Wisdom (Part 1): Week 3, Day 3

Thanks for sticking with me in this study on wisdom.  I hope that as you have spent time reading about this topic, that you are realizing how much God can give us, if we would just ask Him!  Today we are going to APPLY Proverbs 8:1-21 to our lives.  There is so much to talk about here, I apologize in advance if I get long-winded!

This passage starts off with wisdom being personified.  For those who are far removed from high school English courses, that means that wisdom has taken on a bodily perspective.  Over the next few weeks, wisdom is going to remain in this personified form.  In other words, sometimes it seems as if we are reading about a person.  That is why we marked wisdom, including the pronouns.  We need to know exactly who - or what - we are reading about.  Do not let the personification get in the way of your understanding of this text.  We are learning about wisdom, not a person.

In this first part of this chapter, wisdom is calling out to whoever will listen to her.  She is at the city gates, at the doorways, in the walking paths - she is everywhere.  She is crying out - loudly!  This tells us that wisdom is not hard to find, not hard to gain access to.  Wisdom is available to us, we just have to make the move and ask for it.

Wisdom is speaking to several groups of people:

1. Men (women)
2. Sons (daughters)
3. Naive ones
4. Fools

No matter who you are, or what your current state is (some days I feel pretty naive), wisdom is available for you!  All of us are daughters of someone.  Wisdom is for us!  She is calling out for us, she is in our doorways, she is on the paths that we walk daily.  We need to answer her call.

Wisdom speaks about six different things:

1. Noble things
2. Right things
3. Truth
4. Righteousness
5. Straightforward things
6. Right things (yes, this one is listed twice.  If something is repeated in the Scripture, it is doubly important!)

I think we could spend the next hour talking about these five (six) things.  Wisdom speaks of noble things.  The definition of noble is: having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals.  Synonyms of noble are: righteous, virtuous, good, honorable, upright, decent, worthy, moral, ethical, reputable.  This is the type of woman I want to be!  I want people to look at me and thing that I am a moral, ethical, decent person.  I want to speak of these things.  If I have wisdom, then I can be this way.  You can, too!

Wisdom speaks of right things.  The definition of right is: morally good, justified, acceptable.  Synonyms of right are: just, fair, proper, good, upright, righteous, virtuous, moral, ethical, honorable, honest.  People with wisdom speak of things that are fair, proper, and honest.  Let's think about the word "honest".  The opposite of being honest is being untruthful.  Lying.  Spreading gossip.  Talking about people in a bad way.  How easy is it for us to get caught up in talking about things that are not good?  It is so easy!  We need to pray for wisdom, and pray that God will help us to resist the temptation to get caught up in frivolous gossip that will not help us be an honorable person.

Wisdom speaks of the truth.  This one should be easy enough, right?  Just speak the truth!  However, in our sin-filled lives, sometimes it is just "easier" to lie.  Or so we think.  We lie to cover up what we don't want others to know.  Was the thing that we did that we want covered up done in wisdom?  If so, is there a reason to have to cover it up?  We need to live in truth.  We need to be honorable in our actions so that we do not have to cover up what we have done.  We need to pray that God would guide our every action, so that everything we do will be honorable to him.  Then, we can speak the truth about the things we do.  We should not be ashamed of our actions, as long as they please the Lord.  Pray that God will guide your life so that you can speak the truth in wisdom!

Wisdom speaks of righteousness.  Righteousness is the quality of being morally right or justifiable.  Remember what the Scriptures said in Genesis 15:6, "[Abraham] believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness."  Habakkuk 2:4 tells us that, "the righteous shall live by his faith."  Our faith in God is counted as righteousness, and our righteousness as Christians is because of our faith.  We are saved by the grace of God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.  Hang on sisters, let's get real.  Can we be morally right?  No!  We are sinners.  We could never be completely right, even if we tried as hard as we could.  We have a sin nature that we cannot get rid of.  And the payment for that sin nature is death - eternal death, eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23).  However, 1 John 1:9 tells us, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  So, through faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ and through confession of our sins, we can be made righteous! (Can I get an Amen, here!)  One of the greatest mysteries in the Bible is the fact that we can be saved, we can be made holy (no time to talk of that now), we can, "become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21).  And those who are wise speak of righteousness.  As daughters of God, we can know true righteousness.  We have become the righteousness of God.  What an honor, what a responsibility.  We need to pray to God for Him to give us the wisdom we need to speak of righteousness.  We need to pray that He will help us to act like we are His righteousness.  The world will know us by our fruit.  Oh sisters, let your fruit show that you are God's righteousness!

