Proverbs 1a

Today we begin a series of devotionals based on the Book of Proverbs, which follows Psalms in our Bible. However, in the Hebrew Scriptures, that is, the Old Testament, Proverbs comes in the last section called ‘The Writings’, or Ketuvim. The Writings follow ‘The Law’ or Torah and ‘The Prophets’ or Nevi’im.

The Writings are further sub-divided into ‘The Books of Truth’, ‘The Scrolls’, and ‘The Rest’. The Books of Truth include Psalms, Job, and Proverbs. These are sometimes called “Wisdom Literature,” though some are poetry and some are history. What ties them together seems to be that they are stories or sayings that make a moral point. For example, Ruth, which is one of the Scrolls, shows that faithful people from the nations around Israel can be included in the people of God; remember that Ruth was a Moabite who became King David’s grandmother.

In the centuries before Jesus, every Ancient Near Eastern culture seems to have treasured some wisdom literature. For example, the Egyptians had, among other writings, The Teaching of Amenemope, and the Babylonians had The Counsels of Wisdom. Certain similarities in some of the Proverbs indicate that Israel’s scholars were familiar with the literature of other peoples, and even may have adapted some of it. We have said all along that the Old Testament exists in a historical context of Ancient Near Eastern cosmologies, concepts, and assumptions about the world. For example; the Creation story refers to the gods of other people, but treats them as beings or things created by Yahweh.

Finally, we will wrestle with the overall claim that the Bible is the Word of God. Some people take that to mean that every verse is like a little commandment or promise from God. That certainly is not true, or Amos 4:4 would tell us to “Come to Bethel and transgress.” We students at Bethel College were tempted to hang that saying on the wall. One needs to keep the whole of Scripture in mind when we say that the Bible is the Word of God.

This book is titled ‘Proverbs’, and conventional human wisdom they are. They are not laws. The book rarely refers to The Torah (first five books of the Bible) in anything that it says. These are proverbial wisdom; they are not prophecies. Proverbs are human observations of things that go on in daily life, they are neither laws nor promises. Proverbs are worth pondering, however, otherwise the rabbis and priests would not have included them in the canon of Scripture.

While it is true that you should “Look before you leap,” it is also true that “He who hesitates is lost.” These statements are contradictory, but still each is true for certain life situations. The problem is not with the proverbial statement, the problem is with the person who misuses the proverb by treating it as a law or promise. The Book of Proverbs itself recognizes this danger. “The legs of a disabled person hang limp, so does a proverb in the mouth of a fool” (26:7).

1:1        The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

Does this mean that Solomon created all these proverbs, or that Solomon collected these proverbs? Did Solomon observe all these events, or had he only heard these wise sayings and now is recording them because he thinks the reader should meditate on them? Solomon probably created some of these but collected others. In fact, two other authors are mentioned somewhere in the collection: Agur son of Jakeh (30:1), and the mother of King Lemuel (31:1). Some sections have a different history of transmission. For example, Chapter 25, verse 1, says “These are other proverbs of Solomon that the officials of King Hezekiah of Judah copied.”[1] We can conclude that these are the proverbs that Solomon collected, some that he wrote and some that he heard, and some that are attributed to him by those in a later age.

1: 2-6   For learning about wisdom and instruction,

                            for understanding words of insight,

              for gaining instruction in wise dealing,

                            righteousness, justice, and equity;

              to teach shrewdness to the simple,

                            knowledge and prudence to the young—

              let the wise, too, hear and gain in learning

                            and the discerning acquire skill,

              to understand a proverb and a figure,

                            the words of the wise and their riddles.

Vademecum is a word that we used to hear more often when, before the Internet, we depended on handy books that were collections of information about something.[2] As missionaries in Papua New Guinea, we relied on a book titled Where there is no doctor.[3] Proverbs is a such a vademecum, a collection of wisdom sayings that you can carry with you to consult for guidance. The last date that these proverbs were current compendiums of human wisdom was probably around 300 B.C. So this wisdom was helpful to parents teaching their children as well as to scholars trying to remember all that wise people observed in the past.

Proverbs are condensed human wisdom; yet, you will see, along the way like signposts, a reminder of the difference between human wisdom and God’s wisdom. Human wisdom can be good and useful, however…

1: 7       The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

                            fools despise wisdom and instruction.

[1] King Hezekiah reigned in Judah from 715 to 686 B.C. Solomon was king from 970 to 931. Hezekiah reigned from 715 to 686 B.C. That means that Hezekiah’s officials wrote these down over 200 years after the time of Solomon. Where were these proverbs in the meantime?

[2] “A handbook or guide that is kept constantly at hand for consultation. The phrase is Latin and means ‘go with me’; it is first used (in the early 17th century) as the title of a book” (Oxford English Dictionary).

[3] This useful book is now in its 19th revised printing.