Front matter
SPOTLIGHT on the PROVERBS
Timeless Wisdom for Today's World
R. Herbert
2021, Tactical Belief Books – an imprint of TacticalChristianity.org.
The text and images in this e-book are copyright. All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-63752-296-7. This book is not to be sold. It is made available by the publisher without charge and free copies can be downloaded from: TacticalChristianity.org, LivingWithFaith.org, or FreeChristianEBooks.org. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. In a few cases, the BSB (Berean Study Bible ®), ESV (English Standard Version ®), KJV (King James Version), NKJV (New King James version ®), NLT (New Living Translation ®), and RSV (Revised Standard version ®), are cited, and these translations are also gratefully acknowledged.
All italicized emphases in quotations from the Bible have been added by the author.
About the Author: The author served as an ordained minister and church pastor for a number of years and holds an earned Ph.D. degree in the languages, cultures and archaeology of the ancient Near East and biblical world. He writes for a number of Christian publications and for the websites TacticalChristianity.org and LivingWithFaith.org. His other e-books are available for free download from those websites and from FreeChristianEBooks.org.
Cover: Base image © by saiva.
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Treasures of Wisdom 1. The Two Roads
2. Get Wisdom!
3. The Pearl of Humility
4. Dwelling with Discretion
5. The Meaning of Kindness
6. Following Faithfulness
7. The Power of Speech
8. The Paths of Peace
9. The Search for Security
10. A Tree of Life
Appendix 1: Proverbs as Poetry
Appendix 2: Proverbs in the New Testament
Appendix 3: Reading the Book of Proverbs
About Our Books
INTRODUCTION: THE TREASURES OF WISDOM
Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. (Proverbs 3:13-15) The Nature of Proverbs The book of Proverbs is often said to represent a collection of "human wisdom," and although it is fully accepted into the Bible, it is frequently regarded as a book of practical rather than spiritual insights. Yet this viewpoint seriously underestimates the book.
What separates the biblical proverbs from the homely wisdom of everyday sayings like "don't pet a growling dog" is the fact that while the principles Proverbs teaches may not always seem remarkable, they often have surprising depths of meaning and significance. You can meditate all day on "don't pet a growling dog" and not get much more out of it, whereas many biblical proverbs are multifaceted – like gemstones that catch the light in different ways as you turn them. The more you look at them, the more you see in them. Additionally, it would obviously be a bad idea to try to stroke an angry dog, but with many of the Bible's proverbs the veracity of their advice is not that obvious. Biblical wisdom is much more than another synonym for knowledge or understanding – it is often our willingness to submit ourselves to accepting guidance that may not be obvious, willingness to override our own experience with that of others.
Ultimately we have two choices in life: either we can learn from others or we learn from our own experience, and our own experience is a hard teacher (she gives the test first and then the lesson!). So, in one way the book of Proverbs is like the Cliff Notes of living well – if we purchase such a concise study guide, we do so because it will help make complex principles more easily understandable so we can learn the lesson before the test shows up. Yet, in another way the proverbs are much deeper than their small size would suggest.
Think about a biblical example of this. One of the Ten Commandments tells us "you shall not steal." This command is short and to the point and really tells you most of what you need to know to stay out of all kinds of trouble. But the commandment simply summarizes the issue – the book of Proverbs puts the commandment into working clothes and gives us practical examples of things we might not have thought of as theft. It also reminds us of some of the effects of stealing we might want to think about, because they will help "vaccinate" us against the urge to steal if we are tempted.
For example, Proverbs tells us that "Stolen bread tastes sweet, but it turns to gravel in the mouth" (Proverbs 20:17 NLT). That resonates with us in a much different way than simply telling us we should not or must not steal. Perhaps it makes us remember the time we stole a cookie when we were a kid and how we felt when we got caught. Or it reminds us of a movie we saw about how a man got set up to steal something for someone else then had to take the fall for it.
So, the commandment gives us the truth we need, but the proverb puts it into the perspective of everyday life – fleshes it out and relates it to us in terms of visceral experience. In short, this proverb paints the problem in undesirable but realistic colors, and that is good if for no other reason than it forces us to think about consequences and how living right really is better in so many cases.
When we understand this – that the proverbs often give us a physical window into a spiritual principle and ways to help us understand and apply it in our everyday lives – we realize the book of Proverbs is much more than an ancient version of the modern "self-help" book. Such books usually encourage us to do what we need to do while the proverbs, on the other hand, often help us to see what we do not realize we need to know and do.
The proverbs may be small, but they are indeed gems of understanding that can help develop our spiritual lives more than hours of lectures on morality or many pages of books on religion. A proverb, like a picture, can be worth a thousand words.
