Wisdom: A Person, Not Tips

Proverbs 1:2 says the purpose of the book is to know “wisdom and discipline,” or “understanding and correction.” Wisdom is the kind of knowledge that helps you know what is going on around you. Are you able to read situations and people correctly? If not, you need discipline.^[1] This requires the humility to recognize that you don’t know everything and to receive counsel from another. How do you respond to correction, to teaching, to counsel? That has a lot to do with whether or not you are wise. The know-it-all is not as wise as he thinks; the Bible says he’s a fool.

This word correction or discipline entails a discipleship-type relationship where you can be warned about going in the wrong direction, rebuked when needed, corrected to go in a different way or to think differently, and punished if you do not listen. Do you have any relationship in your life right now where someone can correct you? Do you have any relationship in your life where someone can call you to account and say, “What do you think you’re doing?” We all need pastors or parents or brothers and sisters in Christ who can correct us. That’s wisdom.

Solomon says that wisdom is ethical. He says the purpose of the book is for you as the reader to receive correction in order to be wise “in righteousness, justice, and integrity.” Therefore, biblical wisdom is not intelligence or a high IQ; it’s the knowledge of good and evil. A wise person can tell the difference between right and wrong in the situations in which they find themselves.

The problem for us is that even in the church we so often think of foolishness and wisdom as morally neutral. Pastors will even say things like being wise or foolish is not about right and wrong so much as best and not best. So foolishness is when I break my hand by slamming it on the floor because Tony Romo threw another interception to cost the Cowboys a playoff spot. That’s not necessarily a sin; it’s just stupid, a pastor will say. No! That’s not what the Bible means by wisdom and foolishness according to Proverbs 1:3. Foolishness lacks the ability to discern good and evil. It is a sin to be a fool. If I were to ask most people who on the sitcom The Simpsons is a fool, almost everyone who has ever watched it would say Bart because he does dumb things that get him in trouble. If I were to ask who is wise on The Simpsons, many would say Lisa because she has her head on straight. According to Proverbs, Lisa is just as foolish as Bart because she treats her parents like idiots. Folly is sinfulness and wisdom is righteousness according to Proverbs.

Adam and Eve are prohibited access to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden. Why? God forbids them to eat that fruit not because he’s giving them an arbitrary rule to break so that one day he can send his Son to die for sinners and save us from hell. He wants to teach humanity to depend on God for that knowledge instead of determining it for ourselves. God determines what is good and what is evil; that’s not for us to decide. So we fear him by submitting to his Word. However, humans decided to trust the voice of the serpent and what their “own eyes” said was best. Adam and Eve sought wisdom apart from God and his Word. That’s foolishness. The fruit appeared desirable “to make one wise”—it seemed right to them, but it was foolish, and foolishness according to Genesis and Proverbs always ends in death. Wisdom comes from the mouth of God (Prov 2:6), so submit to the Word of God and not what you think is right.

The chaos and confusion in our society is due to humankind doing what is right in our own eyes rather than what God has revealed in his Word. That’s not just true for those “outsiders” who reject a sanctity of life ethic and those who redefine marriage. Many of us in the church also have failed to submit to God’s way. We agree that wisdom is to be found in God’s Word. And we agree that we should submit to what it says in all things, except for our own situations, which for some reason we always think are the exceptions. “I know God’s Word says I have no grounds for a divorce, but I also know God doesn’t want me to be miserable.” “I know God’s Word says I should submit to my husband, but you don’t know my husband.” “I know God’s Word says I should be generous, but I also know that God realizes I just don’t have a lot right now.” We find all kinds of ways to evade God’s Word for what is better in our own eyes. That’s foolishness.

Instead, we need to submit to the wisdom—the knowledge of good and evil—that God gives us clearly in the Word. The Lord reveals to us wisdom in his Word through the law. The law tells us right from wrong. Deuteronomy 4:6 says that Israel’s wisdom is to be found in keeping the law. Parents are instructed to teach the law to their kids so that the nation can remain in the land and not die in exile (Deut 6). The king was to be a man of the law so that his kingdom would be secure (Deut 17). In the book of Proverbs, Solomon is obeying both Deuteronomy 6 and 17 by instructing his son in the wisdom of right and wrong (Hamilton, God’s Glory in Salvation, 290). This is exactly what Solomon asked the Lord for in 1 Kings 3:9—the ability to “discern between good and evil.” What was denied to humanity in the garden is now given to humanity through the wisdom of Proverbs—the fear of the Lord!

Proverbs 1:4 says that wisdom is shrewdness and discretion. Wisdom is the ability to read a situation and make the right decision. That’s the point of the book. Solomon wants to give this discernment to the inexperienced and the youth. As we will see, Proverbs gives categories of people (inexperienced, mocking, foolish, wise, etc.). Inexperienced people are not wise or foolish yet; instead, they are open to instruction in wisdom or folly. They are gullible and usually believe the most recent thing they have heard. They are easily enticed or persuaded (see the discussion in Longman, Proverbs, 96–97). This is the audience that Solomon is going after because there is still hope. Inexperience and youthfulness often go hand in hand, and that is why Solomon is so concerned (as is Moses in Deut 6) with parents teaching their children right and wrong. Proverbs tells those of us who are parents (and grandparents) that it is our task to instruct our children in wisdom. Those who are young and those who are inexperienced need to acquire the ability to perceive what’s going on, make the right decisions, and avoid the bad ones.

