The secular humanism of our day is undermining the Christian faith. In the last century before Christ, many Jewish people were also losing their faith because of the influence of secular humanism. The writer of Wisdom answers the secularists' objections against Judaism and Biblical revelation. Secularists are hung up on death and tragedy. Wisdom shows how these things are not contradictory to the idea of a loving God. God created a world of justice and harmony, but Satan, by using our sins, has caused the evil in this world. However, the Lord will have the last word by raising from the dead the spirits of the just.

Key word    MEANING
 
Key verse    "...thinking not aright: 'Brief and troublous is our lifetime; neither is there any remedy for man's dying, nor is anyone known to have come back from the nether world. For haphazard were we born.' " —2:1-2
 
Command verse    "For those who keep the holy precepts hallowed shall be found holy." —6:10
 
Promise verse    "The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace." —3:1-3
 
Difficult verse    "They shook at the passing of insects and the hissing of reptiles." —17:9
 
Surprise verse    "For when peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, Your all-powerful word from heaven's royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land, bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree." —18:14-16
 
Prayer: Father, may my experiences of tragedy and the death of others draw me close to You.