The Beginning of Wisdom

Good morning, welcome to New Horizon, please open your Bibles to Proverbs 1.

New sermon series- 5 weeks- A Word to the Wise.

Read Proverbs 1:1–7- “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Pray.

Why proverbs? John Bunyan- The Pilgrim’s Progress. Story of a journey through life.

City of Destruction to the great Celestial City.

Great cast of characters- Evangelist, Obstinate, Pliable, Worldly Wisemen, Hypocrisy, Charity, etc.

Proverbs- signposts on a journey.

Hebrew noun translated as proverb (masal) is related to a verb that means to represent or to be like something else.

Signposts- represent or display the reality of what is coming ahead.

You are able to see a sign that says falling rocks without having to actually experience falling rocks.

Proverbs of Solomon.

1. What is wisdom?

Wisdom.

Skill in all of life- hakma.

Thinking about and living life as it is meant to be thought about and lived.

Psalm 107:27- “...they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end.”

Their wits (hakma)

All their wisdom was swallowed up.

Exodus 35:30–33- “Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.”

Skill- same Hebrew word (hakma).

In the OT, wisdom was the skill necessary to do something.

Right life, Right mind.

Right life- To know wisdom and instruction; to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice and equity.

There is a way in which life is meant to be lived, and it’s not left up to chance, and it doesn’t simply come to us naturally.

Right mind- To understand words of insight; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth.

There is a right way to set your mind, and again, it’s not left up to chance, and it doesn’t come to us naturally.

Why is the language of wisdom so unpopular nowadays?

We don’t like thinking too hard.

Sometimes, we simply get lazy when it comes to thinking deeply about how this life is meant to be lived.

We would rather wing it. Figure it out when it comes to us. Ignore the road signs.

Wisdom, comes to us with more difficulty.

To know wisdom and instruction.

Instruction- musar- discipline, correction, chastisement.

We don’t like receiving that which comes from the outside.

Notice the wording- receive instruction in wise dealing.

The point being made here by the author is that wisdom is worth it.

2. Who needs wisdom?

There is an interesting parentheses in the middle of all of this language about wisdom.

What makes it interesting is that it doesn’t focus on the foolish needing wisdom.

There is a mention of the simple- prudence, or shrewdness, given to the simple. But notice v. 5.

Proverbs 1:5- “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,”

It is peculiar to me that the author focuses his attention on the wise when he considers who it is that needs wisdom.

We are reminded that this journey in life and our need for wisdom in the midst of it is a continual need, not one that goes away.

Consider the gospel. Wisdom is similar.

Ali at Lincoln.

Dr. Kurka, Dr. Strauss.

Might we approach the Word of God in the same way?

Are you wise? Good. Your wisdom ought to be revealing to you that you need more.

3. Where does this journey begin?

Here we come to what is the theme of the whole book of Proverbs.

The fear of the Lord.

Parallelism- Fear contrasted with despising.

Despise- buz- To hold something as insignificant, to despise, to hold contempt toward something.

Proverbs 14:21- “Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.”

To despise is the opposite here of being generous.

Song of Solomon 8:7- “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.”

He would be dismissed as foolish or worthless.

This despising is a rejecting of the value of an object or person.

Matthew Henry- “Fools are persons who have no true wisdom, who follow their own devices, without regard to reason, or reverence for God.”

Fear of the Lord.

Fear- yira- to revere or respect.

Proverbs 8:13- “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.”

Evil here is described as the opposite of the fear of God. Fear of God could be seen here as humility. Understanding our smallness and God’s bigness.

Wisdom and knowledge and understanding, the ability to live this life as it is meant to be lived, comes from a spirit of reverence for God.

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity- “In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that- and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison- you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

Fear of the Lord is the humility necessary to know that we need something besides our own know-how.

Like Z on the gamer.

Z describes too many of us. We are meant to begin by seeking God, asking Him about this life.

4. Where does this journey end?

Where are we led in the fear of the Lord and this journey of wisdom?

Interesting some of the language used in the beginning of Proverbs 1.

Solomon is described as the King of Israel, but also as the Son of David.

Many messianic implications here, David had received promises from God concerning his son.

2 Samuel 7:12- “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.”

Who, then, is this offspring?

For many, they looked to the next king. Solomon. One who reigned in peacetime and was blessed with God-given wisdom.

For us, we know that Solomon was a king who was pointing to a greater future king. King Jesus.

Jesus even made this known.

Luke 11:29–31- “When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”

The book of Proverbs is outstanding as it leads us to wisdom defined as right thinking and right living.

But it does something else. It points us to the very wisdom of God. And God’s wisdom was made known in the person of Jesus. This was perfect wisdom.

He showed us wisdom in action, but He also is the very source of our wisdom.

So where do we go with this growing in wisdom? Toward what are we aimed?

Ray Ortlund gives some great counsel- “You look at the cross. You see a wise man hanging there, dying in the place of fools like you, because he loves you. You may despise him, but he does not despise you. You may be above him, but he humbled himself for you. Look there at him, and keep looking until your pride melts. You will not only worship, you will begin to grow wise.”

As we begin over the next few weeks to seek out these signposts- we will find that all of them lead us to the very life that Jesus lived.

Our skill in this life will grow only as we look more and more like Jesus.