Proverbs Explained

​But whenever you read it and however you go about it, remember this, these wise sayings are the wisdom that is from above. Is first pure and then peaceable. It's gentle to all. willing to yield full of good mercy and good fruits. And that's without partiality and without hypocrisy. So we encourage you to get wise, get wisdom get it. It's the principal thing. And it leads us to Jesus because Jesus became wisdom for us, and that is why we put all of our trust in him and what he's done for us.
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​hello and welcome to the You Can Learn the Bible podcast where we summarize complete Bible books in single episodes. My name is Bode Quirk from YouCanLearnTheBible. com, here with Joey Rozek, Lead Pastor of Living Springs Fellowship in New Jersey. We're back for another episode, Joey. It's always good to be with you. How are you today, my friend?
Bodie. This is going to be a great episode. So I'm, I'm excited. We're going into one of my, regular daily reading books, the book of Proverbs today. And so, we're asking God for wisdom to talk about wisdom
Yes, that's right.
we're going to be getting into some great, quotables that come out of the Bible that can be applied to any book of the Bible because we're gleaning wisdom from heaven here in this book. So it's going to be a great time together. Bodie, are
is. I'm so good. Joey, I love this book, like you do. This is something that is always applicable to no matter what you're going through. There is something for you in this book. That's what's so great about this wisdom literature section of the Bible is that it's wisdom from God that applies to all mankind across generations.
It's incredible. So this will be a fun one though. We are going to do this one a little bit different though, in our seven part framework that we've been applying to all of the other books. So what we really want to try and do is equip you to understand and to read the book on your own. That's the purpose of all these episodes.
We use this framework where we want to introduce the essentials, the basics of the book, where this book fits on the overall storyline, kind of how the book is broken down, the major themes and ideas that we find in this book. what we can really learn about God, as well as what we can apply to our own lives, that's part of our framework, and just some of those favorite small little details that we love.
We apply the seven part framework to every book. Today, we're going to apply it to the book of Proverbs. We're going to do a little bit differently, which we'll explain in a second. But just as a reminder,
we have a video version an audio version. The audio is on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The video is available on YouTube if you'd like to see it. See the video and the slides that we use. But also we'd like to summarize this as a one page PDF for you. And so we'll give you a link for that at the end of this episode. But Joey, I'm ready. If you are like, let's say that we're having breakfast with a friend and they say, I've never read the book of Proverbs before.
Help me understand kind of what I need to know first and where I should start. Let's start with our essentials.
Well, before we would take a bite of breakfast, I would say to my friend sitting across from me about the book of Proverbs that say, I'd say, imagine you lay down on your bed at night and you're laying there and all of a sudden God speaks down from heaven and he says to you, Ask, what would you like me to do for
Mm.
and you're laying in bed and you have God asking this open ended question. What would you like me to give to you? And you have to think about it for a moment and you respond. Well, a man named Solomon had this exact experience happen to him. And in first Kings chapter three, when God asked him this question, Solomon, knowing that he was to be the king of Israel after his father, David, he asked God, this, he said in verse nine of first Kings three, therefore, give to your servant and understanding heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil for who is able to judge this great people of yours and this speech pleased the Lord and God gave him wisdom.
He became the wisest man ever to walk this earth, of course, outside of Jesus. So as you approach the book of Proverbs, you are getting some of the incredible. quotable nuggets of truth, wise sayings of practical counsel and advice in almost all areas of life.
So as we look at the essentials of this book, Bodie, the date was around 970 to 930 BC as Solomon is beginning his reign, and of course, and beyond many of these proverbs was a collection over his lifetime. We're dealing with our first new genre. In the scriptures here called wisdom literature. And so this is going to be where we get this, these godly instructions and quotable sayings. And of course the author is mostly Solomon, but there's a couple other contributors.
Like we're going to hear about King Lemuel and Agur in the last couple of chapters. And then of course the copyists, those people who copied down the sayings they heard over the years. contributed to this book. So that's the author. Now, the setting of this book, of course, does take place in Israel, namely Jerusalem, where Solomon has the center of his reign.
But of course, this book carried over into application for all the Kings throughout the Northern and Southern kingdom, as it would eventually split. So what is the purpose of the book of Proverbs? I'm so glad you asked. The purpose of the book of Proverbs is to give you wise and practical counsel. for right living.
That is the purpose of this book. And the audience is for old and young wisdom for generations upon generations. And that leads all the way up to us today. So as we dive into this book, this is for everybody to take away wisdom for life.
It's awesome. I love that, Joe. Yeah, it's good.
And that kind of takes us into number two now, our second question. So now that we have some of the basics, this is kind of builds on that. Where does Proverbs fit in the story of the Bible? You already placed us there with the author Solomon. So we are basically in the final stage of Israel's monarchy.
If you remember, there were three kings of united Israel, Saul, David, and Solomon. We're in kind of that final stage. This were some of the greatest years in the history of Israel. These were what they called the golden years. This was a time of. flourishing, it was a time of prosperity, power, and popularity.
But it wasn't just that there was a lot of wealth and blessing material that Israel had experienced, but it wasn't just that. We got to remember that even the Apostle Paul reminds us that one of the things that was special was that Israel was entrusted with the oracles of God, where no other nation was, and so the temple that Solomon built stands gloriously as this preeminent, feature this building of reminding us , of the sovereignty and the beauty and the power of God at this time.
So it's a really key time. In fact, when later, when, when everything gets destroyed, this is the time they look back on and lament that they wish they had it back.
So this is a really beautiful time that these wise sayings. That we're going to get from Solomon and these other authors come. It's really a time of blessing, but what's amazing is that it applies to all times in life and all seasons as we're going to kind of look at. So that's where we're at in essentials.
That's the storyline.
