All right, well, good morning. So glad you all could make it on our kicking off Proverbs. Today's gonna be more of an introduction overview. So I'm gonna open a word of prayer, and then I'll overview that handout, because you're probably going with fear, what has he just given me? So let me go ahead and pray. Father, as we come before you this Sunday morning, we just want to thank you for your word, and particularly for the book of Proverbs, a practical book, a book of wisdom, a book that we need to take heed of each and every day. And I just pray for everyone who's here, everyone who's watching online, those who couldn't make it, that this would become a favorite book, a book that is often read and often applied. Help us, Father, to get wise your way. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, just a couple of preliminaries. So today, we're not even gonna go into this today. This is for two weeks from today, because next Sunday we're doing the last Sunday doctrinal class on forgiveness. So this is kind of an introduction to the Book of Proverbs, because there's some things you just need to know before we dive in. So this workbook, that's really what it's going to be, is going to be huge. At the end of the day, it's going to probably be close to 800 pages. So the email I sent on Saturday, yeah, the email on Saturday I sent out says you will want to get a binder. So they do sell four inch binders, which are like this big. You may want to just get maybe the one inch or two inch or three. They have one, two, three, four inch binders for several of them. But this is going to probably take us a long time to get through. Now, the handout that you have here has two things. It has homework that is optional. So if you really want to dig in deep, study Proverbs yourself, this is all that's in there. And I'll walk you through that in a minute. It also has all my teaching notes. So if you end up reading ahead, you're going to see what I'm going to talk about. So if you want to go ahead and open up and look at it, just a couple of key elements. I include, unfortunately when I did this, I was doing the New King James version. So everything is in New King James, not NASB. So hopefully that won't offend too many of you out there. And then I have the whole text and then there's like a prayer time. And this way is a practice I do. I'll read scriptures and just see what the Lord impresses on my mind and just bring things to light and so forth. Then on page five, we have a verse to memorize. Every chapter has one key verse. that you can memorize, and I really recommend that. And then I've created these what I call inductive flash studies. When I was at Precept, they were kind of playing around with this idea. It never became a product, but I was involved in that product creation. So if you want to do these short mini studies, I have a section of text, and it just helps you kind of do a mini study to observe, interpret, and apply. And that goes on for the whole, so I do several of those per chapter. And if you turn to page 11, then there's kind of a study and question. So I'll take you through the different sections. And these are just different questions coming right out of the text, just to reinforce what's being shared in the text and so forth. It's like an inductive Bible study. And it's broken down by days 1 through 5, I believe. So that, oh yeah. And then days 6 and 7 is kind of like reflective, personal journal, that kind of thing. And then if you turn to page 17, we got a word puzzle. So every chapter will have a word puzzle, which is kind of fun. Page 18 is where you go deeper. This is where you do word studies and other things like that. But it's primarily on word studies. You can see there's a lot of word studies in the initial. And I cover most, most of these get answered in the lecture for what it's worth. And then after the word studies, let's see here. Then there's cross references. and then people place events and things. So the idea is really to connect the book of Proverbs to other books in the Bible. Then on page 23, I'll do this for every section, I will put the text in parallel for you. So you can see the structure and how things are related to one another. This is a really key thing to do whenever you study Proverbs or Psalms or any kind of wisdom literature that puts things in parallel. So I'll do that, and then you'll have all my notes that follow. And then I will be showing the slides as we chat. So the good news is we don't have, our next Proverbs class will be two weeks from today. So if you feel ambitious and you want to try, you've got two full weeks. After that, and again, this, as you can see, this will probably take several weeks to get through Chapter 1. So, we're not going to be doing like a whole full chapter every week. We'll be slowing down and taking our time. So, any questions on this? Did anyone, everyone got a copy? Good. We got some extra ones. And we will be recording and streaming. So right now we're streaming and recording. So I will be making these available on our website as well. But it'll be, I think it'll be hidden. I'm not sure yet if I want to go out public and all that stuff yet because I'm building basically a book to publish and I want to do this, make it really nice. So there you go. All right. So we're going to do an introduction to the Book of Proverbs just to kind of get your feet wet. and open your eyes to this amazing book from the Lord. And I titled it, Are You Ready to Get Wise God's Way? And that should be an apostrophe S in there, so let me just fix that. There we go, all right. So one thing I wanted to show right out of