Proverbs 3:3-10

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This is going to be an interesting, and hopefully inspirational week as we continue our journey through Proverbs. Solomon sets us up with four statements which follow the same pattern: ‘if you do this, then this will happen’:

‘Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favour and good success in the sight of God and man. 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. Honour the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.’ (Proverbs 3:3-10)

Love and faithfulness – favour and success

So if we hold tight to love and faithfulness we will ‘find favour and good success’. What does this mean? Well, holding on to love and faithfulness must refer to God. He is love (1 John 4:8), and all His work is done in faithfulness (Psalm 33:4). So holding on to love and faithfulness is to maintain a strong faith in God. We are to worship Him above all other gods, and submit to Him in everything. If we do this, we are promised favour and good success – so what does this mean? Well, this uncovers the single biggest mind-blowing mystery in history, yet one that I think we overlook on a daily basis! Despite the fact that God’s standard is unattainable by us, He has granted us His favour through the Son’s death and resurrection. The Hebrew word used for favour is chen, which can also be translated as grace. ‘by grace you have been saved’ (Ephesians 2:5).

The second and third statements used by Solomon echo and underline this first one. If we trust in the LORD, if we acknowledge Him in the way we live our lives, He will make our paths straight – what does that mean? Well, ‘all the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness’ (Psalm 25:10) so Solomon is using this opportunity to remind us of God’s amazing grace. Who says that the God of the Old Testament is all wrath?

And the third statement is like it; if we admit that we are not wise (submission to God’s wisdom) and fear the LORD and turn from evil, we are promised healing and refreshment. Does this mean that ‘if we have enough faith, we will always be well’? Absolutely not; read the words carefully: ‘It will be healing…and refreshment’. NOT ‘you will be healed and refreshed’ – Solomon is telling us that the act of submission, humility and fear of the LORD in themselves will be healing and refreshment! In submitting to God, in worshipping Him, we are healed. For our benefit and joy, they are an end in themselves.

Honouring with wealth – full barns and vats

Having understood how the previous statement can be misinterpreted it should be more straightforward for us to understand this statement. I’ve been told on numerous occasions that this verse is a Bible promise that if you tithe, God will make you rich…but that is not what it says. This is a Bible promise, but the promise is that if we honour the LORD with our wealth (i.e. what we own above the absolute basics of food, clothing and shelter) and the firstfruits of all our produce (i.e. giving a generous portion of our income to God before doing anything else with it), our barns and vats will be ‘filled with plenty’ and ‘bursting with wine’. The assumption that is normally made here is that the barns and vats essentially refer to our bank accounts on earth, but that simply doesn’t tie up with the rest of the Bible.

Jesus speaks a similar phrase to this in Mark 10:21: ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Jesus’ command to this rich man was to honour the LORD with his wealth, and his reward would indeed by treasure…but in heaven. You and I, if we are Christians, have barns and vats in heaven, and as we honour God with our earthly wealth we are making an eternal guaranteed investment. What joy will meet our eyes as we arrive at our heavenly mansions, where our vats are literally bursting with wine! Our God is indeed a generous God.

Proverbs 3:1-2

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The book of Proverbs is probably best known for its one-line wisdom soundbites, but chapter three really sets us up for what’s coming next by building a strong and necessary foundation. Nothing that follows would mean anything without this chapter.

‘My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.’ (Proverbs 3:1-2)

Don’t forget

When we look at the information available to us today it’s tempting to think that we’re in an intellectually privileged situation when comparing ourselves to the past. The internet generation is comfortable taking on enormous amounts of new information at record-breaking speeds from all over the world. It should make our ears prick up, therefore, when we read that Solomon made a point of telling his readers not to forget his teaching. If it was worth putting in the effort to remember this wisdom three thousand years ago, how much harder must it be today with the sheer volume of data that our brains must process whenever we log onto Facebook?

