Video Transcript: An Overview of Biblical Wisdom Literature

Hi. I'm Wayne Brower. And this is the second of our look lectures looking at the biblical  Wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Today, we're going to take a look at the books that  are found in the wisdom literature. But before that a reminder again of the, the approach I'm  taking to understanding the Bible as a whole. My sense is that there are three different kinds  of literature in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, those pieces of literature  which focus specifically on the covenant or relationship which God establishes with us in the  context of a broken and compromised world. That is to say, God made a covenant with Israel,  using his relationship with Israel as a witness to the nations. And so Israel becomes a partner  with God in the enterprise of testifying to the nation's that the Creator still exists, and that the Creator has a mandate for human life, and that there's a meaning and a purpose to human  life and all of those things which we talked about last time. There are also parts of the Old  Testament as well as the New Testament. In the Old Testament, we call them the prophets.  And in the New Testament, more specifically, the apostles or the disciples of Jesus, the letters  that are written to the churches, but in the Old Testament, those documents which are  produced by authorized spokespersons, the prophets, who begin to unfold the meaning of  Israel's history, and explain to the covenant people how they are to live in various contexts  and how they're to remain faithful to the covenant relationship God has with them. But then  there's a third collection of literature, I call it covenant questions. And in this kind of literature, God nurtures the covenant relationship with the missionary community, by way of spiritual  wisdom and insight. It is based upon the authority of the other kinds of literature. You don't  necessarily understand God better strictly through this literature apart from the rest. But once you understand God's covenant with Israel at Sinai, once you understand the prophetic  interpretation of life, then this kind of literature begins to elaborate upon it, unfold it, express  it more fully, give it shape and substance and explain how it connects with the day to day  affairs of life. And I would suggest that there are really key questions and issues that are  probed by each of the kinds of literature within this section. A quick overview. Job, of course,  deals with the issue of Job losing everything as a very wealthy person losing everything and  then wondering why this has happened him. So why do humans suffer? And we ask the  questions of job often in various contexts, where we encounter suffering and difficulties, the  Psalms, how do we connect with and pray to and worship an unseen God? It's easier to  worship things that we can see. And that's why the variety of religious expressions around the world often focus on things that we can respond to in terms of visual stimuli and, and actual  persons or images or, or items in our world. But how is it possible to worship a God who is  unseen and the Psalms probe that with us for a variety of in a variety of ways? Proverbs, what is true wisdom? Is wisdom, going to school getting an education experiencing the Hard  Knocks of the street? Well, there'll be a different answer in the book of Proverbs, and it's very  much connected to religion, it is a religious answer. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of  wisdom, Ecclesiastes, kind of a depressing book in and of itself, but what is the meaning of  life and here we're going to run into what is essentially, college or graduate level course,  brought to us in the language of human experience on the meaning of life. It's different and  sometimes very difficult forms. Song of Songs are sometimes called the Song of Solomon.  What's the meaning of love? There isn't a person among us who hasn't been encountered by  and come into contact with some form of love. We've been loved by parents. We've been  loved by friends. We've been loved by soulmates we've been loved by kindred spirits, and we  ourselves have found ourselves falling into love or infatuation or other things with people  around us. What is true love and what's the meaning of that as the creator intended for it?  And then there's that kind of hidden book in the Old Testament, the Lamentations. It's often  called the Lamentations of Jeremiah. But we'll talk about these and we'll probe these further,  what does it mean to have God's covenant commitments to us, and still experience the reality of brokenness in our religious life, in a sense of alienation from God, and sometimes the  disappointment that God doesn't seem to be there, or we are not there for God. So we're  going to take a look at all of those things in the coming lectures. But first of all, Job, the plot is very simple, a very rich man and the Ancient Near East becomes the focus of a conversation  between God and Satan. All of Job's assets are taken away and three rounds of poetic  dialogue probe, why this has happened, we'll go through it in much more detail. The structure

