Bible Studies

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Define “Wisdom” from an Old Testament perspective

The textbook entitled “Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian Survey” written by B. Arnold and B. Beyer tells us that wisdom literature was wisdom passed down as a “father’ to “son” message (p. 291), written to show the son, or family, how to live wisely (the beginning of Proverbs uses this way of imparting wisdom). Though not all wisdom literature follows the same god, to me all wisdom is from the one true God, who alone can tell us how we should live as humans, since it was He who created us. The poetical books of the Hebrew Bible contain wisdom that is straight from the heart of God, the Father of all humanity. In this wisdom, we find how to live and how to treat others; we find out how to suffer properly in God’s eyes and of how He is with us, and will sustain us, through the suffering (David’s psalms are a great example of this). The book of Job teaches us to not trust our friends, or man’s wisdom, when it comes to the why of suffering, but to trust God to know what He is doing in and with it. Ecclesiastes is a great book of wisdom that shows us one man’s experience of trying to follow the world’s wisdom instead of God’s and finding it all futile and meaningless. The wisdom of the world is fleeting and always wrong when it does not gain its understanding of that wisdom from God. Wisdom in the Old Testament can be defined as the proper way to live life before a holy God. God has said that following His wisdom will bring life while following the world’s wisdom will ultimately bring death, not only of the flesh, but of the soul as well.

References

Arnold B., Beyer, B. (1999, 2008) Encountering the old testament: a christian survey. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics

Comment: "Love the Lord, Respect the Lord and Live for Him in everything you do. Simple, to the point, and convicting."

Author Response: The wisdom of the Bible's main point is to always lead us to respect the Lord and to love Him completely by following the wisdom that He has freely imparted to us. God didn't have to tell us anything and He didn't even have to extend forgiveness to us for breaking His laws; He could just zap us the second we disobeyed like some of the idols the world used to follow. But because He is a loving God, He gave us His wisdom so that we could grow to love Him more as we follow His ways and see for ourselves that they work and are good for us. Our good is all God has in mind for us whether we think He does or not.

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