If you could snap your finger and have anything you want or change anything you want or make happen anything you want, what would it be?
A long time ago a young man named Solomon was the new king of Israel. One night while he was sleeping God came to him in a dream. He said to Solomon, “Ask me anything you want and I’ll give it to you.” Solomon’s answer is for the ages. First Kings 3:8-9 says…..
The humility of Solomon. The righteousness of his request. The wisdom of admitting he doesn’t have wisdom and needs it. “If any of you lacks wisdom” James 1 says, “let him ask God who gives generously.”
And God does give to Solomon generously. Notice God’s response to Solomon….v10-14
God values wisdom. Do we value wisdom? Proverbs 4:7 says this, “Wisdom is supreme, therefore get wisdom. Even if it costs you everything you have, get understanding.” “Wisdom is too high for fools” Proverbs 24:7 says. “Blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.” (29:18). Keep wisdom in view (17:24). By wisdom a house is built” (24:3). Jesus said the wise man builds on the rock, meaning putting His words into practice (Mt 7:24). Daniel 12 says the wise will shine like the brightness of heaven. I would propose that wisdom is equal to faith as the most important virtue in the Bible. “Be wise as serpents” Jesus told the disciples (Mt 10:16). “Be careful then how you live – not as unwise, but as wise” Paul told the Ephesians (5:15).
APPLICATION: Put wisdom first in your life. How high up on your priority list is wisdom? Do you study the Scriptures to learn wisdom? Do you pray for wisdom? Do you surround yourself with others who are wise – after all Proverbs 13 says, “Those who walk with the wise will become wise.” How about the church you choose? People have all kinds of different reasons they go to church – some dumb and some good – Is one of your criteria for the church you attend that wisdom is found in the preaching and teaching? That church is a place where you expect you can grow in wisdom?
Which brings us to Proverbs. Proverbs is part of the group of OT books called wisdom books, that also includes Job and Ecclesiastes. Of course all scripture will make you wise, but Proverbs just has something about it. It’s attractive to us for a reason. It’s direct, no nonsense, and to the point. Much is easy to understand and apply.
On the one hand you can grab a proverb and go off to your day blessed by applying its wisdom. But then you can sit and meditate on that same single proverb and find its bottomless in its depth. The wisdom in Proverbs in a lot of ways is the kind we don’t think of, probably don’t think of ourselves. Yet often when we read it we agree with the wisdom we see in it because something in us “knows” it’s right. Think of Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before a fall” or 17:28, “Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent.” Pretty straightforward! You’re in trouble if you’re prideful and you can hide your foolishness if you keep quiet.
On the other hand, there are a bunch of proverbs that are more mysterious. For instance, 18:4 says, “The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream.” Huh? That one’s not immediately understandable. Or how about this one: “answer a fool according to his folly” 26:4 says. But then the very next verse says, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly.” What? Which is it? Well, its both. And the lesson there is that sometimes you need to rebuke a fool, and other times you just need to keep silent. You’ll learn with time, experience and devotion to growing in wisdom.
STRUCTURE OF PROVERBS
Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings from wise men. They took the time to distill their wise thoughts into well thought out sayings to live by. It’s basically a book of quotes. Joke: i read books on quotes. one time i was reading my book on quotes and came across a quote from churchill that cooked me. he said “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations”
Proverbs is not like a narrative book like Genesis or Acts. Its not a letter like Romans or 1 Peter. Its a bunch of sayings put down that seem not in any particular order. For instance, you won’t find in one section all the proverbs on money, and then in another section all the proverbs on honesty. There’s no real order to it. If I were the guy arranging all these sayings that’s how I would’ve done it, and then I’d preach it chapter by chapter. But this series is going to be topic by topic. We’re not doing a chapter each week or a verse each week. We’re not starting with chapter 1 and going sequentially until we get to the end. It doesn’t flow like that. We’re going to pick a topic for each week and pull key proverbs together to study those topics.
And don’t mistake this for being a short study because in its 31 chapters the range of topics Proverbs touches on span everything in life: marriage, work, money, government, civil life, neighbors, parenting, heritage, property, work ethic, courage, adultery, anger, rebukes, friendship, ambition, alcohol, trusting God, obeying God, fear, pride, humility, honoring parents, and so much more.
APPLICATION: Make it a habit to read one chapter a day and repeat it every month. Because Proverbs is 31 chapters long, it makes it a great daily devotional book. “A chapter a day keeps foolishness away!”
APPLICATION: Study Proverbs topically. This is actually how we’re going to preach through this book – is topically. If you want a daily devotional, do a chapter a day. If you want to study, pick a topic.
Proverbs has at least 3 authors: King Solomon, King Agur and King Lemuel. There are a couple chapters from unnamed “wise men” in there too, which seem to still be credited to Solomon. Solomon wrote the vast majority – from chapter 1 through 29. King Agur wrote chapter 30, and King Lemuel chapter 31.