the gate for what it's worth is there's a tool in Logos Bible Software. And Logos Bible Software is the Bible software tool I use to study every week. If you wonder how I'm able to do all this, this is one of the reasons why. This saves me a lot of time. And the Proverbs Explorer tool is really cool because you can actually click on things. So let's say I wanted to focus on all the proverbs about God. I could click on God, and then over the right, all the verses are listed. And then I can continue to say, okay, give me themes about God's omniscience. And notice that it's not only including the Proverbs from Proverbs, from the book of Proverbs, but it goes outside the book of Proverbs, anything that's proverbial literature. And then let's say I wanted to talk about the theme of providence, I can click on that. And so there's all those verses connected. So it allows you to just search on Proverbs in a variety of ways. So I thought I would share that with you. and a pretty cool little tool there. All right, let me go back here and we can return to, there we go. All right, so there are actually four wisdom books in the Bible. You have Job, which, believe it or not, is a wisdom book. It's dialogue back and forth. You, of course, have Ecclesiastes, which some people say it makes them depressed, but believe it or not, it's an excellent book to give to someone who has everything and is unhappy, because that's what Solomon was. And then, of course, we have Proverbs, which are these pithy sayings. And then the Song of Solomon and Psalms can be included as well. So five books in all. And then, of course, there is wisdom literature throughout the scriptures. And the purpose is practical living before God and others. That's what the book is really focused on. It's not by accident that there's 30 chapters in Proverbs, because in Israel, their lunar calendar was 30 days. So the idea is you would start your day reading the book of Proverbs for practical living. Now, just to show you that there is a difference between wisdom of God and wisdom of the world, I found some really interesting proverbs from Egypt, which would have been a culture that Israel interacted with. Listen to this. Here's the difference. Do not lean on the scales, nor falsify the weights, nor damage the fractions of the measure. This is the proverb of one of the pharaohs of Egypt. Pretty good wisdom. But look at the difference. Differing weights and differing measures, both of them are abominable to the Lord. Now, in your eyes, your opinion, what's the difference between these two? What stands out as unique and different? Or maybe what's in common? Right. One mentions the Lord, one does not. And that's key. And because it's mentioning the Lord, that means that the disobeying is not between man to man, but man to God. And that's the difference between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom. God is in the equation. We follow this because we are standing before an all-knowing, almighty creator who will judge us. versus man says, hey, this is what we agreed, this is what we think is best, right? And so now the offense is just between man and man, and that's the big difference. Though, it's very similar, all right? Background and purpose. So authors is Solomon. He is the primary author for most of the Proverbs. However, there is other saints of other wise men. And then there's Agur, the son of Jacob, to Ithil and Yucal. And then there's King Lemuel's mother. He's the one who wrote Proverbs 31 for the women. the godly character of a woman. And the book's purpose, there's three actions that Solomon is trying to bring into this, to know wisdom and instruction, so to know it, to perceive the words of understanding, and to receive. So it's not just about filling your head and saying, I know this. It is to hear it, understand it, and then apply it. I like to say it this way, information plus application equals sanctification. That's another way of looking at it. Knowing plus doing results in godliness. Now there's three individuals that are the target of the book of Proverbs. The simple, the young man, and the wise man. And we'll get into them in more detail. But there is a single theme. The whole purpose of this book is to fear the Lord. so that you would obey him. To fear the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. And this is what's interesting. The word fear, by the way, and we'll get into this too, is think of two sides of the same coin. On one side, there's reverence, as you would anyone in authority. And of course, God is most holy, but there's also fear. He holds the power of the universe and can do anything he needs to. And so fearing the Lord is actually the beginning of knowledge. This is why unbelievers are in such a bad position, because they lack the first step, which is fearing the Lord. Proverbs, this is really important, are not promises. Probably the most often quoted one is this one, train up a child in the way he should go, And when he's old, he will not depart from it. And as a counselor at various churches over the years, I can't tell you how many times I've had parents come in and saying, we did everything. We raised him up, we brought him to church, we memorized verses, they went to Awana. Why did they abandon the Lord? And then they become angry with God. And they said, I did everything. And I said, yeah, you did everything, but that choice is still an individual choice. And this is not a promise. This is a principle, as a general rule, if you raise your kids up, in the way they should go, they normally remain in the Lord, but sometimes that doesn't happen. So never look at a proverb