Untitled Sermon (2)

Proverbs 1:1-7

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

To know wisdom and instruction,

To discern the sayings of understanding,

To receive instruction in wise behavior,

Righteousness, justice and equity;

To give prudence to the naive,

To the youth knowledge and discretion,

A wise man will hear and increase in learning,

And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

To understand a proverb and a figure,

The words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The Proverbs are introduced in a rather straightforward manner, not playing around with unnecessary words, or dancing around the subject. Direct and to the point, our author Solomon begins his book of Proverbs thus, and follows similarly through the rest of the book without a wasted word.

Not a surprising approach from one who wrote Ecclesiastes, which he introduces by pointing out the vanity of pursuing anything, and yet also the vanity of life without pursuits. The vanity of wisdom, and then the vanity of folly. So with wisdom and discretion, he so chooses not to waste his nor the readers time in vain pursuit, he simply sees no point in having his book be known as the true “vanity of vanities” because it in it’s wordiness takes more than it produces.

The purpose for this book.

To know wisdom and instruction,

To discern the sayings of understanding,

To receive instruction in wise behavior,

Righteousness, justice and equity;

Essentially