Today we have the exciting opportunity of beginning a new journey through the book of Proverbs. James 1 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him. One of the ways that God gives us wisdom when we lack it, when we need it, is through this book of ancient wisdom, this collection of wise sayings that has been divinely inspired and compiled and preserved for the instruction and benefit of God's people. So we're going to begin today, this journey, by considering just the first seven verses. Proverbs 1 verses 1 through 7.
If you would turn there with me and we'll read it together. Proverbs 1 verses 1 through 7. Hear now the word of the Lord. The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge, and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear an increase in learning and the one who understands obtain guidance. To understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, open our eyes to understand what we read in your word. Increase our faith to believe what we read in your word. Break our wills to obey what you instruct us to do. Lord, when we fail, have mercy on us. So sanctify us now by your truth. Your word, Lord, is truth.
In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, this Old Testament book begins with an introductory verse that reveals the source and the content of the book. Verse 1. The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. Solomon is, in fact, mentioned several times throughout the book. These are Solomon's proverbs. Now, to say that they're the proverbs of Solomon doesn't necessarily mean that Solomon wrote them all. He most likely did write many of them, but it could also mean that he compiled them from other sources, and there is evidence that some of these proverbs did, in fact, come from other sources. Towards the end of the book, there is some indication that other people besides Solomon were involved in writing and even compiling and editing this collection of wise sayings into the final format in which we have them today. So Solomon is the primary editor, if not author, of most of the book, while others who came after Solomon continued his editorial work. Now, as Bible-believing Christians, we believe that the canon of Scripture contains both human authors and a divine author, God. The human authors were imperfect.
They were sinful like the rest of us, and Solomon's sinful lifestyle is certainly no secret. But when human authors wrote Scripture under the inspiration of God, what they wrote is perfect. It's entirely true and trustworthy without error. The book of Proverbs, then, in spite of the inconsistent character of its author, is a trustworthy, divinely inspired collection of inerrant proverbs. What, then, is a proverb? We'll be defining this term in greater detail, particularly when we get to verse 6, but to get us started on the right path, let me offer just a basic definition of the term proverb. A proverb is a short, general statement of truth with moral overtones and practical implications.
So it's short, it's true, it's moral, and it's practical. And maybe a quick way of saying it would be a proverb is a shot of moral truth. And the book of Proverbs is several successive shots of moral truth. Now, this kind of literature, I'll be honest, does not lend itself easily to the preaching of sermons. Trying to preach through a book like Proverbs is kind of like sitting down to read through a dictionary.
A dictionary is helpful as a reference work, but it makes for difficult, extended reading. Likewise, it is notoriously difficult to identify a structure to the book of Proverbs. Some scholars have worked very hard at this. Some commentaries have made a noble attempt to decipher the rhyme and reason of Solomon's editorial work. But some commentaries just give up and concede the fact that it is, for the most part, just a collection of independent, sometimes unrelated sayings all thrown into the same pot. For our purposes over the next several Sundays, I'd like to loosely follow a bit of a structure, but we're going to have to all recognize that at the end of the day, the book of Proverbs is what it is. It's a collection. It's an anthology, and it simply won't fit into a neat and tidy outline like, say, a letter from Paul or a history book from Moses.
It's not intended to fit into a neat and tidy outline. So let's just embrace that feature of the book, because that feature is part of what God intended when he inspired the book. But having acknowledged all that, there is a loose structure to the book of Proverbs that I want to draw your attention to, and we'll try to follow that structure as we work our way through it. There are, in fact, several headings or titles that divide the book into seven collections, seven volumes, we might say, all gathered into one edition. The first volume includes chapters 1 through 9. These chapters are made up of lengthy paragraphs rather than the sort of short standalone sentences, and they provide a sort of interpretive guide for the rest of the book. This opening volume lays out the world view, if you will, that is needed to comprehend chapters 10 through 31. The second volume begins at 10, verse 1, where the heading is repeated. Proverbs 10, 1 says again, the Proverbs of Solomon.
