When was the last time you visited your local bookstore? Have you, by chance, ever been to the “Self-Help” section? You might find a little bit of everything, from Zen Buddhism, to New Ageism, to Oprah Winfrey, the Dalai Lama, even a little bit of Joel Osteen. While it is not a term we would use in our public culture today, we could probably call this the world’s “wisdom” section. If you were to survey all of the titles there, you could probably begin to see how the world’s “wisdom” has been shared from culture to culture, language to language, epoch to epoch, and has converged into this one section like a sticky mess of a hodgepodge. It is somewhat similar to the setting of the Ancient Near East when the book of Proverbs was believed to have been written/compiled. It was similar in that wisdom sayings were shared between cultures. You might, for example, find some similar proverbs in the wisdom writings of the Egyptians. There was nothing to keep the wisdom sayings of Egypt from reaching Israel and vice versa. The difference, however, was that what was compiled into the book of Proverbs was written from, and framed within, a Judeo-Old Testament worldview. And that meant that what it put forth was a wisdom that was distinct from that of the rest of the world.
What is the “wisdom” of the book of Proverbs? And how is it distinct from the “wisdom” of the world? To answer that question, we can look at three Hebrew words that are used to describe wisdom in the book of Proverbs. These are: (i) Hokma (חָכְמָה); (ii) Bina (בִּינָה); and (iii) Tusiyya (תּוּשִׁיָּה). Hokma (sometimes rendered as Chokma in English) is the understanding, or comprehension, of the basic issues of life, including the relationship man has with God. Bina is the discernment between truth and error, between true and false, and between the real and illusory. And thirdly, Tusiyya, is the insight or intuition of the spiritual and/or psychological. Or to put it more simply, a spiritual understanding of the human heart and mind.
Altogether, these three Hebrew words and their meanings constitute true wisdom, the wisdom of “the Lord.” And how does one attain this wisdom? Proverbs 1:7 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This means that true wisdom begins the very moment that we repent of our sins and place our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. You might ask how I arrived at that conclusion. Well, the fear of the Lord means a reverence for the Lord, and this reverence is achieved when we have a right understanding (not only in terms of head-knowledge but life experience) of (i) who God is; (ii) who we are; and (iii) our place in this world subject to God. He who has turned away from his sin and abides in Christ is wise. But he who remains in his sin and therefore is set up in hostility against Christ is “the fool.” Bear in mind that though this was written from a Judeo-Old Testament worldview (and that the Old Testament was not yet complete at this time as it was still being progressively revealed), today we have the gift of the New Testament which shines light on the Old and provides us with a fuller understanding of the text. We could link, for example, the use of the term “wisdom” with the apostle Paul’s writings, where he refers to the wisdom of this world as foolishness, and the foolishness of the gospel as wisdom (1 Cor. 1:17b–2:16). The reason he frames it this way is because he is presenting wisdom from the perspective of the natural man, who is still in his sin. The natural man thinks that he is wise, but he is not, he is really a fool. And the natural man thinks the gospel is foolishness, but it is not, it is true wisdom.
Where does wisdom therefore begin? Proverbs 1:7 says that it begins with the “fear of the Lord”, and under the light of the New Testament we can say that it begins in Jesus Christ. And this wisdom, according to the second half of Proverbs 1:7, is despised and assailed by the foolish, or put differently, by the natural, sinful man (Ps. 2; Rom. 8:7). We can thus frame it this way: the beginning of wisdom is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the foolish despise it. Of course, note that the text says “the beginning”, which means that there is more wisdom to be gained. Belief in the gospel is certainly the beginning of wisdom, but as we can all attest to, we still lack wisdom. And Paul recognized this reality and the need to grow in wisdom when he wrote to the church in Corinth about the need for them to desire and consume spiritual meat versus the spiritual milk that is suitable for those who are new and young in the faith (1 Cor. 3:2). While Paul is certainly speaking about the spiritual maturity of the Christian in general, this should not be considered independent or exclusive from “wisdom”. For there to be maturity, there must be wisdom. And we all need wisdom. Why, after all, did God give us the book of Proverbs? Food is not offered to those who have eaten their fill. Medicine is not given to those who are healthy. A cast is not applied to a bone that is not broken or bent. The divine wisdom of Proverbs was not given to us because we are wise, but because we are fools. And in light of that fact, we should therefore seek wisdom, wisdom which begins and converges and culminates most beautifully and gloriously and harmoniously in Jesus Christ.