Quinn Walking in God's Wisdom

The Book of Proverbs
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68359-480-2
Verlag: Lexham Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 136 Seiten

Reihe: Transformative Word

Get wisdom, get insight (Prov 4:5)The book of Proverbs is an invitation to 'get wisdom.' But wisdom isn't so easily defined or found. Without discernment, we can be swayed by teachers or sayings that sound wise, but true biblical wisdom is rooted in the fear of the Lord. In Walking with God's Wisdom, Benjamin T. Quinn calls us to hear and obey God's wisdom found in Proverbs. These ancient words reveal a way of life exemplified in Jesus Christ. Quinn shows how even the most ordinary aspects of life are packed with importance for wise living before God.

Benjamin T. Quinn (PhD, University of Bristol) teaches theology and history of ideas at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and The College at Southeastern. He is academic director of the BibleMesh Institute and serves as pastor of Holly Grove Baptist Church in Spring Hope, North Carolina. He lives in Youngsville, North Carolina, with his wife and four children.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Quinn, Benjamin T.

Leseproben

2

CONTOURS AND CORE INGREDIENTS OF WISDOM

Wisdom is the way of God made for humans to walk.

—Daniel J. Treier, Proverbs & Ecclesiastes, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible

According to Scripture, wisdom is, broadly speaking, knowledge of God’s world and the knack of fitting oneself into it.

—Cornelius Plantinga Jr. and Sue A. Rozeboom, Discerning the Spirits: A Guide to Thinking about Christian Worship Today

Contours of Wisdom

One of my favorite questions to ask people is, “How would you define wisdom?” It is an interesting question as I’ve never met anyone—Christian or not—who was uninterested in wisdom. In fact, many cultures and world religions have their own wisdom traditions promoting their view of a proper way of life.

The trouble with this question, though, is that wisdom is notoriously difficult to define. Wisdom is a “totality concept” as Raymond Van Leeuwen suggests (more on this in the next chapter), and defining it runs the risk of leaving something out or oversimplifying.8 Nonetheless, we do want to be clear about our view of wisdom, so we’ll begin by offering five essential ingredients of wisdom.9 These, I trust, will light the way into our study of Proverbs and provide a unifying framework for the many themes and topics throughout the book.

Essential Ingredients of Wisdom

Ingredient #1: Wisdom Is an Attribute of God That Is Fully Revealed in Jesus

In this book, much of our attention will focus on the aspects of wisdom that are found in creation and that are gained over time through experience and instruction. To begin, though, we must recognize that wisdom is an attribute of God; and by wisdom he created the world (Prov 3 and 8). This divine quality is mysteriously etched into God’s world, leaving traces of him in everything that has been made—both visible and invisible—and pointing all creation back to him “so that God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28). This is an important though delicate point; as we are not suggesting that in creating by wisdom God breached the important divide between Creator and creation. Instead, we must hold a more nuanced—even sophisticated—view of wisdom that allows us to understand it as both an attribute of God and a quality of God’s creation that directs creatures toward proper living in his world.

Further, this divine wisdom is fully revealed in Jesus. We will address this further in chapter 5, but now we observe Paul’s instruction that Jesus is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24), “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3).

Ingredient #2: Wisdom Is Grounded in the Fear of the Lord

The purpose statement for the book of Proverbs is given in the first seven verses of the book, especially verses 2–6. In summary, the purpose of Proverbs is

for learning about wisdom and instruction,

for understanding words of insight,

for gaining instruction in wise dealing,

righteousness, justice, and equity;

to teach shrewdness to the simple,

knowledge and prudence to the young (1:2–4),

as well as to further instruct the wise in learning and skill (1:5).

Verse 7 is the keystone of the introduction, declaring that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” The author will bookend this first major section of Proverbs (chapters 1–9) with a nuanced but similar declaration in 9:10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” We will give further attention to the meaning and importance of “the fear of the Lord” below, but suffice it to say at this point that without the fear of Yahweh—the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles—there is no true wisdom.

