Making Sense of Proverbs
I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want their life to go well. I’ve also never met anyone who didn’t think they pretty much already knew what that’s supposed to look like. Hmm.
Today we’re looking at Proverbs, it’s a collection of observations and advice that the Bible says would be a good idea to pay attention to.
The purpose is laid out clearly in chapter one:
It says they are to teach people wisdom and discipline. To help them understand the insights of the wise. To help people have successful lives—to do what is right and just and fair. You can learn these things if you are teachable, you don’t have to be an idiot. Knowledge and discernment are right here, all you have to do is pay attention.
The simple can become wise.
If you’re already wise, this book can make you wiser.
These are the practical words of wisdom that you can use to guide your life.
And here’s the key—the foundational concept that everything else rests on: Nothing else is going to make sense if you don’t start here. You ready?
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7
Let’s talk about that word “fear” for a minute. People are a little too quick to dismiss it as merely “respect” or “honor.” It does mean respect and honor, but it’s a lot heavier than that. This is Almighty God we’re talking about here. The word also carries the weight of “dreadful, exceedingly fearful—fearfulness.”
One day I had to disconnect the main powerline from my house so I could replace the breaker box. The feeling I had as I unhooked the raw, live, electric cable—that’s the kind of careful fear and respect we’re talking about here. You don’t just do things willy nilly. You take great care in your everyday life or you’re going to get zapped.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom because if we keep in mind that we’re dealing with God Almighty here, Maker of Heaven and earth, the One who will judge the living and the dead—far more powerful than electricity—if we keep this in mind, we’ll be a lot more attentive to what He says is a good idea and a bad idea. Keep the fear of God before you so you might not sin so casually.
So the Book of Proverbs is a collection of observations and good advice for how to live our lives in the fear of the Lord. This is what the life of a believer is supposed to look like.
Now, that word “wisdom,” that’s another one we might have the wrong idea about. In the English language, the word “wisdom” has a mostly intellectual connotation to it. The wise are people who know things, think deep thoughts, teach those concepts to other people. A wise person might sit on top of a mountain and just think about stuff.
But that’s not how the Biblical idea of wisdom works. A wise person is a person in action. They can’t know something and then not do it.
Wisdom is both knowing and doing what is right. In Proverbs, these concepts are always connected. So wisdom isn’t just knowing things, it’s knowing the right things and then doing them. Wisdom is about learning the skill of living a godly life and then living it.
There are five main characters in the Book of Proverbs:
There is Lady Wisdom, who is the wisdom of God personified. She calls to you and wants you to stay on the straight and narrow path God has for you—the path that leads to a good life.
There is Lady Folly, who is the sexy, attractive temptress who wants to seduce you off the path by any means necessary and lead you to death and ruin.
And then there’s you and me who are either:
The wise, who listen to Lady Wisdom.
The fools, who listen to Lady Folly.
Or the wicked, who team up with Folly and help her destroy the lives of other people.
The wise. The fools. And the wicked.
As we read through all these proverbs, we’re supposed to apply them to ourselves. We’re supposed to think about our behavior and make course corrections so we can follow wisdom and live a good life.
If we do this, if we treasure these words and walk in integrity, then we’ll learn what the fear of the LORD is—the knowledge of GOD. Life will go better for us. It will make more sense. The world will be a better place. A little less crazy. This is the kind of life God says He wants to bless. The truth is, living this way is part of the blessing. He says if we do these things we will actually find favor and success in the sight of God and in the sight of man—that we’ll even live a longer and more peaceful life. All from paying attention to the wisdom of these proverbs.
Proverbs 3:5-8 brings it all together perfectly:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.”
So that’s what the Book of Proverbs is for. Trust God’s idea of wisdom instead of your own, and in general, life will go better.
But proverbs are not promises. These are godly observations. This is the way God created the world to work, and it usually goes this way. But not always.
Remember Job? His friends kept throwing these kinds of proverbs at him—”You must be a terrible sinner since God is punishing you, Job.” Remember Ecclesiastes? The wicked and the foolish prosper but the wise and righteous are forgotten, wisdom is meaningless.
This is why we’re doing Proverbs after Job and Ecclesiastes. We have to understand that these are not promises, not in this broken, fallen world. You can try to do everything right and live a perfect life of wisdom and things still might go terribly bad.
For example, Proverbs 22:6 says
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
That’s wisdom. That’s good advice. And we all know that, generally speaking, that’s how it works. Take your kids to church, pray with them, teach them about following Jesus, and most of the time they’ll grow up and have faith of their own. The opposite is also true—raise them hardly ever going to church, if ever, make it optional, give lip-service to your faith but mostly live your life as if God doesn’t matter—and that’s probably the kind of wishy-washy faith you’re going to pass on to your kids.
But it doesn’t always go that way, does it? Sometimes parents do everything they can, seem to do everything right, and the kid goes off the rails anyway. And of course, sometimes a kid ends up with real faith in spite of the unbelief of their parents. But this the way the world usually works: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
The first nine chapters of the book are an invitation to wisdom, the purpose of wisdom, and the personification of wisdom and folly. Chapter 8 is particularly interesting because it ties wisdom in with creation, but we’ll come back to that later.
Chapters 10 through 30 are the proverbs, the wise saying. Each proverb is usually two to four lines that compare wisdom with folly on a variety of topics. Working hard versus laziness, friendship, how we should talk to each other, anger management, what makes a marriage work, how to raise kids, pride versus humility, and generally how to love people and serve God in everyday life.
It shows us how practical God’s will is for all of us. Every aspect of our lives is important to Him. He wants us to be happy, he wants our lives to be useful and have purpose and meaning. Proverbs makes it clear that none of these things happen by accident, we have to study His Word, discipline ourselves, and apply ourselves. Faith in God will equal faithfulness, or we’re going to make a mess out of our lives. It’s very practical.
