Tag: wisdom

The Bible in a Year – 12 October

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

12 October. 1 Corinthians chapters 1-4

The relationship between the apostle Paul and the church in Corinth, as revealed in his two letters (and what some people have deduced from them about their situation), is a fascinating one.  Sometimes he is praising them, holding them up as example to others of what Christians should be like; then a short while later criticising their behaviour and calling them immature.

Paul’s main criticism in this first quarter of the book is that some of the congregation think that they follow, or even worse “belong to”, himself, or to one of the other apostles, rather than Christ.  He has to remind them that all Christians are baptised into Christ (or, in most churches, into the Trinity of God the Father, Jesus Christ who is God’s Son, and the Holy Spirit).  In chapter 3 he uses the analogy of farming, where he and others who have taught them the faith are like farmers, who may plant the crop, but without God’s gifts of earth, air, sun and rain it will not grow.  So it is with Christians: only God grows faith within a person; other people can only provide the “seeds of faith”.

In chapter 4 he uses a different analogy, that of father and child. A parent can teach a child the facts of life, but maturity is something that each person has to work out for him- or herself from experience.  Growth into maturity is what we call wisdom.  But for Paul, human wisdom is not enough in the Kingdom of God.  We also need spiritual maturity, and as far as that was concerned, the Corinthians, although adults, were so immature that they were like babies who are not yet weaned (3:2) – what an insult!  Their immaturity is shown by the division among them according to which of the apostles they wrongly claim to belong to.

Division in the church is not new.  Whether at a global level between “liberal” and “conservative” cultures, at a national level between members of an “official” state church and independent ones, within one church network according to preferences in worship, or even within a single congregation over some trivial issue like whether to replace pews with chairs, we hear it all the time. The media love a ‘divided church’ story, and those of us who are members of such congregations should be ashamed. We need to grow up!

Such divisions not only attract ridicule, they hinder the work of the Holy Spirit who can only work where there is unity of purpose, and mutual love. There was a parody on social media of a well known hymn.  The joke version read “Like a mighty tortoise moves the church of God: brothers we are treading where we’ve always trod.”  The original, not often heard these days, is powerful when it is not only sung but believed as true, and lived out: “Like a mighty army moves the church of God: brothers we are treading where the saints have trod.”  The power of the Holy Spirit that Paul hints at in these opening chapters, and which he will discuss later in his letter, is what moves this mighty army.

Choose your metaphor then: growing crops, a family, or an army. Whichever you prefer, be a part of it, growing together in the love of God, and resist division like the plague.

The Bible in a Year – 24 August

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

The last third of the book continues in much the same vein as the rest. It is chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes, paraphrased, that gives us the English idiom “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”, in other words there is no point denying ourselves life’s pleasures, since whether we enjoy them or not, we will all suffer the same fate of death, with our bodies returning to the earth  (12:7) and no sensations or thoughts beyond that (9:10). Yet we should not neglect to work as well as rest and play (11:6), and throughout the book there are reminders that there is still a judgement (9:1, 11:9, 12:14).

What have I learnt from reading this most unusual book of the Bible – unusual in that it appears at first sight to negate all the other ones that instruct us to live in simplicity, chastity and humility, and work hard? Maybe what matters is not that we live like that, but that doing so makes us more aware of mortality. Denying oneself the “good things” in life may make it easier to be aware of our inner being and contemplate death, but if we can manage to enjoy life’s pleasures and find satisfaction in hard work while still being aware of the death that awaits our bodies and the judgement that awaits the soul, so much the better.  Therein is wisdom, for Solomon obviously managed it.

 

So did Jesus, who seems to have had a whale of a time for the three years of his ministry in Galilee and Judea, knowing all along that a cruel death awaited him.  Beyond that, he knew, he alone would not be judged, for he himself is the judge.  But Jesus has experienced earthly life in all its pleasure and pain in order that he might judge us for our lives – not by how much we have suffered, but rather how much we have enjoyed it, while loving God and our neighbour as well.

 

The motto of the Anglican Diocese of Leeds for which I work is “Loving, Living, Learning”.  I thinks Solomon would have adopted that – he knew how to love, he enjoyed life (despite its “vanity”) and he had learnt true wisdom.

 

The Bible in a Year – 23 August

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

23 August. Ecclesiastes chapters 5-8

Chapter 5 starts with a warning that we should be careful in the words we use in prayer, for it is quite possible to speak foolishly to God or to make a promise (vow) to him that we cannot keep. After that the text returns to the theme of the opening chapters – that both the life of the rich and that of the poor is in vain.

 

Chapter 7 is a series of short proverbs of practical wisdom. Its conclusion is “I said, ‘I will be wise’, but it was far from me. That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?” (7:23) In other words, as Pontius Pilate famously asked, “what is truth?” – even the wisest person by human standards cannot comprehend ultimate reality.

