Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Pr 1:1-2 and following. Indeed, proverbial wisdom played a significant role in antiquity. In the East, this is still the case today. In a time when reading and writing were not within everyone’s reach, memorization and knowledge of proverbs was a special form of instruction. The book of Proverbs shows what pious man must seek and what he must avoid in this world. He also teaches that under God’s government, man (regardless of his spiritual blessings) reaps what he has sown. Proverbs contains the guidance of divine wisdom for the daily life of a pious man in all the difficulties, trials, dangers, and joys of his journey on this earth.
Written by Solomon, the king of peace, this book of Proverbs also presents obvious parallels with the principles of the kingdom of God, as the Lord Jesus laid them out in Matthew 5–7, in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. Mentioned so often in the book of Proverbs, divine wisdom, which is addressed even to the reader in a personified form (chapters 8 and 9), finds in the New Testament its full expression in the person of Christ, the Son of God (1 Cor. 1:30). God used Solomon, the wisest among the wisest (1 Kings 5:9-14), to give us “Proverbs,” this book of Wisdom. Although addressed to all, it is somehow dedicated to the young man (v. 4). Yes, this book was specially written for you, a young believing friend who has reached the age of reflection and personal judgment. This is the moment of your orientation and decisive choices. In God’s school, where your Christian education continues under the authority and example of your parents (verses 7 to 9), Proverbs is one of your main “textbooks.” It contains definitions, rules with their applications, exercises, examples to follow, and others not to follow. But Wisdom (like the Word with which she identifies herself), is at the same time a living person who teaches and guides in their walk those she calls her sons.
The Psalms began with the setting aside of the faithful (Psalm 1:1-6). Here, likewise, the first instruction given to the son enjoins him to avoid “the path of sinners” who will seek to seduce him by inviting him: “Come with us” (v. 11). She shows him where this path leads, and warns him, “My son, do not go with them” (v. 15; read Eph. 5:11-17). Wisdom has set itself the task of educating its sons, in other words its disciples. But it also looks outward to invite others to become one. God did not give His Word only for the instruction of believers; it is also the Gospel of grace that shows the unconverted the way to salvation. See wisdom – and through it the Lord Jesus – diligently seek souls, wherever they have gone astray, to invite them to return, and to repent. We know, perhaps from having frequented them before our conversion, those “noisy places” where the world is dizzy. Wisdom cries out to make its voice heard above all this hubbub (compare John 7:37-44 and John 12:44-50). And this Word, which God makes proclaim everywhere, has a double effect: salvation for some, condemnation for others (comp. Acts 17:30-34). For those, unfortunately many, who refuse to listen, the same voice that today resounds the urgent calls of grace, one day will become ironic and terrible (verse 26). Then it will be too late (compare verse 28 with Amos 8:11-14). But for those who listen, they will dwell safely, without fear of judgment (verse 33). They will benefit from the promise of v. 23: “I will make flow for you my Spirit, I will let you know my words”.
The book of Proverbs tells us about man placed in a special relationship with God, the God of the Covenant made with Israel. Hence the name of Jehovah, Jehovah, the Lord, which God always takes from this book, with the exception of six passages: 2:5, 17; 3:4; 25:2; 30:5, 9. In contrast to the book of Proverbs, that of Ecclesiastes, which deals with man’s relationship with his Creator, always uses the name of God (Elohim). This fact is important: God, under his name of Jehovah, speaks here to those who are in relationship with Him, because his Wisdom has begotten them; hence the name of “son” of which this whole book is filled and especially its first chapters. But this son’s name is not only a relationship name; it also means that the one who bears it depends on an established authority of God. This authority is not a legal authority that threatens and condemns; it is based on a relationship of affection and love, the fruit of the Father’s very bowels. The parents, father and mother, are the representatives of this authority here on earth. They provide for the education of the son through instruction, discipline, even punishment, if necessary. However, in addition to the parents, there are other representatives of authority to whom one must listen. Such was the authority of King Solomon. God had given him such wisdom that no one was wise like Him (1 Kings 4:29-34). This wisdom and authority of the king is replaced for us Christians by the inspiration of the divine Word that we have as educators.
