Lady Wisdom

4928 words long.

Published on 2024-04-05

Who is Lady Wisdom?

Where I work, I occasionally get a meeting invite over Teams from a stranger with the cryptic notation GTKY. That means "Get to know you". It is how relationships are started among colleagues who may never meet in person, as we are spread across the globe in Boston, Houston, London, the Netherlands and Mumbai. Well, Lady Wisdom likes to send out GTKY invites all the time. In this article, we shall ponder those invitations and how they progress from basic, formal introductions to exclusive invitations to intimate gatherings at her house.

Like a real person, Lady Wisdom is someone you do not get to know all at once. Do you have a favorite writer? Perhaps after reading many of her books, you become fascinated with who she is as a person. You read news articles, a biographical sketch, and interviews with the author. If she is living, perhaps you attend a book signing and listen in on a panel discussion at a convention. Then you become bolder and write letters, which turns into a fulfilling correspondence. Or if she is dead, you visit her house, which is now a museum, on a pilgrimage.

My acquaintance with Lady Wisdom started with reading her words in the Bible, especially Proverbs. The first six months of 1988 I read from that book every day, before moving on to her other works.

I think Lady Wisdom has at least two homes you can visit, her main residence and a winter cottage. The winter cottage is the House of Mourning. I was her frequent guest there for decades. I got to know the fixtures and furnishings while studying and writing about Job, another of her frequent guests.

Meet Lady Wisdom: Proverbs 1

More recently, I have been touring her main residence and making architectural sketches. However, I still do not know who Lady Wisdom is. She is shy; she didn't say much about herself because she is so selfless. Here is what we have to go on. First is her speech in Proverbs 1:

²⁰ Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,

she raises her voice in the public square;

²¹ on top of the wall she cries out,

at the city gate she makes her speech:

²² “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?

How long will mockers delight in mockery

and fools hate knowledge?

²³ Repent at my rebuke!

Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,

I will make known to you my teachings.

²⁴ But since you refuse to listen when I call

and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand,

²⁵ since you disregard all my advice

and do not accept my rebuke,

²⁶ I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you;

I will mock when calamity overtakes you—

²⁷ when calamity overtakes you like a storm,

when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,

when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

²⁸ “Then they will call to me but I will not answer;

they will look for me but will not find me,

²⁹ since they hated knowledge

and did not choose to fear the Lord.

³⁰ Since they would not accept my advice

and spurned my rebuke,

³¹ they will eat the fruit of their ways

and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

³² For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,

and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

³³ but whoever listens to me will live in safety

and be at ease, without fear of harm. ”

- Proverbs 1:20-33

When I first read these words nearly forty years ago, they seemed impersonal and philosophical. They spoke of general principles. This was like the formal introduction of two strangers.

Imagine that! A woman is envisioned as calling out to a young man, pleading with him to listen to her and turn his life around. Those words are the antithesis of impersonal. It turns out, though she may be a stranger to you, you are no stranger to her! She has us all pegged.

Did those words remain impersonal? Did her warnings ever penetrate my thick skull? Did I ever have a "You talkin' to me" moment? I doubt that her words could possibly have been any more personal, relevant or pointed.

Repenting (verse 23) becomes a habit if you have any fear of God. Every day I am conscious of my sin and every day ask for forgiveness. Has Lady Wisdom kept her end of the bargain? Has she delivered on the second half of that verse? "I will pour out my thoughts to you..." Yes, in the last six years or so, the Holy Spirit began to pour understanding into my heart. I began to understand obscure parts of the Bible, know myself better, and gained clarification about my calling. For years it was "drip, drip, drip". Now it really is "pour". During this period I wrote three books - three long books.

However, parts of my life are like verse 24. Too often did I "refuse to listen when [she called]". In January 2005, I lost hearing in my left ear. The doctor told me that he could not find the cause of my hearing loss. When his prescription of a month on steroids failed to cure me, I went into his waiting room. I pulled out a Bible and a small card with a Bible-in-a-year reading plan. The card told me to read Exodus 4, where I found these words:

The Lord said to him,

“Who gave human beings their mouths?

Who makes them deaf or mute?

Who gives them sight or makes them blind?

Is it not I, the Lord?

Now go; I will help you speak

and will teach you what to say.”

- Exodus 4:11-12

That is the only place in the Bible that explicitly says that God makes people deaf. When I read the words of Exodus, I knew three things:

• The Lord was in the room with me. This brought me peace.
• The Lord knew what the doctor did not: why I was deaf.
• The Lord can be trusted, so he must have a good plan for me. I stopped praying for healing.

I didn't know if the Lord would restore my hearing or not, but I was at peace. That in itself was a miracle. I left the situation in his hands.

Two days later I got my hearing back.

How does that connect to Lady Wisdom? I had been refusing to listen, so the Lord shouted. By miraculously taking away my hearing and giving it back, he was telling me I was spiritually deaf, but that he would cure me of that. Once healed of my spiritual deafness, he would be able to speak to me the words that he had prepared for me to hear.

My last connection to this passage is in verses 26 and 27. The Lord did not mock me when calamity overtook me, but calamity came nonetheless, and in a manner eerily like the wording used by the good lady: "when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind".

Sometime around Fall 2003, I dreamt that I was driving my family in our car when a tornado swept through. It lifted our car off the ground, then it slammed us back down. Up, down, up, down. This repeated many times. Then the storm ended and we drove on in safety. Sounds like the whirlwind from Proverbs 1, no? Or like the two whirlwinds in Job, one killing his children and the other attending a theophany when God spoke to the suffering man.

I would have forgotten that dream if I had not attended a service at the International Family Church in Winchester that weekend. A guest preacher spoke about the time when Jesus calmed the storm. The preacher said that Jesus' main reason for taking his disciples on a boat into the storm was not to teach them faith. His reason was to get to the other side of the lake, where there were two demon possessed men who needed a savior. That sermon reminded me of my recent dream and convinced me that it was a prophecy. My family and I would endure many years of trials but the Lord would see us through them all. For the next nearly two decades we endured one crisis after another with the first starting only three days after I heard the sermon.

How did the Lord tell me that the storm was over and that we had made it safely across the lake to the other shore? That would be the day I fell through the ice while ice skating on Winter Pond in Winchester, December 26, 2022. I was in those icy waters for twenty-five minutes. Erica Poitras of the fire and rescue team pulled me from the lake onto a sledge with pontoons. Then the rest of the team pulled the ropes that dragged us to safety on the other side of the pond.

When Jesus' disciples were afraid, he calmed the storm. While I was in the pond, the Lord calmed my heart and kept me from panicking, which could have killed me. When they pulled me from the lake, the video of me that appeared on the evening news showed me with a beaming smile. The ER doctor who treated me for hypothermia (my temp dropped to 94.5 F) and x-rayed my broken arm said that he could not understand why I was not experiencing extreme pain. Dr. Quinn said that, given the trauma I had just endured, I was the most cheerful person he had ever met.

If nearly dying in a body of water is not a close enough match for you to the story of Jesus calming the storm, here is how the story ends. As I fell through the ice, I broke and dislocated my arm. The upper humerus fracture required a plate and seven screws to repair. The surgery was performed by Dr. David Allessandro at Winchester Hospital's outpatient surgical center on Washington Street. That facility is relatively new. It is built on the former site of the International Family Church. Yes, the very place where I heard the prophetic sermon that confirmed the coming storm was also the place where the storm ended. That is a miracle.

This leaves us at verse 33, "but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm." To be at ease is to be free from anxiety. I suffered from terrible anxiety for decades. That anxiety gave me panic attacks, chest pain, backaches, headaches, twitches all over, nightmares, digestive issues, and many other physical and mental symptoms. As a result of years of trials, most of my anxiety has vanished. Seeing how God has rescued me from so many trials, I now have faith that I can endure all things.

Where we met again: Proverbs 4

After being introduced to a new acquaintance, what happens next? Do you lose their number? Do you make any efforts to reconnect? That is a crucial step in building any relationship. I mentioned earlier how I read from Proverbs every day for the first six months of 1988. There is a reason. On an earlier occasion, I read this in Proverbs 4:

⁶ Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;

love her, and she will watch over you.

⁷ The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.

Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

⁸ Cherish her, and she will exalt you;

embrace her, and she will honor you.

⁹ She will give you a garland to grace your head

and present you with a glorious crown.”

