Proverbs 1:20–25
I love the Old Testament book of Proverbs. But it wasn’t always this way. There was a time when I didn’t find it to be of much use at all.
It seemed to me to be a book filled with outmoded sayings my grandmother might have used to keep me in line. You know, maybe something warning me about the friends I chose — “Birds of a feather flock together” — or making certain I understood that there were consequences to my choices — “If you’re going to lie down with dogs, you’re going to get up with fleas.”
I certainly didn’t need a whole book like that!
But, as I got older, I started reading it more seriously, with some help to sort through the ancient language, metaphors and images, and I actually began to appreciate the points the writer was making. There was still a problem, though.
I would read a proverb such as “Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are older, they will not depart from it”(see Proverbs 22:6), and I would think, “Life does not always work out that way. No matter how well a child is parented, it does not guarantee that the child will always make wise, godly choices.”
It was then that a point from a biblical scholar helped me. He said, “The book’s name is not Promises. The book’s name is Proverbs. In other words, this book is not made up of the ironclad guarantees of God. Rather, it is made up of statements and assertions that essentially say, ‘When you live life on God’s terms, this is the way that life usually tends to work out.’”
The book has a word for that, and that word is wisdom.
Simply put, then, wisdom is living life in a way that reflects the mind, will and thinking of God. And when we live lives of wisdom, life usually works out in sound and healthy ways.
Paul, in the New Testament, has his own way of saying that. He says, “Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. People reap what they sow” (Galatians 6:7).
So, with that background in mind, consider these words from the first chapter of the book of Proverbs:
Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,
she raises her voice in the public square;
on top of the wall she cries out,
at the city gate she makes her speech:
“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?
Repent at my rebuke!
Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,
I will make known to you my teachings.
–Proverbs 1:20–23
Most of us recognize that eating a healthy diet, exercising, getting sufficient rest and nurturing a healthy emotional life will not guarantee that we live healthy to an old age, but it will increase the likelihood that such will happen. In fact, it may significantlyincrease that likelihood.
It’s the same way with wisdom. Living wisely (in harmony with God’s principles) in the way He calls us to does not guarantee that all will work out well. But it certainly increases that likelihood.
So, pull out the book of Proverbs (in a contemporary translation) and read it today. Consider the ways and will of God. And realize that, through it, today, wisdom calls out to you: “Live life in a way that harmonizes with God’s desires, and just see how life turns out!”
—Randy Roberts, DMin, is vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.
