Proverbs 1 - Lessons from Dad
Notes
Transcript
Thematic Outline
Thematic Outline
Wisdom is skill, not trivia (knowledge vs wisdom; 1:2–6)
Wisdom is moral and covenantal (righteousness/justice/equity; 1:3; fear of the LORD 1:7)
Wisdom requires teachability (receive instruction; parents; reproof)
Wisdom is urgent (“How long…?”; procrastination spirituality; fruit of the way)
Transition line: “If you want a wise life, you need more than answers—you need a new posture.”
Christ bled, but we must sweat. Puritan saying — the striving for wisdom.
Possible Intro:
The difference between knowledge and wisdom. Having all the books and none of the answers. All hat no cattle. I cor. 13 -1 Corinthians 13:2 (ESV) — 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
Think of chat gpt
Think of the elderly or a leader who knows what to do in a time of crisis?
Think of the downfall and downgrade of our universities and the “great bastions” of wisdom.
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 15: Proverbs (Purpose)
Proverbs may use playful language but its aim is deadly serious. The teachers were not training candidates for quiz shows or even Phi Beta Kappa keys. They were recruiting and shaping generations of leaders whose obligation was to practice the fundamental virtues of Israel as laid down by law and ratified by experience. That is why “justice” (or “righteousness”), “judgment” (or “justice”), and “equity” (or “uprightness”) are concerned with conduct that is fair and bolstered by trustworthiness and integrity.
- Possibly good for intro or conclusion — the moral weight of the proverbs.
Wisdom
What is a Proverb? — Imagery, poetry (to live by) what obedience looks like. What holiness looks like. — maximize meaning with minimum words.
Not necessarily spelling out what to do, but the way the world actually works. Study this, now go apply. Prov. 14:4. Think about it. (we’ll spend a week on this)
Proverbs - tomato and fruit salad joke
Those who hate wisdom love death
Think about time — we need time to seek wisdom. We need perspective and to see like God. To grow up in Christ and to be like Him.
Love Him with our mind.
Most likely base the sermon on Prov. 1:1-7.
Can you think of wisdom as a “skill”?
Apprenticeship: wisdom is closer to learning a trade—watch, imitate, get corrected, repeat.
Walking through the text:
Proverbs 1:1 (ESV) — 1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
Introducing Solomon — His asking for wisdom upon his coronation. God gave him a large heart. There was wisdom and blessinS in this request.
1 Kings 4:30–34 (ESV) — 30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. 32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. 34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
1 Kings 10:1 (ESV) — 1 Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions.
Wisdom in savoring and seeing God’s world.
Proverbs 1:2 (ESV) — 2 To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight,
Proverbs 1:3 (ESV) — 3 to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;
Receiving correction — how often do we do that? How do we like it?
It is holy— righteous. It knows what is ethically right before God. How does is interpret the news and what is going on right now? How it sees the world and the craziness and backwardness of our times.
Proverbs 1:4 (ESV) — 4 to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—
Good sense.
Discretion — path of wisdom and right judgement
vv.4-5 describe different kinds of people: simple, young, wise, understanding
The simple are easily influenced - naive, readily seduced.
Proverbs 1:5 (ESV) — 5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,
Seeking out where we are wrong.
Simple and the wise - what other book is applicable to both the beginner and the expert? What other book is that Rich? What are the book is for the 101 class and the PhD
Proverbs 1:6 (ESV) — 6 to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.
Why do the wise speak in riddles?
Think of Jesus’ and the parables. Why?
Why are so many of the Proverbs calling us to discern the riddle presented in nature? We are to pay attention.
Not just saying something about the world, but saying something about you — things you need to think about. Things you need to do, or confess, or start to build.
A wise man can see the way the wind is blowing. Can plan ahead.
Use “fruit language” in counseling for addictive/greedy patterns. The text’s logic is: repeated choices become a harvest you must eat (vv. 31–32). Map choices → trajectories → outcomes.
Proverbs 1:7 (ESV) — 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Thinking about wisdom and fear. We talk about the fear of the Lord we are fearing his holiness. We can sometimes try to approach your wisdom to try to gain advantage from God, not caring at all to want to see ourselves as he sees us. We want his wisdom to gain other attributes in the world. I have had friends that love to read the proverbs because it gives them some tangible sense of gaining God‘s blessing, usually without being said the wealth or the peace. Making no mistake, those are good things, but they are products of seeking holiness. Their products of growing up into wisdom. They are product products of the gospel as it is flushed out among us. We need to fear the Lord and we need to want wisdom in this way. We need to want what God wants. We need to grow up and apply the truth of the gospel and the way that he would have us apply them.
