Book of James - Part 6
November 13, 2022Pastor Patrick continued this series on the Book of James. A video of the message is here. Our Conversation Starter for this week is here.
Pastor Patrick started with a description of what is NOT wisdom: experience, intellect, and knowledge. He added that the original Hebrew meaning of wisdom is "skill in living." I'd like to expand on this notion of what wisdom is or isn't...
From BibleTools.org I found this quote: "Whereas the world associates wisdom with a rather abstract, philosophical dimension of life, the Bible's wisdom consists of a package of spiritual attributes that are deliberately shaped into a practical skill in living God's way. The use of the phrase 'deliberately shaped' is purposeful. Wisdom does not just magically appear. It is thoughtfully developed and used in the practical circumstances of everyday life. Its elements consist of such qualities as knowledge of God, understanding, discernment, judgment, prudence, equity, the fear of God, and more. As these elements are blended, shaped, and used, they become a spiritual sagacity combined with practical, useful skills in applying the teachings of God's way of life as exemplified by Jesus Christ." And I would add at the end: "and originally spelled out in the Torah."
If you search on "wisdom" you'll find a ton of stuff. Check out the Merriam Webster listing just of synonyms and antonyms as examples (over 150). Wisdom quotes are also fun to explore. But unless you stumble onto a religious-based source, you won't get any idea that God's wisdom is unique. And available for the asking (James 1:5). One thing I see often overlooked in discussing the nature of wisdom is the understanding of human nature. Having created humans, God has perfect understanding of human nature. And human nature is unchanging. Understanding that alone (that human nature is unchanging) requires wisdom. If you get to the core of the many wisdom messages in the Torah (over 3,000 years old!), you'll find that the principles apply as well today as they did then. That's because human nature is unchanging.
As for the "skill in living" definition. That's not really a direct translation (although "skill" is used to translate chokmah about 6 times out of 150+ times in the Hebrew Bible). "Skill of living" is more of a result of having wisdom rather than a definition of wisdom.
Why am I harping on "wisdom" like this? Because it is my firm belief that the Torah is the world's foundation, including Christianity's, for wisdom. When asked for wisdom, I can hear God saying, "Study Torah!"
Though human nature has not changed, many other things have changed over the last 3,000+ years (since the late Bronze Age), such as language, culture, religions, etc., things you would put under "situational awareness" because they change over time. Simply consider the things that have changed in the most recent few generations, changes that some of us have actually witnessed: # "pound sign" to # "hashtag", the definition of "marriage", all adults correcting kids in public to no non-parent adults correcting kids in public for fear of being charged with something, from "god-fearing" being a good thing to being silly, and abortion going from killing a life to a woman's right. The examples are legion. But what hasn't changed, ever, is human nature, and if you understand that (through study of the Torah, for example), you can "predict" where certain actions in certain situations will lead. You could call it being prophetic, but it's really just properly understood and applied wisdom, God's wisdom.
One of my favorite examples of "willing to yield" (recognizing the better) is Moses recognizing the value of the advice he got from his father-in-law, Jethro, about how to run a society better. See Exodus 18:13-27. "So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said." The advice was about spreading out the workload in running this new nation, the Israelites. And Jethro was not Jewish, he was a Midianite priest! The Israelites had very mixed luck with Midianites across the Biblical accounts.
One thing I had to ask myself, "why do the hairs go up on the back of my neck when I hear gushing about love, peace, yielding, overlooking mistakes, etc." (Not that Patrick was actually gushing, but that's often my immediate reaction anyway.) I use past tense because I have since learned a very helpful distinction from Prager: that there's a micro (personal) and a macro (global) way of looking at any given piece of wisdom. Micro is personal, one-on-one, within family, neighbor to neighbor, co-worker to co-worker etc. Macro is the big picture, societal-level kinds of thing. In the micro, all Patrick's points are spot on. In the macro, I would caution us to be careful. For example, peacefully yielding to Nazis would not have been wise, nor would minimalizing their mistakes be wise.
Speaking of micro/macro, one of the principles throughout the Torah is separations. Beginning with the second day of Creation, God made separations. Understanding all the separations/distinctions of the Torah is key to understanding the Torah. Examples of Torah separations: holy/profane, life/death, good/evil, male/female, God/man/animal, plant/animal, God/Priest/Israel/nations, etc.
Here's a little more wisdom from Leviticus: "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord. When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them." (Lev. 19:31-33 NIV) And once again, 2 of 3 verses conclude with "I am the Lord."
Bonus
"I am the Lord your God."
That phrase, or some variant of it, can be found at the end of many laws and commands. What's it mean? Why is it there, and repeated so often?
Generally, this phrase follows laws and admonitions whose violations are not likely to be discovered. In other words, there readily violated with little chance of consequence or punishment.
I think I've mentioned this before, but it's definitely applicable here. The famous "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18) is often quoted incompletely. The verse actually ends with "I am God." Many of the laws in that entire chapter of Leviticus contain a variation of that phrase.
The "I am God" phrase gets two key messages across. One, this law comes from God. And two, God is watching.