Let me take us actually into the structure. And here's where this episode might be a little different than previous episodes, because what we usually do is we'll break up the book and we'll walk through the structure. What we're going to do with Proverbs is we're actually going to use the major themes of the book to guide our episode, not the structure, but we did want you to know that there is a structure. And Joey, why is it that we're, we're doing it this way? What's different about the book of Proverbs when it comes to the structure than maybe other books?
Yeah. Well, unlike a lot of the other narrative books, themes change as you move from chapter to chapter, but in the book of Proverbs, we've got all kinds of similar themes and diverse themes from chapter to chapter to chapter. So we really can't break up the book into chapters for you and give you a clear defined narrative or a clear defined category of thought.
So if we had to break up the book, we would give you a basic overview, which we break up into three sections and, Bodie, perhaps you could just walk us through that. I'll take us through the themes, which is really the best way to read Proverbs and the best way probably to teach Proverbs and to study Proverbs is to go through the whole of the book looking at the similar themes and making those connections there, but if we had to give you kind of like a big zoom out look, what would it look like, Bodie?
Yeah. So here's what you want to know. Again, Proverbs is basically all a collection of wisdom from Solomon, but we do see in chapters one through nine, we see the focus of basically the contrast between wisdom and folly. So in chapters one through nine, wisdom and folly defined and contrasted.
That's a big part of this. And so basically the wise person is contrasted against the wise person. The Foolish Person. We've mentioned this is a key dynamic of wisdom literature in general. We have the Wise Person and the Foolish Person. So we see those first nine chapters contrasting the Wise Person and the Fool.
But 10 through 29 is the second section. It's basically just a large collection of wise sayings toward godly living. Mostly they're from Solomon, but it's also speaks to both young and old. There's a lot of verses that we're going to go over in this episode that speak to speak to generations, wisdom for, for old as well as young.
And then the final two chapters are standalone chapters. These are not written by Solomon. These are chapters 30 and 31. This is where the contributions of the wise men or the Agur and Lemuel kind of come in. And these are just some final words of wisdom, but it wouldn't really work to kind of work through these chapters.
What's really going to help you understand this book. book is to understand the major themes of the book. That's where we want to go next.
So with number four, themes and ideas, we're going to kind of bundle. What do we learn about God? ? What can we apply to our lives? And what are these major themes that we need to know about?
So Joey help our listeners understand there's so much happening in the book of Proverbs. How can we organize it in a way that could make it more approachable for people?
Yeah, so in order to help you out with this, this is really the bulk of the whole episode today, is walking you through these key themes.
And we want to kind of help you see it in two big categories. There are general themes in the Book of Proverbs. And then there are specific Really practical themes that are kind of subtopics under these general ideas So what we'd like to do is give you an understanding of the what we would say are four Major general big picture themes through the whole book of proverbs.
The first being the fear of the lord In the heart of man now, we start with the fear of the lord because the bible tells us that the fear of the lord Is the beginning of wisdom and this of course we have to have a reverence for god, right bodey We have to see god as on the throne the one who sees and knows all things And our hearts have to be moved and bent toward him So that general theme is just throughout the whole of the book.
Then we're going to see a call to pursue knowledge And to pursue understanding. So we're going to see that as well. And we're going to see a call of obedience and disobedience. This is our response to the wisdom of God, to what he's revealed. And there's rewards when we obey and there's consequences, deadly consequences when we disobey. Now, the whole book of Proverbs is going to give us guidance and direction.
And in all stages of life, I mean, whether you're young or old, as you already said, and even the different seasons of your life. You're going to see these general big categories are so key for us. Let me just say this though. In First Kings chapter four in verse 32, we learned that Solomon wrote about 3000 proverbs and that he wrote 1,005 songs, kind of like David had written many songs. The book of Proverbs has just about less than 1000 of the Proverbs that Solomon wrote, so we don't even have all the wisdom that he ever imparted to people.
But what's in this book is what God inspired to be preserved and collected for generations to come. And that is why we give an invitation. Don't we to invite fathers to teach their sons this right. , and mentors to teach those, their discipling and, pastors to train up the congregations that they shepherd and feed with the this book of wisdom and the wisdom that's in the whole of the Bible.
So, we've got a great passage , don't we, that kind of invites the reader to just get a bit of the taste of the whole of Proverbs from this one select passage in Proverbs chapter two, right?
Exactly. So knowing that there are both general themes and topics, as well as specific ones that we're going to get to in a second, we felt like this passage, Proverbs 2 verses 1 through 6. This passage summarizes it beautifully. It says, My son, if you receive, Receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom. Apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you cry out for discernment and if you lift up your voice for understanding. If you seek her a silver and search for his hidden treasures, then you'll understand the fear of the Lord and you'll find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth, come knowledge and understanding. So in that one passage, Joey works, we already are going to introduce it. So many of these really important themes that we see in the whole of the book of Proverbs. Don't we?
Yeah. And you know, this passage that you read, Bodie, it, I actually wrote it in the beginning of my two sons, in their Bibles when I gave them to them, , as an invitation for them just to see the treasure chest of wisdom and wealth of knowledge that's in the scriptures, and so this is definitely a great way to start, and I want to also add. That as we go into these proverbs, as we kind of start to break down each of these now, it's helpful for you as the listener. When we think about, let's say these general topics, you'll kind of see that all the specific things we talk about today, not only fits underneath that wisdom is kind of calling out to you.
So it's kind of like, this is a great time to say, when you read the Bible, The Bible reads you, you're always in a position where you're humble before God, needing to hear from him. And if there's pride in your life, or you're in disobedience or rebellion, you're going to miss out on things God wants to reveal to you.
You're going to miss out on the blessings of obedience. So it's so important that we take The Proverbs. Seriously. I remember Charles Spurgeon, great preacher from England. He wrote a book where he took a lot of the quotes of Proverbs and other great quotes. And he says, here's this three secrets to a proverb shortness sense and salt.
So when you think about these wise sayings that we can say that are short and sweet and simple, it's important that you think about the depth of help that we get when we hit these specific areas.