Living in today’s world makes it difficult to sift through and extract the most useful information, but we must sit up and take note of biblical truth when it’s presented to us. In order not to forget the wisdom imparted by Bible authors, commentators and preachers we’re required to concentrate when reading the Bible and hearing it preached.

Heart

In contrast to forgetting Solomon’s teaching (head knowledge), he instructs us to actively keep his commandments in our hearts. This is important. If Solomon had stopped after telling us not to forget, we could have been forgiven for being a rapist or a serial killer, providing we could quote the Bible. But God is smart, and closes off the loopholes we might otherwise leap on. It is indeed important for us to concentrate on biblical teaching, but in order for us to properly respond to Scripture we must move on to practical application.

Unfortunately, it’s very tempting to look at Scripture and not do anything. One of my biggest flaws must be that I’m happier discussing biblical commands in depth than I am actually obeying them. And Jesus absolutely hates that. His biggest criticism of the Pharisees must have been that they had ‘neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness,’ (Matthew 23:23) which led him to call them hypocrites and blind guides. The Pharisees no doubt had a good knowledge of Scripture, but they did not allow it to pierce them deeply, and were publicly rebuked by Jesus as a result. Let’s be those who actively seek for the Bible to shape our attitudes and lives.

Effects

Of course, the Bible is not rules. Looking at the world’s idea of Christianity you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Bible is literally a list of do’s and don’ts without any explanation as to why, but that’s just not the case; we have here a promise: don’t forget Scripture, actively obey it, and the result will be ‘length of days and years of life and peace’. Reading this passage it’s not hard to understand where some Bible teachers get their health & wealth theology: obey Scripture, have enough faith, and God will make you well! But that’s not what this is talking about. Solomon is basically telling us that if we completely submit to God in everything, we will enjoy the rest of eternity with him! These years of peace may not come to us right away; just look at the early church. Stephen was one of the first Christians, and the moment he started to serve meals to the poor he was falsely tried and stoned to death (see Acts 6-7). Yet, as he died, he was filled with joy as he saw the eternal peace waiting for him.

Will you commit to remembering God’s Word? Will you make every effort to obey Him? What will your motivation be? A sense of self-worth? The ability to lord it over those around you? Or the promise of eternal joy with our Lord and Saviour?

Proverbs 2:20-22

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To sum up the last few weeks: actively seek wisdom and you’ll be given it by God. Solomon reaches the final conclusion here, and it’s a solemn reminder to us.

‘So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.’ (Proverbs 2:20-22)

This passage is essentially split into two: the upright, and the wicked.

The upright

We’ve looked at this at some depth in the past few weeks so we won’t go massively over it again, but the upright here are not simply ‘good people’. The upright are those who have been humble enough to ask God for wisdom; in His grace He always gives wisdom to those who genuinely ask for it as a gift. Practically speaking, this wisdom is imparted to Christians through Jesus of Nazareth’s perfect life, death and resurrection in our place. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us ‘For our sake he [the Father] made him to be sin who knew no sin [Jesus], so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ Jesus became our sin, and we become his righteousness. What a great exchange! The same is true for our folly and his wisdom; by faith in Christ he takes our folly and gives us his perfect and infinite wisdom.

The wicked

In contrast, the wicked are not simply ‘bad people’. As much as it grates with non-Christians, an unrepentant charity worker is biblically defined as wicked whereas a paedophile who has repented and put his faith in Christ is biblically defined as righteous. It’s a tough message to bring to people who think they’re basically doing alright, but God must be just. His standard which we must reach in order to qualify for entry into ‘the land’ (more on that in a minute) is not based on anything whatsoever that we have done, said, or thought. It doesn’t matter how good we are, or how bad we are. All that matters is where we have placed our faith. Have we thrown ourselves into Jesus’ mercy? If we have rejected that mercy, the Bible defines us as wicked.

