Posted by Jeff Short on July 3, 2016 · 1 Comment
For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
– Proverbs 3:2
These are blessings of wisdom. This is a general truism. It doesn’t guarantee that every individual who is wise lives a long life on the earth. Solomon reminds in Ecclesiastes that advantage and prosperity are not always to the wise (Ecclesiastes 9:11). However, this is the general trend of wisdom. One who walks in wisdom generally avoids the pitfalls of folly that end life early for those who walk that way. Beside this, the days, whatever number, of the wise are generally in peace, which points to safety and a contented happiness. The one who dwells in wisdom is generally at peace with neighbors and family and not dwelling in a continual state of agitation and strife.
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Posted by Jeff Short on July 2, 2016 · 1 Comment
Chapter 3 exhorts us in the study of truth. Unquestionably, God gives wisdom and is the source of it, but that is not a shortcut. Study is not excluded because we ask wisdom from God. He has given us means of obtaining wisdom and we are to seek wisdom through those. This chapter teaches us some of the practical means of obtaining wisdom and some of the practical effects of wisdom. We learn here that walking in wisdom is walking with God. The chapter ends with the contrasted destinies of the righteous and the wicked.
My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
– Proverbs 3:1
Verses 1-10 urge a full and joyful commitment to wisdom so that we do not lean on our own understanding but trust fully in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6). The latter verses of this section illustrate the evidence of such a commitment to wisdom and the fruit produced by it. It gives us the picture of a happy and quiet life.
Verse 1 continues the fatherly directions to his son. He admonishes his son to “forget not” and to “keep”. The word for forget means to mislay something. It has the idea of losing something through lack of attention and care. The word for keep means to guard and to watch so as to preserve. In a sense the words are opposites of one another. Solomon tells his son to commit to this and be deliberate about guarding it so you don’t lose it.
The son is to guard the “law” and “commandments” of his father. The word for law means a teaching or instruction. It commonly refers to the law given to Moses or even the Pentateuch as a whole. Here it is the law of the father, or the wisdom he teaches through inspiration of the Spirit that applies the law to the individual. Commandments are commands and, taken with law, encompasses the whole of divine instruction. This brings us back to the Word of God and that there is no obtaining and keeping of wisdom apart from God’s Word.
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Posted by Jeff Short on July 1, 2016 · 1 Comment
But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
– Proverbs 2:22
Chapter 2 closes with drawing attention to the two ways. One way is a way of wisdom and of life. The other is the way of folly and of death. This verse continues the reference to Israel and the law. Just as the righteous will inherit the promises, the wicked will be cut off from the inheritance of Israel. More generally here, it is that the wicked and transgressors will be cut off from the blessings and promises of wisdom. They will not enter into life. Wicked means a guilty person and is sometimes translated ungodly. Transgressor means someone unfaithful or treacherous. It relates to interpersonal relations and points to a person who deals deceitfully. The result is the same for both—no part in the life to come.
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 30, 2016 · 1 Comment
For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
– Proverbs 2:21
Wisdom literature is the application of God’s law on a personal and individual level. Dwelling in the land and remaining in the land hearken back to the blessings for Israel (Deuteronomy 11:8). Passages such as Leviticus 26 enumerate blessings and cursings for Israel. If they walk in God’s way, they inherit the blessings. If they forsake God’s way, they inherit the curses. It is here more generally for the obtaining of the blessings through wisdom. Of course, wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7), includes repentance (Proverbs 1:23), and continues in God’s way (Proverbs 1:33). This verse gives consequence for walking in “the way of good men” and keeping “the paths of the righteous.”
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 29, 2016 · 1 Comment
That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
– Proverbs 2:20
Verses 20-22 provide a summary conclusion of what has gone before. This verse ties back to the earlier verses about seeking wisdom and the rewards when we find it. Beginning in verse 12, we are told what wisdom keeps us from and here what wisdom keeps us to. Rather than going in the various ways of evil men and strange women, wisdom puts us in the way of good men and the paths of the righteous. Solomon will have more to say about companions explicitly, but we have already seen enough to know who our companions are is important.
