Dancing with wisdom - chapter 7
Sunil K. Raheja
- 45 minutes read - 9383 wordsPART 3 - DEEPENING IN WISDOM
"Live Life in Crescendo! Your Most Important Work Is Always Ahead Of You." --Personal Motto of Stephen R. Covey
Chapter 7 - DEFINING WISDOM WITH THE DIVINE
I sometimes wish I hadn’t delved into the world of religion in the first place, Im constantly aware that a Higher Being MIGHT be watching my every thought, word, deed, which can be annoying, have we no privacy! I’m not suggesting I’d like to behave however I would like without impunity in a nihilistic fashion, but I’m human and can’t be perfect. I do try to do tiny good deeds here and there, not just because it’s nice to help someone, but also I hope that some karmic force might hopefully reward me for my good deeds, sounds selfish but I’m hoping it’s the law of the universe! Whenever I see people who have never set foot in church being blessed, it does make me wonder, 'why should I bother?'
Having established that we need wisdom, what do we actually mean by this word?
It’s a remarkably rich concept and not easy to summarise. Before I lay out some thoughts and principles, it’s important we continue to reflect on the sacredness of the subject we are exploring. This is much more than simply making better decisions or getting what we think is best for us. Understanding wisdom in all its richness gets to the heart of what it means to be human. It is as intense as thinking about the wonder of a baby’s birth. While the physiological and genetic details of birth are well understood and documented, a scientific approach does not account for the wonder of bringing a new life into the world. I remember as a medical student witnessing a birth. On one level, this was another of the 130 million born every year into the world. But for me, as a raw eighteen-year-old, it was a profoundly reverent experience. As the writer Eugene Peterson put it:
In the presence of birth we are at the source of life … Here is a mystery, but a mystery of light, not darkness, full of goodness, brimming with blessing. Every birth powerfully recalls us to this source: we have our origins in someone other than ourselves, and greater than ourselves.
There is something of this awe and wonder when we approach the subject of wisdom. It is wisdom that enables us to realise and appreciate we are far more than our own existence and the narrow world we live in with our preoccupations, doubts, fears, insecurities and often petty concerns.
In seeking to understand wisdom, we need to pause and consider how the process of asking deep questions about life and where we are going takes us to the core of who we are and what it means to be human. We can talk about wisdom in practical, even routine, terms to find answers for complex situations and challenges. That is undoubtedly important. More profoundly, setting out and walking along the path of wisdom is a sacred journey. It is a quest, with all its intensity—a long search for something that is difficult to find. On a quest, the process of transformation is at least as important, maybe more so, than the destination we’re trying to reach. This is dramatically out of keeping with our age and the mindset of those around us. As a society we seek a quick fix for problems and challenges before returning to living life on our terms and in our way. As we penetrate into the deeper fullness of wisdom we enter onto holy ground.
We encounter God. Not a god of our convenience or that measures up to the best parts of who we aspire to be, but as the One who is more in control than we are and sees way beyond what we can see. C. S. Lewis expands on this by comparing the Biblical God with pantheism, the belief that God is within everything as opposed to being distinct and separate from His creation. He makes the case for how we oscillate between the idea of God as a harsh, impersonal judge and that of a distant abstract figure neither doing anything in the world nor expecting anything from us in return. We relate to such a God on our own terms at our convenience, in a similar way that we relate to a book on the shelf that we might consider reading at a time that suits us. Such a passive view of God comes naturally to us. But why?
Often in life, we are taken by surprise. In a dark corridor we sense the presence of someone unseen, or during a walk in the woods what seemed to bea lifeless stick turns out to be a living creature. As Lewis writes:
An 'impersonal God'--well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power, which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another matter.
There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (Man’s search for God!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?
Here is something of the majesty and power of the God of the Bible. This is not some domestic pet which we can tame and control. He is certainly not a personal assistant whose role is to pamper and provide us with a comfortable life. He is not some impersonal force which we can simply harness to fulfil our agenda. Rather, He is the One who sees and knows all things, having a claim on our lives and pursuing us individually with a passion greater than any human lover ever could. It is in our confusions, maybe even brokenness, that we feel the need to cry out for the wisdom to know which way to turn. In doing so, we discover there is far more there than we had bargained for.
At this point, if you are of a different religious tradition or of no faith at all, I want to not lose you. I would encourage you to ask the question: Where do you turn when you are at the end of your own resources and there seems no human source of help? Regardless of whom we are and what we profess to believe, all of us are on a search for a fulfilled and meaningful life. Because of our limitations as humans, a life which embraces wisdom has to include the supernatural. That ultimately can lead us only to God. This is God in the fullest sense of the word—the supreme being of the universe who sees, knows and controls all things—even those things and circumstances which from our perspective make no sense to us.
