So Calvin says to Hobbes, it's true Hobbes, ignorance is bliss. Once you know things, you start seeing problems everywhere. And once you see problems, you feel like you ought to try to fix them. And fixing problems always seems to require personal change. And change means doing things that aren't fun. I say fooie to that.  Is the battery dying, maybe?   We're heading for that cliff. I don't want to know about it. Ah! I'm not sure I can stand so much bliss. Careful, we don't want to learn anything from this. Good lesson for our day and age, right? And on the bottom, I have this quote from Ecclesiastes. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Fitting, no? So that's usually the prelude to when I teach Ecclesiastes, a little bit of Calvin and Hobbes. So great, thanks for coming. Thanks for bearing with our slight technical difficulties. Yes? Oh, it's Ecclesiastes. I can't see it, it's too small. 118, thank you. Thank you. So yeah, thanks for coming. You recall the title from last night from Sinai to Zion, which Dr. Han kind of trumped me by talking. He actually asked me to talk about this topic, and then he proceeded to treat of it last night, not to mention the fact that I had less than 24 hours to prepare for all this. And then I couldn't change the title anymore because they had signs and everything for the recording. So the subtitle, which is actually more accurate than the title, and I will deal with from Sinai to Zion, is wisdom as the way, the truth, and the life through salvation history. So we all know, I imagine, John 14.6, where Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And we're going to look at a bit of the history of the way, the truth, and the life through salvation history and through the Old Testament. Very often it's implicit. It's not like marked, OK, here's the way, the truth, and the life in the Garden of Eden. But you'll see that implicitly. It's very much throughout scripture. It's not just one verse, one thought that Jesus said, but he really kind of summarized and recapitulated everything that we see in scripture. So I was thinking as a prayer, since we're going to start at the very beginning, and you could call this, if it's not too presumptuous or arrogant to say that, a deepening of what Dr. Han said. Not that I approach Dr. Han in his knowledge and mastery of the scriptures, but you'll get the visuals. You'll get a few more scriptures here on the screen. And you'll be able to visualize and kind of go maybe reinforce what he told us yesterday in his Master Four presentation of the development of wisdom. So I was thinking that as a prayer, we could start at the very beginning and pray together these words of lady wisdom. My second talk, I'm going to be talking more about lady wisdom and courting lady wisdom, which I understand is kind of the theme of a lot of the talks this weekend about marriage and love. And you heard from Dr. Bergsma this morning on the Song of Songs. So the book of Proverbs chapter 8, we see lady wisdom speaking and speaking about her presence at the very beginning of creation. And so it's a beautiful poem on wisdom's presence right there as a type of master workman or artisan together with God. And we see a lot of development of that in Judaism as well, where lady wisdom or wisdom is basically the Torah who's personified, who is present with God, so to speak, at the beginning of creation. And helps God, quote unquote, helps God to create the world rather is the word through which God creates the universe. Okay, so wisdom was there right there at the beginning of creation. So we're going to see how even though wisdom is kind of a later development in Old Testament in the Old Testament books, most of the wisdom books are kind of later, later than the Torah, the law, later than the prophets, but we see that wisdom was present at the very, very beginning. And so we're going to look at her presence throughout salvation history. So if you've been studying the Bible for a bit, you have probably heard of the series of covenants. Yes, series of covenants through scripture, through the Old Testament. And so God is forming a family throughout salvation history. We know he forms a covenant with Adam and Adam and Eve mess it up, thanks a lot guys. And, but there's, it's not to despair because God proceeds to rebuild essentially his covenant with the human family through Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus. And so if you're familiar with Dr. Han's writings or Dr. Bergsmah, that has become kind of standard fair in the last few decades of biblical scholarship and biblical history. So we're going to go through these covenants, but I'm going to highlight basically the presence of wisdom and of the way the truth in the life, beginning with obviously the first covenants and Adam in the Garden of Eden. So when we think of the beginning, it's a story that probably we're all familiar with, the story in the Garden of Eden. I skip over Genesis one where we could talk about wisdom's work and the creation throughout the, through the six days. But we know that God creates Adam and Eve in his own image and likeness, calling them to share in his very life. And so the very life of God is a gift that he gives to humanity, to the human family and to Adam and Eve especially. So they become the trustees and the guarantors of this promise and this gift. And so God makes this covenant with them and through all of creation. So Adam and Eve, when you think of their situation in the Garden of Eden, again this is more implicit than explicit. So they had to know the truth, right? They had a completely mature intellect so to speak and they knew why they were alive, what was the point of their existence. It was first to love God and to serve God as the Baltimore Catechism says. And to love one another, right? And they knew also that God loved them. Even though love is not mentioned in the first chapters of Genesis it's implied that God creates everything out of his super abundant love. They also had the fullness of God's life. Clearly they had access to the tree of life to begin with and that was not off limits. The only tree that was off limits was the tree of knowledge. So the church says they were in this state of supernatural friendship with God. They had what we call sanctifying grace, the eternal life of God within them. And they also knew the laws they had to follow, right? In fact there was only one law to follow at first which symbolized essentially a life in communion and an obedience with God. So at least one law they had to obey and the way they had to live. So there was a certain way that was the way of life with God which is to know God's love, to share in God's very life and to live in the way that God commands which was really very simple. Only one tree off limits and sure enough what do they have to do? Go to the forbidden tree. So what might we call this? If you have the fullness of truth, you know why you exist. You have the fullness of God's life and you know the way by which you're to live. Well, wouldn't we call that wisdom? Yeah? Isn't that what wisdom is? We know wisdom is not just intellectual knowledge. It is knowledge of the truth but it's also right living, isn't it? You know why as a person it's not just some academic like me with a PhD and who knows a tons of things but can barely, I don't know, fix something around the house. Wisdom really is right living. It is knowledge but more than just head knowledge. And it's also living well, living with happiness, with joy and with love. And so that's what we might call, what we might say that wisdom was right there in the Garden of Eden. And Dr. Hahn mentioned Proverbs 318 last night. Anyone know what Proverbs 318 says? Wisdom calls herself a tree of life. She is a tree of life. So even though we don't hear of wisdom itself in Genesis one and two, well Proverbs says that wisdom is indeed the tree of life which includes the way, the truth and the life. So we have in this first sanctuary, creation acts as a type of temple because where else do we have a type of tree looking thing later in salvation history? We have a menorah, the lampstand in the temple and in the Holy of Holies was surrounded with decorations of palm trees.  