wisdom is a symphony
"No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it." - Preacher H.E. Luccock
Each book within wisdom literature plays its own instrument. Reading one book in the genre is a little like listening to an incredible whistler (like Andrew Bird - that man is amazing). It’s beautiful, but there are some complexities missing until you read them side-by-side.
For example, the book of Proverbs is the drumbeat or baseline. It hums along and provides the tempo, steady and clean. It tells the reader about correct behavior, how to avoid pitfalls, how to detect traps. It strategically calls to mind the picture of a loving father putting his arm around a son and saying, "heads up, the end of that road is a disaster."
{Boom, 2, 3, 4} – "go right"
{Boom, 2, 3, 4} – "oops! Curves ahead!"
{Boom, 2, 3, 4} – "all clear over here!"
And as the wisdom beat of Proverbs plays, a guitar starts to strum the book of Job. What was once a simple cadence now has complexity. The chords tell the story of a man who perfectly followed the path of wisdom outlined in Proverbs but is now squarely stuck in disaster. Job insists he was following the beat, and his friends are equally sure that if he had followed the beat, he wouldn't be in this predicament.
In an answer that sounds complex but feels unresolved, both the guitar and the drum continue to play together. Job's friends keep banging "PROVERBS" on their bass drums, and still, God strums away, above the fray. His tune proclaims that there is no formula for a perfect life and that God's wisdom doesn't have to abide by our understanding.
But the song is still building. The notes of a clear piano enter the composition with the book of Ecclesiastes. The author explains that within Proverb's steadiness and Job's complexities, both a wonderful life and an awful life end in death.
The author forces the other instruments into a rest and plays his minor notes one key at a time:
Living for this life is like living for a vapor.
Fear God, love your family, do well the job God has placed in front of you.
Each of the instruments in the wisdom song is pure and holy, unique and necessary. Played together, though, is where we can hear the beauty of the scripture. Ultimately the wisdom song uses all three parts to declare that fearing God is the foundation for all wisdom.
The symphony of wisdom is a call to humility.
The key when reading the Bible is to keep in mind that we are reading individual parts of a symphony. All aspects of a remarkable whole that is complex and varied. Remember the baseline when listening to the guitar. The tuned ear can catch each of the particular parts and also appreciate the combination.
