The Double Branch: Wisdom and Understanding


The Double Branch: Wisdom and Understanding
- From Seven Lamps of Fire

Wisdom is related to understanding, so we speak of them as close brothers. God tells us: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding" (Prov. 4:7). It is good if we have a heart that is searching for wisdom .. rather than for some kind of gift that might make us popular and famous. Wise men of old sought for it, as a hidden treasure. So let us search for wisdom, as Job did. He writes a whole chapter describing His search for wisdom. He speaks of the hidden treasures in the depths of the earth, with all its precious stones, and sapphires, and gold, and jewels of coral and pearl, and rubies. Yet he is aware that what he is looking for is still beyond his reach. He continues to probe the secret of wisdom. He asks the sea, and the sea says, "It is not in me". He scours the earth for answers, and wonders if it might be found in the lightning and thunder. But it is not there. He does not find it anywhere in all of God’s wonderful creation. But finally he gets his answer from God: "Then did He see it, and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. and unto man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding" (Job 28:27, 28). O what a let-down, when men filled with worldly wisdom, are faced with a conclusion like that!

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