The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
September 13, 2009
Vol. 12 no. 35

Everything But...

I am not sure wisdom is that popular anymore. We prefer knowhow and technique to wisdom, and are attracted more to people who get things done. Understanding the world and its inhabitants at a deeper level is generally considered a waste of time by those who know how.

It used to be that wise people authored proverbs or one-liners that captured the essence of a situation or relationship - “a stitch in time saves nine” - and slightly less wise people read these proverbs and chewed on them until they were able to digest the proverb into their own way of living. All of us have more of these in the recesses of our memory than we care to remember, if we can remember them accurately!

But hey, if you are up for some good proverbs, it’s right here in the Book, the Book of Proverbs. Tradition attributes them all to the wisest - but not always the smartest! - of all the kings of Israel, Solomon. Surely more than a few other anonymous authors contributed as well to the collection. A favourite one is 3:25-26, “No need to panic over alarms or surprises or predictions that doomsday’s just around the corner, Because God will be right there with you; he’ll keep you safe and sound” (The Message). An extra cookie to anyone who knows a contemporary application!

Proverbs, however, is more than proverbs. The author or editor is concerned about (Divine) Wisdom and to make the point depicts Wisdom as a person, a woman, who runs out into the middle of Scarth Street Mall and shouts, not whispers, what it’s all about. Wisdom is not meant to be silenced, and in the church, our shouting still declares that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”