The land

But at the end of the day, what is this ‘land’ that Solomon’s mentioned? Well, this one’s a bit abstract. The people of Israel followed Moses towards the Promised Land in Exodus, but by Solomon’s time it was clear that simply being in a particular geographic location had not solved their issues. Under the judges the people ‘did what was evil in the sight of the LORD’ (Judges 2:11), and the first kings had also fallen short; Saul ended up effectively going mad and trying to kill David, and David was an adulterous murderer. This land that Solomon is talking about is not a physical place but a spiritual one. God was speaking to His people about a future kingdom in which anyone who would mess it up would be excluded.

This isn’t God being mean. Some people don’t like the idea that the Kingdom of God is so exclusive, but it’s biblical, and on top of that it’s simple logic. Christians are adopted sons and daughters of God, so the Kingdom is God’s famiy home. If I were a father, I would do everything in my power to prevent evil people from getting close to my children. If someone approached me, saying that they would refuse to obey me or even acknowledge my existence, but that they wanted to hang around my children, I would not be mean to shut the door in their face, I would be sensible and loving. God is the same.

So, key questions today are: (1) are you upright or wicked? (2) If you’re wicked, will you put your trust in God? (3) If you’re upright, what will you do about those around you who are wicked?

Proverbs 2:16-19

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Last week we saw the results of receiving God’s wisdom; we’ll be delivered from those who would deceive us. This week Solomon takes us to someone else who we’ll be delivered from:

‘So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.’ (Proverbs 2:16-19)

Now, we’re getting into a bit of an analogy here – is Solomon talking about an actual adulteress? The answer is yes and no.

Yes

Let’s not be silly here: lust is a massive problem. It’s a problem for men and for women, just in different ways; men are (generally) lustfully stimulated visually, while women are stimulated emotionally. Men may fall into habits of looking at pornographic magazines, watching videos, or stalking their hot friends on Facebook. Women may lust over imaginary men presented in chick flicks or romance novels, or over friends’ apparent perfect relationships. Of course, these figments of our imagination have ‘smooth words’ which entice us. They’re willing to forsake one partner to be available, whether in a porn film, a book, or in our imagination. They not only ignore God’s covenant but ignore any moral code about remaining faithful to one husband or wife.

The truth is that when we are invited into lust’s ‘house’ we’re committing ourselves to something terrible. By our actions we’re turning away from the joy promised by Jesus, and are pursuing our joy elsewhere, but this house ‘sinks down to death’. There’s a stern warning here: ‘none who go to her come back’. If we continue to pursue lust over our relationship with God, no good will come of it.

No

But there is a wider meaning to this passage. It is about adultery, but it’s also about idolatry. Throughout the Bible the relationship between Israel and God is described as a marriage in which Israel is the wife, but Proverbs turns this round: Wisdom (who represents God) is a woman, so Israel has become a man for the purposes of this analogy. And, just like Gomer in the book of Hosea, Israel is tempted to be unfaithful. Idolatry can come in many forms; whenever we’re tempted to put anything in front of God, be that lust, or money, or career, or family, or self, or politics, or whatever, following through on that is idolatry. Every moment of every day there are a million temptations being thrown at us; how will we respond? Fob God off with excuses? Or honour Him as the glorious King of all creation who is worthy of our passionate praise?

The promise

Of course, reading this article it would be easy to think that this passage is intended to basically shout at us…but that isn’t it. This passage isn’t screaming ‘DON’T DO THAT!’ Rather, it’s encouraging us with what we will be delivered from if we receive God’s wisdom. If we truly seek God’s kingdom first, we won’t succumb to these temptations. And believe me, the temptations themselves aren’t going away any time soon. We should be aware of the enemy’s tactics but that shouldn’t discourage us, it should lead us to realising that this battle belongs to the LORD, and He has already won it for us on the cross! Let’s respond in faith, and thank God for His unending love for us.

