God & the wisdom: Like the vine I bud forth delights, and my blossoms become fruit fair and abundant. Ben Sira 24:17

The Master of Wisdom Ben Sira, in his sapiential book, left some beautiful writings about the nature of wisdom, and her relationship with God and with Israel. And the wise man explained that the science of God, the most perfect science, is one of the spiritual exhalations of the Lord with these words: "I came forth from the mouth of the Most High and covered the earth like a mist" Ben Sira 24:3.
And this teaching has a very special reason for being so. When God created everything in seven days according to the Bible, he did so in accordance with his wisdom, because wisdom is progressive, gradual, and expansive. The Book of Genesis recounts that God completed his creation progressively. First, he created the heavens and the earth; then he created light and separated it from darkness—that was the first day. Next, he separated the seas from the land, and then he created living beings, until he created the first man and woman on the sixth day. Wisdom, then, Ben Sira taught, as science and as virtue, is inseparable from the whole creation of God.
But then Ben Sira taught something else: although wisdom covered the earth, it chose the nation of Israel especially to manifest itself, and this is how the wise explained this spiritual truth: "He who created me decreed where I should dwell, saying, 'Make your dwelling in Jacob, and in Israel receive your inheritance'" Ben Sira 24:8. With this, the wise man explained that the law given to the prophet Moses is an expression of that mysterious wisdom of God, and so that all the peoples of the earth would know that God had blessed a very special nation.
And then the wise man wrote a special metaphor, because he compared wisdom to a beautiful vine that bore fruit: "Like the vine I bud forth delights, and my blossoms become fruit fair and abundant" Ben Sira 24:17. And this explanation is very instructive because it is a precursor to some of Jesus' parables, such as the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the sower. The wisdom of God is a vine planted especially in Israel, and which bore fruit with David and Solomon, who made it flourish. And three thousand years later, the example of these devout people still continues to inspire the readers of the Bible. To know wisdom is then to know that vineyard of the Lord that bore fruit in the people he chose as his dwelling place, Israel.

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