It goes without saying that Wisdom is also directly addressed to all men (see 8:1–9), but with a view to making them his sons. It is not only Wisdom, it is also grace; it commits every man to have ears to hear. She is both a person and the word of God. It calls men to return from their evil way, to enter into the presence of God, to give Him in their hearts the place that belongs to Him, and this is where the fear of Jehovah consists. In a certain respect, Wisdom, in Proverbs, is therefore like the Gospel, in that it is addressed to all and wants all men to be saved to become its sons. It calls for repentance. Its role, in chapters 8 and 9, is based on grace. However, Wisdom in Proverbs does not speak to us, as the Gospel in the New Testament does, of a grace based on Christ’s sacrifice, and giving, by mere faith in his work, the childlike relationship with the Father, heaven, heavenly privileges and glory. On the contrary, the domain of Proverbs is the earth, but the earth became “the world” through the introduction of sin. The world is characterized by violence, malice and moral corruption (“the foreign woman”) and her character has not changed since the flood.
On this stage evil reigns in all its forms and has completely obstructed any path that could have led to God; but Wisdom reveals to us a path according to God in the midst of this accumulated rubble, as, later, the second epistle to Timothy will reveal to us one in the midst of the ruins of the Church. Neither the eye of the eagle nor the eye of man can see this path, but divine Wisdom manifests it and any son of Wisdom can distinguish and follow it (Job 28:7-28.). Moreover, for the believer, God’s government still exists, though His ways seem entirely obstructed by evil, and we are instructed by Wisdom to conform to the principles of that government. What we have just said proves that Proverbs is occupied above all with the walk of the children of Wisdom in an environment where evil dominates on all sides – for evil is within us, as well as outside of us – but in an environment where the Lord reveals to his own a path that protects them from evil. To walk there without flinching, one must have received the instruction of Wisdom. Knowledge, discernment, is acquired only through long experience, for it is said, “The path of the righteous is like the resplendent light that grows until the full day is established” (4:18). In us Wisdom itself is a gift of God’s grace, but it grows through education and experience. In a sense one could call Proverbs: “the book of Experience.” This is indeed what Wisdom, the word of God and the fear of Jehovah leads to.
However, a whole long human life would not be enough to acquire this experience individually. This gap is remedied by the teaching of parents and sages who, from generation to generation, have communicated to their sons the fruit of their personal experience, based on the word of God. But, above all else, we can only truly grow through the knowledge of one Person, and that Person is the Wisdom that Jehovah “possessed before his works of antiquity,” and “even before the origins of the earth” (8:22-23). Let us now ask ourselves what Wisdom is, in fact, and how it should be defined. It can be considered from four points of view:
1° In God, it is the absolute and perfect knowledge of all things, of their state and of their reciprocal relations. The word of God contains this knowledge for us, as much as our imperfection is capable of grasping it. God communicates this Wisdom to us through His Word, in order to put us in relationship with Him. The first step in this relationship is the fear of Jehovah. The fear of Jehovah teaches us to hate evil and to love good, following the example of God Himself. This same fear of jehovah reveals to us the path we have to follow in a true separation from evil.
2° But in addition, Wisdom is a Person and that person is Christ. She was from all eternity the delights of God, her “infant,” the Only Begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. She presided over the creative action. He was a divine person with God, but he was God himself, distinct from God, but absolutely of the same nature as Him. She was the delights of God, but found her own delights in the sons of men. In due time this Wisdom descended here on earth, became man, and God found his delights in this man, as He found his delights in God. But, in finding his pleasure in Christ man, it is, wonderfully, men, whom God admits before Him, as objects of his delights. He can say, “Good pleasure in men,” when this new man is born here on earth, a little child in a manger, like the Savior of the world.
3° Christ man was not only the Wisdom of God, as we have just seen, but wisdom was in Him. It was full of them; he advanced there; his wisdom itself gradually adapted to his stature; he advanced in it, so as to pave the way for others (Luke 2:40, 52). He has thus become for us the model to follow, the model of perfect wisdom. We can only be made participants in it by experience, by following, step by step, the example given by this model. But much more than that, as we have already said, he is in person, from eternity, the Wisdom of God. To know Him personally is to drink from the very source of Wisdom.
4 ° Finally, in the believer, wisdom is the whole of all that the experience of others has been able to collect and provide him, with the instruction given by God by his Word, and having before his eyes the example of perfect Wisdom in a man, so as to judge by it all things. Let us note, in closing, that Wisdom does not consist in dealing with evil, whose only contact is capable of exerting its influence on fallible beings like us, by the lusts it raises in our own hearts. No, Wisdom is about taking care of good to avoid evil by hating it. It was for relating to the serpent, instead of refusing to hear it, that Eve, innocent but fallible, fell and dragged her entire race into her downfall.
