Proverbs 31

It is fascinating that this book of wisdom would end with a paean to a “wife of noble character.” It seems odd in one sense, given the ancient world was such a male dominated place. But in another it doesn’t because throughout Proverbs we see father and mother together equally honored. Both are to be obeyed by their children. Dishonor to either invites destruction. So mom gets an ultimate shout out here in God’s revelation for all time. I suspect the author has a specific woman in mind, maybe his own wife because there are very specific things she does that not every wife would do. “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”

One thing that stands out is that this wife is a hard worker, competent at what she does. She takes care of her family, and they trust her. She is strong. No withering wallflower this model of biblical womanhood. Her children and husband respect and praise her, and even “at the city gate” she earns praise. This biblical notion of women and marriage is most definitely a partnership of equals, but with differing roles, neither of which imply inferiority or superiority. This has to absolutely be unique in the ancient world. The next to the last verse puts the lie to everything this world tries to sell us:

³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

You have to feel sorry for women in our culture who have traded in their charm and beauty, as they get older and what the world values is gone. I’m not sure how they do it without the Lord. I’ve hit the trifecta. My wife is charming, beautiful, and above all fears the Lord. Not to mention that she has all the other traits mentioned in this chapter. Indeed, she is to be praised, and I need to praise her more.

 

Proverbs 30

The next to the last chapter. Can’t say I’m not glad because Proverbs is difficult to write through. You could almost write something on every verse! But I have to pick and choose. What to pick and choose from chapter 30? Not easy. Here we see a prophecy cloaked in a question:

⁴ Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
    Who has gathered up the wind  in the hollow of his hands?
Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?
    Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and the name of his son?
    Tell me if you know!

We know! The Triune God! The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I wonder why the writer would think that God would have a son centuries before it was revealed that he did. That’s why Scripture is God’s word and not just man’s. Which nicely introduces the next two verses:

⁵ “Every word of God is flawless;
    he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
⁶ Do not add to his words,
    or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.

What a fascinating contrast in verse 5. You would think that the flawless nature of God and his word would intimidate the utterly flawed nature of his creatures, but the writer portrays him as a protector, one in whom we can find refuge. In other words, God is trustworthy. His words, as Jesus said, are what we are to live by. I fear for that portion of the human race who will one day face God’s rebuke. But those who are his long for his word, long to peer into his revelation of himself in creation, Scripture and Christ.

There are also a couple verses that hinge on the fifth commandment:

¹¹ “There are those who curse their fathers
    and do not bless their mothers;
¹² those who are pure in their own eyes
    and yet are not cleansed of their filth;
¹³ those whose eyes are ever so haughty,
    whose glances are so disdainful;
¹⁴ those whose teeth are swords
    and whose jaws are set with knives
to devour the poor from the earth
    and the needy from among mankind.

And

¹⁷ “The eye that mocks a father,
    that scorns an aged mother,
will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley,
    will be eaten by the vultures.

Wow, this is serious business! God wasn’t kidding when he said in the Law, “Honor your father and mother so it will go well with you in the land.” If you don’t, you will pay the price. Notice what it says about the character of the person who dishonors his parents. Given what I believe about the power of parents to raise children successfully to be God-fearing adults, chances are if a kid turns out this way much of it is the parents fault. And it doesn’t matter. The judgment is the same; they will be consumed as carrion. I love that the Bible and the Hebrews were so unique in the ancient world in this way. Maybe Asian cultures that make respect for others a big part of their religions, but I don’t know enough about that. I’m pretty sure, though, in the ancient nearest and the Greek and Roman empires, mothers were not on equal footing with fathers because women were not on equal footing with men. But as God made man in his image, male and female he created them, women deserve every bit of the respect due men.

Proverbs 29

There are quite a few references in this chapter to the king and the city, to the implications of wisdom for the wider social environment.

² When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice;
    when the wicked rule, the people groan.

⁴ By justice a king gives a country stability,
    but those who are greedy for bribes tear it down.

⁸ Mockers stir up a city,
    but the wise turn away anger.

¹² If a ruler listens to lies,
    all his officials become wicked.

¹⁴ If a king judges the poor with fairness,
    his throne will be established forever.

¹⁸ Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;
    but blessed is he who keeps the law.

²⁶ Many seek an audience with a ruler,
    but it is from the Lord that one gets justice.

We live in a fundamentally moral universe, where right and wrong exist regardless of our perceptions or desires or what we think. The materialist/atheist has no explanation how chance and atoms coming together somehow gets to right and wrong. Yet the only way we know of the concept of a crooked line is if there exists such a thing as a straight line. In other words, straightness is an objective fact of existence. God is the ground of all moral straightness, and it applies to all of life. To me this is one of the most powerful arguments for God’s existence. You just can’t get ought from is, get morality from matter. We ought to carefully pay attention to it if we want to run our lives, or our cities, well.

