The Seven Pillars of Wisdom pt1

#5 July 14,2021

According to history Solomon ascended to the throne of David at the age of 15. At that young age Solomon was most likely overwhelmed. He probably knew that he needed to be more than He was and he chose God as the path to that change. In humility the young man honored God in the traditions of his fathers with 1,000 sacrificial offerings to the Lord on the sacred alter.

 

2 Chronicles 1:6 And Solomon went up thither to the brazen altar before the Lord, which was at the tabernacle of the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it.

 

After which he reached out to the Lord with this humble petition.

 

1 Kings 3:7-9

3:7 And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king, instead of David, my father, over thy people.

3:8 And I know not how to lead them, to go out, or come in before them, and I, thy servant, am as a little child, in the midst of thy people whom thou hast chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered, nor counted for multitude.

3:9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy people, so great a people?

 

In the night God came to Solomon in a dream and answered his petition.

 

2 Chronicles 1:7 In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee.

 

2 Chronicles 1:10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?

 

Of all the gifts and talents God was offering to Solomon, he chose wisdom. Only when we are able to understand the true nature of wisdom will ever fathom how precious a gift Solomon sought.

 

As a Hebrew we would define wisdom thusly:

 

Wisdom: Strong’s Concordance H2451 Chokmah {khok-maw’}

1.Skill in war 

2.Skill in administration 

3.Shrewdness 

4.Prudence (in religious affairs) 

 

The brevity of this definition allows us little insight to the true nature of all Solomon was seeking. Perhaps this modern version will add to our understanding.

 

Wisdom:

1.The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.

2.The soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment. Oxford Languages Dictionary

 

The Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines wisdom as “knowledge, and the capacity to make due use of it“. I like this one the best because it exposes us to the beneficial nature of wisdom and what it can bring to our life within God’s purpose. The knowledge we seek is the ways of God. We need also the ability to apply that knowledge to our life and the way we live. This would be the Wisdom of God.

 

Colossians 1:9-10

1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

 

The scriptures testify of Solomon, the wisdom of God, and two mothers (1Kings 3:16-28). As it is written two women laid claim to an infant as their child and Solomon, as King was to make valid the claim of one or the other. The two women were the only witnesses and each sought equally for the child to be theirs. Seemingly there was an impasse, but in the wisdom of God, Solomon had a way.

 

1Kings 3:24-25

24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.

25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

 

Solomon’s threat to cut the baby in two laid bare the truth of the situation. Only the real mother valued the child’s life above her ability to posses it. Even today I am astounded at Solomon’s ability to see the truth of the situation, but only in my latter years have I come to understand Solomon’s insight as wisdom. Wisdom is insight. Wisdom is the ability to understand how an esoteric concept not of this world can be applied to the life we live everyday. For instance:

 

Luke 10:28 And he answering, said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.

 

These are wonderful words. In fact many like myself hold them up as the very foundation of the Kingdom of God. But, how do they apply to my life. Where do they fit in the world of the modern, everyday, go to work, come home, have dinner, go to bed, get up, and start it all over again person. God’s wisdom creates within us the ability to make our life a life in God and of God.

 

Through the Proverbs of Solomon God opened my heart up to all I sought to know about wisdom how I could recognize it, and how I could utilize it. Allow me to share it with you.

 

Proverbs 9:1 Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars;

 

Wisdom comes to us personified as a woman. In Proverbs women used as a type and shadow of the Church that is the Bride of Christ is a reoccurring theme. Within that theme Solomon introduces us to the covenant bride and her abode, which she builds to house the faithful. As the mother she will become she is gathering God’s children to a place where she can edify them with holy knowledge and nourish them with the wisdom that will allow them to grow and become the Kingdom of God.