Proverbs 2:9-15

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We’re in Proverbs 2, and in our third week of looking at an extended passage in which the character Wisdom, who represents God, is instructing us in how to become wise. Two weeks ago we looked at how our level of wisdom is essentially based on our attitude towards Scripture, and last week we looked at how our wisdom is only found in God, and our identity found in Him. This week we see the results.

‘Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.’ (Proverbs 2:9-15)

You will understand

It’s fair to say that some parts of the Bible are a little bit cryptic, but this passage is not. If God gives you wisdom, knowledge and understanding there is a simple promise: you will understand righteousness and justice and equity. To put this another way, our consciences become truly awakened when we become Christians. One of the defining factors of being a Christian should be that we understand righteousness, justice and equity. It should make us uncomfortable when we see injustice.

I’m sure we’re aware of the recent disaster in Japan; the company I work for had a week of fundraising to make a donation to one of the charities. We raised something like £15,000, which is good, but I know that some people in my company would personally earn thousands of pounds in a week, and this donation is meant for enormous populations on the other side of the world! Something within me screamed out ‘injustice!’ Of course this gives us an uncomfortable challenge. My non-Christian coworkers do not ‘understand righteousness and justice and equity’ so you could argue that they have an excuse; I do not. Are you aware of injustice and should be standing up for what’s right?

No mention of the mind

Something which stood out to me from this passage is the fact that intellectual understanding is not mentioned. Solomon mentions wisdom coming into your heart and knowledge being pleasant to your soul, but there’s no talk about our minds understanding anything! This seems odd; aren’t we talking about knowledge here? Surely that’s all about our minds? Someone once said that the longest distance was the distance from the head to the heart, and that rings true for us. As good Christians we love to engage in Bible studies where we talk about what the Bible says. We study, and talk, and learn, then go home feeling good about ourselves…but we’ve not changed a bit. The Christian walk is not one in which we can sit back and simply increase in knowledge, it’s one in which our lives must be changed! ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind‘ (Romans 12:2)! We must pray, seek God, and do everything in our power to pursue that difficult journey from ‘head knowledge’ to ‘heart knowledge’.

Protection

If we truly develop this heart knowledge of God, this passage suggests that we get an impenetrable armour against attack. We will be protected against ‘the way of evil’, and we’ll be protected against ‘men of perverted speech’. The description of these men is detailed but the underlying message is this: if we allow this knowledge from God to become written on our hearts, it doesn’t matter what temptation gets in our way, and it doesn’t matter what anyone says to us – we will not be moved from the centre of God’s will. That sounds like a good result to me.

By meditating on God’s Word, and by allowing Him to change us we will become shining lights for His Kingdom in our world. We will stand up for righteousness, justice and equity. We will not be led astray by false teaching or temptation. We will embrace purity and be so different from the world around us that unbelievers will be led to ask, ‘who is your God who gives you such strength and wisdom?’ Let’s allow ourselves to be inspired by the triune God to increase in wisdom and everything that brings with it.

Proverbs 2:6-8

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‘For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.’ (Proverbs 2:6-8)

For

There are certain words in the Bible which should sound alarm bells in our minds; ‘for’ is one of them. We can’t understand this passage properly unless we understand what this is ‘for’. Reading Proverbs 2:1-5, as we did last week, we find out that God has promised wisdom to those who seek it, if only we put our trust in Him; it’s almost too simple to communicate. And these verses tell us why it is that simple.

The LORD

Reason one that we can know that wisdom will come our way is down to who God is. Read the passage above and it’s clear that it’s all about God. We can know that verses 1-5 are true because God has said so: ‘the LORD gives wisdom’. If God wants us to be wise, we will be wise. It’s the same with His mercy: ‘I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.’ (Exodus 33:19, Romans 9:15) This doesn’t take anything away from our free will, it simply underlines God’s almighty power and control.

