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This is a 40 page booklet that opens up Proverbs 9:1-6 - a little recognised passage which teaches us that "Wisdom" builds her house, hewn out of "seven pillars" - hence the "seven pillars of wisdom". Essentially, David Hamshire makes the connection between the seven days of the creation event (including Shabbat), the seven Moeds of Leviticus chapter 23 and these seven pillars of wisdom in Proverbs. He identifies a clear linkage. The Creation, the Moedim and Proverbs 9 are interconnected and each speaks in the same way about the same subject - Jesus and God's righteous plan of redemption.

Interestingly, this short study makes a useful follow-up to Peter Sammons' "The Messiah Pattern", also available via CPI (re-published internationally as "The Jesus Pattern"). A PowerPoint summary of the main theological 'connections' is included here: [ click here ], and readers might want to associate this with the booklet as a visual summary.

Bible-readers and jam-makers often adopt similar methods. Despite the apparent difference in the two occupations, the inclination is to store the fruits of their labours in neatly sealed units. Readers tend to systematize their findings and file them away in neatly organized mental compartments, while cooks use jam jars to ensure the flavours never mix! Maybe this is a wise decision when it comes to jam making, but it is dreadfully debilitating when it  comes to exploring the richness of the Bible.
 
While we stand indebted to many scholars, much academic study of the Bible is specialized. An 'expert' on the Hebrew Bible is not allowed to comment on the New Testament, and vice versa. Such is the degree of  specialization that the view of the sweeping forest has been obscured by the twigs on the trees. The outcome is to the detriment of us all. Given the fact that Hebrew, the language of the Scriptures, has no word for theology, doctrine or creed, surely alerts us to something? All our attempts to 'organize' the Bible into rigidly systematic units is rather meaningless. Surely, it's time to take a step back and to look at the text as a whole?  

Abraham Heschel once observed that the Greek studies to understand, while the Hebrew studies to revere. Our reverence, and indeed our awe, will certainly only increase as we grow in sensitivity to interconnections of time, place and people in this unique literature. This is what David does in these pages. It's as if he invites us to don a new pair of 'tri-focals' to see with excitement that no one text can be studied in isolation. No one angle, neither  time, place, nor people, will provide a definitive interpretation, but all three combine to give us a high definition insight. The rabbis were often masterful at this and their method sets them apart from our traditional western methods.
 
As you journey with David, you won't find everything sitting neatly labelled on shelves, ordered with the precision that we've come to expect. That's simply not the way that the Bible was intended to be read.
 
I invite you to travel with David as he discards the old containers and lets the richness of the flavours mix.