All right, well lesson two is entitled seek immortality. We're gonna be looking at chapters one through five of the book of wisdom and there is a lot here So hopefully this doesn't take us four hours because it's incredible incredible stuff So Roman number one in the notes is love righteousness for immortality. We're gonna be looking at chapter one versus one through fifteen There really is a form a little bit of a prologue or an introduction to the whole book here about righteousness immortality and the consequences of Sin or the consequences of righteousness, which are good obviously good consequences So that's we're gonna be looking at here chapter one verse one and this whole section as it forms this introduction or this prologue has an inclusion So book ends as they're often called right so certain sections of scripture or a whole book itself or even a whole Bible Right has an inclusion or book in concepts or verses so verse one and verse 15 form this inclusion around the theme of righteousness or Call it justification. What does it mean to be righteous?
Really quickly is to be in God's friendship? It's to be in a state of grace It's to live a life of virtue and grace right so to be righteous is to be friends with God and to have his sanctifying grace inside You're right inside your soul. So this whole section versus one through fifteen begin and end with the theme of righteousness So by way of demonstration here chapter one verse one begins love righteousness That's why I tightly so Bible say by the way love righteousness Because it's the very first words of the entire book which are really really beautiful love righteousness now If you skip all the way down to verse 15 it says for righteousness is immortal So there's a bit of an inclusion here and there's a conclusion to right love righteousness because it is immortal and the idea here is that If you love righteousness and seek righteousness, it's going to lead to your own immortality It leads to wisdom of course, which will lead you to immortality That's one of the big themes in these chapters in this whole book Which is what happens to the righteous soul after he dies is that at the end of the soul or is there life after death? And of course, we're gonna be learning here and the book teaches there's life after death in factors immortality you live forever The soul does live forever in God's grace and friendship and peace So that's a really important way to approach this whole book which is this little inclusion love righteousness for it is immortal There's kind of a cause and effect there If you seek it if you desire it if you seek with all your heart soul and strength and love with all your heart soul and strength You will be immortal and that's the promise of this book now This leads here to another major theme in the wisdom literature corpus, which is the two ways So there's a way of righteousness which leads to immortality And then unfortunately, there's a way of unrighteousness which leads to eternal spiritual death And the two ways is really distinctive of so many of these wisdom literature books If you go back to song, let me just take a little bit of time here and share with you what I have in mind most commentaries will point this out as well So you have the two ways mentioned at the very first Psalm The whole Psalter really is a demonstration of the two ways because someone as well as some to form the prologue introduction for all five books of the Psalter go back to the Bible study the 16 part Bible study on the Psalms for more on that But let me just take you to song one all right It's only six verses here I won't read all of them but it begins chapter one verse one blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked Nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers His delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates or thinks ponders day and night And if you skip down to verse six, it concludes the Lord knows the way of the righteous But the way of the wicked will perish all right So obviously someone is amazing is a lot to say there But you get the idea very clearly right right out the gate You've got two choices the way of righteousness and the way of wickedness the way of righteousness needs to life But the way of the wicked will perish so that's gonna be spiritual death so blessed is the man who rejects the ways of sinners and ponders and meditates and thanks upon the teachings of the Lord now that's a very clear open Presentation of our choice in life the choice of life versus the choice of death happiness versus misery peace versus anxiety and fear and so on So forth now the Proverbs also pick up on this theme of the two ways very famously in Proverbs chapter one verse seven Which says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge the fool fools despise wisdom and instruction Right, so what's it gonna be for you fear of the Lord leading to wisdom leading to righteousness and life or foolishness?
