Proverbs

Helen Almanza
TUMC  Fellowship Hall

September 13, 2009

Text: Proverbs  1: 20-33

The Scripture today comes from the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs is part of the Bible that is classified as Wisdom Literature, along with Ecclesiastes, Psalms, and Song of Songs in the Old Testament. Proverbs is not a book that many people have studied or even read which is a shame because it is filled with sayings that tell us what effect our actions have on others and on the whole community. The theme of the entire book of  Proverbs is to tell us about the benefits of living by wisdom. The sayings are pretty straightforward.  Listen to some of them:   

            “The words of a fool start a fight do him a favor and gag him!”: (Prov 18:6)

“Answering before listening is both stupid and rude.”  (Proverbs 18:13)

            “The person who courts sin, marries trouble;

            build a wall, invite a burglar.” (Proverbs 17:19)

“….a nagging spouse is a leaky faucet” (Proverbs 19:13b)

As you can tell, these sayings don’t pull any punches and they are very direct!  When I was younger, I don’t think it even occurred to me to be interested in being wise.  Actually, I think I thought wisdom was for older folks and somehow, you just get wise when you get old.   But now that I am older (and I am not sure I am very wise.) and I have read and studied the book, I just wish that I had read this book sooner because it could have saved me so much pain!  The wisdom is here for the choosing, no matter what our age.   I just didn’t know enough to even look at the book, much less choose to read and believe it.

The people of Israel collected these sayings for many centuries, and when the decision was made as to what to include in our Bible, they were placed there, right next to Psalms. They focus on our everyday life and how we can live the life God intends for us. They are practical guidelines on things such as , raising our children, handling money, our sexual lives, work relationships and how to exercise leadership, relationships with friends , even eating and drinking in a healthy way. (The Message)

It is pretty nitty-gritty.  Hard to believe that God would be interested in these kinds of things in our lives, but that is what Proverbs tells us. Proverbs insists that the way we think of and respond to God is the most practical thing we do.     .       ‘

   It focuses on equipping us to evaluate specific situations in our daily lives in light of the character and purposes of God.  For example:

How are we to respond to the needy?

             “Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full.”

 (Proverbs19:17)

Our character?

            “Pride first, then the crash, but humility is precursor to honor.”

            (Proverbs18:12)

Our judgment:

“Whitewashing bad people and throwing mud on goodpeople are equally abhorrent to God.” (Proverbs 17:15)

Our sincerity: 

“We justify our actions by appearances; God examines our motives.” ( Proverbs21:2)

Our concern for the poor:

 “Generous hands are blessed hands because they give bread to the poor.”

 (Proverbs 22:9)

Simple as these sayings are, they are actually quite profound if for no other reason than to point out to us that these things are all important to God.  Yes, our everyday actions are what truly constitute our lives – the little things, the minutia.  Oh, sure, the big things that happen to us are important, I wouldn’t deny that, marriage, births; of course, they are important.   But the practical everyday things that happen in our lives and how we respond to them are what is really important to God

Proverbs tells us that in matters of everyday practicality, nothing, absolutely nothing, takes precedence over God. God is interested in everything we do and our obedience to God in the ordinary things of our lives is what is important.

How is it that I become wise? Do I become wise by just reading Proverbs or the other wisdom material in the Bible? Well, there certainly is a lot of it.  There are also major themes of Wisdom in the New Testament in the short sayings and parables of Jesus, the prologue of John, in the sayings of Jesus that begin with “I am….”  In truth, the entire Bible is permeated with Wisdom – wisdom on how to lead a certain kind of life that is in keeping with God’s will.  Wisdom comes to us as a gift from God when you and I study, pray, interact and seek God’s will.   So you and I have our part to do. 

  Certainly, gaining knowledge is a key ingredient.  How do we know the ways of God if we do not study them?  What does it mean to be a person of faith in our fast-paced, high-tech, multicultural community?  Certainly knowledge is available to us in ways that other generations have not known.  We twitter, google, and listen as a matter of daily course. We have television that has allowed us to learn things our ancestors would only have dreamed about – like looking down into the middle of a volcano. We have Ipods and recording devices of all kinds.  But study is required. 

 Many of us have studied hard to gain knowledge in the field of our work, the knowledge we use for our Monday-Friday jobs.   Yet,  how many of us have more than just a basic, simple understanding of the Christian faith, the faith that we are to be using 7 days a week, the faith that asks for obedience to God in the everyday, ordinary things of our lives?

Nothing is secret is about what God expects from us.   Nothing is cryptic or mysterious.  Yet, how can I know what God expects if I do not read or listen to the Bible, if I do not study it?  How can I know what the 10 commandments mean?  How can I know Jesus’ intentions with Beatitudes if I don’t study them?  They are not so easy to understand! How can I know God’s ways if I don’t talk about them with mentors, friends, parents and teachers? Sunday school is not for all of us, but at least there we come together to talk about God’s word in our lives.  Regular Worship is a wonderful way to study and learn, but how many of us attend more than twice a month?  Nothing is secret about what God expects, but it stays a secret if I do not try to gain knowledge about it.

Yet, as basic as knowledge is to wisdom, remember it is not the most important ingredient.     God gives us the gift of wisdom.  We have to do our part through learning about God’s way, through experience in being obedient to God, but in the end it is a gift, a gift from God and it is given to us as a result of our study, prayer, reflection and seeking.

Proverbs tells us there are two ways of living, one is blessed and the other is cursed.  Through Proverbs we are invited to follow the way of the righteous and to avoid the way of the wicked.  The actual Scripture lesson today has wisdom personified as a woman.  She is standing in the square yelling out to everyone, telling us of the importance of gaining wisdom, telling us it is available to everyone.  She tells us that no one can claim that he or she has not heard Wisdom’s voice and doesn’t know of its importance. The consequence of heeding Wisdom’s advice is security in life.  The consequence of rejecting Wisdom’s advice is death. 

We hear Wisdom’s voice today.  Will we heed her voice?

 Focus:  Living God’s wisdom will lead us to a life in keeping with God’s will.

Function:  Hearers will recognize the need for wisdom in order to live a life following God’s will.  The knowledge is available in the Bible and the wisdom is a gift from God which we receive when we study, pray, reflection and seeking.