Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Proverbs Chapter 8 - The Discourse of Wisdom

This was a refreshing chapter after reading about all of the temptations of adultery.  Wisdom was with God at the beginning of time, when the world was formed - In the beginning when God formed the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1).  Wisdom is greater than gold and silver.  Those who have wisdom have great wealth.  Wisdom comes with experience, strength and understanding.

I have issues with this verse:  "By me kings reign, and lawgivers establish justice; By me princes govern, and nobles; all the rulers of earth." (15-16)  I am not so sure that Wisdom rules lawgivers in the United States.  If that were true, would we not be in a better state than we are?  The Republicans bash the Democrats and vice versa.  The IRS has different rules than the laws of the land.  Our media covers bad news to get better viewership.  Where is the wisdom in our lawgiving system?  Perhaps the answer to this lies in the gender balance of our current rulers.  There are more men than women serving as elected officials, so if we revert back to the first lesson in Chapter 1, we know that wisdom is female, so maybe we need more women in lawgiving positions.  That's a pretty big stretch of logic, but is worth considering.

Verse 17 says, those who love me, I also love, and those who seek me find me.  With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity."  What greater wealth do we want or need?

This is a good chapter.  Today was a good day.  I have five different spiritual friends with whom I interacted today:

  1. Spiritual in the Catholic church - spiritual in that she loves Jesus and follows his teaching.
  2. Spiritual in Catholicism - strong backgrounds, strong beliefs, long held beliefs
  3. Spiritual in the ways of God - in what is right, and just and decent.
  4. Spiritual in the ways of the earth, of Buddha, of oneness with the Universe. 
  5. Spiritual in the ways of loving with all her emotions - with empathy, caring and loving. 

I am rich.  Rich with friendship, rich with friends who understand Wisdom, rich with life's experience that have taught me that Wisdom is wealth and life itself.

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