Which is going to lead to destruction right so you find this in so many different places and so many different presentations throughout not just the Wisdom literature you'll test them it but really it's all over the place It's a good fact. I'm gonna talk my head you can go back to Genesis first each Chapter is where you've got the the tree of knowledge of good and evil versus the tree of life Those are the two ways right there and it goes all the way through the whole Bible Right these these are the two choices that we have but the book of wisdom really takes the theme of the two ways And it really more than any other book of the Old Testament develops the theology of the eternal fates of the two ways So if you're righteous and you seek the way of the righteous and the way of peace and obey God's commandments and statutes and ordinances And then you die well then what happens after that various other books and you'll test them it ask the question You don't really give a lot of detailed answers and the flip side of the coin is true Well if you are unrighteous and you pursue all these wicked things and press the innocent and the vulnerable and reject God's ways And then you die well the righteous and the righteous both die what happens after their death Is there anything that's going to give them ultimate justice or peace of indication or punishment? There's the case maybe again some other books raise the question but don't have a lot of answers go back to the Psalms go back to Ecclesiastes Job and you're gonna see this question in very right different ways But the book of wisdom here is so amazing because it actually talks about the eternal face What happens after the righteous dies is he is there gonna be anything good for him or her and what happens after the unrighteous Wicked person dies what's gonna happen to that person this book provides the answers and again It's the bridge into the New Testament as we talk about in the introductory lesson lesson number one It is the perfect bridge leading up to the full revelation of Jesus Christ So it's really wonderful to see the development of theology or the development of revelation throughout the ages throughout the covenants throughout the various eras of salvation history preparing the way for the fullness of Christ It's really amazing but on this point here I got a good quote for you from your Catholic and archival testament which says the thrust of these opening sections is that God Cause all men but especially kings and all leaders in authority to account for their righteousness or face the consequences for their unrighteousness It is in the context of such exhortations that the wisdom of Solomon provides us with what is easily the most detailed discussion of life after death in the Old Testament and The contrasting eternal face of the righteous and the wicked boom man That's that's a great little quote right there So I had to share it with you Let me read that last sentence one more time It is in the context of such exhortations that the wisdom of Solomon provides us with what is easily the most detailed discussion of life after death in the Old Testament And the contrasting eternal face of the righteous versus the wicked So you got your two ways But what are the reverberations and eternal consequences this book is gonna talk about it and this is gonna be the huge name of these chapters one through Five chapter six through nine the next lesson we'll talk about seeking that this is seeking immortality the next lesson six through nine will be Seek wisdom and then we're gonna see the very last lesson how wisdom and righteousness is present in all of salvation history So that's gonna be really fun as well Alright, so that's how we want to approach these five chapters here and really the whole book and honestly really all scripture and our lives Pursue seek love righteousness and because it is immortal what a great promise Alright, so then on that let's keep reading chapter one verses one through five here and begin to unpack these teachings Here we go chapter one verse one love righteousness you rulers of the earth think of the Lord with uprightness seek him with sincerity of heart Because he is found by those who do not put him to the test and manifests himself to those who do not just trust him for perverse thoughts Separate men from God and when his power is tested it convicts the foolish because wisdom will not enter at the seekful soul Nor dwell in a body and slave to sin for a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from the seat and will rise and depart from foolish thoughts And will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness We'll stop right there clearly you can see the two ways clearly If you can see a lot of echoes to Psalm one which we kind of touched upon really briefly as well These are the two paths that we're gonna go down now the author here first addresses the rulers of the earth He's gonna come back to this in chapter six a couple different occasions as well So he does seem to be talking first to people who are in charge to those who have authority because they have the most impact in society for The general good or the general harm of those under their protection and their care right? So that's gonna be very important But really this is addressed to absolutely everybody because I mean everyone has some degree of authority in their lives over other people I'm small or minor some everyone has influence of other people to some degree smaller minor And so he says you rulers of the earth and really everybody love righteousness There are actually there are three verbs right here.
