I have often felt that wisdom is a rare, unobtainable thing. I wonder if wisdom, at least for me, is more precious than gold because it is less easy to come by. But at the same time as feeling that I've felt that Proverbs is a book which is largely made up of banal commonsensical observations on how the world works!
If I read Proverbs properly I'd have got a different impression.
"Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out" (1:21). There are lots of competing voices in the world but you don't have to seek wisdom out. It is not some secret knowledge (Gnosis) that you have to climb a mountain to get to. It is actually obvious that the good life involves thinking before speaking, working hard, being generous, being honest, even fearing God. This is what wisdom is.
If access to wisdom is not what makes you wise. Google will not make us stupid, but it doesn't make us wise either. The distinction between the wise and the stupid is that wisdom "rests in the heart of a man of understanding", whereas it is only "known ... in the midst of fools" (14:33).
However it is still the mark of a wise man that he is continually desiring to "hear and increase in learning" because he doesn't possess wisdom in the complete way that God does. How often are we forced to remember that "a man's steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?"
A wise man's approach will be distinguished by the following::
- He starts with the LORD - fearing him (1:7, 14:27, 22:4, 29:25), listening to him (2:6, 3:11-12), trusting him (3:5, 16:20, 28:25) knowing the wisdom belongs to him (8:22f).
- He listens to the right people - to his parents and not the attractive woman (1:8, 4:1, 15:5, 23:22; 2:16, 6:24), to many people and not just himself (11:14, 12:15, 15:22), to the righteous and not the wicked (10:11, 12:26, 13:20, 14:7, 15:2).
- He listens humbly - accepting of reproof and discipline (11:2, 13:10, 15:31, 19:25, 27:6) and beware of flattery (29:5).
- He listens thoughtfully - he is not uncritical of advice (14:15, 18:17).
So what has this to do with Christ, "our wisdom" (1 Cor 1:24)?
- We will honour his uniqueness. We know that only he possesses complete wisdom, and every human is just a creature who is continually growing in wisdom but never reaching completeness. Our wisdom is further corrupted by our sinfullness so we should be humble and accepting of rebuke not just additional teaching.
- We will look to him to receive wisdom from his hands. We will listen to the Bible. We will pray to him to give us more wisdom (1 Kings 3:1-15, James 1:5). We will listen to the righteous who are his ambassadors on earth who as his disciples learn from him and pass on what he teaches.
NB there is some overlap with what Newbigin has to say about certainty.
