In an earlier post, I said that acquiring wisdom is important because wisdom is the creative energy of God. Proverbs 8 enlarges on that supposition: "The Lord made me at the beginning of His creation, before His works of long ago. I was formed before ancient times, from the beginning, before the earth began... when He laid out the foundations of the earth. I was a skilled craftsman beside Him. I was His delight every day,always rejoicing before Him. I was rejoicing in His inhabited world, delighting in the human race" (vs. 22-23,29-31). With wisdom God established the universe and through wisdom God declared the knowledge of Himself to people.
So does having wisdom mean you are smart or highly educated?
Not exactly.
While smart or educated people may have acquired much knowledge, wisdom comes through acquiring a knowledge of God. Through wisdom, God declares the knowledge of Himself to people.
Wisdom comes from knowing God--
how God thinks; how God acts; how God behaves; how God is.
Having wisdom is knowing God!
Or maybe it's knowing God is having wisdom!
At first glance, we may think that the knowledge of God is something unattainable. But Proverbs 8 makes it clear that wisdom is calling out to us! Wisdom is searching for human beings whom it may possess: "Doesn’t Wisdom call out? Doesn’t Understanding make her voice heard? ... People, I call out to you; my cry is to mankind" (vs. 1,4). Wisdom can't be ignored because it stands at the main entrance to the city and cries out for people to hear (vs. 3)!
The primary outcome of wisdom is discernment--knowing what's right (and what's wrong). When you have wisdom, it sharpens your perception or recognition of good and evil: "Listen, for I speak of noble things, and what my lips say is right. For my mouth tells the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips. All the words of my mouth are righteous; none of them are deceptive or perverse. All of them are clear to the perceptive, and right to those who discover knowledge (vs. 6-9).
When wisdom is put into practice in your life, it produces righteous behavior: "I, Wisdom, share a home with shrewdness and have knowledge and discretion... I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech. I possess good advice and competence; I have understanding and strength" (vs. 12). Shrewdness sometimes gets a bad rap because it usually describes a person who acts wisely for his own self-interest. But shrewdness here refers to that which causes one to act wisely in the best interest of God. Godly wisdom motivates people to act or behave discretely and in the best interest of God's plans and purposes.
When God's Spirit lives in you, He appropriates God's wisdom to your life. He makes it perfectly clear to you when something is right or wrong. He produces righteous and holy living. Our problem is that we don't always listen to what the Spirit is saying. We don't always heed wisdom's calling.
Still, wisdom stands at the gate and calls out what God desires of you: "Know Me!"
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