Читать книгу Manhood is a Mindset - J. Colin Trisler - Страница 12

Prov 1:2–7; 9:10

“Fear is healthy when you use it according to its purpose.”

I opened the previous letter with the tale of a brave hero, dark enemies, and perilous heroics.

These kinds of stories are helpful because they bring ideas to life using images that are relevant and striking (and thus easy to remember). C. S. Lewis, a man who understood the power of narrative, agreed with me on this point: “If it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”8

That being said, the visuals from Indiana Jones and stories like his can be rather ferocious at times, and I’d prefer to open this letter with a brighter, more heartwarming illustration. The image I have in mind is from one of your favorite movies: Disney’s animated version of The Lion King.

This film has a deeper sense of symbolism than your standard children’s movie. The story itself is rich with character and meaning and is worthy of much consideration. Especially for young men, as it serves as an astute visual representation of a boy’s difficult journey into manhood.

The story begins with the birth of Simba, a lion cub who is destined to rule the kingdom of the African Pride Lands. Early one morning Simba and his father—the present king, a wise and mighty lion named Mufasa—ascended to the summit of a large stone formation named Pride Rock. There the father and his son, the king and his heir, sat side-by-side and observed the glory of their kingdom entire. And as the Pride Lands sparkled in the light of the rising sun, the two lions marveled at the radiance of their realm.

“Look, Simba,” Mufasa said. “Everything the light touches is our kingdom.”

“Everything the light touches . . . ” repeated young Simba with wide-eyed wonder. Simba then stood to his feet and strolled away from the presence of his father. His eyes moved across the vast African plain until they settled on a strange patch of darkness out in the distance. The cub walked to the edge of the rock and asked, “What about that shadowy place?”

Mufasa moved closer to his son. His answer and his voice were firm. “That’s beyond our borders. You must never go there, Simba.”

“But I thought a king can do whatever he wants.”

“Oh, there’s more to being king than getting your way all the time,” Mufasa said with a smile as he casually moved back toward an area of more solid footing. Young Simba, as if by instinct, followed his father away from the edge of the rock and asked “There’s more?”

Mufasa chuckled at his son’s natural curiosity. And with great thoughtfulness he instructed him on the importance of living with wisdom. In harmony with the circle of life that surrounds him.

When Disney originally released The Lion King in theaters in 1994, I was in my mid-teens. So watching it today with my own family in my middle-aged years conjures up a fond sense of nostalgia. As a teenager, I identified more with the character of Simba, the impulsive lion cub who embodies the carefree joy and adventurous potential of a young man who has his whole life ahead of him. These days, as a husband and a father and a pastor, I identify more with king Mufasa, the responsible patriarch who dedicates his life not only to governing his kingdom with justice and righteousness, but also to leading his family with strength and love.

The scene at Pride Rock especially resonates with me. The visual of the wise father sitting high and mighty alongside his young son, who is much smaller but sitting just as upright, is an image as powerful as any scene of heroic battle. It reminds me that a man doesn’t have to use his fists to be a hero. A hero isn’t the man who can hit the hardest or run the fastest. A hero is the man who does the right thing in the right way and for the right reasons. By this definition, any man can be a hero. Even the one who does something as simple as relating to his family with a sense of respect and responsibility. The father who invests time and effort into his relationship with his son is just as heroic as any mighty king. And the son who honors his father’s effort with his attentiveness is just as heroic as any brave knight.

Son, with this letter, you and I will follow Solomon’s lead and take the first step on our very own hero’s journey. I will establish myself as your instructor and you will be my student. As Henry Jones Sr. did with Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr., I will give you the truth you need to succeed in your journey toward manhood. And as Mufasa did with Simba, I will equip you with the understanding you need to avoid the shadowy fringes of life—those formless voids that lie beyond the borders of truth, goodness, and beauty—and teach you to set your mind on everything the light touches.

That is my job as your father. Your job as my son and my student is to take hold of my words and utilize them to illuminate your mind and let the light of God’s wisdom radiate within you like a majestic sunrise.

But in order to accomplish your job, you must first honor my effort with your utmost respect and attention.

