 16:2

As humans, we choose things as the ultimate “good” and compromise other things to achieve it (sometimes consciously and other times unconsciously). While convincing ourselves that we are being wise. To truly be wise we need to relinquish our need to define good and evil and focus on God’s perspective. I love how this idea is encompassed in the proverbs verses.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

Proverbs 3:5-7

I have always known Proverbs 3:5-7 as a bible verse that was used a lot. At least for me, I always understood it in the context that I was to trust in the Lord to help me to believe that my life was going to turn out okay. I definitely feel like this will be discussed further in the rest of this series, especially in Job. I am starting to recognize that I can think through scripture differently and more deeply than just surface-level meaning and this will help me to 1. draw closer to God and 2. to live my life the way God intended me to be closer to the image of Him in Jesus. It is very cool to be able to recognize that my thoughts on my faith are growing deeper, but also be in an opposite place to recognize that I have so much to learn and experience with God.

I am excited to dive into Ecclesiastes next week after learning that Proverbs is essentially saying that life is like this, not that it should be. However, this is a book of proverbs not a book of promises as Tim and Jon said and it is the cumulative perspectives of Job and Ecclesiastes and Proverbs that come together to teach us about wisdom.

See you Friday for my February Newsletter!