Turn to Wisdom

by Ben

I read Proverbs 1.

As I come out of the Psalms to begin the book of Proverbs, I realize that I have an excitement every time I start a new book. I get a little antsy to get into the book. I find myself wanting to read big chunks at a time (I resisted today). Part of that is my desire for completion, but part of it comes in seeing how the whole picture fits together. As I read, I fit the pieces of the Biblical puzzle together. I know that the puzzle will never be complete (and for someone who likes crossing tasks off, that could be overwhelming). But I get excited at the prospect of learning more about life, the universe, and everything.

I think that it is good that I am starting Proverbs at this time. Not that I need the reminders to be faithful to my (soon-to-be) wife. Rather, as I enter into a marital union, I should be seeking wisdom. I should be striving especially hard to avoid folly and to pursue wisdom. The pictures of Lady Wisdom and Madame Whore represented in Proverbs are great analogies for the diverging pursuits in our culture. Eugene Peterson puts it this way:

"Many people think that what's written in the Bible has mostly to do with getting people to heaven - getting right with God, saving their eternal souls. It does have to do with that, of course, but not mostly. It is equally concerned with living on this earth - living well, living in robust sanity. In our Scriptures, heaven is not the primary concern, to which earth is a tag-along afterthought. 'On earth as it is in heaven' is Jesus' prayer. 'Wisdom' is the biblical term for this on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven everyday living. Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves. It has virtually nothing to do with information as such, with knowledge as such. A college degree is no certification of wisdom - nor is it primarily concerned with keeping us out of moral mud puddles, although it does have a profound moral effect upon us.

Wisdom has to do with becomign skillful in honoring our parents and raising our children, handling our money and conducting our sexual lives, going to work and exercising leadership, using words well and treating friends kindly, eating and drinking healthily, cultivating emotions within ourselves and attitudes toward others that make for peace. Threaded though all these items is the insistence that the way we think of and respond to God is the most practical thing we do. In matters of everyday practicality, nothing, absolutely nothing, takes precendence over God."