In this final article on Proverbs, I want to talk a little bit about the theology behind the book. That is to say, what is the theology of wisdom? If we look at this book, we discover that godly parents exhort their children to embrace wisdom—and that wisdom is God’s plan to transform a dead chaos into a living cosmos. This is the same wisdom that God used to shape and to create and to form this world.
By wisdom, God was able to transform a dead, dark, and chaotic planet and turn it into something that was beautifully ordered. And even though fallen, it is still an exquisite design. This book also informs us that in the same way God can take you and me—and our own chaos and unruliness—and order us and make us something meaningful and profound. Hence, it views us, through a New Testament vision, as being dead in our trespasses and sin, and without God. Naturally, in a fallen world, we are in need of redemption. So, the One who said, “Let there be light” is also One who will say to our darkened hearts, “Let there be light” and life. His desire for us is that there be a moral path, a light that we can follow. As we look at this, we discover that this moral path is achieved by surrendering ourselves and submitting to God and His claims.
Wisdom, then, is a very relational term; it is not a list of aphorisms or like Poor Richard’s Almanac. It is far more than that and is something that is related to a true source of wisdom—and the source of that, in the wisdom literature, is God Himself in His character, His attributes, and His perfection. This is not something that comes from human aspirations. In fact, if we consider the source of wisdom just briefly, we can consider looking at it this way: if we had a grid, and in this grid we had ‘works’ on the left side and ‘grace’ on the right side, then on the vertical axis—wisdom—we would see success in human activities at the bottom and as we move up the axis we see an ever growing understanding of God’s law, God’s word, and God’s commands. Moving further up this value scale, we might then describe that as entering into a relationship—or becoming aware of—the source of that wisdom, which is Jesus Christ. In other words, it is an increasing personal encounter with the living God. Ultimately, at the top of the value scale is a continuing and intimate experience with God and His wisdom. If we look at this scale in that manner, we discover a couple of things. First, we discover that the object of wisdom can be varied—wisdom about relationships, wisdom about work, wisdom about money, wisdom about character, or wisdom about speech. All those are areas we can discuss as being objects of wisdom. But, here it is, the source of wisdom—wisdom from what? If we are looking at the left side of this grid—the ‘works’ side of things—we discover that the source of wisdom there would be anthropomorphic, it would come from ourselves, whereas if we move toward the ‘grace’ side, we discover that wisdom is theocentric; it is a gift from God and not something we can just invent or create.
By way of contrast, I would like to look ahead to the wisdom literature of the New Testament and pull out a few verses there.
In James 3:13-18, for example, we see that there is a marvelous contrast between two sources of wisdom. One is a source of wisdom that is ‘works’ oriented and anthropocentric—it is man centered; the other source of wisdom is ‘grace’ centered—it is divine in its nature and orientation. James contrasts these by saying that one is earthly, while the other is divine. “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.” Now we approach his contrast: “This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic.” In other words, this is the kind of wisdom the world tells us to pursue. Continuing, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every selfish thing.” This, then, is a wisdom that promotes shrewdness and caginess and manipulation; it is wisdom that is “…earthly, natural, and demonic.” By contrast, James then writes, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”