The Humility of Heavenly Wisdom
Stephen Terry
Commentary on the November 22, 2014
Sabbath School Lesson
“Where then does wisdom come from? Where
does understanding dwell? God understands the way to it and he alone knows
where it dwells.” Job 28:20, 23 NIV
Wisdom may
be seen as “the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience,
understanding, common sense, and insight.”[i]
This definition implies several things. First, in order to have knowledge one
necessarily has first sought to obtain that knowledge, a process often called education.
This might be done through pedagogy, reading, or dialectic. It is procedural
and not usually instantaneous. For instance, a college education often requires
a four or five year period of enrollment to obtain a bachelor’s degree.
Second, in
order to have experience, one often obtains it through application of knowledge
to determine what is true and false. Experience even implies a certain amount
of failure in this process, for one is rarely said to be experienced that has
never failed at anything, they may be right according to education perhaps, but
not necessarily experienced.
Third,
understanding is the ability to appreciate the qualities of the first two and
adjust them accordingly. In other words, when one fails at an application of
knowledge, it is necessary to understand the effect of that failure on the
previously acquired knowledge base and then moderate one’s future actions
appropriately. This allows us to escape the trap of continuing to do the same
thing over and over, even though a different result is wanting, and we should
be altering our approach.
Fourth,
common sense allows us to abandon a process as unfruitful once the preponderance
of the evidence makes that understanding adequately clear. Once there is
evidence that baiting the tiger is not healthy, we should naturally cease
tormenting the beast, even if we have otherwise determined that our actions are
in the best interest of that tiger. The tiger will not appreciate it, and in
the end, neither will we should we suffer harm from the interaction.
Fifth,
insight might also be called inspiration. Perhaps it is the ability to derive
an uncommon but helpful perspective on a problem that can bring breakthroughs
in understanding. In Arthur Clarke’s novel, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” such important
moments were transitional and identified by the presence of large, black
monoliths. However, in real life they tend to be more prosaic. They are often
I-wonder-what-would-happen-if-I-did-this moments, especially if those moments
fly in the face of common sense. They may even appear to be shear lunacy
equivalent to sailing over the horizon on a supposedly flat Earth. However, it
is important to understand the significant difference between wisdom and
inspiration.
Wisdom, by
definition, appears to be the judicious application of all five of these
attributes. Insight or inspiration alone on the other hand not then appear to
be adequate for wisdom, but must in their turn also be informed by knowledge,
experience, understanding and common sense. In fact, it would seem that each attribute
must be informed by all of the others for true wisdom to be achieved. Columbus perhaps
took his education as a navigator, coupled with his experience applying that
knowledge and his understanding of why ships might disappear over the horizon. Then
upon reviewing the common sense understanding that the Earth was flat, he had
an insight that the Earth may be round and Cathay might be reached by sailing
west on that round globe. While he never reached Cathay, the process
nonetheless informed education, experience, understanding, and the common sense
and resulted in more insights and inspirations later.
But what
does this mean to the Christian? It simply means this. In the Psalms[ii]
and the Proverbs,[iii]
we are told that wisdom finds its beginning in the fear of the Lord. Most would
probably agree with this, but then comes the rub. Some would tie up the sum
total of all wisdom in that passage rather than simply the beginning of the
process. When this happens the dialectic necessary for the process to function
healthily dries up. Instead of the mechanics of achieving wisdom becoming about
education, experience, understanding the observable and measureable, weighing
the data against the common understanding and then discovering new insights, a
more dysfunctional model comes into being. Education is derided and replaced
with indoctrination, actual experience becomes less important than anecdotal
hearsay, meanings for what is measured and observed are imposed by orthodoxy rather
than postulated, the common sense understanding is given the unassailable position
of absolute truth, and even inspiration is regulated by an orthodox hierarchy.
In short, the natural process of obtaining wisdom seeks to discover truth,
whereas the dysfunctional process maintains that truth is already adequately
revealed and any further search or hypothesizing is heresy and to be
discouraged or if possible, completely subverted.
Perhaps what
is most revealing in this comparison is to ask “Who benefits?” Too often it is
about money, whether it is a denomination channeling funds into building a vast
religious empire and its necessary infrastructure which tends to accrue to the
benefit of those administering that infrastructure or academia funding
outrageous salaries and expensive research facilities that must in some way
justify the continued expenditures to keep the money flowing even if that means
dictating interpretations of data to please either private or governmental
benefactors. In spite of all the finger pointing that takes place between
scientists and religious apologists, no one has clean hands in this conflict.
Perhaps this is why wisdom begins with God. But we are often so busy hurling
stones back and forth over what is truth that we forget that none of us stands
righteous before God.[iv]
No one will be saved by being right because no one is right. We are all flawed.
Humility might be a better aspect in our present state. While we might presume
on our righteous acts to stride confidently into heaven’s throne room believing
ourselves to be secure in our orthodoxy, we might better open our eyes to see
our unrighteousness toward others and recognize that our own lack of mercy and
compassion gives no justification to expect it from God. Without seeing ourselves
as we truly are, we cannot understand our own great need for mercy and
compassion.
There is a
way to be considered righteous, even though we are not really. We can simply
accept the righteousness of Christ on our behalf. This cannot happen unless we
admit that we are not right and cannot be right through any effort of ours. For
as long as we maintain that we can be right in any way, now or all the way up
to the Parousia, then just that much of our lives has no room for the
righteousness of Christ. Also, just that much of our lives becomes a seedbed
for spiritual pride. Out of that harvest of pride, there comes a disposition to
arrogantly consider ourselves more righteous than others, even though Christ’s
righteousness is not divided, more to some and less to others, but is offered
equally to all. We then may become petty judges and even spies, seeking to ferret
out the sins of others while overlooking our own hideous failings. All of this
comes not from God, but from the Accuser[v]
who takes perverse delight in revealing the sins of others, perhaps as a
distraction from his own great rebellion against heaven. We become like the
proverbial Wizard of Oz, distracting others from that man of sin hidden behind
the curtain of our effrontery.
By our
actions, we reveal our allegiance in that great conflict now raging. Are we
more interested in proving that we are right and revealing the sins of others in
order to prove that assertion? If so, we are most likely enlisted in the army
of rebellion and merely parroting the actions of our unholy general. However,
if we instead seek to cover the sins of others with grace and compassion, and
are less concerned with being right than with being merciful, then we may
safely trust instead to the rightness of our righteous Commander for we, like
the tax collector of old,[vi]
are in the army of God. When we come to this understanding, then we have truly
discovered the “beginning of wisdom.”