Wisdom speaks of straightforward things.  Straightforward means honest and frank.  In other words, truthful and sincere.  Are you sincere in your words and actions?  Or are you dishonest and hypocritical?  Hypocrites say one thing and do something different.  Honest people say one thing and do that one thing that they spoke of.  They are straightforward in all their ways.  People who are wise speak of, and do, straightforward things.  We need to pray for wisdom that God would help us speak and do the same things, and that those things would be honorable.

And once again, wisdom speaks of right things.  If the Scripture says it twice in a row, it is doubly important.  Sisters, if we are to be wise, we need to speak of things that are right.

Let's now spend a little bit of time talking about the "fear of the Lord" as mentioned in Proverbs 8:13.  Earlier this week we looked at Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."  In Proverbs 8, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil."  To fear the Lord is to honor and respect Him, to fully trust Him, to do as He says, etc.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  The start of gaining wisdom is to fear the Lord.  Wisdom comes from Him, so we need to honor and respect Him in order to be wise.  The fear of the Lord hates evil.  As wise women, we need to hate evil.  There is so much evil in the world around us.  Let us fear the Lord, pray for wisdom, hate evil, and pray for wisdom on how to handle the world that we live in.

In Proverbs 8:14-16, we are told nine things about wisdom:

1. Counsel belongs to wisdom
2. Wisdom is sound
3. Wisdom is understanding
4. Wisdom is power
5. Kings reign with wisdom
6. Rulers decree justice with wisdom
7. Princes rule by wisdom
8. Nobles rule by wisdom
9. All who rightly judge do so by wisdom

Do you see, yet, what a wonderful thing wisdom is?  Do you understand the responsibility that the wise person has?  Do you see how trust and faith in God make wisdom what it is?  Do you sense the urgency to become wise?

So how do we get this thing called wisdom?  Proverbs 8:17 says, "...those who diligently seek me will find me."  James 1:5 says, "...if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God...and it will be given to him."  All we have to do is know in our hearts that we want wisdom and ask God for it.  That's it!  He will give it to us if we ask Him.  What a wonderful, powerful, amazing God we have!

One more thing that comes with having wisdom - it does not guarantee a life of monetary riches.  Our true riches are the righteousness, the justice, the love, and all the other things that we have talked about in this incredibly long blog (much love to you for sticking with me!).  Matthew 6:25-33 tells us to seek God first, seek His kingdom, seek His righteousness (there's that word again).  Everything else will come after we get our hearts and minds right.  God will supply everything that we need.  Everything.

Oh my sisters, do you see how wonderful wisdom is?  Do you sense the amazing things that can come with living a life of wisdom?  Do you understand how important it is to fear God above all else?  I hope that you do.  I hope that you didn't get bogged down in the amount of information that came from this week's passage.  Take time over the next few days to meditate on the Word of God. Pray that He will give you the wisdom to understand His Word.

To read the previous posts on Wisdom, click these links:

Week 1: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 2: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 3: Day 1, Day 2

Wisdom (Part 1): Week 3, Day 2

Welcome to our day of INTERPRETING the Scriptures! We are looking at Proverbs 8:1-21 this week, and over the next couple of weeks we will look at the second part of Proverbs 8 and Proverbs 9. Read through this week's text slowly, absorbing what the text says.

Now, re-read the passage, and answer these questions in your notebook:

Side note: In verse 1, I told you to mark wisdom and understanding the same way.  The Hebrew meaning of wisdom in this verse is: technical skill, experience, shrewdness.  The Hebrew meaning of understanding is: cleverness, skill.  In verse 5, the Hebrew meaning of understanding is: see, pay attention, consider, teach, examine.  In verse 1, understanding means close to the same thing as wisdom, so we are going to mark them the same way. In verse 5, understanding takes on a different meaning, so we are going to mark it green throughout the rest of the passage.