It's a title that marks a new section. And from chapter 10 to chapter 22, the style changes from these lengthy paragraphs to those short general statements of truth that we all associate with the term proverb. The proverbs in this section, the second volume, are very black and white, very absolute statements. The third volume runs from 22 to 24, is also characterized by these short proverbial sentences, but this volume is distinct from the second one in that it's not as black and white.
It's more comparative. Instead of these definitive absolute statements, like the second volume has, this third volume has a lot of comparisons, better than statements. This brings us into the fourth volume, which begins with another title. It's in Proverbs 24, 23, which says, these also are sayings of the wise. After that, we'll come to fifth volume, chapters 25 through 29, and Proverbs 25, 1 identifies the start of this volume. It says, these also are proverbs of Solomon, and then it adds, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied. Now interestingly, Hezekiah lived two to three centuries after King Solomon, so the editorial process of the book of Proverbs probably spans several years, from around 1000 to 700 BC. The start of the sixth volume is identified in chapter 30, verse 1.
It says, the words of Agar, son of Jaka, indicating an author other than Solomon. And then finally, the seventh and final volume is contained in that famous last chapter of Proverbs, Proverbs 31, about the virtuous wife, which begins again by identifying another author, the words of King Lemuel. So what I intend for us to do is to spend some time exploring each of these seven volumes, spending most of our time in the first one, since it contains really the foundational worldview for everything that comes after. And then as we make our way into the latter volumes, we will probably for practical purposes take a more topical approach to these sections, trying to group similar proverbs together rather than just going verse by verse through a list of unrelated proverbs. So with that background information and the general structure of the book of Proverbs in mind, let's jump into the first paragraph of the first volume of Proverbs. The first paragraph of the book sets up for us everything that is to come by telling us the purpose of the book and by describing the content of the book and by laying down the foundational center of everything this book of Proverbs has to say. So first, we encounter the purpose of the book and it's a two-fold purpose. It's right there in verse 2. First, to know wisdom and instruction and secondly, to understand words of insight.
A two-fold purpose. Now one of the characteristics of Proverbs that we're going to pick up on very quickly is the fact that many of the key words used throughout the book that just keep coming up are often closely related synonyms. Right here in the second verse, we have the words wisdom, instruction, words of insight. They seem to mean the same thing or similar things.
We have the verbs know and understand and again, we use these words synonymously in English. So we're going to have to learn the subtle distinctions in meaning between some of these overlapping words. Let's take a moment and think about the distinction between these two purposes of the book of Proverbs given there in verse 2. To know wisdom and to understand words.
What's the distinction? Knowing wisdom as it's used in verse 2 refers to experiential knowledge of how life works. It's a phrase that's loaded with moral connotation. It does not refer to merely imparting information to someone.
It refers to imparting the rightness or wrongness of something to a person in such a way that they come to embrace and love what is right and to reject what is wrong. How then is this first purpose of knowing wisdom distinct from the second purpose of understanding words of insight? Well understanding words of insight has to do with imparting information. If knowing wisdom is moral in nature, understanding words is mental in nature and perhaps we're prone to think that the mental part of spiritual growth is unimportant or even unnecessary but that's not true. God has created us in His image and God is a rational being with a mind, with an intellect which means that we are rational beings. Reason is a fundamental part of who we are. Our mental faculties are not some neutral inconsequential part of us that we put on the shelf when we come to church or when we read the Bible or pray or do anything that is spiritual or moral.
No, part of growing in grace, growing in wisdom and love and knowledge of God involves learning information, understanding words, grasping the grammar, if you will, of wise living. As Laura and I were just beginning the process of rearing our children, I remember being amazed at how quickly baby humans give evidence of their fallen nature. I mean we were talking just days after their birth. They're already arching their back on their diaper changing table, enraged at the fact that their will is being violated or appalled that their parents would dare prevent them from throwing baby cereal across the tray of their high chair. I remember taking my child's hand and saying in a firm resolute voice, no.