Dwight Shrute said he approaches life like this: “Whenever I’m about to do something I think, would an idiot do that, and if they would, then I do not do that thing.”
That’s pretty much how Proverbs works. We have to always ask ourselves, am I being wise, foolish, or wicked?
Fools have no interest in understanding, they only want to tell you their opinions. [18:2] If you find yourself in a conversation with a fool, just stop, don’t respond to the words of a fool with more words. [26:4] it’s not going to help anything. Fools just want to argue.
When you need to have a serious conversation with someone, you need to figure out who you’re dealing with. Are they more wise or more foolish? Because talking to a fool doesn’t do any good.
Like the old farmer said, “Don’t wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
You know you’re talking to a fool if they just want to blame someone else, if they won’t accept responsibility, if they don’t ask clarifying questions, if they want to turn up the heat and escalate the conflict, get mad, make it about themselves and their feelings.
And if you find yourself doing any of those things… Well. You’re not the wise one in the conversation.
Words aren’t going to work with a fool. The only way to get through to them is with consequences.
“A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.” Proverbs 26:3
You’ll have to do something they can feel to get their attention.
On the other hand, having a conversation with a wise person can actually accomplish something.
“The wise will hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands will obtain guidance.” Proverbs 1:5
You talk about the problem, come up with solutions, and things will get better.
So we always have to figure out who we’re talking to: wise, fool, or wicked. In all of our relationships: with our friends, co-workers, spouses, children. And these aren’t fixed categories—one day we might be more of a fool and the next day we might show some wisdom and grace. It’s a sliding scale. That’s why we have to check ourselves against wisdom constantly. It’s also why we should also start by assuming we’re talking to someone who is wise. Start there and adjust as needed.
And here’s that fear of the LORD thing again: I think God approaches us according to these categories too. He corrects us because He loves us. He’s always leading us back to the right path—the way we should go. Are we going to be like the wise and listen to Him, heed His warning, pay attention to His words of wisdom, turn around and get back on track? Or are we going to be a fool? Stubborn. Keep going the way we think is best. Is He going to have to get our attention and discipline us with consequences? We going to turn our foolish backs to Him? Is He going to have to tap us on the shoulder? Jab us with a cattle prod? How foolish do you want to be? What’s He got to do to get your attention this time?
Fools live as though God isn’t there.
Another kind of fool is the sluggard—the lazy person.
One of my favorite proverbs is 24:33
“A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like an armed bandit.”
Proverbs 24:33–34
Lady Folly whispering to you in the morning when you’re snug and comfy in your bed, “sleep a little longer.” She was probably whispering to you the night before, too: “come on, just one more episode. One more game. Scroll a little longer. Just another video.” She wants you to waste your life, not be productive, be tired all the time.
There’s no room for laziness in the Kingdom of God. I think that’s some of what James is getting at when he says
“Faith without works is dead.” [James 2:14]
James is kinda like the book of Proverbs in the New Testament. Wisdom is always putting our faith in action.
There are so many treasures in the Book of Proverbs. Thirty-one chapters of solid gold. I doubt this is by accident, the Jewish people had a lunar-based calendar, too. Pretty convenient for reading a chapter of Proverbs every day based on the date. Read them. Memorize your favorites. It’s amazing how a 3,000-year-old collection of wise sayings sound as fresh and relevant today as they ever have.
In Proverbs, Wisdom is personified as a righteous woman calling us to follow her, and Folly is personified as a seductive whore trying to lure us off track. Then the book finishes in the final chapter with the description of an excellent wife—the perfect woman. All the virtues of the wise are encapsulated in this perfect bride. It’s almost as if God Himself was describing the kind of girl He’d want His Son to marry. Hmm.
Okay, so that’s the Book of Proverbs. But what about God’s Son? We don’t close the Bible until we see how it points to Him, right? So, where’s Jesus in the Book of Proverbs?
1st Corinthians tells us that
“Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:24
It also says
“God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.”
1 Corinthians 1:30
Colossians tells us Jesus
“is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.”
Colossians 1:15–16
And the Gospel of John starts talking about Jesus with a reference to Genesis:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:1–5
Now here’s Proverbs chapter 8 that I mentioned earlier, this is wisdom talking:
“When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.
Proverbs 8:22–31
Jesus is The Word made flesh, everything was created through Him, He’s the wisdom and power of God—made flesh.
Proverbs 8:35 says,
“Whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the LORD,
but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”
Proverbs 8:35–36
Remember what wisdom is? Wisdom is knowing the will of God and doing it. That’s what Jesus did. Jesus is the wisdom of God—for you. He did the will of God—for you. Whoever finds Him will love life. Whoever rejects Him will love death. Whoever hears the Gospel and believes will live and whoever refuses to believe will die.
Lady Wisdom says “hear the Word of the Lord, take up your cross and follow Jesus—He’s the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is the path to God. This is life.”
Lady Folly says “Nah, go your own way. Do whatever you want. Believe in yourself. Argue with people. Sleep a little more. Sleep forever. This is death.”
But there’s another Lady personified in Proverbs, the perfect wife, remember her? Chapter 31. You know who she is? She’s you and me. She’s the perfect bride—made perfect by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Made lovely because He loves us. All us who are made one flesh with Him and by Him and through Him. You are the Bride of Christ.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” [Isaiah 1:18]
Kinda sounds like a wedding dress to me.
You don’t deserve it. You never will. You’ve been a fool, so have I. But Jesus came to fix all that.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
Though your wandering has been foolish and wicked and way off course, put your faith in Jesus and He will make your paths straight. You don’t make your path straight, He does. He is the wisdom and power of God. He did it for you. Follow Him, seek wisdom, find the good life, and life everlasting. AMEN