Wisdom Personified as a Woman

One of the ways a writer can draw a connection between the reader and the writing is by using personification. This is when a personality is given to something that does not have one. For example, God calls wisdom a woman when we know that wisdom is not a female person. Why would he do this? It's because he is wanting you to get personal with wisdom.

Proverbs 7:4 KJV Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

As for us ladies, it makes it even more personal because we ARE women! We should be able to relate with wisdom in a lot of ways. In fact, there are numerous connections in the word of God between a virtuous woman and wisdom.

Proverbs 8:11 KJV For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

Proverbs 31:10 KJV Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

The word "rubies" is used 6 times in the King James Bible. That is not that many times. And in the above verses you can see wisdom is better then rubies AND a virtuous woman is above rubies. Very similar. Let's look at another comparison.

Proverbs 8:35 KJV For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.

Proverbs 18:22 KJV Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.

You'll have to go back to Proverbs 8 and read the context to find out that "me" is wisdom. But look at that wording! It is so similar. There are differences, for sure, however, the similarities are not to be ignored!

Proverbs 9:1 KJV Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:

Proverbs 14:1 KJV Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

God is showing something to us, ladies! There is a reason that he personified wisdom as a woman. And as a wife, the type of the church (or even if you're unmarried), we would do good to take heed to these passages and learn something from them. Take this as motivation not to be a foolish woman but to relate with wisdom.

In order to learn something from God's word we have to read it.

Luke 7:35 KJV But wisdom is justified of all her children.

According to this verse in Luke 7:35 wisdom has children. This is another reason why the Lord gave wisdom a woman's personality. She can give birth! When you study out wisdom in the Bible you will notice that there are some words that are commonly used in context around her. These are her children. For example:

the fear of the Lord

understanding

knowledge

prudence

instruction
(Proverbs 1:7, 8:12, 9:10, 15:33; Isaiah 11:2)

For any woman that is looking to be wise, those are the words that you want to study in scripture. The (rightly divided II Timothy 2:15) understanding is really simple. But yet so many "Christian" woman are more foolish than wise concerning these simple ways to be a wise woman according to scripture.

1. (Church) Woman are not to usurp authority over the man. They are not to be a bishop, deacon, or pastor of the church. (I Corinthians 14:34-35; I Timothy 2:11-12, 3:1-2)
2. (Husband) The woman is subject and submissive to her husband. He is the head and leader of the home. (Genesis 3:16; Ephesians 5:22-24, 33)
3. (Children) She is to use the rod of correction on her children and not substitute the rod for other disciplinary means. For example, using time out, natural consequences, taking things away, grounding, giving a "stern talking to", etc. The Bible clearly says beat with a rod... (Proverbs 22:15, 23:13-14, 29:15; Hebrews 12:6-11)
4. (World) She is to be a keeper at home. (Titus 2:3-5) This means she is a (what) KEEPER at (where) HOME. She is not to spend even 1 hour working for another as an independent career woman. Her full time job is to keep at the home. This has such importance to God that his word is blasphemed when the woman decides she wants to be a keeper else where. Simply foolish. Just think of a keeper of the prison or a keeper of the sheep...what if they left their posts for even just one hour, every day, 5 days a week? The prisoners would escape and the sheep would wander off or get eaten by a lion.
5. (Attire) The woman should be dressed modestly. (I Timothy 2:9-10) If you want to quickly discern a foolish woman from a wise woman all you have to do is look at her and see if she obeys this simple commandment of God. Sadly, most professing Christian woman do not.

God has personified wisdom as a woman for a few reasons. And one of them is so that we, as woman, can relate to her. This study should spark a whole list of other studies as we learn more about wisdom. There are so many other aspects to it. But God makes it simple to be a wise woman, according to his word. I hope you'll enjoy this video study that lays this out in scripture.