And the shock on their face was just incredible. But you know it didn't take too many of those confrontations before the child understood the words of insight. They learned that if they ignored that word, no, there would be dire consequences. They were learning the grammar of morality. It was mental information they were acquiring and at first that mental information is simply controlling behavior, right? But in time they came to not only understand the words of insight but also to know wisdom, to know the wisdom of those words. They came to embrace the moral wisdom behind the words. The purpose of Proverbs then as indicated in verse two involves both a moral component and a mental component.
One commentator said, wisdom without understanding is impossible. As knowledge of the laws of aerodynamics is essential to build an airplane, so building a wise life demands an understanding of the revealed divine moral order. You've probably like me heard many preachers say something like it's not about your head, it's about your heart. According to Proverbs 1-2, it's about both your head and your heart. We cannot understand the why and the how without also understanding the what.
We need to learn the truth so that we can love the truth. This is how we become wise. This then is the twofold purpose of the book of Proverbs. Next we encounter the substance or the content of the book in verses three through six.
It's interesting to note how these verses align with those two purposes of the book that are mentioned back in verse two. If the first purpose of Proverbs is to impart knowledge of wisdom, verses three and four describe what that wisdom entails and notice the moral overtones of wisdom substance. Knowing wisdom involves concepts like verse three, righteousness, justice, equity. It involves verse four, prudence, truth and discretion. These are moral categories that assume a moral standard, a moral measuring stick that establishes certain absolutes.
It establishes an absolute right and an absolute wrong, an absolute justice and an absolute injustice and so on. The substance of wisdom in this book then is God's moral order of righteousness, justice and equity. It's not some notion of neutral secular wisdom. No, it is God's wisdom which is really the only kind of wisdom there is. When we speak of knowing wisdom then we're speaking of knowing and following God's moral will. To be wise in the sense that the book of Proverbs uses that term is to be righteous. To be wise is to be good as God defines good. Now what's interesting about the concept of wisdom is that there are certain characteristics of wisdom that are only wise when they're used in the right context.
These same characteristics can be used in the wrong context and they become wicked things, immortal things. Subtlety for example can be used for good or used for evil. When it is used for good a person is being discreet.
When it's used for evil a person is being a schemer or a conniver, manipulative. Prudence is a virtue until it's not and then it's become cunning or trickery. What we begin to see then is that knowing wisdom is not merely a matter of memorizing some list of character qualities. It also involves understanding when it is morally upright to use those character qualities and when it is morally reprehensible to use those character qualities.
One of the commentators I read said that wisdom is that quality which enables a person to read circumstances and interpret situations so as to act correctly, speak properly, and respond appropriately to each situation so that beneficial consequences ensue. Now I don't think that this means that God's moral order is somehow ambiguous or relative. No, God's moral will, His law is absolute. God prohibits stealing for example and so theft is always immoral. The question though is this, might there be an instance when taking something away from someone against their will is not stealing but rather is the right thing to do, the wise thing to do.
Go back to the baby in the high chair. God prohibits bearing false witness against my neighbor and so bearing false witness against my neighbor is always immoral but again the question is might there be a time when concealing the truth is not a bearing of false witness but is rather the wisest course of action. And so wisdom takes the absolute unchanging moral law of God and it actualizes it. It puts it into real life situations in appropriate ways and that's the key, in appropriate ways, in ways that are righteous and just and equitable. So the first purpose of the book of Proverbs is to help us to know wisdom and it accomplishes that purpose by training us to not only know God's moral law but also know how to apply that law in any given situation and circumstance. Now remember from verse two that there is a second purpose of the book of Proverbs and that is to give us the mental capacity to understand wisdom, to understand words of insight. So verse six corresponds to this second purpose by giving us a description of wisdom's expression. Verse six lists the kinds of expression that we're going to have to engage with and wrestle with if we are to become wise.
In fact there are four different types of expressions mentioned there in verse six. Look at it with me to understand a proverb that's the first type and a saying there's the second type the words of the wise there's a third and then finally their riddles that's the fourth type of expression of wisdom. Proverbs sayings wise words and riddles these are the categories of wisdom's expression and over the course of our journey through the book of Proverbs we'll discover examples of each of these categories. Now for the sake of time today I'm only going to talk about the first of these categories the proverb. I've already given a sort of working definition but let's think a little bit further about the nature of a proverb. We said that a proverb is a short general statement of truth with moral overtones and practical implications.