It may be useful, from the beginning of this study, to define in a few words, to avoid too frequent repetitions, the meaning of some of the terms used in the book of Proverbs. The first versesof chapter 1 contain, from the outset, a certain number. Without returning to the word “Wisdom” which forms the very substance of the book and which we have sought to define in the general introduction, we will stick to the following terms that we give here in alphabetical order:
Wise. A thoughtful man who has an open mind and who, having benefited from the teaching of Wisdom, is skilled in discerning between two parties: the good party to follow him, the bad one to avoid him.
Knowledge. By virtue of the instruction received, knowledge replaces in man the first ignorance. It is the knowledge of God’s thoughts, the “knowledge”. Like “Instruction” (see this word later), it is part of Wisdom. – In God, Knowledge is perfect and forms the starting point of all his action (3:20).
Council. Careful consideration; a mind that realizes the means to be used to achieve the goal and calculates its difficulties.
Fear of the Lord. State of the soul placed in the full light of His presence and giving Him the place that belongs to Him. The soul learns to hate evil as God hates it and to love good as God loves it.
Law, integrity. Man without fraud in the heart, and whose path corresponds to this righteousness.
Son. This term is never applied only to those whom Wisdom has begotten (and this is grace) and who are under its teaching. They are the righteous. Those who do not belong to this family are called: simple, foolish, wicked, perverse, treacherous, mocking.
Crazy, Mad. Madness is the state of a heart whose wisdom is absent, of a heart driven by its own rebellious will. The fool has lost his mind, he is left to his own devices; he goes where his heart leads him, without any fear, without any idea of God, without any control.
Instruction. The principles instilled in the son by the loving authority of his parents, but also including, as part of the instruction, the reprehension or correction necessary to inculcate these principles. Like “Knowledge,” Instruction is part of Wisdom.
Intelligence. Readiness to discern between good and evil, something that others do not know or understand (1 Kings 3:9). Ability to appropriate God’s thoughts and make His profit from them.
Justice, just. Justice, in the Old Testament as in the New, certainly always has faith as its starting point (Gen. 15:6), but the righteous, in the Old Testament, is a man whose practical state means that he banishes sin from his conduct and ways, or prevents him from entering it.
Fair judgment. Just appreciation of all things according to the character of a righteous God.
Wicked. The wicked is always the opposite of the righteous; he is a man who has only sin in his heart, who practices it and allows himself to be directed by it.
Mocking. The mocker is not only a man who ridicules God’s word, but a man who takes it as null and void, for something not worth paying attention to, which is worthless and negligible (2 Peter 3:3, 4; Jude 18).
Caution. A virtue that makes us weigh, with as much circumspection as possible, the paths that are presented to us, in order to avoid the wrong way.
Reflection. Ability to weigh, coordinate and fix our thoughts, by virtue of the paternal education imposed on us. It is in contrast to the child’s own inattention.
Science. Knowledge acquired gradually through study.
Simple. A man deprived of meaning, that is, incapable, by nature, of discernment. This state can be encountered even in a son, and, to be abandoned, requires the discipline of the father.
Sot (Hebrew: Kesil). An ignorant man, alien to the knowledge of God’s thoughts, obstinate in his ignorance, and hating the obligation to deal with God. A fool is unable to learn anything. A son can be called foolish (translated, in this case, to mark the difference, by foolish in our version) when he does not respond to the instruction of his parents.
v. 1-5. — The verses we are going to consider serve as a preface to the book of Proverbs. They have an immense significance in the sense that they show us the purpose of this writing, to whom it is addressed, what moral field it embraces, what path is traced for those who are called to cross a terrain full of pitfalls; what qualities are required to sail on a sea all strewn with pitfalls and where the boat of the one who ventures there without a compass, will necessarily be broken.
Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to discern the words of intelligence; to receive instruction in wisdom, righteousness, just judgment, and righteousness; to give the simple prudence, the young man knowledge and reflection. The wise man will listen, and will grow in science (vs. 1-5).
King Solomon, who had received Wisdom from God, is well placed to tell us that it is, above all, a question of knowing it. This Wisdom consists in having a just appreciation of all things; it contains all that experience teaches us to follow God’s way here on earth. This Wisdom is divine and has nothing to do with human wisdom. Indeed, Wisdom, the knowledge of all things according to their true character, is in God and Christ is personally the perfect representative of it. He is “the Wisdom of God” and “wisdom has been made to us on behalf of God” (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). The second thing this book is meant to make us known is instruction. At the same time that we know Wisdom, the perfect good, we have to be warned against evil. Instruction often takes the form of discipline or punishment, when our hearts are distracted or light. To discern the words of intelligence. To discern them is to know the difference between what is the expression of God’s thought and what is not.