You know, the specific areas we're going to be covering in this episode are things like wise management of personal stewardship, how important that is for all of us. How about the way we speak life and death are in our spoken words. Then of course, how we work diligence versus slothfulness. And then how about our relationships. How do we attain them? How do we maintain them? How do we make sure Christ is reigning over them? How about the intimate areas of our life, our sexuality?
What are the blessings of that? What are the warnings that God gives about that? And then of course, just daily life correction, discipline, toward maturity and how we need to be trained and corrected and chastened in times when we've got it wrong. So we're going to hit those specific areas, but why don't we just go back, Bodie and just look at those general areas that we discussed already and, just get a little bit of the feel of what this book presents to us as we start with the fear of the Lord in the heart of man. Do you have any verses that come to mind, Bodhi, when you think about the fear of the Lord and the heart of man throughout this book?
Yeah, what's fun about Proverbs is that this is the one book where we're actually going to grab from all different parts and try and put them together for you to try and give you what we feel are some of the key verses for each of these themes. So our first theme is the fear of the Lord in the heart of man.
Proverbs 1 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. That is a key verse. Another one like it is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is insight or is understanding, Proverbs 9, 10. That is another one that really kind of illustrates these two major personas. Proverbs 14, 27 says the fear of the Lord is a false fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death. So it's really talking about how this is why this is the first topic. The fear of the Lord is the foundation for every other theme that we're going to cover in this episode. Isn't it Joe?
Absolutely. Because if we don't understand the giver of life, we're not going to appreciate that he's the one who's given us the life manual. And so we have to have a certain humility and reverence that we give to God in all of these things. Remember wisdom in the new Testament is personified. In the person of Jesus Christ, he's the one who gives us the fountain of living waters.
And I love how proverbs 1427 just hinted on that. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. It's life giving a few more verses that really touch upon this. And it also goes into the heart is, for example, when problems for 23 says, keep or guard your heart with all diligence for out of it, spring the issues of life.
So notice that once the wisdom goes in, it's meant to spring out of us all the issues that we see in our lives. Have a fountain that begins deep within our hearts. And so in Proverbs 20 verse five, it says, counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. So you see, the key is not just knowing something in the head, but being able to process it.
Having an understanding and then being able to live it which is the wisdom and we'll keep going back to that cycle Over and over again. So we got to draw it out The very last chapter of the book of proverbs is actually about a godly woman who fears the lord, right? It says in proverbs 31 30 charm is deceitful and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the lord Is to be praised.
And, some have even looked at the last chapter as a picture of the church, of course, we are the bride of Christ and we always have to maintain a healthy fear of the Lord. Not be wise in our own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil as problems three, seven says. So that's the first big topic
it is. Yeah.
I love that. And we're going to come back to Proverbs 31 a little bit later, because that is what makes the virtuous woman beautiful is that her life is founded on the fear of the Lord so this is not a gender thing at all. This is for anybody. , this is wisdom for everybody.
So now, Joey, we've seen that even since some Proverbs actually have more than one theme inside them. For example, Proverbs 1 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. That's our next theme, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
So the fear of the Lord is first, but we also see that when we get the fear of the Lord, knowledge and understanding is the next major theme. So we see like in Proverbs 4 verses 5 and 6, there's this command it says, and there's exclamation points. Get wisdom, get understanding. I loved how early you said that the Proverbs, they cry out, they preach to us and we are the ones that should have ears to hear and eyes to see in proverbs 4, 5, and 7, get wisdom, get understanding. Wisdom is the principal thing.
Therefore, get wisdom in all you're getting, get understanding. So in all your pursuits, make sure that you're pursuing wisdom. Another great one, and then you can jump in after this. Proverbs 18, 15. So good. The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge. See, it's not just learning and facts, but it's the state of the heart, isn't it?
Absolutely. Bodie, and I think what would be really helpful for our listeners when you approach the book of Proverbs is to actually understand the distinction between these three words, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Think of it like this. Knowledge is the accumulation of truth. Understanding is the apprehension of it when you process it and understand it, right? And wisdom is the application. Of the knowledge that is
Well, that's good.
So if you kind of think about that, what you get is why wisdom is the principal thing, wisdom is where everything points us to Jesus said, if you hear my sayings and do them, you will be likened to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and so another great proverb in this is, Proverbs 10, 14, which is the wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of fools. brings ruin near. And isn't that what Jesus said? If you don't do what he says, you're the foolish person who builds your life on the sand and it comes tumbling down. It brings destruction.
So I think that's really important,
It is good.
What are some other verses about knowledge and understanding that, that hit
There's a couple ones. So Proverbs 25 to it's the glory of God to conceal things, but it's the glory of Kings to search them out. So again, we see this theme of like, God is calling us to pursue to put the work in and there's reward and treasure for those that do, , Proverbs 8, 10 is another one.
Take action. My instruction instead of silver and knowledge rather than choice gold. We see that the, the things that everybody pursues money, right? Knowledge and understanding are actually more valuable, more beautiful, and I think Joey though, Proverbs 14, 12 is one of those banner verses that we could apply to all of Proverbs. What is that verse? And why does that one fit here?
Yeah, well, this is one of those verses that just tells you the contrast. If you're not going to walk in the wisdom of God, you're going to be left to yourself. As many people say, well, whatever floats your boat. Well, you know, you need water to float a boat, just so you know, you're going to sink without it.
But, the problem is a lot of people do what seems right to them. And here's what Proverbs 14, 12 says. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Remember, Jesus came and said, I've come to give you life and that more abundantly. So following in the way of the Lord is always life giving.
It's safe and beneficial for you and for others. And that's why Proverbs 14, 12 just stands out so much. It's actually repeated again in 16 as well. You get this repeat of some of these Proverbs where you get this idea of don't do it your way. Don't do it your way. You know, Frank Sinatra might have saying about it, but you don't want to live that
that's right.
