Category: Proverbs

I’m writing a single post for these two days because the material fits together in a way that makes that make sense.

If the proverbs seem to contradict themselves, seek a deeper understanding in an attempt to resolve an apparent contradiction. For example, in verses 26:4 and 5, Solomon advises against answering a fool according to his folly, and then advises that one answer a fool according to his folly. How can this not be a contradiction?! The whole counsel of proverbs teaches that one can never win an argument with one who thinks he is always right. The point he’s making is don’t bother with fools. The apparent contradiction is an interesting way to get that point across, don’t you think?

Not many of us count our wealth in the size of our flocks and herds, but all of us have wealth of one kind or another. Solomon advises us to know the condition of our finances so that we can make sure that they meet our needs, enable us to fulfill our responsibilities, and perhaps gain us something in the way of a return. And yet in verse 28:8 Solomon seems to disparage multiplying wealth. Multiplying wealth wasn’t the issue as much as the means by which it is multiplied. The whole counsel of Scripture frowns on multiplying wealth by unscrupulous means. In the Law God forbade His people to charge interest to a needy brother. He also seems to be against a pure profit means of gaining wealth. For example, selling someone something worthless in a deal where the seller gains a profit and the buyer gains nothing is not acceptable. The seller must sell something of true worth; taking people’s money for anything that is not truly worthwhile is not right. That certainly is different from our culture, where advertising campaigns often try to persuade us to spend our money in exchange for minimum value. Have we bought into our culture’s value for making maximum profit by any means necessary?

If you see other apparent contradictions that you can’t resolve, I recommend that you seek help from the Holy Spirit to understand. You are also welcome to contact me, but I don’t believe that I can offer the absolutely satisfying, transforming revelation that the Holy Spirit can.

Let me remind you again that the proverbs are wise sayings, not promises from God. They teach principles that are generally true, not unfailingly true. If we claim them as God’s promises to us, we do so in error. I share that again because today’s reading includes the biggie – the one principle that people most often claim as a promise from God: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (22:6) Then faith in God falters when the child they have trained does indeed exercise his free will and departs from the way the parents intended to train him. God will not be held to a promise He never made; we cannot force Him to by claiming it as a promise in our ignorance.

Does it disappoint you that you cannot claim that principle as a promise? I wonder if we don’t presume upon God’s faithfulness when we treat it as a promise. I suspect that when we understand this teaching as a principle, we train our children with more diligence than if we take it as a promise.

No comments on these two days’ readings. I hope you’re not only enjoying the relatively light reading in the proverbs, but also contemplating some of those less obvious parallels and sayings, and perhaps gaining some deep insights.

The tongue is mentioned again and again throughout Proverbs in connection with folly and evil, confronting us with an opportunity to consider our speech. Even if you don’t think you have a problem with your speech, you would be wise to at least be warned about that human weakness and prospect for the enemy to tempt and try you.

These chapters also speak several times about correction. It’s not easy to take, but even the wise need correction occasionally. How willingly do you accept correction?

If none of the proverbs in today’s reading especially speaks to you, these are two areas you can consider and speak to God about.

The proverbs are easy and even fun reading, but they also confront us with opportunities that we shouldn’t miss, opportunities to consider our own hearts. Human nature leads us to put ourselves in the place of the wise and righteous and not with the foolish and evil, and so we might by extension give ourselves more credit than we deserve as we read. The proverbs even warn us about that! Don’t take for granted that you are the lovely wise and righteous person, having no foolish or wicked traits; rather, read with consideration.

Some of the connections in the parallel structures are not obvious. It might be worthwhile to ponder them to try to figure out those that aren’t obvious. Doing so can yield some profound insights.

Do you know Christians who have fallen back into old sins from which they had been freed, and wonder how they could have let that happen to them? Solomon’s story of the young man seduced by the adulterous woman reveals how such a thing can happen. Note the steps he takes toward his downfall. It starts with a lack of caution. Solomon sees the adulterous woman as the downfall of an incautious young man; God presents His people’s unfaithfulness to Him as adultery, so we can take Solomon’s warning to heart ourselves. Deuteronomy and Joshua are full of warnings to be careful, be strong. The New Testament is full of warnings to be on our guard. Just as the adulterous woman appears religious, speaking the language of paying her vows, the temptations our enemy uses to try to entrap us are not obvious. They don’t appear to be dangerous, but they are deadly.