as a promise, it's a principle. Okay? and a statement of comparison or a summary of a common experience. So, Proverbs are used in several ways in the Bible. This is pretty interesting. So, it can be used as wisdom or an illustration for others. For example, a nation can be a proverb. Listen to 1 Kings 9.7, Then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and this house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. It can also be a prophetic proverb, that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, how the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased. And this was a common saying when Babylon fell. And then it can also be connected to wisdom speech, Job 27.1. Moreover, Job continued his discourse and said, that's the same word for proverb. It's a discussion. Now, when was it written? I got a couple charts on here. You can see that most of the Psalms were written by David around his time and then most of the Proverbs were written here during Solomon around 900 BC. But believe it or not, some of them extend later into 700 BC when King Hezekiah assembled the book of Proverbs, including some of Solomon's and some other ones. And so you'll see, and you'll see in a minute here, that the book of Proverbs can span several hundred years. But Solomon is the main one. All right, a couple things about the book. So the focus, you can see the different divisions, one through verse seven, kind of the introduction to the book. Then you have 1-9 Proverbs to the youth, 10-24 Proverbs of Solomon, Proverbs of Solomon brought into us by Hezekiah 25-29, the words of Edgar 30-30, whole chapter 30, and then words of Lemuel, Proverbs 31. You can see the purpose and theme is described in verses 1 through 7, the father's exhortations, Solomon's first and second collection, numerical proverbs, you know, three things this, fourth. You'll see a lot of those. Wisdom for leaders and a virtuous wife. And then the topics are the prologue, principles of wisdom, and the epilogue. So think of prologue as the beginning, epilogue as the conclusion. And accommodation of wisdom, counsel of wisdom, and the comparison of wisdom. Pretty neat things there. All these proverbs, we believe, came out of Judah. And there's your span of time, roughly 950 to 700 BC, 250 years roughly. and that came from Talk Through the Bible. This is just another graph on that. Okay, so if you were to step back and look at the whole book of Proverbs, it actually is a chiastic structure. We've talked about this before, how it moves towards the middle. You have this two-part introduction, then you have Solomon's first collection, and then the words of the wise is kind of in the middle. Then outside is Solomon's Proverbs, the second collection, and a two-part conclusion. So it's a book that has some symmetry to it. In fact, if you actually dig a little bit deeper, this is the first nine chapters. The central point is right there in chapter four and five, embrace wisdom and don't embrace the adulterous. And that was really, it's literal, don't embrace the adulterous woman, but there's even beyond that is don't be spiritually adulterous to God. And that is right there in the center. So that's what everything is going towards. Embrace wisdom. God, don't embrace the world and sin. Okay, and here's their chiastic structure. All right, additional thoughts. There's some different sources of these expressions. Some are observations based on experience. You probably remember, hey, go look at that aunt, right? He works hard and stores. Then there's traditions. This is what father said. This is what mother said. Then there's learning from mistakes. Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. I love the candor sometimes in the Proverbs. And then there's wisdom that says God reveals it. Here's wisdom. You couldn't have gotten this any other way unless God reveals it. And then, how do you study the Book of Proverbs? Now, this is really fun. If you learn to do this, this will really open up not only the Book of Proverbs, but a lot of things in scripture. This is how you can handle difficult passages. So obviously, the traditional inductive study method that Stephanie's doing with PRECEP, observe, interpret, and apply. To observe, we have to define the context, meaning, okay, what are the verses we're looking at? We have to then decide what's in parallel, what's being compared. And then we have to determine what type of parallelism that's going on. And I'll help you with that in a minute. We have some fun exercises to do. Then once you get through that observation stage, we then move into interpretation. Deepen your understanding with word studies. And this is really key for Proverbs. You'll be amazed how many times in the English You'll read it and then you go and do a word study and realize, wow, this means something completely different. And that happens a lot in Proverbs. Not to say you can't trust your translation. You can, it's just that there's a deeper insight you can gain from word studies. And then you can discover the full range of meaning, literal and figurative. And then step six is determined to apply. You have to really ask yourself before the Lord, all right, I understand this proverb. How in the world do I apply this to my life? What situations could this be used in? And the better you get at this, the more you will avoid temptation and other situations. Plus, I have, on occasion, I had a chance to share Proverbs with unbelievers, because they're such great quotes and pithy statements. Everyone loves a good quote. And the more you're familiar with Proverbs, you're just going to suddenly see the