Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
Matthew Boffey has some important things worth considering as you seek to reinforce consistent Bible study habits.
I especially appreciate that last point, as even the best-laid plans need constant revision. As boxer Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” I’m grateful for Boffey’s reflections.
When we hope in the right person, and listen to his instruction often, we should expect others to be attracted to do the same. Why wouldn’t they be? God is giving us garlands and pendants.
For they are a graceful garland to your head
And pendants for your neck (Prov 1:9).
My beautiful wife Erin doesn’t wear a lot of jewelry, but she does have that one pearl necklace for special occasions. I won’t go into too much detail about it, but hooo boy!
True wisdom is attractive. It is like jewelry that beautifies. It attracts others by holding up the beauty and blessings of wisdom’s path. If we are truly becoming wise, then others around us should see that wisdom and be drawn to it. You can’t keep it to yourself.
For example, I have been involved in churches where the elders are such wise and godly leaders that I make up stuff to talk about just so that I can be around them and learn from them! When I see a group of people loitering with one of those elders, I find a way to get myself in on that conversation because I know that “pearls of wisdom” will drip from his lips, sneak into my ears, and infiltrate my heart. I will become a better person simply by hanging out with those who are really wise.
Unfortunately there are often times when we (even as leaders, teachers, and parents) truly love Jesus but have stopped listening to him regularly and thus have little influence in the lives of others. Maybe we go into lecture mode and fail to draw others out (Jas 1:19-21). Perhaps we think people ought to pay attention to us because of our leadership position, when the Bible says real influence flows from our wise and godly character (1 Cor 10:32-11:1; Phm 8-10). Maybe we’ve plateaued in our walk with Christ, and we are no longer growing in wisdom. Whatever the issue is, we haven’t made the effort to become biblically wise, and then we wonder why no one listens to our opinions or why our children rebel.
The greatest struggles in my marriage usually center on money issues. In our best moments, when we acquire some unexpected funds, my gut instinct is to give them away, and Erin’s gut instinct is to save them for the future (especially for our children). Both instincts are biblically informed and reasonably selfless. Yet every time the situation arises, we must make a decision on what to do. How should we go about it?
One way I could do it is to make a power play. “Well Darling, I’m the head of this household. So here is what I think we should do….” I’ve tried this method before, but it rarely results in the swoons and contented sighs I expect. Nor has she said, “I’m so glad to have such a wise husband to make these difficult decisions for me.” But other tactics have been more helpful.
If you are a parent or leader of any sort, would you prefer for your children, students, or congregation members to follow your influence only when they have no other option, and then pull away from you once they do? Or would you prefer for them to be so attracted to the godly wisdom they find in you that they’re always coming back for more?
Let’s commit to trusting in Christ, seeking him daily, and transforming our world for his glory.
This post was first published in 2012.
I really appreciate Brian Key’s reflection on “What to Do Before You Read the Bible.” He decribes his request to God to comfort me, confront me, and conform me. We would all do well to consider such prayers.
I’m an avid user of Logos Bible Software, using it for hours every day. It serves my personal Bible reading and Bible study, theological reading, small group preparation, sermon preparation, training of others, original language work. I call upon it for random questions that arise in conversation. It even helps me track my preaching schedule, history, and sermon database.
So I have benefitted from this software tremendously for both personal and ministry reasons. I was thrilled when the generous people at Faithlife (makers of Logos) offered me free early and continuing access to their new subscription model, which just launched at the end of October, in exchange for an honest review.
Part 1 of this review will summarize what Logos is and does. Start there if you’re brand new to Logos. Part 2 will highlight what is new or has changed. Jump to that section if you already understand how Logos generally works.
Logos has two main parts to its identity: Bible software and a digital resource library. You can use the software inexpensively without much of a library, or you can invest deeply in a modest, moderate, or exceptional library, depending on your needs and budget.
As Bible software, Logos comes with many features. The most important features are those that enable you to interact with the text of Scripture (using whichever translation(s) you’ve acquired in your library—and many translations are completely free). You can mark up the text, click a word to highlight every time it’s repeated, review a grammatical/propositional outline of the text, toggle verse/chapter numbers and footnotes on and off, compare translations, and quickly identify quotes and allusions to other parts of the Bible. Of course, it does so much more, but those are the features I find most helpful for OIA Bible study.
As a digital resource library, Logos enables you to research Scripture via Bible dictionaries, commentaries, theological texts, atlases, journals, and so much more. Your entire library is interconnected, which means you can search the library for a person, place, item, or Bible passage and immediately scan all the resources that mention your subject. Logos thereby becomes a virtual research assistant that provides lightning fast answers to your questions. Also, I use Logos to simply read books that I want to read. When an author cites a Scripture reference, I don’t have to flip open my Bible to read the supporting text. I can simply hover over it (desktop) or tap the reference (mobile) to immediately call up the full Scripture text in a popup. If one book cites another book (let’s say one commentator quotes an older commentator), the citation is hyperlinked; if I have the cited resource in my library, tapping the link automatically opens the cited reference in a new window at the very spot being cited.
