CHAPTER X. THE STUDY OF WISDOM

DANIEL, while yet a mere youth, was “skilful in all wisdom.” This was the leading part of his education.PBE 91.1

What is wisdom? whence comes it? how is it attained? and what relation does it bear to education in general?PBE 91.2

“Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me. It can not be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof...PBE 91.3

“Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.PBE 91.4

“God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof.... When He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder; then did He see it, and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28:12-28. And “the Lord giveth wisdom.” Proverbs 2:6.PBE 91.5

It is certain, then, that the fear of the Lord was an essential part of the education in the schools of the prophets. Since only God knoweth what is truly wisdom, and since He is the Giver of it, this, in itself, required that the revelation which God had given of Himself should be studied, that they might truly know the true God and His attributes. For they could not fear—reverence—Him unless they knew Him. And in studying the revelation which the Lord had given, this, of itself, was the study of the sacred writings,—the books of Moses and the writings of the other prophets.PBE 92.1

As “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” it is certain that wisdom was the leading subject of study in the schools of the prophets. It preceded every other study. More than this, it not only preceded every other study; but it was the leading element, the guiding principle, in every other study. And as the knowledge of God is essential to the fear of God, and the certain knowledge of God is attained only by revelation that He has given of Himself and of His attributes, it is certain that the Holy Scriptures were the essential basis of all studies, the guide in every course of investigation, and the ultimate test of every inquiry.PBE 92.2

Wisdom is “the fear of the Lord,” and “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” All that any person can possibly know in this world without the fear of the Lord will, in “a little time,” vanish forevermore: while he who knows the fear of the Lord will abide forevermore. That which he learns in accordance with the fear of the Lord will also, with him, abide forevermore; and forevermore there is open to him the wide universe, with all its possibilities for the increase of knowledge. Thus he who has the fear of the Lord has also, in that, for all eternity, all things else: while whatever else he might have without the fear of God, he would not really have even that; because in a little while all that, with himself, must vanish. Thus in the very nature of things, the fear of the Lord is the most important of all things, and is therefore properly the beginning of knowledge as well as of everything else.PBE 92.3

It must be borne in mind, too, that the fear of the Lord was distinctly taught there. The teaching with respect to the Lord was not merely in the teaching of doctrines, or subjects, in the Scriptures; it was not in the teaching of theology, or things about the Lord. The fear of the Lord itself, as a distinctive thing in the individual experience, was taught. The students were instructed as to what the fear of the Lord is, how to approach unto Him, how to pray to Him, how to submit themselves to Him, how to commune with Him, how to court His Holy Spirit, how to be led of the Spirit, how to live with God, how to walk with Him, how to have the Lord dwell in their lives, how to know that they were ever in His presence, how to have Him their companion in everything that they did in their daily lives,—in short, how to glorify God in body, soul, and spirit, in every thought and word and deed.PBE 93.1

All this is the teaching of wisdom. Wisdom was the chief and all-pervading subject of study in the Lord’s school. And Daniel is presented to us as a sample of what such teaching will produce. Let such teaching pervade again the Lord’s schools, and Daniels will be again produced.PBE 94.1