Solomon says that a wise man will listen and increase in learning; a wise man will acquire direction and guidance. This is interesting. The audience that Solomon refers to in this verse is “a wise person.” He says that the wise need to grow in learning and get direction. Huh? Doesn’t being wise mean that you’ve arrived at the place where you don’t need to learn anymore? Solomon says that’s a foolish outlook on life. The truly wise will have the humility to know that they still need to listen to counsel instead of having the arrogance to think they have arrived. The wise recognize that no one graduates. We all need to hear the wisdom of Proverbs again and again throughout our lives. Wisdom is not a goal to attain; it’s a pursuit that you spend your whole life on.

Solomon says the point of the book is to help you understand these wise sayings so you can be wise and make wise decisions in your daily life. He’s laid out in this preamble the multifaceted nature of wisdom. Wisdom is being corrected and disciplined. Wisdom understands and reads situations. Wisdom is godly morality. Wisdom is justice. Wisdom is discretion and discernment of right and wrong, stupid and smart, what path to take and which one to avoid. Wisdom is listening to instruction and receiving guidance. But now that we know what wisdom is, the question remains, “How can we get it?”

(What Is the Key to Being Wise Like This?)

How can we be wise like this? How can we learn to read situations and make wise decisions? How do you get this multifaceted wisdom? As we will see throughout the book, Solomon says that all wisdom is “religious” or spiritual in nature because it’s only through a relationship with the Lord that one can be wise. The fear of—the reverence for—Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and discipline, but the wise person is the one who fears, trusts, and reverences Yahweh. This is the first step and the essential component in gaining wisdom—the fear of the Lord. Proverbs is quite clear that the way to get wisdom is to depend on God rather than on yourself (cf. 3:5-6). The everyday, nitty-gritty details of your life are to be lived in fear of God. There is no sacred and secular divide in your life. We so often think that “going to church” and mission efforts and quiet times are the godly things we do in life. Other things like our work, our kids’ soccer teams, or how we spend our money are the secular or neutral parts of our lives. Solomon crushes that. The everyday decisions that we make are to be done in fear of the Lord, and the everyday decisions we make reveal whether or not we fear the Lord. God is concerned with your whole life. The everyday decisions we make are indicators of whether we fear him or not. How you eat dinner, how you finish tasks assigned to you, how you spend money, how you parent your kids, and how you respond to your parents are all before the Lord. Every nook and cranny of your life is to be governed by God.

We all view the world in a certain way—through a certain lens. However, the fall of humankind into sin has assured that we do not see the world rightly. As an analogy, I ( Jon) am colorblind. I can’t tell the difference between red and green and a whole host of other colors. I don’t see the world the way it actually is. As a result, I make poor decisions with regard to fashion. In a very real way, that’s what is true of all of us in our sin. We don’t view the world the way it really is, so we make wrong decisions that go against the grain of how the world really is. However, if we will observe the world through the lens that God has given in fear of him, we can start perceiving how things really are. And once we start living according to that pattern, we will walk in wisdom.

The only way to be wise is to trust in the Lord and be in a relationship with him. Wisdom comes from Yahweh (2:6), so we are taught in the Bible to ask him for it (e.g., Jas 1). According to Proverbs, this wisdom is filtered through receiving instruction from a human mediator like a sage or a parent. In our context that might mean a parent, a godly and wise friend, a Bible teacher, or a pastor.

Fools are arrogant and refuse correction (Prov 1:7). They are worse than the inexperienced because they aren’t open to changing their minds. This means that really, really smart people can actually be fools. The question we all need to ask ourselves is, what category am I in? Am I one who is open to the instruction of the Lord? Am I one who is humble enough to seek counsel? Or am I a know-it-all? Am I a person who always thinks I’m right? Foolishness is doing what is right in your own eyes instead of what God has revealed. Disney says to “follow your heart,” but the Bible says those who are left to themselves and to their hearts will choose the wrong path. Following our heart is foolishness because we are broken people. Doing what is right in our own eyes is a recipe for disaster. Just read the book of Judges. There was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes, and the result was chaos (see esp. Judg 17–21). We need a loving and wise King who can rule over us. Proverbs reveals that Solomon is training a Son of David to do just that, and in the fullness of time we see that his name is Jesus of Nazareth. You see, Solomon fails to live out the wisdom of Proverbs, and so does his son King Rehoboam, who shows his foolishness by listening to his peers rather than the elders of Israel (see 1 Kgs 12). But Isaiah 11 promises that the Messiah will be the embodiment of the book of Proverbs. In fact, he is described with the words of Proverbs. Isaiah 11:2-3 states,

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.

And when Jesus of Nazareth bursts onto the scene, he grows in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and people (Luke 2:52). He’s called greater than Solomon (Matt 12) and the “wisdom of God” for us (1 Cor 1:24,30). “In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3).

Getting wisdom is important because it will help you make decisions in everyday life. It will help you “win” at life. But failing to get wisdom will wreck your life. The problem for all of us is that we have failed repeatedly because even when we know what to do, we often don’t do it. This reveals our brokenness. Where do we turn? What’s the answer for us? How can we become wise when we are so broken we can’t even do what we know is right?

What if wisdom wasn’t a concept or an idea or a set of ideas you had to learn at all? What if Wisdom was a person you could know and have a relationship with? What if Wisdom was a person you could love and walk with, and just by knowing, loving, and walking with this person it would actually make you wise?^[2] What if Wisdom was a person who spoke to you, and by listening to Wisdom’s voice you could actually grow in wisdom? Proverbs will teach us that Wisdom isn’t an Israelite Dear Abby^[3]; it’s not a bunch of tips you learn to live out. Wisdom is a person—Jesus of Nazareth. Through a relationship with him you can be reconciled to God, to others, and to the world around you. Through a relationship with him, he will begin to produce in you the wisdom he lives out—the wisdom of Proverbs!