So what we have is the Garden of Eden which is a sanctuary, right? What's a sanctuary? Basically it's a place where God dwells. So after the fall we need an actual tabernacle so to speak both in Israel and now today in our churches but in the first, the first of the Garden of Eden all of creation was a sanctuary, it wasn't not. So their happiness flowed from their friendship with God and we know that Adam had three offices that go together pretty well with these three gifts that they had. So someone who has the truth, what do you say when you communicate those gifts to the rest of the world?  So the way the truth and the life were not just for them but they were there for all of creation, right?  What does a priest do when you receive communion? The priest gives you Christ's life, right? Or when you go to confession, when you're baptized. So Adam had a priestly role and as a couple who knew God's commandments they were also supposed to teach their descendants on the way that God had established for them. So living in conformity with God's commandment and exercising dominion over all creation. So continuing in God's way. So there you have Adam and Eden who knows the truth which you might call the knowledge of love revealed which is found in the intellect. And then you have the life which is love shared, love given which we might say is in our memory and our imagination connecting the past, the present and the future. And then love lived which is found in our will, right? You choose to follow God and to follow his commandments. So that makes him a prophet who knows this natural theology. He is a priest who knows a natural worship without any kind of ecclesiastical hierarchy at this point. And he is also a king who knows God's natural law. He knows intuitively what is right and wrong, what is good and evil.  Okay? You can kind of read that between the lines of scripture and it's also developed in the church's teachings. So there we have wisdom well lived in the Garden of Eden but as we know, it did not last very long. So we know this, the famous temptation of the serpent in the garden, a very, very interesting what the serpent says, all right? What's he going to do? He's going to, I mean, look at the first words he says. Has God indeed said? What is the serpent doing here? What is he attacking? The truth, right? He's putting in question. He undermines the truth of God's word. Has God really said, did he really say, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?   What's going on? What is he attacking now? The life, he's lying about the source of life, right? Questioning God's good will, saying that, actually God is withholding something really good from you.  So he denies the finality of death and tries to steer them towards apparently another source of life, which is of course false.  What does he propose here? It's another way, right? He tense Eve with another way, which is essentially pride, the pride of exalting oneself against God to know good and evil. So direct attack against the way, the truth and the life. What is he attacking? He's attacking divine wisdom. All three pillars of divine wisdom. And it so happened that this forbidden fruit looked like it was desirable to make one wise. It looked pretty attractive. It looked like it could actually be, you know, something that gives you more wisdom. So this tree was good for food and the light to the eyes and desire to make one wise. So we see true divine wisdom that is opposed by a type of false, very attractive, very nice looking, tasty looking wisdom. So here we have this beautiful harmony of original creation and God's original life that comes under frontal attack.  Ouch, bad choice guys, thanks a lot. And so of course we know the story that they eat of the fruit, he takes the fruit, gives it to Adam who is with her and the result is broken friendship with God and what do they lose? Yes, all the above. So they lose sight of the truth by which they're to live. They lose God's supernatural life which means divine sonship which is broken now and they also lose their way in direction how they're supposed to live. We see sin that enters like a flood gate into human history, right? And so that's the basically a breakdown of wisdom right there at the very beginning or sin suffering and death enter human history and have been hard to get rid of since then, right? So they're expelled from paradise and immediately after we see Cain who murders Abel and we see the deadly fruit literally.  And so wisdom is intrinsically collected with life, with the truth, the way in the life. So what's our condition ever since this fall in the Garden of Eden? Well, when they're cast out, the human soul has been profoundly affected, has and not. So instead of truth, now we have a darkened intellect. You know, if your intellect was completely infused with God's truth, you would not need to sit here in this room right now and learn about. So right now you're overcoming original sin by informing your intellect about the truths of God's revelation. So we're now ignorant. Ignorance has supplanted truth. So the role of prophet is damaged.  Well, in fact, they did die spiritually immediately. And so our life becomes out of whack, right? That's what we call theologically the disordered passions. So whereas they had full harmony within themselves, now not only were subject to suffering and death, but we know that our soul is out of whack with our body, right? And we know our attractions are messed up and our desires and our emotions. And so so much for our priestly role. And what about the way? Well, our will is weakened. Not only we don't have a hard time understanding God's commandments, but even when we do understand them, sometimes we don't really want to follow them still, right? So all this is what you might call a concupiscence, this disobedience, this darkened intellect, disordered passions. So our threefold role of priest, prophet and king is severely affected by all this mess that they left us. So immediately God leaves this promises to Adam and to Eve saying, I will not abandon you, but I will put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed. He's speaking to the serpent here, right? So there's gonna be this enmity between this woman and her son and between you, the serpent.  