In this weeks lesson we will discover the true source of wisdom.

In our culture, with its focus on education, we have mistaken knowledge and intelligence for wisdom. Even the elderly are assumed to be wise solely on the basis of their years. But the book of Proverbs reveals there is only one source for acquiring wisdom, and it is available to all.

Overview

With this lesson we begin a series of studies in what is perhaps the most universal and timeless of all the books of the Bible—Proverbs. This book is unique in that, while it was written by and for those who are the faithful of God, many of its principles will bear fruit in the life of anyone who practices them. Proverbs reminds us that “all truth is God’s truth.” If a non-believer “turns away wrath” with a “soft answer” (Proverbs 15:1), it is because that law of relationships is as certain as the law of gravity. Though they don’t know it, when non-believers practice the truths of Proverbs they are treading on holy ground.

When a mother was at her wits’ end with the behavior of her two sons, she took them to the local parish priest. The priest, thinking to scare the older of the young ruffians, took him into his office and asked him three times, in a most serious tone, “Where is God?” After the third query, the lad was so frightened that he bolted for the door, grabbed his younger brother, and shouted, “Let’s get out of here! They’ve lost God and are trying to pin it on us!”

To be sure, God is not lost. Rather, it is the people He created who are. Many are wandering through life acting as if God is lost, acting as if He cannot be found. In every level of our culture, God and His principles have been abandoned. A God-centered worldview is missing from decisions made daily in government, business, media, and the home. But thankfully, we have the book of Proverbs in which the principles of God for every part of life are spelled out clearly for all to see. In Proverbs we discover God’s perspective on money, on love, on relationships, on business, on morality, on government—on just about every aspect of life.

In Proverbs we learn what God wants, what God thinks, who God is, how God responds, and what God expects.

The proverbs contain truth about God and how we are to respond to Him in practical ways.

The Prayer Answered by the Proverbs

Proverbs is unique in Scripture because it came as an answer to prayer. In I Kings 3 we find Solomon being given the opportunity to ask God for anything he wished.

⁵ That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” – 1 Kings 3:5 NLT

What would you ask God for in such a situation?

In verses six through nine we have Solomon’s prayer.

⁶ Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.

⁷ “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. ⁸ And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! ⁹ Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” – 1 Kings 3:6-9 NLT

As a young 20-year old king, Solomon recognized that what he needed more than anything else was wisdom to rule his subjects. He didn’t ask for the things which might have been a temptation in a situation like that—power, fame, long life, riches and wealth. Instead, he recognized his greatest need was to have an understanding and discerning heart. And God answered his prayer:

¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. ¹¹ So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies— ¹² I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! ¹³ And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life! ¹⁴ And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.” – 1 Kings 3:10-14 NLT

Here we have a living illustration of the words of James 1:5,

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. – James 1:5 ESV

Not even Solomon could have imagined the degree to which God would answer his prayer. First Kings 4:29–31 and 10:23–24 document the breadth and depth of Solomon’s wisdom. He literally became the wisest man, not only in Israel, but among all the surrounding nations as well. Royalty not only sent representatives to seek wisdom from Solomon, but they even made the journey themselves. The Queen of Sheba journeyed from Africa to meet Solomon and left astounded at what she witnessed and heard (I Kings 10:1–10). Solomon was even wiser than the reports she received had led her to believe (I Kings 10:7).

The book of Proverbs, along with other portions of Scripture, is the record of his wisdom. He wrote almost all of the proverbs contained in Proverbs, in addition to Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Psalms 72 and 127. All together, he wrote 3,000 proverbs (Proverbs contains only 915 verses) and 1,005 songs in addition to speaking about botanical and zoological matters (I Kings 4:32–33). Knowing the extent of Solomon’s wisdom should cause us to open our Bibles to Solomon’s writings, especially the book of Proverbs, with regularity. In these pages we find the distillation of the thoughts and reflections of the world’s wisest man.

Solomon’s experience should cause us to do another thing: Pray for wisdom. Not only is it the clear admonition of Scripture (James 1:5), but we have evidence, from Solomon’s life, of how God loves to answer that prayer.

