My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding,
if you indeed cry 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 blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
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;
prudence will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you.
It will save you from the way of evil,
from those who speak perversely,
who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
those whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.
Wisdom and knowledge may not be synonymous to us, but in the Hebrew Bible they are. Knowledge is never severed from how one is to live but is there the same as what we think of when considering wisdom. It’s about what we’re becoming aware of and applying to life, always in the fear, meaning the ultimate respect, reverence, and awe of God.
A basic part of life is the need for wisdom, our need to treasure and seek, and accumulate it over time. God makes it fitting for the time, the present moment in our lives. The promise of James 1:5 comes to mind. We all indeed lack wisdom at times, and we can be assured as we ask in faith, that the God who is generous to all will grant it to us. So no matter where we’re at on our faith journey, God can give us the wisdom we need for any given situation.
For those who treasure and seek wisdom all their lives, there also will be an accumulated wisdom of sorts. This is evident when one does not react to something the way they would have in younger days. When one is less unsettled by circumstances or criticism than in times past. Also when one corrects their course in an immediate, thorough way they would not have in bygone days. This kind of wisdom also comes through the hard knocks of life, through experience. And it takes into account the full range of Scripture and of life. The past is taken into account in the present as the future unfolds before us.
We don’t have to worry about the wisdom we might need for something down the road. Only now. But we keep on gathering wisdom, both for present concerns, as well as for whatever else might come our way. For our own good, for the good of our loved ones, for the good of all. As part of God’s wisdom for the world.
Jesus community 