So that's how we launch into salvation history. And we move to the second covenant. All right, does that make sense? It's really important if you're involved in any kind of catechesis or teaching, you know, creation catechesis and original catechesis is absolutely essential. I would even go as far as to say that one of the reasons why we have had such a hard time passing on the faith and passing on the gospel is that the gospel is meaningless unless we understand what original sin does. All of our gender confusion today, it's rooted in that, right? The disordered passions. Today we say, oh, you feel attracted to someone that must define your identity. Well, that's a pretty bad idea to define your identity on the basis of your attractions in light of this triangle, right? If our passions are disordered. So if you're involved in catechesis teaching in any form, be sure to always hit on original sin and be very familiar with what a catechism says on the whole section on original sin. It's an absolute key for everything. There's no good news before we understand the bad news, right? Okay, Noah. So another famous story.  Humanity has so much lost wisdom that he sends a flood to basically reset his creation. And because of the wholesale abandonment of truth and of the way, we see also the end of life on the earth. And so every man and animal that dwelled on earth died. But after the flood, God remembers Noah and forms a covenant with Noah. And guess what? This covenant has a triangular form. You can already begin what's on this triangle. So there's covenant. God speaks his truth to Noah, right, about the rainbow and the promise never again to wipe the human family. Noah offers sacrifice, so he plays a priestly role that guarantees God's life to his descendants. And Noah's also given a few commandments, not to shed blood and so on. So there's a very small restoration here of the way the truth and the life and of wisdom that's gonna be passed on. So all of salvation history is a nice zigzag, right? Got divine initiative that begins to restore followed by human failure that messes things up. You see a repeat of original sin every time. Anyone know what's next? What's the next crash? We're now in Genesis nine, very good. So from Genesis nine to Genesis 11, we see another massive rebellion against the way the truth and the life, right? Another affirmation of human pride, trying to supplant, trying to know what is good and what is evil. So this episode of the Tower of Babel is just a repeat on a massive scale of the fall in the Garden of Eden. Let's make a name for ourselves. Let's know for ourselves what is good and what is evil. And that's gonna lead to the scattering of the nations in Genesis 11. Next divine initiative. Who? Very good. So from this scattering, we see a force for in-gathering and so Abraham will be called to leave his country and to this promised land. Well, it's not yet promised, but this land of Canaan that God is promising him at the ripe old age of 75. So God will make three promises to Abraham. I will make of you a great nation. I will make your name great and in you all families with the earth will be blessed. Now let's see a little Bible quiz for you guys. See how much you've studied your salvation history. When is that fulfilled? When do Abraham's descendants become a great nation? Which covenant? Mosaic covenant, right? When does the name of Abraham become great? So because what's a great name? It's a dynasty, right? It's in a universal dynasty. And when are the families of the earth all blessed through the seed of Abraham? Through Christ and the new covenant, very good.  So how's that gonna be fulfilled while Abraham is going to have to live in obedience to God, to listen to God and to ultimately to sacrifice his most precious son whom he waited a long time to have. And so we know the sacrifice of Isaac. He does with in great obedience and confidence that God will provide a lamb. And so when you look at the Abrahamic covenant, you see again a threefold structure, right? So Abraham is given prophetic visions. That's in Genesis 15 when he sees this vision of God and this prophecy of his descendants that would be enslaved in this foreign land. He's also called the prophet by Abimelech the king. Abraham also builds altars and offers sacrifices, especially his greatest sacrifice, so the sacrifice of Isaac. So he plays the part of a priest as well. And he follows God's commandments. We're not sure explicitly, we're not told explicitly what were those commandments, but we're told in Genesis 26 verse five that he obeyed all the God statutes, precepts and commandments. So thanks to Abraham, we know that salvation history takes a step forward with this great oath that God swears to bless all nations through Abraham's seed. And Abraham in a way reverses God's, or rather reverses Adam's curse, right? And we notice that so through Adam's sin, Adam's disobedience, humanity crashes so to speak, but through Abraham, God will move forward with salvation history, reversing these curses. So we fast forward through much of Genesis. We can't leave Joseph unmentioned because Joseph is very much a figure of wisdom, isn't he? In Egypt, he's almost an exemplary figure and makes not really any major mistake. And here he is among the Gentiles as the seed of Israel. And in his faithfulness to God he becomes second in command over Egypt. And through his faithfulness he really becomes this blessing not just to Egypt, but to his brothers in Canaan who are saved from the famine thanks to his good deeds. So a little hint of wisdom there in the story of Joseph. So now we come to Egypt and we know that the children of Israel multiply greatly. Does that echo something? They're fruitful in multiplying in Egypt, right? So be fruitful and multiply, God says to Adam. So when you have wisdom you have fruitfulness, right? You have life that abounds. And now we have the children of Israel who it's a type of new creation in Egypt with the growth of the children of Israel. But then we have anti-creational forces of chaos in Pharaoh, Pharaoh the reign of darkness essentially. Pharaoh who opposes God's truth, who opposes God's way and who opposes God's life by throwing the Hebrew children into the Nile, right? And bringing slavery, which is exactly the opposite of wisdom. So in this context we see God who raises up this faithful servant of Moses, the fourth covenant and now Abraham's children will be raised to that of a nation leading the 12 tribes of Israel out of Egypt. So the narrative of the 10 plagues, really interesting, right? What's going on with the 10 plagues? We might say that Pharaoh, damn. Yeah, it's judgment on the Egyptian gods. You could also say that Pharaoh is reaping what he's sown, right? Pharaoh who's this agent of death, of decreation.   