Who doesn’t want wisdom? Perhaps you, like me, pray for wisdom when we have big decisions or choices to make. I seek God’s help to be willing to do what he desires and align my will with his. But, as I consider this, I realize that I’m demoting God’s wisdom to the status of what I’ll eat for lunch or which friend to call. Through a couple of weeks of meditating on godly wisdom, I see that it is so much more than that. It’s more than what to buy, what to do, or who to call. God’s wisdom is the basis on which he created the world and redeems his lost children. His wisdom is the source of creation, election, salvation, sanctification, and glorification; without God’s wisdom, nothing would exist. I am praying that by meditating on God’s wisdom in the Scriptures, we will enlarge, enjoy, and actively engage with it through Christ. So, 2025 will be devoted to studying Proverbs, the Old Testament Wisdom book primarily, while considering James and other specific passages devoted to wisdom. My pattern will be a little different than in years past. I started this devotion in 2017 and posted blogs daily. Then, I decided to give myself more time to study, so I began posting every other week. I will post on the second and fourth Thursdays, and the blog will be topical again—Biblical Wisdom. However, on this fourth Thursday, I will mainly present one significant passage with other Scripture references relating to the subject. I gathered related Scripture sometime around 2001-2003 when I chose to study Proverbs every day, with a topic for each month over those three years. By sharing the passages with you on the second Thursday, I hope you will study them with me, before I post my blog devoted to a few of them. I am grateful to God for his guidance and glad to think that you may be studying along with me. The best encouragement and help I have is the study of the passages I share with you, so perhaps we will become wiser together to live our lives more influenced by God’s Word than the world’s unreliable, shifting foolishness. Enjoy!
Wisdom in Proverbs
“Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: ‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.’” (1:20-23)
“Whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” (1:33)
“[Make] your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it 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 in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech.” (2:2-12)
“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” (3:7-8)
“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man…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. (Proverbs 8:12-31, 33-35)
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (11:2)
“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” (12:15)
“By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom.” (13:10)
“Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.” (14:33)
“The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” (15:33)
“The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.” (17:24)
“Whoever gets sense loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will discover good.” (19:8)
“Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. That your trust may be in the Lord, I have made them known to you today, even to you.” (22:17-19)
“Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” (28:26)
Other Passages on Wisdom
“Pay attention, O Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak. If you have any words, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you. If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.” (Job 33:31-33)
“The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.“ (Psalm 37:30)
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:5-7)
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.“ (Psalm 119:10)
“Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.” (Ecclesiastes 7:19)
January 9, 2025
While I intended to post yesday, 1-9, I just couldn’t sort out how to do it on my new iPad that refused to give me access to my app. I am not a fan of the Magic Keyboard, which has been anything but magical for me. Amazon returns, here I come.
Divine Wisdom for Daily Living by Joanne Colvin 