Going through life is something like riding a deep canyon where the light seldom shines. It is a strange canyon with unexpected turns and insurmountable walls and cross-canyons, boxed completely from the light.”
–Zane Grey (Captive of the Desert)
“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.”
“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.”
–Ecclesiastes 5:1 (NKJV)
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“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
–James 1:5 (NKJV)
Which way do I go? How can I make the right decision? These and myriad other questions have probably gone through your minds. “God give me wisdom,” we cry. Hold on a minute, James goes on a litter further in his letter and says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (4:3, NKJV) Two things I see here: first, we ask with the wrong motives, and second, God has already given us an abundance of wisdom in His Word, especially the Proverbs. Before we ask, we should know what God already says about it for He might be saying, “I already told you.”
In the next few weeks, months, I am going to be bringing some ideas from the Proverbs. If we want to know how to live in this world it is a good book to study. There are three major themes in the book: 1) God and humans; 2) the righteous and the wicked; 3) the fear of the Lord, which is the overriding theme. Someone has said that Proverbs “is the Ten Commandments in shoe leather.” The Book of Proverbs is ethical, not necessarily doctrinal, yet we will find doctrine within it. When reading we should be looking for practical and eternal lessons. However, remember, “Although Proverbs is a practical book dealing with the act of living, it bases wisdom solidly on the fear of the Lord.” (NIV Study Bible)
Wisdom is needed for us to get by in this wicked, sinful world. One can define wisdom as the ability to live life skillfully. Wisdom is imperative in this world and it is not always easily come by; Vine states, “A godly life in an ungodly world, however, is no simple assignment.” When we study Proverbs we get a better understanding of God’s character, and thus we know better how we are to live.
Most of the Proverbs are written by Solomon, a few by Agur and Lemuel, and possibly some by unnamed writers. A quick glimpse of Solomon, “He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five.” (1 Kings 4:32, NKJV) That’s quite a number, and yet we only have a few. William Wordsworth, the renown English poet said this, “The Proverbs of Solomon come from above, and they also look upward. They teach that all true wisdom is the gift of God, and is grounded on the fear of the Lord.”
We have here in this book, instruction is wisdom, preparation for life, and the ways of life in God’s world. “It passes a core of knowledge and experience that God says we must have if we are to live successfully.” (NKJV Study Bible) We know that throughout history human nature has not changed.
A couple of more notes regarding this wonderful book. Most of the Proverb verses are parallelisms: either antithetical, synthetic, or emblematic. “They are sentences which contain their whole design within themselves, and are not connected with one another.” (Matthew Henry) The term “proverbs” is often translated in Scripture as “taunt,” “oracle,” or “parable.” We must also understand, as Chad Bird states, “Proverbs are general observations, not an ironclad guarantee. Proverbs are not promises.” This is a mistake that many make when reading the Proverbs. The NIV Study Bible warns, “Because of the nature of Proverbs, we must not interpret it as prophecy or its statements about certain effects and results as promises.” Trust the Holy Spirit to make it real to you; God will guide our decision-making to His glory.
In this study we will see that there are four predominant people mentioned throughout: the Simple, the Fool, the Scorner/Mocker, and the Wise. Our goal in life is to be like the wise. Take time to contemplate each of the proverbs. Think of them the way George Miladin concluded, “The Proverbs are ‘hard candy’ not to be chewed up quickly and swallowed, but turned over and over in the cheek, their sweetness and wisdom allowed to glide slowly over the tongue’s taste buds.”
————————————
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
–James 1:5 (NKJV)
Which way do I go? How can I make the right decision? These and myriad other questions have probably gone through your minds. “God give me wisdom,” we cry. Hold on a minute, James goes on a litter further in his letter and says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (4:3, NKJV) Two things I see here: first, we ask with the wrong motives, and second, God has already given us an abundance of wisdom in His Word, especially the Proverbs. Before we ask, we should know what God already says about it for He might be saying, “I already told you.”
In the next few weeks, months, I am going to be bringing some ideas from the Proverbs. If we want to know how to live in this world it is a good book to study. There are three major themes in the book: 1) God and humans; 2) the righteous and the wicked; 3) the fear of the Lord, which is the overriding theme. Someone has said that Proverbs “is the Ten Commandments in shoe leather.” The Book of Proverbs is ethical, not necessarily doctrinal, yet we will find doctrine within it. When reading we should be looking for practical and eternal lessons. However, remember, “Although Proverbs is a practical book dealing with the act of living, it bases wisdom solidly on the fear of the Lord.” (NIV Study Bible)
Wisdom is needed for us to get by in this wicked, sinful world. One can define wisdom as the ability to live life skillfully. Wisdom is imperative in this world and it is not always easily come by; Vine states, “A godly life in an ungodly world, however, is no simple assignment.” When we study Proverbs we get a better understanding of God’s character, and thus we know better how we are to live.
Most of the Proverbs are written by Solomon, a few by Agur and Lemuel, and possibly some by unnamed writers. A quick glimpse of Solomon, “He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five.” (1 Kings 4:32, NKJV) That’s quite a number, and yet we only have a few. William Wordsworth, the renown English poet said this, “The Proverbs of Solomon come from above, and they also look upward. They teach that all true wisdom is the gift of God, and is grounded on the fear of the Lord.”
We have here in this book, instruction is wisdom, preparation for life, and the ways of life in God’s world. “It passes a core of knowledge and experience that God says we must have if we are to live successfully.” (NKJV Study Bible) We know that throughout history human nature has not changed.
A couple of more notes regarding this wonderful book. Most of the Proverb verses are parallelisms: either antithetical, synthetic, or emblematic. “They are sentences which contain their whole design within themselves, and are not connected with one another.” (Matthew Henry) The term “proverbs” is often translated in Scripture as “taunt,” “oracle,” or “parable.” We must also understand, as Chad Bird states, “Proverbs are general observations, not an ironclad guarantee. Proverbs are not promises.” This is a mistake that many make when reading the Proverbs. The NIV Study Bible warns, “Because of the nature of Proverbs, we must not interpret it as prophecy or its statements about certain effects and results as promises.” Trust the Holy Spirit to make it real to you; God will guide our decision-making to His glory.
In this study we will see that there are four predominant people mentioned throughout: the Simple, the Fool, the Scorner/Mocker, and the Wise. Our goal in life is to be like the wise. Take time to contemplate each of the proverbs. Think of them the way George Miladin concluded, “The Proverbs are ‘hard candy’ not to be chewed up quickly and swallowed, but turned over and over in the cheek, their sweetness and wisdom allowed to glide slowly over the tongue’s taste buds.”