One of the problems we have when we think about God is the image that comes into our minds. For some, it is of a harmless, possibly senile, grandfather sat in the sky who rather vaguely wishes us well, That is very much the pantheist view of God we discussed earlier. For others, their vision is defined by anger at a vindictive person who allows suffering and may even take pleasure in deliberately harming or abusing others. This harsh characterisation has become a popular perspective in secular Western-style societies.
According to atheist Richard Dawkins,
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser. A misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filiacidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
Dawkins' language is one of anger and entrenched hostility. He may have experienced much in the way of hypocrisy and evil from religious people. There has certainly been much of that over the centuries, indeed right up to the present day. I don’t know Richard Dawkins' personal experience. But I’m reminded of the words of Blaise Pascal that 'men never do evil so completely as when they do it from a religious conviction'. Terrible evil has been done over the centuries by those who feel they are carrying out God’s will. It is also important to remember the great evil that has been done by some of those with an atheistic world view in North Korea, China and the former Soviet Union. It is strange the number of atheists who, in their anger against faith in God and the evil done in the name of religion, are curiously silent on the subject of evil done in the name of atheism.
I certainly wouldn’t want to believe in the kind of God which atheists like Dawkins describe vehemently and scathingly. Nor is this the kind of God that I would want to have anything to do with. But this is not the kind of God who comes through to me when I read the pages of the Old and New Testament.
On my own personal quest for God, I realise that He holds the key to everything that I long and hunger for. A hymn by Timothy Dudley Smith captures this beautifully for me. Although I came across it many years ago, I have hardly ever heard it sung. I find the words profoundly meaningful, even though I am myself a poor singer. The words are worth pondering over, slowly:
As water to the thirsty, as beauty to the eyes, as strength that follows weakness, as truth instead of lies, as song-time and springtime and summertime to be, so is my Lord, my living Lord, so is my Lord to me.
Like calm in place of clamour, like peace that follows pain, like meeting after passing, like sunshine after rain, like moonlight and starlight and sunlight on the sea, so is my Lord, my living Lord, so is my Lord to me.
As sleep that follows fever, as gold instead of grey, as freedom after bondage, as sunrise to the day, as home to the traveller and all we long to see, so is my Lord, my living Lord, so is my Lord to me.
This is the God who is the source and fulfilment of all our longings and desires; the One who can satisfy our heart. In following the simple and everyday longings for refreshing water, for beauty or sleep, we begin to yearn for something richer and deeper. When we feel the aches and longings from the appointments of life and dreams which have been dashed, we can believe that there is something that will give us the rest that we all long for.
We all do this with an object or an idea. We find something which is beautiful or satisfying in itself and not for what we can get out of it.
Is there a type of music that gives you deep joy? Is there a place, a view or a landscape that evokes the same emotions within you? If someone were to ask you, "What is the point of that?", would your response be that the music or landscape is not a means to some other end but is deeply satisfying just in itself? My own experience has been that the deepest fulfilment and peace is found in an intimate relationship and communion with the living God.
King David, the father of Solomon, echoed this:
One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
When we gaze at an object, we do not simply glimpse at it for a moment. We allow ourselves to focus for a sustained period. Instead of asking God for things, we praise, admire and enjoy God simply for who He is. King David doesn’t only find God useful in getting what He wants, but He finds God beautiful in Himself. When you’re able to sense the beauty of God in your heart, you can experience such pleasure in Him that you can rest content. This is the God we are talking about on the subject of wisdom. The One who knows everything is the source of everything good and beautiful that we see, and the One who understands and holds all of eternity, For me, such a God is worthy of my complete devotion and allegiance. Brad Price puts it this way:
To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge, to find the will of God is the greatest discovery, to do the will of God is the greatest achievement.
My experience has culminated in understanding what God says about the subject of wisdom through the Bible. I know of no other book which covers this subject so comprehensively. It captures both the mystery of making sense of life in a complex and changing world as well as offering the clarity of timeless and constant principles to explain wisdom itself.
