Wisdom

Tim and Jon discuss the Wisdom Literature in the Bible: the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.

All of these books are wrestling with a particular set of questions. We’ll talk about how we got these wisdom books in our holy scriptures. We’ll discuss why there are three different books with three very different perspectives on why their is suffering in the world and the perspective we should have on how to live.

This book is for understanding Proverbs and Parables and Riddles for the wise. This book claims that there is a powerful, mysterious force in the universe called Hochma, we translate into “Wisdom". Wisdom is built into the universe principle in which the whole universe is ordered and which it coheres. The book starts with nine chapters of speeches encouraging us to seek after Hochma.

Welcome to part two in our series on reading the books of wisdom literature in the Bible.

The book of Ecclesiastes is a unique book in the Bible that has delighted and confused Christians throughout the years. It is our second book in the Wisdom series. One thing that makes it unique is that the book relies on ancient wisdom as core to understanding God’s world, Ecclesiastes’ wisdom is based off of experimentation. The core conclusion of Ecclesiastes is that life is "hevel." “Hevel, hevel, everything is hevel.” And while modern translations typically translate that Hebrew word as “meaningless,” in Hebrew, it is the word for smoke or vapor.

We continue our conversation on Ecclesiastes. We let “The Teacher” dismantle our perspective about the world by discussing death, time and chance, and it isn’t going to be pleasant.

Why do good people suffer? Why is there evil in the world? Why can’t God make it so that everyone always gets what they deserve? Many people turn to Job to learn about how to deal with suffering as it is a very realistic portrayal of someone dealing with circumstances that are unfair. But is that all the book of Job is about?

This is part two of our three part conversation on Job. If God is just, does that mean that the universe ought to always be run by the principle of strict just compensation? The book of Job is a perfect thought experiment to explore this question. Job has done nothing to deserve the suffering that is inflicted on him, and God acknowledges there was no reason. But even though Job doesn’t deserve it, he is still human, and he reacts to the suffering in a myriad of ways. Sometimes trusting and praising God, sometimes accusing God of being cruel and untrustworthy.

This is our third and final conversation about the book of Job. First we talk about Elihu, a character that seems to pop up our of nowhere. Then we talk about chapter 28 in Job, how it stands apart from the rest of the speeches and gives us a clue as to what the point of the whole book is. Then we talk about the final showdown. God responds to Job’s accusations of being unjust and unfair.