An Author Interview from Books At a Glance
Greetings, and welcome to another Author Interview here at Books At a Glance. I’m Fred Zaspel, and we’re talking today to Dr. Richard Belcher about his new book, Finding Favour in the Sight of God: A Theology of Wisdom Literature. It’s the newest volume in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series that D.A. Carson has been editing now for a number of years, and Dr. Belcher is here to talk to us about it today.
Dick, welcome, and congratulations on this excellent new book.
Belcher:
Well, thank you very much; it’s a pleasure to be with you.
Zaspel:
What is wisdom, and what books in the OT qualify as wisdom literature?
Belcher:
That’s a good question. It’s a bit complicated at times, but I think if I was to define wisdom, especially as we see it in the book of Proverbs, it’s basically understanding God’s world, understanding the way life works, understanding different situations in life so that you are able to make the right decisions to avoid certain bad consequences and to do things that are faithful to God and bring God’s blessings.
In terms of which books are wisdom books – that’s been a debated topic. But there is consensus, pretty much, that Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes are wisdom books. And that’s part of the reason why I focused on those books in this particular work.
Zaspel:
And there are wisdom Psalms, too, right?
Belcher:
I do believe there are wisdom Psalms. And you can define wisdom in a broader sense by certain forms, like the word blessed, acrostic Psalms, and content. Content dealing with family, the deed/consequence relationship, those kinds of things come into play in defining wisdom in the Psalms.
Zaspel:
I like the way you defined it, understanding God’s world. I’ve tended to define it in the past as something like the skill of living under God, or something like that, but I like your focus that understanding God’s world, therefore working it out in the various aspects of life. That God focus, I think is very helpful.
Belcher:
And I think skill is involved. I think that’s a good part of it as well.
Zaspel:
You write, “There are three things generally associated with wisdom: the use of wisdom forms, the occurrence of certain themes or subject matter, and an emphasis on creation.” Let’s take these one at a time. What are wisdom forms?
Belcher:
Wisdom forms would be certain terms, as I mentioned, blessed, the use of acrostics, or the proverbial form. Proverbs, sort of the way the material is presented, generally are associated with wisdom. Those would be some of the main forms.
Zaspel:
What is it to be blessed? Like in Psalm 1, blessed is the man… What is that?
Belcher:
It’s to receive divine favour, I think is the focus of being blessed. The word happy just doesn’t quite make it in our cultural context, because happiness is usually dependent upon people’s circumstances. But we can be blessed by God even in the midst of difficult circumstances. It’s something that comes from God as we seek him and seek to do that which is pleasing to him.
Zaspel:
What are some of the more common themes of wisdom?
Belcher:
Well, creation is, I think, one of the themes of wisdom; family relationships, father/son in the book of Proverbs, particularly the marriage relationship comes into play; the relationship between what you do and the consequences in your life, called the deed/consequence relationship or the technical term is divine retribution. And then, I would say, the law actually comes into play to some degree, although historically law and wisdom have not been related, but I do think an appropriate understanding of Scripture is that law and wisdom are very much related.
Zaspel:
What is the emphasis on creation in the wisdom literature? And why? What is the relation of wisdom and creation?
Belcher:
I think that comes out several places in Proverbs, but primarily in Proverbs chapter 8. Wisdom is personified in the book of Proverbs and in chapter 8 of Proverbs the reason why someone should pursue wisdom is given and part of that is that wisdom was at creation. God has wisdom and God used wisdom to create the world. In fact, if I could summarize, I think part of what Proverbs 8 is teaching is that God is the source of wisdom; wisdom was that God’s side during creation; wisdom is associated with the order of creation; and wisdom delights in creation. So, the order we see in the world, I think is related to wisdom. God created the world by wisdom and so the world reflects that. And you can associate that with general revelation. We study creation and are able to understand the way the world works, and that can be very beneficial to us. The whole scientific enterprise, I think, has a theistic basis. So, I think that’s at least one of the emphases.
Zaspel:
Explain your title for us: “Finding Favor.”
Belcher:
That actually comes from Proverbs chapter 3, where if you follow God and follow wisdom and seek wisdom like we’re supposed to, you will find favour in the sight of God and man. A part of finding favour in the sight of God, obviously would go back to chapter 1 verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so, to fear God is to have a reverence for him, to have faith in him, to be willing to submit your life to him. Sort of a God-centered perspective, so that the rest of your life is a reflection, then, and is a living out of the things that would be pleasing to God according to his law and seeking to live your life in a way that would reflect his wisdom. That comes from Proverbs chapter 3. And it’s not just favor in the sight of God, that’s foundational and very important, but it’s also finding favor with other human beings so that as you live your life this way, you develop good relationships with other people and know how to relate to them. There are difficult people in the book of Proverbs, and wisdom is understanding those situations and how to navigate those situations.
Zaspel:
How is wisdom related to redemptive history? And how, then, does the wisdom literature fit within the broader canon?
Belcher:
Yes, I deal with that in chapter 1, because that’s been a debated question among Old Testament theologies, going back to the 30s, 40s, and 50s. They didn’t quite know what to do with wisdom literature because it didn’t have the same emphasis of what they were emphasizing. Old Testament theologians emphasized the covenant, God’s speaking to his people, thus saith the Lord, and the law emphasis. And so, when they came to wisdom literature, they didn’t really know what to do with it because it is a bit different, it has a different emphasis. Murphy calls wisdom literature an orphan because it just didn’t quite fit. Other scholars come along and say wisdom is related to creation, it has an independent existence, but there’s still this divide among critical scholars between the Pentateuch, the law emphasis, the covenant emphasis, and then the wisdom literature emphasis. And I try to show that there’s actually some unity and a relationship between the wisdom literature and the law. It’s taking the law of God and instruction for daily life; wisdom is applying the law of God to the various life situations that we face. It’s a bit different because of its focus, but you do have the connection in Deuteronomy between “law is your wisdom,” I think that’s Deuteronomy chapter 4, and you have clear connections between Proverbs in the book of Deuteronomy related to parenting and some other things that are said. So, I tried to show more of a unity – that wisdom literature fits into what’s going on in the rest of the Old Testament, and this is the way it fits.
