Nisly Paradise

Verses 17-20, 22 talk mostly about words so I would like to focus most of our time on discussing the topics regarding what we say.

15 The way of a fool is right in his own opinion, but the one who listens to advice is wise.

Already kinda covered verse 15 last week.  However, I don’t remember talking very much about that first line.  I just want to point out what that first phrase is saying (The way of the fools is right in his own opinion). In other words, a fool will think he is right.  The opposite would be to say a wise man will know he doesn’t know everything.  I think this is a fascinating concept. Often in a discussion, the people talking the most and the loudest are really the least knowledgeable about what they are arguing about.  The wisest people I know are consistently up front about what they don’t know.   This is something I want to grow more in, but I hope in my teaching Sunday School class, you have consistently heard me say, this is what I think, or this is how it looks to me, instead of being dogmatic and saying THIS IS HOW IT IS!

16 A fool’s annoyance is known at once, but the prudent overlooks an insult.

This is interesting to me because I keep trying to teach Ian that control of his own emotions and responses is something he needs to learn. He just may not punch Kedrick whenever he loses his temper.  Control of your emotions is a major task of adulthood. Uncontrolled people that go into adulthood and responsibility are terrifying loose cannons. I want to say this respectfully, but one need look no farther than our president for an example.

17 The faithful witness tells what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit.

I’m not sure if I even know what v 17 is saying. ESV and KJV sound pretty different on the first phrase, but I think are actually saying almost the same thing.  So it’s just saying a false witness will tell the truth and a false witness with deceive you (?!).  I’m confused about the significance of that. Isn’t that the definition of a false witness–one that speaks deceit?

18 Speaking recklessly is like the thrusts of a sword, but the words of the wise bring healing.

I think probably all of us have been the victim of a reckless tongue.  No doubt it was quite destructive!  Maybe some of you still feel the pain from words a parent or close acquaintance spoke to you years ago.  But isn’t the challenge to remember the destruction we can cause when we are on the giving end of the tongue? Many of us are fathers and leaders and I think have extra responsibility to be thoughtful in our words. The second half of the verse explains how the wise brings healing through what he says. That is the challenge for us. We can destroy or heal with our words. V25 is another way of phrasing that.  I don’t get to see my boss that often because of the nature of my job.  Recently, she gave me public recognition at a staff meeting and it was just amazing how encouraging it was for me to get some praise from her.

Can you relate stories of being pierced with reckless words?

Can you give examples of how a wise word brought healing to you?

What are your strategies for watching your words?

Do you find it a challenge as a father/leader to consistently build up instead of tearing down?

Eph 4:14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

This verse shows that we need people who can use constructive words for the body of Christ to become mature.

19 The one who tells the truth will endure forever, but the one who lies will last only for a moment.

What is v 19 saying? Is this just a statement that lying will destroy you? If so, what are the implications? Obviously, as pious Matthew 5 believers, we value honesty pretty highly.  But do we love it? Do we actually hate lying like God does?  V 22 fits well here: The Lord abhors a person who lies, but those who deal truthfully are his delight.

What is it about lying that God hates? Why do you think he delights in those who deal truthfully?

What does it look like to deal truthfully? That seems so much deeper than just not ever telling a lie.

27 The lazy person does not roast his prey, but personal possessions are precious to the diligent.

Obviously you can apply this directly–if you go hunting, better make SURE you get that deer to the butcher’s or you are lazy. But I think the verse is really making a statement about the character of the lazy and the diligent.

Why would the lazy person not roast his game?

Why would the diligent care about his possessions?

How do you teach this to your children?

 

First of all, Proverbs is hard for me to do a lot of traditional study material on.  It feels like these are more short general truths that should just be discussed in class as we work to internalize.  So I’m not sure I will continue posting a lot on Proverbs for now, but probably some…

Here are a few ideas for this passage:

• V 1: What is it about measuring devices that either infuriates or delights the Lord?
  • Scriptures that talk about it?
    • Lev 19:35 You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity.
    • Deu 25:13 You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small.
• 2: Pride/humility
  • If you are proud, there is only one way to go (down).   Disgrace…does God perhaps intentionally give the proud extra disgrace?

5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

• But why is there wisdom with the humble? Is it correct to say that humility breeds wisdom?

• Righteous: a prominent theme in this passage (vs 3-11).
  • What does it mean to be righteous? What is righteousness?
    • Synonyms in this passage (ESV): Integrity, upright.  Antonyms: crookedness, treacherous, but mostly wicked/wickedness.

Definitions of Hebrew terms for Righteous and Wicked:

H3477 (UPRIGHT)

ישׁר

yâshâr

yaw-shawr’

From H3474; straight (literally or figuratively): – convenient, equity, Jasher, just, meet (-est), + pleased well right (-eous), straight, (most) upright (-ly, -ness).

 

H6666 (RIGHTEOUSNESS)

צדקה

tsedâqâh

tsed-aw-kaw’

From H6663; rightness (abstractly), subjectively (rectitude), objectively (justice), morally (virtue) or figuratively (prosperity): – justice, moderately, right (-eous) (act, -ly, -ness).

