Chapter 1: What is the book of Proverbs about anyway?
We’ve all heard how Proverbs is full of wisdom. But what does it mean to us in everyday life? How can we, living in the 21st century, really use its principals to apply to our personal lives, and if so, How? My goal is that this book will help you understand the wonderful book of Proverbs and how to utilize its instructions for today.
Let’s begin with the first seven verses. They outline exactly what we’ll be learning as we read the book of Proverbs.
1. We will gain wisdom and instruction for our understanding and insight into everyday situations.
2. We will receive instruction for how to exercise good judgment when handling practical matters.
3. We will learn how to live justly and fair to all.
4. We will learn how to teach others our wisdom and guidance.
5. We will learn to be wise in listening to others, not just hearing their words.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7 NIV
Heavenly Father, I ask that you touch my life in such a supernatural way that I crave spending time with You and learning more from Your Word. I ask that you use me to further Your Kingdom on Earth, and that my primary purpose in life will be to see just how many souls I can witness to while on this earth by my words, but more importantly, by my actions. Help me to be the Godly man or woman that you speak about in the book of Proverbs. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
How can I improve my relationship with God by reading and studying the book of Proverbs? What do I hope to learn from this study that will help me in my everyday situations?
Chapter 2: Warning against Sinful Men
In verses 8 - 19, we are warned against listening to ill advice from Godless men. The writer tells us that we should listen to our father’s instruction and not forget our mother’s teaching. Mind you, this does not mean that if your dad is a member of the mafia and your mother is a drug addict that you should heed their advice. This is spoken in the context that your parents heeded the word of God and were Christian examples. If your parents were not, was there someone in your life who was a Godly example to you? Was there someone whose advice you truly cherished and trusted?
To clarify, no matter the life your parents lived, whether good or bad examples, they still deserve honor as your father and mother for the place they hold in your life as your parents. This is not about mimicking anyone’s bad examples - this is just about giving honor and respect to those that the Bible tells us to honor, your parents, so that your days may be long upon the earth.
These verses also dictate to you that when bad influences try to come into life and convince you to stray and do things that you know in your heart are against God’s teachings, you should not go along with them. You know their paths are evil and they will come to a horrible demise, whether on this Earth or in the afterlife, but it will happen and that is not the kind of life that God desires for His children. These evil people lie in wait for those who lack self-esteem, who are searching for answers or who do not feel they fit in with those around them. Be sure of who you are in Christ. Do not ever let anyone convince you that you are anything less than a child of the one true King.
Imagine that, child of a King. Society, as a whole, revers royalty. The Queen of England knows how to act like a royalty and teaches her children and grandchildren to behave accordingly. She expects no less of them than for their behavior to exemplify their bloodline. Why would our Heavenly Father, the King of EVERYTHING, expect any different of us? He has given us his Word, which is filled with instructions on how we should act. The most important instruction is to 1)accept Jesus as our Savior, which makes us a child of His Father, the King; 2)behave as though we are Princes and Princesses, because our Father is a KING. Let that sink in. Our Father is not just A King, but THE King. The Creator of Heaven and Earth and everything in it and on it. Once we get that into our heads, we cannot help but to have increased value in ourselves, increased self esteem, while also becoming increasingly humbled by the thought that God in Heaven created YOU and ME. He wanted us alive so badly to experience His world, that He formed you in your mother’s womb. Whether you were raised by that birth mother or adopted, you were still formed in a womb and had life breathed into you by your Heavenly Father. How awesome is that!?
Finally, these verses tell what will happen to those who lie in wait for someone to lead astray. Those evil people who follow Satan’s commands/ignore God’s laws. Those men/women will come to a horrible end, and by harming others they are literally planning their own demise. Do not be a follower of them. Learn to recognize your enemy. Pray for discernment.
Heavenly Father, please show me who is true and loves you and follows your commands and who is fake and wants nothing but to lead me astray. Thank you, Father, for giving me the spirit of discernment in my life so I can do your Will.
In Jesus’ name. Amen
What will I apply to my everyday life to help me discern those who intend to cause me harm or lead me astray versus those who want to help me?
How can I be the person in someone’s life who is the shining example of a Proverbs man or woman? What are some changes that I need to make in my life to accomplish this?
Chapter 3: Wisdom Personified
In the next verses all the way to the end of the chapter, the writer gives Wisdom a personality, so let’s call this person “Wisdom.” These verses remind us that no matter what decisions we make or what we do, things will always come to the surface and be exposed by the light of day. There is absolutely nothing we can do that will always remain a secret. Nothing. When deciding how to behave in private, when you think you can get away with something you should not be doing, think about how you would feel if that action were posted all over the internet and plastered all over every newspaper in the world. Is this an action that would bring shame to your family and yourself, or would it bring honor to those you love? Mark my words, that action, whether good or bad, WILL one day surface. So make the best of your actions and bring honor to your family, and most importantly, to God.
