Wisdom is a truth from God. Try it.
It is not enough to pray daily, or to be sorry when we do the wrong thing. The Message of the Wisdom Books is that we must live a good life, here, today.
Why? Wisdom in the Bible is not intellectual knowledge, important as that is. Wisdom is a truth from God.
Who has this ‘Wisdom’?
When we look at the Old Testament, we see that there are three types of ministry:
- the priests who ministered at the altar, offering sacrifice to God
- the prophets, who received the word of God and delivered it to the people
- the sages or wise men, who possessed wisdom from God and gave practical advice to those who needed it. This is what the Wisdom Books are about.
Sometimes Wisdom is written about as if it is a person. This device is used to encourage us to think of wisdom as something we can interact with, actively, not passively accept without question.
The beauty of the Wisdom Books is applicable to all people, at all times.
The Wisdom Books are
- Job – sometimes bad things happen to good people. Why do the innocent suffer?
- Psalms. Timeless prayers, songs of praise and pain. The people who wrote the psalms seem to have thought that prayer was more important than ceremony. Do you?
- Proverbs. Sensible advice on many aspects of human experience. If only people would follow the advice of the Proverbs they’d have a better chance at a happy and successful life.
- Ecclesiastes. Timeless advice on life and death, folly and wisdom, work and profit.
- the Song of Songs. Sometimes attributed to King Solomon. Exquisite poetry about the love between a man and a woman.
Why should we care?
The Books of Wisdom cover every facet of life, a sort of road map to help us find our way through difficult situations. With its help, we can see life from God’s point of view, more clearly than we might otherwise see it.
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