The Bible ties together closely a proper fear of God with awe and wonder at the Word in the Biblical Scripture. Thus, King David can say 'My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in awe of your laws' (Psalm 119, verse 120). So, for David, there is awe before the Word of God itself as he grasps something of its greatness, coherence and wisdom. This leads directly to the fear of God in terms of the deep, trembling joy and wonder that increases as we relate to Him, not as we imagine Him to be (like the pantheist God we talked about earlier) but as He truly is. The revelation of God through the Biblical Scripture is the only way I can be sure I’m encountering the real God and not a God of my imagination or wishful thinking. It is this Biblical Scripture that becomes the most direct way in which God presents Himself to us, so we can both know Him and remain in faithful relationship with Him, Hence, we can say that the wise person is not the person who knows the right answers, but the one who has developed the correct responses and relationships to, firstly, God and, in turn, to other people. As such a person becomes deeply based in reality, they understand how the world works, They are familiar with patience and love, listening and grace, adoration and with beauty. This nurtures an ability to see other people as awesome creatures, who are to be respected and befriended, especially those from whom they will derive no benefit in return. At the root of this ability is God as an ever-present centre and an all-encompassing love. Through the power of God working in their lives, they are able to find the motivation, the power and ability to do what they have been called to do in a way that enriches and enhances their relationships.
The Biblical book most directly addressing wisdom is the Book of Proverbs. This is an extraordinary collection of over a thousand wise sayings, often of two poetic lines, each arranged over thirty-one chapters and attributed to Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel. Right at the beginning is a clear understanding of why they are written:
Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just and fair.
These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young.
Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser.
Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles.
Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
New Living Translation
The most important reason why the Book of Proverbs was written was to teach wisdom as a practical life skill. It’s the knowledge that helps someone learn to act and to speak in widely different situations. Wisdom includes both the ability to avoid problems and the skill to handle them when they do present themselves. It includes the ability to interpret other people’s speech and how to react correctly to what they’re saying to us.
How does this help us? Let’s say we receive an email that upsets or even angers us. Should we respond immediately by email, should we wait for a day or two or should we get on the Phone and talk? Should we do this today, tomorrow or next week? Maybe it would be best to have a face-to-face meeting. What is the best thing to do? We need guidance, from wisdom.
Another everyday example is speaking to someone about an issue that is sensitive and could cause offence or a negative reaction. We know we need to be truthful and to be caring; we know we need to be accurate. All well and good, but how easy is it to get the balance right?
Wisdom gives us the ability to know what we should do and the ability to actually do it.
It’s important to grasp that wisdom is much more than intelligence. It does not exclude intelligence, but that is not its main focus. A fascinating part of the Book of Proverbs attributes wisdom to a group of animals not because they have great intelligence but because they know how to navigate life well:
There are four things on earth that are small but essentially wise:
Ants—they aren’t strong, but they store up food all summer.
Rock badgers—they aren’t powerful, but they make their homes among the rocks.
Locusts—they have no king, but they march in formation.
Lizards—they are easy to catch, but they are found even in king’s palaces.
NLT
We would not call these animals anywhere near being intelligent by human standards. Yet, they have a remarkable skill at living. Is that not 'wise'?
WISDOM AND HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
Over the last hundred years or so we have measured human intelligence using IQ (Intelligent Quotient) testing. I used these tests while working as a psychiatrist in the field of learning disabilities within the British National Health Service. An important requirement for eligibility to our specialised service for a person to have a low IQ, below seventy. With an average rated at 100, the higher the number the more intelligent a son is considered. There is even a society, Mensa, for people with a high IQ. People with these higher IQs may have a wide knowledge and often have good mathematical ability. They have greater ability to reason and use logic. But it is fascinating how often there is little correlation between this form of intelligence, character development and future life outcomes.
Excerpts from school reports illustrate this well. These were ordered by Luke Layfield in The Guardian on 11 January 2005:
Adolf Hitler (when aged sixteen): From his secondary-school report card, September 16, 1905: 'Moral conduct, very satisfactory; diligence, irregular; religious instruction, adequate . . . freehand drawing, good; gymnastics, excellent.'
Albert Einstein (when aged sixteen): His Munich schoolmaster wrote in Albert Einstein’s school report in 1895, 'He will never amount to anything'.
Peter Ustinov (actor, filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humorist): 'Peter tends to set himself very low targets which he then fails to achieve.'
Gary Lineker (England footballer regarded as one of the country’s best-ever players and who has gone on to becom high-earning TV football presenter):
"He must devote less of his time to sport if he wants to bea SUCCESS.
'His academic work is handicapped by excessive juvenility. It is time he worked out seriously his objectives in life.'
'Too interested in Sport. You can’t make a living out of football.'
Paddy Ashdown (British diplomat and politician, fluent in six languages): "This boy will never learn languages,'
Charlotte Bronté (novelist and author of Jane Eyre): School report said that she 'writes indifferently' and 'knows nothing of grammar'.
John Lennon (musician, singer, songwriter and founder member of the Beatles, the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in the history of popular music):
'Hopeless. Rather a clown in class. He is just wasting other pupils' time. Certainly on the road to failure.'