His people

But there is a bit of a flaw in our logic. We have assumed that we are the ones who receive wisdom, but where have we got this idea from? Reading this verse it’s clear that God’s talking about a particular kind of person: ‘the upright,’ ‘those who walk in integrity,’ and ‘saints’. If my personal record is anything to go by I am extremely likely to sin today, tomorrow, and every day for the rest of my life. I’m not upright, I don’t walk in integrity, and I am certainly not a saint! This seems to be bad news – that wisdom is not for me after all.

But we have the joy of seeing the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, and it all eventually comes back to the fact that God is in control. As much as many want it to be true, our receipt of wisdom and mercy is not down to us working hard and doing well! The apostle Paul is always good at summing this up:

‘For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”’ (Romans 10:10-13)

Our qualification as ‘upright’ or as ‘saints’ is not down to our own efforts, but down to whether or not we have called on His name! This is the same message that we have been seeing throughout Proverbs: wisdom does not begin by opening an encyclopoedia, it begins with fear of the LORD. As we humble ourselves before Him, then we will be given the qualifications we need to begin on the path of wisdom. Glory to God for His grace.

Proverbs 2:1-5

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‘My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.’ (Proverbs 2:1-5)

Formula

This is one of those Bible passages which is simple to understand. ‘If you do this, this will happen.’ Like the good ol’ Windows instruction saying ‘Click here to Start’ we’re told ‘Do this for wisdom’. Nice and easy. We’ll look at it backwards, from the result through to the instructions.

Results

We’ll go into more depth on this next week, but we’re promised understanding of the fear of the LORD, and a discovery of the knowledge of God. Both of these seem to be one step removed from reality, don’t they? We’re not promised ‘fear of the LORD’, we’re promised an understanding of it. We’re not told that we will know God, we’re told that we will find the knowledge of Him. In any case, the promise is for a deepened understanding of hidden things – these should be a goal of every Christian; who doesn’t want to understand the fear of the LORD better?

Instructions

Have another look at the commands given in verses 1-4. We’re told to:

• Receive Wisdom’s words; just like Jesus’ parable of the sower in Matthew 13, we must actively listen to these words and take them in. What words would they be? The recorded words of God: the Bible. So we must read the Bible.
• Treasure up Wisdom’s commandments; just like Mary ‘treasured things in her heart’ (Luke 2:19,51) we are to meditate on the Bible – perhaps reading a verse in the morning and holding it close all day to improve our understanding.
• Make our ears attentive to wisdom; we should be ready to receive – that means perhaps taking notes during sermons so that we’re engaged – basically, making sure our minds aren’t wandering when we should be focussing on Scripture.
• Incline our hearts to understanding; this talks about our attitude towards understanding. We should never think that certain levels of understanding are only for special people: ‘you’re a preacher, so you need to know what the Bible’s about, but I just show up.’ No, we should be eager to learn, and expectant that we will.
• Call out for insight and raise our voices for understanding; we need to ask God. This is so simple but done so rarely – we must pray as we read the Bible, that God would speak to us. His Spirit lives in us, and His Spirit inspired the Bible – that combination means that with His help, we’ll understand it as it’s meant to be understood.
• Seek it like silver and hidden treasures; we’re reminded of Jesus’ words in Luke 11:9: ‘ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find.’ Simply put, we have to be looking for a deeper knowledge of God, not just knowledge for knowledge’s sake – by reading the Bible we may get a deepened understanding of Old Testament Jewish practices, or of Roman society, but if we’re not ultimately aiming to learn more about God, that is where we’ll stop.

Assumptions

With every scientific formula there has to be an assumption. Although everything here is correct, we need to recognise that this simple formula only works because God said it in the first place. God wrote the Bible, He gave these instructions, and ultimately He gives the knowledge. Any time we take a line out of Scripture and attempt it on our own we are going to fail; bear in mind that this passage immediately follows chapter one in which Solomon has made abundantly clear that wisdom starts with God.

Proverbs 1:24-33

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The biggest challenge of working systematically through a Bible book is that you can’t simply pick out the nice, easy passages. This is Wisdom speaking:

‘Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.’ Proverbs 1:24-33

Who’s this talking to?

