Scripture Daily

Context No. 815 of 4322 · Wisdom

Context · Reflection

Wisdom 8:17-21: in context

17When I considered these things in myself, and thought in my heart how immortality is in kinship to wisdom, 18and in her friendship is good delight, and in the labors of her hands is wealth that doesn’t fail, and understanding is in her companionship, and great renown in having fellowship with her words, I went about seeking how to take her to myself. 19Now I was a clever child, and received a good soul. 20Or rather, being good, I came into an undefiled body. 21But perceiving that I could not otherwise possess wisdom unless God gave her to me— yes, and to know and understand by whom the grace is given— I pleaded with the Lord and implored him, and with my whole heart I said:

The book of Wisdom imagines Solomon reflecting on how he came to be wise, and it walks through everything wisdom promised him: kinship with what lasts, delight in her friendship, wealth that does not fail, understanding, good company. Naturally, he says, he went about seeking how to take her to himself. He had every advantage for the search; he was, by his own account, a clever child who had been given a good soul. If anyone could acquire wisdom by talent and effort, it was this man.

And then he hits the wall that all his cleverness could not get him around. I perceived, he says, that I could not otherwise possess wisdom unless God gave her to me. The one thing he wanted most he could not seize, earn, or think his way into; it could only be received as a gift. And he adds a further turn of humility: even to know that it was God's to give was itself part of the grace. So the whole trajectory of the passage reverses. The man setting out to acquire wisdom by his own capacity ends by getting down and praying for it, asking the Lord with his whole heart for the very thing he had assumed he was clever enough to obtain. The deepest goods do not yield to striving. They are asked for, and given.

Solomon discovered that the wisdom he most wanted could not be seized by talent, only received from God by asking. What am I straining to achieve by my own effort that I have never simply gotten on my knees and asked God to give me?

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