The adulterous woman meets the young man as he’s walking down her street; wisdom cries out from a prominent public place. What does the contrast convey? If we think that temptation is easy to fall into, Solomon seems to be telling us that wisdom is actually easier to find. If that is the case, why is wisdom such a precious commodity in this world, while sin is so rampant? Note the characteristics of wisdom and where it can be found, and compare them to the characteristics of the adulterous woman and her ways. Which do you prefer to be part of your life? Again I ask, why is wisdom so dear, and unfaithfulness and folly so common?

Solomon strongly believed that a significant source of training and guidance is parents. Parents, are you instructing your children? Have you trained them to listen to your instruction, or do you, as our culture teaches us to, expect your instruction to “go in one ear and out the other?” Do you believe that you can’t say anything in the way of guidance and accountability for your children or they might turn away from you? Do you believe that your children can only learn by making their own mistakes, and so your job as a parent is to allow them to do that? Are you living your life in such a way as to gain wisdom yourself, starting with the fear of the Lord, and be perceived as a credible instructor of wisdom for your children? If you aren’t training them, they will receive their training from someone else. In our culture, that someone else is often their peers, which is like the blind leading the blind. No wonder they place no value on experience and insight gained only with age.

In teaching his son how he should value wisdom, Solomon compared wisdom to a woman. What image does that convey? Consider how young men desire women; he wants his son to desire wisdom with that strong of a desire. What if we don’t desire it that much? Then we won’t seek it. If we don’t seek it, we won’t find it, and instead, folly will overtake us. Where my desire doesn’t match what Scripture reveals it should be, I ask God to help my wanting to be what He wants it to be. The consequences of complacency are too severe for my preference.

Note the generalities Solomon offers with regard to the wicked: they do wicked things. That should come as no surprise to us, then, when we see that happening. We need to expect that and be on our guard. That means we won’t partner with them when God tells us not to, and we won’t follow their lead. You’re not setting up any wicked people as your examples, are you? Or allowing your children to do so?

Proverbs are a special kind of biblical literature called wisdom literature. One thing we need to understand about the Bible’s wisdom literature is that proverbs do not offer promises of God, no matter how much they sound like it, nor how much we want to claim some of them as promises and hold God to them. They teach probabilities, generalities. For example, verses 3:7-8 are not intended to be a promise of physical health if we fear the Lord and shun evil. The next two verses are not a guarantee of overflowing wealth if we give our tithe, and we cannot correctly claim these as promises from God. They are principles, teaching us that God rewards those who seek wisdom from Him. He knows us well and knows how to reward us in ways that feel rewarding to us when we heed Him. We can ask Him to make a principle true in our lives, but we can’t stake our faith on a principle like we can on a promise.

Notice the intended audience of the proverbs – the simple, the young, the wise, and the discerning. A common characteristic of fallen man is that we believe we are wiser than we actually are. Our culture has communicated to our young that their elders have nothing worthwhile to teach them. Notice that Solomon, the wisest man of his day who received his wisdom from God, understood that only fools despise wisdom and instruction. Even the wise can add to their learning, and even the discerning need guidance. A person’s acceptance of his ongoing need for instruction, learning and guidance is a key determining factor in whether he is a simpleton and fool, or a sage.

Do you want to be wise? The place to begin is the fear of the Lord. The analogy of wisdom calling out to the simple from the city gate conveys that wisdom is not hidden. Our failure to gain wisdom is because we refuse to seek it where we can find it, and then heed it by living according to it, either out of waywardness or complacency. We only want to heed it when disaster strikes, and then it is too late. The Bible teaches a foundational principle of wisdom is that we will sow what we reap. Are you sowing what you want to reap? If not, seek God’s help to do what He shows you to do!

The proverbs are pretty straightforward, so I don’t think I will need to offer much guidance in understanding or application for the reader. My intended approach to the posts while we are in this book is to offer some guidance where poetic imagery or cultural references make meanings obscure; otherwise, my comments will be minimal.