²⁵ Fear of man will prove to be a snare,
    but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

What a powerful contrast. If we trust the Lord, we will not fear man. I’m not sure what being “kept safe” is exactly, but it surely doesn’t mean everything will always go the way we want it. It does mean, though, that God’s good intentions toward us have been established eternally, that he is working all things together for our good and his glory, a la Romans 8:28. Reading this verse in light of the NT fulfillment of the promises of God’s covenant is even more powerful than when this was written in the 10th Century BC. There is literally nothing that man can do to us in light of eternity. But even in this life God will care for us and bless us and lead and guide us for his ultimate purposes. In Proverbs 3 we are exhorted to trust God and lean not on our own understanding, and he will make our paths straight. Paul tells us in Philippians 6 to in effect trust God, and “the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” It is good to trust the Lord.

Proverbs 28

Quite a few verses in this chapter on poverty and wealth. It is worth noting that the Bible never makes the material condition itself the point. It doesn’t declare the poor virtuous just because they are poor, nor the wealthy bad just because of their wealth. It always goes back to character, what one does or does not do with what one has. The tendency of the rich trust their wealth or treat the poor with disdain is what is evil. And throughout Proverbs, poverty is often the result of sin, like sloth or laziness or being a sluggard. The character of the person is everything. Which makes verse 26 so profound:

26 He who who trust in himself is a fool,
but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

Life is one huge human dichotomy. On one side you have those who trust in themselves, on the other, those who trust God, i.e. walk in wisdom. If we go back to Proverbs one, we read that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 3:5,6 expands this:

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Either we trust God, or we don’t. What exactly is trust anyway? The word is so common we often just take for granted that we know what it means. Here is a definition:

firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

synonyms: confidence, belief, faith, certainty, assurance, conviction, credence;
reliance

We learn here and throughout Scripture, that we can rely on ourselves, our own insights, perceptions, talents, wealth, definition of things, etc.,  or we can trust in God. When the writer says, “walks in wisdom,” that means walks in the fear of the Lord, walks in the understanding that God is God, that he really is all powerful, yes, but also the God of the Covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Moses, Joshua and David, and ultimately to Jesus Christ, the second person of the eternal Trinity. In other words, that God loves us and wants our best, period. The shalom Christ purchased on the cross is the only shalom that matters, and that is peace with God. Paul’s conclusion after eight chapters explicating God’s redemptive work in history is that we can know “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Notice it is not in some things, but all. That’s a lot of things!

This is why we know on this side of the cross what walking in wisdom keeping us safe really means. It obviously has temporal significance, but more importantly it has eternal significance. When we get obsessed with the temporal, we are not walking in wisdom, in trust. At that very moment of worry or consternation or fear or disappointment, whatever negative self-centered word one can thing of, we are fools. We are trusting in ourselves, on our own understanding, as if our perspective really did determine reality, as if God really hasn’t promised that all thing work together for our good, that he will keep us safe, and that ultimately the eternal perspective trumps the temporal. What we have in fact done is turn the latter into the former, treating things or circumstances in this life as if in the finite context of our own brains that is all that really matters. They of course matter, but only forever.

It’s also very important to say what trusting in God is not: it is not waiting on God to give us a “sign” before we act. Should I do this or that, God? Oh, look at the sign in the clouds. Then I’ll do that! Trusting is using all that God has given us at his disposal, including our own brains, and walking in confidence that, as Psalm 48 tells us in the context of God securing for us our salvation:

¹⁴ For this God is our God for ever and ever;
    he will be our guide even to the end.

Amen!

Proverbs 27

Lots to choose from in this chapter. Let’s start with the first one:

Do not boast about tomorrow,
    for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Humility is the godly disposition in all things. Trust in our sovereign God and Father, who we are told by Jesus wants to give us good things, is the only way to live a flourishing life. In comparison to evil fathers, and that would be every human father, Jesus says, “how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Why then do we always tend to catastrophize? Why do we fear and worry? Why do we live in tomorrow when tomorrow doesn’t even exist? While we are commanded not to boast, the bigger problem is our lack of faith in God’s goodness and love for us, as if he’d leave us out to dry, let us suffer the consequences of our own benighted stupidity. He uses even that for our good!

¹⁷ As iron sharpens iron,
    so one man sharpens another.

When I first became familiar with this verse many years ago, I thought of it solely in terms of one person helping or teaching another. In other words the sharpening was intentional, and no doubt that is the case. But our sovereign God uses every interaction we have with any human being to sharpen us. That could be our children, our spouse, our employees or employer or co-worker, our teachers or students, the guy in the car in front of us, an acquaintance or friend. This is because we are constantly challenged in every encounter to obey the two great commandments, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourself. Any relationship can cause friction, and when friction exists there is possibility of growth. I’d say we learn and grow more from these encounters, if our goal is to love, than the intentional kind, but both are equally true. Witness the latter since I’ve become an MP3 junkie. Lots of sharpening.

