You can’t memorize all the answers to every arithmetic question in the world; you can’t even memorize all the arithmetic questions and answers you’ll ever actually encounter in the world (if, indeed, you could figure out in advance which ones those will be). Instead, you learn arithmetic itself. That prepares you to handle whatever arithmetic problems you actually encounter, as they arrive.

In the same way, you can’t memorize a rule to cover every single situation you might encounter in the world; instead, you learn wisdom, to prepare yourself for the actual and unpredictable situations you encounter. That’s the theme of Proverbs: you need to be “making your ear attentive to wisdom, and inclining your heart to understanding” (Proverbs 2:2).

It will take some diligence; you need to “seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasure” (2:4). And you need the confidence that God does not withhold wisdom from those who seek it: “the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (2:6).

Part of our lack of wisdom comes from the way we imagine we can be self-sufficient, when we suppose we can generate whatever answers we need from inside ourselves, on the spur of the moment. And so the book urges us to the way of wisdom: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (3:5-6).

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We need your wisdom, O Lord: our own is not enough, as we have proven many times over. Grant us the diligence to grow in wisdom day by day, so that we may perceive the right path, and have the courage to follow that path, even when it looks like folly according to the way the world thinks.