Proverbs, parables, and principles for decision-making, discernment, and living well. Solomon's wisdom, Jesus' teachings, and practical frameworks for navigating complexity.
Wisdom
Saul had expelled all the mediums from Israel. Then the Philistines assembled against him and God did not answer. He disguised himself and went to a medium at Endor and asked her to bring up Samuel. Samuel came up. The encounter is the strangest and most honest scene in the books of Samuel.
Wisdom
Uriah the Hittite appears in eight verses of 2 Samuel 11. He never does anything wrong. He is loyal, disciplined, and principled in a way that made David's cover-up impossible and his murder necessary. The most righteous character in the chapter is the one who does not survive it.
Wisdom
Josiah became king at eight years old and did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. At twenty-six the Book of the Law was found in the temple — lost, apparently, for generations. When it was read to him he tore his robes and wept. 2 Kings 22-23 is the most urgent reform in the Old Testament.
Wisdom
Jezebel imported Baal worship into Israel, orchestrated a judicial murder, and died exactly as Elijah prophesied. Her story is about what power looks like when it answers to nothing above itself.
Wisdom
Isaiah 9 was spoken to people under Assyrian occupation centuries before Bethlehem. The four throne names in Hebrew — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace — each carry a precise argument that most translations miss.
Wisdom
The book of Psalms opens not with a prayer but with a portrait. One word in Hebrew. A declaration about a person who has made a specific choice about where they stand. Everything in the Psalter follows from that word.
Wisdom
The Queen of Sheba came with hard questions and left with nothing more to say. What she saw in Solomon's kingdom took her breath away. What happened to Solomon after she left is the real story.
Wisdom
Nebuchadnezzar demanded that his wise men tell him both the dream and its meaning — without being told the dream. Then he dreamed of a tree so tall it touched heaven, and an angel came down and cut it. Both dreams are about the same thing. The king was the last to understand it.
Wisdom
The book of Jonah ends with God asking Jonah a question. Jonah does not answer. The book ends. The question is still open — addressed to Jonah, and to every reader who has ever wanted someone to get what they deserved.
Wisdom
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The Preacher tried wisdom, pleasure, work, and wealth. Then he wrote down what he found. Most readers misread the verdict. The Hebrew is more precise — and stranger — than the translation suggests.
Wisdom
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. That sentence is the hinge of the entire book of Proverbs. Most people read beginning as first step. The Hebrew means something more permanent than that.
Wisdom
Psalm 139 spends twenty-two verses on the comfort of being known completely. Then it ends with a request that most readers rush past. The request is not comfortable. It is the only honest conclusion to everything that came before it.