It’s always important to look at these tough passages in context. Looking at the previous verses we’ve learnt that God defines foolishness as not having fear of the LORD, and it is these fools which Wisdom is addressing here. In other words, this passage is targeted at non-Christians.

Because, because, because, because, because…

There’s quite a significant introductory sentence to this passage which makes abundantly clear the reasons why Wisdom, who represents God, is saying what she is saying. Read it through and you’ll see that Wisdom initiated in a number of different ways, and the people just stiff-armed Him. Look at the things they’ve done: they refused to listen to her call, they did not heed her stretched-out hand, they ignored her counsel, they wouldn’t listen to her reproof, they hated her knowledge, and they didn’t choose the fear of the LORD. The blame for the consequences listed in this passage sits squarely with the people. They’ve been given plenty of opportunities to avoid the unpleasantness, but have not taken them.

The knee-jerk reaction for most people when reading a passage like this is ‘but that doesn’t seem very fair! How mean of Wisdom to mock when terror strikes!’ The simple truth is that non-Christians have been given innumerable opportunities to escape from this insane wrath, yet they have actively chosen not to take them. This punishment is deserved. God is fair, just, and kind when He sees distress and anguish coming upon those who have actively rejected His help and says ‘this is your fault’.

But God seems mean

He does, doesn’t He? This passage would suggest that it’s describing hell (the eternal consequences for unbelievers’ sin), and that the suffering souls call to God and He says ‘no, too late’. But I don’t think that’s the case. Have a look at the particular words used to describe God’s response: ‘they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices’ – again, the fact that God will not respond is their fault. This same idea is mirrored in the language of Romans 1, where Paul writes that God ‘gave them up’ to their sin. God pursues and pursues and pursues, but if someone is dead set against receiving His grace, He will hand them what they have been begging for, even though they will not like it.

John Piper explained this well in a blog post when he talked about the consequences of our actions. He said that a person who enjoys excessive amounts of food is effectively begging to become obese and unhealthy. Of course, no-one wants to get fat, but it’s the clear and well-understood consequence of a person’s actions. Similarly, no-one smokes in order to get breathing problems or lung cancer. If it happens, however, it’s an obvious result of that person’s actions. C. S. Lewis summed this entire idea up so well when he said, ‘There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’

Our response

Are you a Christian? If not, you should read this Bible passage again, very carefully. Clearly you don’t believe in hell and Jesus being alive and everything else, but if you’re going to say that you must also be comfortable saying that, if it is all real, you are happy with God’s just wrath being poured out on you. I’m sure that God does seem mean, but there is good news. The wrath that you have earned, that punishment that you deserve, has already been poured out on a substitute. Jesus of Nazareth was crucified as a criminal despite the fact he had done nothing wrong, and in that historical event he won eternal life and joy for all who will accept the saving hand of God. If you, by faith, will accept that your punishment has already been spent on him, you will be raised into new life as he was. The same promise given in this passage will be for you: ‘whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease’. If you do, please contact me.

If you already are a Christian, you should respond too. We must accept the truth of hell. Now, having accepted that, think for a moment about those you know who are not Christians. Family members, friends, colleagues, customers, the ice cream man…if they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour, that eternal torment is also their destiny. The idea of hell must serve as a kick up our behinds to get into conversations with those around us who don’t know Jesus and to be God’s stretched-out hand in our communities.

Proverbs 1:20-23

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‘Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.”‘ (Proverbs 1:20-23)

Wisdom is a person

Solomon continues his introduction to Proverbs by introducing a personification of wisdom. In his mind, Wisdom is a person crying out to us to listen. This fits perfectly with what we have seen in the last few weeks; fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Solomon has one target: obedience to God, but it is as if he is attacking this target from every conceivable angle. He’s simply underlining here that becoming wise is not simply a case of learning, or memorising – it’s a case of getting to know a person: God.