Don't do it my way. So, , let's move on to the next one. Another big topic is obedience and disobedience with the rewards and consequences that follow. I think that was a good transition right to this third topic.
The obedience and disobedience, we see verses like this, Proverbs 2. My son, do not forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. So there's this blessing, that is, it is offered for, if we obey, we think that obedience is. is restriction. It's like, you're not letting me do what I want to do, God.
It's actually the opposite. Obedience is genuine freedom, and the Proverbs illuminates this for us. Another one is Proverbs 10, 17. He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray. So like this obedience and disobedience theme is huge.
Let me give you one more, Joe. I'd love to hear any that you would like to share. Proverbs 4. 13, take firm hold of instruction. Do not let go, keep her for she is your life. And that's what wisdom is. It is grasping and holding and applying God's wisdom for our life.
That's right. You know, instruction is something that you have to actually go after and grab a hold of. Otherwise, the world is constantly trying to put something else in your hands. And if you really want to live life to the fullest, Live life in the way in which God intended you're going to need to take firm hold of his instruction, and I love that the call from many of the proverbs are introduced with a call kind of like a fatherly call in Proverbs 4 verses 20 to 22.
It says my son be attentive to my words Incline your ear to my sayings let them not escape from your sight Keep them within your heart for they are life to those who find them and healing To all their flesh, notice that we're going to find so much help from the wisdom of God and his instructions. And if you don't take it seriously, here's another proverb that warns you.
Here's a consequence. Proverbs 13, 13, he who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment Will be rewarded. I think that verse just kind of sums it all up on this category. We really want to be those who love and cherish the word of God because it will keep us, protect us and allow us to prosper in the things that we seek to do.
And I think, you know, if we move into the next one here, this last section of the general is in this area of guidance and direction in all stages and seasons of life. And of course, the first that most people always quote from Proverbs, the, one of the most famous and well known and popular verses is Proverbs three, five, and six.
If you're listening in your car right now, or at home, you could probably say this out loud with me. What does it say? Trust. In the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding In all of your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths Notice how proverbs gives us such wise wisdom for guidance.
They help us to keep our center of where we're navigating Like we're in our car nowadays I don't drive anywhere hardly bodhi without putting my navigation system and even when I know where i'm going It just helps me in case I have to reroute or whatever And Another great proverb on this is Proverbs 27, where it says, Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you.
Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to your right or to your left. Remove your foot from evil. There the proverb is trying to tell you on stay on the straight and narrow. Don't detour. Don't make a wrong turn. It's only going to cost you. It's only going to set you back.
Wisdom keeps you, in the place of blessing. It keeps you in the place where God can accomplish his will through your life.
Yeah, I love the GPS analogy, Joey, too, because so many of the Proverbs are directional. They are talking about not just the Word of the Lord, but the ways of the Lord, right? Proverbs 521, for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths. God knows every way we can take, but he calls us to choose the way that is best for us. That's the way of wisdom. That's the way of obedience.
And like you said, so much of it is not about the instruction, but it's about the state of our heart in receiving. You know, Proverbs 10, 17 whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life. Like, are you teachable? Can you, do we let people speak into our life or do we immediately close down and get defensive when people offer correction, even in the right spirit?
So I love that. The other part of that verse, Proverbs 10, 17 starts off again, whoever heeds instruction is on the path of life, but he rejects it. Reproof leads others astray. And so it's so important. And, you know, and even the verse, we think about not just like young and old, but we talk about how do we raise up our kids?
You know, another very well known, if, if Proverbs 3, is probably the first well known, Proverbs 22, 6 might be in second place, Joey. And because this is the one, I think that almost can, can give people some heartache, which this one says, train up a child in the way he should go. And even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
See, this is a really important principle. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Proverbs aren't promises. They are guidance towards a, a direction. And I think so many parents will say, Hey, I brought my kid to church. I taught them, but they went astray and they, and we get discouraged because we thought that this was a promise.
Well, it is a guidance. It's a, it's a way, but we only know that, that every person makes these choices for themselves. And so if you're a parent out there dealing with maybe this, don't be discouraged, don't feel like you failed. God is still working in the midst of your kids,
Yeah. And I think that's a really important distinction because when you're reading wisdom literature, these are the things that you can sew into and you're going to see a general reaping when you do these things. For the most part, training a child up is always going to produce good dividends.
It's always going to produce a better result than if you didn't train a child, but it's not foolproof. They're not meant to be say you can bank everything on this if you just did. Cause then the next question is, well, How much training did you actually do? And then there's a lot of proportions to this, you know, do I just train them once and then, and then they'll never, they'll never stray again and they'll come back.
, the training is ongoing. The decisions are all going. So the results will always have a little bit of a flexibility as to how and when we see these things come to pass. And that's why they're more principle governing us, not promises that are. Sort of establishing every word, that you sort of say, this is a guarantee if I just do this one thing, you know, so, so we covered the four major areas, Bodie, which really covers we just stopped the episode now, you would have a good understanding of the whole book of Proverbs.
But what we would love to do for our listeners is we've picked some scriptures that really take us into the, what we would say are the key subtopics. These are the specific areas. Where you're going to get some great specific help. And if you're just listening right now, I have a feeling that God has ordained this episode for you.
When you're listening to this, you might just hear some perfect wisdom from God, from heaven for you right now for situations in your life. And so let's hit these specific areas, starting with the first one, which is wise management of personal stewardship.
I think this is really important that we go into some verses on this Bodie because everybody. in the world has been entrusted with their lives. The Bible says that he is our breath, our life, our length of days, but what we do with our time, what we do with our possessions, our money, our treasures, our talents, all of these things, this is our stewardship. Stewardship is what we do with what's entrusted to us.
And the Proverbs give us some very important principles. One of them is in Proverbs chapter three, verses nine and 10. It says this, Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase. Notice all your increase, everything you have belongs to God. And if you do honor the Lord with your possessions, here's the, principle and it's a bit of a promise, but again, not a promise that guarantees success, but that is a reaping of what you will sow.
