“Few pursuits of the human heart predate our search for wisdom. The tempter was confident that, even in a perfect world, his seductions would find an ear once the woman saw ‘that the tree was desirable to make one wise’ (Gen. 3:6). The record of our rebel race since that time reveals discoveries of knowledge and technology that are nothing short of breathtaking. Yet, T.S. Eliot still rightly asks: ‘Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?’
At the dawn of the nuclear age, General Omar Bradley rightly observed, ‘Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.’ The exponential growth of technological knowledge since that day has rendered us neither wiser nor godlier. We have, however, lost something priceless, something that no amount of mere information can regain for us.
Now, more than ever, we must know wisdom and no better starting point for doing so can be found than the Book of Proverbs. From its pages, God promises to set us on ‘The path of life’ (Prov. 15:24) and to rescue us from ‘the way of death’ (14:12; 16:25).” (Proverbs: A Mentor Commentary, p.11)