REFLECTIONS ON THE PROVERBS
(Comments on passages from the Old Testament book of Proverbs that have jumped out at me in my studies through the years.)

Proverbs 1:32-33:
For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.

These two verses give the promise of wisdom: those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.

Proverbs 2:3:
...if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding [then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God, v.5]

Here, we’re exhorted to ask for wisdom and understanding. James picks up on this in the New Testament. “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, Who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” (James 1:5) God wants to give us the wisdom to understand Him and ourselves and our niches in life. But God will not force anything upon us. He gives us the freedom to ask or to ignore Him.

Proverbs 2:6:
For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding...

God is the Author and Giver of wisdom. Receiving wisdom is intrinsically tied to the fear of the Lord (1:7).

Proverbs 3:1-2:
My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you.

In the hubbub of life, it is so easy for me to forget God and His wisdom for my life. James talks about this too. “For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing.” (James 1:23-25) Pray, soak up God’s Word, live it, go back to praying again. Without the twin disciplines of time with God and living what God teaches us, we too easily fall prey to our own covetousness and the evil around us.