We're going to Proverbs chapter 4, and we're continuing Our study here through Proverbs. So this is study number nine. I've entitled it, Settle In. And we'll be looking at Proverbs chapter 4, verses 1 to 13. So chapter three reinforced the two ways to live theme in Proverbs, and that's very prevalent throughout the book, not just in the early part in these fatherly addresses. Solomon has brought out how that wisdom is to be sought above all else, a chief pursuit, and also talked some more about the blessings and the difficulties of acquiring wisdom. So now as we get to chapter 4, Psalm is going to continue to urge wise choices and there's quite a bit of repetition we're seeing in some of these early chapters, but it does expand as we go on. But there are some things that we pick up along the way. Warnings in Proverbs about wisdom and about keeping it, about warnings against foolishness. These can all feel very negative, but the instruction is really much more positive. It's encouraging the seeking of wisdom, and wisdom is presented as that supreme I guess you could say that trivium of truth, goodness, and beauty in the most objective sense, not in any sort of a superficial sense, that this is wisdom. All right, so we'll start looking at this. Verse 1, Hear ye, children, the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding. So, once again, we see the urge to hear and to attend. To hear means to listen, to actively listen. To listen with understanding, to listen with even implied obedience. And to attend just sort of reinforces the idea of just Pay attention. Oh, I'm getting off my screen there. Pay attention. Over and over, we're seeing these things repeated and listening to the instruction and paying attention in order to know understanding. So, hopefully, as you read through Proverbs, you're able to come away with the idea that The learner has a lot of responsibility. So we each individually have responsibility for pursuing, seeking, searching after wisdom in our lives. So there's a responsibility to actively listen, to think on what is being taught, to think on what you're hearing, what you're reading. And once again, this is especially challenging today and for young people. So it's been, I don't know, it was a few years ago. I don't know, a couple of the kids was asking me something about if I had this as a kid and that as a kid. You know, no. And, you know, did you have internet? Did you have this and that? You know, iPhones, whatever. No, I didn't have any of that when I was growing up. You know, of course, then the question, the bewildered question, what did you do? I said, well, I just went outside and played with sticks and rocks. That's what I did. So today, Young people are growing up in what has to be the most distracted age. And there's books been written on this recently and articles that's been written on this recently. Just something I saw there the other day that these are, and these are different studies, it's kind of pulled from different places. The average adult, I think it was adult, in the US averages over 11 hours of screen time per day. 11 hours of screen time per day. That's a lot. Of course, that includes computers, and television, or iPads, and phones, and all that sort of thing. But 11 hours a day. It has been found that people on average check their phone once every 10 minutes. People check it when it hasn't even done anything. It beeps and buzzes and whatever, but it's just laying there. I haven't checked it in five minutes, so I'll check it. Nothing new on there. Typically people on average receive about 46 notifications per day through their phones And you think about I mean every one of those is is a distraction every one of those is a break in Whatever concentration and things that you had and this was actually a Microsoft study that and I don't know how they determined this but They noted that attention spans, on average, have decreased, and they actually put some numbers to this, from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in more recent years, which I think is worse than the goldfish, if I'm not mistaken, in the attention. And again, I don't know how they measure all that. But it's no... It's no difficult thing to know that we are in a very distracted age and things are calling out for our attention. And really a great danger, and not just young people face, but a great danger is simply an excessive wasting of time. You know, we think about a lot of things that, well, you know, young people, we want to be careful what they listen to and what they see and what they, and there's, you know, there's good there. But then just the idea that just wasting time in pointless and trivial distractions and, you know, they are out there. If you think about Solomon giving this repeatedly, listen, pay attention, you need to hear this, you need to understand this, you need to think on this, then I would say that young people, and he does use children there, which is plural, young people today especially need to realize that it's actually going to take deliberate effort. If you are going to seek out, search out, go after wisdom, it's going to take deliberate effort. the way that he keeps giving these, you