Ingredient #3: Wisdom Seeks to Live According to the Order That God Has Built into Creation

Proverbs 3:19–20 states, “The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.” It is tempting, perhaps, to read this passage and assume that it is simply a flashy description of God’s exhaustive knowledge and ability to create. And, indeed, it is not less than that; but it is far more.

In this passage, Proverbs alerts us to the fact that God not only built his world by wisdom, but also built wisdom into his world. This shouldn’t be confused with the “wisdom of the world” that Paul warns about (1 Cor 1:20; 3:19); instead this wisdom originates from God above (Jas 3:13–18) and is built into every nook and cranny of creation.

There is a pattern and order to God’s world that promotes divine shalom, or flourishing, as God designed. In Genesis 3, however, sin entered the garden and wreaked havoc in God’s world. Nevertheless, we must not think that what God made good, sin made bad. Instead, sin acts as a parasite on what God has made, seeking to pervert it, corrupt it, and direct it away from God. But it cannot negate its goodness, which belongs to the Lord.

As such, Proverbs often illustrates wisdom with created things that operate according to God’s design.

THE ANT AS AN EXAMPLE OF GOD’S INTENDED DESIGN (PROV 6:6–11) Proverbs 6:6–11 directs our attention to ants of all things to illustrate the virtue of hard work. Amid chastising the child who is lovingly referred to as “lazybones,” the writer of Proverbs contrasts the lazy way of life with a wiser way of life exemplified by ants: Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest. How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed warrior. Why ants? Is this an intentional moment of condescension by the wise teacher? Perhaps there is a hint of that, but more importantly, the teacher is highlighting the wisdom that God built into the world.

There is pattern and rhythm in creation that points creatures toward the way of the Creator. The way God built the world informs the way we ought to live. As quoted in the epigraph above by Daniel Treier, “Wisdom is the way of God made for humans to walk.” Again, this shouldn’t be confused with the ways of the world we are warned about. Instead, we recognize that the ways of the world run opposed to the way of the Lord. Those who fear the Lord are called to walk in his ways in his world, and how to do that is informed by what God has said and by what God has made.

Ingredient #4: Wisdom Focuses on Discerning God’s Ways in Particular Circumstances

Often in my younger years, I was told that life is black and white—meaning, of course, that life is simple, and that proper decision-making is always clear and straightforward. However, I quickly encountered a problem with that philosophy: it doesn’t work because it isn’t true.

If life were black and white and easy to navigate, why would we need wisdom? Knowledge alone would suffice because discernment would be unnecessary. But this is not how life works. Our human experience often leaves us facing difficult decisions about money, marriage, friendships, work, parenting, discipline, etc.—all things that Proverbs addresses. Why? Because wisdom is required.

Decisions about these ordinary matters are not the same for every person. It may be wise for me to spend a lot of money on my youngest son for medical expenses because he’s prone to ear infections, while it may not be wise for someone else’s son who doesn’t have the same condition. Instead, it may be wiser for him to spend a lot of money on gluten-free groceries due to his spouse’s allergies.

In both cases, wisdom is applied, but the application of wisdom is different. It isn’t one-size-fits-all; instead, wisdom is particularized to specific times and places. It considers the circumstances. Proverbs 26:4–5 illustrates this well:

Do not answer fools according to their folly,

or you will be a fool yourself.

Answer fools according to their folly,

or they will be wise in their own eyes.

Does Proverbs contradict itself here? Or might there be something in the nature of wisdom that suggests the wise response is not always the same? In one case, the fool may be teachable and willing to receive correction, so we answer him with correction. In another case, however, we may discern that the fool is not teachable. Thus, it would be foolish to waste our time offering correction. These two proverbs teach us that answering or not answering a fool requires wisdom.

This must not be understood as inconsistent, relativistic, or wisdom that is prone to favoritism. By no means! Instead, wisdom recognizes the uniqueness of specific times, places, and people and carefully applies love for God and neighbor to those circumstances.

Ingredient #5: Wisdom Is Rooted in Tradition

In the first chapter of Proverbs...