Proverbs has yet another purpose than to make us know the instruction, they want us to receive it (v. 3). We are put by them in school, in order to be informed of the things that concern righteousness, that is, how to walk in this world avoiding letting sin into our ways; – just judgment, the fair judgment of all things according to God’s thoughts; – finally, righteousness, that form of justice that characterizes man of integrity, walking in a straight way, without deviating from it, neither on the right nor on the left.
To give the simple caution. The simple are those who, by nature, are deprived of meaning and, therefore, able to be led, without realizing it, in a wrong way, by the cunning or wickedness of those around them. Wisdom teaches them prudence, subtle discernment that warns us, in time, not to embark on this wrong path. To the young man of knowledge and reflection. Wisdom takes the young man, to make his education, from the beginning of his career responsible, because it is often ignorance and lack of experience that are the cause of his falls at the beginning of his career, falls whose effect sometimes repercussions on his entire life. Reflection: a thoughtful man is a man who does not let himself be carried away by circumstances and does not indulge in the impulses they give rise to. He will face the difficulties, having weighed in advance their character and their consequences.
All these things are addressed to the wise: The sage will listen and grow in science. Not that he does not have the flesh in him, because all this Book shows us that the wise man has not only to fight against the impulses of the outside, but also against those of his own heart. This is not about educating the meaningless people who belong to the world; we have seen, in the Introduction, that the role of Wisdom is to call them, not to instruct them; but the purpose of the book is to strip the wise, the son of Wisdom, of all that in his heart could be an obstacle to life according to God. In this school, the one who is already wise, who has been born by Wisdom, will begin by listening, like a good disciple, because Wisdom begins to occur in the son, through the dependence of the One who teaches him. Such was Mary at the feet of Jesus. This is the way to grow in science, and this growth being entirely the fruit of the teaching received, keeps us in humility instead of swelling.
v. 6. – The intelligent will acquire meaning to understand a proverb and an allegory, the words of the sages and their riddles. Thus, through habit, the intelligent acquires the senses exercised in discerning all forms of teaching, in order to apply them at the right time to each of the circumstances of his career.
This, then, is the purpose of the teaching of wisdom. Let’s not forget, and we have already pointed this out, that between Wisdom and Word there is a great analogy. Chapter 8 teaches us that in the beginning was Wisdom, the whole thought of God. The Gospel of John tells us that in the beginning was the Word, the perfect expression of this thought.
v. 7. This , we said, is the purpose of the Book: Proverbs are given to us to know Wisdom. But there is a principle that lies at the origin of this knowledge, which is its basis and beginning: The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. To fear the Lord is to find ourselves in his presence to give him, in our hearts, the place that is due to him, being convinced, as soon as we enter there, that nothing impure or filthy can come into contact with Him. This conviction is the beginning of knowledge. One can only remain before Him by hating evil, but at the same time one finds oneself before supreme goodness and one learns to value it high. In a word, the fear of The Lord is: “Withdraw from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it” (Ps. 34:15). God is given the place that belongs to Him; He becomes everything for the one who is in His presence. His authority, the authority of the perfect good, is recognized, and immediately, on our part, honor, deference, trust, submission, obedience, affection, love, are returned to him. Fools despise the Wisdom and education to which this fear of God brings us.
v. 8-9. A second principle is at the basis of all our conduct: This principle is submission to the authority of the parents, established by God here on earth: “Listen, my son, to the instruction of your father, and do not abandon the teaching of your mother; for it will be a garland of grace on your head, and necklaces on your neck.” Any moral order here on earth is based on this submission. The instruction of parents plays, as we have seen in the Introduction, a very important role in this book, because they are established as visible representatives of loving authority and divine Wisdom, and they are responsible for exercising it for the good of the children entrusted to them. Whenever the son is mentioned in Proverbs, he is considered to be from them and, at the same time, as the son of Wisdom, as introduced into a spiritual and indissoluble relationship with Jehovah, in a word, as his child, in contrast to the foolish and wicked who are the children of the world. That is why we will hear in this book sometimes the parents, sometimes the Wisdom itself, address him as a son. The son, according to the meaning of this term that runs throughout Proverbs, is in this world in the presence of two influences: the good, that of the father and the mother (that is, the authority combined with the most tender love) representatives of the divine Wisdom here on earth – and the bad, that of the foreign woman, representing the spirit of the flesh and the world.
