As we enter August and the start of a school year like no other in 2020, I want to encourage us each day by calling us to consider a chapter from the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs has 31 chapters, August has 31 days, by the end of August we will complete the entire book. We will follow a pattern of around 10 minutes each day in a devotional format that encourages wisdom for each day by considering God’s holy admonitions to us through Proverbs.
I am calling this daily series, “Patterned After the Proverbs,” and as the wisdom book of the Bible, Proverbs sets a pattern for living. The pattern is set after God’s wise way. I hope you will stay with me each day in August as we seek God’s wisdom in our lives – Patterned After the Proverbs.
Day 1, Proverbs 1:
Proverbs is a unique book. An order is difficult to discern. I believe the lack of discernable order is intentional. A lack of order forces us to concentrate on each individual proverb one at a time and seek to apply its contents to our life. The intention of the Proverbs is to instruct our everyday living and each saying greets us as we encounter different points in our life.
Notice the first verse dedicates the book to Solomon. Each Proverb is not composed by Solomon through we will encounter 3-400 of Solomon’s proverbs preserved throughout the book. God approached Solomon, in 1 Kings 3 and told him to ask God for whatever he wanted. Solomon chose to ask God for wisdom to rule as King over God’s chosen people, and God poured it upon Solomon liberally. Solomon’s wisdom became legendary. People from all corners of the earth came just to hear his wise sayings and to see a kingdom ruled in wisdom. The book of Kings also tells us Solomon was known to produce 3,000 proverbs in his lifetime.
Though Solomon was full of wisdom, Scripture records Solomon’s flaws. For a man so wise, his flaws were startling. Solomon had over 700 wives and 300 concubines – a departure from God’s intended desire for marriage. The pattern of Solomon’s life is a departure from the pattern set in the proverbs. Though the book is dedicated to him, and though he is legendary in his wise sayings, he is not the portrait of wisdom we need to pattern ourselves after.
There is another Son of David who has come who himself is the wisdom of God. He came and patterned his likeness after us so that he could tear down our flaws through the Cross and raise a new humanity that he is patterning after his perfect likeness – a likeness wisely full of grace and truth.
As we set out we need to make one other point clear. A proverb is not a promise. Proverbs are generalizations about life rather than specific declarative statements of the way things will be. Unless that generalization is based upon God himself. For example, Proverbs 3:5-6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart… and then it says God will direct your path. There is much in that Proverb for us but within it is a pattern of living that reveals a promise – God will direct our path. Does God desire to direct our path? Absolutely! Will he direct the path of a heart trusting in Him? Yes! Proverbs 3:5-6 is a general statement that shows God’s response to a heart responding to him. Probably the most contested is Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Should parents who have felt the weight of straying children despite all their efforts feel the word of God has failed them? No. The pattern set in this proverb is a general statement with a principle for parents to train their children with the desired result – not straying from their parent’s instruction. Proverbs 22 fits nicely when considering the rest of the Proverbs. Many of the previous proverbs begin with a call for children to listen.
So, let’s get into the text before us today – Proverbs 1. For the sake of time, we will put our attention on 1:1-7:
The intention of the book is given in 1:2-4. The wisdom Proverbs calls us to seek is divine – (v.7). Fools despise this. The charge – don’t be a fool, be wise. Wisdom comes from fearing the Lord. The first step for fearing the Lord is listening to his words.
Notice also, the whole book of Proverbs is set to win over the fool. Time after time we will encounter admonition after admonition all with the intention for the fool and the simple to fear the Lord and be wise.
Hear verses 32 – 33 and live!
For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” (ESV)
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