Let's continue by looking at Proverbs 1:1-4:
“The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel:
To know wisdom and instruction,
and understand words of insight,
to receive instruction of the wise dealing, 
in righteousness, justice and equity; 
to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth…”

Tim Keller wrote in the introduction of his book on Proverbs that “One of the main messages of Proverbs is that you've never really thought enough about anything. Proverbs would be more like a smelling salt to startle you into alertness.” Every culture in the world has some sort of wisdom that it passes on. It is usually passed on from the older, more seasoned to the younger, less seasoned. Even in our culture, there is wisdom that is passed on to tell us what is essential to life and what is irrelevant. In our culture, it’s the artists who seem to pass on wisdom. So we might ask what is the wisdom of Quentin Tarantino or the wisdom of E. L. James? And it turns out that the modern wisdom that's passed down is fairly thin. It’s more like platitudes: You can do anything you put your mind to or Just be you. It's a very thin sort of fortune cookie wisdom. 

The quest for substantial wisdom, the kind of wisdom the Bible teaches, often takes a backseat. More people are concerned with facts. How does this work? Or some people are less concerned about wisdom and more concerned about following the moral rules, especially those who have grown up in a conservative religious environment. But wisdom seems to be more than just knowing facts and wisdom is more than just knowing the moral rules to follow Wisdom seems to be thicker than that. 

For instance, when a wife asks, “Does this make me look fat?”, a husband wouldn't respond by giving her the facts, nor would it be prudent for him to follow the moral rule of always telling the truth. I think for most husbands who go that route, it doesn't work out well for them. There is a way to answer that is honest and uplifting. 

Wisdom then is knowing the right thing to do even when the moral rule doesn't shed enough light on a situation and the facts may not be enough. This starts to make sense when you consider some of the questions we deal in life: What college should I go to? What car should I buy? Should I confront a friend about a certain behavior and what words should I use? Should I post that on Facebook? 

The main Hebrew word for wisdom is hokhmah. It means a necessary skill that one needs to live life, and ironically, the way to acquire the skill was by living life. Proverbs 1 uses other synonyms for wisdom such as insight, which means having a deep understanding of how things really work. It uses the word prudence, which has to do with making necessary distinctions. And then he uses the word discretion, which is the ability to make small judgments. This is closer to the New Testament word discernment. Put together, these words give us a sense of what wisdom is; it’s knowing the right thing to do at the right time in the right way with the right strength. 

Gerhard von Rad defines wisdom as “becoming competent with regard to the realities of life.” In other words, wisdom is becoming skillful as it concerns reality, understanding the reality of God, the reality of you and others, and then how you are to live in light of this. Wisdom is this kind life that is lived skillfully. 

All of us, I think, want to finish life well. We want to say with the apostle Paul what he write in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who  longed for his appearing.”

We all want to hear the Master say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). But let me offer this final thought and challenge: if you want to finish life well as a Christian, you have to learn how to live life well as a Christian. Wisdom is the path. You and I have to become wise to become skillful in living life the way God created it to be lived. 

Prayer for Today
Father in Heaven, would you give us an opportunity to put this into practice. Lord, make us this kind of skillful people who know what the right thing to do is in the right way with the right strength. We want to be the kind of people who simply trust you because we know that you are the ultimate reality in life. We thank you that we can know this because of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. It’s in Jesus name that we pray, amen.