| Spending time in the Scriptures Proverbs | by A. Kimber | |||||
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If I was thinking that it was hard to write a concise article about the Psalms I hadn’t seen the half of it. The book of Proverbs is a wonderful set of, well, surprisingly Proverbs; these cover any number of topics and as such there are no key stories or characters to discuss. I have read through and listened to this book several times over the last month. It’s good to read with many salient points being made but yet it’s hard to put into writing in this concise article and I suggest that you find time and work simply through this book, one chapter a day and it’s a month’s study. Anyhow, the book itself is clearly split into two sections; both are recorded words of Solomon but the first 24 chapters were recorded about three hundred years before the last seven were added. This fact is clearly noted at the start of the 25th chapter and we do not need to doubt the divine inspiration of this book because of this fact. There seem to be a few recurring themes within these proverbs so we are going to take a look at some of the things that Solomon has to say about,
Before we do that there is an important recurring phrase throughout this book; ‘the fear of the Lord’M occurs 14 times and indicates to us that to have any real wisdom it must come from a love, respect and righteous fear of the Lord. The world’s wisdom cannot compare to the wisdom that comes from the Lord. Firstly then we see children’s relationships to their parents; the Proverbs speak many times to ‘my son’ so we can read a number of these passages applying their teaching as if they came to us from a father. These sayings are not only about practical instruction but also discipline. We are to obey the instructions of our parents, this being something that wise children must do! We also need to understand that a loving parent will have to reprimand us. We are also reminded that we should be careful who we have dealings with and how closely we associate with our friends; we should never take responsibility for someone else’s debt, we shouldn’t be taken in by their ‘get quick rich’ schemes or their conduct which is clearly contrary to scriptural teaching. In short if we are wise, we will make our parents glad but if we are foolish we bring shame and despair to them. A large part of this book centres on the integrity of a believer in the sight of his God and also those around him. We are exhorted to forgive those who wrong us, to repay unkindness with kindness and to not be boastful about ourselves. We are told to trust in the Lord with all our heart and to not lean on our own understanding and to not be a glutton or drunkard. We are told to be faithful, and that we should work hard for both our education and work for our employers. Many proverbs also speak against those who would be tale bearers, gossips and not willing and able to keep secrets confided in them! We should be wary that we take particular care with, what may often be very personal matters that are told us. On the issue of men, women and marriage the proverbs are very clear, women should seek to be virtuous, not like those who wait to deceive the foolish. Men should be faithful and not look to women outside the marriage bond. These points are made very clear, a women is described as ‘without, now in the streets, and lieth [lies] in wait at every corner.’ And ‘Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?’. A husband is told to be faithful and to be satisfied with his wife and ‘ravished always with her love’. These scriptures are very clear and understandable; some may be a little harder to put into practice. I suggest that if everyone was fully living in the light of scriptural principles, esteeming others better than themselves and not being a tale bearer this teaching would be a lot easier to put into practice! In conclusion as young Christians we should realise that many of these wise words are things that our Christian life has already taught us. True wisdom will always only come from the Lord and many of these wise sayings may be contrary to the things that the world will teach us, but the Lord never changes; likewise neither should the Believers’ standards ever change.
Key Verses
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Proverbs 13:20
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool. Proverbs 19:1
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. Proverbs 19:27
As always we welcome comments and suggestions, would you have selected different verses? Which PRoverb means most to you? Let me know what you think, it’s always good to get some feedback. You can e-mail me at a.kimber@assemblyyouth.net
All quotes are from the King James version of the Bible unless otherwise specified. | ||||||
Lord's return
Long Words