1.  In verses 1-3, is wisdom a seemingly difficult thing to come by? How prevalent is wisdom?
2. In verses 4-5, wisdom is speaking to four different groups of people.  List these out.
3. In verse 6-9, the author talks about wisdom "speaking".  List the six things that wisdom speaks about. List the three things that wisdom will not speak about.
4. In verses 10-11, wisdom is compared to riches.  Write out these comparisons.
5. In verse 12, what three things does wisdom do?
6. In verse 13, look at the phrase, "the fear of the Lord."  Read Proverbs 9:10 and write down the relationship between the fear of the Lord and wisdom.  How does that relationship help you interpret verse 13?
7. Look at verses 14-16 and list nine things that you learn about wisdom.
8. According to verse 17, how can you gain wisdom? Use Proverbs 2:4-5 and James 1:5 to help you.
9. Do verses 18-21 imply that if we have wisdom we will be rich? What is the implication in these verses? For more clarity, read Matthew 6:25-33.  What things do we need to concern ourselves with, instead of material things.

Well, sisters, you have made it through today's study.  Take a deep breath!  There is so much to learn and gain from what we have read.  Our next study will be the APPLICATION time, and you better hang on to your hats!  I'm so excited to share this with you!

To read the previous posts on Wisdom, click these links:

Week 1: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 2: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 3: Day 1

Wisdom (Part 1): Week 2, Day 3

Welcome back to this Bible study!  Today we are going to APPLY the text of 1 Kings 3:16-28 to our lives.  This is where we take what the Lord has given us, and we live it out in our daily lives.  What can we gain from reading this passage about Solomon gaining, and then showing, his wisdom?  Before we get into the meaning of this text, take the time to re-read it for yourselves.

As this story starts, we are brought into a harsh reality of the times of Solomon.  Two women, two harlots, two prostitutes, living together in house.  There was no one else in the house with them, which tells us that they were unmarried.  They were each other's support system in this terrible life that they were living.  I'm sure before they both got pregnant, they were living together as roommates.  These women could have very well been best friends.  After all, if you have a choice as to who you would pick as a roommate, wouldn't you choose a friend?  Now, the Scripture does not go into this detail, so this is all speculation on my part.  Both of these prostitutes end up pregnant at the same time.  They go through the nine months of pregnancy together - the joys, the scary times, the unknown - they lived it as friends and roommates.

Now there are two babies, born just three days apart, living in this house with their mommas.  In an extremely tragic event, one of the mommas rolled over on her baby in the night, suffocated it, and killed it.  In her grief, pain, trauma, insanity...whatever emotions she was feeling at the time, she made a terrible decision to switch the babies and lie about the truth of the event.

Now think about the other momma.  She, too, was feeling very emotional, as all new mothers do.  She woke up to a dead baby beside her.  I can't imagine the pain, the grief, how upset she was to think that her baby had died.  But as she looked closer, she knew that this was not her baby.  She knew in her heart that her friend and roommate had committed a terrible act.

Enter King Solomon.  He was able to sum this story up in one short verse (verse 23). One momma says that the living baby is hers, the other momma says that the living baby belongs to her.  What is the King to do?  Last week we studied about how Solomon asked for wisdom from the Lord so that he could properly judge the kingdom.  This is how God is going to show the world how much wisdom he have to Solomon.

Solomon's judgement was to order that the living baby be cut in half.  One half was to go to one of the mommas, the other half to the other momma.  Can you imagine hearing King Solomon order this to happen?  I'm sure that the guards and others on duty at the time thought that Solomon had lost his mind.  Here was the King of Israel, God's chosen King of God's chosen people, and he is ordering the murder of an innocent baby.

But, of course, the killing of the baby didn't have to happen.  The true momma could not stand the fact that her baby was about to be killed.  She loved her baby so much that she was willing to give it up to the other momma just to save its life.  Solomon knew right away that that woman was the true momma of the baby.  The other woman was going to let the baby be killed.  Solomon, in all of his wisdom, was able to determine the true momma of that sweet innocent baby.

We are not told what happened to these two women after this event.  But, we do know that one of the mommas was able to take her baby home alive.

1 Kings 3:28 shows us how this one decision impacted the entire nation of Israel.  Everyone in the kingdom "feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice."  The kingdom knew that Solomon's wisdom came from God.  They knew that this was a king that they needed to respect and honor, because he had God's favor.