know, hear, listen, understand. It reminds you of, you know, the parent that gives the child, you know, a list of 27 things to do and, you know, laboring to make sure they've heard and understand every step in the scope and sequence of what they're supposed to do. Listen, listen, listen, pay attention. So, instruction that he speaks of here is instruction of a father That word includes correction, it includes instruction, it includes warning. It has a pretty full scope. And it is the instruction of a father which speaks of the teacher's motive of love for the children. And that's one thing that's going to come out here in Chapter 4 and what we're looking at. makes wisdom very personal in this chapter. And the father that he's talking about, of course, his father was David, the father that he's talking about was teaching and instructing out of love. So it gives you some idea of the nature of that relationship. And when there is a relationship like that, then the person is not merely just satisfied to give you information and then go on. It's kind of like when you're in school and you can kind of sort of judge between teachers. Some do better than others, but there will be some that, you know, they just throw the information at you and then, you know, good luck. And that's it. And then there's others that actually work hard at trying to make sure everyone understands and things as much as possible. And so I'm sure you've had that kind of experience. So the instruction of wisdom, and once again, we could just say consider the source. Consider the source of what you're hearing and what you're taking in. He goes on to explain, for I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. Now, good doctrine is sound teaching, sound teaching that has the idea of being sort of like when we say someone is of sound mind and body. They're healthy. It's the idea of even being wholesome. It's life-giving in many ways, and it's worth receiving. So when you think about it once again, In the book of Proverbs, we're receiving inspired wisdom from God. There are people that can, out of a lot of experience and things, can give you good advice. And that's not anything to be taken for granted. But we also have to realize, here, we're receiving inspired wisdom. This isn't just good advice from someone who's had a lot of experiences, even though Solomon did have a lot of experiences in life. But it's inspired wisdom from God. So to say that it's good is to mean that it's good in every sense of that term. And so it should be received. Don't depart. Don't forsake. And this word for law that appears here, it is Torah again. And so this is another case where we've talked about how this term is applied more broadly. Obviously, he's not talking here, strictly speaking, about old covenant law. Sometimes people sort of get that confused. But he is referring to his teaching, which again, is inspired wisdom. Verse 3, "'For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.'" So he acknowledges his own experience. in learning wisdom and being taught from his father. Of course, we know particularly David was a prophet. He was the inspired psalmist of Israel. So he acknowledges his own experience, the idea of being tender there, tender-eyed. And so he's also sort of presenting this contrast. Now he is sort of the the grizzled old vet, you know, the wizened man, as it were, that is distilling this wisdom. So once again, there's a duty that we see here that we have to learn it and to teach it to our children. So we see that sort of a generational bent to it as well. So we grow in wisdom and ideally we grow up in wisdom and we in turn are to teach that to our children, to teach that to the next generation and encourage them in that as well. So another aspect And it's maybe a difficult one to grasp when you're young, especially, but another motive, you might say, for gaining wisdom is not only to be able to sort of navigate life in your own life, so to speak, but also so that you'll be able to give wisdom to others and maybe your own family one day and such that you'll be able to guide and to lead them. Now he goes on talking about these early experiences in verse four. He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words and keep my commandments and live. So Solomon's, you notice, his father's instruction sounds a whole lot like what he is instructing to his son, his children. So he was admonished to get, to keep, to pursue wisdom, and instructed that wisdom is the way of life. One of the things that we can take away from this sort of generational aspect of wisdom, even thinking about from father and mother to child and even maybe grandparent and down. One of the things that we can take from that actually is the eternal nature of wisdom. That wisdom is something older than all of us. No matter who the oldest among us is, wisdom is far, far older. In fact, infinitely older than all of us. So wisdom being of such an eternal nature, means that it never goes out of style, whereas most everything in this world goes out of style sooner or later. Something may be the hot ticket item right now, but give it just a little while and you'll look back on it one day and think, why did I look