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3 Game-Changing Facts about God’s Wisdom

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Every once in a while you see a truly game-changing scenario. Like when your team was trailing by 6 runs, but the bottom of the 9th saw a 3-run homer followed by a re-loading of the bases. And now your best slugger stands at the plate, and you’ve got a fighting chance.

Proverbs 8:32-36 speaks of one of those situations. Solomon is almost through with his 9-chapter manifesto on God’s wisdom. He’s built the foundations, and he’s about to invite you into the feast: the detailed wisdom in the rest of the book. But first he’s got a few more pitches to throw. (Sorry to keep mixing metaphors, but it’s not much different from what Solomon does!) Will you stand or fall? Walk or strike out? Get a hit and stay alive, or get caught looking to retire the side?

N. Kodama (2009), Creative Commons

N. Kodama (2009), Creative Commons

If you’re still not sure what to do with this thing called wisdom, Solomon issues a command, a promise, and a motivation.

And now, O sons, listen to me:
blessed are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
Blessed is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the LORD,
but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death. (Prov 8:32-36, ESV)

The Command

“Listen to me…Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.” This has been the most repeated command in these opening 8 chapters of Proverbs. Listening is:

  • the responsibility of the wise (Prov 1:5)
  • the prelude to discernment (Prov 1:8)
  • the failure of fools (Prov 1:24)
  • the pathway to God (Prov 2:1-5)
  • the discipline of the favored (Prov 3:1-4)
  • the urgent appeal of a father (Prov 4:1-2)
  • the perception of light and life (Prov 4:10-11)
  • the prerequisite for personal change (Prov 4:20-21)
  • the protection of purity (Prov 5:1-2)
  • the defense against destruction (Prov 5:7)
  • a young man’s preservation from death (Prov 7:24-27)
  • the conversion of fools (Prov 8:5-6)

And now, O sons, don’t neglect to hear instruction (Prov 8:32-33). You’ll be wise if you but listen. And if you don’t hear, you’re not a victim but a perpetrator of your own downfall.

The Promise

“Blessed are those who keep my ways…Blessed is the one who listens to me…” (Prov 8:32, 34). Repeatedly, Solomon has commanded wisdom’s reception, not out of a sense of disinterested duty but on account of a Godward self-interest. Gaining wisdom is hard work, but it’s worth it because your life will be better with it than without it. The one who listens and keeps the commands is “blessed.”

As Paul reasons elsewhere, “No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church” (Eph 5:29). So, he says, take that innate self-passion of yours and direct it to your wife. Jesus reasons similarly in his summary of the law: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37-40). He does not command us to love ourselves; he assumes we already do. And he expects us to love others with the same degree of fervency.

So with Solomon. Do you want what’s best for yourself? Really? If so, you’ll value what God thinks best over what you think best, since God’s best is better than your best. Hear the one you fear, be willing to change everything, and be blessed.

The Motivation

On the one hand, there is wisdom, life, and the Lord’s favor (Prov 8:35). On the other hand, there is self-injury and necrophilia (Prov 8:36). Your choice. Do such things motivate you to listen up? When you get this, nothing will stay the same.

The command, promise, and motivation: These are game-changing facts about God’s wisdom. “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:8).

Not Creation but Discovery

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Fields of Music

As far as musicians go, I’m an odd bird. I play the trombone, and I’ve performed both solo and in ensembles (jazz, quintet, marching band, symphony, wind ensemble, brass band)—but I couldn’t make it as a performer. I’ve composed a few miserable pieces—but I despise composition.

After getting my bachelor’s degree in music, I almost went to graduate school for the one thing most musicians loathe: music theory. I wasn’t nearly as into creation or expression as I was into investigation. I wanted to know why good music was good and why bad music was bad. I wanted to know not only who the great composers were but also what they did that was so great.

Carl Guderian (2014), Creative Commons

Carl Guderian (2014), Creative Commons

How did Beethoven build an entire symphony (his 5th) off of 4 notes: short-short-short-long? How did Dvorak get an orchestra to play every note of the scale at once and have it still sound good, in the climax of his 9th symphony? How does the rock band Dream Theater move so smoothly between 4/4, 7/8, and 6/8 time?

So I confess my bias is more toward the analytical arts than either the expressive or compositional ones. And I concede that we need all sides for life to be interesting.

But there’s a time and place for each skill. If a composer can’t create, or a performer can’t express, or a critic can’t analyze—that person’s craft is doomed.

What does this have to do with leading Bible studies?

Leading Bible Studies

To switch the metaphor from music to literature: Leading a Bible study is not like a creative writing assignment. Nor is it like a poetry reading. It should be much more like a literature club: reading, discussing, and responding to the author’s thoughts.

In other words, preparing a Bible study should involve much more discovery than creation or expression.

A Bible study is not the place to express yourself or your views of the world—unless you mean them to be examples of bringing every thought captive to Christ. A Bible study is also not about how clever or profound you can be. Your burden is not to come up with something new, but to speak what has already been spoken.

Notice the Apostle Paul’s final charge to the one who would inherit Paul’s ministry:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. (2 Tim 4:1-2, ESV)

Paul charges Timothy:

  1. In the presence of God
  2. In the presence of Christ Jesus
  3. In light of Jesus’ impending judgment of all people
  4. Because of Jesus’ appearing
  5. Because of Jesus’ kingdom

As my friend Dave Royes has said, “There is no larger font in the Bible.” Paul could not draw any more attention to this charge than he has drawn. His life’s work, which he passes to the next generation, rests in the following imperative.

And what is the charge? What is so important that Jesus’ appearing and kingdom took place to make it happen? What will impact Jesus’ judgment of both living and dead? For what purpose has God become present in Christ?

That we might preach the word.

You don’t have to write your Bible study; it’s already written for you, and you merely have to discover it. You don’t have to prepare an intriguing sermon; you must uncover what has been said so you can say it.

If you try to be profound, you’ll fail to figure out what God has said (the second practice for preparing effective Bible studies). But those who depend on the Lord are free to speak what he wants them to speak.