Proverbs 1 v 1 - 2 - What is wisdom?

Proverbs is called "wisdom sayings" mostly written by Solomon, written to tell people how to live wisely, and pretty much applicable to anyone! 


v1
Okay so firstly, Solomon may / may not have written all of them, we know he's written over 3,000 sayings from:
1 Kings 4:32: During his life he spoke three thousand wise sayings and also wrote one thousand five songs
but he may not have written the entire of his book, but hey, no point getting bogged down in minute details, if God really wanted us to know, he'd made sure it was specific enough, but clearly it really doesn't matter WHO wrote it, but more important WHAT it says!


v2
The point of these proverbs is to gain wisdom and self control, and understand wisdom itself.
Wisdom isn't just an old man, but what is wise? There is 297 mentions of the word "wise" in the bible, and it is defined as "having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment"


1) Wisdom is a gift from God
All wisdom originally comes from God, as shown in:
James 1:5 But if any of you needs wisdom, you should ask God for it. He is generous to everyone and will give you wisdom without criticizing you.
So God will give us this wisdom, he wants to give it to us


2) Wisdom is about applications
But wisdom isn't just head knowledge, a huge part of wisdom is being able to apply it too. 
Matthew 7:24 Everyone who hears my words and obeys them is like a wise man
We all know the story of the wise / foolish man, but it's applications are relevant no matter if you are a child or an 80 year old. He was saved, because he heard God's word and applied it to his own life. It's a great start to learn, but it's even better if you can apply it, or you pretty much are being hypocritical. 


3) Wisdom is God's wisdom, not human wisdom
But again, to make the distinction, it's not human knowledge, it's God knowledge. So it's not just about why gravity works on earth, but not in space, but about God knowledge. Again can be cross referenced with James in 
James 3:15a That kind of "wisdom" does not come from God but from the world


4) Wisdom is made available through Jesus
In Colossians it talked of how the secret of God, was made known through Jesus, and similarly here, wisdom of God is made available to all of us through Jesus. 
1 Corinthians 1:24 But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has called—Jews and Greeks.
1 Corinthians 1:30 Because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. In Christ we are put right with God, and have been made holy, and have been set free from sin.


5) Faith -> Wisdom -> Discipline
Unfortunately, wisdom doesn't come to us effortlessly, and painlessly. We learn wisdom through our faith, but also through God's discipline. The entire of proverbs highlight all our flaws, our sins, and even though it's hard, we have to keep going through faith, to get wisdom and discipline ourselves. 


The basic ways for how to acquire wisdom is to know it, to perceive it, and to recieve it.