 

H6662 (RIGHTEOUS/JUst)

צדּיק

tsaddı̂yq

tsad-deek’

From H6663; just: – just, lawful, righteous (man).

 

H898 (TRANSGRESSORS)

בּגד

bâgad

baw-gad’

A primitive root; to cover (with a garment); figuratively to act covertly; by implication to pillage: – deal deceitfully (treacherously, unfaithfully), offend, transgress (-or), (depart), treacherous (dealer, -ly, man), unfaithful (-ly, man), X very.

 

H7563 (WICKED)

רשׁע

râshâ‛

raw-shaw’

From H7561; morally wrong; concretely an (actively) bad person: –  + condemned, guilty, ungodly, wicked (man), that did wrong.

 

I’ve never had to teach Proverbs before, and I admit it looks pretty daunting. It feels important to come to some common agreements about how to interpret Proverbs before we jump in.

 

First of all, what section are we in?

• Proverbs 1-9 start with Proverbs 1:1:

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel… So that section was proverbs of King Solomon.

• Proverbs 10:1 starts again with The proverbs of Solomon.  However, these seem to be simply a collection of the wise one-liners, so to speak, that were collected while Solomon was king. For example, in my mind’s eye, I picture him passing judgment on a foolish son, then that evening, penning Proverbs 10:1.  As such, most of these verses don’t seem to stick together very well, that is, each wise saying pretty much stands alone.
• Chapters 25-29 start with the inscription (Proverbs 25:1) that These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied.  So basically more of the same, they just weren’t in the “first edition” of Proverbs.
• Chapter 30 is the wise sayings of Agur the son of Jakeh. The oracle. (Proverbs 30:1).
• Chapter 31 is The word of King Lemuel. An oracle his mother taught him. (Proverbs 31:1).

 

Context and how to interpret a Proverb:

• To properly understand and apply one of these wise sayings we will be studying for the next 6 months, I think it’s crucial to remember when and to whom these Proverbs were written.
• I think it’s pretty self-explanatory that Solomon was the author, and the book was written to Old Testament Jews.
• God gave Solomon unmatched wisdom, and we know these Proverbs are part of Scripture. So we can safely take them as truth.  (It is true, that in his later years, Solomon somehow turned his back on Wisdom.)
• God’s covenant with the Old Testament Jews I believe was very different from our New Testament dispensation.  God promised physical blessings and prosperity as his portion of the covenant in exchange for the obedience and undivided loyalty of the Israelites. Most of the narrative portions of the OT graphically illustrate this time and time again.  A graphic example is David and Saul’s conflict with Goliath, or the Philistines in general. However, in the NT, I see very little support for physical prosperity (I’m not saying none!).
• A crucial task in interpreting and applying Proverbs is to figure out how this wise saying applies to the NT age.  This is a major premise of Anabaptism–that we give precedence to the way of Jesus where it differs from the OT!!!
• Gary Miller, one of my ministers from Hutchinson, used to say something to the effect that a Proverb is more of a generality about how life should work rather than a definitive statement about how it always works.  I think this concept is very helpful when you look at Proverbs.  Additionally, they tend to just show one side of a coin, but if you put several proverbs together, you might get a more complete picture.
  • For example: Proverbs 10:4 implies that the diligent will get rich. Many Mennonites like this verse and think that poor people are lazy. But what about Proverbs 13:23 that says that The fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice. So we need to be careful to take each Proverb in the light of other Scripture.
• Hebrew Poetry: I think it’s also important to have just a basic understanding of Hebrew poetry. What are the defining characteristics of English poetry? (cadence, rhyming words, etc.).
  • Hebrew poetry primarily used rhyming ideas. Almost all of this section of Proverbs utilizes this rhyming device. For example, Proverbs 10:1.  To get the point of the verse, you really need to put both lines together, not that a foolish son will only be a sorrow to his mother.
  • Additionally, when you try to put something in poetry form, I think you tend to trade off a little exactness in exchange for something you can remember. (Just pick up the hymnal and look at the funny language/word order they use.) Obviously, the better you are at rhyming, the more you can mitigate this. But you still have to make all your sentences the same length. In my opinion, a Proverb like this can’t compare in doctrinal weight to a line in Deuteronomy, or to one of Paul’s 3 paragraph run-on sentence.
  • This is not to say that Proverbs aren’t true, but just that you must be aware of the genre as you seek to understand what God was trying to convey in this passage.
• Summary: the Proverbs are valuable, pithy lines to help us be thoughtful about how the world works but must be evaluated carefully to see how they apply to us NT believers.
• Note: these are some of my off the cuff thoughts and I would definitely welcome your input to “sharpen my iron”!

Chapter 10:

I hope to do more thinking and studying throughout the week.  However, I am thinking mostly that we can just sort of go through the passage and allow natural discussion about the each proverb.  There is just such a diversity of ideas with such creative wording here that it feels like you really need some time to digest these lines to really get to their heart….