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The Bible has much to say about wisdom and the quest to find it. Still, few teachers feel as confident teaching the wisdom literature of the Old Testament as they do handling the Pauline epistles or Gospels, for example. Fewer still can draw connections between the search for wisdom and its final destination, Jesus Christ.

Douglas O’Donnell models a wise, faithful, and Christ-exalting approach to preaching the OT wisdom literature in his new book, The Beginning and End of Wisdom: Preaching Christ from the First and Last Chapters of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. Continuing The Gospel Coalition’s commitment to training teachers for Preaching Christ in the Old Testament, we corresponded about what makes the wisdom literature so tricky and how these books anticipate Jesus, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). You can find many more recommended resources on preaching Christ from the wisdom literature here.

Why is the OT wisdom literature so difficult to interpret and preach?

Two reasons immediately come to mind. First, much of the wisdom literature is poetry. If you did not grow up in a culture where poetry is valued and readily recited (e.g., America today), and trained little in seminary on how to handle Hebrew poetry in an English sermon, an immediate barrier arises between the modern preacher and the ancient text. I don’t think the wisdom literature is necessarily more difficult to interpret and preach than, say, 2 Samuel or 2 Peter; it is simply a less familiar genre. For example, we might know what to do with the ethical propositions in Ephesians but not what to do with the parallelisms in Proverbs.

Second, we have little hermeneutical help in the New Testament. Unlike other Old Testament books—e.g., Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah—Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes are rarely quoted and (in my estimation) alluded to in the New Testament. This makes it more difficult to make certain or confident Christological connections. Hopefully my book will be some help in building both our skill in making connections and our confidence in preaching them.

To what do you attribute your particular passion for preaching Christ from the OT wisdom books?

My passion arises from personal and academic interests. Personally, I grew up in a home where poetry was esteemed—my father is from Ireland, my mother from Scotland. Need I say more? Near the start of the book (p. 22), I share this:

I’m not sure why when I feel most pressed to prove myself that I turn to the Wisdom Literature of the Bible. Perhaps it has something to do with my natural disposition. I would, for example, scribble lines of poetry while my high school Algebra teacher taught on variables or binary operations or vectors or imaginary numbers or a + b = b + a or whatever else goes on in such a class. And I have continued, without the Algebra teacher background noise, both to write my own poetry and to dwell much on the poetry of others, most notably that of God.

A few years ago, I “contributed to scholarship” with my thesis on John Donne’s interpretation of the Song of Songs in light of the history of biblical interpretation. My first published book, God’s Lyrics, is on the songs of Moses, Deborah, Hannah, David, and Habakkuk. And I am currently working on two commentaries, one on Ecclesiastes and another on the Song of Songs [now being edited]. . . .  In my decade of pastoral ministry I have taught through all of Ecclesiastes, much of Proverbs, and some of Job. My library is filled with rows of commentaries on Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, and the Psalms, and also titles like Gospel and Wisdom, Wisdom’s Many Faces, The Way of Wisdom, Wisdom in Israel, Old Testament Wisdom, and Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?

These are indications, not only of a passionate obsession, but also of an oddity. I say oddity because from my survey of available literature, and personal sampling of other pastors’ libraries and sermons, it appears as though most men of the cloth today have left these texts and topics in the closet. I find such neglect disappointing; yet at the same time, invigorating.

Why do you say the wisdom literature is more helpful than any other part of the Bible in humbling us before God?

The foundational question of the wisdom literature is, “Where shall wisdom be found?” (Job 28:12b; cf. v. 20). That question is answered: “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom” (Job 28:28; cf. Prov. 1:7; Eccles. 12:13). In a unique way, the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job put us in our place. They teach us that we can mine diamonds from the caverns of human existence, experience, and observation, but we cannot find heavenly wisdom, the wisdom God alone possesses (Job 28:23-27; 37:1-42:6). And that this wisdom from above only comes to those below who echo John the Baptist’s words about Wisdom Incarnate, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30) and come to the door of the kingdom of heaven with open eyes and hands and hears, and with faces to the ground.

How would you explain the unique message of each OT wisdom book as it anticipates Jesus?

I hope these Christological summaries below don’t come off as too simplistic. The book shows, I hope, some of the complexities as to the connections I made.

Proverbs: For our own good and the glory of God, the book of Proverbs invites and instructs God’s covenant people—especially young men—to embrace wisdom. For Christians, such wisdom comes through fearing God’s beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:21), and walking in his wisdom.

Ecclesiastes: Ecclesiastes is about finding the goodness of God while living within the vanity of this world. Such goodness or “wisdom” is found only through a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This relationship involves trusting in Christ and heeding his commands, which brings rest, justice, and joy.

Job: The book of Job prefigures the purposeful sufferings of Christ. That is, the story of God’s servant Job prepares us for the story of Jesus, the suffering servant, who in his passion and death shows how innocent suffering can show forth the justice of God.

How does the NT present Jesus in relation to the wisdom extolled in the OT?

Jesus is presented in three ways. First, he is the wisdom sage par excellence. Like the sage of Proverbs 1:26, Jesus taught practical, intellectual, moral, and mysterious wisdom to the young, the simple, and the already wise, using proverbial sayings, parables, beatitudes, and many other figures of speech. Second, Jesus is wisdom acted. That is, in all his relationships, mostly notably his relationship with his heavenly Father, Jesus acted as the obedient son—the perfectly wise child—should. Put differently, our Lord Jesus, in his incarnate nature, perfectly and perpetually feared the LORD. From the cradle to the cross, he walked the way of wisdom. Third, Jesus is wisdom embodied—he is the very “wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). And he beckons all to come to him for rest and fullness of life.

What three resources—other than your book—would you recommend to a teacher who wants to begin the daunting process of preaching Christ from the OT wisdom books? What makes each one particularly helpful?

Two books quickly come to mind because they get, in part or whole, at your question. The best book on this subject is Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes: Foundations for Expository Sermons (Eerdmans, 2010). It is best because Greidanus not only provides the hermeneutics the preacher needs to get to Christ in this difficult genre, but he also works us through how to do so with a specific wisdom book—Ecclesiastes. The second book would be Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Wisdom: Israel’s Wisdom Literature in the Christian Life (Paternoster, 1995). While not as helpful in the specifics of preaching Christ, this book is a tremendous help in showing us the significance of Christological connections from the wisdom literature to the New Testament—both to Christ and Christian ethics.

Beyond those two books, I would recommend reading an introductory book on the wisdom literature (Bullock and Estes are excellent!) and something on how to handle Hebrew poetry in an English prose sermon. Start with Duane Garrett’s articles—“Preaching from the Psalms and Proverbs,” and “Preaching Wisdom.” You might also want to check out the lectures Mike Graves and I gave for the Charles Simeon Trust workshop in Madison last year and my forthcoming article in Themelios on how to read and teach the Song of Songs.

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

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