Visting another site I found someone connecting the pillars of wisdom to the beatitudes. He had a some difficulty squishing the 9 beatitudes into 7, but his argument can be accepted. Two months ago, I might have even been able to go along with his connection; however, after working through Dallas Willard's "The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God", in particular the 5th chapter, I have come to a very different understanding of the beatitudes: the beatitudes is not a comprehensive list of those for whom God is pleased and will bless, but actually it is an extremely small subset of those for whom God has blessed, because EVERYONE IS WORTHY OF GOD'S BLESSING since there is nothing we can do to ever earn his blessing. (If you are questioning this interpretation of the beatituds I strongly reccomend that you spend some time with Willard's discourse on the subject because he has mapped it out quite elegently and it is a freeing journey from the shackling power of other interpretations.) So even after some beatitude squishing (i.e., from 9 to 7), Jesus's sermon on the mount can not be accepted as the defining fource behind Solomon's seven pillars.
Another cyber-author (Knight of Faith) digs into both the current and previous chapter to excavate the possible 7 pillars. Quoting directly from his site, we have from chapter 9:
1. Acceptance... (Proverbs 9:4)
2. Hospitality... (Proverbs 9:5)
3. forsaking the foolish (i.e., establishing serenity)...(Proverbs 9:6)
4. restraint and good manners (serene comportment)... (Proverbs 9:7-8)
5. understanding... (Proverbs 9:8-9)
6. teaching, and... Proverbs 9:9)
7. fear of the Lord (awe, reverence, surrender, and mystical transcendence)
...(Proverbs 9:10)
or from chapter 8:
1. prudence...(Proverbs 8:12)
2. counsel (transmitted & shared wisdom & understanding) ... (8:14)
3. strength (8:14)
4. justice (8:15)
5. love (8:17,21)
6. prosperity (8:18-19,21)
7. righteousness (8:20)
With some creative word associations we could probably line up some of the characteristics between the two groups, but clearly the two lists are not identical (e.g., prosperity is not discussed in Proverbs 9). So we again are with more than 7 characteristics! Maybe we should wake up every morning and assign seven characteristics to wisdom and approach the day in that mentality. How would that look? I think it would be awesome because I don't think that I start the day with even a single characteristic for Wisdom clearly emblazoned in my mind. If I were to start the day conciously visualizing seven characteristics of Wisdom, then I would likely not only see God's infinite wisdom all around me, but would more likely act in those areas of wisdom because I would be working with a tangible definition of wisdom as opposed to an abstract concept. Shoot, I could even start out small and simply begin with a single concrete description of Wisdom and have my world completely rocked. I like it! I am going to start my blogs from here on out with a characteristic of Wisdom and keep it as my mantra for the day. For today I will beging with "acceptance"; Wisdom is the acceptance of others without judgement or condemnation but with love and compassion and an understanding that they too are reflections of our maker.
I know that I got stuck on the first line, so I leave the rest open for discussion if anyone wishes to pick up the cause. However, I am quite sure that we will pick up the themes laid out in this chapter later in subsequent sections of Proverbs.
In closing, I will add another blogger's list of Wisdom's pillars pulled from a poem by Rumi:
In generosity and helping others be like a river.
In compassion and grace be like the sun.
In concealing others' faults be like the night.
In anger and fury be like the dead.
In modesty and humility be like earth.
In tolerance be like the sea.
Either appear as you are or be as you look.
That is, Wisdom is: generous, compassionate, forgiving, peaceful, modest, tolerant, and honest.
Please add to the list. What characteristics do you see Wisdom embrace? What makes up God's foundation for his house?
Peace
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