Plotting Evil Or Promoting Peace Series

Plotting evil or Promoting Peace

Prov. 12:11-20

Why are the Proverbs are so Important . God desires and commands us to live in wisdom—”Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.” (Ephesians 5:15). And In Proverbs 23:23 we are told to “get wisdom,” and the Proverbs themselves are one of the best places to observe and learn about that wisdom. God gave us this book to teach us how conform our lives to God’s standards.

The Proverbs, like all Scripture, are from God. They show us something of the compassion of God-that he cares enough about us to live wisely and that He does not want us to live foolishly.

Throughout this book, God reveals general truths about how we are to conduct ourselves in areas of life like relationships, finances and work.. These truths are condensed into small units through figures of speech and brief comparisons,

.Proverbs performs all the functions of Scripture mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:16—”It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” In Proverbs, God teaches us principles that will bring us peace and contentment, chides us for the things we have done in sin, shows us how to correct our way of life, and trains us to live righteously.

This book was given also to strengthen our trust in God. “So that your trust may be in the Lord,” we read in Proverbs 22:19, “I am teaching you today—yes, you—so you will trust in the Lord.”

Solomon, the author of most of the Proverbs, comments on their purpose in the book’s first six verses, and in verse seven tells us the underlying foundation for wisdom: “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge.”

Such passages in Proverbs 8:12–14, and Proverbs 9:10 show how wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are bound together, and how all are based on the fear of God. The wisdom taught in Proverbs is godly wisdom, which has three basic characteristics (1) the fear of the Lord,(2) spirituality, and (3) skill.

Fearing the Lord means having a deep reverence and respect for God and his Word, a respect and reverence that result in obedience. Such an attitude is found in those who are humble—”With humility comes wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2)—and it cannot be found by a “mocker” or bought by a fool: “A mocker seeks wisdom and never finds it” (Proverbs 14:6).

Godly wisdom is also spiritual. It enters into our hearts from God. The Holy Spirit who rested on Christ was “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2). Paul prayed over the Christians in Colossae (Colossians), that they would know God’s will, and it would “give you spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9).

Wisdom is also skill—the ability to apply and use knowledge effectively. Wisdom is “working knowledge.” It is made evident by what it accomplishes, for Jesus said, “wisdom is shown to be right by its results” (Matthew 11:19), and “wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it” (Luke 7:35). Wisdom can waste away or spoil if it is not used. In Jeremiah 49:7, God questioned the people of Edom about the “decay” of wisdom there, and in Ezekiel 28:17 He spoke against the city of Tyre because she had “corrupted” her wisdom.

Are the proverbs found in the book of Proverbs promises ? Christians love to pick out those “promises” they find in scripture such as “I will never leave or forsake you,” or “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish,” or “In my Father’s house are many rooms … I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

We regard those promises to believers as completely trustworthy and guaranteed as long as the conditions are met — repenting of sins and following Jesus. The one guaranteeing those promises is God Himself so there are no exceptions — no failed promises because God never fails. We can trust his word.

The one problem regarding “promises” is when well-intentioned Christians mistake a Biblical principle for a Biblical promise. It seems to happen most often with the “wisdom literature” in the Bible, most often with the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs are unusual; there usually is no context to help ascertain the meaning of an individual verse — each verse is a separate thought. In other words a proverb is a very brief and particular expression of truth that teaches basic values — appropriate patterns of human behavior that help an individual mature into responsible adulthood. They often are practical observations about everyday attitudes and life in general. As such, it is often possible to find “exceptions” to particular proverbs. The mistake comes in when we regard them as 100% iron clad legal guarantees from God with no exceptions possible.