“For wisdom is better than rubies, And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her” (Proverbs 8:11, NKJV). Rubies here stand in for anything valuable and desirable. Wisdom, this verse says, outranks all of it.
That’s a hard sell in a culture that tends to measure value in more visible, tangible terms. Wisdom doesn’t sparkle the way rubies do, and its value often only becomes clear over time.
This isn’t dismissing material things as worthless. It’s simply ranking wisdom above them, a ranking most of us don’t actually live by day to day.
If wisdom and something more visibly desirable were both in front of you today, which would your actual choices suggest you value more?