Poetry – Proverbs 8-9

Someone told me that he reads one chapter of the book of Proverbs everyday.  Since Proverbs consists of just 31 chapters – he reads through Proverbs each month and starts all over again each month.

It would be easy to think that the writings would become stale after months of repetition, but just the opposite is true.  And even though he has been doing that for years, he said that he never fail to discover some new nugget of wisdom each time.

It is not surprising since the book of Proverbs is a book of Wisdom.

Bible Passage:  Proverbs 8-9

Today’s passages reinforces the importance of wisdom in the life of believers.  Indeed, in Proverbs 9 – two different houses are mentioned.

First, the House of Wisdom – If we choose to enter this house, we will live and go in the way of understanding (Proverbs 9:6).

But if we choose instead to enter the second house – the House of Foolishness – we are only hastening our feet towards the “depths of hell” (Proverbs 9:18).

I would however like to focus our attention on Proverbs 8 – for it is the call of Wisdom to us and it is important that we respond correctly.

The Call of Wisdom

When I read Proverbs 8, I could not help but thinking of 2 familiar passages in the Epistle of James concerning wisdom…

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.

Jas 1:5

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

Jas 3:17

Not only is the God we worship a God of Love.  He is also a wise God.

So not only does He show us love and gives us love, He also teaches us wisdom and offers us wisdom freely as well.

As we read Proverbs 8, there are a lot of verses that concerns wisdom and we all know that true wisdom is from the Lord.  This proverbs truly gives us a glimpse of what wisdom is and sets the picture in my mind of wisdom being the companion of the Lord.

We read that Wisdom goes out of her way to call out to us so that we will not be foolish and work in the wrong way.  And when we know the true value of wisdom, it will be very surprising if we want to depart fro it.

Value of Wisdom

Receive my instruction, and not silver,
And knowledge rather than choice gold;
For wisdom is better than rubies,
And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.

Proverbs 8:11-12

If we look at the culture around us today, it is very common to see people pursuing after education in the hope of getting a better paycheck and life.

A degree is no longer a guarantee to a better paying job or a long stable career.  Double degrees or Masters are common now.  Now people clamour to gain Certifications through extra enrichment classes so that they can be better than the next person – all for the sake of getting further ahead in their career.

But it is one thing to be educated.  It is quite another thing to have wisdom.

And wisdom is even more valuable than either advanced learning or the riches that it often brings.

Why is wisdom worth more than any thing else one could desire?  And why is it that the book of Proverbs is here to tell us that whatever we do, we should get wisdom (Proverbs 4:5-7)?

It is because wisdom brings benefits that goes far beyond material comfort and convenience.  In fact, Proverbs 8 is like an entry of the topic “Wisdom” in Wikipedia!  In the interest of brevity, I will just list the following down in point form 🙂

Origin of Wisdom

• Comes from God Himself (Prov 8:22)
• Is from everlasting (Prov 8:23)
• Has existed from the beginning (Prov 8:23-30)

Results of Wisdom

• Gain prudence (Prov 8:5, 12)
• Gain understanding (Prov 8:5)
• Excellent things (Prov 8:6)
• Truth (Prov 8:7)
• Hatred of wickedness (Prov 8:7)
• Righteousness (Prov 8:8)
• Knowledge (Prov 8:12)
• Discretion (Prov 8:12)
• Fear of the Lord (Prov 8:13)

Value of Wisdom

• Yields riches and honour (Prov 8:11, 18)
• Is greater than rubies, gold, or silver (Prov 8:10-11, 19)
• Blesses the wise (Prov 8:32. 34)
• Gives life to the wise (Prov 8:35)

You can certainly see how valuable true wisdom is.

Knowing and Not Doing….

During last Sabbath afternoon service, Pr Lin ZW from Taiwan gave an excellent sermon about the curing of bad water with a bowl of salt.

One of the key points he brought up was that believers in our church are very good at observing all the commandments that starts with “You Shall Not…”.  We do not commit any of the grave sins that God specially warns us about.

However, there remains one big problem – we do not do what we ought to do.  And that is not good either.

It reminds me of James 4:17

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Gaining wisdom and understand is very important.  But there also remains the important part about putting this Wisdom into practice.

Solomon had all the wisdom that God gave him.  Although he practiced this Wisdom in the beginning, he gradually forgot to do so in his latter years.  And this led to his acts of folly in his old age.

Let us learn from the wisest man of all times… and put our trust in the Wisdom of God at all times and allow Wisdom to be our companion all the days of our lives.

Finally, I would like to leave you with a video of the song “More Precious Than Silver”.  It certainly reminds us that God is more precious that anything else we may want to value in this world.

In case you cannot follow along, the lyrics of this very simple short chorus is as follows…

Lord, you are more precious than silver.
Lord, you are more costly than gold.
Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds, and
Nothing I desire compares with you.