Father to Son

Prov 1:2–6

After introducing himself as the author in v. 1, Solomon opens his discourse by asserting his God-given parental authority over his son.9

Notice how he doesn’t hunch down to the boy’s level and present himself as his buddy. He stands tall and upright as the boy’s father, forcing his son to turn his gaze upward and approach him with veneration. When he speaks, he speaks with authority and commands the respect that comes with the title of daddy.

God had appointed Solomon as the boy’s father. That made it his job to provide his son with the influence and instruction necessary to live a meaningful life. Notice how Solomon doesn’t use his authority to intimidate his son. Nor does he seek to tear him down or provoke discouragement. Instead, his goal is to build him up in his image. As a man of wisdom. A man of integrity. A man of God.

He establishes this as his intention from the outset by introducing the discourse in this way:

“2To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, 3to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity; 4to give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion, 5a wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, 6to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.” (1:2–6, emphasis added)

From the outset, Solomon establishes a relational hierarchy between him and his son. He, the father, takes on the authoritative role of instructor, while the son adopts a subordinate role as his student.

As the student, the son’s job is to meet three specific responsibilities:

1 To know wisdom and instruction. Learning is a cooperative process, not a passive one. Solomon’s job is to teach, and his son’s job is to learn. He calls on his son to know wisdom and instruction—that is, to memorize his words, get a handle on his instructions, and absorb them into his consciousness. As the student, the boy is responsible for taking an active role in the learning process. He is to pay attention to his father, observe his behavior, and acquire from him the knowledge he lacks as a young man just starting his journey into manhood.

2 To discern the sayings of understanding. Wisdom, however, is more than memorized facts. Memorization is an essential part of learning. But true learning also requires an active mind that grapples with ideas and develops those memorized facts into rational concepts. The student who thinks on a conceptual level understands how things work. He gains understanding when he’s able to answer the two primary questions of any idea: How? and Why? He then gains insight when he’s able to recognize, to discern, the logic that underlies his teacher’s instructions. Such understanding and discernment provide a solid foundation for authentic learning.

3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and equity.10 The purpose of this instruction is the application of wisdom in day-to-day living. That means the son is to receive his father’s instructions and integrate them into his way of life. He is to use this knowledge to live with a sense of integrity—that is, to deal with others in a way that is wise, righteous, just, and equitable.11

By opening the discourse in this way, Solomon shows that he’s embraced the responsibility of being a wise father. He doesn’t step aside and farm out his parental responsibilities to someone else. He steps up, like a man, and asserts himself as his son’s chief source of wise counsel. He knows it’s his job to give prudence to his naive and youthful son who lacks life experience.

The son’s lack of experience doesn’t make him immoral. It simply makes him a young man in need of guidance. By describing him as young and naive, Solomon isn’t insulting his son—he’s relating to him. Remember, Solomon too was once an inexperienced young man. He understood all too well the insecurity that comes with raw youthfulness because, as we covered in letter 1, he experienced that same fear as an untested king.

Here, Solomon acknowledges that young people especially have a great need for wisdom. Teenage years are a precarious time in every man’s life. In those years more than any other, a young man needs to develop a good sense of wisdom and discretion. Ever the wise father, Solomon takes the time to give his son the anchor he needs to navigate the chaotic waters of youth culture. His goal is for his son to obtain the guidance necessary to increase in learning and adopt the mindset of a wise man. That fact is why he aims this entire discourse directly at his son.

And that’s why I’m writing these letters to you, my son.

Like Solomon, I have resolved to honor the sacred responsibility of being a father. I will take on the responsibility of being your instructor. In response, I expect you, as my student, to do your job and meet the same three responsibilities Solomon expected of his son.

Again, those responsibilities are:

1 to know the wisdom and instruction I am teaching you,

2 to make the effort to understand my words of insight and obtain the knowledge necessary for success,

3 and to receive my words and live out God’s standards of wisdom, righteousness, justice, and integrity in your everyday life.

Son, if we’re going to succeed in this venture, you and I need to respect each other. You must respect me as your father and your instructor. I must respect you as my son and my student. And we must both respect God and embrace the individual responsibilities he has given us.

Throughout the course of these next two letters, we will explore the concept of respect. In letter 3, we’ll discuss the hierarchical nature of our relationship as father and son and the respect you owe me and your mother as your parents.

I will spend the remainder of this letter, however, instructing you in the importance of respecting God as your Heavenly Father. My goal here is to help you realize the essential role respect plays in every successful relationship. Mutual respect—that is, respect both given and received—is mandatory if we want to achieve success in meeting our sacred responsibilities, both to God and each other.

