Proverbs 8:5-9

Proverbs 8:5-9  5 O simple ones, learn to be shrewd;
O fools, gain understanding.
6 Listen, for I speak of noble things,
and the opening of my lips will reveal right.
7 For my mouth will speak the truth,
and wickedness is detestable to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
none are crooked or perverse.
9 They are all plain to the discerning,
and upright to those who find knowledge.

Proverbs 8:5-9 (NKJV)  5 O you simple ones, understand prudence,
And you fools, be of an understanding heart.
6 Listen, for I will speak of excellent things,
And from the opening of my lips will come right things;
7 For my mouth will speak truth;
Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are with righteousness;
Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.
9 They are all plain to him who understands,
And right to those who find knowledge.

Proverbs 8:5-9 (ESV)  5 O simple ones, learn prudence;
O fools, learn sense.
6 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right,
7 for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
9 They are all straight to him who understands,
and right to those who find knowledge.

Proverbs 8:5-9 (ISV)  5 Understand prudence, you naïve people;
and gain an understanding heart, you foolish ones.
6 Listen, because I have noble things to say,
and what I have to say will reveal what is right.
7 For my mouth speaks the truth—
wickedness is detestable to me.
8 Everything I have to say is just;
there isn’t anything corrupt or perverse in my speech.
9 Everything I say is sensible to someone who understands,
and correct to those who have acquired knowledge.

Proverbs 8:5-9 (GWT)  5 You gullible people, learn how to be sensible. You fools, get a heart that has understanding.
6 Listen! I am speaking about noble things, and my lips will say what is right.
7 My mouth expresses the truth, and wickedness is disgusting to my lips.
8 Everything I say is fair, and there is nothing twisted or crooked in it.
9 All of it is clear to a person who has understanding and right to those who have acquired knowledge.

From our last lesson on Proverbs 8:1-4, we learned that Lady Wisdom is speaking after Madame Folly. Lady Wisdom calls to all. She is ready to give wisdom to all who seek it. Here she is calling to the simple, the open minded, those who could go either way - to Madame Folly or to Lady Wisdom. Trying to attract them before Madame Folly gets her claws into them, Lady Wisdom tells them she will give godly wisdom and truth to any who choose her. Her call is the opposite of Madame Folly's flattery, deceptions and lies.

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, he wrote:
Colossians 2:1-3 (BSB)  1 For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face, 2 that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

In Jesus, every Christian has access to wisdom and knowledge sufficient for living the life He calls us to. We have everything we need in Jesus. We can know about the Father; and how to properly interpret reality; and live to His glory. Matthew Henry comments, “The treasures of wisdom are hidden not from us, but for us, in Christ.”

Psalm 37:30-31  30 The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. 31 The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.

John 7:14-18 (NIV)  14 About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. 15T he Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man attain such learning without having studied?”
16 “My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me. 17 If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own. 18 He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood.

John 7:14-18 (NLT) 14 Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. 15 The people were surprised when they heard him. “How does he know so much when he hasn’t been trained?” they asked.
16 So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. 17 Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. 18 Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31,2:1-15 (NLT)  18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”
20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.
26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD.”
2:1 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. 2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.
6 Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. 7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. 9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”
10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. 11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. 14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. 16 For,
“Who can know the LORD’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to teach him?”
But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

As we have studied previously, this is Wisdom personified and it's personified in the feminine because the Hebrew words, unlike English, but like many other languages, have grammatical gender. In Biblical Hebrew, nouns are classified according to gender, either masculine, feminine, or sometimes both. Entities, apart from people, can also be classified as feminine. For example, the proper names of cities are often feminine in Biblical Hebrew. So when we read about Madame Wisdom, or Lady Wisdom, we are not reading about a goddess, separate from God. It is a personification of an attribute of God for poetical form and wisdom is feminine in Hebrew.

As we've seen, other scripture attributes wisdom to God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. Notice in the above scripture, 1 Corinthians 2:12-14, the Holy Spirit reveals godly wisdom to us. God the Father is wisdom. Jesus Christ the Son is wisdom. The Holy Spirit is wisdom. They work together to impart wisdom to us through the Holy Spirit who indwells in us. Once we become a believer and are born again, the Holy Spirit enters us to enable, empower, teach and train our new spirit. So, as the Bible says, we have all we need to live the holy life God calls us to live. We have to learn how to listen, cooperate and live in obedience to what God reveals to us. Thankfully we have the Holy Spirit within us to do this training.

God is wisdom just as God is truth and God is love. In Him all wisdom starts and ends. Remember, wisdom is not just intellectual knowledge but much deeper. We can have book smarts but have no commonsense or wisdom. And godly wisdom goes even deeper. A simple person with no education can have godly wisdom just as the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:26-28.