so ridiculous back then? Or maybe not, you know, because sometimes people, you know, they kind of, they're riding along that fashion train and they sort of decide, this is my stop. And so the train goes on and they just, they're just, they're just going to stay there. So anyway, that's not really what I'm trying to sort out up here tonight. So wisdom never goes out of style. It never expires. It's never irrelevant, even from one generation to the next. And just like talking a little bit earlier, Solomon had no concept of digital technology. Now, technology has always existed. In fact, I read, it's been a while back now, So in the 18th century, as the printing press gained more popularity and more use and books began to multiply, and they started to become more accessible and more readily available for more common people in the 18th and 19th centuries. And one of the results of that was that many of the older population was actually very concerned about the younger generation wasting all their time reading books. So that was a technology, you know, and it was a new technology. And so Salma had experience with technology. It's not that he didn't, but he's not talking to young people in his day that had all the distractions and all the things that we have, but yet he continues to emphasize this point over and over again. You need to listen. You've got to be active in this. You can't just be passive. You need to engage in the pursuit of wisdom and the hearing of it and the understanding of it and its application in your life. Another aspect of this eternal nature of wisdom is that its value is never diminished. It doesn't lose value. It's not affected by inflation or anything else. So the word for heart there is generally what we think of as mind, our inner being. Retain my words, keep my commandments, and live. So the true issue of life and death is really bound up in wisdom, and this is something of a theme in this chapter. Appearing in each of the you can divide this chapter up roughly into three parts And it appears in in one of each of the so it's something of a theme that wisdom is life Verse number five get wisdom get understanding forget it not neither decline from the words of my mouth So again, this is this is repetitious but We've already seen by this point that getting these, acquiring these, is going to cost us something, and it's going to require some pretty persistent effort, and staying the course, not declining, not forgetting those words. Pay attention. And we get a little bit of a shift here in verse number six. So here we get the personification of wisdom with these feminine pronouns and such. Now the instruction also is to love, she's to love her and she shall keep thee. In other words, Solomon is almost talking here in terms of like a man to his wife. He's almost talking, really he's sort of playing on that type of a relationship and so this again is where we see sort of that personal aspect of wisdom coming out. A man should love and cleave to wisdom as to his wife and vice versa. Preserving, keeping speaks of protection. And when love, I think that's Abed, maybe, anyway, love, when it is used of, it's used in a context obviously of like a husband and a wife or family type of relationships and such, but it can also be used of objects. And so when it's used of objects, it could be used to speak of loving food and drink or things like that. So when it's used that way, the word implies a certain appetite for those things. So a strong desire. So in a sense, Solomon is urging here to be hungry for wisdom, to long for it, to desire it, and he explains why in verse number seven. So, Principle thing means that wisdom is of first importance. It is a priority and it's also being first in a sense of it's at the very beginning. You acquire wisdom and you progress in wisdom. It's the very beginning of the way. So it's a first aim, a first priority. And again, we see these terms, get wisdom, get understanding, and those are words that typically refer to getting, acquiring things like wealth or other goods, even has maybe even a business sort of idea about it. But above all the earthly goods, seek wisdom. And wisdom, once again, as we saw in the previous chapter, is a treasure above all and is worth all the cost to obtain it. And it continues here in verse number 8. exalt her and she shall promote thee, she shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her." So we see these very personal, very close type relationship language that Solomon is using and again I believe he's playing on that somewhat. So honor and promotion are things that in any sort of a good sense, they don't come by directly seeking them. So you're not brought to honor by seeking honor, and you're not brought to promotion by seeking promotion. Now I'm talking about I'm talking about in life, in the universe that God rules over, in those sort of spiritual sort of terms. We're told in other places that the man that exalts himself, he's going to be brought low. He's going to be brought down. There's going to be a reversal that's going to come. But rather, he says, exalt wisdom. Embrace her. and she will promote thee, she will bring thee to honor. In other words, wisdom