The Sage vs. the Fool: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

The Sage vs. the Fool: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

The Sage: A person known for wisdom, understanding and discernment; for developing the practical art of living skillfully; for growing in moral intelligence; for being able to practice the truth in daily life; for expressing astute insight and shrewd street smarts; for applying knowledge to make thoughtful decisions and healthy choices; for knowing the difference between wise and foolish, right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, good and evil, true and false; for effectively demonstrating a practical spirituality; for choosing to live into Wisdom itself, the Person of Jesus the Anointed One.

The Fool: A person who doesn’t know what is best for himself; who doesn’t learn from mistakes; who is habitually rebellious; who does not consider the consequences of his behavior; who stubbornly remains unteachable; who is content with self-satisfied ignorance; who ignores counsel and discipline; who pridefully rejects a reverence for God; who has access to the truth but rejects it; who is impulsive and unable to control emotions; who is not concerned about moral blindness; who is unaware of his self-destructive lifestyle; who does not recognize the need to change his thinking and behavior; who is gullible, naïve and dim-witted.

“Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out its seven pillars.”  (Proverbs 9:1).

This verse pictures the quality of wisdom as a wealthy woman who has built her lavish mansion with seven columns that support and stabilize her home. She welcomes all who want to partake of wisdom’s delights to come into her house and enjoy the spectacular feast that will feed the soul of all who dine with her. The Hebrew word “chokmoth” is used for wisdom over 200 times in the Hebrew Bible, and is taken to mean the divine gift of using sacred sense in how one lives one’s life at a practical level. Biblical wisdom as described below is the biblical key to a life of blessing and success. The foundation on which the house of wisdom is built is a reverent awe of the Lord, a humble adoration of God and His character, a faithful and fearful trust in His mercy and goodness. Solomon, the probable writer of Proverbs, never went into detail on what he meant by the seven pillars of wisdom. But this verse can easily and biblically point to a number of ways we can understand these seven pillars that support and beautify the house of wisdom. These possible understandings are described below.

Seven : a Biblical symbol for perfection, completion, fullness, fulfillment, wholeness, finished. A case can be made that seven (7) is God’s favorite number. Because of what it represents, the number seven seems woven into the very fabric of Holy Scripture. Between the Hebrew Bible (OT), and the Gospels (NT), the number seven is mentioned in well over 700 passages. One particular number mentioned that many times is not coincidence. It is significant. Scripture reveals that seven represents an idea that is part of so many passages that it would be tiresome and tedious to relate them all. God decided in His wisdom to create the universe in seven days, and the number 7 has been kept busy ever since. Many theologians consider seven to be a holy number because of its weighty presence in Scripture. Knowing what seven means in the context of a biblical passage will help us to understand that passage better. Seven (7), the biblical number that tops all other numbers.  It is commonplace to have a number symbolize something when we communicate… Thanks a million! (an abundance); That’s a ten out of ten! (excellence); I’ve told you a hundred times! (frequency); Don’t wear number thirteen! (bad luck); They are definitely a pair (a committed couple). And we can add the biblical number seven as a symbol for perfection and completeness.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The vague reference to the house of wisdom and its seven pillars in Proverbs 9:1 can easily point to any number of meanings. We could also conclude that there is no intended reference to anything in particular, except perhaps to the complete perfection of wisdom in its very nature. The seven pillars may be a figure of speech referring to the nature of wisdom being complete in and of itself, and not referring to seven principles or seven particular qualities of wisdom. It could be that the seven pillars of wisdom are simply pointing to that quality of divine wisdom that lacks nothing. The various ways of understanding the seven pillars of wisdom that follow, nonetheless, are all biblical and legitimate, and help us to get a meaningful grasp of the many aspects of wisdom:

