the book of Proverbs. Excuse me. We're going to begin the book of Proverbs and why don't we start with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this time that we have to Open your word to meditate upon this important book, such a practical book. Lord, help us to better understand this book, your purpose for it, and its place in your word. And we ask this now in Jesus' name. Amen. The book of Proverbs tells us in the very first verse that it was written primarily by King Solomon, the son of David. And we read in 1 Kings chapter 4 that Solomon wrote a total of 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 different songs. So all of them obviously weren't recorded for us. They weren't all inspired. We only have a fraction of the 3,000 proverbs found in the Book of Proverbs, the 3,000 that he wrote. And there were other authors of this book as well, and we'll mention that a little later, a man named Augur and Lemuel, who was also called the King, and many believe that that's just another name for Solomon. The theme of the Book of Proverbs is pretty clear. You might choose a different key verse for it, but here's one that keeps repeating itself in the book in one form or another, and that is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fearing God and wisdom are connected in the Book of Proverbs. So there's a lot of knowledge in this book, but this knowledge doesn't become wisdom unless it's connected to God. Otherwise, they're just facts. Is that up there? Okay. G. Campbell Morgan wrote, and I thought this was helpful, he's describing the fear of God, and he says, there are two kinds of fear. There's one fear that God will hurt me, and then there's another fear that we might hurt God. And so the fear of the Lord that God wants of us is not that we're afraid of him and want to stay away from him as if he were some kind of a bully, but rather we should fear God in that we know that he's holy, and because he's holy, we also acknowledge and we're painfully aware of how far short we fall of his holiness and his glory, and we're aware of how Easy it is for us to fall into sin and that hurts God. And so that's what we should fear. And the fear of the Lord, that's the beginning of a life of wisdom and knowledge and instruction. True wisdom comes from a godly fear or a godly reverence or a respect for who the Lord is. And there are many other subjects that are found in the book, many other themes in the Book of Proverbs, but I think they all come under this umbrella of the fear of the Lord and the wisdom that that brings, the knowledge and wisdom and insight that that brings. So we also read of other themes such as holiness and the proper use of money and riches. a consideration for the poor, the use of our tongue, the control of one's anger, honesty, integrity, justice. There's a lot about fools and their folly, as contrasted to the wise men. There's much about cheerfulness in the book of Proverbs, and a whole lot about good old-fashioned common sense. And they all stem from fearing God. So you might want to know, or many might ask the question, what exactly is a proverb? Well, the word in the Old Testament, one word is mashal, which means it speaks of a comparison or a parallel, or it takes things that are similar. And there are three types of parallelisms in the book of Proverbs, just as there are in the book of Psalms. And a parallelism takes two lines of truth and places them parallel, right next to each other. And it's for different reasons. One grouping is called the synonymous parallelism, and they basically have two lines of truth. They're both saying the same thing. They're synonymous, but they put it in different words. And that's a good way to teach the Bible, by the way. Saying something and then repeating it using different words. different expressions. Sometimes that's what it takes for it to click in somebody's mind, and the book of Proverbs is full of synonymous parallelisms. For example, in the way of righteousness is life. And in its pathway, there is no death. Saying the same thing, just bringing out a different aspect of the same truth. There are also antithetical parallelisms in the Book of Proverbs. And this is when two thoughts are brought parallel, brought next to each other. And it's for the purpose of contrasting them, showing how they are not alike. For example, a merry heart doeth good like medicine, but, and many antithetical parallelisms have that word but in it, a merry heart doeth good like medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. So that's an example of putting two thoughts next to each other to contrast them. And thirdly, there is a synthetic parallelism. takes the same theme in one line, and then it adds further detail in the next line, or maybe even the next two lines. And it's just expanding the concept, giving more flesh on it, so to speak, more detail. And an example of that would be, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. So it talks about the importance of guiding your heart and then it gives a further amplification of it because all the issues of life spring from there. So different kinds of parallelisms, different kinds of figures of speech. But basically a proverb is comparing truths one to another. Whether they're similar, whether they're dissimilar, And another way of describing a proverb is that these proverbs do not guarantee the outcome. These are not a promise. So we read a lot of proverbs, and sometimes you might read this proverb and say, that's not true in my life. And that's because Proverbs speak about truth in a very general sense, a broad sense. In other words, they're describing this is what generally happens, all things being equal. And so they're not promises. In fact, there are many exceptions to what we read in the book of Proverbs. For example, in Proverbs chapter 10, Says, he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Proverbs 10 27. Now, you might say, well, I know people that are really hard workers and they're not doing very well financially. Well, there are exceptions. But all things being equal, all circumstances being equal, being diligent tends to prosperity and tends to make one wealthier than the opposite, which is laziness. Another example. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened." Now generally, that's true. If you fear God, you'll live longer. The New Testament speaks about that as well. The children that obey their parents. But the point is not that this is a promise in every case, that God-fearing people will live long and wicked people will die as teenagers. That's not the point. The point is that If you're living your life according to the principles of God's Word, you're not going to be living in the fast lane, where it's dangerous. You're not going to experiment with drugs and alcohol and other such things. You're going to be walking that straight and narrow way, and that's much safer than the fast lane. And normally, people on the straight and narrow live longer than people on the fast lane. And so that's a proverbial statement. These things are generally true, all things being equal, but we know in the real world, all things are not always equal. Diligent, hard-working men are not always rich. But your chances are much better if you're a hired worker than if you're a lazy slob. It is a truth. It's a generalized statement of fact. truths. Another description of a proverb is that it's a figure of speech that presents timeless truth as a pithy saying, an illustration, an observation, or an instruction. And so proverbs are timeless, they're universal truths. And they fit in any generation, in any age, in any continent, in any culture. For example, in Proverbs 11, in verse 3, it says, the integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them. Now that's true, and it doesn't matter whether you live in the 21st century or the 1st century or whether you lived in the days of Moses. It's always been the case that integrity can guide you. And a perverse, perverseness of transgressors is destructive. So those are timeless truths. They're universal. They work, they're true, generally speaking, in any country, any culture, any time. Doing things the right way and honestly is always the best. And also they described here as observations from life. And we see a lot of observation. They're short statements. Sometimes they're very short statements, just a few words. There are things that Solomon and other writers observed. And as you read through, especially in Solomon's Proverbs, he was a great observer of nature. He observed little things like ants. And he thought about what they were doing. He just sat down, watched how ants worked, and he made some obvious contrasts to men. And he wrote in Proverbs 6, "'Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide or overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? And can't you just picture Solomon in his castle watching the little ants that maybe are eating underneath the table, and they're all neatly organized, and they're each taking their piece back, and he noticed how hard-working they were, and maybe that brought to his mind some people that he knew that were slugs, that were lazy. that would never be as diligent as a little ant, and it kind of maybe struck him funny, and he recorded that for us. So there are a lot of observations. He observed, we see men, authors and proverbs, observing eagles and snakes and water and ships on the water and all kinds of things, and they learned practical truths that could easily be illustrated. And when the illustration is given in a little quick proverb, a little terse statement, then it sticks in the head. And it's something, it's a vision or an image that you can really, your mind will grasp and it will remember that, picturing ants and how hard working they are. Another description of proverbs is that they are little golden nuggets of truth, and they're extremely applicable to everyday life. So what the authors of this book did, Solomon primarily, he took a truth, maybe even sometimes a complicated truth, and he boiled it down into a little bite-sized piece, a little nugget. And because it's so concise, because it has no extraneous things, it becomes very generalized truth, and also it's easy to memorize. And there are so many statements from the Book of Proverbs that we know, we recognize, and we'd be able to fill in the blank if someone gave us a quiz. Even if we couldn't give the reference or we may not know the whole proverb, there are just so many of these golden nuggets, like a soft answer, turneth away wrath. Wine is a mocker and strong drink raging, or pride goeth before destruction." And we could go endlessly through the book and find so many of those short statements, those nuggets of truth that stick in your brain, they're easy to memorize, and That's what might come forth in a time when we really need to think about something that could apply to my life in a moment. And we may not know the whole verse, but when an argument is starting up, you might remember, a soft answer turneth away wrath. And that's exactly what they're designed to do. And the purpose of the Book of Proverbs you really don't have to go very far into the book to find the purpose. And in some ways, Proverbs is like the Gospel of John in that John tells us exactly why he wrote the book, what the purpose of the Gospel of John was. Well, John did it at the end of his gospel, but Solomon did it right at the very beginning in verses 1 through 4. Someone has said that what Psalms is to the devotional life, Proverbs is to the practical life. And that's the purpose of the book of Proverbs, to give us wisdom for life. For example, he says right off the bat in verse one, the purpose of the book of Proverbs is to know wisdom and instruction. And then he says, he adds, and to perceive the words of understanding. So that the reader can know God's wisdom and instruction so that he can really grasp these words and have understanding to them. And also it's to receive instruction of wisdom and justice, judgment and equity. In lots of different areas, we need these proverbs give us advice, wise advice, things that are just and right, so that we might have good judgment and equity, fairness. And it also states that they were written to give subtlety to the simple. And the simple in the book of Proverbs simply means the inexperienced, usually the young, the youth, the inexperienced. And also they're given to give knowledge and discretion to the young man. So, the book of Proverbs, right off the bat, in verses 1 through 