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 28, 2016 · 1 Comment
None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
– Proverbs 2:19
Solomon still speaks of the strange woman and gives a sober warning. Solomon elsewhere described the strange woman as “snares and nets, and her hands as bands” (Ecclesiastes 7:26). She is entrapping and enslaving. Those who give themselves over to her are not recovered in one way and rarely recovered in another. They are not recovered in the sense of the damage they do to themselves and their families (1 Corinthians 6:18; Proverbs 6:26-33). They are not recovered if they continue in sin without repenting and forsaking their fornication and adulteries.
They are rarely recovered in the sense that some through repentance and faith are changed and pursue holiness. Remember the warning in the context is that wisdom will keep us from entering into those sins. The warning is designed to keep us from going that way. The difficulty of being recovered should keep us from going there. Whoredom is a trap (Proverbs 23:27). Those who pursue it are devoid of understanding (Proverbs 6:32) and even good sense (Romans 1:28). Their minds are darkened and their consciences hardened (Ephesians 4:18-19).
Solomon will go on to give further instruction but much of it has to do with avoiding the strange woman altogether (Proverbs 4:14-15; 5:8; 6:5, 25; 7:25). Paul would say, “Flee” (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:22). Likewise, Jesus warned of the sin by the eyes (Matthew 5:28)—lingering looks, second and third glances, staring at flickering screens, carrying images in our minds of those we frequently see. Jesus immediately after said it would be better to be blind and go to heaven than to have 20/20 vision we used to fuel lusts and go to hell. War presses daily on the eye-gate and we have to give our life defending it.
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 27, 2016 · 1 Comment
For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
– Proverbs 2:18
The way of the strange woman ends in destruction. The underlying Hebrew in this verse presents difficulties for interpreters, but the overall point is that the way of the strange woman is the way of death. Inclineth means to sink down. Her house and her path go down to death and the dead. The word for dead here indicates the shades of the departed or spirits of the dead. That is the company to be joined by going into her house (Proverbs 9:18). To go her way is to choose death and give up life.
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 26, 2016 · 1 Comment
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
– Proverbs 2:17
Solomon describes the character of the strange woman. She is pictured as being unreliable and unfaithful. She forsakes and forgets her commitments of life. The word for guide is sometimes translated as friend. It means a close intimate friend and here, “guide of her youth” refers to her husband. She is well painted as an adulterous. The covenant mentioned refers to the covenant of the law, which forbade adultery (Exodus 20:14) and the lust that leads to it (Exodus 20:17). She is a woman of hard conscience, willing and ready to pursue her lusts wherever they may lead.
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 25, 2016 · 3 Comments
To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
– Proverbs 2:16
Solomon here introduces the “strange woman,” of whom he has much more to say in chapters 5-7. The word for strange means foreign and refers to the pagan women of the nations outside of Israel. Through usage the term came to refer to any loose, immoral, and adulterous woman. Solomon will go on to sketch her character and her ways more fully. Mention of her is accompanied with appropriate warning. The strange woman represents a second kind of danger for fools lacking wisdom and is a complement to the evil man previously mentioned.
The strange woman has a prominent role in Proverbs as she is set as the anti-wisdom, or the opposite of lady wisdom. Wisdom will protect from and deliver from this dangerous adulterous. She flatters with her words, meaning she uses smooth speech to persuade the simple to go with her. Her smooth speech is appealing and designed to ignite passion in the man she seeks to ensnare. So she is a manipulator as well, using all her wiles to take her prey.
The strange woman is also contrasted with the virtuous woman of chapter 31. Strange women are presented as being plenteous and seemingly everywhere present. The virtuous woman is immediately described as being hard to find, but imminently valuable when found. Solomon knew by bitter experience the difference between the two and gave impassioned warnings against the strange woman.
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Proverbs 3:2
Posted by Jeff Short on July 3, 2016 · 1 Comment
For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
These are blessings of wisdom. This is a general truism. It doesn’t guarantee that every individual who is wise lives a long life on the earth. Solomon reminds in Ecclesiastes that advantage and prosperity are not always to the wise (Ecclesiastes 9:11). However, this is the general trend of wisdom. One who walks in wisdom generally avoids the pitfalls of folly that end life early for those who walk that way. Beside this, the days, whatever number, of the wise are generally in peace, which points to safety and a contented happiness. The one who dwells in wisdom is generally at peace with neighbors and family and not dwelling in a continual state of agitation and strife.– Proverbs 3:2
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