It says, so your barns, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. The idea here is when you honor God, God honors you. We learned that from Samuel, we learned that you're not going to outgive God. You're not going to be able to be more generous than God. And so there's a great principle here about what you do with your possessions.
When you honor the Lord. In fact, in Proverbs 13, 22, it says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. This is a great proverb to remind you. That what you have is not just for you. It's always how it affects others. If God's blessed you with the home, how do you use it to show hospitality and bless others?
If you have an inheritance, how are you going to pass that on to your children and your children's children? You see those who have the heart of God are always looking to multiply what they've been given and to bless more and more people. So those are a couple key verses on wise management of personal stewardship. Bodie, why don't you walk us through a few
I love Proverbs 27, verses 23 and 24, which says, Know well the condition of your flocks. Give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever. , and does a crown endure to all generations? So it's basically saying, hey, recall that, you might have something in your life that stewardship.
For them, when they say flocks, that was a measurement of wealth in that time. So whether it's your personal, how you manage your money, how you manage your home, These, we should know how the things that God has entrusted to us are doing, because we're going to give an account for those things. And so, money is important because it reveals our heart, what our real treasure is.
Jesus said where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And so like in Proverbs 22, 7, for example, we see another one like, The rich rules over the poor. The borrower is slave to the lender. That is a verse where we, that talks about when you are in debt to somebody, it affects human relationships.
So this is where the wisdom of personal management and how we manage our life and our things really does have an effect beyond just ourselves and our own stuff. So I'll give you one more, Joey, then you could jump in if you'd like, but I love where it says this one, prepare your outside work, make it fit for yourself in the field and afterward, Build your house.
I know you love this verse, too. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Proverbs 24, 27. I love this because it talks about, life and wisdom is more than just you. It's about how you are connected to others. So I love that one. Anything you love about that one and any other verses you want to add in under this personal stewardship topic?
Well, once again, the wisdom of God allows us to see bigger than just the moment. It allows us to see how our choices are going to affect the people after us. So imagine if you build a house and in your house is lovely, but you can't afford to keep your house. You can't afford to pay the bills on your house.
You've kind of. put the cart before the horse. So this verse is reminding us, make sure your outside work is established. Make sure you have the food to sustain your household. Make sure you have the means to provide for your family. And I think spiritually speaking, we even see this call in the book of Haggai.
When Haggai calls, the, people who are building the temple and he comes for four months and encourages them. They were all taking care of their houses. Like, why are you guys so concerned about your pen on houses? And the temple lies in ruins. You're missing the whole spiritual focus of why God made a covenant with you as a people. So it really does put a lot of things into perspective.
I think one, one last verse we could throw it out in this section is Proverbs 38, nine, which says, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, 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.
If you learn contentment, as Paul would say to Timothy, godliness with contentment is great gain. You don't have to worry about whether you're poor or rich. You just have to worry, am I honoring God with what I have? Am I being a good steward of what's been given to me? And then you'll trust that the Lord will sometimes give you highs and lows.
And sometimes seasons will be plentiful and sometimes seasons might be scarce, but you can trust the Lord is leading you nonetheless. And so I think this is a key area. Why don't we go into the second subtopic that we have Bodie, which is life and death in our spoken words. You know, we've been talking already a lot in
my goodness.
and this is huge. I think this is an area where if you want to see how many wise sayings there are about sayings, And whether they're wise. You read Proverbs, and we'll let you know if your sayings are helpful or hurtful. There's life and death in the power of the tongue. Proverbs 18. 21 says that. And those who love it will eat its fruits.
So, our tongue can be life giving or death producing. We really need to be careful about what words come out of our mouth. Once they leave the runway of our mouth, We never know where they're going to land and how they're going to affect people, and it goes right into the airport of others. And so when our words hit the airport,
Oh, Joey.
they land and sometimes they are life giving and sometimes, man, it's a crash landing and it hurts people. So you gotta be really careful with what you speak, right? Bodie.
Yeah. Well, of all the topics that we had to select verses from, this one was the hardest because there's so many verses on this topic. For example, Proverbs 10, 19 says, when words are many transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
So it talks about the wisdom of being more thoughtful before we speak. You know, don't just say what we see in the moment. We see this, of course, in our culture everywhere. We want to speak words that are, that are wise. Jesus says every idle word that comes out of our mouth, we're going to be held accountable for before the Lord.
So we want to make sure that this theme, this life and death in our spoken words is that we are treating our words in light of the fear of the Lord. Everything I think points back to that one and knowledge of understanding. , Proverbs 15, 28 is another one. The heart of the righteous. Studies how to answer. Notice the patience and the wisdom in this, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil, man. Joey, do we see this everywhere in our world today?
Big time. Big time. Yeah. This is, I think we really do need to be a little bit more slower to speak as the book of James would say. Right. And swift to hear. And Proverbs 13, three kind of says something a little similar. It says he who guards his mouth actually preserves his life. But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
We can't just speak anything that we think about. One of the things that I love is Proverbs 25, 11. But when you do speak rightly, the Bible says a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold.
In settings of silver, you see, our words can be timed just right to just really release somebody from fear, discouragement. It promotes health as Proverbs 12, 18 says, and, who wouldn't want our husbands and wives to always speak kindly to us? And that's why Proverbs 31, 26 says, she who opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
This is something that we all can admire and respect. And so a lot of great stuff on words, but I think that's probably enough. We could do to give people a sample on that section. , let's get another section, Bodie. What about our work ethics? Let's, let's jump into this one.
Yes. So the next topic after our life and death in spoken words is diligence versus slothfulness in our work ethic, the way we work.
We see this all over Proverbs. There are constant calls to the way we go about things, our effort, the effort that we put in. Like Proverbs 10, 4 and 5 says, he who has a slack hand becomes poor, or slack can mean a lazy person, right?