 

Ephesians 4:12-16

4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ;

4:13 Till we, in the unity of the faith, all come to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ;

4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

 

God seeks that we know and accept wisdom as an intimate companion like our mother, and not unlike a childhood friend. Remember your childhood and I think we can all draw up in our mind that one friend that made our days complete. We shared all our best-kept secrets with them, and they with us. If it was game, we wanted to be the same team. If it was food, we liked what they liked. In all things, we were one. God seeks for us to have this relationship with wisdom. James the brother of Christ recognized the attributes of God’s wisdom that Solomon referred to as “Seven Pillars”.

 

James 3:17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.  

 

Today our good friend Wisdom welcomes us to her home and beckons us to a feast. See the house for what it is and recognize all that it can be. Wisdom built it herself and designed into it all that she would need. She beckons us to join her there, that together we can make it a home. We can see the completeness of all she offers in the seven pillars she has used to make it both strong and secure. In security, it is complete. In righteousness, it is complete. In obedience, it is complete. In doctrine, it is complete. In humility to God it is complete. Within her walls, our ability to grow is made complete by the diligence we apply to our effort. Nothing need be added but surely, nothing can be taken away. Let us examine these seven pillars that we might seek for ourselves what the wisdom of God can bring to our covenant life and covenant labor.

 

James 3:13-17

3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

3:14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

3:15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

 

Before we expand verse 17 to examine the true nature of these seven pillars, let us understand the concept brought by the rest of this passage from James. Wisdom is more than just words.

 

James 2:25 For, as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

 

1 John 3: 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue only; but in deed and in truth.

 

The wisdoms of God are words that promote and produce growth. As faith without works is dead, wisdom without growth is useless. James opens our hearts to the true nature of wisdom by defining seven attributes that wisdom seeks to add to our life and the way we live our life. It allows our life to be that abode where wisdom lives and thrives.

 

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first

pure,

then peaceable,

gentle,

and easy to be entreated,

full of mercy

and good fruits,

without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

 

1.Pure: James exemplifies the axiom of the relationship between wisdom and growth in his explanation of purity before God.

 

James 1:23-27

1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass;

1:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the vices of the world.

 

God seeks from us purity in all our labors. Because of this, the seeds of wisdom He plants within our lives will be pure and undefiled. We can trust God in this because He promises it will be so. If God is to be God, His actions must define and exemplify His promises.

 

Luke 6:43-43

6:43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit;

6:44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

 

Moreover as our Father, He wants us to have all we need and offers us the best He has to give. The purity of His gifts, reflect the purity of His wisdom, which reflects the purity of His love for all of His creation and all His children. By offering us this purity, He seeks that we grow in purity, too. His pure offering to us becomes our pure offering to the world.

 

Matthew 7:20 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

 

2.Peaceable: Do not misunderstand the intent of peaceable as it defines God’s wisdom. Accepting God’s wisdom causes us to change and most often that change within us is less that peaceable. In fact Christ promised us that His word and His Kingdom would begin with the chaotic state we call division.

 

Luke 12:60-61

12:60 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, nay; but rather division.

12:61 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house, divided, three against two, and two against three.

12:62 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

 

During this time of change we must trust in God and remember the purpose we seek to fulfill. Consider our toddler when we see him try to stick his finger in an electric outlet. Do you really think that a three year old is capable of grasping the full nature of the force He is messing with? I am sure we will agree that a peaceful dissertation on the power of the electricity and the potential danger they face will do little more than prompt them to try it again. We must face them with a deterrent they can understand. Some will choose a firm grasp on the hand and a loud NO. Others will choose a swat to the rump. Point is we need to challenge their curiosity of electric outlets in a way that tells them. “Don’t do that”. Our child needs to be chastised.

 

Hebrews 12:5-6

12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him;

12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

 

Chastening is not a peaceable thing. It is an action intended to quickly bring the desired result. For us, we seek to keep our toddler alive and the quickest way to the desired result is to teach our toddler in no uncertain terms to keep his fingers out of the outlet. Their failure to understand can put them in danger. Our failure to respond to their ignorance can cause them death. Such is the nature of chastening and punishment.

