Walking With the Wise

Learning from the Bible's poetic wisdom

Feb 10, 2025

man in blue jacket and blue denim jeans walking on dirt road during daytime — Photo by Juliane Liebermann on Unsplash

Walk with the wise and become wise;
associate with fools and get in trouble.
Proverbs 13:20

Sounds like good advice, doesn’t it? Thankfully, the Bible provides a number of books that are good sources of wisdom. We refer to these books as “wisdom literature.” Two weeks ago, we explored the Book of Psalms, and many of the psalms are prayers that also pass on wisdom. In addition to these psalms, we have the books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. We’ll take a look at each of these, but first we need to know what we mean by wisdom and foolishness.

The passage I quoted above teaches us to walk with the wise and to not associate with fools. Does this mean we should seek out the smartest people to spend time with, and avoid those who aren’t quite so sharp? Should we have people take an IQ test before we hang out with them? The word wise in the Bible doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence. It refers to someone who has a “skill for living,” particularly in the sense of seeking to making choices and decisions that are pleasing to God (and therefore healthy for us). On the other hand, fools aren’t people who are ignorant or unintelligent, but those who willingly resist and defy what they know to be right, and insist on stubbornly doing their own thing. This is why:

Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom.
Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.
Proverbs 9:10

If these biblical books can help us gain skill in living godly, healthy lives, we should take a closer look, right?

Job

The book of Job is an extremely ancient book, possibly even written before the time of Moses. Many are familiar with the basic story: God allowed Satan to harm Job (but not to kill him). Through tragedy after tragedy, Job lost almost everything he knew and loved. Despite being tempted even by his wife to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9), Job held onto his faith in God, movingly expressed in words such as these:

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.
Job 13:15 (NIV)
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.
Job 1:21

The book of Job begins and ends with the story of Job, but most of the book is a poetic exchange between Job and his friends (and ultimately God). It’s easy to get lost in all the Hebrew poetry, so it’s important to pay attention to who’s speaking at any given point. This is especially necessary because Job’s friends have a perception of Job’s predicament that’s completely upside down.

They tell him repeatedly (in very poetic words) that all of his horrible troubles are simply due to his sin. They insist if he would just repent to God and stop sinning, then all the bad things would stop happening and he’d experience only what is pleasant. (We still hear these ideas today, don’t we?) Toward the end of the book, God himself rebukes the friends and their condemnation of Job. So when we seek wisdom from this book, we want to make sure we’re not drawing “wisdom” from the unwise friends of Job! And we certainly don’t want to be teaching their erroneous thoughts as the wisdom of God!

Ecclesiastes

If you don’t understand what this book is all about, it can be the most depressing book in the Bible. Many believe the author was Solomon, although other scholars disagree. Solomon does seem to fit the author’s descriptions of himself. He was king of Israel, ruling from Jerusalem. He had almost unlimited resources and power. And he made it his goal to discover the ultimate meaning of life.

He begins the book with his conclusion:

“Everything is meaningless,”
says the Teacher,
“completely meaningless!”
Ecclesiastes 1:2

Isn’t that uplifting?

After describing the continuous, unending cycles within nature, he writes:

Everything is wearisome beyond description.
No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied.
No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
History merely repeats itself.
It has all been done before.
Nothing under the sun is truly new.
We don’t remember what happened in the past,
and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
Ecclesiastes 1:8-11

In the rest of his book, he tells of all the things he tried to find meaning and purpose in life. He poured himself into great accomplishments and building projects, into learning and wisdom. He sought to bring justice and benefit to society, and he sought pleasure for pleasure’s sake. Everything became ultimately meaningless to him, like “grasping oil” or “chasing the wind.” The best he could come up with is to fear God, work hard, and enjoy whatever you have with those you love for as long as you can. (Doesn’t sound that different from the common wisdom of today, does it?) For a book we find in the Bible, it’s surprisingly cynical.

But then we notice a phrase that’s repeated throughout the book. The author is describing what he’s found “under the sun.” Meaninglessness and a lack of any real sense of purpose are what we find by looking “under the sun”—that is, from a purely human perspective. Unless we somehow see life from God’s perspective, this is the most we can hope for.

I like to compare the depressing, “under the sun” meaninglessness of Ecclesiastes with the words of Paul in his letter to the Philippians:

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Philippians 3:7-8

So we see only what is under the sun, or we see everything that is under the Son.

Song of Songs

This book (another one associated with Solomon) can be confusing to readers. If you’ve never read it before, it can seem surprisingly graphic for something in the Bible:

Your lips are like scarlet ribbon;
your mouth is inviting.
Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates
behind your veil.
Your neck is as beautiful as the tower of David,
jeweled with the shields of a thousand heroes.
Your breasts are like two fawns,
twin fawns of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
Before the dawn breezes blow
and the night shadows flee,
I will hurry to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of frankincense.
You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
beautiful in every way.
Song of Songs 4:3-7

Now, today we wouldn’t ordinarily compliment someone by telling them, “Your teeth are as white as sheep [Song of Songs 4:2]”! But it’s not hard to look past the ancient Hebrew expressions to see the feelings being expressed. These are emotions many know well. The church went through a period of history when people were embarrassed by the sexual frankness of this book. So they decided it had to be some kind of allegory about Christ and the church.

