Engagement/Tension
Let me begin this morning with a question:
How many of you have made one or more foolish decisions in your life?
I certainly have and if you’re honest I’m pretty sure all of you have done that too.
• Maybe for some of you kids in school, it was the decision not to study for a test because you thought you already knew all the material. But then it turned out that you didn’t know as much as you thought and you failed the test or you got a bad grade.
• For some of us maybe it was a bad investment.
• Or maybe it was taking the wrong job.
• Maybe it was a purchase you shouldn’t have made
• For some, it was a relationship that turned out to be toxic
Unfortunately we can’t go back and change any of those decisions. But what we can do is to develop the kind of wisdom that prevents us from making some of those same foolish decisions in the future.
That’s what we’re going to be talking about for the next seven weeks as we study the book of Proverbs. We’re calling this series “Fool Proof”, which in hindsight may have been overly optimistic, since even if you diligently apply the principles we’re going to learn together it probably won’t totally prevent you from ever making a foolish decision again in the future. But hopefully it will at least help all of us not to make nearly as many of them. So perhaps in hindsight we should have called this series “Fool Reduction”, but it just doesn’t have quite the same force. so we’ll go ahead and stick with “Fool Proof”.
› Truth
The book of Proverbs is in a section of the Old Testament that is known as Wisdom literature. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to your table of contents and you’ll see that the five books that make up that section are grouped together in our English Bibles:
• That section begins with Job - a book, that along with the book of Ecclesiastes, takes a look at the real world where good people sometimes suffer and evil people sometimes prosper - at least here on earth.
• Job is followed by Psalms - a collection of Hebrew poetry that is primarily focused on the corporate worship of Israel.
• Next comes Proverbs. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
• That is followed by Ecclesiastes, which I already mentioned. It asks out loud the question that we’re often afraid to ask - where is God in all the mess in the world?
• And then finally we have the Song of Solomon. Although many try to make that book into merely a metaphor for God’s love for His people, it is really an erotic love poem about a young bride and groom on their wedding night.
In the book of Proverbs we find a collection of short sayings, or proverbs, about how to live in a way that we don’t become fools. Proverbs are not unique to the Bible. In fact, this week I came across these proverbs from other sources:
• Don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things.
• Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
And many of the proverbs we’ll be looking at are in the form of riddles that cause us to think about the deep things in life. Once again that kind of riddle is not unique to the book of Proverbs and I also ran across some similar riddles from other sources:
• If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?
• If you ate pasta and antipasta, would you still be hungry?
• If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
The book of Proverbs was primarily authored by Solomon, the king of Israel and David’s son. It’s like a treasure chest of precious gems of wisdom on almost every topic you can think of in life. That shouldn’t be surprising given the fact that when God promised to give Solomon anything he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom. And as a result, Solomon is described in the Bible as the wisest man of his time.
But near the end of his life, Solomon also wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. By that time Solomon had accumulated 700 wives and 300 concubines, which alone is pretty good proof he was no longer living in accordance with the wisdom God had given him. I think that provides us with a very important and relevant warning. Living wisely requires constant diligence. It is not something that we just get once and then we have it for a lifetime. And, as we’re going to see throughout the book of Proverbs, the earlier we start to live wisely, the better.
With that in mind, let’s look at the first seven verses of the book, where we will answer these two important questions:
What is wisdom?
How do I get it?
Proverbs 1:1–7 ESV
1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight,
3 to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6 to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
While we’ll look at this entire passage, we’re going to focus most of our time on verse 7 because it is essentially the theme verse for the entire book. And here is how I’m going to phrase the principle we find there:
I “fool proof” my life when I live based on the truth that God is God and I am not .
In verse 7 we learn that from God’s perspective there are two kinds of people - those who live wisely and those who are fools. Because the concept of a fool in the Bible is different from the way we tend to use that term in our culture, I want to spend a few moments to make sure we understand how the Bible, and particularly the book of Proverbs, uses that term.
The English words “fool” and “foolish” are found 73 times in the ESV translation of Proverbs, but there are actually three different underlying Hebrew words that help us to understand different aspects of what it means to be a fool.
Here in verse 7, Solomon uses the Hebrew word ewil (pronounced e-veel). This word describes someone who is morally deficient or corrupt and who acts with intentional disregard for what he knows to be true. This person will do whatever he thinks he can get away with.
The other most commonly used Hebrew word in Proverbs is kesil. This word describes someone who is simply ignorant of the moral demands of God. So for this person it is still possible for an awakening to occur since the disobedience is not deliberate.