 

God as our Father is faced with the same situation. He chastens us in an attempt to instill in us His desired result, which is to teach us virtue and bring us into a state of righteousness. Our ignorance puts us in danger. His failure to respond can cause our death, forever.

 

Hebrews 12:9-11

12:9 Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

 

The wisdom of the Lord seeks to bring all His children the peaceable fruits of righteousness that make us secure in the Lord. The wisdom of God brings us the understanding that even chastisement is an act of peace when it is offered in love. Such   is the love of the Father.

 

3.Gentle: Once again we must understand that the word used does not describe the nature of the wisdom offered, but rather that which it seeks to add to our life. As God’s children, we are tempted to reach out to the world in a spirit of judgment. We must first remember that judgment is God’s labor not ours. He would rather lay aside the burden of judgment, but if God is to be God, He must offer mankind both justice and judgment. 

 

Alma 19:104 But there is a law given and a punishment affixed, and repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth: otherwise, justice claimeth the creature, and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.

 

We are not encumbered with the labor of justice. Because of this God seeks that we reach out to each other and the world in a Spirit of gentleness, meekness, endowed with the abilities to be both patient and longsuffering. In this we seek to open the heart of the nonbeliever to the salvation of repentance before God and receive the miracle of redemption He offers. We seek them to choose for themselves to become children of God. Through us God seeks to express both His love and His mercy awaiting that decision. We labor to be the temporal hands of a loving Father that seeks repentance, and promises mercy, not condemnation nor judgment.

 

John 3:16-17

3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish; but have everlasting life.

3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

 

This is how God proposed it. This is how the testimony of our lives should present it to the world.

 

2 Timothy 2:24-26

2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient;

2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

 

As children of the Most High can we expect ourselves to give less to them than God offered us?

Titus 3:3-7

3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

3:4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,

3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

3:6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior;

3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

Understand what a task this is. It requires a strength that is not inherent in man. The natural man will fail in all that is required by this axiom of wisdom, because they will receive the knowledge but fail to act. Only the Spirit of God can supply the strength we need to succeed when faced with a full measure the challenge of meekness. We must remain humble and gentle, but the humility required is only available to us through God’s Spirit. Humility received through the Spirit is the hallmark of a Christ-like ministry. Yes humility in the face of all obstacles, even death.

 

DC 124:4b And, if these will accept this appointment and remain humble, faithful, and diligent, they shall with their brethren be greatly blessed in ministering the word and bringing souls unto me. Let the quorum be not doubting but believing and I, the Lord, will bless them.

 

The wisdom of God teaches us meekness and humility in all stations of life.

 

1 Peter 2:18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

 

The gentle approach that reflects God’s wisdom becomes a challenge when are faced with one who seeks to be our opponent. In the fullness of this challenge our ability to continue in meekness must be established on a solid foundation of patience and longsuffering. We must believe completely in the ability of God to reach out through us and give us the strength we need to succeed. This was the path Christ walked and we must be prepared to walk both with and as Him in the true spirit of humble ministry. This requires us to be bold as well as meek. Only in the Spirit of God can we hope to achieve this.

 

3 Nephi 5:84-90

5:84 And behold, it is written, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

5:85 But I say unto you, that ye shall not resist evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

5:86 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

5:87 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

5:88 Give to him that asketh thee, and to him that would borrow of thee, turn thou not away.

5:89 And behold, it is written also, that thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy;

5:90 But behold I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you,

5:91 That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good; therefore those things which were of old time, which were under the law, in me are all fulfilled.

 

The testimony of the gentle man is God’s wisdom. Christ lived, died, and lives today by that wisdom, and in that wisdom. It would behoove us to do the same.

 

In this first installment on the attributes of wisdom, we have shared three of the seven. Ponder them and reach out to God for all the understanding He will give. If there are questions ask. If you seek discussion, offer it and we will talk. Share with me your doubts and I will offer you the assurances God has given me. Soon we will walk together again and share the final four attributes of the “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”.

 

Praise God for the blessings we have received today, and praise Him more for those yet to come.

FRED