Much of it from a “father” to his sons. Do a rapid scan with me and see what I mean: 1:8, 10, 15….2:1…3:1, 11…4:1…
Solomon credits his father with teaching him wisdom, and we see Solomon began his kingship following his father’s teachings. Look at 4:1-5 with me. First Kings 3:3 says, “Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David.”
Wisdom is not only from a father, but wisdom is also from mothers as well. “My son keep your father’s commands, and do not forsake your mother’s teachings (1:8; 31:1)
APPLICATION: Parents teach your children wisdom God’s created order is that parents are the source of wisdom for their children. Don’t just feed them, clothe them, get them educated, urge a good education or career on them, bring them to church, send them to children’s church and youth group, get them into sports and other activities. Let each of us raising children commit ourselves to teaching our children wisdom.
APPLICATION to the APPLICATION: we have to be wise ourselves to teach our children wisdom. Wisdom has to not only be on our radar in life but centered on our radar. As we’ll see when we get into defining wisdom in a moment we have to act wisely to be wise. Not just “know” in our heads all the pithy sayings, but living by them. Knowing wisdom but not living out wisdom is a higher form of foolishness.
APPLICATION to the APPLICATION: Raising children to be wise is investing in your joy later on. Proverbs 10:1 says, “A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother.” Invest in your own joy by making wisdom a top priority in what you teach your children.
PURPOSE OF PROVERBS
Let me suggest 4 purposes of Proverbs.
First, to give you knowledge of what is wise. So we’re not ignorant. Notice 1:1-7
Second, Proverbs strengthens your trust in the LORD. Turn to 22:17-19 with me…
Third, Proverbs makes you better at obedience to God. Notice 1:3-5. Wisdom and obedience improve each other. Wisdom leads to obedience and obedience leads to wisdom. Psalm 119:97-104. Notice how obedience to what he knows gives him greater wisdom.
Fourth, Proverbs conditions your mind by wisdom so that you make better decisions in situations where its not clear what to do. In other words, if the Scriptures don’t necessarily say anything directly to something your facing, and you are earnestly trying to please God, then if your mind has been saturated by wisdom such as Proverbs, and your mind has been conditioned by wisdom, then your heart and mind are in a better place to discern what is best, what is good, what is right, even if there is not a proverb or verse to guide you.
WHAT WISDOM IS
“What is wisdom?” Proverbs 8 is a fascinating chapter as it is a personification of wisdom. As if “Wisdom” was a person who was speaking to us. Verse 20 says “I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice.”
Do you see it? The moral aspect of wisdom? Wisdom is your “skillset in righteousness,” or your ability to act with moral excellence. It is learning how to cut through a situation with the right decision, the right behavior, the right words, so as to honor God.
Wisdom begins with fear – fear of the LORD. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…”. Job 28:28 says wisdom is fear of the Lord, and that means to shun evil
In Exodus 20:20 Moses told the people that the fear of God would keep them from sinning. Over and over in Scripture we see that the fear of God is wisdom and it is tied to righteous living, and avoiding evil/sin. James 1:17 says “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” See the moral output of God’s wisdom? Colossians 1:9-11 says Paul prayed that the Christians would be “filled with knowledge of Gods will through all the wisdom and understanding given by the Spirit” in order to live lives worthy of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:17, “Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” The point is to know it so we would do it.
Wisdom is not found in academic achievement and letters behind your name. Academia is brimming over with fools. Wisdom is not found in worldly success either. It’s not street-smarts either, where you’ve learned to make it through in this world because you’ve learned people and situations and are clever.
Wisdom is knowing how to act in order to please God with your life. That’s why Proverbs starts out in chapter 1 with “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” (Proverbs 1:7)
Of course, what does the fear of the LORD have to do with wisdom? The fear of the LORD is your attitude, whereas wisdom is your know-how. You have to have an attitude where you want to live for God’s honor, where you want your life to glorify Him, where you want to please Him in all you do. Wisdom is the skillset to do that – wisdom is your SKILL at righteous living. It is the moral know-how for living your life in a way that is pleasing to God.
Sometimes wisdom is confused with knowledge or facts. No. Wisdom is not the ability to regurgitate facts about your environment, or learning about some matter where you can give correct answers. Wisdom is not merely idle knowledge; it is not the passive possession of facts about the world around you. A person may have been immersed in Christian atmosphere their whole lives and be able to say “Yeah, I know all that.” But while they “know all that” they don’t live their lives to the glory of God. They don’t choose to please Him with their decisions and direction in life. Wisdom is knowing what is right in God’s eyes and DOING IT! Wisdom is practicing moral, spiritual, biblical truths that you know. Wisdom is action.
CONCLUSION: SEEK WISDOM
Fools reject Wisdom. But the wise seek it. Let none of us be foolish Christians. But may each of us seek the wisdom that is from above, that is perfect, that is of God, that we may please God who is above, who is all-wise and perfect. If God would give you one thing you wanted make wisdom the one thing you want more than anything else. I finish with Proverbs 8:10-11