One of the movies we love is Forrest Gump. Forrest is a simple person as in uncomplicated and seeing things through a simple lens. He is able to get an education and gains life experiences but all of it is secondary to his uncomplicated view on life. Meanwhile, all those around him like Jenny and Sgt Dan are "normal" humans with complex thoughts. But, throughout the movie, and Forrest Gump's life, you see how the "normal" humans bring so much misery to their lives and complicate their lives unnecessarily and by their own hands. While Forrest remains simple, uncomplicated, despite all that goes on around him, his "normal" family and friends fall apart mostly because of their bad choices. It's only as they become more like him, accepting and uncomplicated, that they find peace. So who is the really wise one of them all? Forrest. Who experiences the most peace and joy? Forrest. Who is able to live a good life and meet his goals of helping others? Forrest. Forrest doesn't get bogged down in the pits of life nor does he fight to get to the top of anything.

The movie is not a Christian movie. I just use it as an example of how we see people who are "simple" as though they are handicapped when really they may have the best handle on how to live life. God can reach the simple with His message of salvation through Jesus Christ. God can reach the simple with His wisdom through the imparted Holy Spirit. Sometimes it's the simple who show the rest of us how life should be lived! We struggle and fight God to be independent only to find our "wisdom" is diddly squat and we end up living a life full of the consequences of our sin. How smart is that? Not very. Life comes with it's own problems (the ones we didn't ask for) and Forrest Gump had life problems thrown at him. But we don't have to make more problems with our own hands by making stupid decisions and wallowing in sin. We can live uncomplicated lives if we listen to God and follow His wisdom.

Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote The Idiot in 1868-1869. The main character is Prince (Knyaz) Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, simplicity and lack of guile leads many to assume he is stupid, an idiot. He has a truly Christian soul, innocent and selflessly compassionate. Dostoevsky puts him "at the centre of the conflicts, desires, passions and egoism of worldly society, both for the man himself and for those with whom he becomes involved." - Wikipedia

All the other characters in the novel are suffering from being "normal" human beings and they consider Myshkin an "idiot" because he is not like them. They are drunks, sexually immoral, lovers of pleasure, see themselves as superior, murderers, greedy, ambitious, gossips, malingerers, mean-spirited, social climbers, hangers-on, etc. But they think Prince Myshkin is an idiot because he is not like them! Who are the ones making all the bad choices? Not Prince Myshkin. Who are the ones ruining their own lives with their own hands? Not Prince Myshkin. Who are the ones living in turmoil and misery created by themselves?

Unfortunately, in The Idiot, Prince Myshkin, who loves simply and who tries to help everyone, is driven mad in the end and goes back to the Swiss sanitarium. The world is not ready for a beautiful soul. In this book sin ruins everyone.

God made sure the plan of salvation is simple enough that even a child can understand it. I was saved at 8 years old. He also made it simple to show the world's "wisdom" is foolish, shameful, powerless, and nothing. Man thinks he can save himself but only God saves.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29  27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

It's almost like two perspectives on the same thing. Let's say that someone is looking at Jesus and His sacrifice to save us from our sins. Some will see it clearly and some will be totally overwhelmed by confusion, misdirects and deception (that satan masters in) much like a Jackson Pollard drip painting.

 Rogier van der Weyden

Jackson Pollock's "Autumn Rhythm". Pollock stated, "I can control the flow of paint: there is no accident."

The confusion and misdirection would obscure the true picture. Pollock believed he was in control of his artwork just as we think we are in control of our lives and our minds. But, when we are, we are a mass of confusion and misery. Satan wants our minds to be like Pollock's painting when we look at Jesus. God has presented Jesus in the simplest and clearest form so that all have the chance of being saved.

As Christians, we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. In God, there is no deception, no lying, no misdirects, no confusion. That is satan's work. And satan makes a mess of our minds. God brings salvation, reconciliation, peace, truth, clarity, simplicity back to our lives if we let Him. Pray for God's wisdom and that He would make spiritual things clear to you. Anyone who seeks God, will not be turned away.

• In our verses from Proverbs today, list all the ways God's wisdom is described:
• How is God's wisdom straight and plain?
• List the scripture in this post that describes God, the Father, as Wisdom:
• List the scripture in this post that describes Jesus, the Son, as Wisdom:
• List the scripture in this post that describes the Holy Spirit as Wisdom:
• What are the two reasons God made the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ simple?
• Do you think you are able to see Jesus clearly or, when you look at Jesus, is your mind seeing a Jackson Pollock painting?

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