So, what do we need to know to help us understand and utilize some of these little treasures we call proverbs? First, we need just a little bit of background. The next few paragraphs summarize some points that will make us much better equipped to look at the Bible's proverbs with new eyes and to begin to really learn from them.
The Structure of Proverbs While most modern proverbs consist of a simple statement such as "one good turn deserves another," biblical proverbs follow the pattern of much ancient Near Eastern wisdom poetry in that they usually express their ideas in two halves which are in some way parallel to each other (see Appendix 1: Proverbs as Poetry). In that sense, each proverb is really two proverbs, and we need to think about each half separately.
Although the arrangement of many proverbs may seem to be somewhat random, the proverbs are often organized into specific groupings. There is a prevalence of twoor three-verse groups (called "unit proverbs"), but there are also a number of "proverb clusters" such as Proverbs 26:1-12 which all talk about the "fool," and Proverbs 26:13-16 which all talk about the "slacker." Proverbs' seemingly critical use of negative terms like this must be seen in the context of contrast – the fool and the wise man are used as abstract representatives of categories of people based on their response to wisdom rather than terms used in criticism of actual individuals, as we will see as we go along. Recognizing these internal groups can help us study many proverbs more effectively, though in other cases we must bring proverbs together from various parts of the book in order to study what Proverbs says about a given subject or theme.
It's also important to realize that the book of Proverbs is an anthology or collection of wisdom sayings that were written by a number of authors at different times. More precisely, it is a "collection of collections" of these proverbs which seem to have been assembled separately and brought together in the book as we know it. The book of Proverbs also contains two major internal sections representing a "first edition," which was then expanded with the addition of a second part at a somewhat later date (Proverbs 25:1). This explains why a number of proverbs are found in both the first and second sections of the book (compare Proverbs 18:8 and 26:22; 21:9 and 25:24; etc.). But the two major internal sections of Proverbs have noticeably different themes. The first is aimed at the young and begins with the proverb "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother" (Proverbs 10:1), while the second section is aimed at the mature, especially rulers, and begins with: "to search out a matter is the glory of kings" (Proverbs 25:2).
The Significance of Proverbs Many of the proverbs were composed by the wise King Solomon, of course – which means they are fully accredited wisdom! According to 1 Kings 4:32, Solomon composed some three thousand proverbs in his life (of which some nine hundred are included in the book of Proverbs), and the king also collected many other wise sayings from his own and other cultures, some of which are included in the book of Proverbs. For example, Proverbs 24:23 begins a sub-section "the sayings of the wise" with the word for "wise" being in the plural showing multiple authors were included; and Proverbs 30:1 and 31:1 begin the proverbs of Agur and Lemuel, whose names do not appear to be Israelite. This wide range of background explains why the biblical book of Proverbs also follows a similar structure and style to that of many other ancient Near Eastern wisdom works that were popular "wisdom literature" throughout the periods before and within which Proverbs was composed.
But the book of Proverbs is more than just a collection of wisdom sayings from around the ancient world. It is, as we would say today, a "curated" collection that has been carefully put together for maximum value. Proverbs is also more than the sum of its parts. It is more than simply a collection of unrelated sayings. A thread which is a theme runs throughout all the proverbs: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). This theme stands at the very beginning of the book as well as at its very end (Proverbs 31:30) and is repeated within the book as well (Proverbs 9:10 and 15:33). As we will see, it is a theme that forms the basis of all the proverbs given throughout the book and sets it apart from similar compositions in the ancient world. It is also a theme that gives Proverbs an important place within the Hebrew Scriptures: the biblical proverbs don't just record human wisdom, they seek to apply God's wisdom to the many situations of everyday life. In a nutshell, Proverbs utilizes human experience as a vehicle for the wisdom God wants to see in our lives. That is why Proverbs doesn't start with proverbs – the first nine chapters of the book consist of speeches by personifications of God's wisdom that contextualize wisdom in both the human and divine spheres in order to show the significance of what follows. Only then do the proverbs begin!
The ultimate indication of the spiritual as well as the physical value of proverbs is the fact that Jesus himself frequently utilized the proverbs in his teaching – far more, and in much deeper ways, than many people realize (see Appendix 2: Proverbs in the New Testament). For example, when Jesus gave the Beatitudes – the most famous part of his Sermon on the Mount – he followed the structure found in some of the proverbs, such as the verses in the opening quotation at the beginning of this Introduction. Jesus obviously studied the proverbs – and there is every reason for us to do so, also (see Appendix 3: Reading the Book of Proverbs).
When it comes to wisdom, many Christians default to what the apostle James tell us: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5). But this does not mean that simply asking for wisdom has replaced study in the New Testament. The book of Proverbs remains a key way in which God does, in fact, give us wisdom – to the degree we study and internalize its principles! As Proverbs tells us: Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance. (Proverbs 1:5-6 NLT)