Sermonette: Ecclesiastes and Wisdom

Definitions
#1109s
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 30-Jun-12; 22 minutes

I do not know whether you are aware of this, but we have not yet finished Ecclesiastes 3 and already the word wisdom has been used by God 11 times. I do not know whether you have become convinced yet, but Ecclesiastes is one of the most helpful practical aids, if I can put it that way, to living by faith that appears in the Old Testament.

Now, living by faith and wisdom must be inseparable if one is to be successful with the faith that one has. This is because success in Christian living is pretty much determined by the choices that one makes. And success is pretty much determined by the answer to one question: Should I go this way or that? Now, Ecclesiastes is giving us a multiple detailed reasons why we should go one way or the other. Its main purpose is to show us through the experiences, meditations, and conclusions of the wisest man who ever lived as to why we should always choose to use our faith to follow what God says. It is showing us that those to whom God has revealed Himself that life is not meaningless and that everything matters because the great sovereign God Himself is personally involved in our life.

Life, for those called of God, is not randomly occurring any more than the original creation randomly occurred. And in order to take advantage of this, we must see ourselves for what we truly are. We are a new creation, a creation in some ways more important than the original creation of the earth. Now, why can I say that? It is because it is personal.

God leaves nothing to chance. And one of the lessons that we must learn is that in order to be like Him, that is to be in His image, we must learn to be as careful as possible. This is a necessity if everything matters. We must strive to learn to leave nothing to chance and this requires time to become experienced at. And unfortunately, we often fail.

Please turn to Proverbs 4, verses 4 through 9.

Proverbs 4:4-9 He also taught me [that He is God the Father], and said to me: "Let your heart retain my words; keep my commands, and live. Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory she will deliver you.

Now, in this context, wisdom and understanding together are personified as a delightful woman. They are like a team, but with only one mind. The two terms are somewhat different by definition, but they are so closely related it is as though one cannot have one without the other.

The NIV translates verse 7, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it costs you all you have, get understanding." Now that translation confirms the very close linkage between these two. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. And overall, this command is saying that wisdom and understanding are so important that we should give our all for them. So important it is almost as though no price short of death is too high or sacrifice so great as to obtain them to the highest level that we are capable of.

Let us go to the front of the book here to chapter 2.

Proverbs 2:1-5 My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

Again, this series of verses shows a linkage between wisdom and understanding.

Recall that a couple of weeks ago I showed you from I Kings the third chapter that Solomon did not literally ask for wisdom. Rather, he asked for understanding that he might more correctly judge or govern Israel. This is an indication that having wisdom without first having understanding is very difficult indeed. Now God did not respond to Solomon's request by pouring wisdom by means of a funnel into Solomon's mind. Rather, this series of verses here show what God required of Solomon that he might have wisdom. It is called hard work.

Now, Proverbs and all its wisdom and understanding were gleaned from Solomon's experiences. What God did was to facilitate the collection of understanding and wisdom's accumulation in Solomon's mind and even that in itself was miraculous. It went in there and stuck, but it shows He made him work for it. Solomon, like all of us, had to participate with God in order to have it. If we do not participate with God in the trials, the lessons that He gives us, we will never gain very much from them.

The work, as this paragraph shows, was time consuming and the mental activity required by Solomon was great. It means that he had to set aside other activities in order to have it. It undoubtedly became as exciting to Solomon as striking gold when he hit upon a real nugget of truth and wisdom, just like one would in a mine digging for gold. But it was also tiring and required a great deal of careful observation, prayer, and meditation.

Solomon shows us that there is a fairly clear progression that produces wisdom in one who is seeking it if they will follow these steps. The steps are not difficult; they are difficult to carry out, but they are not difficult to know.

1. One must gather information or knowledge by digging for it and this requires concentrated effort. I wonder how many of us read anymore other than the newspaper or whatever?

2. One must meditate and experience seeking counsel to help provide results. Remember, you have to look up, you have to look around, you have to look within.

3. The fruit is practical application, which wisdom is in the biblical sense.

Now, I want us to have some basic definitions because Solomon does not always use the same Hebrew words and they may be translated into English words that somewhat mislead us away from the more specific instruction that was given here in the Hebrew.

Back to Proverbs 1, verses 2 through 5. And most of the time we are going to spend in verses 2 and 3.

