Class Outline:

 

Wednesday July 14,2021

We cannot serve God and people without wisdom - the ability to use the knowledge of good and evil properly.

 

When Jesus ascended, He gave the church the gift of wisdom as He gave the gift of the Holy Spirit. Without wisdom, we cannot serve God and man.

 

Fallen man cannot discern good and evil, and so we all stumble badly. We must possess wisdom so that we can walk straight and right and strong.

 

The Book of Proverbs is the first of the three wisdom books in the Bible, the other two being Ecclesiastes and Job.

 

Wisdom books: Pro, Ecc, Job.

 

The wisdom of God shows us what it looks like to live well in this world.

 

In Proverbs wisdom is personified as a female teacher who has incredible insight into every aspect of life: work, relationships, sex, integrity, spirituality, and money.

 

Wisdom has her handprint on the world. She is the standard by which men either stand or fall.

 

Wisdom is the world standard by which all men stand or fall, live or die.

 

In Pro 8 we see Her as the master workman beside God as He created the earth and the heavens. But She is not created for the creation, nor is She apart from God. She is a part of the essence of God. God shows us that wisdom is a part of the fabric of the earth and heavens. The handprint of wisdom is everywhere and upon everything, and man lives or dies by her. Though it may seem that some who reject her are really living; it only seems that way.

 

Psa 73 is a poem about false perception of the law of wisdom and being corrected by God.

 

It is a poem about the application of the wisdom literature in a faithful believer’s life. First of all, he is diligent to resist temptation and keep himself pure in heart. Then he notices the wicked prospering and healthy, and all without fighting the good fight of faith, and he concludes that perhaps the clear promises in the Book of Proverbs are not true.

 

PSA 73:1

Surely God is good to Israel,

To those who are pure in heart!

 

73:1 is a true Proverb.

 

PRO 3:3-4

Write them on the tablet of your heart.

So you will find favor and good repute

In the sight of God and man.

 

MAT 5:8

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

 

PSA 73:2-14

But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling;

My steps had almost slipped.

3 For I was envious of the arrogant,

As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 For there are no pains in their death;

And their body is fat.

5 They are not in trouble as other men;

Nor are they plagued like mankind.

6 Therefore pride is their necklace;

The garment of violence covers them.

7 Their eye bulges from fatness;

The imaginations of their heart run riot.

8 They mock, and wickedly speak of oppression;

They speak from on high.

9 They have set their mouth against the heavens,

And their tongue parades through the earth.

10 Therefore his people return to this place;

And waters of abundance are drunk by them.

11 And they say, "How does God know?

And is there knowledge with the Most High?"

12 Behold, these are the wicked;

And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.

13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure,

And washed my hands in innocence;

14 For I have been stricken all day long,

And chastened every morning.

 

The writer began to doubt the many proverbs about prosperity to the pure and wise and calamity to the wicked, but forgot other proverbs, such as:

 

PRO 23:14

Do not let your heart envy sinners,

But live in the fear of the Lord always.

 

Don’t hyper-focus on one aspect of truth and neglect others.

 

Through continued study and faith in the Holy Spirit within you to reveal, search out all truth concerning a situation, and use prayer to quietly and singly ask God for wisdom.

 

JAM 1:2-8

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

5 But if any of you lacks wisdom [trials and testing can create anxiety and confusion], let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

 

Paul uses the same analogy. There are many competitors to wisdom, calling themselves the one and only, but there is only one and we must grab hold of her.

 

EPH 4:14

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine.