The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
The context of this has to be the reverential fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. But really taking wisdom seriously means going after it, and not letting it go. Wisdom teaches us the way we need to go, including details which may seem tedious at best. The nature of wisdom, including the gleaning of it, is in the context of relationship with God. Wisdom is not simply a gathering of facts, but much more. It is interactive with God and with life. We ourselves are put in the “hot seat” so to speak. We have to make the choices, and we need discernment from the Lord to make the best choices.
Too often we are like Adam and Eve in the garden, with the serpent hissing the words: “Did God really say?” We think we know better than God, or that our own way is good, at least better than God’s way for us. And then, like the man and the woman there in Genesis, we have to learn the hard way.
We had better get on with life in the way of wisdom, which means God’s way, and not our own. We need to nip our foolishness and foolish ways in the bud, before they nip us. There is no middle road, no and/both here. It’s either/or, and it’s up to us to choose.
Proverbs is a good place to start in seeking to gain wisdom from scripture. Other wisdom books of scripture are Job and Ecclesiastes, some of the psalms and probably the Song of Songs (traditionally, the Song of Solomon). And we’ll find it sprinkled here and there throughout the rest of scripture.
There are no shortcuts, no easy way to wisdom. But it is available to all of us. It is mediated to us through scripture and preeminently in the person of Jesus. All else has to be compared to that. It is not feeling oriented, though certainly feelings are experienced with it, but that comes and goes. It ends up being the way of the cross, the way found in Jesus. There is no other way. All other wisdom finds its source in that, and is to be measured according to that. Wisdom found elsewhere may either be pointed in the right direction through God’s “general revelation,” or it may be deception, especially dangerous since it’s in the guise of wisdom. Again the serpent in the garden in Genesis comes to mind.
And we don’t “arrive.” The need for wisdom is ongoing. We need to continue to be in all of scripture, as well as seeing its fulfillment in Jesus. A facet which is never ending in this life, and will be needed until our last breath in this present existence. Both in giving us what we need, and correcting us along the way. Together in Jesus in this, and for the world.
Jesus community 