The Seven Days of Creation as the Pillars of Wisdom
The Seven Days of Creation as the Pillars of Wisdom.
“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.
Wisdom can be described biblically as sensible judgment; moral discernment; gifted insight; profound understanding; shrewd and righteous street smarts; spiritual intelligence; prudent decision-making; cleverly practicing the truth in daily life; the opposite of being gullible, naïve, foolish. In Scripture it also refers to being highly skilled in a particular area of expertise.
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.
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. On the other hand, many biblical scholars have claimed that the seven pillars could logically point to either the seven days of creation, the Sevenfold Holy Spirit, the seven qualities of wisdom according to St. James, or even the gaining of wisdom through the seven formal times for prayer found in Psalm 119:164. But why feel like we have to choose one of those perfectly reasonable options? All four of those understandings make sense, and so they all could be true.
“You alone made the whole universe; by Your will and design, whatever did not exist was brought into being.” (Revelation 4:11).
The traditional Jewish understanding of Proverbs 9:1, according to various rabbinic teachings, is that 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.”
“From eternity past, I (Lady Wisdom) was established, well before the world began. Yahweh possessed me before earth got its start. When He staked out earth’s foundation and set in place its pillars, I was right there with him, anointed from the beginning, making sure everything fit. Day after day I was there at His side as His master artist and craftsman, joyfully applauding His efforts. He was filled with delight in me as I playfully rejoiced before Him, enjoying His company. I laughed and played, delighted with the created world of things and creatures, so happy with what He had made, joyfully celebrating the human family and finding my delight in the children of mankind.” (Proverbs 8:23, 29-31).
Christ is the Wisdom of Creation. We do know that God and Wisdom created the world. From all eternity, Jesus was God’s wisdom, even before the Triune God created the world. That’s why Wisdom is a title of Christ, not merely a description of Christ. It is important to remember that early Christian tradition maintains that Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible is messianic, an anticipation of the person of Christ. (St. Justin, 150 AD). Ever since the early Church Fathers, when one reads about Wisdom personified in Jewish Scriptures, Christian believers can simply understand Christ as Wisdom. That’s the Christian tradition. Secondly, it is very clear that Christ was a co-creator of the world. He participated in creation with the Triune God. As the Orthodox Church puts it, “The Father made the world through the Son in the Spirit.” St. Paul put it this way, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things exist.” (Col 1:16-17). And St. John declared it to be true in the famous first chapter of his gospel, “Through Him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through Him.”” (John 1:3).
In the poetic version of creation as seen in Proverbs 8 above, we see the vital role of wisdom, or as it reads, Lady Wisdom. This was a poetic device in the Hebrew Bible that anticipated the attribute of wisdom being completed in the form of an actual Person. Wisdom as poetically seen as a person was completed in the New Testament in the real Person, Jesus Christ. What was an attribute of God in the Old Testament came to be accepted as a picture of God Himself, Jesus the Son of God, in the New Testament, early church and to the present day. “Christ, who is the Wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24). In Proverbs 8, Wisdom was an intricate part of creation, and Christians have believed ever since that Wisdom was in fact the Person of Christ participating in the creation of the world.
Creation Joy. There is an overwhelming sense of delight in Proverbs 8 as the Holy Trinity works together on the creation project. There is joy in the heart of God as the Three-in-One cooperate in creating the world. Isn’t it wonderful to know that our existence, the existence of the world, brings pleasure to our God? “Yahweh Lord takes pleasure in all He has made!” (Ps. 104:31). God’s will resulted in the creation of this spectacular world, He clearly delighted in the process of creating the universe, and there are plenty of Scripture passages that highlight that fact:
Psalm 8:3-9 = “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers – the moon and stars you set in place – what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority – the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!”
Psalm 19:1-6 = “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display His craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race. The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end. Nothing can hide from its heat.”
Psalm 104:24-25 = “O Lord, what an amazing variety of all you have created! Wild and wonderful is this world you have made, while Wisdom was there at your side. This world is full of so many creatures, yet each belongs to you! And there is the sea! So vast! So wide and deep – swarming with countless forms of sea life, both small and great.”
Psalm 111:2-4 = “How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in Him should ponder them. Everything He does reveals His glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails. He causes us to remember His wonderful works! How gracious and merciful is our Lord!”
Psalm 139:13-16 = “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born!”
Psalm 147:1,4-5,8-9,16-18 = “Praise the Lord! How good to sing praises to our God! How delightful and fitting! He sets His stars in place, calling them all by their names. How great is our God! There’s absolutely nothing His power cannot accomplish, and He has infinite understanding of everything. He fills the sky with clouds, sending showers to water the earth, so that the grass springs up on the mountain fields and the earth produces food for man. All the birds and beasts who cry with hunger to Him are fed from His hands. He sends out His orders throughout the world; His words run as swift messengers, bringing them to pass. He blankets the earth with glistening snow, painting the landscape with frost. Sleet and hail fall from the sky, causing waters to freeze before winter’s icy blast. Then He speaks His word and it all melts away; as the warm spring winds blow, the streams begin to flow.”
Proverbs 3:19-20 = “By wisdom the Lord founded the earth; by understanding He created the heavens. By His knowledge the deep fountains of the earth burst forth, and the dew settles beneath the night sky.”
Jeremiah 10:12-16 = “God made the earth by His power, established the world by His wisdom, spread out the sky by His understanding. When He thunders, the waters in heaven roar, He raises clouds from the ends of the earth, He makes the lightning flash in the rain and brings the wind out from His storehouses. He is the Creator of everything that exists.”
God Delights in Each of Us. When we happily consider how the Godhead rejoiced over creation in a celebration of His will, and how Christ Himself delighted in the creation of mankind, we can easily see how human life is precious and sacred in His sight. We were created in joy by God. One can appreciate that God delights in our existence, that He rejoices over every person created, then and now. We can easily imagine, and should be encouraged by, the Lord’s promise to us… “The Lord your God will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with the singing of joyful songs.” (Zeph. 3:17).