So you got a love righteousness You have to think of the Lord that's kind of echoing Psalm one right there meditate on his statutes day and night Think of the Lord of brightness and seek him with sincerity of heart Those are three very beautiful verbs that kind of captures our entire disposition towards righteousness and towards uprightness and towards God himself So love him love righteousness that to me echoes Deuteronomy six the great Shama love the Lord your God while your heart soul and strength and it says think of the Lord of brightness echoing Psalm one is so many other passages when I think of The no pun intended there But when I ponder think of the word think always reminds me of Romans chapter 12 verse 2 where Paul says be transformed by the renewal of your mind You must think according to wisdom You must think and see things as God sees them right and so you have to transform your mind Don't think is the world thinks don't think is Satan thinks think is God thinks or transform your mind and be renewed in your mind Think of him with uprightness and finally this third verb here beautifully seek him with sincerity of heart That's the whole call of the whole scriptures seek him pursue him You find this absolutely everywhere in the song of Solomon We did a Bible study on that as well where the bride seeks the groom That's of all very evocative and metaphorical and symbolic of the soul seeking God You also find this with Christ himself right seek ask seek a knock in the door will be open to you This the same idea the prophets call Israel all the time to seek the Lord And so you see this all the time we must seek him with everything that we are our dispositions our energy our emotions are strength everything right Because if you do guess what verse two you're gonna be found or God will be found by those who love think and seek him Love think and seek righteousness and wisdom you God will be found by such people that is such a beautiful statement there So if you have the disposition of doing good you seek to do good you seek to avoid evil You don't want to walk or stand or sit with the unrighteous as someone put it You're gonna find God He will be found by those people who earnestly desire him like Jesus said ask seek a knock in the door will be open to you That etc right that is a great promise no matter who you are no matter where you live You could be you know some child in the middle of Timbuktu There are some old lady in the middle of I don't know Asia doesn't matter if you seek the Lord and want to know his truth God will be found by that person. He will manifest reveal himself to that person. We have an absolute guarantee there So if you're holy if you're upright if you're disciplined right a disciplined soul You're gonna find what you're looking for you're gonna find ultimately God But conversely unfortunately the wicked should never put God to the test all right who says in verse two God will be found by those who do not put him to the test And in fact when you test his power verse three it's gonna convict the foolish It's always gonna backfire if you seek to test God and testing God was of course forbidden in the law of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 16 Moses is railing against the Israelites right before he dies. He's not allowed across the Jordan River for a variety of different reasons We can't get into now.
He's gotta die. He's there He sees the Holy Land in from out in Evo and before his own death He has this long pretty much a deathbed sermon which is what Deuteronomy is check out the Bible study for more on that But he tells them look you were testing the Lord over and over and over again in the wilderness You shall not test the Lord and so these first verses in the book of wisdom don't test the Lord if you do It's gonna convict the foolish that's 100% an echo of the Exodus It's an echo of the rebellion of that first generation of the Israelites as they were redeemed from Egypt brought through the Red Sea into the Wilderness towards the promise land They tested him over and over and over again and they were found to be foolish and the whole first generation except for Joshua and Caleb They died in the wilderness there and it was no bueno It was a disaster and even the second generation had their own problems as well Now when they got to the board of the promise land with ball paper idolatry and all the rest of it So do not put God to the test so the echo is don't be like those first Israelites the first generation of Israelites who God redeemed and showed his power and might yet they still rebel against him And so I'm saying this now because the echoes of the Exodus We're gonna have a few more of them in just this lesson and it's gonna come to the forefront many other times throughout this book In fact the majority of salvation history that the author focuses on is of the Exodus because the Exodus is the paradigm of redemption because the Exodus is It's a whole typological lesson on our own redemption not from Egypt or from Pharaoh But really from Satan from sin and to death right so we don't want to we don't want to be like those first generations of Israelites Because we've been given more and so we'll be held accountable tomorrow All right So this whole idea of don't test God echoes the Exodus and it also kind of looks forward to Jesus Christ as well because remember how Satan tested Jesus in the wilderness there's a whole new Exodus theme going on where Jesus goes for 40 days and 40 nights into the wilderness like Israel was in the wilderness for years and Satan tests Jesus because he is the new Israel There's all these parallels going on here Jesus is bringing about a new Exodus and Satan tests him in Satan was found to be foolish and Satan continues to test Jesus throughout his public ministry Even through the Jewish religious leadership the Establishment to the Pharisees the Sadducees describes the lawyers you can just go to places like Matthew 21 through 22 where there's all these tests It's the same Greek word by the way how the lawyers tested Jesus just like Satan tested Jesus So the teachings here in wisdom chapter 1 verses 1 through 5 is don't test the Lord Just like a first generation of Israelites tested him and their wilderness wanderings and then ultimately as we see from in hindsight with the Gospels you don't want to test the Lord like Satan did or Satan's pawns and minions did in the leaders of the Jerusalem temple in the city so very ugly situation we're gonna come back to Exodus themes over and over and over again Well it goes on so don't test him verse 4 because wisdom will not enter at the seatful soul nor dwell in a body and slave to sin That is so true right by the way soul and body that's what a human being is we are body soul composites This is very much a Jewish as well as a Christian teaching. It's very philosophical as well. We're not just pure bodies We're not just pure souls either.
