Skill for Living, from the Fear of the LORD
You can look up almost anything in under a minute, and none of it has ever made anyone wise. Scripture's great wisdom word smells like sawdust: chokmah, the trained skill in a craftsman's hands. Biblical wisdom is not knowing many things. It is skill for living, and it grows from a starting point no classroom teaches: the fear of the LORD. August walks thirty-one Hebrew and Greek words from that cornerstone to the storm that inspects every house.
Do not read this study to collect information. We are both drowning in information. Read it to get to know Someone. Because by the end of the month, one sentence should have moved from a slogan to a conviction: wisdom is not a subject you pass. It is a Person you follow.
From the Welcome letter, Words of Wisdom
Each session is designed for 45-60 minutes of group or individual study. Hebrew and Greek words below link to their full library pages where they exist.
The foundation. The fear of the LORD, the wisdom that is skill, the knowledge that comes by contact, and the discipline that turns out to be tuition. We meet chokmah in a carpentry shop, and the first person Scripture calls filled with the Spirit of God is holding a chisel.
Understanding, binah, the wisdom of telling things apart. Solomon asks for it in the night at Gibeon, and God gives it gladly. Discernment is not a lightning bolt. It is a muscle.
The shadow side. The open-hearted simple one, the stubborn fool, the moral fool, the scoffer. None of them mean unintelligent. Then Paul stands the whole ranking on its head: the cross, God's foolishness, wiser than us all.
Wisdom's delivery systems. Counsel you can ask for, instruction written down, the proverb small enough to carry in a pocket, the parable that gets past your guards, and the lev, the heart, where every one of them is trying to land.
Two words to close the month, phronimos and chakam, and one storm that inspects every foundation on the street. The month ends where Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount: two houses, one question.
Integration session. One apprenticeship: fear poured as the cornerstone, sight trained, folly refused, wisdom carried in the hand, and a house still standing after the storm.