world open up and go, man, that verse applies here. It's too bad they didn't know that. That verse applies there. I should have done that. You start going through these and realize, why didn't I learn this earlier? So forth. OK. So let's walk through some exercises here. So define the context. We're going to do Proverbs 2.11. And we're going to decide what's in parallel. And I do help you a little bit with the color coding. All right. So how much of the text is in parallel? That's one of the questions that you always want to ask yourself. And then you want to align it what's in parallel. So here's Proverbs 2.11. Discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you. So, you can see how the U is in parallel, real straightforward. Usually, there's verbs. You look for the actions and put those in parallel. And then, there's usually some noun or some topic, the subject. And so, I put those in colors. Now, when you do this, those words in parallel are designed to represent a range. So, discretion to understanding. Sometimes, it means identical, but really what the author is trying to do is give you a range. So, discretion and understanding. Preserve and keep, and of course, you're the subject in this one, or the object. Let's go to a different one. Sometimes you can see three lines. These get a little more complicated. Now, I made the different color because it's a little bit, you'll see in a minute what's going on. Okay, Proverbs 127, when your terror comes like a storm, when your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Okay, so what's in blue? The topic, right? So we have terror, destruction, distress, and anguish. That's a pretty big range. Okay, notice the word comes in there. By the way, I believe in Proverbs 127, that second comes is not in the text. It's assumed, and you're gonna see this a lot of times. So when you try to put things in parallel, if something's missing, you wanna ask the question, is it understood to be supplied? In other words, if I put it in there, does it still make sense? And sometimes the poets will do that. And then you can see like a storm, like a whirlwind, but what's different about the upon you? Why is it, what's going on there? We got these like a storm, like a whirlwind, but we don't have the like being repeated. So what is the author doing by putting upon you? It's more obvious than you realize. What's that? Purpose. Yeah, purpose. What's going to actually happen, right? So like a storm, like a whirlwind, that's coming to you. You're now going to experience this storm and whirlwind. So it's a little twist to kind of awaken the reader to say, oh, this could happen to me. And there's an application. Look at this next one, Proverbs 6.13. He winks with his eyes, he shuffles with his feet, he points with his fingers. Have you ever seen a salesman do this? Someone, if you watch YouTube, you can see some sly people doing these kind of things. So you can see he winks, he shuffles, he points. These are all the actions of this individual. And he's using his eyes, his feet, his fingers. What's he trying to do? Distract you, right? Deceive you, all those things. This could be a magician, right? But it's not. All right, let's look at a four line. There's actually proverbs that are four lines. lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. So what's going on here? Do you see the double parallelism? You have the first one being in parallel to the third one and the second in parallel to the fourth. So you get some of this going on. Now it opens up, right? So the way you do it is, okay, if I be full, That's one extreme, or lest I be poor. So we get the full extremes, right? Rich or poor. And if I'm full, I deny. And if I'm poor, I sin and steal. Covers the full thing. And if we do those things, what could happen? And say, who is the Lord? That's connected to denying or profane the name of the Lord. That's what happens when I sin and steal. It's a very complex thought, but now it deepens your understanding and helps you understand the full meaning of a four line proverb. Any comments on that or thoughts? Pretty wild. But it takes some time to organize it. And we'll be doing that through every proverb. Now, believe it or not, here's another four line, but a little bit different. Proverbs 30, 18 through 19. There are three things which are too wonderful me. Yes, four, which I do not understand. Okay, so there's your introductory line. which actually makes us five lines, but the Proverbs, look at this, the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and this last one's pretty silly, and the way of a man with a virgin. Now, what's fascinating is the parallelism, right? He's making all these observations of nature. But he makes it very practical in the end. And notice how the color coding works. Three things which are too wonderful for me. So he's looking at the first three, eagle, serpent, and ship. But the fourth one, he says, I have wisdom, but I don't understand this. And that's a way of saying, look at these men. They're acting completely crazy as they pursue this woman, this virgin. So interesting connection there. And it's true, what Solomon says. There's even five line Proverbs. Do not overwork to be rich because of your own understanding cease. Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. Now, I'm not sure if I could really, maybe that's a miscoloring there, but do not overwork and cease are clearly in parallel. To be rich because of your understanding are in parallel because of those other ones. And then it brings in this new concept. Will you set your eyes on that which is not? Riches certainly make themselves wings. That's what they've set their eyes on. And then, which is not, is in parallel, they fly away like an eagle toward heaven. This is really complex. So sometimes it takes some time to determine the parallelism. Now, sometimes Proverbs have a New Testament equivalent. 