Cilla Black (English Singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who in 2004 was the highest paid female performer on British television):
'Priscilla is suitable for office work.'
Jon Snow (longest running presenter of Channel 4 News):
'Snow has set himself low standards which he has failed to come up to.'
Tim Henman (who, in 2004, reached the ranking of number four in the world at tennis):
A school report said that while he was 'well-balanced, open and friendly,' he lacked the 'killer instinct' expected of a champion.
Alan Sugar, 1960 (business magnate, media personality and political advisor with an estimated fortune in 2011 of £770 million):
'Alan can do better than this. He has ability, but seems afraid to use it.
It is easy to miss the potential of people by labelling them. While the people in these school reports did not appear to have the conventional intelligence measured or observed by the school system, they had another form of intelligence—wisdom—that enabled them to thrive and develop beyond the classroom.
Emotional intelligence is very close to this concept of wisdom. Daniel Goleman, who has popularised the concept, talks about it the ability to manage oneself and to manage one’s relationships. n 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle said, 'Anyone can become angry—that is easy. But to be angry with the right person to the right degree, at the right time for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not easy'.
I am sure that we can all identify with this.
In the 20th century, a different type of wisdom was developed through Daniel Goleman’s writing about the idea of emotional intelligence. He describes this form of intelligence as 'the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships'
While I think this is a very helpful definition of wisdom, I find it lacking. It is too human focussed. It makes an unspoken assumption that we are the beginning and the end of our existence.
My own conclusion is that wisdom comes from being in a reverential relationship with the covenantal living Lord of the universe. It is in Him (with a capital H) that we find the pattern, the path and the power fr the well lived life.
Why should that be?
Because He (as God with a capital G) is the ultimate Creator of all, who else could better know how this universe functions best than the One who created it? Who else could know how people best function than the One who created them? As the One who, with such precision and skill, knit us together in the darkness of our mother’s wombs, how could He not be aware of every thought, word and action, seen or unseen? Where else could be a better place to go for direction and guidance in life? The Book of Proverbs, again, says:
Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry out for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
The point is clear. If you go looking for wisdom, you’ll end up contemplating God. And if you look to God, He will give you true wisdom. That’s why we approach this subject of wisdom with awe and reverence.
WISDOM IN THE BIBLE
Three main books in the Hebrew Old Testament are referred to as the Wisdom Literature. These are the books of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The literary style of each of these three books is very different. Despite this, they all address the same set of questions concerning the kind of world we are living in and what it means to live well in a world of challenges and contradictions. These books are about how to be good at life.
Each of the three books looks at these questions from a different angle so that when considered together, they give a rounded Biblical perspective on what is a good life.
I find it helpful to share the way that the producers of the online Bible Project imagine each of these books as a person. Proverbs is characterised as a sharp, bright young teacher. Ecclesiastes is the incisive middle-aged critic, and Job is the seasoned old man who has experienced so much of the good, bad and ugly of life.
I would encourage you to go to the videos on wisdom produced by the authors of the Bible Project at https://thebibleproject.com/ explore/wisdom-series/.
Proverbs presents us with a brilliant teacher, Lady Wisdom, who is smart and full of insight about a wide range of life’s issues relating to work, relationships, sex and spirituality. These insights would be difficult to develop on our own. This teacher would be the perfect friend to have around when you need really specific advice. Proverbs sees what most people don’t see. She believes there is an invisible creative force in the universe that is able to guide people and show them how they should live. It is helpful to think of wisdom resembling gravity. In the same way that gravity is not seen but affects everything we do, so does wisdom affect the whole of life.
In the Hebrew language, this invisible force is called chokma and is usually translated into English as 'wisdom'. It is an attribute of God which He used when creating the world. Chokma is woven into the fabric of all things and how they work. Wherever people are making good, just or wise decisions, they are tapping into this chokma force. Whenever someone is making a bad decision, they’re working against this chokma.
Or, as Proverbs says, 'the waywardness of fools will destroy them, but the one who listens to wisdom lives in security' (Proverbs chapter 1 verses 32-33), which is an idea that forms a moral law for the universe. No one can escape from this cause-and-effect pattern in which life has consequences. We act, and that action will produce a result. Lady Wisdom calls out across the earth, making herself available to anyone willing to listen and to learn.
You’ve blessed when you meet Lady Wisdom, when you make friends with Madame Insight. She’s worth far more than money in the bank; her friendship is better than a big salary. Her value exceeds all the trappings of wealth; nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her. With one hand she gives long life, with the other she confers recognition. Her manner is beautiful, her life wonderfully complete. She’s the very Tree of Life to those who embrace her. Hold her tight—and be blessed!
