we are turning again to the Book of Proverbs. And as I looked back at the record of our time in Proverbs, I got almost to a dozen sermons, but those were in early 2020. So it seemed to me it's been long enough that we might want a bit of a reintroduction to the Book of Proverbs, focusing on Solomon's own introduction in those first seven verses of the first chapter of Proverbs. So if you'll stand with me, I'll read in your hearing those first seven verses. This is God's very word, let us hear and heed. The Proverbs of Solomon. the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Let us seek God's mercy in the preaching of this word. Most Holy Father, we pray that you break to us this bread of life. Your word, give us understanding, and joy in your revelation of Christ. We pray this in His holy name. Amen. You may be seated. As Solomon takes up, as it were, a pen to write, under the inspiration of the Spirit, a book that is all about wisdom, it's important that we orient ourselves by asking, what exactly is wisdom biblically? And why should we seek it? Solomon sets out to introduce this subject and prepare us for seeking and receiving wisdom by spending nine chapters opening up that foundation and the scaffolding and the preparation for actually living the life that pursues and receives wisdom that honors God. And so, it's not the case, as I've heard many a Bible teacher declare, that wisdom is simply sanctified common sense. One could be forgiven for thinking that if he simply dived into the middle of the book and started reading those brief couplets. And some of them seem just so very practical that one might think wisdom is just sanctified common sense. But there's really much more to wisdom than that. And we recognize that from the way that the Holy Spirit sets out the preparation for receiving wisdom in Solomon's own large introduction to the pursuit of wisdom. So for our purposes, first, let's ask, what is wisdom? As we look at Solomon's mission statement here, especially in verse two, he says that this is written so that we may know wisdom, and so we rightly ask, well, what exactly is that? And defining wisdom is not as simple as it may seem at first. It's actually a somewhat subtle definition. Wisdom, biblically speaking, and in its ancient context, is actually a broad concept with subtleties involved that the spirit of our age is not inclined to tolerate. Even in Christian circles, there is a demand that anything worth knowing be as simple as possible. Give me the simple idea, the easy concept. In our day, wisdom is not valued the way it was in the ancient world. So we are far less familiar with what wisdom actually is. Solomon, in his day, knew of wisdom not only because of the special grant of it to him, but because in the ancient world, there was a massive importance to having and pursuing wisdom. There was an international traffic in wisdom. If you could get wise men, those gifted in this thing, wisdom, your role and reign as a leader would be much more powerful. And so in the ancient Near East, there was a thriving international interest and exchange of wisdom and wisdom literature. And so we need to understand that wisdom was not this trivial sanctified common sense, but rather a highly valued thing. It wasn't only valued in Israel amongst believers. Scripture mentions many lands that had an order of wise men and an official pursuit of wisdom in order to provide an ongoing resource to the rulers of those lands. we should consider just a few places where the scriptures mention that, so we can understand how important wisdom is, what it looks like in light of its ancient context. In Acts chapter 7, verse 22, Moses is mentioned, and it says of him, Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and the result of that, he was mighty in words and deeds. And this was the wisdom of Egypt that empowered him in particular ways. That was not his own self-assessment, but that was the recognized assessment of one who had been trained in the wisdom of Egypt. God mentions destroying the wise men, the ranks of those who were counselors to the leaders of Edom in the prophecy of Obadiah. Will I not in that day, says the Lord, even destroy the wise men from Edom and understanding from the mountains of Esau? Verse eight of Obadiah. In the accounts with regard to Babylon, we see many references to wise men. Remember that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were carried away to Babylon and trained to be in the ranks of the wise men of Babylon. The ranks of the wise men are mentioned several times in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar was demanding that the wise men interpret his dreams without him telling them what his dream was. The wise men, the ranks of those that were his counselors, protested that no one could do this, and it had never been done. Nebuchadnezzar's response was to get angry and say, put them all to death. Let's look at that account briefly, picking it up in Daniel 2 at verse 12. Here we read, for this reason, the king was angry and very furious and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went out, and they began killing the wise men. And they sought out Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then, with counsel, and wisdom, Daniel answered Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree from the king so urgent? Then Ariok made the decision known to Daniel. So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from God, the God of heaven, concerning this secret so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Indeed, wisdom was so valuable, we remember that Solomon, when given the opportunity by God to ask for anything, asks for wisdom. And you remember he was at Gibeon to sacrifice, and there he had that vision, And the Lord blessed him for seeking that which was of greatest value to a king, wisdom. And see how noteworthy God's abundant grant to Solomon was, as it's described in 1 Kings 4, verse 29, and God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding and largeness of heart like the sand of the seashore. Thus Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the east. and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezraite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mehol. And his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. Also, he spoke of trees from the cedar tree of Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon." So what can we discern so far about what wisdom is? What have we