All right, you're trying to decreate my chosen son, my chosen people. So here we go with the plagues. So they're at this type of decreation, right? The darkness, the death of the firstborn, the destruction of the agriculture. It's kind of like going through Genesis one and erasing, undoing everything in creation. It's also a judgment on the Egyptian gods. It's also the beginning of Israel's freedom and the revelation of God himself. Everyone notice through the plagues, it keeps saying, and they will know that I am the Lord. Israel will know that I am the Lord. Egypt will know that I am the Lord. So where there is no wisdom, there is death. Suppression of truth, suppression of the way leaves suppression of life. It's disturbing for our own time, right? When you kind of project that where we're at today with what's going on, what are we doing with God's ways and God's commandments? When we speak of culture of death. All right, but I'm ahead of myself. So the last plague is the plague of the Passover and speaking of death, we see again Pharaoh reaping what he's sown, right? With the death of the firstborn. And we know that typologically is very important because these relights are saved by blood above the doorposts. Oops, oops, that was a big jump. I press page down instead of arrow down. We interrupt this program momentarily. This interruption. Okay. All right, so the Lord strikes dead the firstborn and so we see again, death, lack of wisdom leads to death and the Israelites are saved by the blood which anticipates of course the blood of the new covenant, right? When the Jesus will reveal the way, the truth and the life. When does he say that by the way? I'm the way, the truth and the life. At the Last Supper, right? In John. So right before he institutes the new covenant. So God leads his people out of Egypt towards the Promised Land. We're familiar with that story and they cross the Red Sea walking on dry land and that's the end of the Egyptians, Prince of Egypt and so on. So the Egyptians are gone. Again, the forces of death have met their own death. So the culture of death always self destroys in many ways, right? But the goal of the Exodus, yes, is the Promised Land but really at this point the first main goal is the Sinai Covenant. So they arrive at Mount Sinai and God adopts Israel as his first born son which is a kingdom of priests and holy nation. And what's the most momentous event here at Mount Sinai is that God reveals the Torah. So the Torah in English is false but it is, yeah, it's a trick question. So we tend to say the law, the Torah is the law but really the translation is instructions. Instructions for right living. So here's a fun little tidbit of Hebrew for you guys. So the word Torah comes from the root Yara. I guess you could translate it Y-A-R-A-H or something like that. Yara which means to shoot, like to shoot an arrow and to hit the mark. So Torah and Yara. So what does it mean? It means when you follow the Torah you're shooting and hitting the mark of your life that for which you were made. It's instructions for right living, a.k.a. wisdom, yeah. And so you know what sin means? Missing the mark, exactly. And in Hebrew it's chet, chet. And so sin is missing the mark. Torah is hitting the mark. So it's a different connotation from this burden of legalistic obligations that you wish you could get rid of, right? So the Torah is good. It's the way into a relationship with God for Israel. So he gives them the book of the covenant, they ratify the covenant, how? With blood. You remember that episode in Exodus 24 where Moses sprinkles blood upon the people and upon the altar. So it's like, here's God's part, here's Israel's part. And then he gives them instructions for building a tabernacle. Why a tabernacle? God's presence, right? The place where God will dwell. The tabernacle in the Holy of Holies that's guarded with two cherubim. Where else do we have cherubim in the Garden of Eden where there was this primeval wisdom? And so where is wisdom going to be found now in the tabernacle and in the Torah in Israel's service or worship?  Like we can do in our own tabernacle? It was a little more complicated than that, right? So communion with God was very mediated through law, liturgy, and sacrifices. So how does that work for Israel? Well, they need Moses because Moses is going to be their mediator of truth, right? The Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, all the various, the revelation. You know, the Ten Commandments begin not with what you have to do, but they begin with God's self-revelation, right?  The revelation of God's love for his people. So he speaks to Israel and God's behalf, gives them the Ten Commandments, and that is God's truth as much as the rest of the Torah, the 613 Commandments. But then we have the establishment of a priesthood, so the Aaronic priests are gonna mediate between God and the people through sacrificial liturgy.  So you sin, everybody sins, but they need blood sacrifices to atone for their sins. So the Aaronic priests are gonna mediate life. They're not gonna restore eternal life at this point, but they will certainly protect the Israelites from being cut off from their people, which is the type of spiritual death. And then we have Moses and 70 elders who rule the 12 tribes. So we have a type of spiritual leadership going on here who are going to show them the way there to live. And then when we come to Deuteronomy, and Dr. Hahn mentioned that yesterday as well, Deuteronomy is known as Israel's second law, the type of national constitution for Israel. And Dr. Hahn quoted this 4-6 yesterday, so these commandments will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of all the peoples. So the commandments will reflect Israel's wisdom to the entire world. And look at the content of the Book of Deuteronomy. Love the Lord your God, that's the Shema.  Fear of the Lord, you shall fear me. Yeah, what's the fear of the Lord? The beginning of wisdom, yeah. You have to worship in the central sanctuary. So you can't be wise if you disregard Israel's worship if you're an ancient Israelite. Chapter 17, God establishes priests, judges, prophets. He has provisions for a king also. He says in the future you'll have a king. So we have figures of authority, we have legal stipulations that show you the right way to live. And what is gonna be the golden thread throughout wisdom literature is this idea of retribution. So when I teach, I always speak about retribution. What is retribution? It's really simple. You follow God's commandments, you're gonna be blessed. You disobey God's commandments. You're going to be cursed, Deuteronomy 30. So the blessings and the curses, and that's gonna be like a golden thread throughout all of the wisdom literature. And every sacred author is gonna grapple with this idea of retribution on, does it work? Does it not work? Some people are gonna contest it. Some people are gonna accept it. So for example, Job, who is probably the earliest book of the wisdom books, Job has a problem with retribution, doesn't he? He says listen God, that doesn't really work. I've been faithful, I've been righteous, and I am cursed. So we're gonna see as we begin to look at the wisdom books emerging out of salvation history, how retribution is like the orthodoxy in ancient Israel. But this orthodoxy does not always work that well, right? It doesn't always work perfectly. And the first one has this major bone to pick with this retribution is Job. You might say, well, at the end, everything is restored to Job after 48 chapters of suffering. So you might say, well, it kind of does work in the end, but gosh, was that really necessary, this losing everything and all his children and all his possessions. So in summary, the Mosaic Covenant, we find our familiar triangle, right? We have Moses who is a prophet, speaks