This Book: The Writings of Wisdom - Proverbs 3 v13-20

  To see the full message, scroll to the bottom and click through. 

Wisdom can be found in every book, in every kind of writing that's in the Bible.

In the imagination and the insights of poets.

In the hope-filled promises and the streaming tears of the prophets.

In the priorities and the penalties of law.

In the examples of everyday people just like us.

______

The book of Proverbs, the book of Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs are held together as being ‘wisdom literature.’ 

Wisdom literature is written not by prophets, speaking to humanity on behalf of God.

Or by priests, speaking to God on behalf of humanity. 

Wisdom literature is written by ‘wise ones,’--wise human beings speaking to human beings about what it is to be human and to do it well, and to be in relationship with God, and with this world of which we are a part.

The wisdom literature that's in the Bible was written by Solomon and people like him who had heard from the prophets—heard their passion and seen their tears. By people who had been served by the priests of Yahweh God, recognizing their need for an intermediary between themselves and God. By people who, generally, were not particularly young but who had some life experience. Who had spent enough time in real life to learn some tough lessons.

______

Proverbs

The book of Proverbs contains practical wisdom. These are mostly short sayings that convey truth. Nuggets of insight that provide tools for decision making, for choosing friends, for how to spend your time.

Proverbs are often structured in a way that makes them recognisable. For example:

• Antithesis. 

To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction. Proverbs 12:1

- The same truth expressed in opposite ways.

• Corellation.

Wise words bring many benefits, and hard work brings rewards. Proverbs 12:14 

- Two parallel ideas that land you in the same place.

• Comparison.

Better to have little and be godly, than to be rich and unjust. Proverbs 16:8

- Two choices. One is better.

The writers also use imaginative imagery: pictures like rotten bones, deep roots, straight paths, the drip, drip, drip, drip of a rainy day to help you to understand important truths.

While proverbs are important truths, it's helpful to remember that they are different from promises.

When people’s lives please the Lord, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.  Proverbs 16:7

Which sounds awesome. But if that was a promise, then clearly all of Jesus' 12 apostles must not have been living lives that pleased the Lord. Most died at the hands of enemies, and all suffered for their faith in Christ.

Proverbs are an expression of the experience of godly people. They are Holy Spirit-inspired reflections on how God created the world to function and created us to function in the world.

So if you are working hard and not seeing a reward, if you raised your kids in the right way and now as adults they have wandered far from it, if you are living a life that pleases God and you suffer for it, that does not mean that God has broken his promise. Proverbs are general statements of, first and foremost, how we ought to live and second, how things ought to and often do work out. Your mileage may vary. Past performance does not guarantee future returns.

Proverbs are not magical formulae for success. They teach us how we ought to live—in hope, but regardless of how things play out.

______

Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes is a Greek title given the book by people who were translating the Bible from Hebrew. It means ‘the one who gathers.’ We don’t know if they were referring to someone who has gathered together wisdom, or someone gathering together people to hear wisdom.  

Regardless, Ecclesiastes is a book of speculative wisdom—wondering about the meaning of life “under the sun.” 

The writer takes us on a journey through his experiences of working, and thinking, and giving up. What he observed on that journey is:

Hevel of hevelness, says the preacher, hevel of hevelness. Everything is hevel. Ecclesiastes 1:2

So what is ‘hevel?’ It’s usually translated in our Bibles as ‘futility,’ ‘emptiness,’ ‘pointlessness.’

It is literally breath, fog, vapour. Something real, something you know is there, but you can't get hold of it, and you certainly can't control it.

The book of Ecclesiastes is the question to which the rest of the Bible is the answer.  Peter Kreeft

That question is this: what's the point?

Writing from his Old Testament Israelite perspective, the writer asks, is there more than this?

His answer? Yes. There is more than this. There is a God who gives us good things. It might be hevel, it might be fog sometimes. It might be impossible to control, impossible to predict. But everything that God gives us is a gift of goodness. So enjoy it.

______

Song of Songs

I won’t go deep into the Song of Songs because I don't want to make you blush. It is very openly about marriage and romantic love, sensuality and sexuality.

You may wonder why it gets categorized as wisdom literature, being so different from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. 

True, it is not advice on how to be human. Rather, it is an example from real life of how to be human. It is wisdom applied, and wisdom lived.

The two people we meet and get to know in Song of Songs... they are living with wisdom. They want to be together, but it's not just them.

She has guys calling to her in the street, ‘Hey, he's not around, come and dance with us.’

Her response is:

I am my beloved’s and he is mine. Song of Songs 6:3

She also has friends who have noticed the handsome dude hanging around. And they're like, ‘oh my goodness, who's that? I want to get to know him better.’ He knows they're there, that there are other pretty girls in the room. But he cries out:

You, lingering in the garden, surrounded by your friends, let me hear your voice. Song of Songs 8:13

These two people are finding each other, and finding joy ‘under the sun,’ in the good of what God has given them: each other.

They face separations, distractions, and temptations but in the end, they are united.

_______

Wisdom offers good news and bad news.

The bad news is this:

Whether you are wise or whether you are a fool, everybody dies ‘under the sun.’

If you live your life for learning, the more you know, the more you're probably going to wish you didn't ‘under the sun.’

If you live your life for work, there is always more to do, and there will always be somebody who can do it better ‘under the sun.’

If you live your life for wealth or power, enough will never be enough. Someday you're going to have to leave it behind for somebody else to look after, or maybe (worse), you won't have anybody to leave it to ‘under the sun.’

If you live your life for pleasure, it is subject to the passing of time, the aging of bodies, the randomness of injustice. Pleasure is depleted ‘under the sun.’

What's the good news?

The good news is that all of these good things are gifts from God. The pleasure and the joy of food and drink, of accomplishment, of keeping your word, of spending time with people you like, of doing what is right simply because it is right. Life can be enjoyed because God made life to be enjoyed.

This life is a unique one-time experience and opportunity.

Yes, the world will be unfair but God will bring justice.

Yes, you are going to get old, so make the best of your youth. Make the best of your aging.

Get to know God before trouble arrives, then trust him when it does.

Invest while you can in what is good.

Build while you can for what is good.

Speak while you can what is good.

But let your words be few.

Go to the house of God... and listen.