The Wise Son and the Diligent Hand + Strawbridge Forum in Lancaster, PA
Day 20: A Lenten Meditation on Proverbs 10 and the Discipline of Wisdom
Christ the Wise Son
“A wise son makes a glad father,
but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.
Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit,
but righteousness delivers from death.
The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry,
but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.”
(Proverbs 10:1–3)
The book of Proverbs is deeply concerned with the fullness of life. God provides wise words so that His people may live wisely in the world He created. The salvation of God in history is not simply a topic to discuss. It is a way of life to inhabit.
God desires to impart wisdom to His people. The danger, however, is that we might treat Proverbs as little more than a biblical self-help manual. We might begin to accumulate a spiritual list of things to do, hoping that our collection of moral instructions will make us wiser than everyone else.
But the goal of wisdom is not self-improvement. The goal of wisdom is conformity to Christ.
Proverbs ultimately points us to Him. Christ is the true and wise Son who always makes His Father glad. Where Israel failed, where Adam failed, and where we fail daily, the Son of God lived in perfect wisdom and obedience.
Therefore, wisdom is good, but wisdom divorced from Christ is distorted. It becomes prideful and self-reliant. For this reason, when we instruct our children in wisdom, we must never stop with moral lessons alone. Every instruction must lead them to the Wisdom made flesh, Jesus Christ.
Wisdom produces works only because we belong to Christ. As Paul says, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. Wisdom is therefore not merely instruction. It is participation in the life of the wise Son.
Wisdom in the Work of Our Hands
Proverbs insists that our works are done in the sight of God. The wisdom of Scripture is earthy and practical. It dismantles the artificial language of elite discourse and brings us back to the realities of ordinary life.
The Bible speaks about work, sweat, food, money, children, and the daily responsibilities that shape human existence. Wisdom pulls us down from ivory towers and places us back in the ordinary labors of life: changing diapers, maintaining homes, managing time, and working with our hands.
