So this evening, we are kicking off a new series, we are diving into the book of Proverbs. For the next five weeks, we’ll cover things like work and suffering and learn about what the proverbs have to say about the things that we encounter as people in our everyday lives. However, tonight we’re going to look at the introduction. We’re going to look at the first seven verses of Proverbs, the preamble of Proverbs, and hopefully set up the rest of this series. So we’re looking at Proverbs 1:1-7 this evening. Before I read the text, I would love to pray for us.
Our great God, we are weak and You are strong and we only have ears to hear if You give them to us. And so as we open Your Word this evening, we trust You and we ask of You that You will give us ears to hear, that we would come to cherish this book of Proverbs more, but most importantly that we would come to cherish and love You, our Savior and our Lord, through Your Word. God, we pray confidently. We know Your Word does not return void. And we ask this in the name of Christ Jesus, amen.
Proverbs 1, verses 1 through 7. This is God’s Word:
“The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth – Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
This is God’s Word.
There’s something about treasure hunts that capture our imagination. Maybe as a child you remember the pretend map with the “X” marking the spot. Or I’m sure that you’ve seen movies or read books that are about treasure hunts; they’re countless. And it’s something about the mystery, maybe something about the value of the lost treasure that captures our imagination. And actually the Bible tells us there’s something far more valuable than lost coins or jewels that we’re called to seek, and it’s wisdom. Proverbs 2 actually says, “Seek wisdom like silver and search for it as hidden treasure.” An amazing thing about the book of Proverbs is that we don’t have to go on a perilous journey to find wisdom. We have it right here in God’s Word. We have a stockpile of Holy Spirit inspired wisdom. We have a treasure trove of wisdom here for us, given to us by God, and we would do well to cherish that wisdom. So that’s my prayer for all of us this evening. That’s my hope. That is the point of this sermon – that we would be people who cherish the wisdom of Proverbs, that we would cherish the wisdom of Proverbs.
I’m going to give you three reasons that are in the text that we ought to cherish the wisdom of Proverbs. There’s likely more, but these are three that really stand out. And the first is, Proverbs offer practical wisdom. Proverbs are practical. Secondly, the Proverbs are formative. It offers formative wisdom; it shapes us. And lastly, the Proverbs offer personal wisdom. It has everything to do with our relationship to God and His relationship to us. So we should cherish the wisdom of Proverbs, first, because it’s practical, second, because it’s formative, and third, because it’s personal. Let’s dive in.
Proverbs are Practical
I want you to see that the Proverbs are practical. This Christmas, one of my favorite gifts that I received was a Lowe’s gift card. The reason I like that gift is because just about anything you can buy at Lowe’s you can use, right? It’s a store full of things that are useful. So I’m glad to have a gift card to Lowe’s. And that’s no knock on the sentimental Christmas gifts, but I like receiving a gift of something that I can use. Well in the same way, the Proverbs offer us practical wisdom that we can use. This book, it speaks into the areas of our lives that often are gray and uncertain and it gives us practical wisdom, trustworthy principles to guide us.
Here at First Pres we confess and we know that we are saved by grace through faith. We confess and we know that God is sovereign. There are these major theological principles that we confess and we know, and although those are sometimes hard to fully grasp, we do know them and confess them. But what do we do when we have to have a hard conversation at work? Or how do we think about money? How do we think about what school to send our children to or how do we handle the reality, the ever present reality of technology – these phones that we have in our pockets and television and media that we are surrounded by? What does it look like to love our neighbors well? How do we think about marriage? Who do we get married to? When do we get married? How do we care for aging parents or for children? You see, all of this takes practical wisdom and practical wisdom is what Proverbs offers us. It’s not always a blueprint. It’s not always even step-by-step directions. As much as we like that, the Proverbs doesn’t offer step-by-step directions for every situation in life. And every proverb is not a promise. It’s not necessarily a command. Every proverb is not necessarily a command, but these are general principles given to us by God to aid us in practical wisdom.
I want you to see this in the text. And the way I want you to see this is by looking at the synonyms for wisdom that this text gives us. These words are like the mini-faces of wisdom. First, in verse 2, you’re going to see this word “instruction.” Wisdom and instruction. They go hand in hand. Instruction implies training. Instruction is also achieved or learned through experience. It involves correction, often. It often involves reproof and discipline. One author says it can be understood as “training with strong accountability.” It can involve confrontation. It can involve learning from mistakes and suffering. Instruction is how we know the consequences of laziness. It’s how we know the wounds that our words can cause. The beauty of Proverbs is that it gives us instruction before we go out into the world. It teaches us instruction so we don’t have to learn the hard way, even though we still often do. It teaches us instruction.
