Day 154 (Proverbs 1-3) - Year 7
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. As we begin to make our way through the Proverbs, it's important to set up our expectations for this book well.

This is wisdom literature. It's compiled by multiple authors over time, though Solomon is the primary author. As a reminder, wisdom literature has to be handled kind of differently than other categories of books in Scripture. The things we read here aren't God's laws or advice. They aren't prophecies or promises. These proverbs are the accumulated wisdom and general insights of a variety of people who have observed the world closely and then aim to demonstrate the moral mindset of what it means to love God in every aspect of their lives.

We have to be careful not to act like these general rules are promises we can cling to, because there are exceptions to these rules. In fact, the other wisdom books, like Job and Ecclesiastes, show us what those exceptions look like.

For instance, Proverbs may make it sound like the wise and godly will avoid pain and suffering, but Job proves the exception. That's one of the many reasons why it's important for us to read all of Scripture and not just pluck things out of context that make us feel good or empowered or, worse yet, entitled.

I know it can be challenging if you're having to adjust your mindset on these things, but hang in there. Keep looking for what these verses reveal to you about who God is. It might be extra challenging in the Proverbs because so much of it can feel like a personal to-do list, but I'm asking Him to give us all eyes to see Him on these pages. Whenever we're covering Proverbs, you'll notice that many of the verses are standalone ideas—

I won't have time to address each verse individually, so I'll just cover the ones I think might be confusing or problematic or just the ones I really love and I've learned from. As we read through this book, there are three types of people you'll see represented over and over again. They are the wise, the fool, and the simple. The wise person is often described as walking in righteousness and the fear of God.

The fool often leans on their own understanding and doesn't seek God or just blatantly rebels against him. And finally, the simple person is easily led astray or doesn't really pay much attention to the deeper realities of life. So let's keep an eye out for these three types of people and see what we learn from their experiences. The whole book opens with a father giving instruction to his son, and it closes with a mother giving instruction to her son.

The Father's advice covers most of the first nine chapters. So what does He have to say? Let's start with chapter 1. He implores His Son to seek and value wisdom and be teachable. The fact that you're here reading Scripture suggests that you have enough wisdom to know that you need more wisdom. And since we see in 2.6 that wisdom is a gift from God, then we have Him to thank for the fact that we're wise enough to seek the wisdom we know we need.

The Father personifies wisdom as a woman, kind of like we've done with Lady Justice, the blindfolded woman holding the scales, and with Lady Liberty. Lots of beautiful things are personified as a woman.

She's not all roses and sunshine, though. She has some firm words for the fool and the simpleton in 1.29-32. The father quotes her as saying, 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.

She points out that they'll get what they want, but that getting what they want will actually destroy them. This reminds me of when God tells the Israelites to cry out to their false gods for help. Sometimes letting a person lie in the bed they've made is the best way to get them to take that mattress to the dump. This passage also points out that passivity is just as wicked and foolish as actively pursuing sin. Both the simple man and the fool die, whether as the result of their actions or their inaction.

Chapter 2 gives a long list of desirable things that don't just come to us without some kind of intentionality. Things like knowledge, wisdom, understanding, insight. These things have to be pursued and sought out. Once you find them, they act like bodyguards for your life. They're like muscles for your soul, empowered by God the Spirit. Verse 10 was an encouragement to me. It says, "...wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul."

I feel this, don't you? Whenever you learn something new in our Bible reading, doesn't it kind of delight you? Don't you want to share it and tell somebody about it? Wisdom is coming into your heart, and it's making knowledge of God in particular pleasant to your soul. Celebrate that. You are seeing this verse come true in your own life.

Chapter 3 starts out by focusing on trusting God with the details of our lives and walking in His ways. You've probably seen verses 1 through 2 coming true in your life at some point too. A summary of what it says is something like this. My son, when you keep my commandments to walk in the wisdom of God, it will add peace to your life. When you walk in obedience to God and honor Him, don't you have more peace than when you do your own thing? Sometimes it may even be a peace that doesn't even make sense given your situation.

Obedience adds peace to our lives where there would normally only be chaos. Verses 21 through 26 even point out how walking in wisdom can protect you from being fearful in situations that might normally be scary. The nearness of God is what all these blessings are rooted in. It's not just knowledge or obedience at play here. This isn't some kind of combination lock where we can just learn a bunch of stats or pre-programmed actions to tap into when we need peace.

Instead, these Proverbs are examples of what it looks like to walk closely with God. Essentially, wisdom itself isn't what brings us peace. It's the nearness of the God who is bringing us that wisdom. And obedience doesn't amount to anything unless our hearts are engaged with the God we're obeying. In fact, obedience can feel a lot like striving if we're doing it to earn something instead of doing it in response to the God who loved us despite ourselves. What was your God shot today?

Mine was from Proverbs 3, 5 through 7. It says, This passage does have a lot of application in it, but what it shows me about God is that He wants me to talk to Him about everything. He wants to save me from the tyranny of self. Neither my heart nor my mind should ultimately guide me.

I don't want to trust in my own heart. I want to entrust my heart to God. And I don't want to lean on my own understanding. I want to fully lean on His. I don't want to do my own thing. I want to acknowledge Him in all my ways, and not just in the big things. I don't want to be wise in my own eyes. I want to affirm that I need His help. I trust Him to make my path straight.

I love that he cares so much about every little detail and that he's never too busy to speak into what I'm going through. He's going through it with me, after all. I'm in it, he's in it, and even here in the midst of it, he's where the joy is. Okay, Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. How's it going? What are you learning?

Our time in Proverbs is a great opportunity to remember some of the important aspects of how we read the Bible. We have to ask some big questions every time we read scripture. Questions like, what kind of literature is this? Is it narrative history, prophecy, poetry, something else? Is this descriptive or prescriptive? Meaning, is it informative? It tells us what happened. Or is it instructive? It tells us what to do. Let's try one out. Let's ask this question with Genesis 22.

That book is categorized as narrative history. And that chapter is the one where God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac up to the top of a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. So is this descriptive and informative? Or is it prescriptive and instructive? This one could be tricky because there are instructions here, right? Offer Isaac as a sacrifice. But those instructions are for Abraham, not us. So this is descriptive. It's informative.

And thank God, because if we read this as instruction for all of us, we would have some pretty major missteps.

Proverbs is another good lesson in understanding the context of Scripture to make sure we view it in the correct light. These Proverbs aren't God's laws, prophecies, or promises. They're an accumulation of wisdom and advice from a variety of people. These words are important and insightful, and they serve us well when we view them as part of Scripture's wisdom literature. So keep asking Him for wisdom every day as you read. I'll see you back here tomorrow for more wisdom.