Bible Study: (Book of Proverbs; Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom)
Date: ………10/10/14
Study: Week # 3
Prayer:
Father God, we praise You, honor You, glorify Your name, and we thank You for Your Son Jesus Christ. We understand that You created the heaven and the earth for Your glory. We honor that too. Jesus taught His disciples while here on earth. We need that teaching now. Let Your will be done in our lives as it is in heaven. As we study this chapter, bless us to understand with deep spiritual understanding, so we can live an acceptable life unto You. Help us to gain all that we need to live by Your principal with understanding. Bless our understanding, knowledge, and wisdom in Your Word, so the it can affect our decision making every day. Help us to not lean on our own understanding, but trust You in everything, so our path will be straight and in Your will. We ask according to Your Word that we may receive what we need in the time it's needed. We ask this in Jesus' Mighty Name. AMEN.
Title: Understanding (Part 1)
The word "understanding" is translated from the Hebrew word "tebunah," meaning "to separate, to distinguish; hence, to discern, to mark, to understand, all which depend on the power of separating, distinguishing, discriminating; specially, to discern, perceive; to discern mentally, to understand; insight, understanding" (Wilson's); "discretion, reason, skilfulness, understanding, wisdom" (Strong's).
I have a very important question. So, how do you understand something? To understand is 'to comprehend', and to comprehend is 'to take in' or embrace. Seeing solitary facts in relation to a general principle is the essence of understanding. What is an understanding then? An understanding is a generalized meaning or insight. An insight is a basic sense of, or feeling for, relationships; it is a meaning or discernment. A tested generalized insight is an understanding; it is a meaning or discernment that one may profitably apply to several or even many similar, but not necessarily identical, situations or processes. The most valuable insights are those confirmed by enough similar cases to be generalized into an understanding. A student understands any object, process, ideas or fact if he/she sees how it can be used to fulfil some purpose or goal. The outcomes of a collection of understandings are generalizations, theories, generalized insights, general ideas, concepts, principles, rules and/or laws. Understanding!
(Proverbs 4:7) Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
This verse starts by stating that wisdom is the highest rung on the ladder, the principal thing that we are all hoping to gain from studying God's Word is said to be wisdom. But, it then declares with all your getting make sure that you also get understanding. Generally speaking, "understanding" is the correct organization and ordering of associated facts and truths. It is very much like putting a complex Jig Saw Puzzle together. When the pieces of the puzzle fit together correctly you can see the big picture correctly and when they are forced together incorrectly you have nothing, but a big mess that does not make any sense to anyone. What we can see in this verse is the reference to all three key subjects. God is telling us all to "Get Something" and that something is His knowledge. God still tells us that Wisdom is the ultimate goal of all of our getting, however to get to wisdom, we first need to achieve understanding by first gaining accumulating facts.
To see an example of how Jesus applied these three elements during His ministry on the earth, we can look at Jesus teaching his disciples reading the story of the parable of the sower in (Mark 4:1). Jesus goes through the parable in a public setting giving to everyone the same basic knowledgeable facts, but in private he tells the 12 the meaning of all of the symbolic objects in the parables (Mark 4:10). The soil was the heart of man, the seeds were the Words of God, the birds of the air was Satan, etc. By explaining the parable to them he correctly put together the associated truths and facts so that they could have a clear understanding of how the Kingdom of God operates. We can begin to see why understanding is so critical, without understanding all you have is a religion and religious people with a bunch of random religious facts. This was an example of the Jewish leadership of Jesus' day. These men knew a lot of facts written in their law, but understood practically none of them. Too many Christian are just people with some knowledge of some random facts. They do not understand how they fit together, or how they work, or why they are in the Bible, how they relate to God, how they relate to them, why they are important to know and on and on I could go. The Bible is so much more complex than you just reading a verse and you thinking that you got it and know everything you need to know. So getting understanding is a critical piece of the bigger puzzle. But it is still just one step in the ladder's wrung. Start by learning the facts and then grow to understand what each of them mean and how they relate together. Continue to grow and understand how they apply to you specifically. Only by understanding who you are in Christ, why Jesus died on the cross, who Jesus was, and all of the other important subjects in the Bible will you ever be able to achieve to know a level of the wisdom of God. So let's move on up the ladder.