Zaspel:
Just briefly, give us a taste of what we will find in chapter 11 of your book – “Jesus and Wisdom.”
Belcher:
I try to show, first of all, that Jesus is a wise man, in the sense that you could call him a sage. He uses some of the wisdom forms that we’ve talked about. He teaches in parables; he teaches in proverbs; and people are quite amazed at his teaching because he doesn’t teach like the rabbis, he doesn’t quote Rabbi so-and-so here and there, but teaches on his own authority. That was the first part of the book, asking how the Proverbs fit into Jesus’s teaching. How do we understand the Proverbs in relationship to the kingdom of God, which was the focus of Jesus’s teachings as he is the King who has come. And the urgency of the kingdom of God does affect how you understand some of Jesus’s relationship to the Proverbs, but it’s not that he is teaching against the Old Testament wisdom literature, it’s just the urgency of the kingdom causes him to emphasize certain things. So, I lay that out at the beginning and talk about the Sermon on the Mount a little bit and about how Jesus uses Proverbs.
Then I talk about wisdom related to the person of Christ, the humanity of Christ. In fact, finding favor in the sight of God and man is used of Jesus in the gospel of Luke. He is a great model for someone who, according to his human nature, develops in this way into maturity and into a wise person. Then I talk about his deity and how some of the things that we saw in the wisdom literature relates to his deity. So his person, and then, finally, just a really short section on wisdom in the work of Christ. So that’s kind of an overview of what that last chapter has, trying to bring it all together in a relationship with Christ.
Zaspel:
Before we sign off, give us a broad overview of your book. Highlight for us your leading areas of attention.
Belcher:
Chapter 1, as I said, tries to place wisdom literature within the framework of Old Testament History in terms of scholars in the past, but trying to find a more unified place for the development of wisdom literature. Then there’s three chapters on each book – Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. The first chapter on Proverbs just gives an overview of Proverbs 1 through 9, setting out the two ways. There’s a choice that the young person has to make between Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly; that’s chapters 1 through 9. The next section of the book deals with the hermeneutics of Proverbs. It’s important we understand how a proverb operates. If you universalize a proverb you can lead to the health and wealth gospel or a mechanical relationship between the deed/consequence relationship. I think the book of Proverbs really deals with the relationship between actions and consequences – the proper view of that. And then we’ll see how Job and Ecclesiastes wrestle with that. The last chapter on Proverbs deals with some of the theology of the book of Proverbs related to the sovereignty of God, the order in the world, common grace insights, and those kinds of things.
Then three chapters on the book of Job. Job is clearly a righteous individual who suffers, and his suffering is not a result of any sin that he has committed. Sin is not behind his suffering, but the friends draw that conclusion. They draw a mechanical relationship between his actions and the fact that he is suffering. If you are suffering, you must have sinned. I tried to lay out the message of the friends to Job and then show how Job responds to that. He has some statements of despair, but ultimately leans more to confidence in God and his innocence. He does say some things, I think, once he’s in the situation of suffering that call God’s justice into question, which he must then repent of when God finally confronts him. But Job is correct on the main issue that he is not suffering because of any sin, and so God calls the friends out in chapter 42, verse 7 at the end, “you have not spoken of me what is right as Job has.” I think that’s probably what that is related to. And then part of the last chapter does reflect on some of the theology of the book, the sovereignty of God, the ministry of suffering. Job is never told why he was suffering. It’s more a focus on our response to suffering, that seems to be more the focus. So that’s the book of Job.
Then three chapters on Ecclesiastes. I take a particular view of the book of Ecclesiastes where the first-person discourse, chapter 1, verse 12 through chapter 12, verse 8, I see as very under the sun, very dark; there’s no answers in that section. I see the calls to enjoyment as a resigned conclusion to the fact that life doesn’t work out the way it should and this is all that we have in a world that is meaningless. I try to lay out the reasons why I take that view, certain hermeneutical keys to the book. I don’t argue for Solomonic authorship in this book, but I do think Solomon wrote the book during the period of his life in 1 Kings 11, when his foreign wife has turned his heart away from the Lord. And so, I give an overview of the book from that particular perspective and then try to draw some theological conclusions about what the world looks like if you’re operating in that way, if you’re not operating on a good foundation of wisdom, because I think what Ecclesiastes is wrestling with is the breakdown of the deed/consequence relationship. There are about twelve passages where the author laments that the righteous don’t receive what they should from God, instead the wicked prosper. I think the author of the first-person discourse is operating with a skewed view of wisdom. He wants to search out not just wisdom, but he wants to search out madness and folly as well. So, the book is very existential in that way and is sort of good for where many modern people are. But the answer to the book does come at the end – fear God, and keep his commandments. I reflect a little bit on the theology of the book at the end, there.
Zaspel:
We’re talking to Dr. Richard Belcher about his new book, Finding Favour in the Sight of God: A Theology of Wisdom Literature. I will never want to preach from the wisdom literature again without consulting with this excellent new resource, and we’re happy to commend it to you for your studies also.
Dick, thanks so much for this excellent contribution and for talking to us today.
Belcher:
It’s been great to be with you; thank you.
Buy the books
Finding Favour in the Sight of God: A Theology of Wisdom Literature