It is
important to consider three practical things when studying these two books of
scripture:
1.
The wisdom given in
these books is wisdom that is applicable to this life only. It is wisdom from a worldly perspective meant
to aid us in earthly life. When Ecclesiastes repeatedly says 'under the sun',
he is meaning he is intentionally restricting his point of view to this world;
2.
The reason we need to
apply wisdom 'under the sun' is because everything is 'vanity'. 'Vanity' in
Ecclesiastes means transitory or fleeting, thus the repeated and frequent use
of this word denotes that he who applies wisdom in his life is wise, for this life
is fleeting and will one day come to an end (Bible Dictionary, s.v.
"Ecclesiastes");
3.
Wisdom in these two
books of scripture is allegorized as a woman because the word 'wisdom' is
feminine in gender thus an adulterous woman in Proverbs is a metaphor for
foolishness as foolishness is the opposite of wisdom.
The most
valuable lesson we can take away from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is the
admonition 'to trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine
own understanding' (Prov. 3:5). This is true wisdom.
The italic
preface to chapter 8 of Proverbs tells us that 'the Lord and the sons of men
possessed wisdom in premortal life'. 'Sons of men' refers to anyone who has
been born in mortality, in other words, earthly beings.
The wisdom
we possessed in premortal life enabled us to choose the Firstborn as our
Saviour and to fight the forces of evil opposed to the Father's plan. Now that
we are living on the other side of the veil, wisdom is once again needed to
enable us to trust the choice we made so long ago. In this respect wisdom and
trust go hand in hand. One day when this fleeting existence is ended we will
have to account for our use of wisdom by which we conducted our mortal lives.
The other
side of our trust in the Lord is His trust in us: "The Lord wants us to
trust him, but He also wants to be able
to trust us. One of our great prophet leaders said, 'To be trusted is a greater
compliment than to be loved' (David O. Mckay, "Character", True To The Faith, Bookcraft,
1966, p. 274).
One of the
principal purposes of this life is to find out if the Lord can trust us: “One of
our familiar scriptures says, 'And we will prove them herewith, to see if they
will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them' (Abraham
3:25). We are destined to be tried, tested, and proven during our sojourn on
earth to see if we are trustworthy” (Robert E Wells, "The Cs of
Spirituality", Ensign Nov 1978, p 24).
I
tend to agree with the importance of trust. I receive a great boost of
self-esteem when I attend to my responsibilities which are based on this
principle. I learnt about this in great detail many years ago. One of the
self-help gurus I used to follow impressed upon me how much she loves paying
her bills. I was taken aback by it but she assured her readers that paying her
bills increased her self-respect because whenever she paid a bill it affirmed
to her that the person who provided her with a service trusted her to pay for
it.
Even
though I always paid my bills, I had never considered this concept before but I
took it to heart and have seen the benefits of it. To this day I pay all my
bills with cheerfulness and on time. I am never late paying anyone. Whenever I
pay what I owe straight away it not only makes me feel good about my
trustworthy character, but it tells me that I am not poor. I come from a poor
family so not feeling poor goes a long way with me.
I
love that I can be trusted. This principle has infiltrated my spiritual life
too. The importance of being trusted has helped me to stay true to my
convictions and my testimony of the Gospel. I honour the witnesses I have
received from the Holy Ghost regarding Gospel truths to the point of
stubbornness. Whereas I don’t hold it against people who move away from the
Church, I often cannot understand how they can be baptised promising to join
the body of Christ and not following through.
I
have a great desire to meet God one day with a pure heart, having honoured all
my covenants with Him and having done all I could to obey His commandments. I
have sacrificed much over the years to make this desire a reality.
I marvel that You could perceive
every thought of my heart,
Long before you gifted one to me;
That you trusted my will to obey
With You so dim in my memory.
I stand amazed at Your sufferance
Of the struggling sinner like me,
And the steadfast flow of help You
bestow
From the merciful heart that is in
Thee.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
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