noticed along the way? It's certainly apparent. It's more than that sanctified horse sense. Well, we see that it is of great value, and that to everyone. It is very practical, powerfully guiding words and actions. Recall Moses. He is said to be mighty. in words and deeds. Recall Daniel quickly understanding the situation and knowing exactly what to do in response and how to do that response. We should also notice that wisdom is not something simple and easy to acquire. It's not that it is inaccessible, but rather it requires effort. In the case of the extraordinary gifting, it can involve something supernaturally wrought by the Holy Spirit. We see that in Solomon. But it is also something that can ordinarily be taught, which is exactly what Solomon is up to in the book of Proverbs. So it involves, as we'll see, aptitude, skill, and training. Let's return to our text where Solomon is introducing the book And here, especially in verses two and three, we read, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. We see from what Solomon says here that the acquisition of wisdom requires a perceptiveness, an ability to observe well and to learn from those observations. And notice that wisdom is moral. Wisdom involves justice, judgment, and equity, knowing and doing what is just and right. It involves also God's created order. And now it's very important that we understand how this is so. We see in God's description of the wisdom given to Solomon how broad it is and how it involved an observation of God's works of creation. Wisdom is embedded in God's created order. Indeed, creation reflects the wisdom of God. Proverbs chapter three, verse 19 says, the Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the depths were broken up and the clouds dropped down And so with these portions of scripture shaping our perspective on wisdom, we can begin to give a definition, at least a basic one, a limited one at first. In the most generic sense, wisdom involves the ability to see how life works, and in light of that, to know how to respond appropriately. Now that would account for wisdom as any of the nations would have seen it. It's observing the created order, we would say, and how everything works together for moral agents, and knowing how to live in light of that, knowing the best path, knowing the right path. Anyone might value this because it's obviously beneficial. But scripture gives us more than this. That's something that the Egyptians would have agreed. Yeah, that's good. That's what wisdom is, and we need it. But scripture gives us more. We can give a fuller definition in light of the things we've seen. We would expand a bit to say it this way. Wisdom is recognizing and understanding God's created order so that we honor Him and His design. by how we live in his world. Wisdom is recognizing and understanding God's created order so that we honor him and his design by how we live in his world. This begins to fill out what true wisdom is, because it acknowledges that wisdom must be oriented around the one who is altogether wise, and is, in fact, the ultimate source of all wisdom. But there's still more we need to ask one other revealing question, and that is, why should we seek wisdom? Clearly, we're called to do so, but why? Well, there are practical reasons for seeking wisdom. Understanding how life works gives many advantages. There are some in our day who are wise in that ancient sense, but more limited sense. And they market their wisdom as what might be called life hacks, right? Well, there's some value to that. This has been going on for quite some time. We have it still in our day. A classic book in the modern era, How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's just full of life hacks about how relationships work and how to make use of that for benefit to yourself and others. And so there is a very practical sense in that broad and limited definition for pursuing wisdom. This offers a wisdom. It recognizes how certain things work, but it might be used for good or ill. It's a very limited sense. Wisdom of this sort is ultimately not what we're after, though it may have a practical value, because it falls short of God's glory. When we pursue wisdom, we want wisdom that is full of what God reveals as true wisdom. Ultimately, wisdom finds its fullest expression in the perfection of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 24, Jesus is said to be the wisdom of God. In Colossians 2, verse 3, Paul tells us that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Consider that God the Son made the world and has come in the flesh embodying the very wisdom of God. As it says in John's first chapter, verses one through five, And in verse 14, John says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So we should seek wisdom because we seek to glorify God in Christ Jesus. The mind of Christ in us will be cultivated by a pursuit of wisdom to His glory. We've studied that in Philippians 2 and following. This involves the pursuit of holiness, the character of Christ formed in us, as it says in Colossians 1, verses 27 to 29. But this also involves the pursuit of excellence in God's created order for His glory. In every lawful calling and in all our human experience, The Christian life must be understood as the cultivation of Christ's character and the development and living out of Christian virtue that is really the wholehearted and lifelong pursuit of divine wisdom. And so wisdom is that way of living in God's world that recognizes what he has made how He's made it to work, so that we may respond for His glory to it in a right way of living. Wisdom is moral. Wisdom is saturated with God's reality. And so we pursue it because we pursue Christlikeness. And in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, including wisdom and knowledge. As we seek to be Christlike, will make a lifelong pursuit, a diligent pursuit of true wisdom. Let us pray to that end. Great God and merciful Father, we pray that indeed we may love and pursue wisdom, not just a practical wisdom that the world could appreciate, but rather the wisdom that is manifest in your created order and in the character and reality of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Form in us that wisdom of our Savior that we may be perceptive to your ways and responsive to them, knowing how we ought to respond, knowing how we ought to live, Indeed, being those full of wisdom, grow us then in your wisdom. We ask for the glory and honor of Christ. Amen.