Jonan had his wisdom teeth removed
yesterday, and this prompted me to Google this question: “Why are wisdom teeth
called ‘wisdom teeth’?” One of the answers came from wiki.answers.com. The
answer there was: “Because by the time you
get them, you are old enough and smart enough to grab pliers and rip them out
yourself instead going to the dentist and giving them a ridiculous amount to do
it when you have all of the tools to do so in your shed.” I think
Jonan would beg to differ, considering the amount of pain he is experiencing
today and the fact that two of those teeth were still in the bone and growing
outward, not upward.
I found a more reasonable answer on
a dentistry website. The entry there suggested the following reason: “Third molars have been referred to as ‘teeth of
wisdom’ since the Seventeenth Century and simply ‘wisdom teeth’ since the
Nineteenth Century. The third
molars generally appear much later than other teeth, usually between the ages of
17 and 25 when a person reaches adulthood. It is generally thought among
linguists that they are called wisdom teeth because they appear so late, at an
age when a person matures into adulthood and is ‘wiser’ than when other teeth
have erupted.”
That same article adds this
interesting observation: “Lately, science
has added some credence to the idea that the third molar does indeed erupt when
a person is ‘wiser’. Recent research has shown the brain continues to grow and
develop right on through adolescence: in fact, most researchers believe the
brain does not reach full maturity until the age of 25. Perhaps, then, our
ancestors weren't so far off the mark — that the eruption of “wisdom teeth” is a
sign that the carefree days of childhood have given way to the responsibilities
of adulthood.”
After Jonan’s surgery yesterday, I
had a chance to chat with the oral surgeon for a few moments. He mentioned the
importance of dealing with these third molars while one is young, and he
described how difficult it can be to remove them if one waits until they appear
in the thirties, forties, or fifties. This prompted me to ask him about his
oldest patient, and he said the oldest person from whom he had removed a wisdom
tooth was a 92-year-old woman! Wow! And yes, that prompted all sorts of other
questions, but I won’t go into those here. Suffice it to say that hers was a
wisdom tooth that waited until she was toothless and in her nineties before erupting above
the gum-line. (And I trust that does not indicate the point in her life when her
brain reached maturity.)
Well, regardless, I am not sure we
would agree that the brain (always? Usually?) reaches its full maturity by the
age of 25. Perhaps it does in a physiological sense, but if maturity is measured
by the possession and application of wisdom, I would disagree. The possession
and application of wisdom, while possible among the young (even among young
children), is rarely possessed or evidenced today, even among the
elderly.
That may seem a strong statement,
but I base that conclusion on a few theological premsises from God’s Word. See
if you agree…
First, the Bible says that
the beginning of
wisdom is the fear and reverence of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10 ). In this, I note
that the existence of true wisdom is dependent upon recognizing and responding
appropriately to the True, Almighty God. And that is the beginning point. It follows, therefore,
that those who have failed to recognize the True God or have who refused to
acknowledge Him as such (much more likely, given the arguments found in Romans
one) and refuse to respond
appropriately (with reverence) will not have wisdom. (No source, no
river.)
Second, God the Father has spoken in
these last days through His Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1 ). It is He Who is the Light of
the World (John 8:12 ),
and those who honor Him, honor the Father (John 5:23 ). Those who do not honor Jesus
Christ do not honor the Father who sent Him (John 5:23 ). In other words, according to
Jesus, those who recognize His deity and ascribe to Him the appropriate
reverence are doing the same for God the Father. Those who dishonor Him,
dishonor the Father. And if this is true, we can conclude that true fear and reverence of God is
dependent on an appropriate recognition and response to Jesus
Christ. Or, to put it another way, only those who have recognized
and appropriately responded to Jesus Christ are possessors of true wisdom (even
in its most rudimentary form.) (A discussion concerning the development of true wisdom, through
conformity to the image of Christ, is best left for another time.)
Third, Jesus said that few would find would be the ones who find
and enter that narrow gate that leads to life (Matthew 7:14 ). And if we take His statement
in context, consider the observations above, and remember Who Jesus is (the Way,
the Truth, and the Life), we can conclude that the majority
of humans will never come to a saving recognition of Jesus
Christ. And, that,
furthermore, having
failed to do so, the majority will fail to possess and evidence true wisdom.
By this point in the discussion it
should be clear that, to some extent, we are equivocating on the term “wisdom.”
The ‘wisdom’ that the world speaks of is a different and multi-faceted nature.
Would any secular writer refer to wisdom as being sourced in ‘the fear and
reverence of the Lord’? I doubt it. And this highlights for us the truth behind
Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “For Jews
request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to
the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
stronger than men.”
And this underscores the ultimate
reality that Paul proclaims there, that wisdom is not evidenced by the
development of teeth (or taking pliers and ripping them out), but that wisdom is evidenced by the recognition and reverence
of Jesus Christ, “Who became for us WISDOM from God!” (1 Cor. 1:30 ) And that brings us
to a simple follow-up question…
Does your life evidence that you
have recognized and are
reverencing the Lord Jesus Christ?
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