“My son, if you receive my words…” (v. 1a). Wisdom never coerces; she approaches by invitation. She is spoken, offered, and entrusted, and therefore must be welcomed. The posture she requires is receptive and reverent—ears bent toward instruction, a heart made spacious for what is given. Solomon traces the ascent of Wisdom with deliberate care, stacking verbs like footholds on a steep climb—receive, treasure, incline, apply, cry out, lift up, seek, and search (vv. 1-4). This isn’t the frantic activity of self-improvement, but the disciplined attentiveness of love. Wisdom comes as a gift, yet she’s not discovered by apathy. She draws the seeker into pursuit, compelling the soul to value her as one would silver drawn from the earth—as treasure uncovered at great cost. She’s not ornamental. She’s necessary.
And what awaits the one who searches for her? “Then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God” (v. 5). The treasure isn’t technique or acclaim, but God Himself. The fear of the Lord is not a prize won by effort; it is bestowed upon those who hunger for Wisdom enough to seek her. To find the knowledge of God isn’t merely to master propositions about Him, but to stand in awe before His holiness, to be steadied by His mercy, and to rest beneath the authority of His Word. Wisdom draws the seeker into communion—into the presence of the Holy One who gives Himself to be known.
“For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (v. 6). Wisdom isn’t man’s invention, refined through cleverness or speculation. It is God’s disclosure. He’s not a hoarder of insight, neither does He ration truth. He speaks generously, and from His speaking comes light. The same mouth that summoned creation into being speaks again in mercy. The same Word that declared the end of death’s dominion—“It is finished”—is the fountain from which Wisdom flows. Thus, Wisdom isn’t merely ethical instruction; it bears the shape of the cross. It proceeds from the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). To seek Wisdom, then, is to listen beyond Solomon—to the Son of David who surpasses him.
“Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path” (v. 9). The fear of the Lord doesn’t dissolve into abstraction like all human wisdom/philosophy does; instead, it takes form in faithful living. Wisdom grounds the Christian within the world rather than lifting him or her above it. She grants discernment amidst confusion, steadiness amidst upheaval, and clarity amidst competing claims of goodness. In a time when every road advertises itself as right, Wisdom reveals the good path—the way of Christ, marked by the cross and ordered toward peace. To walk this path is to live in the fear of the Lord, trusting that the God who invites our seeking is the God who sought us first, even when we hid ourselves in the aftermath of rebellion (Genesis 3:7-9).
The Lutheran Column 