A woman worth getting to know
Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
2 At the highest point along the way,
where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
3 beside the gate leading into the city,
at the entrance, she cries aloud:
4 “To you, O people, I call out;
I raise my voice to all mankind.
5 You who are simple, gain prudence;
you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.
6 Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say;
I open my lips to speak what is right.
7 My mouth speaks what is true,
for my lips detest wickedness.
8 All the words of my mouth are just;
none of them is crooked or perverse.
9 To the discerning all of them are right;
they are upright to those who have found knowledge.
10 Choose my instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,
11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Proverbs 8:1-11
My daily Bible-reading cycle has brought me to Proverbs 8, all about wisdom. Of course the whole book, all thirty-one chapters, is about wisdom, but the focus is particularly intense in this chapter.
Wisdom is pictured as a woman, sometimes called by commentators Lady Wisdom. We are not told she is particularly beautiful (after all, the Bible as a whole takes little interest in any kind of physical attractiveness, female or male), but I for one can’t help seeing her as elegant and dignified. Perhaps surprisingly, she is a wayside preacher, taking her stand at a cross-roads near the city gate, and she seems to have found a natural pulpit – “the highest point along the way” (verse 2). She is gifted with a strong voice, for she “raises her voice to all mankind” (verse 4), so her congregation is, well, anybody and everybody who cares to listen.
Could I invite you to take a few moments to read right through the chapter? – not in order to extract “doctrine” in an intellectual sense (Proverbs is not that kind of book!), but in order to bathe your imagination in a whole variety of hints and impressions. Lady Wisdom is a woman worth getting to know!
Confining ourselves mainly just to the first eleven verses, there is far more to glean than we have space for here, but hopefully we can whet our appetites for more, deeper reading.
First, wisdom is readily available.
She is a public figure, calling out to all and sundry. That means we don’t have to go seeking her out in weird or hidden places like cultic sects or mysterious religions. But it also means that we have no excuse for ignoring her, those of us at least who have been told about Jesus (according to parallel verses in Proverbs 8:22-31 and Colossians 1:15-17 she is supremely to be found in Christ).
So…You want wisdom? Good! – the message couldn’t be simpler: look to Jesus.
Second, wisdom has many close cousins.
There’s a whole list of synonyms or near-synonyms in just these opening verses: understanding, prudence, trustworthiness, rightness, truth, justice, discernment, knowledge. In other words, if we choose to gain wisdom it won’t just make us “clever”, it will literally change the kind of people we are, transforming our very characters and ways of behaving.
So… You’re weary of being a failure in this bewildering business of life? Be encouraged! And seek wisdom!
Third, wisdom is truly practical.
Perhaps this is where “prudence” (verse 5) is especially important. It’s a slippery word, not easy to pin down, but it conveys the idea of commonsense, an ability to face our troubled world with open and seeing eyes, shrewdness, a “not-to-be-taken-in-ness”. It may mean being cautious, but not over-cautious, discerning but perhaps also adventurous.
So… You feel you lack prudence in a world that’s full of confusion and dishonesty? Well, you know where to look!
Fourth, wisdom is closely allied to holiness.
I nearly wrote “moral excellence” rather than “holiness”. But then I thought, “No, that would sound rather dry, even academic – let’s go for one of the Bible’s most beautiful and important words”. To be holy is, in essence, to be like God himself, and words like “upright”, “true”, “just” make it plain that wisdom means far more than simply being hands on in the business of living.
If we stay for a bit with the metaphor of wisdom as a woman (and why shouldn’t we?), we can imagine that Lady Wisdom has a couple of sisters. One is described in chapter 9 verses 1-5. This woman could of course be the same person in a rather different mode, but I like to think of her as an older and more prosperous sister: she has an impressive house (with “seven pillars”); she is a generous hostess (she has “prepared her meat and mixed her wine”); she has servants at her beck and call; she is compassionate, especially concerned for the “simple” and “those who have no sense”; she is an accomplished teacher (she offers “insight”).
Ah, but what about the third woman – Sister Folly (9:13-18)? Perhaps the less said the better. She is “unruly” and a seductress, not just sexually but also in offering the cheap and tawdry pleasures of life (“stolen water”… “food eaten in secret”). But all that her devotees end up with is… death (“her guests are deep in the realm of the dead”).
Yet Sister Folly could be mistaken for her two holy sisters. She too takes her seat “at the highest point of the city”; she too makes her appeal to anyone who will listen – and who is foolish enough to be taken in.
The challenge of these very poetic verses of Proverbs is clear: am I a disciple of Lady Wisdom or of Lady Folly? Am I heading for life – what Jesus called “life in all its fulness” (John 10:10) – or for death? The choice is ours; there is no coercion with God. His word is right there for us – the living Word of Christ, and the written Word of Scripture.
Lord, help us to choose with our eyes wide open!
Father, our modern world seems to be so often shallow, tawdry and awash with folly, enslaved to sin. God forbid that I should ever be arrogant or self-righteous in judgment – but a true and humble disciple of Lady Wisdom. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment