What to read after Proverbs?

“Wisdom hath built her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars” of support. So declared the book of Proverbs (9:1), whose author was Solomon, the wise King of Israel. Significantly, in this book’s first part Solomon, as the above passage intimates, is found setting forth wisdom as personified; which is to say, that he presents wisdom as a living, active person. And given the symbolistic or typological connection between much of the Bible’s Old Testament content and that of the New Testament, we are on solid ground to infer from this presentation that wisdom personified here is none other than God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ is the wisdom of God manifested from heaven on earth by the divine act of the Incarnation. And like Solomon of old who, through the wisdom granted to him from heaven, built the magnificent physical house of God—the temple in Jerusalem; just so, the “greater than Solomon”—even Christ himself (Matthew 12:42c ASV)—is today continuing to build God’s spiritual house, which is the church, the body of Christ. And the material the Lord uses to build God’s spiritual house is the sevenfold character of the Christ-life that is resident within every member of His church. And according to one’s understanding of the book of Proverbs, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom alluded to in its chapter 9 can symbolically represent the seven different traits, attributes or features of Christ’s noble character which can be found expressed throughout the many sayings appearing in this book of wisdom: Righteousness, Diligence, Love, Lowliness, Gracious­ness, Discipline, and Truthfulness.

Thus, Wisdom Personified seeks to progressively develop in us His followers these seven distinct traits of His character. And once He has established these in our lives, He shall be able to complete the building for His Father of that dwelling place of rest and peace which God has longed to have among His people. In order for this to be accomplished in us, however, we will need to submit ourselves to Christ totally and allow His Spirit who indwells us to develop and firmly establish these various character-traits in us so that Christ’s virtuous character may be manifested through us as a testimony to the world and for touching those in need of moral and spiritual help. This is the Lord’s purpose for us His people.

Hence, may we so give our lives over to Christ that the Holy Spirit shall have complete freedom to accomplish this in and through us. And thus, we shall be usable in the Lord’s hands to fulfill God’s will and purpose on the earth and bring Him much glory.