1. Traditional Jewish Understanding. According to various rabbinic teachings, the Hebrew scholars understood the seven pillars of wisdom to refer to the seven days of creation. The universe after the seven days was declared by Creator God to be Good and Beautiful and Complete. The created world was considered a house built by God’s wisdom and divine skill, a perfectly structured home to reveal His handiwork. The created universe was perfectly planned and structured to sustain life and nature and especially mankind as bearers of God’s image. One early rabbinic statement declared, “With wisdom has the Holy One, blessed be He, built the world.”
2. Early Christian Church Understanding. As taught by the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the house of wisdom in Proverbs 9:1was considered to be a direct reference to the Christian Church. The seven pillars holding up the Church were believed to be the ‘Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit’ as listed in Isaiah 11:2-3: “Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Knowledge, Godliness, and Fear of God.” These seven qualities of the Spirit are the divine graces that rested on Christ, the perfection of His anointing at His baptism. These seven spiritual properties are thus offered to all who follow Christ and are hidden in Him. These seven traditional attributes of the Trinity remained in the Christian tradition all the way to John’s book of Revelation, in which John refers often to the “Seven Spirits of God.” (Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). These seven pillars of wisdom are also referred to as the “Sevenfold Holy Spirit.” The cornerstone of this house of wisdom was and continues to be Jesus Christ.
3. A More Contemporary Understanding. Many scholars believe that the seven pillars of wisdom points directly to this passage in James 3:17, “But the wisdom that is from heaven above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” These seven qualities of godly wisdom are considered by many to be the seven beautiful and supportive characteristics holding up the house of wisdom. These seven pillars are what wisdom looks like inside its house, comprising the perfection of wisdom. The Amplified Version of this passage puts it this way…  “But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (morally and spiritually undefiled); then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). It is willing to listen and yield to reason, full of lovingkindness and good fruits; it is wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and without hypocrisy (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity).”
4. A Logical Understanding Based on Biblical Prayer. The seven pillars of wisdom in Proverbs 9:1 could just as easily point a believer to the traditional seven hours of disciplined prayer as mentioned in Psalm 119:164, “Seven times each day I stop and shout praises, because of your righteous judgments.” (Ps. 119:164). The early Christian leaders decided to take that verse in the psalm literally, constructing each day with 7 fixed prayer times for each day, every three hours beginning at 6:00 a.m. up to 12:00 midnight. It gradually became known as the Liturgy of the Hours. Seven times… the complete way to sanctify a day.  Prayer has always been accepted as the means to gaining the wisdom of God. Prayer is how one grows in one’s understanding of the ways of God, and thus supports the whole spiritual enterprise of living into the wisdom of God. Prayer can thus be understood as the primary columns of support in the house of wisdom that stabilize one’s relationship with Christ, “who is the wisdom of God and the wisdom from God.” (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). So perhaps the ‘house of wisdom’ in Proverbs 9:1 is simply and profoundly the Person of Christ.

The Bottom Line: God’s Wisdom is a Mystery.  God’s wisdom cannot be imagined by any human being, therefore it can’t be adequately described or accurately defined. Only the Lord God can provide wisdom, since He is its only source. We get direct revelations of God’s wisdom, though, as we read Scripture, including of course the gospels and the life and ministry of Jesus. His amazing intellect was always on full display, even at twelve years old in the Temple with the Torah scholars. We see in all His interactions with others that Jesus had perfect insight, unerring common sense, and a deep understanding of whatever needed to be understood. “God’s understanding is infinite.” (Ps. 147:5). Jesus always had sound reason and logic on His side, made shrewd decisions, and had unlimited discernment. His creative imagination was boundless as He told stories, offered object lessons, and used nature as visual aids, showing Himself to be a Master Teacher. There is an impenetrable depth of wisdom to Lord Yahweh that only His Son can reveal. “It is of the mysterious wisdom of God that we talk, the wisdom that was hidden, that goes deep into the interiors of His purposes. This wisdom of God was once hidden from human understanding and now revealed to us by God. This is God’s secret wisdom hidden before now in a mystery which God predetermined before the ages for our glorification, to lift us into the glory of His Presence. This is the wisdom that God destined for our glory before time began.” (a weaving of 1 Corinthians 2:7 using several Bible translations).