And as Solomon will explain, if a young man wants to know how to give respect where it’s due, he must first learn to factor fear into his way of thinking.

Fear is a Healthy Factor in the Life of a Wise Man

Prov 1:7

Fear is not a bad thing.

It is a natural human instinct. An unconscious impulse of the spirit. Thus it is neither good nor evil. Like any other inanimate object or emotion (weapons, the internet, anger, etc.), the morality of fear lies not with the object itself, but within the heart and mind of the human who wields it. Take a gun for example. The crook who uses a gun to rob a store is evil. The hero who uses a gun to thwart the crook is righteous. The gun itself is amoral. It is merely an object, a tool a man uses—like a car, a fire, or a pen—to accomplish a specific goal.

Son, the same rationale applies to fear. The fear you experience at any given point is neither good nor evil. It’s what you choose to do with your fear that gives it a sense of morality. Fear is sinful when you use it as an excuse to compromise your integrity. Fear is healthy when you use it according to its purpose: as a God-given warning system designed to pull you away from harm and push you toward the good.12 Fear becomes righteous when you use it as motivation to think faster than possible, to love more than you knew you were able, and to stand up stronger than ever before as you preserve your integrity and achieve your values.

Fear can be a powerful tool of motivation in the arsenal of a wise man. Solomon understood this to be true.

That’s why he tells his son:

“7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (1:7)

Son, a healthy and righteous fear of God is the starting point in a man’s quest for wisdom. But again, don’t be thrown off by Solomon’s use of the word fear. To understand fear in its entirety as a concept, you must move beyond the superficial perception of fear as mere feelings of danger, dread, and terror. Indeed, the ancient Hebrew definition of fear does involve a healthy sense of trepidation. But it also includes a sense of awe and respect and worship. Especially in regard to the Lord.13

The fear Solomon speaks of in Prov 1:7 is a righteous fear designed to facilitate a deep respect for God, who, as your Heavenly Father, possesses a rightful authority over you.

His authority stems from these three absolute truths:

1 He is the sovereign Lord of everything he has created.

2 You exist as a part of his creation.Therefore:

3 He possesses a legitimate authority over you.

The Bible tells us that God created humanity in his own image, according to his likeness (Gen 1:26–27; 9:6). This status confers upon us the unique responsibility of living as God’s standard bearers on earth. That means in everything we think, say, and do, we are to reflect the character of our wise and righteous Father.

Son, keep this fact in mind as you make your daily decisions: You exist to reflect God’s image. He does not exist to reflect yours. As a child of God, you have a responsibility to submit to your Heavenly Father’s sovereign authority and do the job he put you on earth to do. We’ll discuss the biblical concept of submission in the next letter. But for now, I’ll use the example of a guitar and a guitar player to help you get a handle on the scope of God’s authority.

A guitar exists to make music. But the guitar cannot play itself. It is an instrument that necessarily requires a musician in order to accomplish its created purpose. It’s the guitarist, not the guitar, who arranges the music. His mind develops the melody. His fingers strum the strings and glide over the frets to produce harmonious tones. The guitarist makes the guitar work. A guitar is productive as an instrument when it follows the guitarist’s lead and stays on key and produces the right sounds in the right moments.

But what if the instrument refuses to cooperate? What if the guitarist plays the right notes but the guitar produces off-key sounds? At this point, the guitarist has a series of options. He can give the guitar a chance to correct its mistakes by tuning and re-tuning the strings until the guitar produces the harmony he desires. If the guitar remains consistently off key, he can go through the difficult process of removing the old strings and re-stringing the guitar with a brand new set. Or, if the guitar’s structural integrity is compromised beyond repair, he can trash that guitar and start strumming a new one. These are his sovereign rights as the guitar’s owner.

In the real world, God is the musician and you are the instrument. Like a guitar in the hands of a skilled guitarist, your life rests in the wise hands of the Almighty God. He is the divine luthier who created you to live in harmony with him. He is the sovereign musician who strums your heart strings and moves his fingers over the frets of your mind to orchestrate an elegant melody of rationality and righteousness.