Proverbs 10, 4 and 5 says, he who has a slack hand becomes poor, or slack can mean a lazy But the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in the summer is a wise son. He who sleeps and harvests is a son who causes shame. So now again, it's not just about how much you earn, but it's about the way we go about earning and living and going about our life.
There is wisdom to do that. And it's, again, it always affects more than just us, right? The next verse that I'd throw out, Proverbs 13, 4, the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing. Interesting that craves nothing, right? It's like, I don't want anything. I just want to be kind of left alone to do my thing. We were not made to live that way. Okay. But the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. I love that. Proverbs 13, 4.
Yeah, it's so good. Proverbs 14 23 says in all labor, there's profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty. You know, it's amazing when we're idolatrous in our ways, we're also sometimes idle in our words, in our actions. We just don't take our work serious. And that eventually leads to poverty.
Proverbs 22 29 asks a good question. Do you see a man skillful in his work? Well, here's what you can know. He will stand before kings. And he will not stand before obscure men. People who actually are successful doors open up for them. People want to work for good bosses. I love how Boaz was such a good boss in the book of Ruth. spoke blessings over the people he worked with.
So, skillful work will often be very admirable, but one of my favorite ones, Bodie, I think is from Proverbs chapter six, verses six through 11.
It's the smallest creatures on the planet. Little ants, little tiny ants. The Bible actually uses a lot of creation to teach us wisdom, and so besides the attributes of God that are seen through creation, we learn lots of practical points of wisdom. Well, Proverbs six, verse six says, go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. And then it goes on to say, which having no captain overseer or ruler provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.
So wow, answer very smart, intelligent little creatures in all of their movements, even though they're annoying when you're having a picnic or something, but they know what they're doing. And so it goes on to say, how long will you slumber, oh, sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man ants teach us to be productive To be purposeful and to work together with others.
And so I love that picture bodhi about the ants Um, so that's I think that's some good lessons on uh, diligence versus slothfulness from that Unless you want to add anything else before we go to the next
No, there's a lot on this. Like, I mean, I look at Proverbs 20, 20, uh, 12, 24, the hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor. We're going to Proverbs 21. 5, the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes to poverty. So it's not just about how we work, but about what our attitude towards it as well.
There's so much in there, Joe. all right, Joey. So we got three themes left. This one is really important, attaining and maintaining right relationships. We see this a lot in the book of Proverbs. Like for example, I love this one. Proverbs 15. 1, a soft answer turns away wrath. But a harsh word stirs up anger. Don't we see this everywhere?
This is about wisdom within human relationships. There are ways to be wise and to protect people's feelings and emotions , and there are ways to be rash and blunt and just thoughtless when it comes to how we relate to one another's.
7. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. It's so interesting, the way we go about our life matters. It affects others. He who covers a transgression, Proverbs 17, 9, seeks love. Like the person that says, you know what? No big deal. It's cool. We would just, you know, not like dismissing if there's real hurt, but looking to see the good.
That's where the covering of a transgression seeks love. That's what Jesus did for us. But he who repeats a matter, separates friends, right? The guy that won't ever talk, Stop talking about the money that you still owe him. You know what I mean? It costs, it affects how we relate to one another.
Wow. These three verses that you just hit on right here, Bodie, they help us in our conflicts in wonderful ways. I mean, a soft answer, pleasing the Lord, seeking to cover sin and transgression. I mean, this is wise sayings, and this is where we benefit from putting these things into practice.
you have the knowledge of these verses, but you don't actually put them into practice. They're not going to help your relationships. These call us to put things into practice, to be really wise in how we respond. In all of our relationships, Bodie, there's ways we can stir one another up in good ways too, Proverbs 27, 17 says, iron sharpens iron in one man.
Sharpens another, and the idea there is that, you know, sometimes that, that going back and forth, that dialogue, that chewing on things, discussing a matter with a brother or a sister, and you're, you're going back and forth. It's that sharpening each other.
There's friction. Sometimes there's friction, obviously iron produces that friction, but it also, it then welds it. It brings together a formation of something that's stronger than it was before. And sometimes you have to say the hard things. Proverbs 27, six is faithful. are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. I've heard it said when talking about this verse, a true friend will stab you in the front. A false friend will stab you in the
Oh, that's
So, you know, faithful are the wounds of a friend. We really need people to tell us what we need to hear. And not just what we want to
Yeah,
you know, but then there's other verses , that are kind of different about relationships and about the way we speak or the way that we, uh, I know one of your favorites is Proverbs
I love this. Yeah. This is such a weird, funny verse. I mean, just imagine this from was 2714. Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning will be counted as a curse, right? It's the guy trying to do the right thing in totally the wrong way. , and that's where, the next one that we would point out, Proverbs 18, 24, a man who has friends must himself first be friendly. But there's a friend who sticks closer than a brother. So, there's so much in Proverbs about how we can have rich, robust relationships within one another.
Yeah. And Bodie, on that point, the Proverbs tell you to choose your friends carefully. The Proverbs tell us that, from marriage to husband and wife to, to even father, son and mother, daughter, and all these kinds of relationships, there are right ways to show respect.
There's right ways to show honor and, but we should always start with ourselves. Don't miss that last verse that Bodie just read Proverbs 18 24. If you want to have friends, like, why don't you start trying to be one, a lot of people say, well, nobody's encouraging me. Why don't you try and encourage other people first and see how encouraged you'll be when you start with a giving attitude and outward focus, jesus gives us so much. He's the friend that sticks closer than a brother first and foremost. But once you have Jesus in your life, he gives you the means to be a blessing to others.
So before we get into the next section, um, which is a very personal section that people forget how much the Bible is willing to speak about hard issues and intimate issues and private
Mm hmm,
But I'd like to just set a principle forward first and foremost that I've learned from the Bible and from the book of Proverbs, which is basically this. Whenever God says no to something in the Bible, It's always to protect and to preserve what he first said yes to.