the word of truth in the Torah. We have Aaronic priests who mediate God's life, or at least a partial restoration of God's life, bless you. And we have Moses and 70 elders who teach Israel the way they are to live. Why is the triangle pointing downwards? Because the way is always in submission to the law and the liturgy, right? To the truth and the life. So anytime you have a ruler, he's supposed to obey the word of God. All right, you guys with me? Clear, yeah? So we see we're still before most of the wisdom books and before the emerge, but this is kind of laying that foundation, especially that of retribution. So at the end of the Exodus, the Israelites crossed the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua. And they take the promised land, they conquer the land of Canaan first with the destruction of Jericho. And so we're gonna fast forward through the period of the judges and Samuel to the next covenant, to the covenant with David where the people of God will be raised now to a kingdom, not just a nation, but a kingdom under the throne of David. So the Davidic covenant, now look at what happens after the failed kingship of Saul. We see David who is anointed by a prophet, all right, the prophet Samuel. So David's gonna conquer Jerusalem and he's gonna bring the Ark of the Covenant, so God's presence into the city and even offering sacrifices. So David's gonna take on this priestly role and he's going to fulfill the second promise to Abraham, right? Building this house for, or God's gonna build this house for David and transforming what used to be a very exclusive covenant with Moses. Here we come to the Sinai Tzion. So as Dr. Han said last night, the covenant with Sinai was very exclusive, right? We wanna keep the pagans out and their pagan worship stay away and that's why we have these boundaries created by the Torah, by the Tabernacle. But David is gonna come along and what's he gonna do? Transform this national family of Israel into this dynastic kingdom that's gonna be open to the nations to come and learn God's wisdom that Israel is going to share with the nations. And that's the promise of 2 Samuel 7. So under David, there's a great expansion of the kingdom. The Israel truly becomes a type of little mini superpower in the ancient Near East. David authors many of the Psalms, some of which we might call wisdom Psalms, like the first one, for example, right? The two ways, the ways of life and the way of life and the way of death. So how do you think this Davidic covenant's gonna look like? You have guessed right, ladies and gentlemen. So we're going to have the word of the Torah now reinforced by the words of the prophets that are gonna communicate the word of God to Israel. We have the same Aaronic priests who communicate God's life, provide atonement for Israel and now we have truly a king who is through his royal rule is supposed to at least show the way that Israel is to live. David's not gonna do too bad. Solomon's gonna start off well and kind of go downhill. And then when the kingdom becomes divided, most kings will not do very well at all, right? So look at how Solomon is instituted as king. He is anointed by Tadak the priest and Nathan the prophet. So what do we have here? Priest, prophet and king are very good. So Solomon will rule as king in submission to the words of the prophets and the priestly liturgy. So now think of what's going on here in Israel. Israel is in a position of great strength, are they not? They're no longer benefugitives of former slaves. Now after these many centuries of life in Israel, we have Israel who enters into treaties and alliances with the various nations as Dr. Hahn said last night. Solomon who's gonna marry, well many women, but he starts off with, who's the first one? Pharaoh's daughter, right? And there's an ominous sign that he already sacrifices in high places at the beginning of his reign. And his famous prayer for wisdom where he's offered anything he wants and Solomon has this long prayer in first Kings three for that God would grant him wisdom, wisdom to rule well his people. That's well illustrated by his, the famous story of the two harlots and the child that both claimed. So as you can see in this verse here from first Kings four, you can see a description of the grandeur and the beauty and the splendor of Solomon's court wealth and wisdom, right? So his wisdom excelled the wisdom of the men of the east, all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs were 1,005. Wow, what happened to all of them? We only preserved one song of songs, right? And men of all nations from all Kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. So Solomon is remembered as being the author of song of songs, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. So Dr. Han really underlined very well how those are like the three stages of the spiritual life. You wonder how can the same guy have written these three books that are so different, right? So the rabbi say, well, it's easy. When he was young and romantic, he wrote the song of songs, right? According to this girl. And then when he became mature, he wrote prophets, not proverbs, sorry. And then after his 700 wives and 300 cockabines, he became a little disillusioned with the world. And so that's when he wrote Ecclesiastes in his old age, kind of a pious tradition. We don't know if that's true, but it's kind of a fun one, right? So in any case, we have him to thank for that and also for the transformation of the tabernacle into the temple, right? This permanent house of worship where God will dwell and that Jesus will refer to as a house of prayer for all nations. Where now we have people from all over the world who come to join Israel in their worship of the King of Kings, the God of Israel. So we heard last night about the Torah Adam. So the law for all of humanity or a law for men. And we're given this picture in First King with the visit of the Queen of Sheba and not just her, but all kinds of kings and rulers from all over the world came to learn about Solomon's wisdom. And so this wisdom of Solomon is very different from the Torah, isn't it? It's very universal, a lot of precepts that are very applicable for us today in the book of Proverbs. So I really love teaching Leviticus. Like I really love Leviticus, but when you read Leviticus one to seven on the sacrifices, you kind of say, okay, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to apply this right now to today. And or as the book of wisdom or the books of Proverbs, you really have a lot of very good advice. And so what is typical or what is unusual but all these wisdom books is that it's not very Jewish theology. It's very universal, right? It's not something that's specific to Israel. So some have said that Solomon may have been the first plagiarist in the history of salvation. And there was a lot of interaction between Egyptian and Israelite wisdom. So the Egyptians had this concept that was called mat, which means a type of truth, order, and justice that's inscribed in creation in the entire world. And you, as a person, you're called to to seek out this wisdom, this order in the world. By looking at human relationships, at the weather, the astral bodies. So this mat was kind of a goddess, the daughter of Ray, the god of son and justice. And so does this sound like anything? Kind of a type of goddess who permeates the world. Sounds a lot like wisdom, right? This idea of wisdom who is right there in creation. So if I read to you this text, what does this sound like? Give your ears here what is said. Give your heart to understand them. To put them in your heart is worthwhile, but is damaging to him who neglects them. Let them rest in the casket of your belly, that they may be a key in your heart. At a time when there is a whirlwind of words, they shall be a mooring stake for your tongue. If you spend your time while this is in your heart, you will find it a success. You'll find my words a treasury of life and your body will prosper upon earth. From which book? Good guess, Proverbs, no. This is from the instruction of Amenemope, this Egyptian wisdom. But you're close because this is Proverbs 22. Incline your ear, hear the words of the wise, apply your heart to my knowledge so that you trust me being the Lord.  