Just as the guitar exists to accomplish the guitarist’s purposes, so we exist to accomplish God’s purposes. He holds the entirety of our lives in his hands. A wise man will respect the reality of God’s authority. He will submit to his direction and live in melodious concert with him.

The stubborn fool, however, refuses to cooperate with God because he despises wisdom and instruction as Solomon says. The fool’s disobedience produces disharmony. As a result, he lives his life perpetually off key; and like a deformed or unplayable guitar, he runs the risk of being condemned to the trash heap.14

Son, once you realize the scope of God’s authority over you and your life, you will understand the role rational fear plays in your relationship with him. A healthy sense of trepidation is a reasonable response to the ultimate authority that by right belongs to the Lord of all existence.

Fear motivates you to keep your priorities in order

A rational sense of fear helps you develop the right attitude when it comes to knowing your place in God’s world. A proper attitude toward God fosters proper behavior toward God. A healthy fear is a necessary aspect of your quest for wisdom because it motivates you to live in obedience to your Heavenly Father’s established commands.

At this point I will caution you to avoid applying a displaced and legalistic connotation to the concept of obedience. If you misunderstand the purpose of obedience, you will misunderstand the purpose of wisdom.

Obedience in and of itself is not the goal of wisdom. God did not create humanity just so he could have a group of employees to boss around. Nor did he establish his commands on a whim just to watch us jump through a series of arbitrary hoops. Obedience as an end unto itself is cold and robotic and compulsive. As theologian John Calvin once said, God does not desire a slavish, forced fear by which he can extort through the threat of judgment insincere behavior from us as his unwilling captives.15

God’s desire is for us to relate to him as a Heavenly Father. Not as a cosmic tyrant. The difference between the two is this: A tyrant abuses his authority and uses force to oppress his subjects. A tyrant is a worthless man who isn’t skilled enough to build himself up. So he exploits his position of power to tear others down.

Son, this is not the God we serve. God is not a divine despot. He did not create humanity to subjugate or exploit us. He does not need to hold us down in order to feel better about himself. Nor does he desire an emotionally vacant association with us, one akin to a taskmaster’s association with his slaves. Such an insincere existence would be one of drudgery for everyone involved. Including God.

A good father, on the other hand, uses his authority to elevate his children, not to hold them down. In everything he does, he is motivated by steadfast love and affection. And the boundaries he establishes are set in place to protect his children—to steer them in the right direction, not to torment them. He corrects his children when they ignore those rational borders. In the same way, he rewards them when they act with wisdom and avoid those pockets of darkness that lie outside the boundaries of the light. In every way, a good father works for his children’s benefit, to help them reach their full potential and achieve the mantle of adulthood.

God is indeed a good Father. And living in a covenant relationship with him is a privilege, not an obligation. But like every relationship, there are rules by which you must abide in order to maintain proper fellowship.

With God, the two greatest rules are these:

1 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

2 Love your neighbor just as you love yourself.

If a man keeps these two commands in their proper order, he keeps the entirety of God’s word (Mark 12:28–31; Matt 22:37–40). A healthy fear of the Lord motivates you to abide by these rules on a daily basis.

The concept of rules rubs some people the wrong way. If you’re one of those people, then replace the word rules with the word promises. Every relationship is defined by certain promises. Take my marriage to your mother as an example. On our wedding day, she and I exchanged specific vows. I gave your mother my word when I promised to love and cherish only her, forsaking all others. I promised I would never harm her and that I would always treat her with respect and dignity as my wife—for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. She made the same promises to me as her husband.

We gave each other our word. The promises we made, the rules that we follow, they define our sacred union. Your mother and I value our relationship. We abide by these rules not out of obligation, but to nurture our shared love and preserve the sanctity of our marriage. These rules are in place not to oppress, but to protect. They establish healthy boundaries to ensure that we avoid those pockets of darkness that lie beyond the sparkling borders of our well-lit kingdom. They foster intimacy and promote happiness and establish a healthy home environment for our children. We follow these rules with gladness because we cherish our love and because we fear the far-reaching consequences of a failed marriage.

The same philosophy applies to your relationship with God. Jesus said, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). God has put his commands in place for your benefit—to define and protect the sanctity of your shared union. Your obedience to his commands keeps your relationship healthy and productive. It brings your affection for God to life and enables you to express your love in a real way in the real world.