will promote. So honoring wisdom has the effect of raising one up. So it's almost like a byproduct. Embracing, again, has this idea, and I think, here's a good word to put to this. Solomon is talking about using language of affections in describing the desire for wisdom, embracing wisdom, loving wisdom. In other words, are affections engaged? And that's kind of a Old term, affections, today we probably would say a little bit more of emotions, but I think affections is a little bit more than just sort of feelings. But it, again, has to do with the whole person being engaged in your affections. And so, again, being in this distracted age, you're gonna realize that one of the dangers of distractions are that they can dull your affections. So you can become somewhat numb even. And so there are things that, you know, when Paul was talking about things that are profitable and not everything is profitable, even though it might be lawful, technically speaking, you realize that there are things that will help to stir your affections for God, for his word, for his wisdom. And there are things that will dull that and will tamp that down. So that comes in the idea of prudence, having discretion, having an understanding of those things, that you know what, there's things that I can engage in that may not be sinful in and of themselves, but at the same time, they may have an effect of dulling my heart and sort of maybe even making it somewhat like calloused. And so Solomon is talking here in this chapter in all these terms of affections for wisdom, and of course saying that you embrace her, you honor her, you exalt her, and she will bring you to honor. She will promote you, in other words, prosper, enlarge your life. Verse 9, she shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Ornament, we've seen this a couple of times. It's an adornment, it decorates, it beautifies. It's an ornament of grace, favor, pleasantness. Wisdom brings goodness and beauty into a person's life. But a crown, when you think about a crown, a crown is more than just an ornament. A crown actually has some meaning, and so it has weight here. It has kavod, it has weight, this crown of glory that she will deliver. And so that is actually suggestive of things like power, respect, things along that line. But it's also a reward, like the crowning of a champion and such. So there's a lot sort of packed in there. So it has weight to it. And so this is what is promised. All right. I think I said 13. I'm going to stop right here. I think I might have said verse 13 earlier, but actually stopping at verse 9. Okay, so we've looked at this opening address in chapter 4. And one of the things that Solomon does here, and again there's a lot of repetition, but Every sort of address that we've looked at has had something else to it. It's something either subtle or what have you, but there's something else there that Solomon is sort of adding as he's rounding out this picture. And so in this particular address, Solomon brings wisdom to the realm of love and affections and sort of personifies wisdom as a person. So we get that comparison, that likeness of the loving of someone else and the loving of wisdom. So obviously it suggests husband-wife type imagery personifying wisdom as a woman. But this is, again, it's more personal, and it's qualitatively different when you're talking about affections for a person. And again, we're dealing with a realm of objective truth, goodness, and beauty. So think about love, true love that you have for another person, whether it's a child or a parent or a spouse or whatever that it might be. And there's something qualitatively different about that than when you make the statement how much you love a jelly donut. There's something, I hope that there's something different, or else we're gonna have to have a whole nother series. But seriously, there's a real difference to those kind of affections. So when Solomon turns wisdom and makes wisdom like a person, like a person that this young man should be pursuing, almost like a father that would be talking to a young man and maybe instructing him about You know, what type of woman should you seek out and, you know, look to marry and that sort of thing. And so, Solomon makes that turn. So, in other words, the earlier part of Proverbs, he used all this wealth imagery, that wisdom was like treasure and, you know, precious jewels and stones and things like that. All these things that people desire and fight and kill one another over. And he was saying, you ought to pursue wisdom like they pursue that. But now he makes sort of a turn and speaks in these terms that's very, very different. the love and pursuit of wisdom as a person that you love truly. So this is, again, it's a little bit different as he's rounding out this picture. But also, as you go through, especially when you get the generational aspect of this address, I was a young man, and my father instructed me in wisdom, and I'm instructing you in wisdom, and basically we're saying the same thing. That also gives us the idea, and this is where the title comes in, Settle In, because the pursuit of wisdom isn't over anytime soon. It is a long, long game and not a short one.