Stay in verse 2, I want you to see this word “insight.” The Proverbs are given to us so that we can understand words of insight. That’s what insight is. It’s understanding. It’s, as one author says, it’s “seeing distinctions and shades where other people only see a blur.” It’s seeing multiple options to solve a problem. It’s recognizing the complexity of life, recognizing the complexity of people’s motives, recognizing the complexity of personalities. This is insight. One author says, “Insight is when the non-obvious becomes obvious.” And this is what Proverbs offers to us – insight.
Proverbs also offers wise dealing. We see this in verse 3 – “wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity.” Wise dealing, the best way to understand this is wise dealing is good sense. It’s practical wisdom. Some might say “street smart.” It’s the things that bring success. However, it’s not given to us here in Proverbs so that we can grow in worldly sophistication or we can grow in self-serving wisdom. It’s actually given to us so that we can execute wisely justice and righteousness and equity. That’s what verse 3 says. It’s good sense in executing these things. It’s wise dealing.
And then in verse 4, we see that the Proverbs are supposed to give both prudence and discretion – “prudence to the simple, and discretion to the youth.” Now these two go hand in hand. Prudence and discretion can be understood as living strategically. Understanding cause and effect. Understanding that certain consequences follow certain actions. This is being shrewd. This is being cunning but with noble aims. This is what Proverbs offers. This is the wisdom that Proverbs offers. These are the many layers, the many faces of wisdom, the shades of wisdom. And don’t you see how practical this is? Don’t you see how useful and helpful this kind of wisdom is? And this is what Proverbs offers.
Derek Kidner says this. He says, “Wisdom leaves its signature on anything well-made or well judged, from an apt remark to a shrewd policy to a noble action.” You see, the wisdom given to us in Proverbs is not for selfish use. It’s not, as I said, worldly sophistication. We need wisdom in order to be kingdom minded. We need wisdom in order to live the Christian life faithfully. Colossians tells us to “walk in wisdom towards outsiders” and that takes practical wisdom, useful wisdom, the kind of wisdom that Proverbs offers us.
As I prepared for this sermon, I was reminded of a story from my teaching days. And I had the privilege of working in a school where there were several really committed, diligent Christians that worked with me. And not everybody in the school was, but in fact, there was this one man that I worked with who didn’t profess to be a Christian, but a quote that got passed on to me by him went something like this. He said one day, “You know, I’m not a Christian,” but he said, “if it wasn’t for the Christians in this school, it would have folded a long time ago.” You see, that had to have something to do with wisdom, with the creativity, with the innovation, with the diligence that the book of Proverbs speaks to. Wisdom enables us to love our neighbors well. Wisdom is what it takes to live this Christian life. We’re called to “walk in wisdom towards outsiders.” Wisdom leaves its signature on anything well-made, and that signature points straight back to the God that is all-wise.
So do you see how valuable it is? Do you see how useful the wisdom of Proverbs is? Do you see how practical the wisdom of Proverbs is? We need to cherish this book. We need to cherish the wisdom that this book offers. And that means we need to read it. That means we need to study it. That means we need to meditate on it. That means when you come back this month in the evening and hear it preached on. We need the book of Proverbs. We need to cherish the book of Proverbs because it’s practical.
Proverbs are Formative
But also, we need to cherish the book of Proverbs because it is formative. It shapes us. It changes us. Yes, Proverbs is meant to be used in everyday life, but it is more than simply knowledge that we read about, use, and then set aside. You see, this book is formative. It is meant to shape us. But really, this is true for all of Scripture. Scripture is meant to shape us. It’s not merely meant to inform us; it is meant to transform us. And the Proverbs is no different. The Proverbs is formative. It will transform us.