We are body soul composites You even at the general judgment everybody where they go to heaven or where they go to hell They're going to be in heaven or hell with their bodies not just their souls So we are human beings but you see here the connection of enslavement to sin affects both the body and the soul This is a very very important right no one who is enslaved to sin is actually wise because sin is opposed to wisdom Send darkens the mind it darkens the intellect it weakens the will so if you're enslaved to sin There's just you're not gonna become wise you have to conquer sin in order to grow in wisdom Which of course what Jesus does for us and Jesus says the same stuff too like in John chapter 8 verse 34 He talks about being enslaved to sin anyone who sends is enslaved to sin a Romans chapter 6 says the same thing as well So I think very clearly Jesus and Paul have the book of wisdom in mind There's so many different echoes and illusions references to the wisdom of Solomon like I said I think at the very end of lesson one there are so many references to this book of wisdom clearly in the New Testament clearly They had wisdom in mind and they were teaching from the book of wisdom Which makes so much sense because you have so much of this developed theology of life after death immortality the origin of sin Satan's And they will talk about in so on and so forth. So yeah, Jesus and Paul pretty much does the exact same thing anyone who is enslaved to sin You're not gonna be wise you're not gonna grow in righteousness You have to conquer sin which we do through the grace of the sacraments through prayer through discipleship of Jesus Christ Alright, so how will we be wise walks through the spirit this next section here verses six and following associates wisdom with God's spirit Which is really beautiful really powerful because if you're again enslaved to sin you're not gonna be wise It just reminds me of a another priest in fact You probably know if you listen to these Bible studies I mentioned him before you can go on YouTube You find him everywhere his name is Father Ripper Gurs a great exercise He's very popular he put it really simply really in a very humorous way, but it's very true very flatly He said look sin makes you stupid sin makes you stupid Therefore, you know wisdom will not enter into a deceitful soul But because again when the intellect is designed to know the truth of good and the beautiful and the will is supposed to follow the intellect Lead if the will says I'm not going to actually desire and seek and choose the truth of good and beautiful I'm going to choose the false and the ugly and the sinful it's doing violence to the intellect And if you keep doing that if the will keep rejecting what is true good and beautiful it actually will make you stupider So the more steep you are in sin Spiritually speaking the stupider you become I mean it's pretty straightforward here It's just power built as body soul composites and the faculties of the soul the intellect and the will and the memory as well You're gonna become stupider and stupider the more you reject what is good for you What is true for you? What is beautiful for you? So that's essentially what Father Ripper was saying which is of course very very true So the reverse side of that is to be associated with the spirit so wisdom and the Holy Spirit here is being described in verse six and following Let me read it verse six wisdom is a kindly spirit and will not free a blasphemer from the guilt of his words because God has witnessed of his inmost feelings a true observer of his heart and a hearer of his tongue because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world and that Which holds all things together knows what is said therefore?