The problem is this book is about precisely what it seems to be about! It’s difficult to read Christ and the church into a passage such as:

You are my private garden,
my treasure, my bride,
a secluded spring, a hidden fountain.
Your thighs shelter a paradise of pomegranates . . .
Song of Songs 4:12-13

Okay, but why is it in the Bible? And why are we talking about this book in a study of the wisdom books in the Bible? Don’t forget what “wisdom” is all about in Scripture. It’s a skillfulness in living a life that’s pleasing to God (and therefore healthy). Next to our relationship with God, what’s more central to our lives than our marital relationship? And what demonstrates the wisdom of God better than a healthy, vibrant marriage?

I think it’s wonderful this book is in Scripture. Many times, Christians have viewed sexual intimacy as a necessary evil. But the Bible celebrates this beautiful intimacy between husband and wife. We need to remember that the magic of romantic love and the wondrous intensity of physical and emotional intimacy we experience in marriage were created for us by God. The more we see the precious beauty of God-given sexual intimacy in marriage, the more we recognize sex outside of the marriage relationship as a cheap imitation.

Proverbs

When we think of wisdom literature in the Bible, we usually think of the book of Proverbs, so I’ve kept this book for last. We first need to remember this is a poetic book, so we should expect the usual poetic forms (which I described in the post on Psalms). For instance, one proverb tells us:

Sensible children bring joy to their father;
foolish children despise their mother.
Proverbs 15:20

I recall studying this verse in a Bible study years ago, and someone was trying to explain how this proverb showed the different ways mothers and fathers relate to their children. Of course, if we understand how Hebrew poetry works in Scripture, we’ll know this proverb is simply saying the same thing in two different ways. Don’t make the mistake of overcomplicating poetry.

As we’re reading proverbs in the Bible, one of the most important things for us to remember is the nature of a proverb. What is a proverb? We’re all familiar with proverbs, even if we’ve never read the Bible before. Every culture has proverbs. A proverb is simply a catchy saying that expresses a general truth. Here’s a common American proverb:

Early to bed, early to rise,
makes someone healthy, wealthy and wise.

Is this proverb true? Well, yes, sure it is. But is it an absolute law? Is every person who goes to bed early and rises early guaranteed health and wealth and wisdom? No, of course not. It’s not some kind of law; it’s just expressing a general principle. It’s a short, pithy expression of something that’s generally true, without including all of the clarifying details. We understand that’s what a proverb is—and that’s also what a proverb is in the Bible.

Let me give you an example:

Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or you will become as foolish as they are.
Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or they will become wise in their own estimation.
Proverbs 26:4-5

Now, is the Bible contradicting itself? No, because these aren’t absolute commands; they’re expressions of principles that are generally true, and very wise. It’s not hard for us to see the wisdom in both proverbs. We don’t want to lower ourselves to the level of the fool (the person stubbornly defying God) and enter into their silly arguments. It just makes us look as foolish as they do. But sometimes it’s necessary to counter foolish arguments. If we just remain silent, the claims of the fool might appear unassailable. So we have two proverbs, wisely giving us both perspectives of this problem.

It’s important we read the proverbs as they’re intended. The proverbs in Scripture are general principles, not absolute promises. It’s common to hear people claim certain proverbs as promises from God that will never fail, for instance:

Direct your child onto the right path,
and when they are older, they will not leave it.
Proverbs 22:6

Is this really telling us if we raise our kids right, when they’re older they will absolutely remain faithful? Are good Christian parents guaranteed to have good Christian children? (Does this mean God was a faulty “parent,” not directing Adam and Eve onto the right path?) Can we claim this as a promise from God? No, because this isn’t found in the book of Promises, but the book of Proverbs—and that’s exactly what it is, a proverb. This is expressing a general principle—kids tend to continue in life according to how they were raised—not an absolute promise or guarantee. The book of Proverbs wasn’t intended to catalogue promises from God, but short, catchy sayings that make us wiser in how we approach life. We need to use them the way God intended.

A proverb is a general principle,
not an absolute promise.

You’ll find humorous proverbs with subtle humor, even sarcasm:

Without oxen a stable stays clean,
but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.
Proverbs 14:4

And proverbs with sober warnings:

There is a path before each person that seems right,
but it ends in death.
Proverbs 14:12

There are two primary truths this wisdom literature in Scripture emphasizes over and over again:

1. True wisdom (skill in living a healthy life) comes from God.

2. Wisdom is of inestimable value, something to be earnestly sought.

Tune your ears to wisdom,
and concentrate on understanding.
Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:2-5