So as we get into this next section, which is sexuality, the blessings and the warnings of it, understand that a lot of people think of sexuality as something that God says no to like, Hey, don't have sex before marriage and don't do this, , and of course, That's true. There's a reason why God says no to those things, because he's protecting the preserve what he said yes to. And what did he say yes to? He said yes to marriage being a blessing on this earth. The very first thing God did before sin entered the world was bring a man and a woman together.
He said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and join his wife. And the two shall become one flesh. Now, God had also gave the command to be fruitful and multiply. And in order to be fruitful and multiply out of marriage, God made something beautiful to produce that, which we call sexuality.
And God has more about, yes, that he wants you to see about this first. And then you can understand why he gives the warnings of the nose when it's outside the marriage covenant . So for example, Proverbs five, six, and seven, these three chapters in a row are probably some of the best teaching in scripture on sexuality and the warnings.
When you go outside of God's design and will in Proverbs five, verse 18 and 19, it says this, let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth. A lovely deer, a graceful doe, let her breasts fill you at all times with delight and be intoxicated always in her love. Wow. What a strong word to say that God says, I want to bless the sexuality of a marriage as Hebrews 13 says.
Marriage is honorable among all and the marriage bed undefiled, but it's adulterers and fornicators that God will judge because these are the things that rob a family of the unity of the blessing of the protection of not having to compare your spouse to somebody else. God really wants the highest level of blessing in homes, in families, in marriages.
And so this is one of the yeses in the Bible, just like In Proverbs 18, 22, it says, he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Bodhi, you and I can say amen to this verse because we have two amazing wives. My wife and your wife, Bodhi, are not only beautiful people, but they love the Lord.
They are beautiful from the inside out. And truly, I can see, I have found favor from the Lord in being married to my wife. And, this is why we want the yeses of God. Where the yeses are is where the blessings are. And so where God says yes. God wants to bless. That's what we want. You put it, see,
Well, that's why there's warnings because what God wants is for our flourishing That's why we have the warnings in Proverbs 5 6 7 like you talked about for For example, for Proverbs five, eight and nine, remove your way from her. That would be the immoral woman, the woman trying to try to have this intimacy outside of the protection of the marriage covenant.
Don't go near her door unless you give your honor to others and your years to the cruel one. , there's some direct stuff on this. Another one, is like Proverbs, yeah, Proverbs 6 and 7 are, we're going to read a longer one in a second, but Proverbs 6, whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding.
He who does destroys his own soul, wounds and dishonor he will get, and the reproach will not be wiped away. And so Proverbs is again, calling out to us. short term, , pleasure is not worth the long term pain. And we see this story, too, in Proverbs 7, don't we, Joey? There's this longer passage,
Yes.
about the immoral woman enticing a man to come and sleep with her. Why is this such an important warning for us?
Well, especially in our culture today, because you don't even need it to be a real woman that's outside in public. It can be a woman behind your phone, behind the screen. That's calling out to you, enticing you. We live in a world where sexual images and messages are constantly being thrown at us. And so these proverbs speak from generation to generation and so pronounced. I mean, listen to what it says.
In Proverbs 27, it says with her enticing speech, this is this seductress woman, with her enticing speech, she caused him to yield with her flattering lips. She seduced him immediately. He went after her as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till an arrow struck his liver as a bird hastens to the snare.
He did not know. Oh, how sad. He did not know it would cost his life. Now, therefore, listen to me, my children. Here's the proverb. Here's the wisdom. Pay attention to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths. For she has cast down many wounded and all who were slain by her were strong men. Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers. Of death.
Wow. That's Bodie, I read this passage and it makes me sober up and be humble to realize, Hey, any of us who love the Lord even could fall into sin like King David being at the wrong place at the wrong time and not being wise with where you put yourself in and avoid certain situations.
You know, Proverbs six right before this chapter had said, Hey, all of us who You know, can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned or walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared. You see, we don't want to play with fire. We don't want to go near dangerous places. We have to really protect our eyes.
Like Job who made a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a, a young woman or a virgin. We really need to learn this in our culture because it's throwing at us left and right. So many temptations. So Proverbs is so wise. If we heed these warnings and heed these calls to the blessed
Right. That reminds me, Joey, too, in a couple of books, we're going to cover Song of Solomon, where that warning in that book is, do not stir up love before it's time. It's the exact same warning that we see here in the Proverbs. So this is a really, really important one. But I think, Joey, we're on our last one now. I think we're at the last of our themes of the book of Proverbs.
Discipline, correction, and rebuke for maturity. Anytime that we get called on the carpet, So that we can grow, it's a good thing. But it's not always an easy thing, is it? So the Proverbs really want us to see the role of discipline for our maturity. It's a key part here. So Proverbs 3, for example, verses 11 and 12. My son, don't despise the Lord's discipline. Don't be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him whom he loves. And the father, a son. Son in whom he delights.
We hate discipline, but if we can remember what the proverbs teach us about it, we will see it as something that is good for ourselves. And so we see a lot of stuff with parent and child in here. For example, Proverbs 1324, whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. Children require discipline for their growth and maturity. And so that's one of the key things that we see from the proverbs on this topic. What else do you wanna highlight?
Yeah. Well, I love just the raw realness that the proverbs give on stuff like this. Where in Proverbs 12 verse one, it says, whoever loves instruction loves knowledge. That makes sense. But he who hates correction is stupid. I mean, just flat out, there you go. You wanna live a life where you're just living in stupidity. Turn your head away from correction. Turn your ear away from people who want to help you. And you know, even give you a good firm rebuke or guide you to truth. It's so important that you remain teachable, you used that word earlier Bodie.
And I really think that a teachable spirit allows you to be a wise person in your older years, and even in your younger years, we really need to care about instruction. Proverbs 15 32 says, whoever ignores instruction, despises himself. You're literally, in a sense, working against yourself. It says, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. We need a lot more people who are intelligent in our times and who will listen to instruction.