Wisdom’s call

Looking at the words spoken by Wisdom here it seems quite patronising: ‘how long do you want to be stupid for?’ Sometimes we need to ask ourselves these almost ridiculous questions to highlight that we are foolish, in desperate need of God.

Have you ever tried convincing yourself not to sin using logic? It doesn’t really work a lot of the time. Sexual sin’s the worst, and that’s the image Solomon likes to use here; someone addicted to pornography can be logically convinced that his addiction has negative effects on his relationships with women and his health, yet that won’t help him kick the habit. An adulterous wife knows logically that it is putting her marriage and children at risk, yet that doesn’t help. Every so often we need to do what Solomon does here, and ask ourselves: ‘why are you being so stupid?’

Wisdom’s promise

It’s almost too good to be true. Turn to wisdom and she says that she’ll give us her spirit and her words. She will literally pour a spirit of wisdom into us, if only we’ll look to her! I find it genuinely surprising that people claim that the Old Testament shows a religion of works and the New Testament shows us grace, there’s nothing whatsoever here about working for this wisdom, the Bible is all of grace!

The simple message Solomon is teaching us here has not changed. If we submit to God and His wisdom, we will become wise ourselves. This truth is mind-changing; regardless of whether you think of yourself as clever, bright, smart, wise, or whatever word you’d like to use; regardless of whether anyone else thinks you’re wise, God promises that we will become wise if we simply follow Him. Who would have thought that wisdom would be so simple?

More next week.

Proverbs 1:17-19

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Continuing from last week’s study of how we should not walk with sinners, Solomon continues:

‘For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.’ (Proverbs 1:17-19)

Quick recap: what are we talking about?

The ‘for’ at the beginning of this passage should cause us to ask what came before, and we’ve basically just been warned not to allow our attitudes and actions to be affected by non-Christians’ attitudes and actions.

Setting a trap

Solomon’s picture here is a little silly, and that’s intentional. He says that if you set a trap for a bird where it can see it, you won’t catch the bird. In contrast to this, sinners set their own trap! It’s a bit like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon where he feels the need to test the trap he’s set for Road Runner. Solomon is basically saying that committing sins is foolishness. If I break one of God’s laws, I’m setting myself up for a fall. The apostle Paul catches onto this truth in his letter to the Romans 1:18-32 (I’m just picking out the key phrases here, but I’d encourage you to read the whole thing:

‘…the wrath of God is revealed from heaven…his invisible attributes…have been clearly perceived…So they are without excuse…Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves…For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions…and [they are] receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.’

In essence, Paul is saying that sin, in part, is its own punishment. Committing adultery against your wife is sin, and common sense tells us that it’s simply a bad idea. It could mean the loss of your marriage, it could have impacts on your finances, on your relationship with your parents and children, and on your emotional state. Only a fool would do such a thing. That’s Solomon’s point. Sinners are setting their own trap, blinded by Satan’s lies about sin to the immediate consequences, whether obvious or more subtle.

The ultimate consequence

The argument back (from the very fools Solomon is warning against) at this point would be that the adultery in itself didn’t cause the bad consequences. In reality, if no-one ever found out about your unfaithfulness, your marriage could very well continue. But that’s not where the passage ends. Solomon says that chasing after sin in this way ‘takes away the life of its possessors.’ Again, Paul talks about this in Romans 6:23: ‘For the wages of sin is death.’ So sin has bad effects on our earthly lives, but sin has bad effects eternally as well. Solomon’s warning is a desperate scream to a child who is about to jump off a cliff to see if she can fly: ‘STOP! STOP!’

All of Scripture points us to Jesus of Nazareth, the man who was God, the man who took upon himself that ultimate consequence so that we might live. I’ll close with the words of a song by Matt Redman called For The Cross:

When you were broken, you were beaten,
You were punished, I go free
You were wounded and rejected
In your mercy – I am healed