No one who utters unrighteous things will escape notice and just as when it punishes will not pass and buy etc. Right? This is a really interesting and many commentators start to point out the connections here between as we discussed making The introductory remarks and the last lesson wisdom as a type of the Holy Spirit also as a type of the second person of the Trinity Jesus Christ The Son of God because remember all three persons of the Trinity possess their perfections completely and totally without distinction, right? So in any case that's another discussion on Trinitarian theology The wisdom can equally be a type of the Holy Spirit as well as of Jesus Christ But here there's all these connections between wisdom and the spirit which is which is awesome So wisdom is associated with the spirit of God who holds the blasphemer guilty clearly the one who does not repent I can't help it to think of Christ's words in the gospel of Matthew 12 where he talks about it also will be forgiven except for the sin against the Holy Spirit Well, that's really blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that is a With those churches as final impenitance the refusal to repent to blaspheme God without any remorse or any sorrow or any contrition whatsoever This is a personal thought of mine I mean it might be a very small weak connection But I think there's a connection there here because it says explicitly in verse six Look wisdom is a kindly spirit associated with the spirit of God and will not free a blasphemer from the guilt of his word So if you sin against the Holy Spirit and blaspheme against him and refuse to repent You're you're not going to be forgiven of your guilt So that's an interesting thought of mine I'm continuing to think about that a little bit more but wisdom here very much like the Holy Spirit would he knows the thoughts of your heart He knows the thoughts of your mind.
He knows your feelings He knows everything you cannot hide from wisdom just as you could not hide from the Holy Spirit and in the same way another Association of the Spirit is the creation of the world in verse seven the spirit of Lord has filled the world and that which holds all things together Knows what is said so you can't hide anything from him So wisdom like the Holy Spirit is present at the creation of the world it fills the whole world It holds the whole world together because God's wisdom that the wisdom with which God created the world is the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as well As of course Jesus Christ So because wisdom a.k.a. The Holy Spirit knows all things there are no secrets hidden from him the author continues to say look Don't murmur and murmuring is more than just complaining. You know you can complain. Oh, it's a little bit too cold in here Or you can complain.
Oh, you know my bed was too soft or too hard. You can complain Oh, this food isn't really good or you can complain about anything right? It's not so much complaining It's rebellion murmuring is rebellion. So here's what he says Just go down to verse 10 a jealous ear that's God's ear the wisdom's ear the spirits ear Here's all things and the sound of murmurings does not go unheard Beware then of useless murmuring and keep your tongue from slander because no secret word is about result and a lying mouth destroys the soul So first this is touching upon a big theme in all of the wisdom literature which is taking taming the tongue Proverbs talks about this a lot Right tame your tongue be aware of what you say if someone who is Level headed right in cool tempered.
He's gonna put out a lot of fires So to speak right this kind of the same idea everything that you say can will be held against you in the court of law Right so speak righteousness do not murmur All your secret thoughts and words are revealed to the Holy Spirit which is wisdom right? So don't murmur. Now This is again another Exodus connection here because if you go back to the store the Exodus after God redeems them from Egypt They're in the wilderness. What did they do over and over and over again?
They were murmuring against Moses and murmuring against God and so that brought them a lot of punishment again the whole first generation of Israelites died in the Wilderness because of their rebellion as we saw up above in verse 2 here They tested God and the murmured against God and then of course they were punished by him because of their well I guess you could also say call a blasphemy and in on repentance of the sin against the Lord and they were not Contrived you can make that argument very clearly so the connection here is that the author of wisdom is saying don't murmur against wisdom Just like the first generation of Israelites murmured against God because you're going to be held accountable So maybe this whole idea of murmuring against wisdom and murmur against the Holy Spirit is probably connected with this And against the Holy Spirit, you know when you're testing the spirit you're testing God You're rebelling against him your blaspheming against him. That's all I think related to each other So huge exodus themes here in this introduction Seek wisdom love righteousness and if you do God will be found by you he will manifest himself to you Don't go down the way of unrighteousness testing the Lord murmuring against the spirit which is the wisdom of God otherwise It's not gonna go so well Hey, this is Dr. Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson Please become a student over at scripture and tradition calm where you can listen to this entire course But also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand however And whenever you want so thank you so much God bless you and keep studying your Bible