Promises that Precede the Proverbs

Some years ago, there was a speaker, at a men’s retreat, that issued a challenge to the group which he said would change our lives: Read one chapter of the book of Proverbs each day for a year. Since there are 31 chapters in Proverbs, reading a chapter a day would equal reading the whole book each month (reading two chapters on one day in the months with only 30 days). Reading the entire book of Proverbs twelve times in a year, he said, would change our lives.

Have you ever taken on such a challenge? Most likely if you read a lot of Proverbs, you would read a verse in the morning which would have some bearing on an event that took place during that day. The Proverbs of Solomon are the most practical, hands on truths one could ever hope to find. And to saturate our mind with those truths day after day for a year turn out to be a powerful tonic for our spiritual life.

Proverbs makes numerous promises for those who will take seriously the study of proverbial truths.

It says in Proverbs 3:13 that you will be happy (“blessed,”), you will gain something more valuable than rubies (Proverbs 3:15), you will be equipped for a long and prosperous life (Proverbs 3:16), and you will be led into the ways of peace, life, and hope (Proverbs 3:17–18; 24:14). Anyone who takes seriously the wisdom of the book of Proverbs will experience these blessings, and many more, as a result. That is the purpose of the study on which we are embarking—to absorb all the wisdom we can from the proverbs of the world’s wisest man.

The Purpose that Pervades the Proverbs

Several times Proverbs exhorts us to “get wisdom” (Proverbs 4:5, 7; 16:16). Regardless of what else we have to turn down to get it—riches, honor, wealth—we should get wisdom. That exhortation raises the question, How do we know we have wisdom? How do we know we have “gotten it?” In other words, What is wisdom? The British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said wisdom was “common sense in an uncommon degree.” The British preacher Charles Spurgeon said it was “the right use of knowledge.” Another writer said, “wisdom is knowledge using its head.”

From the following verses, what do you learn about the concept of being “wise in one’s own eyes”?

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. – Prov. 3:7 ESV

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. – Prov. 12:15 ESV

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. – Prov. 26:5 ESV

Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. – Prov. 26:12 ESV

A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has understanding will find him out. – Prov. 28:11 ESV

A favorite secular definition of wisdom is, “Doing the right thing without precedent.” That means you know what to do in a situation even though you’ve never experienced it before. You have built up such an understanding of life from God’s perspective that you have skills not from experience but from intuition. Because God is the source of all wisdom, knowing Him and His principles for living means we will know how to do “the right thing” instinctively.

Can you share what your experience with wisdom, life, lessons and experiences has brought to you regarding attaining wisdom?

A book by J.I. Packer, Knowing God, offers a helpful illustration for understanding wisdom using the metaphor of a railroad or subway system. He said some people think of wisdom as if they’re sitting in the control room looking at a giant board on which the movement of all the trains is tracked. You can see everything that’s going on in the city’s rail system at one time; you have a total picture of everything. Some people think the wiser they become the greater grasp they will have of the mysteries of God—how everything in the universe works and how all the pieces fit together. But that is not what biblical wisdom is all about.

In reality the opposite is most likely to be true. The more knowledge of God we get (that is, the wiser we become) the more we realize how much we don’t know, and will never know, about God and His ways. There are still many, many times in life when I know I cannot figure out the big picture, when I don’t understand why things are happening like they are. I agree with J. I. Packer—wisdom is not having it all together when it comes to a knowledge of God. I also agree with his understanding of what true wisdom is.

True wisdom is like driving one of the individual trains in the city—not sitting in front of the control panel showing all the trains. You are maneuvering one individual train (your life) through the maze of tracks and switches. You’re asking God to give you direction as you approach switch after switch. Which way should you turn? Which direction should you go? As you move from one decision to the next, you have confidence that God is giving you the insights and wisdom to choose.

Wisdom is not knowing all the decisions you’ll need to make, but being able to make the right decision when each one presents itself.

That’s true biblical wisdom—receiving from God each day the wisdom (skill) we need to deal with life’s events and situations. It’s not having encyclopedic knowledge about everything, but it is having the right knowledge at the right time for the challenge we are facing. That’s what the reader of the book of Proverbs will get from diligent study of this practical book of the Bible.