Very, very similar, right? So who copied who? We're not sure. Maybe through Pharaoh's daughter. So someone borrowed from the other, but we're not sure who. So we see that the wisdom of Solomon was known in some form or variant in Egypt even, right? And so that's how we come to wisdom as this type of restoration of what we see in the Garden of Eden. What is wisdom but knowledge of truth? Of God's truth? It's also a source of life. Indeed, it's the tree of life that brings blessings, prosperity, and goodness. And it's also instructions for right living. So you find the way, the truth, and life in wisdom literature. So here's the title of the talk from Sinai to Zion. What do we see from Sinai to Zion? We see truly a transformation from something that's from a temporary shelter, the tent to the permanent temple, from national to international, from exclusive to inclusive, from the Torah to wisdom literature, and from sin offering to the Todah offering to Thanksgiving. So something that's exclusive to Israel that goes on to all nations. All right, so what happens after Solomon? We see another downward fall, right? So revolt and division, the kingdom of Israel is separated into the North and South. How do things go in the North? Really bad, how many good kings? Zero, very good. So Jeroboam the first erects two golden calves in Bethel and Dan. All the kings are evils. God sends some prophets to the northern kingdom. Most famously Elijah and Leesha. It doesn't really work, right? Downward spiral. How about the South? How do they fare? A little bit better, but not much. So we have a few righteous kings like Josiah and Hezekiah. Many prophets are sent to the South, but eventually both kingdoms are gonna run towards disaster, right? Exile in both parts.  Babylonians in what year? All right, I hear many right answers.  And so here we see Babylonia that takes over the entire ancient Near East. And that's gonna be completely transformed, the literature, the sacred literature that's gonna come out of Israel. Babylon is actually not gonna last too long. Who's going to come and topple them? So the ones right behind them, the yellow at this alliance of Medea and Persia, right? So in the 539, Cyrus the Great, this alliance with Persia will come and take over the entire ancient Near East. But as Cyrus the Great was a pretty benign, benevolent king, and he allowed Israel to return. So after seven years, exactly, you see the Jews who returned to Jerusalem, rebuild the temple under Ezra and Nehemiah. But the kingdom of Israel will not be restored, and they'll still remain under this foreign occupation. So they rebuild the second temple, which is actually pretty modest compared to Solomon's temple in 516. But what's missing from it? No Ark of the Covenant, right? The Holy of Holies is empty. That's gonna create a lot of longings in kind of this sense that we need to restore something that has not been restored since the past. So the Persians are gonna be succeeded by the Greeks under Alexander the Great in 333. He conquers the entire ancient Near East. And why is that so important for us, for Christians? Well, what language is the New Testament written in? It's written in Greek, exactly. So we have Alexander the Great to thank for that. How many of you have taken biblical Greek? One? Okay, a handful, all right. Highly recommended after Hebrew, of course, which is the most important language. You know you're gonna speak Hebrew in heaven, right? So if you haven't learned it, you're gonna have to go through Hebrew school. It's gonna be your purgatory. So you better get to it. So under the Greek, what's that? I think you'll get some very good merits if you learn Hebrew. I'm not guaranteeing a plenary indulgence, but I'm sure God will look favorably upon it. Otherwise you're gonna need an interpreter to speak to Peter at the gates. It's gonna slow you down for sure. So under the Greeks, we see what we call the diaspora. So now it's no longer an exile by force, but a lot of Jews emigrate to various colonies in the Mediterranean world. And they learn Greek language, customs and ideas and begin to speak Greek, right? So the Hebrew scriptures are gonna be translated into Greek. And that's gonna be really important for the later wisdom books. Because that's the time when a lot of what Protestants call the apocrypha or what we call the Deuterocanonical books are gonna be written in this later Old Testament period. So at first the Jews prosper under the Greeks, but things are gonna turn sour after a couple of centuries, right? So under, in around 160, 175, we have this guy called Antiochus who takes power. And he's a Seleucid's successor of Alexander. And he's gonna start this massive campaign of forced Hellenization. Like killing a lot of Jews and forbidding outlying the Sabbath and the Torah, circumcision, even sacrificing pigs on the altar, what is most impure for the Jews. So out of this great persecution of the Jews, that's gonna lead to a revolt by who? The Maccabees, very good. You guys are on top of things with Salvation History. So this priest, Matt Matthias, and his five sons will launch this revolt and they will recapture Jerusalem and rededicate the temple. And you know what dedication is in Hebrew? It's Hanukkah, yeah. Hanukkah is, Hanukkah means dedication. And so that's the origins of the Feast of Hanukkah in around 164 B.C. So we're getting close to the time of the New Testament. So the Jews will regain their independence and that's gonna be what we call the Hasmonean Dynasty where they're gonna have about 80 years of independence where they're gonna expand the borders of Israel. And so something very important is gonna happen to Hebrew or wisdom literature at this point. So take a step back. Under Solomon, all these books are written in Hebrew. Solomon is in a situation of strength, right? All the nations are coming to me, they're learning from us. Hey, we're really cool.  