WISDOM IS LACKING BECAUSE PEOPLE REJECT THE OBVIOUS AND THEN BECOME CANDIDATES FOR FOOLISHNESS. The Book Of Proverbs Has Much To Say About The Wise And Those Who Are Fools. The wise are those who desire truth and fools are those who will believe anything other than the truth.

How do I obtain, apply and use the wisdom that the first five chapters of proverbs in The Holy Bible speaks about?

Why is this book referring to wisdom as she and her?

Happy Riches Answer requested by Jamar Grimsley

In respect to the application of wisdom in one’s life, bear in mind that understanding the fear of the Lord is the key to this. Unfortunately, for too many people, they do not understand that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and that the book of Proverbs tells us exactly what this is:

• The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

If a person does not hate evil, that person will despise wisdom, and the Bible calls such a person a fool. Because a wise person recognizes that the most pressing answers each one needs to know are to these two questions: What happens when I die? Why am I born to die?

We learn in the book of Proverbs that those who hate knowledge, reject the fear of the Lord. Many people think they possess knowledge because they can regurgitate copious amounts of information, be it in fifty different languages, it is still the same disinformation and misinformation if it does not produce eternal worth. Real knowledge is eternal.

Temporary knowledge is like historical facts that relate to an event, such as a flower bursting into bloom, and then ceasing to exist. Big deal! Who cares? Well, it did happen; only it really has no bearing on eternity. In many respects, such events are like virtual reality.

Proverbs is about understanding the fear of the Lord. The book is about becoming wise and no longer remaining a fool. The wise discover the existence of God and then begin to seek a relationship with Him.

• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)

• Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, (Proverbs 1:29)

• Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:5)

• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10)

As for wisdom being expressed as possessing a feminine form, there a number of theories for why this is so, ranging from virtues being seen as feminine qualities that men ought possess to Israel’s god being one of many in the pantheon of gods and having a queen in Heaven.

Where the Hebrew actually uses the genderless, abstract grammatical form for the word “wisdom”, we find that the King James Bible and later versions refer to the virtue as being feminine.

The Hebrew word (khochmoth) here used to designate Wisdom seems to be an abstract derivation from the ordinary khochmah. The form is peculiar to the Proverbs and Psalms, in the former occurring four times (Proverbs 1:22; Proverbs 9:1; Proverbs 14:1; Proverbs 24:7), and in the latter twice only (viz. Psalm 49:4; Psalm 78:15). —Proverbs 1 Pulpit Commentary

However, before the King James Version was crafted, rather than the feminine form, Wycliffe went with the masculine form, even though the Hebrew word for wisdom took the abstract form.

• Wisdom preacheth without forth; in streets it giveth his voice. (Proverbs 1:20—Wycliffe Bible)

In the book of First Corinthians, the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus Christ has been made our wisdom.

• He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31)

When we consider that the Son of God is the Word of God through whom all things that exist came into existence, then it makes sense that Lord Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. However, we also find Jesus Himself referring to wisdom in the feminine form.

• Yet wisdom is justified by all her children (Luke 7:35)

Providing one does not have a myopic view of reality, one can grasp that when humankind was made in the image of God, the human being was made male and female—not just male. The two genders are required for the human being to be an image of the invisible God—not one gender! This is the case, even though God is referred to in the masculine form.

Therefore, having grasped the reality that male and female actually combine to represent the Eternal, there ought be no difficulty in understanding that the Son of God is the wisdom of God who brings forth many children of God.

• For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ (Ephesians 1:9)

• that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10)

• But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; (John 1:12)

• He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. (John 11:51-52)

• O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! (Matthew 23:37)

The wisdom of God is obtained by understanding what is evil and shunning it, knowing full well that its lure can be overcome only by submitting to God and calling upon Him to help you resist its source (James 4:7). By calling upon the name of the Lord, you are opening your heart to receive the Son of God and becoming one of the God’s children.

That wisdom of God is expressed in the feminine form, could very well have much to do with the reason the woman was created in the first place, so that there would be many children born, who could then become children of the Living God.

The Beginning Of Wisdom Is The Hatred Of Evil, But Do You Know What It Really Is?