Proverbs 2:1-11
Notes
Transcript
Proverbs 2
Proverbs 2
Who wrote the book of Proverbs? The author who wrote the most for it is King Solomon, who composed his sayings during his reign from 970 to 930 B.C. (Proverbs 1:1).
Solomon highly likely penned chapters 1 to 29 of Proverbs. A man named Agur wrote chapter thirty. King Lemuel wrote chapter thirty-one. The author tell us right in the first chapter the nine sets of reasons why the book was written.
Solomon wrote Proverbs to offer instruction, wisdom and understanding (Proverbs 1:2). He also recorded the book to help others gain an understanding of judgment and equity (verse 3), to acquire simple prudence and to offer discretion and knowledge to the young (verse 4).
Introduction:
Proverb Types
The type of proverb is meant to indicate the particular genre or literary theme of the saying. This is not a matter of thematic topic, but of the methodology of the saying. There are seven types of proverbs distinguished for the user.
• Prologue: Introductory comments to a set of proverbs.
• Advice: Predicated as a direct address, often to a specific hearer.
• Characterization: An attempt to define a class of persons by their characteristics.
• Consequence: A saying that describes the probable result of a certain behavior or action.
• Means: The description of the means by which a result occurs.
• Ode to Wisdom: The personification of wisdom where the benefits of wisdom are listed and glorified.
• Saying: The most general type of proverb, an assertion of a general truth.
First we must be receptive
First we must be receptive
1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And hide my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, And liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, And searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Verse 1
“My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee” (Proverbs 2:1). The word if underlines the element of choice in the process of acquiring wisdom. God created people, not puppets.
Receptive - able or willing to receive something.
When God created the animals, He endowed each kind with its own instincts—its own code of signals to govern its behavior. An animal does what it does because it is what it is. No bee has to go to school to learn how to build a shelter, gather nectar, make honey, or defend its hive. A bee does everything by instinct.
God did not lock people into such specific behavioral patterns. He gave them bodies and souls. He gave them the ability to see, taste, feel, hear, and smell. He gave them the ability to think, to respond emotionally, and to make decisions.
He also gave Adam—and all his descendants—a spirit. God’s intention was for the human spirit to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. By cooperating with the Holy Spirit Adam would be all that God intended a person to be. But when Adam sinned, the Holy Spirit left his human spirit and he was left without a governing principle. Adam became a fallen creature, and the human race inherited his lost condition. Fallen man’s intellect is bent in the direction of folly; his emotions can run rampant; his will
We must also be responsive:
We must also be responsive:
1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And hide my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, And liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, And searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Verse 2 & 3
“Incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding” (Proverbs 2:2–3).
We must also be responsive to wisdome
1 responding readily and positively.
2 in response; answering.
In other words, we need to make an active and determined effort to become acquainted with wisdom. We need to make an active and determined effort to get to know the Word of God where the highest wisdom is stored.
Address the Black live matter
What we are facing is the ability of the nation to hear the pain of broken hearted mothers and fathers who are losing there children by the hands of police brutality.
You also have
inequality
injustice
people are being marginalized
We must also be resolute which means determined; unwavering.
We must also be resolute which means determined; unwavering.
1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And hide my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, And liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, And searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Verse 4
“If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures” (Proverbs 2:4). Mining for silver and finding hidden treasure both call for determined resolve.
If you seek it like silver: Seek in this expression is to look for something just as people mine the earth to find silver. The Hebrew has “seek her,” in which “her” refers back to wisdom in verse 2
What is emphasized is the diligent effort that must be made to obtain wisdom
They have to search for wisdom just as they would for any precious metal or hidden treasure. For example, silver was rarer and more valuable than gold in Palestine. Silver first had to be located and then it had to be mined (Jb. 28:1). Both of these processes involved a word that is foreign to many people when it comes to spiritual matters
“The prize is worth the toil” because the prize is the wisdom of the Lord Himself. The treasure is buried or hidden in Christ (Col. 2:3).
Determine to do what you learn and God shows you - Do not settle for less in the world. Because the Lord no settle less from you.
Weather you are rich or poor, black or white, your determination is to give the lord all you have even when its your last.
because he gave his last to you.
People wear themselves out to unearth worldly treasure, which they often squander. We should give ourselves unstintingly to the quest for eternal treasure, the wisdom that can only be found in the Word of God.
There is a quest involved in coming to know the fear of the Lord
Verse 5 takes a different stands
Verse 5 takes a different stands
Verse 5
"Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God."
There is a consequences of Acquiring Wisdom and Rewards
The first result of acquiring wisdom from God will be a new delight in the Lord Himself, the ultimate fount of all wisdom. We will have a constructive fear: “Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord” (Proverb 2:5). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom—not the end. Fear of the Lord leads us to trust, and trust leads us to love.
When we hear and receive God’s words, hide His commandments in our hearts, apply ourselves to understanding, and ask earnestly for divine wisdom, we will be on our way to understanding the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord The fear of the Lord is not a slavish fear. It is a reverential awe that inspires all those who find themselves in the presence of an all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving God. People who lack such reverence are grossly ignorant of their own sinfulness and God’s awesome holiness.
Latter part of verse 5:
Find the knowledge of God: Knowledge of God is an expression that occurs elsewhere only in Hos 4:1 and 6:6. The equivalent expression “knowledge of the Most High” also occurs in Num 24:16. The full expression must often be rendered as “to know God.
Call in 605-313-5310 / 576018
14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
15 The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: The king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: Thou shalt not see evil any more.
16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: And to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.
Zephaniah
helmet