 

It is not until near the end of chapter 8 that we begin to see an answer to the “problem of vanity” that has occupied the writer since the start of the work – why is it that even being healthy, wealthy, wise and happy is pointless since we all die?  There can only an answer to that if death is not, in fact, the end of life.  What does make sense is an understanding that the righteous life and wise behaviour will be rewarded by God in the life to come: “Though sinners do evil a hundred times and prolong their lives, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they stand in fear before him, but it will not be well with the wicked, neither will they prolong their days like a shadow, because they do not stand in fear before God.” (4:12-13)

The Bible in a Year – 17 August

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

17 August. Job chapters 40-42

In these final chapters, God continues his proof of being greater than man’s understanding, by describing in detail two awesome creatures called Behemoth and Leviathan (sometimes identified as the rhinoceros and the crocodile) that only he can deal with. How can man think of himself as master of creation when he cannot even tame these animals?  That is enough to bring Job to a level of humility where he can acknowledge that he has understood the nature of God.  He is pardoned, as are his companions, and in the ultimate “happy aver after ending” Job lives another 140 years, through four generations of a new family. We hear no more of Satan, who obviously lost his bet that he could cause Job to curse God.

 

Fairy-tale endings apart, what has the book of Job got to teach us?  It has covered many themes such as God’s discipline shown through suffering, but not as a punishment for our sins; the impossibility of being morally perfect; the finality of death and reality of judgement; the emptiness of atheism; the dangers of criticising other people, for judgement must be left to God; the impossibility of knowing God, yet the importance of accepting the righteousness that he offers.  It is a work of moral philosophy, of theology, and of practical wisdom, an attempt to explain the elusive “meaning of life”.  Having some grasp of the meaning of life may be the only way that a person can be prepared for the sort of disaster that befell Job.

The Bible in a Year – 12 August

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

12 August. Job chapters 24-28

Nearly all of today’s long reading is attributed to the mouth of Job. Bildad only gets a quick word in! Bildad (in chapter 25) and Job (in 26/27) agree on one thing: God’s majesty is unknowable, he is high above mankind (metaphorically speaking) and we have now way of ever understanding all his purposes.  But they draw different conclusions: Bildad thinks that humans therefore can never be right with God, and must suffer the consequences.  Job, on the other hand, sees God’s majesty as all the more reason to seek to find righteousness in him, and know him as best we can.

Before this exchange, Job paints a clear picture in chapter 24 of the harsh injustices of the world, the suffering of the oppressed and the apparent impunity of the wicked. Afterwards, in chapter 28, he contrasts wisdom with the metals and precious minerals that miners seek: with great difficulty they find riches in the earth, but no-one can find wisdom on earth, for it comes only from God.  It is with these worldviews – God as the only source of wisdom, and the injustice of life on earth – that Job can insist that people can find their righteousness in God, even though we can never know him fully. It is better to be on his side, even though we suffer in this life, than to give up the struggle to be good, and end up being wiped out of God’s memory like the wicked.

The Bible in a Year – 28 July

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this, and also my introduction to the Proverbs.

28 July. Proverbs chapters 7-9

We first saw mention of the “loose woman” in chapter 2, and she appears also in chapter 5 (part of yesterday’s reading that I did not comment on). In chapter 7 she takes centre stage.  Although most translations use the word “prostitute”, the woman here is not like the modern “sex worker”, rather she is portrayed as a married woman who dares to go out in the streets looking for a lover while her husband is away.

 

Given the number of references I found in the prophets to prostitution, which were nearly always metaphors for idolatry, it might be the same here – is the word of wisdom really about not being lured away by exotic religions, and attractive-sounding philosophies (which nowadays might include some of the self-help crazes and health fads that actually harm people rather than help them)?   Possibly, but I think it is probably meant literally.  Even in our libertarian society where adultery is not a crime, it is still socially frowned on and an acceptable ground for divorce.  Not only does it lead to jealous partners who might turn to violence in revenge, but affairs rarely last long and only end up damaging everyone involved.

 

There is also a clear parallel between the adulteress of chapter 7 roaming the streets and charming young men astray, and Wisdom as presented in the first half of chapter 8, likewise as a woman roaming the streets, but this time offering to share her virtues such as prudence and honesty.  Which way will a young man turn?  To the obvious but harmful attractions of a promiscuous lifestyle, or to a more virtuous and ascetic one that leads to wisdom?  Fortunately, many people who try the former when they are young do end up happily and faithfully married, but not everyone.

 

In chapter 9, Wisdom is contrasted again (v.1-9) with another woman, this time Folly (v.13-18). Both invite people into their houses – to eat either the bread and wine of insight, or the or the “stolen water” and “secret bread” of death.

 

In the second half of chapter 8, Wisdom is presented, astonishingly, as having existed before Creation itself. It is for that reason that Christians have often understood her to be the personification of the holy Spirit, or of the Word of God who became incarnate in Jesus, who is acknowledged in the Nicene Creed as “begotten, not made … through him all things were made”.

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 14 July

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this, and the introduction to the Psalms for this book of the Bible in particular.