So how does this impact our lives?  We do not live in a time where we would ever have to make the kind of decision that Solomon made.  But what we do know from this chapter of 1 Kings is this: if we ask God for something, and that something is in His will, He will provide it for us.  His provision will be tens and hundreds of times more amazing than we could ever have imagined for ourselves.  Let's relate this directly back to wisdom, as that is our focus.  God has told us that He will give us wisdom, if we ask for it.  James 1:5 says, "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

God wants us to have wisdom, and oh my sisters, do we ever need it!  I have told you before, I pray for wisdom and discernment every single time I open my Bible.  I know that God gives it to me, because there are times when I struggle understanding His Word.  I have read passages of Scripture that I just do not understand at all.  But with the help of the Lord, He gives me the understanding that He wants me to have at the time.  The cool thing about studying the Word of God is that it is truly living and breathing, and I gain new meaning and new understanding every time I study.  I would not be able to do this without the wisdom and help of God.

Pray, sisters, for the wisdom of God.  Pray for wisdom as you open His Word to study and learn.  Pray for wisdom as you make small, daily decisions.  Pray for wisdom as you make large, monumental decisions for your life and the lives of others in your family.  Pray for wisdom as you encounter different people every day.  Pray for wisdom.  God will give it to you!

To read the previous posts on Wisdom, click these links:

Week 1: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 2: Day 1, Day 2

Bible Study: Wisdom (Part 1)

Get excited, ladies!  We are starting a new study soon.  This will be a study on wisdom, divided into two parts.

During the first part of the study, we will go through the following scriptures:

• 1 Kings 3:3-28
• Proverbs 8:1-36
• Proverbs 9:1-18

During the second part of the study, we will study the following passages of scripture:

• Matthew 12:38-42
• 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
• 1 Corinthians 2:1-13
• James 1:5-8, 3:13-18

I am so ready to share this study with you about true wisdom, and I hope that you are ready to learn and study with me.  Stay tuned for more!

To see all the posts on Wisdom, click these links:

Week 1: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 2: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 3: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 4: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Week 5: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

My purpose

The Lord has been working in my heart and life for many years.  I have been teaching a monthly Bible study in my church for almost 3 years now, and the more I teach, the more I want to teach.  I love to study my Bible, and I love to teach the Word to other women.  I want to spend more time teaching women how to study their Bibles.  In the day and time that we live in now, it is imperative that women know what the Word of God says.  It is so important that women spend time digging into God's Word, and hide it in their hearts.  God has given us 66 books that He wants us to know, meditate on, study, and immerse ourselves in.  I feel like it is my responsibility to help others know what the Word says.

James 3:1 says, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgement."  I know that as I continue to teach the Word of God, I am held to an extremely high level of accountability to God.  I understand that responsibility, and I accept it without hesitation.  I feel there is no greater purpose for me right now than to teach others Who He is and what He has done for us.  I want us as a body of sisters in Christ to study together, to hide God's Word in our hearts, and to learn more and more about how awesome He is.

I will be using this blog to post online Bible studies for women to do together.  I am not a published author, and these studies have not been edited by any type of professional editor.  They are written by me, with the studying that I have done on my own.  I encourage anyone that reads these blog posts to continually read their own Bible to ensure that what I am saying matches up with what the Lord says.  If you ever see something that does not seem to match up, please comment!  I am not a perfect person by any means.  I am a sinner, saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ.  I make mistakes, and sometimes I incorrectly interpret the Scripture.  But know that if that happens, it is purely a mistake.  I strive to read the Bible with wisdom and discernment.  I pray before and during every study that I do that God will give me the wisdom and discernment to properly interpret and understand His Word.

I study my Bible using the inductive method.  The steps of inductive Bible study are: OBSERVE the text in it's context, INTERPRET the text using the text itself, and APPLY the text to your life.  This means that I observe the text for what it says, in its own context.  I interpret the text using the text itself, using cross references, and using a Bible dictionary, and the original Hebrew and Greek words.  Then I apply what I have studied and learned to my life, so that I can continually be learning and growing in God.

I read and study out of the New American Standard Bible (NASB).  Any Scripture that I quote in this blog will be out of the NASB, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my purpose in this blog.  I hope you can use this blog to further your study of God's Word, and grow in Him.