It's a shot of moral truth. We might ask the question why is a proverb so brief and terse? Wouldn't a moral instruction be better taught through long drawn out arguments that are exhaustive and explanations that say everything instead of these little single sentence bursts?
Well both styles of instruction have their pros and cons and one of the reasons a short burst of moral instruction is beneficial is because it forces the hearer, the student, to contemplate what is being said because due to its brevity it's not always immediately obvious what is being said. So by virtue of the fact that a proverb is so short and direct it almost forces contemplation, meditation. In fact let's take a look at a proverb very briefly and see how this feature works. The first proverb in the second volume of proverbs is this. This is proverbs 10 verse 1. A wise son makes a glad father but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.
And just after one reading of that proverb a question I suspect immediately jumps into our minds. Why is there a contrast between father and mother? Why is the dad made glad but the mom is made sorrowful? Is this just a stylistic thing?
Is it a poetic thing? Or does a child's behavior actually affect fathers and mothers differently? You see by the sheer brevity of the proverb we've already been sucked into a fairly deep contemplation about what this word of instruction is saying. We might also question the accuracy of the proverb.
I happen to know some wise sons whose fathers are not glad about the wisdom of their sons. So is this proverb not true then? And this brings up another characteristic of proverbs that we haven't really mentioned yet and that is that proverbs unlike the more propositional truth of say Paul's epistles are always situational.
They're always situational. The accuracy of the proverb depends on the situation to which it is applied which means that there are some unspoken assumptions embedded in the proverb. In the case of proverbs 10 one the unspoken assumption seems to be that a wise son makes a glad father when the father is also wise. It assumes the wisdom and virtue of the parents.
So proverbs are situational which means we're going to have to stop and contemplate what kinds of situations each proverb is appropriate to. My kids will often ask me if something is right and when they ask that it usually has to do with some gray area that doesn't have an absolute answer but they want an absolute declaration from their dad. Yes this is always right or no this is always wrong but life is simply not that way is it?
Some ethical moral questions require an it depends kind of an answer. If I do x y and z will my father be glad? Will my father be proud of me?
Well it depends on if your father's righteous or wicked. That's the unspoken assumption behind proverbs 10 one. But do you see how the very format of the instruction specifically in this case because of its brevity forces contemplation. It forces us to think about what's being taught and said. It's one of the ways wisdom is learned and gained. In addition to the content and the various expressions of wisdom Solomon also gives us a description of the process by which wisdom is imparted. How does wisdom get from the source to the end user? Well first of all it involves a giving and a receiving. Verse three describes a student or disciple receiving what in verse four is being given by a teacher. This process of wisdom is being imparted to a person. It involves a hierarchy.
It involves a chain of command. There's a teacher. There's a student. There's a parent. There's a parent.
There's a child. There's one doing the discipling. There's one being discipled. Now a lot will be said through the course of the book of proverbs about this hierarchical relationship. So understand that if a person is wise he or she has at some point submitted himself or herself to a wise teacher.
The opposite is also true. Fools are people who refuse to submit to authority. Verse five describes the process of gaining wisdom as a process that involves hearing and learning which is the the mental intellectual work of gaining wisdom and understanding and doing which is the moral active volitional work of gaining wisdom. So the process of gaining wisdom occurs when a teacher imparts instruction and guidance to a student and the student hears and understands then follows that instruction and guidance. This is how wisdom works. It's not rocket science.
In fact it's something far more difficult than rocket science because it involves not just the mind but also the will. Well we've considered the purpose of this ancient book of wisdom. We've considered the content of the book. Finally Solomon reveals to us the foundation of the book in verse seven and this is really the quintessential verse in all of proverbs. The foundation of everything that follows verse seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Bruce Waltke a bible scholar who has written the most exhaustive commentary on the book of proverbs said of the fear of the Lord what the alphabet is to reading, what notes are to music, what numerals are to mathematics, the fear of the Lord is to gaining wisdom. Fear of the Lord is not an emotional response to God. It's an attitude. It's a posture of submission to Him.
