Honoring the Wise

Wisdom in Scripture, Ministry, and Life: Celebrating Lindsay Wilson's Thirty Years at Ridley

Jill Firth, Paul A. Barker, Jill Firth, Paul A. Barker

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781666736472, 9781666794809
• eBook ISBN: 9781666794816
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Since the garden of Eden, a choice between true and false wisdom has confronted human beings, and the need for discernment is consistent throughout Scripture. This volume engages with the canny decisions of the Hebrew midwives, the moral chaos of the judges' era, dilemmas in the monarchy, and prophetic responses to the turmoil of the threat of empires, along with themes from Psalms, Job, and Proverbs. Wise preaching and teaching are enriched by insights from Tanzania, Myanmar, and Central Asia, and wisdom in daily life is found in biblical practices and is centered on Christ. Colleagues and students honor Lindsay Wilson, whose wisdom interests extend across the canon. This work is valuable for students and teachers of Old Testament and for anyone seeking to become wise.

1

The Theological Purpose of Wisdom Elements in Exodus 1–2

Katherine Davis

Exodus 1–2 functions as a bridge between the Joseph narrative in Genesis 37–50 and Moses’s commissioning narrative in Exodus 3:1—4:17. In Genesis 37–50, God used Joseph to preserve life in the midst of returning evil and brokenness with good. In this context, God showed his active favor to Jacob’s sons and their families through the hospitality and welcome expressed to them in Egypt. By Exodus 3:1—4:17, however, the situation has dramatically changed. Rather than enjoying a favored status of hospitality in Egypt, the Israelites are enslaved and are in need of rescue. Yhwh’s promise to Abram in Genesis 15:13–16—that his descendants will be enslaved in a land not their own—resounds in Exodus 3:1—4:17 where he finally announces his intent to make good on his promise to rescue his people from slavery. Between Genesis 37–50 and Exodus 3:1—4:17, Exodus 1–2 introduces the narrative upset forewarned in Genesis 15:13–16 and where reversal is foreshadowed in Exodus 3:1—4:17.

In light of the function Exodus 1–2 plays in its literary context, it is unsurprising that literary features characteristic of Genesis 37–50 also begin to emerge in Exodus 1–2. An example is the use of wisdom elements.1 The term “wisdom element” refers in this chapter to “aspects of a text (ideas, motifs, forms, vocabulary etc.) [that] appear to mirror or remind the reader of similar aspects found in wisdom books.”2 Lindsay Wilson highlights that one purpose of exploring wisdom elements in the text “is to discover the relationship between wisdom and the other strands or streams of Old Testament thought.”3 Aligned with this view, this chapter explores the intersection of wisdom elements with other theological themes in a reading of Exodus 1–2. The goal of this chapter is to identify the theological function of wisdom elements within these beginning chapters of Exodus.4

Wisdom Elements within a Literary Reading of Exodus 1:8–14

Wisdom elements begin to emerge in Exodus 1–2 as the Egyptian king speaks directly to his people about the perceived threat of the Israelites in 1:9–10. Just prior to this speech, the book’s preface accentuates the flourishing of the Israelites beyond the death of the first generation who came to Egypt, namely Jacob, his sons, and Joseph (1:1–7). This optimistic beginning, however, is soon overshadowed in 1:8 with the narrator’s ominous remark that the new Egyptian king did not know Joseph, which sets the context then for the Egyptian king’s speech in 1:9–10.

The king’s speech begins in v. 9 by focusing upon the burgeoning Israelite numbers, which were highlighted positively in the book’s overture. The king calls his people to observe the great number of the Israelite people and how the Israelites are now more numerous than the Egyptians. From the outset, the Egyptian king distinguishes “his people” from the “Israelite people” and, in making this distinction, seeks to instill fear about the growing Israelite numbers through the use of the comparison “than us” (מִמֶּנּוּ).5 The king uses this fear as currency as he commands his people “come!” in v. 10a. This command is expressed by the Hebrew imperative הָבָה, which, in the context of the speech as a whole, forms an invitation for “his people” to join him in taking the desired action justified through the scenario posed in the remainder of v. 10.6 This initial invitation is then followed by the hithpael cohortative נִתְחַכְּמָה where the verbal root חכם (“to be wise”) is usually rendered “to deal shrewdly.”7 However, חכם (“to be wise”) is also within the semantic domain of wisdom language and the hithpael can equally be translated, “let us deal wisely.”8 Irrespective of how the hithpael is translated into English, the assumed idea of the verbal idea חכם (“to be wise”) is that the outworking wise action is able to differentiate between good and evil. While the Egyptian king’s speech does not evince the na...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contributors
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Theological Purpose of Wisdom Elements in Exodus 1–2
• Chapter 2: Judges 19 as Wisdom
• Chapter 3: Critical Views of Wisdom in Samuel’s Revolt Narratives
• Chapter 4: Honoring the Wise King
• Chapter 5: Finding Relational Wisdom
• Chapter 6: The Gracious Absence of the Love of God in the Book of Ezekiel
• Chapter 7: Knowledge and Rebellion, Judgment and Grace
• Chapter 8: Habakkuk’s Calling for a Faithful Response to a Faithful God
• Chapter 9: Dusted Off and Polished to Fresh Luster
• Chapter 10: Jesus, Job, and the Suffering Image of God
• Chapter 11: A Study of the Relational Construct Behind the Discipline of the Lord (Proverbs 3:11–12)
• Chapter 12: Wise Preaching from Proverbs 10–29
• Chapter 13: Honoring a Wise Tanzanian Woman
• Chapter 14: “I Hear and Forget, I See and Remember, I Do and Understand”
• Chapter 15: Worldly Wisdom in 1 Corinthians and Its Implications for Theological Education
• Chapter 16: Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?
• Chapter 17: Old Testament Calls to Thankfulness
• Chapter 18: Waiting with Wisdom
• Chapter 19: Lindsay Wilson: A “Living Treasure”
• Major Publications by Lindsay Wilson