1 Timothy 6.9 But to those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, or all sorts, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So it's nice when you can find a New Testament equivalent, because then it helps you even further understand the wisdom behind it. And by the way, if you don't have it, I highly recommend it. It's also online for free. It's the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. And that book has over half a million cross-references in it. I think John MacArthur and Thomas Nelson, who publishes it, put John MacArthur on it, and now he's kind of promoting the book. It's, just in case you're wondering, that's the book he uses for all his cross-references. He's acknowledged that publicly. And it's a phenomenal book. I use it all the time as well. And so this can help you find those cross-references quite easily. Okay, ready for a six liner? Look at this one. Proverbs chapter 30, 29 to 31. There are three things which are majestic in pace. Yes, four, which are stately in walk. So there's that three with the fourth. A lion, which is mighty among the beasts. This is majestic in pace. And notice how it doesn't have line again and does not turn away from any. So we supply the lion. The lion does not turn away from any. That's majestic. So he's mighty and he doesn't turn away from any. And then a greyhound, which actually is a strutting rooster. Okay, immediately you think dog race, right? But that's not what it is. It's a strutting rooster, but here it is. Here's the third one, a male goat also. So he added a little bit more on the lion, but it really is a lion, a strutting rooster, and a male goat, which is typical animals in Israel agricultural. And then there is this fourth one, a king whose troops are with him. And that just is to show how mighty a display of power is. And that's what all these are describing, this majestic and pace, this idea of demonstrating or showing or revealing a position of power. Okay? And let's go to the next one, another six lines. Proverbs 34, who has ascended into heaven or descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and what is his son's name, if you know? Pretty cool. So this is more of a kind of a question, but it's describing the power of God, isn't it? And of course, we know that Christ is the creator. The father willed it, the son carried it out, and the Holy Spirit was there helping. Colossians affirms that. All right, let's do a seven liner. Proverbs 23, six through eight. Do not eat the bread of a miser, nor desire, that's a typo here, nor desire his delicacies. Let me fix that real quick. I must have came in with the copy and paste. nor desire his delicacies. For as he thinks in his heart, so he is. Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you. The more so you have eaten, you will vomit up and waste your pleasant words." So this is having a conversation with someone who's really not your friend. And this can be really tricky in trying to figure out what is parallel, but you can see, he thinks in his heart, eat and drink, but his heart is not with you. And you're this bread of the miser, his delicacies, this morsel, right? Do not eat nor desire, but you've eaten it, and now you're gonna vacate it from your stomach and waste your pleasant words. So mutual disgust is barely concealed beneath the surface of social proprieties, as one said it. All right, now eight lines. You can see this gets really difficult. There's not too many of these. Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy the truth and do not sell. I don't know if you can see that color between do not despise and do not sell. They're matched. And wisdom, instruction, and understanding. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise child will delight in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice." So this is a wonderful picture communicating to children, hey, You know, keep your relationship with your kids. This is for the sake of the kids, so that they have a good relationship with their parents. And things go wrong, we know that, and that's why it's not a promise, it's a principle. And so, if a kid isn't doing these things, they're not being wise, and so forth. So, a pretty wonderful picture of an ideal family. Okay, any questions on that? All right, let's go to step three, which is discerning the type of parallelism. So, I'm throwing these terms out there. This PowerPoint will be available on the website, by the way. I didn't make handouts for this one, so I apologize. All right. So, there is the idea of synonymous, and that repeats the ideas with similar words. Okay. So, if I say, what's a word that's synonymous with hate? There you go. That's really good. We're going to bring her for the next puzzle game. Or if I say, let's say antithetic, repeats with the opposite. If I say hot, cold is the opposite, right? Synthetic extends the ideas. This is the idea of if I say the roof is hot and the roof is red. I'm extending more ideas. I'm still talking about the roof. I'm getting more information. Emblematic is pairs IDs that are literal and figurative. We'll get into similes and metaphors. Chiastic, we talked about that, the center, and then there's alliteration, repeats of sound. Most often, the English text will not alliterate. It won't repeat the sounds. Those are a few places it does. You actually have to look at the