In these verses, Wisdom is asking how long fools will shun her teachings and continue to desire to remain foolish? She is begging all to repent and turn from their wicked ways and follow her wise teachings. Just like we, as Christians, long for those in our care to follow our teachings, whether they are our children or our nieces/nephews or other members of our family. When we know that something will harm someone in the long run if they keep making poor choices, how desperately do we plead with them to change their ways? Yet, we also know that no one will ever change until that person is ready to change. These verses personify those feelings or desperation to help someone who will not listen and who continues down a harmful path.
In verse 26, Wisdom says she will laugh when disaster strikes and mock you when calamity comes upon you like a storm. What this means is not that someone is physically laughing at you, though I’m sure there are those who will, but this means that when one lie leads to another lie leads to another lie, etc., and you are suddenly faced with a whirlwind of disaster, the voice of wisdom in the back of your mind will remind you that you knew better. You knew the consequences and chose those actions anyway, hoping you would not get caught - that you could slip by and get away with it. However, as I stated earlier, everything always comes to light. But you already know that in the back of your mind.
Verse 28 tells us that we will seek wisdom once we are in our disaster, once we finally hit bottom, but that wisdom will not be found. There is a reason why the Pledge to the Bible that we learned in Vacation Bible School tells us to “hide these words in our heart, so we might not sin against God.” When we are at the end of our rope, unless we have memorized Bible verses that we can call on as a wise lifeline, we are pretty much stuck in our situation until we bring out our trusty Bible, or a friend’s Bible, or a hotel room Bible (you get the picture), and find our answers on how to get out of our self-created mess. I recently read where Toby Mac (who sings one of my favorite songs called, “Move - Keep Walkin’”) said we are to pray and ask for God’s plan for our life. Not makes our plans and then ask God to fix them.
A pastoral friend reminded me that sometimes it may not be always be a scripture verse, but it could be a testimony or a song that you heard, a pastor’s sermon or a piece of it that stuck with you, even just something that someone told you. God can and will use any means to speak to us. After all, he is God, and with him all things are possible. With that being said, having the scripture already in our heart thru memorization and meditation is the best way to protect our minds from evil forces out to destroy us.
An example is this true story that Pastor Charmaine Davis passed on to me: “I remembered a story of a guy whose mom prayed for him without ceasing. He went surfing one day and had the unfortunate luck of being bitten by about 5 sting rays and was dying in the ambulance. He realized on his death bed that he had a life both displeasing to his mother and to his Creator. He wondered if God would even hear his prayers now. So then entered the spirits of doubt and fear telling him that even if God would hear his prayer, he would not have a clue what to say or how to begin. Suddenly, he remembered something he heard as a child that he needed to ask God to forgive him of his sins and for him to forgive anyone who had sinned against him. He did that earnestly and sincerely; then he died. He went to heaven with Jesus. Jesus stood in front of a door and told him, “This door is eternity, once you walk through it, you cannot come back. Do you want to go back?” The guy said, “Nobody down there loved me.” Just as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he immediately saw a vision of his mom praying for him at that very second. Then the man said to Jesus, “No one, except her. If I do not go back, she will think I was never saved and she will not even know I made it for as long as she lives. Please, Jesus, I must go back and tell her.” Jesus gave him a commission of what he was to do and then sent him back. Sometime it may not be a scripture that we quote, but like the thief on the cross, God hears our heartfelt words.
That brings us back to Verses 28-31: Since we didn’t follow God’s teachings of wisdom, we will call but not hear an answer. Since we hated hearing knowledge and chose not to fear God in our lives, we will reap the fruit that we sowed and “get what we deserve.” The great news is that as long as we accept Christ as our personal Savior and believe that He died on the cross for our sins so we might have eternal life, and then rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven with our Father, we will NEVER truly get what we deserve. God’s grace and mercy will surround us and save us from the terrible folly that we deserve called hell. However, we will still reap what we sow on earth and our actions will always have consequences. Whether those actions were good or bad will determine the consequences. It actually takes less energy to be a blessing to someone than to be detrimental to someone; let’s choose to be a blessing and, therefore, reap our own blessing by making good choices.
As in verse 33, if we listen to wisdom and Godly teachings, we will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm. We won’t ever “wait for the other shoe to drop,” knowing we’ve done something wrong and always wondering if we are about to get caught. We will, instead, spend our days looking forward to waking up each morning and watching the sunrise, knowing God chose to give us another day to enjoy this life. We will spend our time in fellowship with our Father and look forward to the time that we share together, just like Jesus shared His time with our Father in the garden in the cool of the day - just being together with the One who loves us most.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the time that we can share together. I thank you for creating in me a craving for Your Word and a desire to grow closer to you. Thank you for so many things in my life, Father. Thank you for loving me enough to give me life abundantly and free. I ask that you give me a better understanding of Your Word as I continue to read the book of Proverbs and help me to apply these values to my everyday life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
What are some things that I have been avoiding that I know I need to make right? What are some examples of things I could change and be a blessing to those I see in need?