The Principle that Permeates the Proverbs

Just as every house, building or skyscraper rests on a foundation, so all the teaching of the book of Proverbs rests on a foundational principle. Every aspect of acquiring wisdom for life is rooted in one primary truth. Without understanding this principle, our search for wisdom will end far short of the mark.

The principle is best illustrated by a passage in Job 28.

Job discourses on the subject, “Where can wisdom be found?” Or, how does one get wisdom? That is the principle that underlies the application of wisdom in the book of Proverbs. To try to develop wisdom without knowing the source of wisdom will be a meaningless pursuit. After saying that wisdom is hidden from the eyes of all living creatures (verse 21)—that is, no one can find true wisdom on their own—Job concludes with the same principle which underlies the book of Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom” (verse 28).

Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, a principle made clear in the opening verses of Proverbs:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. – Proverbs 1:7 NIV

The phrase “fear of the Lord” is found 14 times in Proverbs, an indication that it is a foundational theme which permeates the acquisition of wisdom. Its frequency also demands that we know exactly what the “fear of the Lord” is.

How do we “fear the Lord” in daily life?

For starters, fearing the Lord does not mean walking around in abject fear of God, afraid that He is going to zap you with His judgment every time you step out of line. It doesn’t mean we should not fear the Lord. He is an awesome God. Whenever people in Scripture encountered God, they fell on their faces in fear. So it is healthy to have the kind of fear that recognizes who God is and what His holiness requires, but not the kind of fear one would have of a capricious, harsh, unpredictable tyrant. If the church has erred in any direction, it is in having too cavalier of an attitude toward God, regarding Him as less than awesome, less than holy, less than to-be-feared. It would make us more biblical if we recaptured the notion that our God is an awesome God of whom we should be afraid if we rise up against Him and His ways.

But that is not primarily the “fear” that Proverbs is talking about. To fear God is to reverence Him, to have a sense of awe before Him, and to humble ourselves before Him in all things; to understand that He is the final authority, the ultimate source knowledge and wisdom. When we come to God, we come to believe that whatever He says is what we should believe, accept, and act upon: “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.”

To read Proverbs without that underlying perspective will be to read the book just as you might read Benjamin Franklin’s proverbial bits of advice, or the fables of Aesop. You will read the proverbs in the Bible with your mind only—but you will not grow in wisdom because you do not recognize and bow before the source of all wisdom, God Himself. Step one in gaining wisdom is to recognize at the outset that we do not possess it ourselves; that if we are going to get wisdom, we will have to humble ourselves before God and ask Him for it. To that end, Proverbs 3:7 says:

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. – Proverbs 3:7 NIV

Being wise in one’s own eyes is consistently condemned in Scripture (Proverbs 26:12; Isaiah 5:21; Romans 12:16). It makes little sense to be full of your own “wisdom” while asking God for His. We must come to God confessing our emptiness and relying upon Him to give us wisdom for the needs we have. Saying “I don’t know” is not a condition of ignorance but a confession of dependence. It is to agree with Jeremiah who says:

²³ This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
    or the strong boast of their strength
    or the rich boast of their riches,
²⁴ but let the one who boasts boast about this:”
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord. – Jeremiah 9:23-24 NIV

In the weeks ahead we will discover how much we don’t know and how much wisdom God offers us through this book of the Bible. And hopefully we will also come to know more deeply the One who is wisdom personified, the Lord Jesus Christ, “who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (I Corinthians 1:30). In Him are hidden “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

Did You Know?

The New Testament word for wisdom is sophia, which comes from sophos, skilled or wise. The root word for wisdom has lost its original connotation and shows up in many “not wise” uses today. The “Goddess Sophia” is a revered figure among New Age feminist worshipers, while modern sophists are those skilled in argumentation, purported to be scholars and thinkers (a derivation from the fifth century b.c. Greek Sophists who inquired into intellectual matters). A sophomore is a person in the second year of his studies, while sophomoric behavior is characterized as immature and lacking judgment.

Jeremiah, D. (2002). Powerful principles from proverbs: Study guide Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
The New International Version. (2011). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.