Walking the Way of the Wise (Essential Studies in Biblical Theology), Mitchell L. Chase. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514010914) 2025.

Summary: Traces the idea of wisdom in scripture and how integral it is to walking well with God in covenant relationship.

For most of us, when we think of Wisdom in connection with the Bible, we think of the Wisdom literature. Three books stand out: Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. We might add some of the psalms, perhaps the Song of Songs. Then some might even add James. While these books are of the “genre” of Wisdom literature, Mitchell L. Chase proposes that wisdom runs through the whole storyline of the Bible. An adequate theology of wisdom must encompass the whole Bible.. In this book, Chase offers an outline of the contours of such a theology.

It is a story that begins in the Garden. God wanted Adam and Eve to be wise in knowing good and evil through trusting obedience. Instead, they chose the folly of moral autonomy in a quest for wisdom apart from God. Now the divine wisdom that created the world would be needed to save it. Before continuing the storyline of Genesis, Chase considers our need for wisdom amidst suffering in the ancient story of Job. Then we turn to Abraham and his descendants, including the children of Israel in the exodus. We observe the wisdom of trusting obedience that saves Egypt in famine, and the consequences of giving way to fear when Israel heeds the bad report of the spies rather than trust God’s power to give them the land.

Eventually, under Joshua, Israel enters the land. As he passes the torch to the next generation, Joshua exhorts them to live by God’s law. This was wisdom for enjoying the covenant relationship God had established with Israel to be their King and enjoy his protection. But they would have none of it and rebelled. Rejecting God, they had no king and pursued the folly of doing what was right in their own eyes, becoming prey to the nations. They believed only an earthly king could save them. In Saul, they learned that a king whose heart was not after God would also be a problem.

Then in David came a king who sang God’s wisdom from the heart, giving us many of the psalms. He sang of the wisdom of delighting in the law of the Lord and the folly of rejecting God. He sang of the holiness by which we may approach God, the presence of God in death’s shadow, and how God would guide all our ways in wisdom.

Following David, Solomon sought, received, and gathered wisdom to instruct both his children and his corporate son, Israel in living well with God. Then in the Song of Songs, Solomon, as tradition would have it, gave us wisdom for love in the covenant relationship of marriage, a parable for God’s covenant relationship with his people. Finally, Solomon offers us the wisdom that comes in knowing we will die. He paints our pretentious projects as futile against the transience of our lives, and commends the wisdom of receiving with joy the gifts of the day: good work and its fruits.

Israel’s history after Solomon is the sad story of pursuing Lady Folly rather than Lady Wisdom. Folly led to a kingdom torn asunder the fall of the north under a relentless string of kings who did evil in the lord’s eyes. In the south, a few respites of righteous rule were not enough to prevent Babylonian conquest and exile. Yet even in exile, God’s wisdom was manifest in Daniel, wisest of councilors and one who, along with other prophets to the one, the Son of Man, who would redeem God’s people.

At last, the one greater than Solomon comes. He is wisdom in the flesh, the way, the truth, the life. He renews us in his image, to live in covenant relationship with him as King over all our lives. And living wisely in Christ enables us to perceive the life that is ours beyond death. Thus, we live in the blessed hope of partaking of the tree of life in the heavenly city.

I love how Chase shows the wisdom of God for life that runs through the biblical storyline. Likewise, we see the folly of rejecting wisdom and the sad history of thinking we know better than God. By Genesis 3, we already know how that story plays out. Yet we keep falling for the same lies. Thanks be to God for Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Chase helps us see how all that treasure is ours in Christ. He helps us see how all of scripture can not only make us wise for salvation but to live well with God.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.