I think we see this clearly in verses 4 through 6. In verse 4, the Proverbs tell us the purpose of this book is for the simple to become prudent, for the young to grow in knowledge and wisdom. This is transformation. Verse 5 tells us that even those who are already wise need this wisdom in order to grow in learning and grow in knowledge and grow in understanding, to “obtain understanding.” The wise need this in order to grow. This is growth. This is change. And verse 6 tells us that the book of Proverbs actually gives us the ability to understand the words of the wise. It helps us perceive what wise men and women, wise people say. It teaches us how to learn wisdom from others. This is real formation. This book is not about simply what we do. It is about who we are. This book intends to change us into wise people. So do you want to be wise? Cherish this book. Cherish the wisdom that this book offers because this book is a formative book.
I had a conversation with a man who I know to be very wise. And I learned in this conversation that he reads a chapter of Proverbs every day. And to me, that makes a lot of sense, right, because he is a wise man. And over time, this book, among other things, has shaped him into a wise person. This book will change you. It’s formative.
And this is important for several reasons. First, this is important because if we approach the book of Proverbs as someone who is self-assured, self-confident, as someone who thinks we know how to navigate the challenges of this world with our own resources and with our own wisdom, this book won’t have much to offer us, or at least we won’t see what this book has to truly offer us. This book is for the perplexed. This book is for the confused. This book is for the immature. This book is for the unsure, the stuck, for those who lie awake at night because they don’t know what to do. This book is for those who want to grow in wisdom. And so if you want to grow in wisdom, if you find yourself perplexed, confused, searching for what to do, this book is for you. This also changes the way we seek wisdom. In fact, this book is a book that intends to change us. It changes the way we seek wisdom.
The Proverbs does not claim to be the singular source of wisdom. All the wisdom there is to learn is not confined to these pages. In fact, Proverbs, what it intends to do is to push us and change us into people who actually seek wisdom wherever we can find it. We see this principle often throughout the book, and I’ll give you one example. Proverbs 4:7 says, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.” It’s like saying, “Rule number one in wisdom-seeking is to look for it, wherever you can find it.”
And so with that in mind, I’d like for us to be self-reflective, to think about all the information that we consume in this modern world that we live in – the news that we read, the TV that we watch, our Twitter feeds – all of the information that comes at us. And I think an appropriate question to ask ourselves is, “When we engage with those things, are we seeking mainly to be affirmed? Are we seeking mainly to be validated? Are we seeking mainly to find people who agree with what we already think so that we can be self-assured in our own wisdom? Or are we seeking to be refined by truth? Are we seeking to grow? Are we seeking to be affirmed or refined?” And it doesn’t mean that there’s no place for encouragement or affirmation. It doesn’t mean that things have value to the extent that they disagree with what we think. It just simply means this – if we only seek affirmation and agreement, we’ll miss wisdom. So are we people who pursue wisdom? Are we people who want to be shaped by wisdom? Are we people who want to be refined by godly wisdom? This book will shape you into the kind of person who seeks wisdom. And so we need to cherish the wisdom in this book.
But lastly, I want to give you encouragement. If you are a person who maybe has struggled with a theological question or is suffering and you have gone to see a pastor and asked questions to a pastor. Maybe you’ve found yourself in a hard place in your marriage and you’ve sought wise counsel. You should be encouraged. This is the way of wisdom. This is what Proverbs is trying to form in us. Be encouraged. This book is meant to shape us, and so we need to cherish its wisdom. So the book of Proverbs is given to us by God, it’s given because it’s practical, it’s given to us because it intends to shape us into wise people, and for those reasons we must cherish it.
Proverbs are Personal
But the last thing I want to point out is this book ought to be cherished and loved and appreciated and valued because it is a personal book. What I don’t mean by that is that it is just simply private. You know, the wisdom we learn from Proverbs is to be kept private. What I do mean by that is that this book has everything to do with our relationship to God and His relationship to us. This book is a personal book. It’s well known that Thomas Jefferson, he created what’s commonly referred to as “The Jefferson Bible” where he snipped out passages of Scripture from the gospels that pertain to Christ’s deity or things like miracles, right. And what we essentially left of the gospels in this “Jefferson Bible” was what made Christ out to be just a wise, moral teacher. And one might wonder if someone who thinks like Jefferson, someone who believed like Thomas Jefferson, what would they think about the book of Proverbs? After all, is this book just a collection of wise sayings? Is it just good advice that anybody can use? Is it just abstract and impersonal counsel?
