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The Ambassador Group

The Book of Proverbs

1. Proverbs: The Call of Wisdom

0. Proverbs: Introduction to the Book of Proverbs

2. Proverbs: From Ears to Feet

3. Proverbs: A Matter of Life and Death

4. Proverbs: Divine Wisdom

5. Proverbs: The Blessings of the Righteous

6. Proverbs: What You See Is Not What You Get

7. Proverbs: Dealing With Fights

8. Proverbs: Words of Wisdom

9. Proverbs: Words of Truth

10. Proverbs: Behind the Mask

11. Proverbs: Living By Faith

12. Proverbs: The Humility of the Wise

13. Proverbs: Women and Wine

Welcome to Words of the Wise, an introduction to the Book of Proverbs, by Dr.

Jacques Biducan, brought to you by the Ambassador Group.

The Call of Wisdom From Eden onward, the root of human tragedy lies in wrong choices.

Man lost all because he chose to listen to the deceiver rather than to Him who is Truth, who alone has understanding.

By the mingling of evil with good, his mind had become confused.

The book of Proverbs is all about helping us to make right choices, to choose the way of God and not that of the deceiver.

The father or the mother, speaking to their son, not only warns him against wrong choices, but encourages him to make the right ones.

This is so important because the choices we make are literally matters of life and death.

The first 3 chapters of Proverbs illustrate this method of education.

After having explained the purpose of the book, to know wisdom, Proverbs 1 verse 2, and having laid down the motto of the book, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

The author moves back and forth from warning us against listening to foolishness to urging us to respond to the call of heavenly wisdom.

Dukhan will recommend a proverb, a verse, to memorize.

Today's wisdom comes from Proverbs 1, verse 7, in the New King James Version.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.

To understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings.

In Proverbs 1.1-6 the title says, The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David.

Proverbs 1.1 which establishes a link between this proverb and 1 Kings 3 verses 5-14.

In the books of 1 and 2 Kings, as in the book of Proverbs, Solomon is presented as a son seeking wisdom from God.

In addition to both referring to Solomon as the son of David, the 2 texts share significant common wording such as understand, wisdom, and judgment.

Not only do these parallels confirm Solomon as the 1 behind the composition of the book, they also show that Proverbs is dealing with the human quest for wisdom from God.

So how does Proverbs 1 verse 7 answer these questions?

How do these 2 concepts relate to each other?

Proverbs 1 verse 7 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The word wisdom in this proverb is defined as a religious experience.

This important concept of the Hebrew religion is key to the book of Proverbs.

Not only does it occur repeatedly, but it also frames the entire book.

Another text to show religious experience is Proverbs 31 verse 30, which says, Favor is deceitful, and bounty is vain, and beauty is vain.

But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised." The fear of the Lord has nothing to do with the superstitious and childish fear of divine punishment.

Instead, it should be understood as the acute consciousness of God's personal presence at all times and everywhere.

The fear of the Lord had characterized the people's reaction to God's revelation at Sinai, just as it explained their commitment to be faithful and to love God in response to His covenant with them.

Exodus 19 verse 16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

Exodus 20 verse 20 tells us what Moses said about fearing God.

And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

Deuteronomy 10 verse 12 reports how Moses provided further detailed instructions about fearing God.

And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul." To fear God means to be faithful to Him and to love Him.

The phrase, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, means that wisdom originates in this fear.

The Hebrew word for beginning, pronounced re-she-f, points to the first word introducing the creation story, in Genesis 1-1.

The first lesson of wisdom, then, deals with understanding that God is our Creator, the 1 who gives us life and breath, and that He is always present, a God of love and justice and redemption.

John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Psalm 89.14 says, Justice and judgment are the habitations of thy throne.

Mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

And Hebrews 9, 12 says, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." We are told to love God and also to fear Him.

How do these 2 concepts relate to your own experience with the Lord?

In daily reality, do you ever ponder or think about these introspective questions?

True Education Listen to Proverbs 1, Verses 8-19.

What 2 contrasting ways is education presented in these verses?

And what is the basic message, not just for parents, but for everyone who fears the Lord?

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.

For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

For they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk Privily for the innocent without cause.

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave, And whole as those that go down into the pit.

We shall find all precious substance, We shall fill our houses with spoil.

Cast in thy lot among us, let us All have 1 purse.

My son, walk not thou in the way with them, refrain thy foot from their path.

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

And they lay wait for their own blood, they lurk privily for their own lives.

So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof." Try to identify the answers from the verses you've just heard.

Again, the 2 questions are, what 2 contrasting ways of education are presented in these verses.

And what's the basic message in these verses, not just for parents, but for everyone who fears the Lord?

Education is, first of all, a family matter, and true education comes first and foremost from the parents.

In these verses, this education is called instruction, and even law.

The Hebrew word for law, Torah, means direction.

The parents are to point their children in the right direction.

In contrast, the other type of education is not identified, not given a name.

It is simply acknowledged as the voice of sinners, which leads in the wrong direction.

Also, the words, my son, not to be taken in a gender-exclusive sense, are repeated many times, emphasizing parental instruction.

Each parent, for example, your father and your mother, in the New King James Version, is clearly identified in the singular and is personally involved, while the other Camp, Sinners, is an anonymous plural.

In her book, The Adventist Home, on page 182, Ellen G.

White wrote, In his wisdom the Lord had decreed that the family shall be the greatest of all educational agencies.

It is in the home that the education of the child is to begin.

Here, with his parents as instructors, he is to learn the lessons that are to guide him throughout life.

The Educational influences of the home are a decided power for good or for evil.

If the child is not instructed or right here, Satan will educate him through agencies of his choosing.

The best argument on behalf of family education is its results.

These are the inner qualities of character, which are like ornaments on the head and around the neck.

In the Middle Eastern culture, precious collars and bracelets were passed from parents to children as a heritage of value.

Education matters more, though, than material riches.

The time spent with our children will be of much greater value for them than the time spent at our businesses.

Also, the reference to the neck and the head, which is the individual's face, suggests that education will shape his or her personality.

In the way of fools or sinners, only the feet are mentioned, as if the wayward son had lost his identity.

Proverbs 1 verse 15 is an example of the feet and where they walk being an indication of a person's character.

My son, walk not thou in the way with them.

How can you learn to resist the temptations that culture, society, friends, and even family might throw your way.

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Series

The Book of Proverbs

1. Proverbs: The Call of Wisdom

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Law of God in the Great Controversy

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The Reformation: Just a Misunderstanding?

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The Mock Trial

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Seven Dips in Dirty Water

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Being True to Our Trust

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GYC SE 2012 Seminar: Lessons in Warfare

Special Forces

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Present Truth

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What Jesus Said

13. Peace in the Middle East

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Truth and Consequences

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Sound Doctrine