It's the affectionate reverence of a child who wants to please his father. Matthew Henry put it very simply. He said it like this, to fear the Lord is to be careful to please Him in everything and fearful of offending Him in anything. Without this fear there is no hope of gaining wisdom. Wisdom can only be understood and embraced and instilled in the life of a person who walks in the fear of the Lord. And this reality has a couple of important implications. It means first of all that there is something that is of greater importance than attaining wisdom.
If fearing God, if standing in right relationship to God is the prerequisite for all that the book of proverbs has to offer then walking in the fear of the Lord is of much greater importance. It also means that the attainment of wisdom is not a religiously neutral concept. I'm afraid we sometimes think that moral goodness can exist somehow outside of God, independent of God. We maybe see an unbeliever who is kind and we think that's such a good person. Or we meet proponents of some false religion and we think they're the nicest people. Or we meet an intelligent atheist who can eloquently defend his unbelief and we think he's so knowledgeable. But brothers and sisters if their knowledge isn't true it's not knowledge.
If their morality isn't godly it isn't good. Truth and goodness and beauty affirmed outside of the fear of the one who gives these qualities their very meaning is fake pretend virtue. Virtue is not real if it is not from God and through God and for God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning. Which is to say it is the foundation, the spring, the essential bedrock from which any claim of wisdom or virtue must come or else it is not real. When Solomon calls this fear of the Lord the beginning of knowledge and wisdom he doesn't mean that we merely meet Jesus and get saved and then everything we do after that in life will have wisdom's imprint on it. Now what he means is that fearing God is the first and controlling principle from that point forward.
It's not a stage that a person masters and then leaves behind in order to move on to bigger and better things. No it is the water in which wisdom swims. If I am to grow in knowledge, true helpful moral knowledge. If I am to grow in wisdom the smart right and just application of God's moral order then I am to only do so in the context of fearing and revering God. The moment I abandon that posture of submission to my creator and redeemer I am venturing beyond the realm of wisdom and virtue. I'm treading on thin ice. True wisdom is a relationship that is constantly dependent on special revelation from God and is inseparably connected to the virtue and character of God.
Anything else is just an imitation of the real thing. So I think an appropriate question for us to ask ourselves this morning as we close is this. Do I fear the Lord? Do I fear God? And that question has an objective answer. It's not a question about how you feel about God.
In fact another way of asking the same question is this. Do I listen to and hear the Lord? Do I and heed God's word? Do I read what God has said in scripture with the intention of ordering my entire life around that instruction? Another way of objectively evaluating whether or not I fear the Lord is by taking note of how I react to disobedience in my life to God's word.
Do I get defensive and and explain to myself why my disobedience is really not that big of a deal? Do I ignore my disregard for God's word and suppress the fact that what I'm doing when I disobey him is the height of foolishness? The person who fears the Lord is the person who makes it their life's aim to know and conform to everything God says. The person who fears the Lord is the person who when they fail, and we will fail, when they fail to know and conform to everything God says, does not hide behind excuses and explanations for their disobedience but rather confesses their sin, runs to Christ and gets back on the path of wisdom.
That's the person who fears the Lord. So regardless of the mess you've made of your life up to this point, the path of wisdom is open to us all this morning. God's word calls us to abandon our foolish ways and follow the path of wisdom in the fear of the Lord by heeding what God says.
Let's pray. Father thank you that the salvation you give us is not a theoretical salvation but an actual one. That it touches our lives at every level. Thank you Lord Jesus that you broke into time and space and matter to redeem not just our invisible souls but our bodies.
That your saving work extends to the deepest part of who we are. Thank you Holy Spirit that your sanctifying work in us makes us holy in word and deed and conscience before a holy God who is too pure to look upon sin. Lord what a great salvation is ours. Now help us Father, Son and Holy Spirit to walk in your ways. Lord we lack wisdom. We believe that you will give it without reproach when we ask. So please make us wise unto salvation. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