Certainly not. It is a very personal book, given from God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and offered in a covenant context between the relationship between God and man. Proverbs is a deeply personal book and has everything to do with our covenant relationship to Him. And I think this is made abundantly clear in verse 7. It says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and fools despise wisdom and instruction.” One commentator says, “If you distilled the whole book of Proverbs into one verse, it would be this verse.” Another said, “The fear of the Lord is to knowledge as the alphabet is to reading, as notes are to music, as numbers are to math.” This is the controlling principle throughout the whole book. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.” It’s not just a spark. It’s the foundation. And without the fear of the Lord, knowledge is actually baseless and empty. It has lost its essence. Knowledge and wisdom divorced from God, it’s like a limb cut from a tree; it has no root.
And this actually changes the way we think about wisdom. This world around us will tell us that the way to find wisdom is to look within; it’s to follow your inner compass. It’s to mine for wisdom deep in the recesses of your own emotions or senses and desires. The wisdom of Proverbs conflicts with that. The wisdom of Proverbs tells us that wisdom is to be given and received. Wisdom is actually a gift. It’s a gift from God. And like a river runs downhill and nourishes everything that it comes in contact with, we are all downstream from ultimate wisdom because ultimate wisdom comes from the Lord. And we learn wisdom truly, true wisdom, from the fear of the Lord. So wisdom is a gift from God. A God who is not impersonal to us. A God who knows us. A God who loves us. A God who has saved us and redeemed us. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and the beginning of wisdom.
And so it’s important to ask, is it not – “What is this fear? What does it mean to fear the Lord?” Well this fear is not servile, shrinking terror. It’s not even a distant kind of tip-of-the-cap or a distant respect. This is reverent love. This is trembling awe. This is humble gratitude toward a holy God who has redeemed us. But it’s actually an openness to be led and instructed by this Redeemer. It’s the fear of the Lord.
And so one might ask, “How do we learn the fear of the Lord?” Psalm 130 tells us, “If you, O Lord, should mark our iniquities, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you might be feared.” You see, it’s God’s goodness to us chiefly, God’s goodness to us, underserved goodness, unmerited goodness to us in Christ Jesus that teaches us to fear Him. And this is foolishness to the world. This is crazy to the world. This is the instruction that ultimately the fool despises. This is the wisdom, the chief wisdom that the fool despises.
Possibly the first known artist rendition of the crucifixion is something called the “Alexamenos graffitos” – I hope I pronounced that correctly. But it’s dated near 200 AD and it’s actually heartbreaking because it mocks the Christian faith. In kind of a rough sketch, it depicts a man kneeling at the foot of a cross. And on that cross there is a man with the head of a donkey and the subtext reads, “Alexamenos Worships His God.” You see, the sketch was meant to mock the Christian faith, to mock the crucifixion, and it’s heartbreaking. It’s even somewhat emotional to talk about because you think about the wickedness of that mockery and you also think about what if, whoever this man was kneeling at the foot of the cross, what if he was real? And if so, now he is in heaven with his risen Savior. The crucifixion, what Christ has done for us on the cross, is foolishness to the world. It’s foolishness to the world, but to us it is the wisdom of God. Corinthians tells us this. Corinthians tells us that “Christ crucified is a stumbling block and foolishness to the world, but to those who are called, Christ is the power and the wisdom of God.”
So where does wisdom begin? Well it doesn’t begin with our own insight. It doesn’t begin with our own knowledge. It doesn’t begin with our own wisdom. It begins by actually admitting our pride, admitting our foolishness before the throne of God, and bending the knee to Christ Jesus – Christ Jesus who forgives us and receives us and gives us His righteousness. And then it means following Him with reverence and gratitude. That’s what it means to fear God. And so ultimately the chief reason we treasure this book, the book of Proverbs given to us by God to give us wisdom, is because it drives us deeper into relationship with God. It drives us deeper into personal communion with the all-wise God who did not despise us in our foolishness and did not despise us in our sin and suffered and bled and died for us to win us back. We treasure this book, we cherish this book because it brings us to personal communion with Christ. For in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Let’s pray.
Father, we praise You that You have saved us, You have redeemed us, You have loved us even enough, as a Father, to give us this practical, transformative wisdom that brings us closer to You. Thank You for that. My prayer is that all of us will leave this sanctuary this evening treasuring this book that You have given to us, reading this book, wanting to read it, wanting to learn from it, wanting to be shaped by it. We pray all of this in the name of Christ Jesus, amen.