Although it is not used as frequently as the other two, Solomon also uses the word nabal. That word describes someone who is insensitive to the consequences of his actions. You might remember that there was a man named Nabal who was struck dead by God because of his opposition to David.
Taking all those ideas into consideration we could define a fool like this:
“fool” = any person who rejects God’s ways
Or, using the terms I’ve already used in our main idea, it is anyone who is his or her own God.
Based on that definition of a fool, we can begin to understand what wisdom is, since we already know that the wise person lives in a way that is just the opposite of a fool. However, the Hebrew concept of wisdom is so much different than our western concept that we need to take some time to explore it a bit further.
So let’s go ahead and answer the first question I posed earlier:
WHAT IS WISDOM?
One of the things we’ve learned about Hebrew poetry in the past is that it tends to rhyme thought rather than words. So it’s not surprising that in Proverbs Solomon uses several different synonyms to describe wisdom - wisdom, understanding, knowledge. In our English language those words all have different meanings, but in Hebrew they are merely describing different aspects of wisdom. That is evident if we compare verse 7 to a similar verse we see later in the book:
Proverbs 9:10 ESV
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Notice there that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, whereas in verse 7 it is the beginning of knowledge. There is nothing in the text that would cause us to think that Solomon is writing about 2 different things. He is merely using two different words to describe the same concept.
The next thing we need to understand about the Hebrew idea of wisdom is that it is more about doing than knowing. It is experiential rather than intellectual. The same Hebrew word that is translated “wisdom” in Proverbs is translated “skill” throughout the book of Exodus to describe the men and women who worked on the tabernacle and its furnishings. Here’s just one example:
Exodus 35:35 ESV
35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
In our western way of thinking we tend to think of wisdom as cognitive ability, so we are more apt to think of wisdom in terms of wise philosophers rather than use it to describe a manual laborer who pounds nails or hangs drywall or lays tile. But the Hebrew idea of wisdom encompasses both. That means that wisdom is not just limited to what we might think of as “spiritual” - reading the Bible and praying and going to church - but it also applies to what we consider “secular” - our schooling and our marriages and our jobs.
God wants us to exercise wisdom in every area of our day-to-day lives. He cares about whether we are a good student, a good wife and mother, a good electrical engineer, a good banker, or a good contractor. He cares about our finances and the kinds of TV programs and movies we watch and our hobbies. His desire is that we would exercise wisdom in every area of our lives because He knows that is what is best for us.
One of my favorite go to sources when it comes to Hebrew is a biblical scholar named Skip Moen. He wrote this about the Hebrew concept of wisdom:
“Just do it” is the essence of Hebrew religion. It doesn’t really matter if you don’t understand. Actually, you can believe that the mitzva is impossible (either logically or practically). But—just do it! Just do it anyway. While most Westernized religions operate on the basis of apologetics (give me a good reason and then I’ll decide), the religion of Israel is based on practice. Actions really do speak louder than words. In fact, actions have eternal significance.
So with all that in mind, I’m going to give you my definition of biblical wisdom. It’s actually pretty simple:
“wisdom” = God enabled skill for living
That is why we have said this morning that...
I “fool proof” my life when I live based on the truth that God is God and I am not .
› Application
But how do we actually do that in practical terms? How do we develop that kind of wisdom?
HOW DO I GET IT?
The answer to that question seems pretty simple on the surface doesn’t it? It begins with the fear of the Lord. But what exactly does that mean and how do I do that?
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for fear has several different meanings:
• terror in a frightening situation
• respect for one’s master
• reverence or awe one feels in the presence of greatness
The fear of the Lord is a combination of all of these. I am not sure who came up with this originally, but the best definition of the fear of the Lord I have come across is this:
the continual awareness that our loving heavenly Father is watching and evaluating everything we think, say, and do
Or, to put it into the terms that we’re using this morning, it is understanding that God is God and I am not.
Essentially the difference between a fool and a wise person comes down to this. The fool thinks he is is his own God and the wise person recognizes that he is not and that he is going to be held responsible for his actions by the one true God.
If you’re a disciple of Jesus, then the fear of the Lord is not the kind of fear that should make you run away, but rather the kind of fear that should make you bow. It it the kind of fear that overwhelms us and humbles us. On the other hand, if you’re not yet a disciple of Jesus, then you really do need to fear the judgment that is coming.
› Action
Let’s close our time by talking about a couple practical ways we can develop that kind of fear of the Lord.
HOW TO DEVELOP THE FEAR OF THE LORD
In verses 2-6, Solomon gives us some actions that we can take in order to develop the fear of the Lord. You’ll notice that each of those verses is introduced by a verb, which means there is something we can do to develop the kind of fear of the Lord that will produce wisdom and fool proof our lives. While we could go through each of those verses individually, I’m going to combine the ideas we see in those verses into two very practical things that all of us are capable of doing.
