Series: Epic Journey: The Bible in 99 Days

Message Outline

Wisdom and Love

Text:  Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs

Introduction

This week we finished the last three Wisdom books of the Bible. All three of these books were authored or inspired by King Solomon. The Scriptures tell us that Solomon wrote 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs (1 Kings 4:32). Of all his songs, only one song - his best - made it into the Bible - perhaps that is why it is called the Song of Songs! It is thought that Solomon wrote the Song of Songs as a young man, probably referring to his first wife, a dark-skinned beauty with many fine character qualities. This portrait of marital love reminds us all that passionate desire and sexuality is good, healthy and encouraged by God - but that it was ordained to be enjoyed only within the secure commitment of the marriage bond. This beautiful and God-ordained love was sadly ruined when Solomon took too many wives and concubines against God's will.(See Deuteronomy 17)
 
The book of Proverbs contains only a portion of Solomon's prolific writings! (See Proverbs 1:1, 10:1, 25:1) Proverbs is attributed to the time period during the peak of Solomon's Kingdom, probably when he was about 45 years old. These were the heady days of his worldly fame, when seekers representing the Kings of the earth visited him from everywhere to hear his wisdom. ( 1 Kings 4:34). Unfortunately, his human wisdom missed one of the most important ingredients - the fear of the Lord - as he wrote in Proverbs 1:7! Proverbs are a wonderful reminder of the uniqueness of the Bible. There are many wisdom traditions in ancient cultures: Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Chinese, Toltec and many other cultures....but only the Bible relates wisdom to the province of the God who is also Creator.
 
Ecclesiastes was probably written late in Solomon's life. It is a masterpiece of existential philosophy in which Solomon (or his biographer or analyst!) concludes that life for the "guy who had it all" is  meaningless! After getting our attention, we hear about Solomon's lifetime experiment: to use his wealth and wisdom to see if he could figure out life "under the sun".   The book speaks to every generation about the illusion of wealth, materialism, pleasure, and uncovers a deep thirst we share for  transcendent meaning: "Why am I here?". (see 3:11)Fortunately, late in a mostly wasted life, Solomon wakes up! He finds the answer he had already told everyone else about in Proverbs: "Fear the Lord" (see 12:13-14). May we profit from another's pain and not repeat the same crazy patterns in our lives! 

Proverbs - Cliff Notes
The book of Proverbs has a tremendous range of subjects in which thoroughly practical instruction is given in the art of living an effective godly life. It may have felt to you to be a somewhat random collection, but the arrangement follows an order and structure and an amount of repetition that is designed to accomplish the purposes of 1:1-7 - to help the young and simple become wise and to fear the Lord. This fear of the Lord and the living nature of wisdom (chapter 8) is what differentiates biblical wisdom from the other wisdom writings of many cultures and civilizations.
 
Proverbs is a masterpiece and contrasts so many of the qualities of the righteous and wise with the wicked and foolish. In my view, the most important quality or virtue in the entire book is Prudence. It is called the "cardinal virtue" by many theologians and philosophers, and it is mentioned 15 times in the book of Proverbs. I used to think it meant "unable to take a risk" and so I disdained prudence! When I discovered that it really meant "knowing reality as God knows it, and responding to reality in a godly way" I was transformed. In fact, isn't that what marked Jesus' life? He always knew reality (especially people's hearts) and always responded with just the right words. Law for the hypocrites, grace for the hurting. He always responded to reality in a perfect way. Jesus was a perfect man of prudence! 
 
Structure: The first part is the instruction of a father to his child (1:8 to 9:18) explaining the value of seeking wisdom throughout a lifetime. The second part (10:1-22:16) contains more proverbs of Solomon, this time focusing on righteous living in contrast to wickedness. The next four parts of the book provide the collections of proverbs from other sources: Wise Men (22:17-24:34), Hezekiah's men and their Solomonic collection (chapters 25-29), the words of Agur (chapter 30) and finally the words of Lemuel (31:1-9). This reminds us of the importance of our kids hearing wisdom from other trusted people besides their parents! Finally the book ends with a treatise on wisdom as lived in the life of a noble wife and mother, a great bookend to the father's instruction we began with!

Application: What quality did you feel was most needed in your life after reading Proverbs? How will you grow that quality? try reading one chapter of Proverbs daily and memorizing the verses on your insert that most have to do with the quality you want God to give you!

Ecclesiastes - Cliff Notes
What an eye-popping summary of the life of the world's wisest and wealthiest man! Meaningless is pretty bad! Sounds a little like Friedrich Nietzsche! It has been said that Ecclesiastes is the book of the Bible that raises so many hard questions, you need the rest of the Bible to answer them. It is a book with tremendous wisdom on the reality of the cycles and rhythms of life (see 3:1-8), and the fact that human beings have "eternity in our hearts" and so we yearn for God even when we can't understand what He is up to. In other words, if cars are made to run on gas, humans are made to run on God!
 
Solomon had the time, money and power to try and fill the eternity inside him with every single thing man has ever invented....and to do it better than anyone will ever be able to! He tried fame, power, achievement, arts, entertainment, sex, wisdom, exploration, science, knowledge, and attempted immortality in hundreds of ways. He failed utterly. He looked at every possible configuration of "life under the sun" (natural life without God) and failed. He was driven back to the One Shepherd, His Word, and the Fear of the Lord. (12:9-14)

Application: In what ways are you replicating Solomon's failed experiment? How might you abandon these efforts? What would you replace them with?

Song of Songs - Cliff Notes
The Song of Songs dispels the commonly-held notion that God desires to repress us sexually and that He is the "killjoy of eternity". This text shows us clearly that God has ordained a passionate, fiery, exciting and deep sexuality for His creatures. The movements within the relationship between the Lover and his Beloved reveal a model of courtship and marital love that is prudent, earthy, electric, and sustained throughout many seasons. Notice that love must not be aroused until the parties have entered the covenant (2:7, 3:5, 8:4). There is initiative by the man and the woman. There is joy. There is pleasure. Sex is not the battleground that our culture makes it, it is instead a passionate volley of love & submission.

For many, the book's key verse is 8:6 -  Place me like a seal over your heart,  like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. NIV This verse talks of the ingredients of complete biblical love: 1) the emotional love of friendship; 2) the loyal unconditional love of commitment; and 3) the passionate erotic love of the marital relationship - especially when the first two qualities are present in the relationship!

It is this marital love that God has chosen as a picture of Christ and the Church. Throughout the Scriptures, Jesus is the Bridegroom and the Church is His Bride. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the Scriptures equate the "all in" sacrificial love of Jesus for the Church (seen in His death on the cross for her) is to characterize the husband's love for his wife. In this picture we see both the kind of intimacy that God wants between man and wife.....and also the intimacy that He wants with His people. If you are married, may you seek deeper intimacy with your spouse! May you also continue to seek deeper intimacy with Jesus.

Application: For married people: On a scale of 1-10, what is the state of your marriage in the categories of Commitment? Emotional friendship? Passion? Discuss your current feelings with your spouse and discuss a few ideas you can do this week to improve those scores! For all of us: how is my intimacy with God? What would God lead you to do differently this week to grow your intimacy with Him?

Personal Applications for this week: (your notes)