So the final rung on the ladder is wisdom. As we learned earlier it is the principal thing that we are trying to gain from studying the Bible. What exactly is wisdom? I would say wisdom in its simplest terms is the practical application of correct knowledge and understanding. Knowing what to do, when to do it and with who to do it, that is the revealed ability to make wise choices. Wisdom certainly involves other aspects and there are men of God who teach very in depth on the subject of wisdom so I will not venture to repeat what they can teach you more efficiently and effectively. But, by correctly knowing God's word and understanding it, God will give you the wisdom to make right choices in your life. Wisdom is a gift from God and it comes from knowing God personally. In James 1:5, God says if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to every man liberally. This verse teaches us that not every man has wisdom but then informs us where true wisdom can come from if we desire to have it. So making the right choices in life is possible with God as your source and your guide; like knowing who to marry, knowing what job to take, knowing what city to live in, knowing what house to buy, or knowing what roads to drive on. These are all things that God can show you. By His Spirit, God guides His people to make wise choices. However, all of these wise choices start by knowing God's Word first. By knowing God's Word, it builds your character, and guides your moral convictions. By making wise decisions morally you are better able to make wise choices socially and financially. The wisdom of God allows you to put together good choices in life and allows you to be a better and a more successful human being.
Can you see how knowledge, understanding and wisdom fit into correct Bible interpretation and why they are so important? The correct interpretation of the Bible so hinges upon these three qualities that it is imperative that you have a full grasp of the concepts and methods of learning and studying the Bible correctly. Your knowledge and understanding of God and His Word will always affect your decision making. That is why God said my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.
| Scripture | Bible Code Name | Description |
| Psalm 119:105 | Lamp and Light | The Word of God |
| Proverbs 3:18 | Tree of Life | Wisdom |
| Proverbs 6:23 | Lamp | The Word of God |
| Proverbs 10:11 | Well of Life | The mouth of the righteous man |
| Proverbs 11:30 | Tree of Life | Fruit of the Righteous |
| Proverbs 12:18 | Health | Tongue of the Wise |
| Proverbs 15:4 | Tree of Life | Wholesome Tongue |
| Proverbs 16:22 | Wellspring of Life | Understanding |
| Proverbs 18:10 | Strong Tower | The Name of the Lord |
| Matthew 11:14 | Elijah | John the Baptist the messenger of the Lord |
| Luke 11:29 | evil generation | those who seek a sign |
| John 3:19 | Condemnation/Judgment | men who loved darkness instead of the light |
| John 6:29 | Work of God | Believe on Him who was Sent from God |
| John 6:40 | Will of God | See the Son of God and Believe on Him |
| John 6:50 | Bread of Heaven | Jesus who has come down from heaven |
| John 15:12 | My Commandment | Love one another |
| John 17:3 | Life Eternal | Know the true God |
| Romans 9:9 | Word of Promise | Spoken to Sarah about her son |
| Romans 11:27 | My Covenant | Take away their sins |
| 1 Corinthians 11:25 | This Cup | The new covenant in my blood |
| Galatians 4:25 | Hagar | Mt Sinai and Jerusalem who are in Bondage |
| James 1:27 | Pure Religion | Visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction |
| 2 Peter 3:8 | One Day | 1000 Years |
| 1 John 2:25 | The Promise | Eternal Life |
| 1 John 5:3 | Love of God | Keep His Commandments |
| 1 John 5:4 | Victory | Being Born of God |
| 2 John 1:6 | Love | Walk in His Commandments |
| 2 John 1:7 | Deceiver | He who denies Christ is come in the flesh |
| 2 John 1:7 | Antichrist | He who denies Christ is come in the flesh |
I shared this to give an understanding of what they mean. We need understanding. We can have knowledge and wisdom, but we also need understanding too. Let's not forget that there is a worldly understanding, and a spiritual understanding.
What is this understanding on the getting of which depends so much? Is it intellectual lore, obtained from delving deep into books of other men's making? Is it knowledge obtained from studying rocks (geology) or stars (astronomy) or even the human body (physiology)?
Nay, verily, for when did such knowledge ever ensure life and health and peace, ways of pleasantness, with riches and honor?