• Seek to understand God as He really is , not as you want Him to be
There are really two ways to become the kind of fool that we’ve defined this morning:
• One is to not believe in God at all. David expressed that idea in Psalm 14:
Psalm 14:1 ESV
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
If you’re joining us this morning, I doubt that is the case in your life.
• But the second way that we can become a fool is to believe that there is a God, but make Him into the God we want to be. That is something all of us are much more prone to do. And even much of the church here in the western world has fallen into that trap. It’s actually pretty easy to do. You just ignore or explain away the Bible verses that address whatever sin you struggle with. Or some even go so far as to just not talk about sin at all. You start a church with the motto “Love. Period” and you don’t talk about the holiness and righteousness of God. You just go along with the culture because that is easier to do that to hold on to biblical principles and truths. You subscribe to some particular theology or theological system and then you force what the Bible says into that framework.
So how do we guard against that? There are obviously a lot of things we can do, but let me suggest just three:
• We do our best to come to God’s Word without any pre-conceived ideas. Obviously that’s not easy. So we need to pray and ask God to help us to see the Scriptures from His perspective. We ask Him to help us set aside our own preconceived ideas and let the Holy Spirit guide us into truth.
• We’re honest about our sin. When the Bible reveals something in our life that doesn’t line up with God’s standards, we confess that sin and repent.
• We genuinely listen to others who have different viewpoints. That doesn’t mean we will always agree with them, but we need to have our ideas about God and His Word challenged in a way that it causes us to consider what we believe and test it against God’s Word.
If we’ll do just those three things, we’ll be a lot less likely to try to mold God’s Word to our lives rather than molding our lives to His Word.
• Obey , even when you don’t understand
Our relationship with God changes over time in a way that is similar to our relationship with our own parents. When we were young, our parents often gave us commands that we didn’t understand because they knew what was good for us. So when we disobeyed, there were consequences, often painful ones, not because our parents wanted to hurt us, but because they didn’t want us to burn our hand on a hot stove or run into the road and get hit by a car. So the fear of those consequences was actually good for us.
But as we got older and we could understand better, our parents began to accompany those commands with an explanation of why they were imposing those rules. And hopefully, by the time we become adults our relationship develops into more of a friendship where we still respect and honor our parents, but no longer fear their punishment.
Our relationship with God is a lot like that. When we first become disciples of Jesus, we need to obey even when we don’t understand the purpose of His commands. We’re going to find a lot of principles in Proverbs that don’t make a lot of sense, especially compared to the wisdom of this world. But we need to put them into practice anyway if we want to fool proof our lives. And because He loves us, when we choose to disobey those principles, God often brings some kind of painful discipline into our lives to get us back on track.
As we continue to read the Bible and mature in our faith, we begin to see many of the reasons behind these principles and we no longer obey them only because we fear the consequences of disobedience but because we understand the benefits of living like that. And if we stay on that path, eventually we get to the place where we become God’s friends as well as His children. We still fear Him is the sense that we respect Him and reverence Him and maintain our awe of Him. But we fear His judgment less and less.
So as we go through this book, and any other book of the Bible for that matter. I want to encourage you to make a commitment to apply the principles we’re going to be learning about, even when they don’t make sense.
I “fool proof” my life when I live based on the truth that God is God and I am not .
› Inspiration
As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to do the “In the Bag” message at the end of my message today rather than before it. But rather than pulling something out of the bag I’m actually going to show a couple videos. So if I can have all the kids come down front now, we’ll go ahead and close with “In the Bag”.
A couple of weeks ago, our family was on the beach and some of you kids and even some of you adults built this sand castle on the beach. [Show first video]. And as the tide came in and the waves got closer, everyone chipped in to reinforce that castle. [Show second video]. But what do you think happened next? [Wait for answers]. That’s right, the waves eventually washed away the entire structure [Show third video]. In fact, by the time we came back to that beach the next day, there wasn’t even a hint that sand castle had been there.
Interestingly Jesus used that same illustration when He was preaching one day. He said that the wise man listens to God and lives his life according to God’s Word. That is like building a house on a rock, so that when the wind and the waves of life come, the house will still stand. But the fool listens to what God says but chooses not to obey. He lives His life the way he wants. Jesus said that is like building a house on sand. And we all saw what happened when we do that.
So let’s all commit to the idea that God is God and I am not and live in a way that we wisely build our lives on Jesus, the rock, and not foolishly build them on the sand of self.
