Assorted Proverbs

What’s the entrance ramp to The Way of Wisdom?  If someone wanted to get started on this Way, what would be some of the first steps?

One of our main texts for this current series is the Book of Proverbs.  It’s mainly a collection of short, pithy and insightful observations about life, about what works and what doesn’t, about wisdom and folly.

Proverbs comes at us the same way life does.  It’s nearly impossible to outline; any one chapter contains more than two dozen proverbs about, well, nearly anything.  First it’s about this, then it’s about that; now it focuses here, then it concentrates over there.  It’s a book of contrasts, of highlighting differences, so one of its favorite words is “but.”  For example:

There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to destruction (14:12).

The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin (10:8).

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom (11:2).

But throughout runs a common thread, both a starting point and the ending destination of life’s journey:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.

If we would grow in Wisdom’s ways, we begin by practicing the fear of the LORD.  In some ways, our English translation of the Hebrew is unfortunate: when we see or hear the word “fear,” our first instinct is to move away.  If we fear flying, we never board an airplane; if we fear heights, we never climb above solid ground.

But this doesn’t work with “the fear of the LORD.” To fear the Lord is to move towards God, not away.  To focus our attention more on the Lord than we do on other things, other voices.  To fear the Lord means that we learn how to wait on God’s initiative and direction, on God’s timing.  To fear the Lord means that we learn to care far more about what God thinks of what we’re doing, and to care less about the opinions of others.

Would we become wiser than we currently are?  To fear the Lord is to begin.

Here’s a challenge: a month has around thirty days, and Proverbs has thirty-one chapters.  So commit to reading one chapter of Proverbs each and every day, for a month.  While some things may be unclear, we promise that, each and every day, you will read something that captures your attention, that grabs you, that makes you say, “This is for me, this is talking about me and my world!”