The counter to Lady Wisdom is Mistress Folly. Proverbs repeatedly shows the results of following her advice in preference to Lady Wisdom. Here is the summary from Proverbs, which is explored later:
Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way, 'Let all who are simple come to my house! To those who have no sense she says, 'Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!' But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.
The second thing Proverbs explains is that we can access and interact with wisdom and use it to make a beautiful life for ourself or others. Like a designer, we can create with chokma. In Hebrew chokma is not simply intellectual knowledge. The word is also used to describe the skilled artisan who excels at their craft. Think of someone who is skilled at woodworking or stonemasonry. In the same way, we possess chokma when we put it to work developing the skill of making a good life. To know something and not be able to do it is really not to know. Wisdom is knowing a skill that we are able to bring to life in the world we live in. What could be more appealing? Let us find some wisdom and get on with our lives!
There is a third vital consideration to factor in beforehand. In Hebrew thought, chokma is not some impersonal force, it is an attribute of God Himself. Our journey to becoming wise begins with what Proverbs calls 'fear of the Lord'. For American theologian and minister Eugene Peterson, fear of the Lord is as central to the beginning of wisdom as the alphabet is to the beginning of reading. Progress in reading is impossible without mastering the alphabet. Nor is growth in wisdom possible without having the foundation of fear of the Lord.
But what do we mean by fear of God?
There is a kind of fear based on dread of punishment. If we don’t do what we are told, we will be in serious trouble. The fear we are referring to here is concerned with avoiding anything that may cause grief or dishonour to the person whom we love and deeply respect. This means that there are only two ways of thinking about life. Either God is at the centre of our life or there is something else. There is no neutral ground. If you value God and your relationship with Him the most, then every other thing will be evaluated in light of that. The alternative is to define reality by our relationship to some other thing, such as money, public opinion, our own feelings or human ingenuity. The stark question we all face is "Do I follow this world’s wisdom, to understand the world and myself without reference to God, or can I reject that in order to trust God and His word?"
When we make God the One we fear, we can find the capacity to be not intimidated or enticed by the things of this world that offer no comparison to God’s goodness, power and glory. This healthy respect for God’s definition of good and evil and true wisdom means learning and not crossing appropriate boundary lines. In Proverbs, this is expanded through the book’s literally hundreds of wise sayings. We find examples such as:
Put God in charge of your work, then what you’ve planned will take place.
The Message translation
The faithless will be fully rewarded for their ways and the good man rewarded for his.
The Book of Proverbs is about how to study, think and learn the practical discipline of centring all our thoughts and actions on God. The book challenges us to consider that there is a great deal more to life than is at first apparent. Proverbs is about how, having put our trust in God, we should live out that faith.
At the same time life is not as straightforward as Proverbs would suggest. Do you recall that we described Proverbs as a bright young teacher? This teacher is passionate about pursuing wisdom as an attribute of God that is woven into reality. She is optimistic that if we use wisdom, we will build a successful life.
However, as we get older and experience more complexity in life, we find that wisdom is not a simple quest. Contradiction, confusion and challenges loom as obstacles. This is the theme of the next book on our journey to wisdom, the Book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is personified as a sharp, middle-aged, somewhat cynical critic who challenges the thinking that using wisdom will simply bring you success. Phrases he uses regularly are 'meaningless,' 'chasing after the wind' and 'life under the sun'. Ecclesiastes describes his quest for wisdom as:
I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted. I said to myself, 'Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge'. Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
The writer of Ecclesiastes, generally believed to be Solomon, cynically describes applying his mind to wisdom and seeking to understand the seen, material world. The phrases 'under the heavens' and 'under the sun' indicate that he is trying to understand the world in terms of itself. Today we would explain this approach as a scientific or secular view; the effort to find a natural, as opposed to supernatural, explanation for everything. But, despite all the writer’s resources and expertise, he comes to a dead end. The implication is we cannot fix human problems with mere technology and knowledge. Science is not capable of changing the human heart. We can earnestly and diligently study pressing issues like racism, crime, and poverty; we may even make progress. But as the mindset of our age is that every phenomenon has a natural cause, a technological solution is
always doomed to failure because it is out of touch with reality. In Tim Keller’s words:
There are supernatural, spiritual problems that need supernatural, spiritual remedies. In the end the more we know the more we see how little we know. This can lead to a sense of helplessness—the more knowledge, the more grief. Human reason unaided by God' revelation will never give us the whole picture.
Ecclesiastes is written in a style in which two voices appear to be speaking. The first is the teacher, the voice of the critic. This is the main voice in the book and is introduced to us by another voice, that of the author. The author collects the words of the critic. At the end of the book the author summarises everything and has the final word. The purpose of Ecclesiastes is to challenge our thinking and assumptions about life. The author and the critic explore three disturbing features of the world we live in. They are so disturbing that our natural instinct is to avoid thinking about them. But to walk in wisdom it is essential that we do so.