Proverbs 1:2-5 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 to wise counsel.

The definitions that I am going to give you are primarily from the Soncino, which is a Jewish commentary, and Vines Expository Dictionary of the Bible. Now these verses are the specific purpose statement of the entire book. And thus these definitions are very important to getting things out of the book because what follows verse 6 is building upon what these terms mean. But I am only going to take four of them here.

The first one is the most important one—wisdom. Now, wisdom in verse 2 is from the Hebrew chakma. This is the word Solomon uses every time but one in the book of Ecclesiastes. Now the definition is not brief but it becomes very pointed. Now catch this: This word does not mean sagacity as we normally think wisdom as meaning. It does not mean sagacity. It is not a synonym for the English word sagacity.

Hold your finger there in Proverbs 1 and I am going to show you the very first place in the Bible that this word chakma is used. It is in Exodus 28, verse 3.

Exodus 28:3 [God is speaking] "So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments, to consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest."

This is exactly the same word as used in Proverbs 1:2, chakma. Now remember the law of first usage because it is helpful to more fully understand the term's meaning. The most closely synonymous term in English is skill, or skillful depending upon how it appears in a sentence. Now, Vines says that chakma can be used to indicate technical skills or abilities. That is the way God used it in Exodus 28:3. He gave these men skill to make ornaments, to sew, to design, etc, etc.

Now people can be skillful in hundreds of different disciplines. As it is used here in Exodus 28, Proverbs 1, and all of Ecclesiastes, skillful in what is what is important. Skillful in the context in which it appears is what is important if you are going to understand this word.

The Soncino says is that the scholar Maimonides, whom they really think is the best one they have had since Ezra, "Chakma is the knowledge of those truths which lead to the knowledge of God." The definition of this word is narrowing down. The Soncino continues, "Skillful in the principles which control and direct human living at its highest and best."

Therefore, in the kinds of contexts that appear in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, wisdom means skill in living. Let me extend that a little more, make it even more precise: skill in living according to God's Word. That makes it very precise.

Now, acquiring skill in any discipline requires determined practice. Like as with Solomon, it does not just suddenly miraculously appear. Now one may be born with a proclivity to do something well, but practice makes perfect. So this process of practicing is just as true with godly wisdom as any other skill.

The word underlying wisdom in verse 3 is sakal. It is closer to our common understanding of wisdom as suggesting sagacity. It means to make or act circumspectly, to be prudent, to have insight and intellectual comprehension. And thus, chakma indicates that one is skillful in living, but sakal indicates how one proceeds in the use of that skill, because sakal suggests careful dealing with life's events. I wish that I would have had this 50 years ago.

In verse 2, the word underlying understanding is bina. It means the act of understanding. Thus, in practical use, one grasps what is being read or talked about. It suggests a process that is in progress in order to distinguish. Here is the key word. It suggests circumstances must be thought through in order to comprehend. But unfortunately, most of us are too impatient and jump to conclusions in order to get a quick fix. And unfortunately, our pride drives that.

In verse 5, the Hebrew word underlying understanding is beni. It is the root of bina. And this root means to separate and thus to grasp or comprehend various aspects of something so that one grasps the whole of a circumstance and clearly "sees" various aspects that must be separated in order to be distinguished one from another. In other words, you see different aspects of the picture to come up with the right answer.

Let us go to Proverbs 4, verse 7 once again.

Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all of your getting, get understanding.

The Hebrew words used here and translated into wisdom and understanding are the same as those used in chapter 1, verse 2. This verse is translated by the NIV in this way, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it costs you all that you have, get understanding."

Now, I am going to paraphrase this with, I think, what will give you more precise definitions and perhaps a better grasp of this because it can easily and truthfully be translated in this manner: "Skill in living is supreme; therefore get skill in living. And though it costs you all you have, get the capability to distinguish."

What we are seeing is another step in Proverbs successful formula for life. And even as knowledge and understanding precede wisdom, all three—knowledge, understanding, and wisdom—precede and produce the fear of God and then righteousness. Now why? Because in terms of behavior, wisdom is in reality simply making the right choices at the right time for the right reasons—and that is skill in living.

So the overall purpose of wisdom within the context of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is to make right choices so that success in life is achieved. And wisdom and right choices are so closely related one can say that wisdom is making right choices and right choices is wisdom.

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