Love is indeed the foundation of your relationship with God. But fear plays an active role in keeping that love intact. Because your love for God is true, you should fear the consequences of failing to honor the covenant you share with him. Let the thought of existing apart from him terrify you. Fear the depression of a meaningless existence. Fear the weakness of your flesh and the damage sin can cause. Fear your own capacity for evil. Fear the hungry shadows that lurk within the dark corners of your own mind—those rebellious urges that have the potential to rob you of your life and ruin your relationship with God, your family, and the other people you care for. Fear the consequences of losing the battle for your own soul and shudder at the thought of drinking from the cup of God’s wrath. Embrace that fear. Breathe it in. Let it circulate within the depths of your spirit. Face it. Understand it. And use it as motivation to obey God’s commands and make good on the promises that define your relationship with him.

In everything he does, including the boundaries he has established by his own righteous authority, God acts with wisdom. His twofold goal is to achieve his own glory and to work for your benefit. He values you as his son. He wants you to succeed. He takes his role as your Heavenly Father seriously. In turn, he expects you to take your relational responsibilities as his son and his student just as seriously. As the psalmist wrote, God has given his precepts with the intention that you will walk in them. He has established his commands for your benefit, so that you would keep his commands with diligence and receive the blessings that come from living in harmony with him as your Heavenly Father (Ps 119:1–4).

But son, you can’t keep God’s commands if you don’t know what his commands are. As Solomon and I will explain in the next section, the only way to acquire a proper knowledge of God’s commands is to crack open a Bible and start reading.

God Has Given You His Word—Now Use It!

Prov 9:10

Solomon’s call to fear the Lord is the call to develop a deeper knowledge of him as your Heavenly Father.

He makes that point clear when he says:

“10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (9:10, emphasis added)

Solomon once again cites the fear of the LORD as the starting point in a man’s quest for wisdom. Notice how he frames this fear as a healthy fear that motivates a man not to run away from God in terror, but to draw closer to God by pursuing a deeper knowledge of him as the ultimate example of true wisdom in action.

God exercises wisdom in everything he does. He is supremely rational by nature—and God must act in accord with his nature. He is identical with it. He cannot separate himself from it. Nor can he act inconsistently with who he is as a perfectly simple Being.16 Just as God is love, and Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, so he also is wisdom. In all things, God thinks and speaks and behaves with perfect knowledge, morality, rationality, and skill.17 He is never ignorant or immoral. Nor does he ever act on a whim or with incompetence. He is an eternal and unchanging God. He is eternally wise. And son, he expects you to exercise that same devotion to wisdom in your life. As a man who bears his image, God expects you to reflect his character and to act in harmony with the values and principles he has established for his household. And the best place to gain knowledge of the Holy One and insight into the specifics of his wisdom is the Bible.

This knowledge of the Holy One that Solomon speaks of goes far beyond facts and information. To truly know God is to be engaged in a working and active relationship with him. If your desire to attain knowledge of God’s commands is authentic—if you really want to understand the character of God, if you want to gain insight into his values and live in harmony with his principles—then get into the daily habit of studying his word.

The Bible is the very word of God. It contains all you need to know to live a wise life. But let’s be honest: Sometimes people get intimidated when they think of reading the Bible. Some people find its size and scope overwhelming and get confused as to where to even begin. Some people also have a hard time acclimating themselves to the cadence of the text and the style of writing.

Son, you may at times experience these same struggles when you sit down with your Bible. Don’t worry. These are normal reactions for younger disciples. But you must never use them as excuses to avoid carving out time for Bible study.

Let me give you some words of encouragement that will alleviate any intimidation you may feel when it comes to the word of God. Yes, the Bible is thick and contains a lot of information. Yes, sometimes parts of the Bible require multiple readings and an acute attention to context to gain a fuller understanding of its meaning. Yes, some of the biblical names are hard to pronounce and some of the ancient customs can seem a little strange. But son, do not let these things stop you from spending time in the word. These are superficial hurdles that any rational man of the Spirit can overcome with study and perseverance.

God gave mankind his perfect word so that we may learn the way and the truth of life. He gave his disciples his Holy Spirit to steer us away from the world’s conventional foolishness and guide us into all that is true and wise.18 And he gave you an elegant mind that is more than capable of reading and understanding his word.

