Wisdom

Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances, she cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.  You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, gain understanding. Listen, for I have worthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right. My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness. All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse. To the discerning all of them are right; they are faultless to those who have knowledge. Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her. (Proverbs 8:1-8) 

Ah wisdom. What a welcome change after the adulteress, except… She’s out in the city, like the adulteress, offering herself to men, like the adulteress. The difference, of course, is in what she says. Not all peer pressure is bad. You know who hangs around with Wisdom? People who want prudence and understanding consider her a friend.  She’s all about what’s right. She hates what’s wrong, and clearly, that’s not something each person gets to decide. She does.
          The comparison of both folly and wisdom with women isn’t a commentary on women. It makes perfect sense. Men are attracted to women, the relationship of a man with a woman illustrates the relationship of a man with either folly or wisdom. Had Solomon been a woman or advising his daughter instead of his son in these writings, I believe wisdom and folly would have had male metaphors.
          For me, this raises an issue. It has been popular for some time to describe God as a woman. I know, God is spirit and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. There is neither male nor female… But “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” (Exodus 20:4) And every time Scripture describes a theophany – whether God appears to a man or a woman, God always takes the form of a man. You may think you have the right to make God in your own image, to picture Him as you see fit. I’m not comfortable with that.
          There is a picture of Jesus with his face buried in the pelt of a lamb hanging behind me as I write this. I purchased it years ago and I have never been comfortable with it. The Jesus in it does not look like what I believe Jesus looks like, but the Jesus in the picture is doing what I believe Jesus does. I think one of the reasons I was able to purchase it at all is because His face is hidden. I bought it because I needed to change my perception of myself in relation to Jesus. I needed to see myself as the lamb that He picks up and carries, instead of the sheep that needs to be beaten.
          We’re walking on dangerous ground when we decide we have the right to decide what God looks like. It’s a little safer if we stick to what Scripture tells us about Him, and Scripture describes God as Father, and Jesus as Son. I have yet to find any theophanies in Scripture describing the Father or the Son as the Mother or the Daughter. There is one passage in which the Father is compared to a mother hen, but nowhere does it say that a hen is God, or that God is a hen. Historically, Jesus was a man. Messing around with that to make ourselves feel better about God seems foolish to me. God’s purpose isn’t to make us “feel better about” Him. His purpose is to be God, and for us to recognize Him as God because He is God, not because we’ve made Him over in an image we find more pleasant.
          I’m not telling you how you must see God, but I think it as wise to reject your images of Him as it is to reject the classic paintings that show him as a European. It’s wiser to stick to what Scripture says about him – and everything else.