9-12-2018 – A Word to the Wise: Wisdom and Women
My wife thinks it rather presumptuous of me to tell a woman how to become wise. She may be correct. I have learned to be careful in such matters, for my wife is a wise woman filled with good deeds, and besides she looks great in white linen.
Wise women have always been a part of society. It is instructive that the word wisdom in its various forms in Greek, Hebrew, and Akkadian, embraces the feminine usage. That is the noun forms of the word in these languages tend to be feminine. I find this interesting since the woman is the first to show an interest in wisdom. In my experience, the man seeks wisdom and insight when he is made to. Ask any counselor who seeks counseling, the man or the woman. Most will say their schedules are mostly filled by women. Spend time in any bookstore and observe who is buying the self-help books.
Out of four hundred women mentioned in the Bible, there is sufficient information to ascertain some basic character traits about one hundred and forty of them. Approximately one hundred and fourteen or eighty-two percent of this number might be considered good. This conclusion is reached either by statements made about them or the manner in which they lived their lives. Of this number, nearly seventy percent may be said to have behaved, exhibited, or expressed wisdom in their lives. Even fifty percent of the evil women exhibited a worldly wisdom.
The creation of man and woman presents many interesting challenges. Limiting our observations to what the Bible has to say about wisdom, look at Gen. 2:18ff and Gen. 3:6. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” Now, it is that last phrase ‘desired to make one wise,’ which draws our attention. What did wisdom have to do with the situation?
I believe the answer lies in the basic difference between man and woman. A careful reading of Genesis 1-3 reveals a distinctive difference in their creation. Man is created to tend God’s creation–a woman is created to tend man. It takes two verses to describe man’s creation and purpose five to recite woman’s creation and purpose. This gives us some indication of the complexity of the task facing the woman.
Wisdom was not necessary for a man to fulfill his purpose. Evidently, it is crucial for a woman. Wisdom is the basic essential traits the woman is required to possess if she is to complete her task successfully. The greater the wisdom the greater the ability to tend her man. Thus, for this reason I am suggesting that the desire for wisdom is an inborn part of the makeup of the fabric of the woman’s nature.
This explains how the deceiver could deceive. Satan understood the woman’s desire for wisdom. Satan above all else desires and esteems wisdom, what else is craftiness based on? Therefore, Satan understood her craving for knowledge, wisdom, and insight.
So, how may we know that wisdom as a trait pre-existing with the woman? Lets’ consider an analogy. Say, for example, you enjoy chocolate. Perhaps even, crave its delicious taste. How did that craving come about? Was it because you just looked at it and knew it would be good? No, at some point, you acquired a taste for its pleasure. So it is with wisdom.
For the woman to crave wisdom, she had to have a prior knowledge about its goodness. The prior knowledge was based on God creating it in her in order to fulfill her work of tending to man. Helping necessities awareness, insight, and understanding. These traits are sewn into her fabric so she could fulfill her task.
The ramifications are enormous. I have spent a lifetime speaking to men and women about the innermost secrets of their lives. I have never met a woman who, either in the physical or spiritual realm, lacks the drive for the acquisition of knowledge, wisdom, or insight. Even if it were a strip tease dancer who hates men emphatically, her desire was to know how to entice them even more effectively. Some women will fulfill the need for these traits by seeking the Lord, others prefer to receive them at the hands of the evil one.
While we are speaking of these dancers consider why do they do what they do? Glad you ask. It goes back to that passage in Genesis 3:6’ ‘desired to make one wise,’ Wise about what?
Interesting question perhaps we will address that next, or not.
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