Remedial Wisdom 101
By Ole Anthony, with Skippy R.
Issue #209, January/February 2007
Everbody's seen the cartoon—it's become a cliche.
A seeker strives to reach the mountaintop to ask a guru the secret of life. Instead of wisdom, the guru responds with indecipherable mumbo-jumbo. Or a platitude. Or a complete non sequitur. Or a counter-question of his own.
The comic possibilities are endless, because most people have given up believing in the existence of genuine wisdom. It's not possible. It's become a joke.
Even talking about wisdom is seen as presumptuous. So let me start this article with a disclaimer: I don't claim to be wise. But I know someone who is.
Wisdom is slippery. God made it that way. Just when you think you've grasped it, it disappears.
The cornerstone text is, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 1:7, Psalm 111:10 and elsewhere). That's the required perspective.
In Proverbs, wisdom is personified as a woman crying out in the streets with no one listening. Her admonitions seem to be available to all, but very few actually hear.
In fact, the whole subject seems to be covered over in divine camouflage.
"And He (Jesus) said unto them, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables..." (Mark 4: 11,12).
"I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 13: 35).
In Job 11: 6, "he would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double (folded into) to that which is."
Everything is more than it seems; not only standing alone, but in its relationship to a reality beyond our sensory perception. All is external and natural and at the same time, hidden and spiritual.
The Zohar says, "The narratives of the Torah are but the raiment in which that which it reveals is swathed. Woe unto him who mistakes the raiment for the Torah itself! For this reason David prayed, 'Open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy Law'" (Psalm 119; 18).
So, uh... what is concealed inside the raiment? What's the kernel of truth?
Jesus reveals the answer to His disciples:
"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24: 27).
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify (only) of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life" (John 5: 39, 40).
It's all about Christ. It's only about Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life... and He is wisdom personified.
Jesus used the natural world in parables to portray the Kingdom of God. He instructed us to look at vines, lilies, seeds, birds, the weather and a host of other natural phenomena. Why? Because the kingdom (and wisdom) is spiritual and eternal. There is no way to describe it other than love.
You have to accept a parable as a parable in order to find a hidden mystery. But most people take parables literally and miss the meaning.
The problem is that we have eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We require definitions. We want to judge good and evil for ourselves, separate everything into categories, labels and explanations that we can control and use.
Paul says that we are to speak with wisdom, yet not the wisdom of the world. Proverbs 9 speaks of the seven pillars of wisdom, "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars."
How do we tell the difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God? Here are a few guidelines (seven guidelines would have been nice, in a symmetrical sort of way, but I've only got four):
If your hopes and dreams are esteemed by the general population, you can be assured it is not the wisdom of God: "For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16: 15).
If you think that poverty, sickness, affliction or suffering is foreign to real Christians, it cannot be the wisdom of God: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you" (1 Peter 4: 12).
If the approval of others is your motivation in life, it is the wisdom of the world: "...for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Galatians 1: 10).
If you think there are things about you that you need to change in order to be a better person, it is the wisdom of the world and not God: "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever, them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10: 14).
OK. That's what wisdom isn't. But what is it?
Ultimately, wisdom is not a concept at all, but a person.
A story in the Talmud says that a man may plead, "'I have not learnt wisdom, I have not studied the Law, what am I to do?' You are to answer him, 'God said to the Israelites, "All wisdom and all the Law is a single, easy thing: he who fears me, and fulfills the words of the Law, he has all wisdom and all the Law in his heart."'
Jesus is the only one to ever fear God and fulfill the law perfectly.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17-18).
"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (Hebrews 8:10, Jeremiah 31:33).
This was accomplished on the cross, when Christ said, "It is finished."
Thus, wisdom was fulfilled and made available to each one of us, in Him.
Ole's morning bible study is available here.