One more, Proverbs 10, 17 says, he who keeps instruction is in the way of life. But he who refuses correction goes astray. How true that is time and time again, I've seen it in my life or in the lives of others. If we're not willing to listen carefully to what others are showing us and pointing out to us, we're just hurting ourselves.
Eventually we're going to hurt the people we love, and we're going to go down the path that leads to destruction rather than the blessings that God has prepared for us. So this is again, what Proverbs do when you
When Proverbs has a long term vision of wisdom and blessing, right? It's like sometimes it says, like for example, verse 15, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of correction will drive it far from him. Like, sometimes we as parents don't want to discipline our kids because it's hard.
But, you know, But that's because we're thinking more be more about ourselves and rather than what's really best for the kids. Now, of course, kids need love and care as well as well as a correction and rebuke, but they need, sometimes we don't want to do that hard thing because we have a short term mindset.
And so the proverbs helps us give us a longterm vision for wisdom. And that's what all these things mean. Themes really try and speak to us too. So, I'd love to kind of recap the themes before we close out the episode. Anything else you'd like to say on this topic before we do that though?
No, just listen carefully. When people who love you tell you something, I I think that's a real key. It's just, remained humble and teachable, that's going to take you a long way in life. yeah, let's, kind of give a review on this. And then maybe we'll give some just final thoughts, , to our listeners before we end this today.
So we had started by saying that Proverbs is a collection of godly wisdom. There's two categories. General topics. I'll read these, Joey, and you can review the specific ones. The fear of the Lord in the heart of man. That is the foundation that followed by the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. It also talks about obedience and disobedience and the rewards and consequences that come from that. Guidance and directions in all stages and seasons of life. Those were our four general topics. Joey, what were the specific ones that we talked about?
Well, we covered wise management of personal stewardship. We talked about life and death in our spoken words, diligence for slothfulness in our work ethic. Attaining and maintaining right relationships, our sexuality, the blessings of it, and the warnings about it, and then discipline, correction, and rebuke for maturity.
Ultimately, the goal is always to move to a maturity and become the men and women that God has called us all to be. I would encourage our listeners read Proverbs, on a daily basis. There's 31 Proverbs and there's usually 31 days in a month. So if you read the proverb that corresponds with the day of the month, you'll go to the book of Proverbs 12 times every year, for the most part. And so we would encourage you to do that.
Bodhi, some final thoughts. What do you love on a big picture or maybe anything that we left out that you love about this book of Proverbs? And then I'll share some final thoughts before we close as well.
I love, again, how practical, how raw, how honest Proverbs are, but also how Proverbs really orient us back to what's best for us, right? My favorite definition of love is what is good for the other. Mm hmm. God has given this book for us because he loves us. His love draws us back to what is best for us, and that is all of these topics that we've talked about.
You guys, God loves you and wants the very best life possible for you. That's why he gives us the Word of God. But it is our own rebellion and our own limited vision of the short term that says, well, I'd rather have this sin, or I'd rather have this disobedience, rather than, God, what you have for me. And I love how Proverbs is not afraid to kind of smack us in the face, while at the same time really giving us what's best for us, which is really what God's love is. So, Joey, what about you?
Amen. Yes. Well, I think there's so many things that I have found the Proverbs speak to me about a different phases of my life, different situations I'm in, but one of the verses that I remember memorizing early on in my childhood was Proverbs 16 verse 20. It says he who heeds the word wisely will find good.
And whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he, you know, a lot of the things we desire in life. They're on the other side of wisdom. If you really walk in the wise path that God has placed before you, it's life giving. It's a wellspring of life to him who has it. And it will cause a lot of people to want to drink from your well. I often read it before I go to bed. So these wise sayings are just in my mind, at the end of the day, I think about them as well and use it as a final time of prayer.
But whenever you read it and however you go about it, remember this, these wise sayings are the wisdom that is from above the book of James says the wisdom from above is first pure and then peaceable. It's gentle to all. willing to yield full of good mercy and good fruits. And that's without partiality and without hypocrisy. So we encourage you to get wise, get wisdom yes, get it. It's the principal thing. And it leads us to Jesus because Jesus became wisdom for us. And that is why we put all of our trust in him and what he's done for us.
Amen.
Amen. Amen. Well, friends, we're going to wrap up this episode, our seven part framework of the book of Proverbs. If you would like a. one page summary of all of the Proverbs we shared that is going to be available at YouCanLearntheBible.com/ Notes as is for every other episode as we're trying to build these episodes out in audio and video we want to have a summary that you can use in your Bible study when you sit down to study and so that's what everything that we're aiming for Joey is to equip and to inspire you and so we pray that this episode has been a blessing
if it has if you would find any value from this if you're willing to leave a comment on YouTube or a review on either Apple podcasts or Spotify. That only helps more people get blessed by the wisdom that God has for us in his word through these episodes.
So Joey, we're going to close the book on Proverbs. We're still in wisdom literature though. Episode 27 is the book of Ecclesiastes, and that is going to be our next episode, episode 27, what's one thing that our listeners can look forward to as we wrap up today?
Well, Ecclesiastes has more wisdom from Solomon, but it's kind of at the end of his life where he's reflecting on so many of the ways he didn't steward it well. So, hey, maybe you know all these Proverbs and you're looking back in your life saying, man, I wish I would have knew then what I know now, or I wish I would have done things differently. Ecclesiastes is going to have some hard hitting words to get you to really think deeper about how you're living your life. So we'll check that out , next
Yep. So look at the calendar, look at the day today and in the month and go read that Numbers proverb and you'll have another one tomorrow and we'll just keep our hearts and minds fixed and focused on the Word of God, because as always, we believe that you can learn the Bible and we are here to help, encourage, and inspire you on your journey. Until we meet again, we pray grace and peace and we'll see you later. Thanks a lot. Bye bye.
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