See the bolded words, "Get Wisdom"? I made a New Years Resolution in January 1988 to "Get Wisdom". This was me calling Lady Wisdom back, shooting her an email or a text and saying I'd like to spend more time with you.

I intentionally modeled my pursuit on her words. Thus I devoted every day of that year to reading from the wisdom books of the Bible: Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Songs and James. Whenever I read a Proverb that I knew I was not living by, I prayed for forgiveness and grace to change. By the end of that year I was able to worship Jesus in Proverbs.

I attribute my focus on the wisdom literature and my progress toward understanding it to that year that I dedicated solely to the pursuit of wisdom.

Lady Wisdom's Résumé: Proverbs 8

When you meet new people, do you name drop? It is part of sizing people up by discovering in what circles they move. Lady Wisdom is shameless in this regard:

¹⁵ By me kings reign

and rulers issue decrees that are just;

¹⁶ by me princes govern,

and nobles—all who rule on earth.

- Proverbs 8:15-16

Is she trying to impress you? You should be impressed! She is a trusted counselor to the best people. To powerful people. Can she make introductions and help you in your career? I clung to one of her promises through decades of layoffs, low salaries, and bad bosses before it came true for me. These words of hers came to me often over the years. They gave me the faith and perseverance to not give up:

Do you see a man skillful in his work?

He will stand before kings;

he will not stand before obscure men.

- Proverbs 22:29

What was the ultimate outcome? I still remember the day that the CTO of Shell Oil shook my hand and complimented me for a job well done as tech lead on a software project that saved the company hundreds of millions of dollars. He was not an obscure man. (The company used to be called Royal Dutch Shell. That is as close to kings as I am likely to get!)

As we get to know people, they will start to tell us stories about their life, like their childhood and what they have been up to. For me, I like to talk about my dad, Joseph Chernoch, an early pioneer in laser physics who patented the face-pumped laser and was the first person to cut a hole in a diamond with a laser. I also like to brag about my Uncle Wally, who designed the rendezvous radar for the first lunar landing in 1969. His name is on a plaque on the moon! Lady Wisdom is also proud of her heritage. Her name is not on a plague on the moon - she lead the choir announcing its creation on the day it was made!

²² “The Lord brought me forth

as the first of his works,

before his deeds of old;

²³ I was formed long ages ago,

at the very beginning,

when the world came to be.

²⁴ When there were no watery depths,

I was given birth,

when there were no springs overflowing with water;

²⁵ before the mountains were settled in place,

before the hills,

I was given birth,

²⁶ before he made the world or its fields

or any of the dust of the earth.

²⁷ I was there when he set the heavens in place,

when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,

²⁸ when he established the clouds above

and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,

²⁹ when he gave the sea its boundary

so the waters would not overstep his command,

and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

³⁰ Then I was constantly at his side.

I was filled with delight day after day,

rejoicing always in his presence,

³¹ rejoicing in his whole world

and delighting in mankind.

- Proverbs 8:22-31

What is she saying? As proud as I am of my father and mother (who programmed nuclear submarines, by the way), Lady Wisdom knows my ancestors going all the way back to Adam and Eve. And as for name dropping, she stood at the Creator's side from the beginning. She has seen it all. That is someone you want to get to know. The stories she can tell!

But of all the things that she said, the most important words are the last: "delighting in mankind". She is not at heart a cruel taskmistress, a scold, looking for reasons to snap at you and call you out for your failures. She delights in the company of people - if they will have her. She is a person filled with rejoicing and boundless creativity who wants to be your confidante and friend. She wants to help you succeed and flourish. She can become the kind of friend whose house you want to drop by all the time over tea (which I don't drink, but some people like it).

Wait at her door: Proverbs 8

Proverbs 8 says too many wonderful things to cover them all here. The most important thing is the progression towards intimacy. In the earlier chapters, Lady Wisdom is walking the streets, calling out to strangers. Now she tells you where she lives.

¹² “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;

I possess knowledge and discretion.

¹³ To fear the Lord is to hate evil;

I hate pride and arrogance,

evil behavior and perverse speech.

- Proverbs 8:12-13

She has a roommate named Prudence.

³⁴ Blessed are those who listen to me,

watching daily at my doors,

waiting at my doorway.

³⁵ For those who find me find life

and receive favor from the Lord.