So what kind of a tone are you gonna have in those books? Triumphant, but also kind of a bit patronizing. It's like, here's our wisdom, we're sharing it with you. It's very kind of universalistic, right? It's like the nations are our friends. They learn from us. So what do you think is gonna be the tone in the later wisdom literature after this persecution of the Maccabees of the Greeks? What do you think is your attitude gonna be towards the Gentiles? We hate the Greeks, right? So for Solomon, it's like, yeah, the Gentiles are our friends and it's a lot more kind of peaceful. We don't really need to force all this Judaism stuff on them, we'll just give them this universal wisdom. But what happens at the time of the Greeks? It's like, no, Judaism, Judaism, Judaism, right? So they're gonna really emphasize the Jewish aspect of the wisdom literature. So you're gonna see a lot of that in Sirach and especially the wisdom of Solomon. Ironically, they're written in Greek. At least wisdom of Solomon is written in Greek. So you're gonna see a lot of kind of Hellenistic ideas but at the same time you're gonna see this a lot of emphasis on salvation history, the Covenants, Abraham, the law, a lot more Jewish stuff in the later wisdom literature than in the earlier wisdom literature. So how are we gonna solve this problem of retribution? Well, I kind of give it away now with this thing. So we said that Job had a big problem with retribution, right? Proverbs, no, Proverbs says, okay, follow the ways of the Lord, you're gonna be blessed. Disobey, you're gonna be cursed. Job disagrees, Ecclesiastes disagrees, even if it's like still Solomon writing and Ecclesiastes, all is vanity and there's not really any purpose to it all. So how do we resolve this? Are we really fully blessed when we follow the commandments? Kind of, but not every day maybe. And sometimes we really have to suffer in life even if we follow God's ways. So does it work or does it not work? What's the key that they're missing in all these earlier wisdom books? The key is immortality because all of them have just at this worldly perspective, right? You're gonna be blessed in this life if you follow God's commandments.  Well, it doesn't always work like that every day or every year in this life. So what you're gonna see in the wisdom of Solomon is this focus on immortality, this development of this theology of immortality that God has a purpose, he calls his elect to himself. So you know, the Old Testament for the most part does not talk about heaven, does not talk about the afterlife. Most books of the Old Testament accept this one. Wisdom of Solomon will really say this is how retribution really works because it's not only in this life but in the next one. So how many of you have read through the entire book of wisdom? Ever, just a few. So it's one of the lesser books of the Old Testament and it's a deuterocanonical, so it's not in Protestant Bibles, but I really, really recommend you read it. You can seriously, it's not that long, you can read it in like a couple of hours and it's a magnificent book. Really like this bridge between the Old and the New Testament. And you should read Sirac too, but it's longer, it's 51 chapters. You'll need about like four or five hours for that one. And by the way, I just wrote a commentary on Sirac if you know the Ignatius Study Bible. So when Sirac comes out, that's gonna be for me, a little plug. It's not a sales pitch because it's not sold and it's not printed yet. So read Sirac in Wisdom, really, really great books in your later. And in the next talk, if you don't have enough of me in like a 345 or whatever it is, I'm gonna talk a lot about Sirac. So the irony is that these Hasmoneans who at first were all zealous against the Greeks, well, after a few generations, would guess what's gonna happen. They're gonna be more and more Hellenized and they're gonna compromise with Hellenism, with the Greek world view. So out of this, they're gonna come out new factions in Judaism. One faction, they're gonna call themselves the Pure Ones. In Hebrew, Pure Ones is Purushim. Who do you think they are? Pharisees, exactly. So out of this increasing corruption of the Hasmoneans, you're gonna see the emergence of the Pharisees, also the Sadducees, the Priestly Class, and the Essenes. So after the exile, how does God speak to his people? Well, we have the Hebrew scriptures speaking the prophetic word of truth. We still have a temple liturgy and now we have the Sanhedrin dominated by the Pharisees. So you see the constant structure of authority, right? Of the way, the truth and the life, which is essentially wisdom accompanying Israel through their wanderings. So the Jews then have a very bad idea. You know, there's still conflicts with the Hellenizers, with the Greeks. So the Jews say, well, why don't we call for some help? And they call for the help of an empire far to the West and actually they call in the Romans to help them out against the Greek. The Greeks, so that's not too good of an idea, right? Cause of course the Romans come in and then the Romans say, well, we're gonna take charge here. So in 63 BC, Pompey conquers Jerusalem and then they appoint this puppet king by the name of Herod, Herod who's gonna become Herod the Great, as king of Judea. So with the foundation of the Roman Empire, you see this so called Pax Romana, the Roman peace that's gonna give stability in the ancient world and really prepare the way for the spread of the gospel, right? So Herod the Great who, he had his good size and his bad size, so the bad size he killed half his family, but his good size he built a really nice temple. So there's this saying, I forget who said it, that's one, I think it was a Roman historian who said I would rather be Herod's pig than his son. Because Herod, he was not really Jewish, but he tried to give an appearance of keeping the laws of Judaism, such as eating kosher, such as not eating pork, you know?  So Herod is king of Judea, he launches this massive construction program, expands the second temple so that the Herod's temple become this wonder of the ancient Near East. And if you go to Jerusalem today, the temple is gone but you can still see the Herodian stones at the bottom. The whaling wall is essentially basically still Herodian stones. So in this time of this tyrant king, another king is born, right? And so in this cave in Bethlehem, we see God who becomes man in the midst of this historical chaos. And if there are any catechists among you, we know that the catechism tells us that the word became flesh for four reasons. Anyone happen to know the four reasons for the incarnation? You will know in three minutes and hopefully we'll never forget again. Because that's in the catechism of the Catholic Church, 457 to 460 and it's really almost the heart of the catechism. Seriously, we should all really know that if you're involved in any kind of teaching. Why did Jesus come? You kind of know them already, I'm sure. Just maybe the four don't jump out. What's that? Therodimus, there you go. So in order to save us by reconciling us with God. So what is that, if not God's life? To restore God's life in us. To reveal who God is and what aspect of God especially? His love to show us what God's love, to reveal God's love. Here's the face of the Father. So what is that if not truth? The deepest truth that we need to know. Kyle, you think you know God loves you? Are you really sure? I don't, I mean I kind of know I'm a theologian but if we really knew how much God loves us, how much he loves me, wouldn't that transform how we live? Wouldn't that transform how we forgive? How we choose to spend our time every day? Wouldn't that really change who we are?  