14 July. Psalms 90-96

Psalm 90 is unlike most of the others.  For a start, it is described in the heading as a prayer rather than a song, and attributed to Moses rather than to David or one of his contemporaries. Presumably by their time (several hundred years after Moses) it had been handed down orally before being written down and set to music.   Also, it seems quite different in its theme, more in line with the “wisdom books” of the Bible such as Ecclesiastes.   If Moses did compose it himself, it may have been at the end of his long life, looking back on the generations he had seen born and die in Egypt and then in the wilderness.

 

He considers how even a long human life – 70 or 80 years – is a mere moment in God’s eyes, as fleeting as dust, and “a thousand years are as a day”.  In fact, if God is eternal, the creator of time itself, then there is no difference to God between the nanosecond lifespan of the most unstable atom, and the several-billion-year existence of a star.

 

What matters, says Moses, is not quantity of life but quality.  The life of 80 years may be “all toil and trouble” (v.10), but more important is that we ask God to “satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (v.14).  He is concerned more for the next generation (v.16) than his own.

hen&chicken

Psalm 91 is about God’s protection, and includes the image of God guarding us under his wings. Surely that should be “her wings” –  it is the mother bird who protects her young, as I saw only recently with this 2-week-old-chick.  Even so, it is hard to have faith that “Because you have made the Lord your refuge … no evil shall befall you” (v.9-10), as experience shows that people of faith suffer no less than others.  Even Jesus, when he was tempted by the Devil to put into practice verses 11-12 “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you … so that you will not dash your foot against a stone”, he sent the Devil packing with a retort that we must not put God to the test. God’s protection is not to be treated link a cloak of invisibility or some other super-power, but rather about him not letting anything destroy what really matters – faith itself.

 

Psalm 94 has a similar theme, that true wisdom takes the long view that faith and obedience are a better way of achieving long-term justice and peace than going along with short-sighted fools in violence and short-term gain.  But Psalms 92, 93, and 95 are joyful songs of praise.  In fact Psalm 95, known from its opening word as the “Venite” (“come!”) is still said or sung at morning prayer every day in the Anglican tradition.

 

The Bible in a Year – 13 April

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

13 April. 1 Kings chapters 3-5

What do you give the man who has everything?  Here we read of the vision in which God offers Solomon anything he wants.  Instead of anything material, he asks for wisdom to make him a good ruler.  That was to be the foundation for an astonishing kingship.  Almost immediately (if the stories here are in their right order) he gives what is perhaps his most famous judgement, ruling that of two women who argue who is a child’s mother, the one willing to part with him rather than see him come to harm is the right one. Sadly, as we all know from the tragedies of “Bay Peter” and others like him, there are still those parents who are willing to let their children be harmed, or even abuse them themselves.

 

Solomon’s wisdom, we are told, extends beyond wise law-giving, as he was a great naturalist, philosopher and song writer. Such polymaths (people who excel in many aspects of human knowledge and experience) are rare, but greatly to be valued.

 

Solomon then begins his life’s great work – the building of a great temple in Jerusalem as a permanent replacement for the tabernacle tent of the Exodus years.  Much of the rest of the book will be taken up with it, just as the great cathedrals of Europe took a lifetime or more to complete. Like them, construction required vast numbers of masons, joiners and other craftsmen.  Interestingly,  although this is to be the great place for worship for the Israelites, Solomon not only accepts but seeks the skills of foreign workers, in this case the Sidonians and Lebanese.  Let those who seek to reduce immigration in our own day take note!

 

The Bible in a Year – 2 April

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

2 April. 1 Samuel chapters 25-27

The first story in these readings negates the common English maxim that “flattery will get you nowhere”.  Abigail is a competent and intelligent woman who, like many others, suffers from being married to a boorish and alcoholic man whose actions cause immense problems for the family.  Things come to a head when he refuses a reasonable request for hospitality from David’s workers. The two men appear to have grazed flocks in overlapping areas (in the days before boundary fences, presumably) and their workers got on well with each other. Nabal’s refusal not only results in complaints from his own workers, but from David himself who (being the warrior he is) sets out with an armed posse to attack Nabal and his farm.  It is only Abigail’s swift diplomatic action in sending out donkeyloads of food and other gifts, and prostrating herself before David as “unfit to wash the feet of his servants” (maybe where John the Baptist got inspiration for his phrase of being “unfit to untie Jesus’ sandals”), that  saved the day and de-escalated the conflict.  This graceful and generous response seems to have so enraged Nabal that he gave himself a heart attack (or possibly stroke) from which he died, and Abigail became one of David’s wives.   It may be costly to be a peacemaker, but they are among the ones Jesus called ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’.

 

You may recall that in yesterday’s reading David proves to his enemy Saul that he was not out to kill him, by merely cutting off part of Saul’s robe when he had the opportunity to take his life.  In chapter 26 a similar situation arises – Saul is once again persecuting David, who with his men get past the guard (if there was one!) in Saul’s camp and into his tent while he sleeps, but merely takes his sword and water-jar to prove he had been there.  Saul again promises peace to David, but as he so quickly broke his promise last time, David will not believe him, and leaves the country altogether to become a mercenary soldier for another king.  Jesus told us to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” and this is a good example – don’t rise to the bait of other people’s aggression (dove) but don’t be fooled by promises that they cannot keep (serpent).