Finding Wisdom
If wisdom is a gift, the wisest person in history was wise before he received his.
King Solomon has been acclaimed as one of the wisest people to ever live; both history and scripture are rich with tales of his wit and wisdom. And yet, the wisest thing the king ever did was before he actually received his gift of wisdom — the wisest thing he ever did was to ask for wisdom.
When God appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked what he should grant him, Solomon chose to ask for the wisdom to rule his people justly and well. The Lord was pleased with this and said, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.”
Solomon’s greatest wisdom lay in knowing the value of wisdom.
Scripture tells us to ask like Solomon and we will receive, seek and we will find — but how do we know what to ask for, and what to seek? Scripture gives us the answer to this too. Among the things that Jesus taught us to pray for, one takes precedence. Before asking for daily bread or protection from sin and temptation, Jesus told us to:
“Pray, then, in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
may your name be revered as holy.
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.” [Matthew 6:9,10]
Your kingdom come, your will be done.
In the same sermon on the mount, Jesus again advises, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” [Matthew 6:33]
When Solomon put forward his request to the Lord, it was not wisdom he was asking for. “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” [1 Kings 3:9]
So while it may appear that Solomon was asking for wisdom, he was really asking for the ability to govern the people as GOD willed — so that his own kingdom on earth would be like God’s kingdom in heaven. Solomon’s prayer was not for wisdom, but as Jesus advised us many years later — “Your kingdom come, your will be done.”
But in order to actively seek, as Solomon did, the kingdom of God — a place where everyone knows God and does his will — we have to desire it. This is simple in task, albeit a little difficult to understand for most of us. To be holy, to turn away from the things of this world, we need only to turn towards the things of heaven. We may not always be able to control the things we say or do or feel, but we can certainly decide which things to want. Once we want the things of heaven, including to do the will of God, we will necessarily get them, for this is God’s will too. Only then will there be a spontaneous (and permanent) turning away from the things of the world. [Confused? More on this here!]
To desire the kingdom of God, however, we must know how valuable it is.
Unless we understand the value of a diamond, will we not consider it merely a shard of pretty glass? When it comes to heaven — how can we know the value of something we have not experienced? Most of us think of heaven in physical terms — streets of gold, the tree of life, pearl gates — yes, this is how John describes heaven in the book of Revelations. But before we begin to dream of these heavenly sights, let us learn about heavenly things from the one who came from heaven and rose to it.
In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus (and us!) “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
If hell is everlasting death, heaven is eternal life. While praying for his disciples at the last supper, Jesus explains what is meant by eternal life — “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” [John 17:3]
If eternal life — heaven — is knowing God, how do we understand the value of knowing God?
The answer is simple — the more we know God, the more we want to know him. Such is the deliciously wonderful nature of God that led David to say, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” and Jesus to declare simply, “Come and see.” God knows that he is so irresistible that once we get a taste of him, we will go looking for more.
So, ironically, the way to truly know God is to simply GET to know him.
Scripture is aware of this irony too, employing it in the book of Proverbs where Solomon shares his secret –“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.” [Proverbs 4:7] The way to know God then is similar to the way to find wisdom — to know God, get to know him; to find wisdom, get wisdom!
How do we get to know God? The answer is simple and Jesus gives it to us. When Thomas asked him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Jesus is the Way to know God; it is through Jesus that we can truly fathom the depth of God’s love for us. [Not convinced? More on this here!]
It is unsurprising then, that Jesus is also the way to find wisdom — because Jesus IS Wisdom.
Consider these words from the author of the Book of Wisdom and then Jesus’ — follow the colour code and you will see that the Wisdom that he speaks of…is Jesus!
The author of the Book of Wisdom goes on to say, as John the Baptist will say many years later, that it is Wisdom sent by God who will save those who are willing to be taught. Compare these verses from the author of the Book of Wisdom (left) and those by John the Baptist and see if you can spot Jesus in both sets.
The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon is filled with references like these that personify Wisdom. The discerning reader will see that although Wisdom is described as feminine, it is Jesus who satisfies her description, and one can very easily recognise Jesus in the Works of Wisdom.
The more we grow in wisdom — the closer we get to Jesus — the more we will learn and understand the value of knowing God. Jesus seems to tell us not one, but three parables in about the importance of knowing the value of God — the Pearl of Great Price, of a man who found treasure in a field and the fish caught in the drag nets. These seem to be parables meant to illustrate that those who recognise the kingdom of heaven and choose it will prosper, while those who don’t, will be doomed.
But Jesus wouldn’t need three parables to say one thing, would he?
Instead of looking at these as separate parables, can we look at them as a string of pearls instead, each making a point in the larger story of the mercy of God revealing his kingdom to us?
Let us read what Jesus says in Matthew 13:44–47 :
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The obvious recommendation to us is to pursue Wisdom/Jesus as a merchant in search of fine pearls — he was able to find the pearl of great price because he had been in search of it.
But even for those of us who don’t know that we have to search for Wisdom, Jesus reveals himself to us as found treasure. The man who found the treasure in the field hadn’t been looking for it. He had been tilling the land, working (for someone else, as most of us do!) and found the treasure, just as some of us find Jesus in the midst of our struggles.
When Jesus reveals himself to us, though we may have been completely oblivious of him buried under our troubles, we too recognise the treasure he is from the joy that he brings and are able to understand that he is worth more than all else that we own.
But after we have discovered Jesus in our suffering — after we have the treasure, what do we do? Do we close the box and sit on the treasure, or do we become the merchant, who goes out in search of more fine pearls of Wisdom — more of Jesus — by meeting others who have discovered the treasure, and trading understanding?
Until finally, as in Jesus’ third parable, the day of reckoning arrives. A net will be cast, and like fish we will all be caught — everyone will have an experience of Jesus. Here, Jesus says, the “bad” fish will be sorted from the good. But if everyone ‘caught’ has had an experience of Jesus, why are there some who are still “bad”? The bad fish are only bad because of the toxins in them — they are still full of the things of the world, and have not allowed their encounter with Jesus, even at the end, to transform them. But the ones who discovered Jesus as treasure, and grow in spirituality with every experience they collect as pearls, have more of Jesus and less of the world in them.
It is here, that Jesus then speaks of the scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven —
“Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
Here is someone who knows full well the value of the riches he has obtained. It has now become his personal treasure and he looks with joy upon it. It is no longer just the treasure that he found in a field one day — that treasure has grown, and so has he. He is now not only a scribe, simply studying the scriptures, but a disciple, having experienced them. His treasure has pearls that are old (and the memories of how he found them), as well as new ones that he has sought, recognised and acquired.
This is who we too must become; a disciple who does not at any point stop seeking Wisdom/Jesus/the kingdom of God — who does not at any point close the box and think to himself, “Aaah, now I know God.”
May you always seek more Wisdom and find more Jesus.