I have never heard the audible voice of God. But the God of all existence speaks directly to me every day through the light of nature and in the text of the Bible. He has breathed out the truth of his word over the span of hundreds of years and through the inspired hands of many wise men. He preserved his words and canonized them as Scripture. The Bible is perfect and without error and is therefore profitable for every man who takes the time to study it (2 Tim 3:16–17).

Son, the best way to get to know God is through his word. Through disciplined and thorough Bible study, you will gain deeper insight into the character of God and you will develop a more intimate knowledge of him as your Heavenly Father. The more you study, the more you will grow in wisdom. And as you mature in your faith, you will come to know what it means to truly fear the Lord—and the more certain you will be of his unique involvement in your life.

vvv

Sinful fear stifles a man.

It freezes his mind and numbs his senses and renders him an ineffectual coward. Rational fear, however, is a righteous motivation that lights a spark within the wise man’s spirit. That spark kindles action, not cowardice. The man who lives with a rational fear of the Lord is the man who gives real-life proof of his respect for God at all times. He honors his Heavenly Father by thinking and acting within the well-lit borders of all that is righteous and good.

Son, you can likewise honor the image of God when you live in accord with the commandments of his word. He has put his statutes in place to protect his relationship with you. He is a good Father who values his relationship with you as his child. And his commands are proof of his love.

You can in turn prove your love for him by obeying those commands and respecting his authority.

But the call to obedience doesn’t stop with God. As Solomon and I will explain in the next letter, God expects you to take that same spirit of respect you have for him and extend it toward me, toward your mother, and toward the rules we’ve set in place to govern our home.

Love,

Dad

8. Lewis, On Stories, 39.

9. Although Solomon doesn’t explicitly identify his son as his intended audience in these opening verses, he goes on to single him out as his primary reader in v. 8 (letter 3).

10. The word equity as it is used here denotes personal integrity and is not to be confused with equality (particularly some impossible collectivized notion of equal distribution of outcomes). The Hebrew word ūmêšārîm (from meshar, translated here as equity) derives its meaning from the root word yāŝār which, according to Mounce, “usually denotes appropriate human conduct with respect to ethical norms and religious values. . . . This word also describes the straight, level pathway that believers are to walk, in contrast to the crooked and uneven pathway that the wicked follow” (Complete Expository Dictionary, 760–61). In their commentary on the book of Proverbs, scholars Carl F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch translate meshar as integrity to emphasize the word’s moral connotation, which involves “a way of thought and of conduct that is straight, i.e., according to what is right, true, i.e., without concealment, honest, i.e., true to duty and faithful to one’s word.” (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 39). Also see https://biblehub.com/hebrew/4339.htm.

11. We’ll discuss in more specific detail how to accomplish this in your day-to-day relationships in letter 7.

12. As I will touch on in letter 6, the fear of God is rational, but the fear of men is irrational. The persecution of this world is shallow and fleeting, so never submit to the threats of bullies. Jesus called on his disciples to stand strong on the rock of their convictions, even in times of intense persecution. He warned them to fear not “those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28).

13. Mounce, Complete Expository Dictionary, 244.

14. This analogy is appropriate, as the biblical image for hell comes from a deep narrow gorge southeast of Jerusalem called the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which was used as a garbage dump. The Valley of Ben Hinnom “became known as a garbage dump, the place of destruction by fire in Jewish tradition. The Greek word gehenna, ‘hell,’ commonly used in the NT for the place of final punishment, is derived from the Hebrew name for this valley.” Ryken et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 376.

15. Calvin, Institutes, 50.

16. God is immutable—that is, unchanging—by nature: “For I, the LORD, do not change” (Mal 3:6). Regarding God’s relationship to his nature, the philosopher Anselm pointed out that God does not possess his nature. Rather, he is his nature (Monologion and Proslogion, 30).

17. Job said God is “Wise in heart and mighty in strength,” that he possesses “wisdom and might,” and “to Him belong counsel and understanding” (Job 9:4; 12:13). The prophet Jeremiah said of God: “It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom; and by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens” (Jer 10:12). Paul called God “the only wise God” (Rom 16:27), and David marveled at God’s intellect, proclaiming God’s thoughts to be intimate, timeless, and precious; and he glorified God’s knowledge as beyond definition (Ps 139:1–6).

18. Brunton, “The Wisdom of the World.”