Sermon Tone Analysis

What is wisdom?

First of all, according to the book of Proverbs, wisdom is knowing yourself

Wisdom is not just morality or moral obedience to God’s law.

Facts are extremely important, and of course doing what God wants you to do is pretty important too, very important.

The law of God is crucial, but wisdom is knowing what to do in the 90 percent of all life situations where the moral rules don’t really apply.

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What is wisdom?

First of all, according to the book of Proverbs, wisdom is knowing yourself.

If you’re wise in your own eyes, according to the Bible, you’re a fool.

If you’re a fool in your own eyes, according to the Bible, you’re on your way to being wise.

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If you’re wise in your own eyes, according to the Bible, you’re a fool.

If you’re a fool in your own eyes, according to the Bible, you’re on your way to being wise.

2. Secondly, a big part of wisdom according to the Bible is knowing the times and seasons,

A right word and a right action (perfectly right, perfectly moral, and perfectly good) at the wrong time, in the wrong order, in the wrong place, will still be a disaster.

For example, everybody has to change.

You have change.

Churches have to change.

Organizations have to change.

Families have to change.

Yet we all know in change some things should not change, some things should change quickly, and some things should change slowly.

3. Lastly, to understand what it means to have wisdom is understanding the complexities of life.

Here’s a principle.

In so many different ways, I find myself saying this in different contexts.

Biblical wisdom, godly wisdom, godly truth is always more complex.

Error and heresy and foolishness are always too simplistic

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

The skeptic, the relativist, tends to say, “Life is irrational.

We’re here by accident.

Live the way you want.”

The moralist, the religious person, says, “If you do everything just right, your life will go right.”

Both of those are foolishness.

Why? They’ve too simplistic.

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

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The importance of true wisdom

This poem is all about wisdom.

Largely, in other words, Job is saying suffering is a matter of wisdom.

It requires wisdom to handle it rightly, and, rightly handled, suffering produces more wisdom.

This poem is all about wisdom.

Largely, in other words, Job is saying suffering is a matter of wisdom

2. The inaccessibility of true wisdom

Wisdom is absolutely important, you can only find it in God, and how you can get some of it for yourself.

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

Notice verses 9–15.

The poem is making the case that wisdom is a treasure

It’s really saying gold and silver are nothing compared to wisdom.

Why?

3. The source of true wisdom

In other words, if you have a naïve idea of the complexities and dynamics of poverty, you can do everything right, your motive is right, your ethic is right, your method is right and moral and so on, and yet you destroy the people.

Why? You’re incompetent with regard to the complexities of life.

That’s what wisdom is: competency with regard to the complexities of life.

You have to have wisdom.

Its price can’t be weighed in silver.

Especially when it comes to suffering you need to have wisdom to know what to do, when to cry, when to start this, when to stop this, and so forth.

In other words, if you have a naïve idea of the complexities and dynamics of poverty, you can do everything right, your motive is right, your ethic is right, your method is right and moral and so on, and yet you destroy the people.

Why? You’re incompetent with regard to the complexities of life.

That’s what wisdom is: competency with regard to the complexities of life.

You have to have wisdom.

Its price can’t be weighed in silver.

Especially when it comes to suffering you need to have wisdom to know what to do, when to cry, when to start this, when to stop this, and so forth.

2. The inaccessibility of true wisdom

If you actually look at the first stanza, you’ll see it’s not just saying wisdom is more valuable than silver or gold; it’s actually saying also that it’s inaccessible, unlike silver and gold.

It tells us man’s hand assaults the flinty rock and lays bare the roots of the mountains.

How does that happen?

Technology, craftsmanship.

In other words, wisdom is not something you can find in the empirical realm.

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

We live in a culture that says we weren’t made for anything; we’re here by accident.Unless we have some idea of having been created for something, there’s no way we can solve our problems, because there’s no way we can agree on what good human life is, what human flourishing is, what a healthy human life is, what just and unjust, good and bad human behavior is.

So not only is wisdom important, but secondly, it’s inaccessible.

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

Ultimately the inaccessibility of wisdom is most related to its place in time rather than its place in space.

Why?

Wisdom is to be found in the decisions made in the original arrangement of the cosmos, for wisdom is to be found in the ordering of the components of the cosmos.

p 290 Order is not readily observable in daily operations, but it was instrumental in the foundation of creation and is inherent in the ongoing operations.

That primordial perspective is inaccessible to humans.

Unless we have some idea of having been created for something, there’s no way we can solve our problems, because there’s no way we can agree on what good human life is, what human flourishing is, what a healthy human life is, what just and unjust, good and bad human behavior is.

So not only is wisdom important, but secondly, it’s inaccessible.

John H. Walton and Kelly Lemon Vizcaino, The NIV Application Commentary: Job, ed.