Is life about figuring out what we should do or doing what we should be doing?

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So, the Bible has three books traditionally called the wisdom books. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. The basic intent behind these books is to answer the hard questions encountered as a result of believing in religious claims.

There are three books because there are three levels of inquiry. You have the simple, the complicated, and the meta. Proverbs deals with the simple questions, the 'what'. Ecclesiastes deals with the complicated questions, the 'how'. and finally, Job deals with the meta questions, the 'why'.

The Judaism of that day, as a religion, sought to bring every last aspect of life one could think of under the aegis of God. Well, as anyone who has lived under a strict parent knows, there are always edge cases to every rule.

For example, when it came time to harvest crops, farmers were to leave any grain that spilled to the ground, so that the poor could eat. If you ran an orchard, you were not allowed to leave the trees completely empty of fruit. Well, the question inevitably arose, just how much should I leave?

These edge cases are where the deeper meaning lies. The wisdom books are catch-all resources that provide definitive answers to questions when the available resources didn't give you all the answers you needed.

Because Judaism created a society based on law, the law was relatively easy to learn about, many people could interpret the law for you if you had questions. They didn't have printing back then so in general you had to learn through in-person tutelage.

So from a Jewish perspective, the answer is obviously doing what you should be doing, because the question of what you should be doing was already answered by the law, of if the law didn't provide the answer, the wisdom of the Torah.

One man believed that the whole system had rotted to its very core, that this entire system of rules and interpretation of those rules was a simple, abject, failure. He offered a new way to interpret God's will. He was fearless, marching into the Temple and driving out anyone there he saw as polluting the sacred grounds with commercial activity.

One week later, this man, named Jesus, was dead.

So what was his answer to this question? Well, he didn't believe the question of what a person should be doing was settled at all, certainly not by the words written in the Torah. He did not believe that the words of the Torah were sacrosanct.

He believed that there was man's interpretation, and there is God's interpretation. Jews believed that when they interpreted scripture, they were divining the will of God. Jesus said no, this is an evil thing to believe. Man is not God.

He said that if you want to know what to do, you should ask God, not man. And he taught people how to do that, by praying with them. He said you know, in your heart, what is good and what is evil. And that God always provides a way.

So if you ask Jesus the answer to this question, he would say that life is about figuring out what you should be doing because you can never know the full details. You are constantly open to new ideas and interpretations, because you never know when God might decide to speak to you, and if your heart is closed, then you won't listen.

You can still read the Bible, you can still get ideas and insight and wisdom from the words in it. But never forget that it’s just a book. True guidance always comes from God.