4-25-10

● There are (3) words used for “wisdom” in the Bible:

             The first word addresses the more broad use of knowledge. It involves the science and learning a thing. You’re not just interested in the mechanics of it, but you want to know what it is for; it’s “purpose”.

            The second word has to do with “insight”; knowing what to do with the knowledge you have gained; how to apply it.

            The third word describes the union of purpose and insight. You are able to know both “why” and “how”. Literally translated, it means “the flowing together with knowledge”.

● Wisdom is more than just “knowing stuff”; it’s knowing what to do with the stuff you gather. It’s the art of “living well”.

Apparently, you can have insight without application; not because you are ignorant, but because you chose to ignore (disregard) the insight that I gave you.

Ignorance…there are various uses of the word. One form of ignorance says, “I didn’t know. I wasn’t aware” (seems legit, but doesn’t mean that we aren’t obligated to find out). Another form says, “Yeah, I knew, I

just didn’t care. I just chose to ignore it.” It’s acting outside the parameters of accepted standards.

● I’m amazed at how much I don’t know. But, I am convinced that remaining ignorant is not an option for me. ● I don’t ever want it to be an excuse for not pursuing knowledge.

I’m amazed at how much I know but how often that information fails to having any bearing/influence on the way I actually conduct my life.

I’m also amazed, at times, at my willingness to totally disregard or act independent of what I know of God.

The Bible presents us with (2) contrasting approaches to life: “wisdom” vs. “folly” (foolishness).

“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” Proverbs 9:10.

So, the wise person is the one who honors God (recognizes him as God) as central to all of life and seeks to order their lives accordingly.

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God…’” Psalm 14:1.

The fool places himself at the center of his/her own world/life. It’s being your own point of reference which causes you to make determinations independent of God. Essentially, it’s a life that’s being formed and informed from the wrong premise.

Wisdom and folly are contrasting approaches to life which are creating and shaping our culture (the beliefs and values which form the ways that we are with each other).

It addresses the issue of what kind of life are we building? What values and beliefs will we accept and adopt as a means of finding life?

● Being wise is to search for and maintain the order of God in the world in order to live well as God has created humanity to live. But, a "fool" is one who refuses to recognize God as creator and therefore seeks to determine a course of life independent of him.

● I have come up with (4) reasons (narrowed it down) why we can’t direct our own lives (be left to myself):

1.    Because having access to more information may have made us ‘smarter’, but not ‘wiser’.

          In our society, has the increase in knowledge (access to information) brought us closer to God or caused us to drift farther away? Has it made us more gratefully dependent or stubbornly independent?

2.    Because I realize that every decision that we make is tainted with “what’s in it for me?”

3.    Because, according to Judges, everyone’s decisions appear to be right, at least in their own eyes (17:6).

4.    Because our decisions, at times, are made without a view toward the consequences. We often fail to see how the decisions we make today are shaping/creating our future.

● Maybe before what we discuss what wisdom “is”, we should discuss what it “is not”…

►Wisdom is not the guaranteed outcome of experience or aging process.

You don’t necessarily get wiser as you get older. You can grow old and still die a fool.

►Wisdom is not education. You can be uneducated and still be considered wise, and, you can be educated and be a fool.

1Corinthians 1:26-27

“Remember, brothers and sisters, few of you were wise in the world’s eyes, or powerful, or wealthy when God called you. God deliberately chose the things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise” (we may just be foolish enough to pull this off).

►Wisdom is not inherent. It is not something that is ‘conferred upon us’ at birth.

● There are certain writings which are characterized as “Wisdom Literature”; a term applied to the Old Testament canonical books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and sometimes to the Song of Songs (Song of Solomon).  It also includes a couple of the Apocryphal books (Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon). 

Wisdom writings (offerings) were not new to  Judaism. But, what makes the Biblical wisdom material unique from other ancient Near-Eastern wisdom is that it is centered in a relationship with God.

So, wisdom was not just about compliance (obeying the rules and principles), but about humbly learning to trust and submit to the loving rule of our good Creator-God who seeks only the best for his creation.

Wisdom begins with the notion that when God made the world, he did so ‘wisely’ [thoughtful, intentional, meaningful].

If wisdom is the means by which God created all things (that’s the way he acts) and,… if, as we discuss here often, human beings are to become the means through which he acts in the world,… then wisdom is precisely what is required in order to be his image-bearing rulers in the earth [to ‘reign’ is to bring to bear God’s loving and rightful rule over his creation].

            Not surprisingly, then, wisdom was always associated with God’s ‘word’ because God’s word was his desire which would come to pass and accomplish its intended purpose.

Isaiah 55:10-11

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty (in vain, without effect), but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Wisdom means…

            ►God has promised that he will restore all of creation so that it will one day become all that it is “groaning” to be.

God’s stated desire and intent is to confront and judge (deal decisively with) anything that mars and corrupts his good creation.

            ►God has made possible, through Jesus, a new way to relate to God and one another; a way which eliminates any obstacle which might prevent us from being with God and each other (forgiveness/reconciliation).

            ►God has made possible a way to live “normally” in an “abnormal” world. He has inaugurated his Kingdom in, with and among us so that we might experience a taste or sampling of a world set right in the ‘here and now’.