Although it includes worship, it does not end there. It radiates out from our adoration and devotion to our everyday conduct that sees each moment as the Lord’s time, each relationship as the Lord’s opportunity, each duty as the Lord’s command, and each blessing as the Lord’s gift. It is a new way of looking at life and seeing what it is meant to be when viewed from God’s perspective.
Beginning” means more than commencement, although it does mean that. There can surely be nothing that the Bible classifies as true “knowledge” (see 1:2–6) that does not commence with awe that leads to action. But “beginning” is also culmination. The Hebrew root, an offshoot of the word for “head” (see its use in 8:22–26), suggests that which is first in importance as well as in time. The point is not that we begin our quest for knowledge by fearing God and then venture forward to be made perfect by the flesh (Gal. 3:3). The point is that obeying God is the ceiling as well as the foundation of life. It should lead to knowledge, and, in turn, all knowledge should enhance it.
Fools” (Hebrew ʒewı̂l), one of the two basic descriptors (see also kāsı̂l at 1:22–23) of those who choose against God’s way, disrupt society, shame their families, and bear the dreadful consequences, do not even begin this cycle. “Wisdom and instruction” (see 1:2–6) are not only ignored, they are totally devalued (despised) by them. The antithetical structure shows that the fear of the Lord comes last, not first (“beginning”) with them. That is why they are fools. Their basic lack is not intelligence quotient, educational opportunity, or positive examples. They are not so much stupid as wicked (see ch. 10).
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 15: Proverbs Call to Attention
What the fools despise (v. 7) is a source of elegance, delight, and beauty. No yoke pictured here. No back-to-the-wall, nose-to-the-grindstone kind of clenched-jaw obedience. The teacher knows better than that, as did the psalmist (Ps. 1:2). To fear God and to act on that fear as it was compressed into the fiber of parental instruction is to be graced with eye-catching beauty like the chains or necklace that adorned the beloved in the Song (4:9). “Ornament” is probably a wreath or garland of greenery or flowers (see 4:9).
Creation order under covenant Lordship: Proverbs assumes a moral fabric God built into the world; fearing YHWH aligns you with reality.
Proverbs 1:8 (ESV) — 8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
Teaching of parent to child.
God teaching His children
Discipleship is like this — “you have teacher but need fathers” 1 Cor. 4.
Think of this as another example of humility — learning from others. Learning and honoring your parents
Application:
“Who has permission to correct me?” If nobody, you’re functionally un-discipled. (1:3, 1:8)
Build “wise company”: proximity to mature saints is a means God uses (your Hubbard quote supports this).
Proverbs 1:9 (ESV) — 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Proverbs 1:10–19 (ESV) — 10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”— 15 my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17 For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, 18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. 19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
The fact that this alarm of the dangers of bad company is the first specific warning sounded in Proverbs suggests that folly is not just an individual matter but a social one as well. We travel in groups—whether they are our social friends, our service club, our prayer partners, our tennis set, our business colleagues, or our street gang. What we become is determined in some significant measure by the company we keep.
David A. Hubbard and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Proverbs, vol. 15, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1989), 50.
Is this how we end?
Proverbs 1:20–33 (ESV) — 20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: 22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? 23 If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. 24 Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, 25 because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, 27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. 28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30 would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, 31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. 32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”
Wisdom’s loud public cry is grace before judgment (vv. 20–23). Don’t soften the warning; frame it as God preventing disaster.
The chapter targets procrastination spirituality (“later” as rebellion) (v. 22). Ask: What would repentance look like this week, specifically?
Conclusion
coming back to the fear of the Lord.
Proverbs may use playful language but its aim is deadly serious. The teachers were not training candidates for quiz shows or even Phi Beta Kappa keys. They were recruiting and shaping generations of leaders whose obligation was to practice the fundamental virtues of Israel as laid down by law and ratified by experience. That is why “justice” (or “righteousness”), “judgment” (or “justice”), and “equity” (or “uprightness”) are concerned with conduct that is fair and bolstered by trustworthiness and integrity.
- Possibly good for intro or conclusion — the moral weight of the proverbs.
