By Roy B. Blizzard
The passage in translation for this week comes from the book of Proverbs, Chapter 9, Verse 1.
KJV
"Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars"
Translation:
"Wisdom has built her house; She has carved out her seven pillars."
Comments:
While traveling through the Wadi Rum in Jordan some time ago, this passage of scripture came to mind. I am sure most of you have seen the movie, Lawrence of Arabia. It was here in the Wadi Rum in the years 1911-1918 that T.E. Lawrence led the desert Arab tribes to fight with the British against the Ottoman Turks.
After the war, T.E. Lawrence published his memoirs in a book he entitled The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, borrowing that title from this passage in Proverbs 9:1.
The Wadi Rum is a vast, seemingly endless wadi surrounded by gigantic rock formations, the most prominent of which is shown in the accompanying slides. If you will notice, the prominent feature looks like seven large fingers extending up into the air. But what were the seven pillars of wisdom?
In Hebrew, this is an interesting passage in that wisdom personified is both feminine and plural. But, the modifiers are all singular. Wisdom built her house. She carved her seven pillars. It is not unusual that wisdom is personified as a female nor is it unusual that the word here is in the plural. But, the question is, What are the seven pillars?
I don’t know that Lawrence ever answered that question in his lengthy journal, which, by the way exceeded 250,000 words. But, if we search through the book of Proverbs, we might gain some understanding.
First of all, wisdom is the ability to give counsel as you’ll see in Proverbs 8:14.
Proverbs 8:14, "Counsel is mine and sound the wisdom"
Proverbs 8:12, "Wisdom dwells with prudence and finds out knowledge."
Proverbs 8:14B, "I am understanding, power is mine."
Proverbs 8:18, "Riches and honor are with me."
Proverbs 14:24, "The crown of the wise is their riches."
Proverbs 15:23, "The reverential fear of YHWH is the instruction of wisdom. And before honor is humility."
In summary, we might say that the seven pillars of wisdom are (1) counsel, (2) knowledge, (3) understanding, (4) might or strength, (5) power or authority, (6) riches and (7) honor. These are seven characteristics of wisdom. But why would we think that it would be correct to say – from Proverbs 15:33 – that before them all goes humility? Quite interestingly, standing here in the midst of this vast expanse and gazing at the seven pillars of wisdom was indeed a humbling experience.
In conclusion, the lesson of Proverbs 9:11 is that if you desire to be wise, strive to manifest these seven characteristics in your daily life.