²⁰ Death and Destruction are never satisfied,
    and neither are the eyes of man.

I used to think this was primarily about male lust, which it can obviously be, but all human eyes, i.e. seeing, is beyond satisfaction. When we see a beautiful sunset or flower or bird or person, the looking never fulfills us. There is never a closure, like I’ve finally seen everything, seen into the true nature of things. I believe this is because we live in a fallen world and as people who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. As Paul says, “we see through a glass darkly.” The seeing and its object is always pointing beyond itself. We know from Scripture that the universe is God’s creation and thus a revelation of himself. We are never satisfied by what we see because it is pointing us beyond itself to our Creator God. There will come a point when we will see fully and be satisfied, as John says, “We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Of course this can all be said about any of the human senses, and the comparison to death and destruction doesn’t invite positive implications. All our desires are corrupted and can be perverted or over indulged, but part of the reason we are never satisfied is that we can always be delighted. There is always another incredible sunset, or song, or meal or swim in the ocean, etc. God’s goodness is revealed in it all, his mercy and grace and love. A heart of praise and gratitude is the only proper response.

 

Proverbs 26

This chapter is full of those who lack character. The first 12 verses mention the fool in every verse. The next four the sluggard, then various and sundry in the remaining verses: a meddler, deceiver, gossip, quarrelsome man, fervent lips with an evil heart, malicious man, a man who “digs a pit” or “rolls a stone,” and finally, a lying tongue and a flattering mouth. A veritable hall of fame of disgrace and dishonor.

You’ll notice as you read through that there is no distinction between what a person does and who they are. A fool does foolish things because he is a fool. A sluggard acts like a sluggard because he is one, and so on. Verse 23 uses the phrase of someone with an “evil heart.” The nature of the person will always reflect itself in their actions. Why might this be significant, especially in an age such as ours? Maybe what we can take away from this is that in order for a person to change, their fundamental nature must be changed. And a person’s nature is only what it is vis-a-vis God. In other words, our nature cannot exist in some kind of autonomous vacuum without reference to God. He, of course, defines everything, and our temporal and especially our eternal destiny is determined by who were are relative to him, saint or sinner, saved or lost, for him or against him, Jesus paying for our sins or we paying for our own.

We know from the Apostle Paul that all are born objects of God’s wrath, and Jesus said we must be born again if we are to see the Kingdom of God. The transformation in our character must be preceded by a transformation in our relationship to God, and thus our nature, from enemies to children of the King. You can change outward actions, so a fool may not necessarily always act like a fool, but until their nature is transformed by the Spirit and power of God, they will always be a fool. This is why we need to NT to interpret the OT, and the OT to understand the NT. Ultimately we can only escape all the negativity in this chapter, and our sinful nature, by God the Father’s power revealed in Christ and applied to us by the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 25

More common sense. A few verses stand out.

¹⁵ Through patience a ruler can be persuaded,
    and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

What a contrast, a gentle tongue braking a bone. We are often so eager to make our point that our words are no only no effective, they are counter productive. A gentle tongue isn’t emotive, isn’t contentious, isn’t angry or obsessed with getting its point across. If it speaks with dispassion it can be radically effective. This is especially important for someone like me to remember, to whom passion comes most naturally.

²¹ If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
    if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
²² In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
    and the Lord will reward you.

Obviously Jesus didn’t get love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in a vacuum. There are some other references in proverbs like these. The burning coals might seem like a harsh metaphor, but it is exactly the opposite. Burning coals were use to purify metals, so our kindness to our enemy is actually a means to his possible salvation. The foundation of biblical ethics is seeing the good of others, even if they are our enemies. Talk about an upside down kingdom. But what a better world this creates than a constant focus on I, me, mine, revenge and justice. Of course justice is important for a society to function, but personally I want mercy for me and justice for others. God wants us to develop and attitude of mercy for others too.

Proverbs 24

Again I am impressed by the practical power of wisdom and knowledge:

³ By wisdom a house is built,
    and through understanding it is established;
⁴ through knowledge its rooms are filled
    with rare and beautiful treasures.

 

⁵ The wise prevail through great power,
    and those who have knowledge muster their strength.

¹⁴ Know also that wisdom is like honey for you:
    If you find it, there is a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.

Life doesn’t have to be a conundrum. We can build lives of true substance and value with wisdom and knowledge. Real, and eternal, worth comes from these and not things or money or position. This is one of the reasons that the anti-intellectualism of Evangelicalism is a tragedy. As some are of fond of saying, Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship. As if we could really know God without knowledge of him that comes from study and learning. And since God has revealed himself in creation, in Scripture and in Christ, there is an awfully lot for us to know. You might even say an infinite, literally, number of things to know because God is infinite. God is also the ultimate synthesis, the ultimate universal that puts all knowledge together.