Hebrew and look at the letters and things like that to catch the alliteration. When there is some, I'll try to point it out. Okay, so let's walk through this with two lines, okay? Discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you. So this is synonymous because discretion and understanding are very similar. And it's parallelism because we're paralleling two ideas. Proverbs 1.9, for they, this is verse eight, will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck. So again, synonymous ornament and chains, Parallel, but it's incomplete. And why do we say that? Because it's missing that other, see that yellow line? The text isn't there. So, it's not a complete parallel word for word all the way through. It leaves stuff out. And so, we call that incomplete. And that's important. So, you supply that from the parallelism. And the reason the authors do this, it just makes it more interesting, creates some variety, and also gets you to think a little bit more. So, that's the only difference between complete and incomplete. Okay. There are things that go around your neck or on your head. Well, think of this way more in generality. There are things that are added to the body that are to beautify a person. So you're right in the literal sense, an ornament on a head, a hat versus a neck, and sometimes it can be, change is more necklace. So a hat and chain are not identical. when you're literally literal. But if you step back, what are they? They're to beautify the body. And that's the idea. But I like your thinking, Sarah, because that kind of literalness is going to help you see things and force you to, OK, what's really going on here? So you're always doing this kind of the macro, what's in the weeds, to the big picture. All right, Proverbs 14.1, the wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. Now this is antithetical or opposite, right? You have someone who's building it, you have someone who's tearing it down, totally opposite. But it's parallel because they're two ideas putting one next to the other. Okay. I have to always laugh at this one when I see it. As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion. Very picturesque, right? Now, this is parallelism, but it's symbolic, right? You're comparing a swine's snout to lacking discretion. Pretty funny. All right, now look for a simile. Now it's always tricky to remember the difference between a simile and a metaphor. So I always think a simile, I like smiles, the key word like. A decoration that one thing resembles another by comparison, by resemblance. All right, look for a metaphor. Think of something that metamorphoses into something else, and this will help you see the difference. And if you guys have any other tricks that you've used to help you remember the difference, please share. This is a thing that represents another by representation. So there's resembling. It's like something or it represents it is something. Okay. I like smiles metamorphosis into something. You'll see how this plays out. Okay. Comparison between two things that are not at all alike. In other words, you wouldn't ordinarily make this connection. Similes differ from metaphors by having an identifiable indicator of resemblance. You'll see this in a minute played out. An explicit indicator. This is really key. The rainbow trout glistens like fire. Okay, what's the indicator? Color. Rainbow, glistens, right? It has color and glistens implies color. That's the indicator. So when you have a like in there, there's going to be something you're looking for. What is that trait, that explicit indicator? This will help you in interpreting it. And then a metaphor, there's no explicit indicator. Here's an example. The fish is a stroke of lightning. Okay, but it's getting at the idea of a speed. So you have to step back and take it holistically and say, what's going on here? So then you have to look at what, and notice the difference between a simile like fire, right? Fire, rainbow, glistens, there you go. And then the metamorphosis, right? The fish is now being turned into a stroke of lightning. That's the difference. It took me forever to figure this out. I'm just, English was not my best subject. All right. Parallelism and symbolic. Pleasant words are like, is that a simile? Yeah, I give you a hint up there. Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones, like a honeycomb. What's the indicator? Look for the indicator given in the text that applies to both. That's the key. So the indicator would be related to the words and it would be related to the honeycomb, and that's it. So the metaphor, look at this. The wealth of a rich person is a fortified city. See how he's metamorphosed into something. But the poor are brought to ruin by their poverty. And again, there's no indicator. So, we look for an indicator, there isn't one. Focus on the comparison, honeycomb, fortified city, that's the idea, OK? All right, Proverbs 25, 16, have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit. Ever seen little kids eat too much candy and get a bellyache? It's the same principle. All right, synthetic parallelism. This extends the idea with more words. You're looking for a process or progress. So what's the process? I found it, I ate it, I ate too much and was filled, and now I threw up. And that's what you're looking for in synthetic parallelism. It extends the ideas. All right, let's go to another one. Proverbs 6, 16. These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven, are an abomination to him. And then you, so since you're given a list, go ahead and number them. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. So this is a list and a numerical sequence. And they also get worse, by the way. And that's it. Sometimes they do that, sometimes they don't, but many times lists are progressive. Here's a really fascinating one from Proverbs 31. The Excellent Wife. And it's a chiastic structure, but it's also acrostic. I don't know if you know this, but in Hebrew, it's each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is used for the Proverbs 31 verse. So it's pretty cool the whole alphabet is used. But look at the center. Public respect for a husband. That is the main thing that's being emphasized in The Excellent Wife. It's, yes, she does all these great things. They're all important, but they have a, that life, has a huge impact in the public. And back then, that was a significant thing. Okay. Proverbs 13, 24. He who spares his rod hates his son. There's a little bit of alliteration in the English, but in the Hebrew, I have the letters there. You can see the S is being repeated as well as the O. Sibto, bino, hasik, sibto, sone, bino. You can sort of hear the alliteration. But he who loves him disciplines him promptly. Way-o-habo, saharo, musar. You can see the sound of that O in there. Spare the rod, spoil the child. So that was nice that the translator did that. Sometimes there's just statements. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them are alike and an abomination to the Lord. Boom. It's just like the mic drop. All right. Deepen your understanding with word study. So this is really, really important. Did you know that there are seven different words in the Hebrew for wisdom in the book of Proverbs? So you'll see wisdom. You got to ask the question, which of the seven? That kind of complicates things, doesn't it? The most typical list there, 38 times, is hakmah. Technical skill, mastery, aptitude, experience, good sense, wisdom. Skilled living and wisdom, truth applied. That's the idea, hakmah. You're living it out. I think, Dennis, you're a machinist, right? Fabricator. But you're working with machines and stuff like that, right? So after many, many years, he's hakmah. He's learned a skill and he's applied it. Then you have three times, not very much, hakmat, wisdom personified. Then you have three times, lev, which normally referring to the inside, the heart, the mind. And by the way, heart in the Hebrew is equal to the mind, same thing. When it talks about emotions, it talks about the bowels. Three times you have this Tusiya, prudence, sound judgment, thinking or decision, and wisdom. Two times, insight, intelligence, mouth and wisdom is combined typically. One time, Pei, mouth, opening, declaration. And one time, Sakal, understanding, wisdom, discretion. So there are some exceptions, but primarily it's Chakma. So now you're always going to think of Dennis when you see Chakma. Okay, so number five, discover the full range of meaning. When doing word studies, look at the phrase that uses the word and examine the ideas being included to receive the instruction of wisdom. There's the general phrase, and then the verse summarizes it. Justice, judgment, and equity. I can't wait to get to this passage because this is like mind-blowing what the Lord is saying here, so I don't want to give it away. All right, step five, discover the full range of meaning. Look for repeated words and phrases. What kind of person is being identified? Typically it's righteous and wicked or wise and foolish. What type of expression? Is it a saying or is it advice? Establish a theme, a topic, a category, and we'll see that at the end of the handout. We'll be going through all those later. And then application, determine to apply. Now I'm gonna take just a few minutes extra with the time we have remaining and just talk about parenting and proverbs. And most of us probably are at a stage now where most of our kids have moved on. We may have a few at home, but you're certainly going to be impacting your grandkids. And this is a really good, I wish I had learned this when I was much younger as a parent. I learned it way too late. But the three stages of parenting. The first stage, they're little. You've got to control them. If you let them go, they'll run into the street and get hurt, right? But then there comes a stage when you can't really, you still need to control a little bit, but it moves into this correcting stage. They now can understand. So the difference, like a kid running to a street who doesn't know any better, you just gotta grab him. You're not gonna explain to him that there's cars and physics and everything else. But then there comes an age where you're like, you don't go into the street because you'll be hit and you'll end up in hospital or death. That's the correcting stage. You're giving him wisdom and so forth. But then there comes a stage, you can't spank him anymore. They're still in the home. Now you're the coach. You're the consultant. And hopefully, you've earned enough in the relationship, they want to listen to you. But these are the three stages. And I think the mistake we make sometimes as parents is we try to, as a coach, we forget that we're in the coach stage, and we try to control, and we try to correct. And that will blow up in your face. I'm just being really candid. It doesn't work. This book, Wise Parenting Guidelines from the Book of Proverbs is actually pretty good. They use a little different language, but the idea is you inform, you warn, you enforce. That's all you can do as a parent. And you're doing this because if you don't get this corrected, when they leave the house, the government's going to correct them. Okay, and there's another article, Discipline, in the