Wisdom

Another stint of guest house ministry in North Wales draws near. I’ve been working on that most intriguing of Bible books, Ecclesiastes, as the subject.

To understand Ecclesiastes you need to know what the Bible thinks about wisdom. Although King Solomon is not named as the author of the book, he is usually linked with it. He is also connected with Proverbs and the Song of Solomon (Song of Songs). These, plus a few psalms and some books which never made it into the Hebrew Bible, constitute the Wisdom Literature. Yet the wisdom in them does not always chime in with what we today usually think of as “wise”. This word nowadays makes us think of the times when Sergeant Wilson in Dad’s Army discreetly advises Captain Mainwaring, who is about to embark on some madcap scheme, “Do you think that wise, sir?”

Solomon had a reputation for being “wise” that spread throughout the Middle East. The Queen of Sheba arrived at his sumptuous royal court, curious to find out what this reputation was based on, and was not disappointed. The story goes that two loose women turned up one day to ask Solomon for judgment regarding a baby. One came with a tale about them both having a baby within three days of each other. The second woman accidentally overlaid her baby one night and it suffocated to death. She surreptitiously swapped this baby for the other woman’s living one. The first woman saw the dead baby in the morning and knew that it was not hers. The other woman, of course, said this was a lie.

Solomon calmly ordered that the living child should be carved in two and shared out between the women. The true mother of the living child exclaimed,

“Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death” (1 Kings 3:26 ESV)

The other, though, was content for the gruesome solution to be put into effect. Solomon recognised that the genuine mother would yearn for her child come what may. He gave his judgment:

“Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.”

However clever the story, we would normally think of Solomon’s strategy as hugely irresponsible and therefore unwise in our terms.

My researches turned up some other surprising facts about wisdom in the Bible.

• It is not always moral. It seems that a special class of wise men or women developed during the period of the kings. See Jeremiah 18:18. This verse seems to reveal that the “wisdom of the wise” can be manipulated and used against God’s true servants.
• It is sometimes shown in skills and gifts that we would normally think of simply as natural abilities. It is manifested in the skill of those who performed the art and craft work involved in the making of the priests’ robes and the construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 31:1-11). Professions as diverse as mourning at funerals (Jeremiah 9:17) and work with ships (Ezekiel 27:8-9) required wisdom.
• Though an abstract quality, it takes on personality, Proverbs 8. This description could be pointing forward to Jesus or it may simply be the Hebrew trait of visualizing abstract ideas in a very physical way. Certainly wisdom’s pre-Creation existence makes us think of God’s infinitely wise plan, made before we ever came on the scene, to redeem us and give us eternal life in His Son.

At root, wisdom is down-to-earth. Somebody attempted a working definition of wisdom like this:

“Wisdom is intensely practical, not theoretical. Basically, wisdom is the art of being successful, of forming the correct plan to gain the desired results. Its seat is the heart, the centre of moral and intellectual decision.”

The NIV Thematic Study Bible defines human wisdom thus:

“The human quality which enables the planning and successful achievement of a desired goal. It may be expressed as technical skill, practical instruction and astuteness in political affairs. True wisdom includes spiritual discernment and, above all, the reverence and knowledge of God.”

The death of Jesus on the cross to save sinners is described as wisdom. Blasphemy as far as the Jews are concerned, sheer folly to the Greeks, to those who believe it is the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). In the 18^th century, Charles Wesley wrote a beautiful hymn about wisdom. The last verse goes like this:

Happy the man who wisdom gains,

Thrice happy who his guest retains;

He owns, and shall forever own,

Wisdom, and Christ, and heaven are one.