Why Wisdom?

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?”And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”

The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”

Then Solomon awoke; and indeed it had been a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

1 Kings 3:5-15

Have you ever wondered why Solomon choose wisdom? I mean, it seems like the logical choice (after you think about it), but how did he come to that conclusion? I think that if God Almighty told me that he would give me anything that I wanted, I'd be too flabbergasted to even come up with an answer!

But, reading the scripture, you notice that Solomon wasn't fazed at all; he knew exactly what he needed. How? I found the answer while I was reading Proverbs 4 this morning...

Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to know understanding; for I give you good doctrine: do not forsake my law. When I was my father’s son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother, he also taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words; keep my commands, and live. Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory she will deliver to you.” Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; keep her, for she is your life.

...But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.

Proverbs 4:1-13; 18-27

His father! (Why didn't I think of it before?!) His father (King David) had taught him from a "tender" age that "wisdom is the principal thing" and "in all your getting, get understanding".

The dictionary describes wisdom as: the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.

Wisdom seems to be fairly important, yet nowadays, all our culture seems to scream at us is “folly!”. We’re not encouraged my most of our peers (or by a lot of adults, for that matter) to be wise. So, what does the Bible say about wisdom? I found that it has a lot to say about it....

My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness;

Proverbs 2:1-13

Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.

Proverbs 3:13

How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

Proverbs 16:16

He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will find good.

Proverbs 19:8

Wisdom rests in the heart of him who has understanding, but what is in the heart of fools is made known.

Proverbs 14:33

Wisdom is in the sight of him who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.

Proverbs 17:24

Except, there are two different types of wisdom, God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom....

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.

1 Corinthians 3:19-20

So, what exactly is God’s wisdom?

And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.’” Job 28:28

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.

Psalm 111:10

It seems fairly straightforward; “the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom”. Except, what exactly is “the fear of the Lord”? And how do you get it?

Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.

Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Psalm 34:11, 13, 14

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

Proverbs 8:13

So, to recap, doing His commandments and hating evil, pride, lying, arrogance, and the evil way, and seeking peace, equals “the fear of the Lord”.

Simple enough, right?! Not quite...

Not all of those things are the easiest to do. Hating evil (e.g. abortion) is easy; pride and arrogance on the other hand, pop-up at the most opportune times (for them), and they are always together.

The dictionary defines arrogance as, “Overly convinced of one’s own importance; overbearingly proud; haughty.” Prides definition is fairly the same, “An excessively high opinion of oneself; conceit; arrogance”.

Which made me have to wonder, why did Solomon use two synonyms in the same sentence? Normally, when something is repeated, it means to really “watch out” for whatever the word was. So, what are some verses that talk about pride?

[Speaking about wicked men] Therefore pride serves as their necklace;

Violence covers them like a garment.  

Psalm 37:6  

By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom.

Proverbs 13:10

A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Proverbs 29:23

And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

Mark 7:20-23

For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

1 John 2:16

And, last but not least, Proverbs 16:18, which is quoted incorrectly quite frequently...

Pride goes before destruction,

And a haughty spirit before a fall.

And, if “destruction” isn’t enough of a wake-up call for us to change, pride is also something that God hates:

These six things the Lord hates,

Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

A proud look, a lying tongue,

Hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that are swift in running to evil,

A false witness who speaks lies,

And one who sows discord among brethren.

Proverbs 6:16-19

Hmm, I’m beginning not to look at pride as leniently as I had been...

Am I proud? Am I arrogant? Do I always seek to put others in front of myself and serve them? Do I “in lowliness of mind... esteem others higher than [myself]”? (Phil. 2:3) And do I only do it when I “feel” like it? What about when I’m tired or the other person is in a grouchy mood?

Lord, help me to be truly humble and not seek to serve for man’s praise!

And to end, I also found some verses that talk about the blessings that come from the fear of the Lord:

The fear of the Lord prolongs days.

Proverbs 10:27a

In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.

Proverbs 14:26-27

The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction;

He will not be visited with evil.

Proverbs 19:23

And Acts 9:31 talks about the church multiplying because they walked in the fear of the Lord...  

Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

And, one last thought. I find it interesting that out of the different father-son duos in the Bible, David seemed to have taught Solomon the most about wisdom, which accordingly affected his writings; Proverbs (and Psalms) have more mentions of wisdom that any other book. After looking at what wisdom is, maybe that is another reason that David was “a man after God’s own heart”? Hmmm....

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

James 1:5