book of Proverbs, To Spank or Not to Spank. Paul Wegner does this. It's a good article. If anyone's interested, I could get this emailed to you. Just email me or church at goodnewsbc, and I could send you the article. So let me just walk through this real quick, because I think this is pretty helpful. Model and inform proper behavior. So yes, mom and dad, we have to model it. Can't be the hypocrite. Do as I say, not as I do, does not work. My son, hear the instruction of your father. Do not forsake the law of your mother. There will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck. Okay? And that's the idea. We model and inform. Then we inform of improper behavior. Proverbs 110, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Do not envy the oppressor. Choose none of his ways. You can see how we're informing improper behavior. And then stage three, explain the negative consequences. But they lie in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who's greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners. So now they're understanding the consequences. This is so important in our instruction. Again, I wish I had gone through the book of Proverbs before we had our first kid. It would have saved me and Stephanie a lot of grief. All right, and then gently exhort, hear my children, the instruction of the Father, give attention to no understanding for I give you good doctrine, do not forsake my law. and then gently rebuke or reprove. For whom the Lord loves, He corrects, just as the Father, the Son, and whom He delights." Stephanie and I learned this technique. After you discipline them and you correct them, you punish them, then you embrace them and say, I love you, this is necessary, and you restore them. That's very, very important. So they understand that you're punishing the sin, you're not repudiating the person. Stage six is punishment at home. Chasing your son while there's hope, and do not set your heart on his destruction. He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly. And Stephanie, you've done school, and she can tell the difference between parents who spank their kids and parents who don't spank their kids. It's very obvious in the conduct of the children, especially when you have a willful child, male or female. Then stage seven, punishment. This is when the world comes in. I remember my dad saying this all the time to me. Son, I'm punishing you because I'm a whole lot easier than when the world punishes you. And he was absolutely right. Proverbs 20, 30, blows that hurt cleanse away evil as do stripes the inner depths of the heart. And it's applying this greater consequence. And then of course, the worst stage. Death, you know, if you don't get this person under control, male or female, it doesn't end well. Chasing your son while there's hope and do not set your heart on his destruction. And then of course, Deuteronomy 21, 18 through 21, if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, This is everything done at home. Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him, bring him out to the elders of the city, to the gate of his city. That's where judgment takes place. And they will say to the elders of his city, the son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He's a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall put away the evil from among you and all Israel shall hear in fear. That's some serious business. So you can imagine the conversations in the house, you know, before this last step has taken place. This probably wasn't done as often as it should have been in Israel, as you could tell. But this is, and notice who's carrying out the punishment. It's not mom and dad, it's the elders, very key. But this is a heartbreaking situation. The scary part, if I was me living back then, I would have been brought to the gate. So thank the Lord for his grace today. All right, so memorize the verses that we'll have each once per chapter, so it won't be too overwhelming. If you're looking for some extra books on Proverbs, the first one is by Peter Steveson. He's an amazing, this is probably my favorite book on Proverbs. Tremper Longman, this is a classic how to read Proverbs. John Kitchen is another one. If you want something a little bit older or considered a classic, Charles Bridges, an exposition of the Book of Proverbs. It's kind of hard to read because it was written like in the 1900s. And then that literary structure, which is for the whole Bible, not every proverb is organized, is the David Dorsey's literary structure of the Old Testament. All right, we're almost done. Proverbs 1.7 is the verse to memorize. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. And the question before you today is, are you ready to get wise God's way? Hopefully you're getting excited for the book of Proverbs. It really is amazing study. It's my favorite book in the Bible, next to the book of Romans. Any questions? Laura. So I'm going to create a new tab on the homepage, and it'll say Proverbs. And there will be the PowerPoint in a PDF form, and I will also be putting a link to all the videos as well. So that'll usually be done sometimes Sundays when I do all this stuff. So by Monday, it should be live. Yeah. All right. Make sure you grab the homework. If you want to, it's voluntary. I will not hold you accountable. And I'm going to go ahead and close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together as we launch into this amazing book of wisdom of Solomon and others. Thank you for this book. Help us to know it. Help us to apply it. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right. Thanks for joining us.