V. 10-19 presents us with the influence of evil after that of good, in vs. 8-9. Sinners, in opposition to father and mother, enter the scene to seduce the son of Wisdom. They suggest cunning and violence in order to satisfy his lusts. They offer him the association in evil to make their designs succeed. This association is much more attractive to the natural heart than the submission of the will, than the “easy yoke”, which is offered to us in the solitary path of good. But (v. 17) before those who are warned of the pitfall, it will be in vain that the birder will stretch his nets. They now have eyes to see and wings to escape their enemy. It will be the tempter’s feet that will embarrass themselves in the meshes of his trap.
v. 20-23. – It is not only to his sons that Wisdom is addressed. It has another function that will be developed more explicitly in chapters 8 and 9. She screams outside. It is heard in the midst of activity, noise, public life in this world. It wants to be listened to, where man, in his independence from God, has organized himself into society. It is addressed to the simple, to those who, being deprived of meaning, so easily fall prey to the temptations of the flesh; it takes up the mockers and the foolish, those ignorant who hate knowledge. It commits them to return to her reprehension which, if they had listened to her, would have brought them into the presence of God to know Him and judge themselves. If they listen, they will be watered in the streams of the Spirit and will have knowledge of the words of Wisdom.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- Proverbs, general references
Pr 1:1 Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, Ec 12:9 before the dust returned to the earth, as it was, and the spirit returned to God who gave it. Ez 16:44 Behold, all those who say proverbs will apply this proverb to you: Such a mother, such a daughter! John 16:25 I have told you these things in parables. The time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but when I will speak to you openly about the Father.
- Discernment
1 Kings 3:9 Therefore, grant your servant an intelligent heart to judge your people, to discern good from evil! For who could judge your people, this people so numerous? Isaiah 11:3 He will breathe the fear of the Lord; He will not judge on appearance, He will not pronounce on hearsay. 1 Cor 2:14 But the animal man does not receive things from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, because it is spiritually that they are judged. Hb 5:14 But solid food is for men made, for those whose judgment is exercised by usage to discern what is right and what is evil.
- Honouring parents
Lev 19:3 Each of you will respect your mother and father, and keep my Sabbaths. I am Jehovah, your God. Dt 27:16 Cursed be he who despises his father and mother! -And all the people will say: Amen! Pr 30:17 The eye that mocks a father And that disdains obedience to a mother, The crows of the torrent will pierce it, And the little ones of the eagle will eat it. Mt 15:4 For God said: Honor your father and mother; and: He who curses his father or mother will be punished with death.
- Divine Counsel
Ps 16:7 I constantly have the Lord before my eyes; When he’s on my right, I don’t stagger. Ps 73:24 You will lead me by your counsel, and then you will receive me in glory. Isa 11:2 The Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon Him: Spirit of wisdom and intelligence, Spirit of counsel and strength, Spirit of knowledge and fear of Jehovah. Isaiah 28:29 This too comes from the Lord of hosts; Admirable is his advice, and great is his wisdom.
From all the above, we note that originally, therefore, all men are among those to whom wisdom is addressed. A terrible fate awaits those who have rejected God’s plan for them, who have “hated knowledge and have not chosen the fear of the Lord”: a sudden destruction will come upon them (v. 27; 1 Thes. 5:3). But, thank God, there are, in this multitude, ears to hear, consciences reached by the calls of Wisdom. “He who listens to me will live in safety and be quiet, without fear of evil”; he found assured refuge, rest and peace; he is “delivered from the wrath that comes” (1 Thes. 1:10). Let’s look at the first part. A great principle is laid down from the outset. The fear of the Lord, on the one hand, and, on the other, this folly of the will that despises the wisdom and instruction that restrain it. For, in addition to the knowledge of good and evil in respect of which the fear of Jehovah will operate, there is this exercise of authority in the order that God has created which is a brake on the will (that origin of all disorder), as is what is entrusted to parents and to those who are in their position. And the Spirit carefully insists on these things, as the basis of happiness and moral order in the world, in contrast to independence. It is not only the authority of God giving precepts, or even exposing the consequence of actions, but it is the order he has instituted in the relationships he has established in the midst of men, especially those that relate to parents. To submit to parents is really to recognize God’s instituted order. This is the first commandment with promise (Eph. 6:2). Sin or the activity of man’s will occurs in two forms: violence and corruption. This is what happened at the time of the flood. The earth was corrupt before God, and it was filled with violence (Gen. 6:12-13). Satan is a liar and murderer (John 8:44). Corrupt desires are even, in man, a more abundant source of evil. In chapter I, violence is reported as the violation of the obligations to which we are subject by God’s will. Now, wisdom cries out loud to make its voice heard, proclaiming the judgment of those who despise its ways. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to react to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow ” Wisdom protects from evil the one who possesses it (Pr 2).
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.