³⁶ But those who fail to find me harm themselves;

all who hate me love death.”

- Proverbs 8:34-36

The summer after my junior year in high school, I often rode my bike past the house of a girl I had a crush on. Ahh, Rachel! I never told her of my feelings. Thus I know what it is like to watch daily at someone's door, hoping she was home and receiving visitors. What I didn't know was that she was in Finland all summer as an exchange student. No matter how many times I rode by, she would never be there.

Lady Wisdom is not like that. If you knock, she will answer. She is not off in Finland (unless you happen to be Finnish, in which case she is probably at her summer home in the mountains.)

A Dinner Invitation: Proverbs 9

If you nurture a friendship long enough, you will eventually be invited over for dinner. Sharing a meal is an ancient custom that carries the same meaning all around the world: you are my friend and are welcome in my house. It is a sign of acceptance.

¹ Wisdom has built her house;

she has set up its seven pillars.

² She has prepared her meat

and mixed her wine;

she has also set her table.

³ She has sent out her servants,

and she calls from

the highest point of the city,

⁴ “Let all who are simple come to my house!”

To those who have no sense she says,

⁵“Come, eat my food

and drink the wine I have mixed.

⁶ Leave your simple ways

and you will live;

walk in the way of insight.”

- Proverbs 9:1-6

She doesn't just invite the popular, successful people to her house. She invites you so that she can share her generosity and help you to succeed.

Lady Wisdom Makes House Calls: Proverbs 3

Let's back up to Proverbs chapter 3. Lady Wisdom doesn't just invite you to her house. She also makes house calls.

¹³ Blessed are those who find wisdom,

those who gain understanding,

¹⁴ for she is more profitable than silver

and yields better returns than gold.

¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies;

nothing you desire can compare with her.

¹⁶ Long life is in her right hand;

in her left hand are riches and honor.

¹⁷ Her ways are pleasant ways,

and all her paths are peace.

¹⁸ She is a tree of life

to those who take hold of her;

those who hold her fast will be blessed.

- Proverbs 3: 13-18

To those who take hold of her... Lady Wisdom likes a good hug. What do you think happens when she hugs you? When she wraps her arms around you, you can't see what is in her hands. She is holding a surprise.

• In her right hand she holds long life and gives you a squeeze.
• In her left hand she holds riches and honor. A second squeeze.

Lady Wisdom paid me a visit in my living room in the early hours of the morning, on the first Thursday in January, 2023. Now that is a day worth remembering. Earlier in this article I related a few of the details of my accident on the frozen pond. I left out the best parts.

In the summer of 2022, I uttered an unusual prayer, at least for me. "Lord, if I ever find myself in a situation where the only way to save me is to send an angel, please send an angel." I trust the Bible so I believe in angels but at the time I had never seen one, nor had anyone I have ever met. Knowing what Paul said to the Colossians, I studiously avoided the topic of angels in my Christian studies and held no great fascination for them:

Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism

and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions,

puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind...

- Colossians 2:18

My prayer anticipated a life-threatening situation of the sort from which my life has mostly been free. The mere speaking of such a petition was uncanny in itself. That I would nearly die in a frozen lake a few months later is proof that it was the Holy Spirit that caused me to think up such a prayer. The sending of Erica to save me was the first answer to my prayer. The original word for angel means messenger, so she was the human messenger that the Lord sent to save me. He also sent another.

I remarked earlier how the doctors were amazed that I was not experiencing extreme pain as a result of my injury. I believe that the pain suppression was also a miracle. The truth of that became apparent a few days later, on a Wednesday two days before my surgery. Wednesday afternoon, Pastor Larry Showalter and his wife Lois visited me at my home. During our conversation, I talked about my research into the Ten Commandments about which I was writing a book. When talk got to the fifth commandment to love your father and mother, I said that Jesus is the person who of all people in history best honored his father and mother.

Later that night, the pain began to worsen. I took the prescribed pain medication, a powerful narcotic, but after an hour or so, I felt no relief. It was impossible to sleep and the pain just kept getting worse. By now it was 1 or 2 am on Thursday morning. I began to recite words from Revelation:

Holy, Holy, Holy,

Is the Lord God Almighty,

Who is, and was, and is to come...