The first feature is the relentless progress of time. The critic points out that although generations come and go, the earth has been around long before us and will still be there long after. People from long ago are barely remembered—monuments to the famous of the past have been described as expensive sites for pigeon droppings! All the people yet to come will be forgotten also by those who come after. On a cosmic scale, we are but 'the blink of an eye'. Stars are born, then die and form planets that orbit new stars. Even the planets change, eventually burning up. Against this cosmic backdrop, our entire existence is a tiny moment in time.
This is the critic’s second, disturbing observation—we are all going to die. We hate facing it until tragedy strikes, as I experienced with my friend Bunty. The reality is that we humans face the same fate as all other creatures. Death comes to all, righteous or wicked, the good and the bad, those who offer sacrifices to God and those who do not. Our destiny is the same. Despite all the frenetic activity sustaining us in this confusing world, we all, eventually, join the dead. How is that for a depressing thought?
But bear with me—it doesn’t stop there.
The final disturbing thought for the critic is life’s randomness. If you’ve read Proverbs, that is something of a surprise. In Proverbs life is not seen as random. There is a clear cause-and-effect relationship between doing the right thing and being rewarded. The reality is that life does not always work that way. The critic uncovers a fault in the system. Ecclesiastes calls it Chance:
I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.
Moreover, no-one knows when their hour will come:
As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
The point is you cannot really control anything in life; so much is unpredictable. Attempts to master and completely control life are destined to lead to failure. The critic uses a metaphor to bring together these disturbing ideas of the passing of time, death and chance. Nearly forty times he says that all life is hebel. This Hebrew word means smoke or vapour. This can be interpreted as life being like smoke. It’s both beautiful and mysterious. Life takes one shape and, before you know it, has taken a new shape. Like life, smoke looks solid but if you grab it, you find it slipping through your fingers. And when you are in the thick of it, like being in a fog, it’s impossible to see clearly.
Modern English translations of the original Hebrew have lost the metaphor and usually translate hebel as 'meaningless'. However the critic is not saying that life has no meaning; rather, that its meaning is never clear. This distinction is important. Like smoke, life can be confusing, disorientating and uncontrollable.
"That is all well and good," you may be thinking, "but what are we supposed to make of all this?" Surprisingly the critic, first of all, acknowledges the perspective of Proverbs. He says that it really is a good idea to learn wisdom and to live in fear of the Lord. Even though it does not guarantee success, he knows that it was still the right thing. The second thing he emphasises is that since we cannot control our life, we should stop trying. Instead, learn to hold things with an open hand because we really have control over only one thing—our attitude towards the present. He tells us to stop worrying and choose to enjoy a good conversation with a friend or the feel of the sun on our face or a good meal with people we care about. Our life centres on the simple things, which include both the good and the bad because both are rich gifts from God.
The piercing insights on life in the Book of Ecclesiastes make it dark and painful in places. That is why the author speaks up at the end of the book. He wants us not to lose hope. He wants to make us humble enough to trust that life has meaning even when we cannot make sense of it. And to remain confident that one day God will clear the hebel to bring his justice onto all that we’ve done. Ecclesiastes finishes with:
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
After his long journey to find meaning in education, employment, enjoyment and enrichment, Ecclesiastes concludes that the only thing that really matters is a life which remembers how one day we will have to account to God for all our choices and decisions. Although this is the God who knows and sees everything, there is still much that is mysterious about life. Why is there so much suffering, cruelty and unfairness? It’s a timeless question, one that my friend Karl asked right at the beginning of this chapter.
This brings us to a third voice in what is known as the Bible’s Wisdom Literature, the book of Job. The book begins with a strange story taking place supernaturally in a place described as some form of heavenly command centre. God appears with angelic creatures that in the original Hebrew are called 'the sons of God'. God points out Job to his servants emphasising Job’s righteousness, devotion and virtue. Then, one of the angelic creatures approaches. He’s referred to in the Hebrew as the Satan. The word used is a title which literally means 'the one who is opposed'. Out of all those present, he is the one questioning how God is running the world and he argues that Job might not actually love God. He makes the accusation that Job is only a good person because God rewards him. If God were to take away all the good things he had given, Job’s true nature would be revealed. God agrees to this experiment, allowing Satan to inflict suffering on Job. In a devastating outcome, Job loses everyone and everything about which he cares. It’s important to remember that Job, as God himself says, deserves none of this. The remarkable lesson is that amid all the suffering, Job continues praising God. To be more accurate, that is the case for chapters one and two. Job concludes chapter one by saying:
'Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.' In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
But in chapter three, he reveals his real feelings. Job’s deep lament reveals his devastation in a long, elaborate curse on the day that he was born. Having opened his heart, Job explains his deep sense of abandonment and pain. Later, friends of Job visit to offer help but all are convinced that only Job’s guilt for some horrible wrongs could justify this terrible suffering.