Understanding is a spiritual birth, a revelation of God within the heart of man. Jesus touched the root of the matter when, after having asked the apostles a question that was answered variously, according to the intellectual perception of the men, he asked another question to which Peter gave a reply not based on external reasoning, but on intuition.
He said to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven" (Mt. 16:17).
You may have an intellectual perception of Truth. You may easily grasp with the mind the statement that God is the giver of all good gifts—life, health, love—just as people have for centuries grasped it. Or you may go further, and intellectually see that God is not only the giver, but the gift itself; that He is life, health, love, in us. But unless Truth is "revealed ... to you" by "my Father in heaven," it is of no practical benefit to you or to anyone else.
This revelation of Truth to the consciousness of a person is spiritual understanding.
You may say to yourself or another may say silently to you, over and over again, that you are well and wise and happy. On the mental plane, a certain "cure" is effected, and for a time you will feel well and wise and happy. This is simply a form of hypnotism, or mind cure. But until, down in the depths of your being, you are conscious of your oneness with the Father, until you know within yourself that the spring of all wisdom and health and joy is within your own being, ready at any moment to leap forth at the call of your need, you will not have spiritual understanding.
All the teachings of Jesus were for the purpose of leading men into this consciousness of their oneness with the Father. He had to begin at the external man—because people then as now were living mostly in external things-and teach him to love his enemies, to do good to others, and so forth. These were external steps for them to take-a sort of lopping off of the ends of the branches; but they were steps that led on up to the place of desire and attainment where finally the Master said, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (Jn. 16:12).
He told them of the Comforter that was in them, and which would teach them all things, revealing the "depths of God" (I Cor. 2:10) to them, showing them things to come. In other words, he told them how they might find the kingdom of heaven within themselves—the kingdom of love, of power, of life.
The coming of the Comforter to their hearts and lives, giving them power over every form of sin, sickness, sorrow, and over even death itself, is exactly what we mean by understanding or realization. The power that this consciousness of the indwelling Father gives is for us today as much as it was for those to whom the Nazarene spoke. Aye, more: for did he not say, "The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these. (Jn. 14:12)?
All the foregoing lessons have been steppingstones leading up to the point where man may realize the ever-abiding inner presence of the Most High, God. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?" (1 Cor. 6:19)
I cannot reveal God to you. You cannot reveal God to another. If I have learned, I may tell you, and you may tell another how to seek and find God, each within himself. But the new birth into the consciousness of our spiritual faculties and possibilities is indeed like the wind that "blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. (Jn. 3:8). The new birth takes place in the silence, in the invisible.
Intellectual lore can be bought and sold: understanding, or realization, cannot. A man, Simon by name, once attempted to buy the power that spiritual understanding gives from another who possessed it. "But Peter said to him, 'May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money! You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God " (Acts 8:20-21). Nor will crying and beseeching bring spiritual understanding. Hundreds of people have tried this method and have not received that for which they earnestly but ignorantly sought. They have not received, because they did not know how to take that which God freely offered. Others have sought with selfish motives this spiritual understanding, or consciousness of the indwelling Father, because of the power it would give them. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures [or to serve selfish ends]" (Jas. 4:3).
Definition:
Un·der·stand·ing noun \ˌən-dər-ˈstan-diŋ\
The knowledge and ability to judge a particular situation or subject
An informal agreement
A willingness to understand people's behavior and forgive them
Scripture References:
Proverbs 14:29
Questions:
1). We first need to achieve understanding by first gaining___________________.
2). Read the parable of the sower in Mark 4, then explain as Jesus did.
3). The religious leaders in Jesus' day had lots of facts, but they didn't _______________.
4). What exactly is wisdom?
5). Name some of the Bible Code and description.
6). Understanding is a _________ _________, a revelation of God within the heart of man.
7). Who reveal truth to us according to Jesus?
8). The birth in the Holy Spirit bring_______________ to everyone who is born of God, but we still need_____________, and _____________.
Weekly Reading: (optional)
Proverbs: Chapters 9-12
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change; courage to change the things we can, and the WISDOM to know the different, amen…..
God bless this study (II Timothy 2:15)
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