I praised God for saving my life from the icy pond. After a few minutes of praise, I felt a modest amount of relief. However, the pain remained great, too much to permit me to sleep. I was lying on the couch in the living room because the shape of the couch inhibited me from turning over in my sleep, which would be terrible given that my arm was still dislocated and fractured. All of a sudden, I saw a woman's face in front of me. She looked to be about forty. Hers was a kind and pleasant face. Her eyes were filled with compassion. She leaned forward and pulled me to her bosom to comfort me. The pain disappeared instantly. Then she was gone.

For the next hour I was filled with a spirit of intercession. I prayed for family, friends, my church, the Ukraine, the people at the hospital, and the government of the US. Then I fell asleep. For at least five hours I was completely pain free.

For the second time in a week, the Lord had sent me an angel. Was it Lady Wisdom? Whomever he sent, she was a tree of life, she let me take hold of her, and by that embrace I was blessed. Proverbs 3:18 was fulfilled literally in MY life, in MY living room. Lady Wisdom had just made a house call.

I pondered who it could be that visited me. Lady Wisdom in the Bible is just the anthropomorphism of the concept of Wisdom. A concept cannot visit you on your sickbed. A concept cannot hug you. A concept cannot hear your prayers, feel your pain and come running to help.

Some people believe that Lady Wisdom is Jesus, but it specifically says that she was created, for "The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works." Jesus was never created; he is eternal. That means that whomever it was, it was not Jesus, for my visitor came in the form of a woman.

How about an angel? All the angels in the Bible appeared in the form of men, so this angel was not a typical angel.

All I had to go on was my recollection of my talk with my pastor about the fifth commandment and my words of praise while in pain. By repeating those words from Revelation, I was praising God the Father. That means that I was honoring Jesus' Father, just like the commandment teaches. However, the commandment does not teach us to honor only our father, but also our mother. I reasoned that Jesus wanted to teach me a lesson. When I honored his father, he sent some pain relief. Then to show me how much he honors his mother, to prove that he honors her equally in the sight of men as the commandment commands and his great love willingly offers, he sent his mother to me to relieve me of the rest of my pain. The only logical conclusion for me to make is that Jesus, by his divine authority, bestowed to her the power to heal and the ability to visit me with that gift of healing.

I make no claim of divinity on her behalf but recognize that Jesus can honor his mother in whatever way he sees fit, not as obligation but as an overflow from his heart.

After her visit, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and an overwhelming desire to pray for the saints and any in need. Before her visit I was reciting true Scripture and praising the Father. During her visit, I was miraculously relieved of pain. And as I now believe, she had been treating my pain for days already, baffling the doctors, stepping back for a time only so that I might comprehend the reality of the miracles I was receiving.

So who is Lady Wisdom?

• When Jenifer Farr shared her faith with me and led me to the Lord in April 1985, she was Lady Wisdom to me.
• When Chavonne Yee in the Fall of 1985 recommended a solid Bible study and steered me away from what I later learned was a cult, she was Lady Wisdom to me.
• When a woman on her deathbed name Janet Sullivan shared her faith with me and I was baptized with the Holy Spirit, filled with joy for a week and freed from a decade of depression, she was Lady Wisdom to me.
• When Sharon S. Thompson, my Christian counselor, helped me realize and confess that I was a false prophet who was manipulating people with my baseless religious ideas, she was lady Wisdom to me.
• When a prophetess in our church named Lynnette, knowing how lonely I was, said that God was telling her that I would soon meet someone that I would be in a relationship with (and whom I later married), she was Lady Wisdom to me.
• When my wife Tina displays courage, stands up for those who are weak or marginalized, and ministers to me, our children, and our friends at church, she is Lady Wisdom to me.
• When Yao, a seminary graduate in our church, taught so well from Jesus' parables, from Proverbs, and from the Psalms, she was Lady Wisdom to me.
• When that rescue worker named Erica pulled me from a frozen lake, she was Lady Wisdom to me.

And certainly, when the Blessed Virgin Mary came at night to a Protestant Christian who doesn't even think such things are possible or doctrinally sound and she bestowed miraculous pain relief in answer to my prayer, she became Lady Wisdom to me.

I pray that you get to know Lady Wisdom as well as I do, even as I pray to know her better.

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