There is a lot human beings can grasp just from general revelation, a la Plato and Aristotle, but we can’t know ultimately and finally without God’s revelation to us in Scripture and Christ. Because this life, fleeting and ultimately frustrating and unsatisfying, only points us to life eternal, which can only be had in Christ. Our future hope, which will not be cut off, is in wisdom, and what is wisdom is who is wisdom, is Christ himself. The logos, the one who puts all things together, who makes everything fit together.

Proverbs 23

This is a great chapter. More verses are connected than in most of the chapters. Solomon explores great themes of virtue and vice, like gluttony, stinginess, greed, envy, drunkenness, and listening to parents. The first eight verses are a contrast between sitting at a king’s table and the warning against gluttony, about which we don’t hear much nowadays in the age of gastronomical pornography, and eating with a stingy man. Both scenarios have their dangers. Wisdom and knowledge will avoid both.

These verses play close to home:

¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners,
    but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.
¹⁸ There is surely a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.

It is so easy for me to envy those who may or may not be “sinners,” but those who have what I do not, whether talents or riches or possessions. If we keep our focus on the future, and given other translations, that future is eternity, what we see in this life will always be kept in perspective. In fact, the more important and real eternity grows in us, the less important and real will this life seem. We won’t hold on to it so tightly as if this is all there will ever be.

The final seven verses are the story of the drunkard, one who lusts for the experience of intoxication, and its consequences. I have to quote them all because it so nails the true drunkard, the party animal who lives to party:

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaints?
    Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger over wine,
    who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
³¹ Do not gaze at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup,
    when it goes down smoothly!
³² In the end it bites like a snake
    and poisons like a viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange sights,
    and your mind will imagine confusing things.
³⁴ You will be like one sleeping on the high seas,
    lying on top of the rigging.
³⁵ “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt!
    They beat me, but I don’t feel it!
When will I wake up
    so I can find another drink?”

Is that great or what! The wise man learns from the consequences of his actions; the fool never does.

Proverbs 22

I’ll pick out two themes in this chapter, God’s concern for the poor and raising children. For the former, it really is remarkable how often in the OT God commands his people to take care of and/or not exploit the poor.

² Rich and poor have this in common:
    The Lord is the Maker of them all.

^{9 A} generous man will himself be blessed,
    for he shares his food with the poor.

¹⁶ One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
    and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

²² Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
    and do not crush the needy in court,
²³ for the Lord will take up their case
    and will exact life for life.

That’s a lot of poor for one chapter. Where else in the ancient world prior to the establishment of Israel as a people are the poor so much an object of concern? I’m sure nothing close to this is the case in the ancient near east. I wonder about the ancient far east, and religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, or animism or pantheism in Africa. I doubt anything is like what the God of Israel commands. Why this focus on the poor, this attempt at leveling the human material condition?

I don’t think it is material at all. The message is more likely human pride versus humility and dependence. The poor generally have no illusions that they are self-sufficient, that their money can make them independent of God, or that they are autonomous creatures who really don’t need God. Not only this, the rich, or that vast majority of people on earth today, must realize their wealth gives them no more value in the eyes of God than the poor. Their wealth doesn’t make them special. They are still dependent, as Paul says in Acts 17, on God for life, breath and everything else.

And two famous verses about raising children:

⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

¹⁵ Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;
The rod of correction will drive it far from him.

I am fairly convinced having done it three times, that verse 6 is pretty much a guarantee. But the challenge for parents is the training and the way. In other words, what if the parents are not good trainers, and the way they are trying to direct their children is, is not the right way. What if the parents perceive that way as moralism and legalism? What if the way isn’t the gospel? Then I guess all bets are off? I think of the young lady who was the inspiration for my book. Raised in a Christian home, fully involved in her church, she goes off to college and becomes an agnostic, and rejects her faith completely. I blame the parents. This young lady was not rooted in the gospel, nor in the veracity of the Christian faith and worldview.

I’m trying to write a whole book about this right now, so can’t go into it in a blog post, but God has given us everything we need to establish our children in the faith for life. If we can’t convince our children that Christianity is the best explanation for reality, by far, then we’ve blown it. If we can’t establish the ultimate plausibility structure that is the Christian faith in their minds, then we’re just not paying attention. If we do our job right, whenever they are confronted with any other worldview they should be able to reject it with credibility and intellectual integrity. This doesn’t mean they won’t doubt. Any psychologically healthy adult knows they are finite and that absolute certitude isn’t possible. It only means that when they are presented with any alternative to Christianity, it simply carries with it no plausibility weight. We can praise the Lord for this.