But I would claim to say that we don't really know. You know a little bit, but so little don't we? And that's God's love reveal. That's the ultimate truth of who we are. And then what else did Jesus come to do? Establish a church, yes, but to what? Show us how to live, isn't that the way? Show us the way, I am the way, the truth and the life. So to be our model of holiness. What is it to be truly a son of God, right? What is the perfect human being? So he reconciles with God, there's the life so that we might know God's love. There's the truth to be our model of holiness that is the way. And the fourth reason for the incarnation is this quote from Saint Athanasius, which is often forgotten. He came to make us divine, to share God's life with us. And that is the way, the truth and the life altogether. All three of them, right? That the son of God became man so that we may become God, so to speak so that we may be deified, demonized. So this is the covenant, the last covenant that God makes with Jesus Christ's son, establishing the church to restore the way, the truth and the life. So Jesus who is God's eternal word, eternal truth. He is also the eternal high priest, isn't he? He's the priest, he's the sacrifice, he's the altar. And through the establishment of the new covenant, he gives us his body and blood. He comes to give us eternal life. He says, I'm the resurrection in the life. And he is also the king of Israel, who shows us what it is to be truly king. It's to servant leadership, isn't it? This model of holiness. So there's wisdom, there's your wisdom. Jesus who is the logos, who is wisdom made flesh, revealed through the way, the truth and the life. That's all I got as far as slides but I could go on for another hour, which I won't. So when I teach about the church, which I don't really go into in this talk, what does this make you think of? The church has three branches, doesn't it? How do we get the way, the truth and the life and the church today? Or you think of the structure of the catechism. The first part of the catechism is on the creed. What is that? It's the truth. Second part of the catechism is the sacraments. What do the sacraments give us? God's life. What's the third part? The commandments. The commandments, how to live. Little did you know, the catechism has the truth, life and the way. And what is prayer? It's entering into communion with the Father. It's all the above, the fourth pillar of the catechism. You could also say you have scripture, tradition and the Magisterium, right? Anytime you have three, you start making all these connections, right? Scripture, the truth, traditions preserved in the sacred liturgy. There's your life and the Magisterium, which is the leadership, the administration of the church, right? What are the threes that we have? The Trinity, Father, Son, Spirit. Because they loosely, I'm not sure that one works. Well, maybe the Holy Spirit, you might say that's the God's life. The way, no, let's forget that one. What else? Theological virtues? Faith, hope and love. How does that work? The truth informs our faith, right? What does the liturgy do? It fills us with hope because it's, we proclaim your death until you come again. And what is love? But the way that's lived out, right? So these things are not tight. You could say all three build faith, hope and love, but so that's what I've got. So let's pursue wisdom. And as we see Christ, let's remember that Christ came in the line of a long process of restoring wisdom that was lost the way, the truth and life lost in Eden and restored throughout the covenants, Noah, Abraham, Moses through the Davidic Covenants and up to the establishment of the new covenant that we now receive through the church. We have three minutes for questions. Dan? Uh-huh, right. So the question is about Pharaoh's various marriages that were on the one hand caused the downfall of Israel and Judah or the division of the kingdoms. On the other hand, they seem to be necessary for the alliances. I'm not sure they were necessary. I think God writes with crooked lines and so God used that through these alliances. But yeah, I would probably not go as far as saying that they're necessary. I don't think God really endorsed the 700 wise and 300 concubines, yeah. But God probably did work with them and among other things through this internationalization of wisdom literature. So man's wisdom versus God's wisdom. Man's wisdom through the thousand women. I don't know if that's even human wisdom. The alliances, yeah. Yeah, again, I'm not sure that falls within God's purpose at all because like Dan said, and Deuteronomy forbids that explicitly, that the king should not multiply wives, gold, and horses, meaning basically pleasure, wealth, and power, which are the three main stumbling blocks since Eden. Right, exactly. They led to his downfall. It was not just Solomon, it was also his successors, Rehoboam and all the kings that were bad. Yes, sir. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right, right. Yeah, so wisdom is always liable to be lost and wisdom must always be pursued, which is a great segue to my second talk, courting wisdom and seeking always wisdom. And there's a real problem today with my students I teach in California on the left coast, ha ha. And there's kind of this idea, how many of you guys have heard this idea of moralistic therapeutic deism? It's a long term, right, moralistic therapeutic deism. There's a lot of Christians, so I'm teaching in Protestants, but I would say many Catholics hold to that idea too, is that God is the type of teddy bearer that or a divine therapist, right? He's always there to give you a pat on the back. He's always there to say it's gonna be okay. I know you've sinned for the thousandth time and all is gonna be okay. He's always there to pick you up. So there's a half truth about this. It's true that God will always extend forgiveness to us, but kind of like it's a little wimpy. It's like, well, God actually threatens wrath to us if we don't get our act together, right? And so wisdom actually does involve following God's commandments and we cannot claim to be wise if we don't seek God's commandments and seek to live in obedience with him. Wisdom is not just, oh, God gives me goose bumps and because I sing worship songs and because he loves me no matter what, that is really kind of a perversion of the gospel, right? So read not just the Hebrew prophets, but read Matthew 24 about anything about the second coming. Read the book of Revelation to see how things will go at the very end. God is not kind of this teddy bearer hug who will give you hugs no matter what. He will call us to account. So like Dr. Han said yesterday, a discipline is a form of love and the parent who just lets his child do whatever they want. It's not love. And so on this happy note. We seek wisdom which truly is love and ultimately God will give us a big hug when we get to heaven, but he also does call us to transformation and to seek holiness. So let's do this as we continue to pursue wisdom. These few days at the conference in the rest of our lives, let's give this glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. We're all without end. Amen. Thanks for coming. Enjoy the rest of the day.