of the book is an opening prose section in which all of Job's attributes are described, and also  the tragedies that befall him. Then there's a long section which doesn't get read much, but  we're going to go through it. Three dramatic dialogues, each with a different group or person  interacting with Job first, it's the three friends and then it's the other friend who shows up  Elihu. And then it's God Himself. And then a very brief closing statement about the outcomes  of this and some of the things hinted at as to what we ought to take out of Job's situation and  his changing plight. The intention of the book of Job is that through this Drama, we respond to these key questions. Is this world guided? Or is it merely random and fate and chance? Are  there moral structures? And do these matter? Is there a God? And if so, what is God's  character? When what's the ultimate meaning of human existence? We'll be looking at all of  those things as we take a look at Job. Psalms is a collection of different poems by various  authors of various lengths and styles expressing many different dimensions of human  wondering, prayer, insight, hopes, fears, and values. The Psalms become the language of  faith in so many ways, and people of all ages, and people of all times have found in the  Psalms, a voice given to their deepest passions, about God and about things of this world.  There are 150 individual Psalms gathered into five books, we'll look at the reason why these  books might exist. But each of the books ends up with a doxology, which is essentially a song  of praise to God. And the intent seems to be that through these many prayers, we will learn  deeper worship, we will learn how to praise God, for good events and other blessings. We'll  learn how better to ask God for help, we'll be able to express more fully our courage and faith  in God and in the right things of this world and we'll wrestle with difficulties and doubts all of  those things will be part of our encounter with God through the Psalms. The Proverbs is a  collection of different lectures on wisdom and folly, plus a whole host of brief proverbs. My  father used to say, a stitch in time saves nine. He used to say Early to bed and early to rise  makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Of course, he didn't give us the rest of that proverb  which says, but what does it matter how much he wins if he's always asleep when the fun  begins, but those proverbs are designed to capture the meaning of life and love and values  and morality and pithy statements, short statements that give us a sense of meaning, and  purpose and wisdom, we'll look at those things more. In the problem Book of Proverbs itself,  there's a structure, there's an opening statement about the value of Proverbs, followed by a  collection of major lectures about the benefits of wisdom and the detriments of folly. Then  there are several different collections of the Proverbs themselves, most of which are  attributed to Solomon, but also a number to other wise people. And then a concluding poem,  in praise of wisdom. And the intent through all of these things is that we might gain a better  perspective on life and living, that God is sovereign and humankind is morally responsible,  that we choose our own ethical behaviors. That good is always God's way and it proves best  in the end. Then comes Ecclesiastes, which is really a very depressing one might say, but a  very powerful book, wise and powerful ruler looks back in his life and experiences. He tries to  make sense of things, and he does so through an opening statement of the problems and  tragedies of life. A variety of explorations and proverbs and, and meaning itself, and then a  closing declaration about how to understand how to live life meaningfully. Through these  reflections, again, questions emerge? Is this world guided? Or is it random? Are there moral  structures? And do these matter? Is there a God? And if so, what is God's character? What's  the ultimate meaning of human existence? And how do we get by in the meantime, as we see the world around us, not as perfect as we would like, and certainly not, as explained, as  sometimes might be helpful? How do we simply muddle through and what values will get us  to the end? The Book of Song of Songs is quite another set of literature. But it comes in the  same wisdom literature guise, this is a collection with a variety of types of poetry that emerge from various voices, all of which together portray people in love or in lust, and some of both  at the same time. And they give the outcomes of that quest in terms of intimacy, in the life of  a young woman, at the center of all of the Song of Songs is this Shulamite maid, whatever  she is experiencing is what we're supposed to understand as a reflection on the meaning of  love. And so we'll follow her journey through the book. And there are a number of things that  happen in the book, this young woman finds herself the object of love from Solomon, tries to  figure out why this should be there are songs of love and lust to praise her and about love 

itself. There's some hints about events that take place, surrounding this woman and with  perhaps another lover, someone that she's known from back home, a country boy, there are  choruses that are raised by those who observe what is happening. And then there's a  concluding reflection on the meaning of love. And we'll probe all of those things in some of  the lectures ahead. The intent is that through these many different kinds of poetry, a  particular understanding of love emerges, that we were made to love to be in love to be  loved, that love can be healthy, but it can also be perverse. And we've all experienced that.  And the best of who we are, emerges in loving relationships. And that's a powerful message  that we all have to hear particular is as being created males and females in the image of God. And then comes Lamentations. The collection itself is five songs of lament or grief or sadness. They're usually attributed to Jeremiah, but they could be by others as well. But they've always been attached to Jeremiah's prophecies, and these five songs of grief and pain and loss and  frustration, probe the reasons behind and the lessons to be learned from the fall of Jerusalem. We're talking here about God's special people, God's special city, the place of the temple. And we're looking at what happens when all of the promises and commitments of God seems  suddenly to be shattered, as the temple and the city are destroyed by the Babylonians. What  now? What about our relationship with God? What about the future? What about our religion?  What about our connection with God? The structure is four acrostic poems, we'll look at what  acrostic means. Each of these are of different length, and the voices in each one, come from a different point of view. And then there's a fifth poem not shaped acrosticly, but rather giving  sort of a summation of all and the intent is that through these laments, different questions will emerge. What is the background to this disaster? Why did this disaster happen? Is God in  control? Or is there not a god? Or is God not powerful enough to prevent these things from  happening? Are God's promises in place? Or have they maybe been forgotten? How are we to  respond to overwhelming calamities of life? These are the kinds of questions that are probed  in the book of Lamentations. I hope that with that overview, you're able to see the path ahead and understand sort of the overview of each of these books as we'll begin to probe them  further. Again, my book Covenant Documents will help you look at these things in more depth  and I'd encourage you to get that book to read