The book of Proverbs. The word proverb typically refers to a short clever
saying that offers some kind of wisdom and this book has a lot of those.
But they're almost all in the center section of the book chapters 10 to 29.
But there is way more going on in the book of Proverbs especially at the beginning
-chapters 1 to 9- and the conclusion -chapters 30 and 31.
The book's been designed with an introduction -chapter 1 verses 1 through 9- and it first
of all links this book to King Solomon now remember the story and first Kings chapter 3,
Solomon had asked God for wisdom to lead Israel well, and so
Solomon became known as the wisest man in the ancient world and we're told in
first Kings chapter four, that he wrote thousands of proverbs and poems and
collected knowledge about plants and animals. So Solomon was like the
fountainhead of Israel's wisdom literature. So while not all the material
in this book is written by him personally, he is where Israel's wisdom
tradition began. The introduction says that by reading this book you too can
gain wisdom. Now wisdom for most of us means knowledge but the Hebrew word Khokhmah
means much more than just mental activity, it was first to action also.
So think skill or applied knowledge. This is why back in the book of Exodus chapter 31,
it was artists and craftsmen in Israel who were said to have to Khokhmah.
So the purpose of this book is to help you develop a set of practical skills for
living well in God's world and this gets linked with another key idea in the introduction;
The fear of the Lord. Now fear here is not about terror it's about
a healthy sense of reverence and awe for God and about my place in the universe
it's a moral mindset that recognizes I am NOT God and that I don't get to make up
my own definitions of good and evil of right and wrong. Rather I need to humble
myself before God and embrace God's definition of right and wrong even when
that's inconvenient for me. Now this introduction leads us into the first
main section of the book chapters 1 through 9
which also doesn't contain short one-liner proverbs rather what we find here
are 10 speeches from a father to a son. About how the son should listen to
wisdom and cultivate the fear of the Lord and live accordingly which means a
life of virtue and integrity and generosity all of which lead to success and peace.
The father warns his son also about folly and evil and stupid decisions that
will breed selfishness and pride all leading to ruin and shame. And so the
son should make the pursuit of wisdom and the fear of the Lord his highest goal in life.
And this way of thinking it forms the moral logic of this entire book.
Now these speeches from the father also clue us into what biblical wisdom literature is
and how it's different from other parts of the Bible. These books explore how to
live well in God's world but wisdom is not the same as law, like what Moses gave
Israel at Mount Sinai. And it's not the same as prophecy, divine speech to God's people.
Rather wisdom literature has the accumulated insight of God's people
through the generations about how to live in a way that honors God and others.
And so through the book of Proverbs now these human words about wisdom have
been put together as God's Word and wisdom to His people. Which connects to the
other thing you find in chapters 1 through 9. There are four poems from
lady wisdom. Here wisdom has been poetically personified as a woman who
calls out to humanity to pay attention and to seek her. Wisdom says that she is
woven into the fabric of the universe and so wherever you see people making
wise decisions they are relying on her. So you see someone being generous or
having sexual integrity or upholding justice they are drawing on wisdom.
These lady wisdom poems they're a creative poetic way of exploring this idea that
we live in God's moral universe and that goodness and justice are objective
realities that we ignore to our own peril. And so fearing the Lord living
wisely it's living along the grain of the universe.
Now together these two sets of speeches from the father and Lady wisdom
they make a powerful claim about this book that you're not simply reading good advice,
you're reading God's own invitation to learn wisdom from previous generations.
And so in the next section of the book chapters 10 to 29 we find
hundreds of ancient proverbs and they apply wisdom in the fear of the Lord to
every life topic you could imagine: family, work, neighborhood, friendship, sex,
marriage, money, anger, forgiveness, alcohol, debt, everything. And these are all
filtered through the value system of Proverbs 1-9. Now these proverbs they're
all pretty short, they're easy to memorize and actually this section of the book is
meant to become a reference work that you return to time and time again
throughout the years which raises some important issues in learning how to read these proverbs.
First of all proverbs are by nature about probabilities
So you fear the LORD and you make wise good choices,
things will likely go well for you. And if you don't fear the LORD, you're foolish,
your life will likely not go so well. Now that is all often true but not always.
Which leads to the next point.That proverbs are not promises, they're not
formulas for success. So some proverbs, for example:
The fear of the Lord prolongs your life but the years of the wicked are cut short.
Or train up a child in the way they should go and when they're old they won't turn from it.
So yes, fearing God, being a moral person will most likely lead to a better longer life
and raising your kids in a stable loving home does set them up well.
But there are no guarantees. Lots of things can and often do go wrong in our world.
And so lastly proverbs by nature focus on the general rule but not the
exceptions. Which are many. And the wisdom books actually aren't ignorant of that.
The exceptions are with the other wisdom books Job and Ecclesiastes, are all about.
And together these acknowledged that life is too complex for simple formulas
which is why we need all of the wisdom books together to get the bigger picture
this all leads to the final section of the book two large collections of poems
first poems from a man named Agur. Who begins by acknowledging his own
ignorance and folly, and his great need for God's wisdom.
And then Agur discovers that divine wisdom has been given to him in the scriptures which
teach him how to live well and so Agur is put before us as like a model
reader of the book of Proverbs somebody who's always open to hearing God's
wisdom through the scriptures. The final poems are connected to a man named
Lemuel he's a non-Israelite king and he passes on the wisdom that was given to him by his mom.
It´s guidance for being a wise and just leader and then the final
poem is an acrostic or an alphabet poem where each line begins with a new letter of
the Hebrew alphabet and the entire poems about the woman of noble character.
It depicts a woman who lives according to the wisdom of proverbs and stands like a
model of someone who takes God's wisdom and then translates it into practical
decisions and everyday life. At work or at home, in her family and in her community.
So the book opens with words from a father to a son about listening
to Lady wisdom and so now the book closes by offering the words of a mother
to her son about a woman who lives wisely. The book of Proverbs is for every
person in every season of life. It's a guide for living wisely and well in God's good world.
And that's what the book of Proverbs is all about.