They know that God is just and, as outlined in the Book of Proverbs, the world is ordered by God’s justice and fairness. The sole conclusion is that Job must be getting only what he deserves. For the next thirty-four chapters, these friends and Job talk back and forth in a tense dialogue. Job’s friends speculate about why God might have sent such suffering and even make lists of the hypothetical sins which Job must have committed. But, after each accusation, Job defends his innocence.
The disturbing truth is Job is innocent! That is why his emotions are so volatile, At some points he is very confident that God remains wise and just. At other times, Job has terrible anguish and doubts about God’s goodness, He even accuses God of being reckless, unfair and corrupt. Job, in his deep turmoil, demands that God appear to explain himself in person. And God does come, arriving in the form of a great storm cloud.
What is fascinating is that God does not give Job a direct answer. He does not, as we might expect, tell Job about the conversation with Satan. Instead, He does something very different. He takes Job on a virtual tour of the universe, showing Job how grand the world is. And He questions Job about how capable he is of running this world or even understanding it for just a day. God shows how much detail there is in the world, through things which we might see every day but really do not understand. The key point is that God does understand. He knows everything, and intimately. God pays attention to the beauty and functioning of the universe in ways that we have not even begun to imagine and in places that we will never see.
God concludes by showing Job two wondrous beasts and proclaims how great they are. God admits that they are dangerous, with the power to kill. His big surprise is to say that they are not evil, because they are a part of His good world. That is all God says to defend Himself! It seems so strange. What is the point of what God has said?
From Job’s point of view, it seems that God is not just. But we have to remind ourselves, as Job was reminded, that God’s perspective is infinitely bigger than ours. He is interacting dynamically with a whole universe of complexity when He makes decisions. This is what God calls His wisdom.
Job asking God to defend himself is an absurdity. How is it possible for any human being to comprehend this level of complexity? It is like expecting an ant to understand nuclear physics!
Where does all this leave us? For Job, it leaves him in a place of humility. He never learns why he is suffering, yet he is able to live in peace and in fear of the Lord. But that is not the ending. After this suffering and humiliation, God restores to Job double everything which he has lost. This response by God raises more questions. Was God rewarding Job for passing the terrible experiences he went through? That does not make sense because as Job losing everything is not a punishment, nor is getting it back a reward. Why, then, does God restore everything to Job? In His wisdom, God decides to give a gift to Job. While no explanation is given, we do learn that Job is the kind of person for whom, no matter what comes, whether good or bad, he can trust the wisdom of God.
Each of these three books, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job, offer a unique perspective on what it means to walk in wisdom and live the truly good life. With the perspective of all three books together we can truly learn to walk in wisdom and have an appropriate fear of the Lord.
But our pursuit of wisdom leaves us with unanswered questions. There is still mystery surrounding this journey of enquiry; we have to find a way of trusting the process without, yet, having all the answers.
'This brings us to a surprising realisation. The fear of the Lord
increases the more we experience grace and forgiveness. According to the Book of Psalms,
If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
All the advice for daily living assumes a holy God who, despite his impossibly high standards, chooses to rescue us, He rescues us not on the basis of our merit, hard work or goodness but on the basis of grace. 'Grace' means unmerited favour—favour that we do not deserve. The ultimate example is the crucifixion to which Jesus went in our place, The implications of this event are the central point on which Biblical faith rests, Theologian and writer Eugene Peterson describes the crucifixion in God’s Message for Each Day:
The single, overwhelming fact of history is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There is no military battle, no geographical exploration, no scientific discovery, no literary creation, no artistic achievement, no moral heroism that compares with it. It is unique, massive, monumental, unprecedented and unparalleled. The cross of Christ is not a small secret that may or may not get out. The cross of Christ is not a minor incident in the political history of the first century that is a nice illustration of courage. It is the centre. The cross of Christ is the central fact to which all other facts are subordinate.
