Graduate Degrees

The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7

Making Wise the Simple – They are prominently displayed on my office wall.  Five degrees and a certificate for Alpha Kappa Sigma.  Marks of academic achievement from prestigious institutions.  But none of them made me wise because I was not simple.

The Hebrew phrase mahkimat peti is the verb hakam and the adjective peti (or petiy).  Grammatically this is rather odd since the translation treats the adjective like a noun.  But this oddity is no different than the familiar Beatitudes where each statement actually begins with an adjective and there is no verb in the opening phrase (not “Blessed are” but “Blissful those”).  Here we have something like “making wise simpleminded.”  This leads us to two questions.  First, who are these peti, and second, what does it mean for them to be made wise?

Peti is an adjective you might ascribe to someone who is naïve about life’s choices, who lacks experience and insight into the complexities of living, who has not faced the real challenges of life, who is deficient in some essential characteristic for living.  In particular, Scripture assigns this description to those who not only fail to observe or understand God’s instructions but are ignorant of them.  They are the first category of fools, the ones who simply don’t know better.  In our world, the population of peti is enormous.  Believing themselves to be sophisticated and intelligent, they hang diplomas on the wall.  But they are really peti, totally deficient in what really matters in life.  They don’t know what God demands of them.  They are lost because they are not walking the safe path.

There is hope for these millions.  That hope comes in the verb hokam.  Hokam is the activity of instructing those who are able to receive in order that they may understand and walk the safe way.  In pictographs, hokam is the fence that separates chaos from the open palm of safety.  No degree on the wall provides what hokam provides.  In fact, just like the rich man, the educated man also finds it difficult to become a peti in order that he might receive hokmah because wisdom in Scripture is always about acting with righteousness.  It’s not about all that we know.  It’s about all that we do.  If we want to be made wise, we will have to receive the Lord’s instruction and act on it.  According to Scripture, God’s wisdom is embedded in creation.  It is present for all to see, acknowledge and follow.  No one is left in the dark.  Anyone who recognizes that the creation is a sign of the grace of a God who sovereignly cares for us can seek His face.  The peti can be made hokam.  But it starts with the humility of knowing that we are not who we think we are.

There are many Hebrew words associated with hokmah that help us understand its full sense.  We know yada’, but there is also musar (correction, chastisement), bin (understanding), da’ath (discernment, insight) and torah.  All of these words are intended to bring about tsaddiqah (righteousness).  Making the naïve wise is not the process of providing information.  It is the activity of giving insight that becomes action.  And Torah is at the heart of it all.

Have you taken an inventory of your intelligence arrogance?  Paul did.  He found it was all dung.  Then he discovered he could be made wise.  So can we.

Topical Index:  mahkimat peti, making wise, naïve, simple, hokmah, hokam, Psalm 19:7

MY MISTAKE:  Yesterday I sent out a post about lectures on Henri Nouwen’s book, The Way of the Heart.  I should have sent the LINK, not the post.  Here is the link.