Job Proverbs, Ecclesiastes And

Merrick, J. (2015). The wisdom and mercy of God. In Grand Canyon University (Ed.), The beginning of wisdom: An introduction to Christian thought and life (2nd ed.). Available from http://gcumedia.com/digital-resources/grand-canyon-university/2015/the-beginning-of-wisdom_an-introduction-to-christian-thought-and-life_ebook_2e.php

The book of Psalms contains some of the most beloved pieces of scripture across centuries and cultures of this world. Psalms have been frequently cited is sermons, devotionals, movies, poetry, and songs. Most often, Psalms are attributed to King David of the 10th century BCE. But regardless of the authorship of the different psalms, each seem to carry a special place in describing human relationships to God, to country, to friends, to enemies and more. As time has progressed, certain psalms have become favorites because of their encouraging and uplifting messages, such as the timeless Psalm 23.

The Song of Solomon or Songs of Songs is a unique book in the Bible due to its elaborate details of romance and love. For this reason, many people have struggled to understand its place in the Canon, but its place was ordained of God to reveal true love between a man and a woman. It is also possible to see a relationship between God and Israel and/or Christ and the church.

What is revealed about human purpose from the readings? What does it mean for humans to flourish,

Proverbs simply compiles numerous short instructions for living an effective life on earth. The writers of the Book of Proverbs recognised the varied circumstances of a person’s life and provided principles to apply in a variety of situations rather than instructions to follow in only a few specific instances. The Book of Proverbs consists of like short quotes that are like values for Jewish people. The main purpose of Proverb is to define what it means to be fully devoted to God’s will. This leads a ‘holy life’ because Proverbs promotes Gods law as something that is part of life and is a duty to all human beings. “If I am not for me, who is for me; and if I am (only) for myself, what am I. And if not now, when?” – Hillel, Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14. This basically means that people were created for a specific purpose and that purpose is to follow Gods commands and to live a Holy life by following the sacred

A proverb (Hebrew marshal) is a short poetic sentence conveying wisdom in a concise and memorable form. (p.259) Solomon the writer of proverbs, was told by God” he could ask for anything he wanted and God would give it to him. Solomon asked for wisdom to lead the people, so they would know the difference between right and wrong.”(1Kings 3:5-9 paraphrased) According to Hindson and Yates “Hebrew wisdom literature taught people not only how to make good choice s in life but how to make godly choices.” (p.259) Proverbs shows many parallels and contrasts, usually in a two sentence form. In this essay we will look at the teachings of Hebrew wisdom on diligence and laziness, and how it corresponds with the contrast between wisdom and folly.

What remains fascinating to me from this book is the Israelites ability to preserve these massive collections of psalms even after the destruction of the temple and subjection to a foreign religion in Babylon for a long time. Their discipline to pass on these psalms from one person to another through singing and reciting demonstrate how significant these psalms were to them. What adds value to this book more is the author’s ability not only to introduce the psalms, but offer tips to the readers on how to read the psalms better to understand them

Proverbs 2:6-8, "It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding. He provides help and protection for righteous, honest men. He protects those who treat others fairly, and guards those who are devoted to him."

A small amount of these books are Wisdom Literature including Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Syrach, and the Book of Wisdom. Every one of these books confronts the topic differently. Just like how Job ponders the mystery of why the good suffer. Also, the Proverbs obey short axioms as norms for moral Conduct. In the Ecclesiastes Qoheleth mourns the vanity of everything that isn't God therefore only God lasts and everything else is short-lived. Sirach gains the wisdom of past centuries and summarized it. The Book of Wisdom is most passionate towards its hopes for immortality. The first of the Songs of Songs and the Psalms was an epic love poem, celebrating ideal love between woman and man, which is also considered to be describing the love between God and the Israelites.

The Bible has numerous themes that influence our lives greatly as believers. In this paper, I will be discussing the biblical themes of Creation, God, Humanity, Sin, The Good Life and Salvation. In order to have a Christian biblical worldview we need to understand what the bible teaches us about these themes. These themes have influenced my beliefs and they affect my everyday life and worldview.

The last chapter in Ecclesiastes 12 concludes, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Similarly Proverbs 1 begins with this admonition “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Italicized mine) These two certainties are bookends or sorts, serving as a contrast between each of the books perspectives on how life actually happens under the sun. Ecclesiastes can serve as a rebuttal to the elements of retribution theology presented in Proverbs and also exploits the acquisition of wisdom as penultimate and fearing Yahweh,

The viewpoint of Qoheleth upon the world and life must be included in any discussion of the Old Testament pertaining to ethical problems. The book of Qoheleth is commonly known as Ecclesiastes. It is perhaps the most enigmatic of all of the sacred writings. In order to gain an understanding of the designation of Qoheleth, one must first consider it as a schoolmaster or a teacher. A superficial reading of Qoheleth may lead one to believe that he is a man with a negative view of life in its many dimensions. He is classified as one who is in charge of an assembly of people (Tullock and McEntire, 2012). Qoheleth was a preacher of Ecclesiastes. It was discovered earlier that Ecclesiastes was a book of ethical behavior. Qoheleth seemed to be a man

The Book of Job has been praised but also neglected all at the same time. Its literary work is written in a poetry sense with a prose format and considered one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time. The Book of Job is one of first book of five generally called "The Books of Poetry", which contain Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. The Book of Job is written in the Old Testament of the Hebrew Bible and the main theme that is seeks out is "Why does God allow the righteous to suffer?" First of all I will be talking about the origins and history of the book, and then I will give a brief summary on the story and theme of what the Book of Job is addressing. I will then be breaking down, in

Wisdom Tradition is a term applied to the Old Testament books of Proverbs, Job, Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom Tradition books all share characteristics and points of view that are somewhat different than other biblical books. Wisdom tradition has very prominent characteristics from other books in the Old Testament such as a search for the goal of life, how to master it and questioning the problems of life, showing interest to human experiences that affect all people, joy of creativity and creation, and very little interest in the great acts of divine salvation. These qualities appear in a few books in the Old Testament. All of them show wisdom, but only some show both wisdom and tradition. Books such as Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes values the beauty of creation and the confidence of human life and nature. This was a new concept to Israel. They learned about wisdom tradition through other nations. They were influenced from Mesopotamian literature and took their ideas of meditations of sufferings and God’s justice into their Old Testament Books. Suffering can be seen in Job, but in the next essay and upcoming classes, we will be relating this to women suffering. The wisdom perspectives did not replace the other two major strands of thought in Ancient Israel, that of prophets and priests. It was simply a different focus that was complementary with the other perspectives presented in the Bible.

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Proverbs 3:7-8