4, it gives this list, the purpose of the book. Subtlety to the simple, to the inexperienced, for a new believer especially, great words of wisdom, and also for a young man. Lots of knowledge and discretion. And he mentions several in the early chapters of this book. He speaks about a young man who might be in with a gang of hoodlums and they say, come, let's all join, we'll cause some trouble, we'll all have one purse, and we'll get rich, we'll rob people and mug them. And then there have several chapters speaking about discretion with the opposite sex. A young man needs to hear those things. So, this is why the book of Proverbs was written. And then there is what might be a little obscure to us. It's not as obvious in the book of Proverbs as it is in other books, but there is a structure to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is really different from all the other books in the Bible. And it's because of the nature of what a proverb is. It's a little nugget of truth. And those little nuggets are independent. They stand alone all by themselves. And so for this reason, we shouldn't read the book of Proverbs like you'd read the book of Ruth. It's a story. It's a narrative. You can read through it chapter by chapter. Proverbs wasn't intended to be read that way. Proverbs was intended to be read one verse at a time. And don't try to read four chapters of Proverbs, just read a few verses and spend time on the individual verses and you'll get so much more out of it. Each nugget. We should stop and think about it and apply it. And so, as we do look for structure in the Book of Proverbs, it's difficult because there is no context to independent statements that really, in many cases, are unrelated to each other. Now, there are a few exceptions to this in the book. There are several places where there are clusters of verses, maybe three or four, five or six, that are in a row that deal with the same subject. And then, of course, we have the half of chapter 31 that deals with the virtuous woman. So there are contexts scattered throughout the book And so there is some structure. And here was a chart one man wrote up that I thought was helpful. He noted in the first half of chapter one that, we just looked at it, most of it, the purpose of the Book of Proverbs, to give subtlety to the young and to give discretion to young men and to those who are simple and inexperienced. And then in the second section, from the middle of chapter 1 through chapter 9, we have the chapters that deal with a father speaking to his son. And so here we have Solomon writing about a father talking to a son and exhorting him. And here he's giving him advice about be careful of this, be careful of that, and listen to your mother, listen to your father, and it will be like a chain of gold around your neck. It will be an ornament to you. So a lot of fatherly advice in the book of Proverbs. And then we have, beginning in chapter 10, We have a list of proverbs by Solomon. They're stated as written by Solomon. And they're separated, that section, from other sections in the book. So these are all different topics, all different themes, and there is not much of a context through there. But then, beginning in chapter 25 through chapter 29, here we have These are also proverbs by Solomon, but they were not collected together. Remember, Solomon wrote 3,000 proverbs, and some have counted in the Book of Proverbs between 500 and 800. I'm not sure why the great discrepancy. I can understand some discrepancy because you might put a cluster as one proverbial thought, and others might separate them, but regardless, Some of the proverbs that Solomon wrote were not collected together as part of this collection until the days of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was very interested in proverbs and he had his men put a number of those together. And so this is a second collection of Solomon's proverbs that were gathered later by King Hezekiah and his men. Whoops, what did I do here? And then we come to chapter 30, and here we have the words of Agur, and then chapter 31, the words of King Lemuel, some believe was Solomon. So there is some sort of structure to the book. The introduction, the purpose, then we have three sections in a row that deal with the Proverbs of Solomon, one as a father to his son, one of just general Proverbs, and then the Proverbs that were added much later by Hezekiah, and then the final chapters separated by their authors. Someone else has divided it a little simpler and just made four sections to the book. And he has chapters 1 through 9, Wisdom for Young Men, then chapters 10 through 24, Various Subjects for Everybody, and then this is the same as the previous chart, Hezekiah's Collection, and then the two other authors that added a chapter each to the collection, Ager and Lemuel. So, there are words of wisdom for young men. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. And then in the various subjects for all, there are all kinds of topics. And then in chapter 25, Hezekiah's collection, and it begins with these words. These are also the Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out. So this was added to the collection much later, and it was under the leadership of King Hezekiah. And then we have in chapter 30, it begins, the words of Agur, the son of Jacob. And then chapter 31, the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. So very clearly, the beginning of this, each of these last three sections is identified for us right in the text. So, although when we read through the book of Proverbs, it might not seem like there is any structure at all, but they were organized. And there is some structure and some context to the book. So that's kind of an overview, and I think we'll have to stop here. And so let's just look to the Lord in prayer. Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for the book of Proverbs. We thank you for how practical they are in everyday life, Lord. And we thank you that these truths are given to us in bite-sized pieces, that they might stick in our brains, that we might remember them and memorize them, and Lord, that you can easily bring them to our attention in times when we need to be reminded. And we thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen.