Proverbs: Part 1
Beginning of Wisdom
As we continue on with our study of wisdom literature, we are now entering the book that most people would consider to have the most wise passages from a practical standpoint. That book would be the book of Proverbs. The reason for this, of course, is because that is exactly what a Proverb is. In fact, the definition of ‘proverb’ according to the Oxford Dictionary is “a short pithy saying in general use, stating a general truth or piece of advice.” If this doesn’t describe wisdom literature then I don’t know what does. This is why Solomon being the author of this book makes so much sense. If Solomon was the wisest man to ever walk the earth, then it would only be natural for him to have written the book of the Bible which is overflowing with wisdom. This book is broken down into different writing styles like poems at the beginning and eventually straightforward points of advice like a father talking to a son. As The Bible Project puts it, “While this book does contain many hundreds of proverbs, most of them are found in the center section of the book. In the outer frames of the book are more elaborate poems all about wisdom.” Many people when they read books, do so with the purpose of learning something that they haven’t previously known. This is why when a new believer decides to start reading the Bible, many people recommend starting with reading the gospels and proverbs. The book of Proverbs isn’t just an easy book to read, it is a practical book that points us to great advice that we can apply to our lives today. With that in mind, let’s see what this great book has to offer.
The Fear of The Lord
To begin, let’s look at how Solomon himself wanted to start this great book. Verses 1-6 in Chapter 1 show us that Solomon is doing his best to reveal the importance of wisdom and why each of us should strive to be wise. However, he then closes this section in chapter 1 with verse 9 and makes an amazing statement. Proverbs 1:9 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This is a fascinating statement to come from the wisest man to ever walk the earth. I want you to take into account what Solomon says here. He doesn’t say that fearing God is the biggest aspect of knowledge or the most important part of knowledge, but rather, it is the beginning of knowledge. In other words, someone cannot even begin to be knowledgeable or start to become wise if they deny the very existence of God and refuse to give honor and respect to His name. Even for the wisest man in the world, giving awe and reverence to God was everything. Without a proper view of God, Solomon wouldn’t have even been in the position he was as king. Sure he would’ve still been king after David, but he almost certainly wouldn’t have asked God for wisdom if he didn’t fear and respect Him in the first place. This may seem like a lot for just an introduction to a book, but these 9 verses are critical to understand if we want to apply the rest of the book to our lives, especially verse 9. If we are to grow in knowledge and wisdom as Solomon himself did, then we must be willing to fear the Lord and honor and glorify Him with our lives. Without this, wisdom cannot begin.
The Father & Lady Wisdom
Furthermore, in the rest of chapter one through chapter 9, we see poems on wisdom from two interesting characters. The two characters we are introduced to are a father who is speaking to a son, and a woman known as ‘lady wisdom’. This father gives instructions and proverbs to his son on how he should lead his life and lady wisdom acts as the knowledge of God reaching out to His children and wanting to be used. It is easy to only see gender around these two roles and assume that the father is only speaking to a male audience and that the lady is only speaking to a female audience but this is not true. Sure some specific proverbs in this book are directed toward specific genders, but overall, these two characters give wisdom from the perspective of a parent and the perspective of God. A great example of this comes in Proverbs 6:1-3 “My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor, Or have given a handshake for a stranger, If you have been ensnared by the words of your mouth, Or caught by the words of your mouth, Then do this, my son, and save yourself: Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and be urgent with your neighbor to free yourself.” This proverb is essentially saying that if you have bound yourself to someone by word or deed and you fail to do it, humble yourself and seek this person’s forgiveness. How much could we learn from this proverb in this day and age? So many times when we break our word to someone, we don’t even think twice about it. We assume they’ll understand and just keep moving on with our lives. This proverb, however, shows us that in order to truly be free and protect our character, we must have humility and seek forgiveness.
Chapter 8 gives us a good insight into who Lady Wisdom is and what she has to offer as well. This chapter begins by telling the reader that wisdom calls out to them and is available for them if they so choose. Then further down, we see what proverb Lady Wisdom has to share with us. Proverbs 8:13-14 says, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride, arrogance, the evil way, And the perverted mouth, I hate. “Advice is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine.” Again we see the very same concept of the fear of God that Solomon used to open the book reiterated here. But this time, it goes even deeper. We see here that wisdom doesn’t just begin with fearing God, but that fearing God will also lead us to hate evil. Not only will the proper view of God lead us to become wise, but we will also hate what the Lord hates as a result. That’s a solid piece of advice if I’ve ever heard one. A vast majority of the proverbs that come after this one are ancient sayings to live by and we’ll dive into those in our next post. For now, however, I think we must know not just how to obtain wisdom through a fear of the Lord, but why this fear matters so much. I hope and pray that as you read through these proverbs, you grow in knowledge and wisdom and that your fear of God Himself will continue to increase.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] BibleProject. (2024a, August 8). Guide to the Book of Proverbs. BibleProject. https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-proverbs/
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