God's Message for Each Day
The Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ died to take the punishment that we deserve. In this way, both the justice and love of God were satisfied. God’s justice is satisfied because wrongdoing demands the guilty are punished. At the same time, God demonstrates His love for us by innocently taking upon himself the punishment that we deserve. As the apostle Paul writes in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, 'God made Him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God? (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Theologians and Bible teachers have thoughtfully explained this over the centuries, and it’s something that can take a lifetime to grasp. The death of Christ on the cross is the means by which God takes our wrongdoing and the failures in our living for Him and transfers the punishment we deserve onto Christ. By means of this exchange we are accepted by God as much as God completely accepts Christ. Through the cross, the justice and love of God meet. God demonstrates His love for us by sending Jesus to die for us, and God fulfils His perfect justice by ensuring there is appropriate punishment for our failure to live up to His perfect standards.
An apparently trivial example can illustrate this. If I damage your car, you would have three choices. You could ask me to pay for the damage or you could choose to forgive me and pay for the damage yourself. The third option is invoking our insurance policies and leaving it to the insurance companies to decide who will pay. Someone has to pay for the damage—either I pay for the damage, or you pay, or the insurance companies pay. That is the case for physical damage to a car.
How about the damage we cause one another in our relationships? If someone hurts or betrays us, damage to the relationship is caused. There’s a loss of trust and a degree of withdrawal in the relationship. The greater the damage caused, the greater the cost to restore the relationship. For a small matter, a simple 'sorry' may be enough. But the greater the hurt or betrayal, then the more it will cost to bring us back into the relationship. In a similar way, our relationship with God is damaged and broken. Because this relationship is the most fundamental and deepest of all, the consequences are also the most far-reaching. There is a cosmic break which no amount of human work or payment can satisfy. Someone has to pay the price. God chooses to pay the price, but even more than that, through grace, we receive undeserved mercy and favour. When we truly understand grace, there is a profound impact on our mental health and well-being.
The best way to convey this is with another simple story. Let’s imagine you come to my house to stay. I have to go out and leave you in charge. When I return, you say to me, 'Sunil, while you were out, someone came to the door with a bill to pay and I paid it'. Now, there is one vital piece of information you are withholding—the amount of the bill. If the bill were £1, it is hardly worth even saying thank you. But imagine that it is £20 billion and you had the resources to pay. How would that make me feel? What would having this exorbitant debt paid do to my mental health and sense of well-being? But it gets even better! Not only do you pay the £20 billion bill, you actually credit my account with a further £20 billion and you buy me a new house! It sounds crazy, even ludicrous.
But it is a small picture of what the Bible seeks to convey about how grace impacts the mental health and life of someone who understands it. And this is more than just about our mental health and well-being—this is about what the crucifixion accomplishes for us.
We can say that we understand intellectually the concept of grace. In reality, the way in which we relate to ourself or others is based much more on performance and proving consciously or unconsciously that we are good enough. If we see someone doing better than ourself, it is easy for us to become jealous or resentful. If we see we are doing better than them, it is easy for us to become proud and feel somehow superior. Neither of these responses is wise. Our inner attitudes reveal whether we are defining ourself and others on the basis of performance or grace.
The best way to cure this is to place ourself and what we do in relation to the magnificence and splendour of the God of the universe. When we do that, we develop a realistic understanding of ourself along with our limitations and potential. Such understanding creates a sense of freedom and lightness about life. We do not have to take ourself so seriously. We can laugh at
ourself and, at the same time, be serious about our relationship with God. We will explore this idea in the next chapter.
MEET WISDOM IN PERSON
When it comes to wisdom, God doesn’t give us an infallible argument or formula to deal with life’s challenges and setbacks. He gives us an impregnable person who can handle any situation, no matter how unexpected or expected, and whether major or minor. Life becomes less about what we know and more about who we know. This is about walking in a relationship with the One who is the ultimate author of history and knows all things. While life may not go the way we expect or want, we can look with confidence to the One who knows all things and ultimately controls all things.
This realisation leads to a staggering conclusion, The wisdom we are called to hunger and thirst for is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ Himself. The One who came as a historical figure to earth two thousand years ago in order to experience the variety of human existence. He died on a cross and three days later was resurrected from the dead. He is the wisdom we hunger and thirst for!
Author Randy Alcorn brings this all together saying, 'All your life you have been on a treasure hunt. You’ve been searching for a perfect person and a perfect place. Jesus is that person. Heaven is that place.'
When this truth grips us to our core, we begin on the path to what in Hebrew is called shalom. This is the highest form of mental health and well-being, or flourishing, in every dimension of our life. We begin to delight in God for who He is and what He has done for us in Christ.
REVIEW QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
How much am I able to see wisdom as more than a way out of the problems of life?
When am I tempted to see God more as my personal assistant to get my goals rather than the One who has the ultimate fulfilment to all my longings?
How do the Bible books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job give me a more balanced view of wisdom?
4, What is so radical about seeing wisdom as a person?