The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
(Proverbs 9:10)
“She’s an old soul.” “He’s got his head on straight.” “You’re wise beyond your years.” “Whatever happened to common sense?” People tend to assume that they have a good working definition of wisdom, that they can recognize it when they see it. But it’s unlikely that our ideas about wisdom entirely align with what the Scriptures say about it. And the Scriptures say a lot about wisdom. In a sense, the whole Bible is about humanity getting wisdom. And it’s been a long, hard road.
Proverbs 8 has Wisdom Personified at the foundation of the world, now calling to humanity to listen and be blessed. “Whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from Yahweh, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:35-36). The wise are often contrasted with the foolish, just like the righteous with the wicked, the rescued with the lost; one in each pair is in a relationship of life with the one true God, the other is not. Folly is linked to spiritual death; wisdom is linked to spiritual life.
Ironically, when the woman in the Garden of Eden saw that the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was “to be desired to make one wise,” and reached out to take “wisdom” in defiance of God, it was the greatest folly in the history of the universe… and it meant death (Genesis 2:17; 3:1-7). The glorious, eternal God was discarded for the intellectual pursuit of knowledge. If only (!) she had believed, with James, “If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). True wisdom comes as a gift to those who are in relationship with God, who humbly ask him for it.
Wisdom isn’t just about having a lot of information (knowledge). It isn’t just about being smart (intelligence). It isn’t just about life experience, or abstractly knowing right from wrong, or making good business decisions, or being able to teach. True wisdom is about a Godward life. “The fear of Yahweh is instruction in wisdom” (Proverbs 15:33; cf. Job 28:28; Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; 2:4-6; 9:10; Isaiah 11:2). Fearing God—relating properly to God—is the foundation and essence of wisdom, which is “a fountain of life” (Proverbs 14:27; cf. John 17:3).
True wisdom is living all of life in relationship to God. True wisdom sees the world, not pessimistically or cynically, but with hope that what is seen is the seed of as-yet-unseen resurrection glory. True wisdom engages the world, not in autonomous strength, but prayerfully. True wisdom is spiritual—that is, it comes from the Holy Spirit—and appears as folly to the natural person who cannot properly judge spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). And, honestly, true wisdom is well out of our reach, apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is himself “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). As the divine Son, he has always been Wisdom Personified. As the human, Jesus of Nazareth, he became Wisdom Incarnate. In himself he has made humanity humble, dependent, trusting, prayerful, hopeful, and spiritual. He doesn’t just have life with God, he is life with God (1 John 1:2). It is only through him that we may have a Godward life. He is the Lord. When we know him, we know life with God. When we fear him, we’ve finally got our heads on straight.
So it is in Christ, in relationship with God as our Father through him, vicariously, that we find true wisdom. We can walk with our eyes open to the way his kingdom works in the midst of this fallen world. We can see deep comedy where others see only meaningless tragedy. We can choose not to throw away our lives, wasting them on the passing pleasures of sin, but to spend them, pouring them out in Christlike service. We can cease being cold curmudgeons, and become joyful singers of redeeming love. We can know, despite appearances to the contrary, that we are not alone, that we will never be alone, that God is with us as our Father, that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us, that we have the Spirit as the guarantee of the promise of all the fullness of God… so we can be thankful in Christ, for Christ, because of Christ. And we can even begin to live in right relationships with each other, as we walk in wisdom in the fear of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do people tend to conceive of “wisdom”? What is the essence of that “wisdom”? How is it different from Biblical wisdom as it is portrayed here? Why does Biblical wisdom seem like folly to the “wise” of this world? If Adam and Eve were foolish to grasp for wisdom apart from God, why does the Scripture say “their eyes were opened” (Genesis 3:7) after they ate the forbidden fruit? Can you think of other times in the Scriptures when the eyes of God’s people are opened, and what it is that they are opened to see? How are they opened? What difference in your life do you think true wisdom might make? (Be specific.) Do you want this wisdom? How can you get this wisdom?
(Originally posted Oct. 18, 2015. Edited Jan. 18, 2024.)