Basically, if a Christian book exists in a Logos edition, I will only buy it in that form, in order to keep my library all in one place. I enjoy reading Christian books in the Logos app on my iPad, just like I might read on a Kindle.
Logos has such robust support and development behind it that they’re always releasing new features. Some of my favorite features connect the Bible with my digital library in dramatic ways.
One last thing you should know is that Logos has a desktop app, a web app, and mobile apps. Your library and database are stored on the cloud, so you can access it from any device connected to the internet. That way, I can look something up on the go. In my pocket, I now carry not only my Bible (in dozens of translations) but also the library of 5,901 resources I’ve accumulated. Or I can keep working and studying any time in any place. Or I can use my phone for a convenient reading or listening plan. Logos makes it ridiculously convenient to work my annual Bible speed-read into the flow of daily life.
So much for the basics of what Logos is and does. What is new this year, and how does it work?
Previously, to board the Logos train, you had to spend lots of money up front on a software feature set or digital library package. Logos has had a free version for quite a few years, but the most common reason I’ve heard people give for not moving to Logos was the price tag for all the features and a substantive library.
Now that has all changed, as Logos has moved to a subscription model. So you can choose among three tiers of subscription levels to gain access to the features and resources you need. I’m currently on a Pro subscription (the middle tier), and it offers me way more than I’ll ever need. The highest tier (Max) will likely appeal only to academics. Most of the people reading this blog would be able to meet their needs and more at either the lowest (Premium) or middle (Pro) tier.
Some subscriptions will give you access to mobile education courses each quarter of the year. Every subscription gives you discounts whenever you purchase additional resources for your library. Some offer you cash back at the end of the year. All subscriptions give you two free books each month. Anything you buy for your library remains yours forever, even if you cancel your subscription someday.
Learn about what comes in each subscription tier here.
In addition, subscriptions come with some new features not previously available, that I love.
One such feature is Smart Search. Logos has always had a tremendously powerful search function, where you can search the Bible or the resources of your library for just about anything. The challenge, however, was that, in order to get the results you wanted, you had to learn a complex syntax. Or at least look up the Help documentation to find the kind of search you wanted to do so you could then enter the proper syntax.
Well, no more. Logos subscriptions now come with a number of built-in AI tools, and one of the best is Smart Search. Now I can use a plain-language inquiry, and Logos can figure out what I’m trying to do. For example, I was recently studying Matthew 1. I knew from past research that Matthew’s genealogy skips at least a few generations of kings, but I could remember which kings. I could have gone back to skim all the way through the book of 2 Chronicles to figure out which kings are skipped. Or… Now I can simply run a Smart Search.
Even though the “Synopsis” answer is generated by AI, it is footnoted with legitimate resources from my own library (not from the Internet at large). To verify or explore any detail of the answer, I can simply click the link and go right to the resource. Scrolling further down, I get excerpts of additional resources that may help with my question.
Another lovely addition to the Pro and Max subscription tiers is the set of AI features in the Sermon Builder. Now I’ll be honest that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Logos using AI. This technology will be so easily abused. But I’ve also become a believer in the benefits when used responsibly. For example, after I complete a sermon manuscript, I always struggle to come up with good discussion questions for the small groups at our church. Logos AI can now read my sermon and suggest possible discussion questions for me. I can tailor those questions to a certain age group or a certain type of question (comprehension, application, etc.). And while I have never found the AI-suggested questions to be useful enough to simply copy and paste for our church to use, they have always stimulated my own thinking in just the right way to help me overcome my writer’s block and come up with something we can actually use.
The Sermon AI Assistant can now also suggest possible illustrations and applications, which can have a similarly stimulating effect. I’m frankly alarmed by the option to also generate sermon outlines from a text, as I believe it short-circuits the need for teachers to do their own work in the text. However, even with that tool, I can imagine someone using it responsibly as a way to generate ideas (despite the danger that some will use it to replace the need to think for themselves). When I train teachers, I don’t mind if they get outline or content ideas from other people, as long as they can still show me from the text why they made the choices they made with respect to their final outline and content.
One last feature I’ll mention is the in-app Help Center. Earlier I mentioned that the financial layout used to be the most common objection to Logos. The second-most common objection is the learning curve. Logos has always provided a fabulous set of tutorials and training videos online. But now, the in-app Help Center makes all that training immediately accessible when and where you need it. If I’m working on a sermon and can’t remember how to pull a quotation from one of my resources into my manuscript, I can click the question-mark icon for the Help Center and just ask my question. Using the same AI technology as the Smart Search I mentioned earlier, Logos immediately provides me with the help I need. So the learning curve just got a lot shallower, reducing the barriers to entry for this wonderful software.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I love Logos and use it all the time. And the new set of subscription features have made my study even more efficient and more effective than ever before. Research and preparation tasks that used to take hours now take minutes, without sacrificing the quality of my study (or replacing my study with AI enhancements!). I can simply get where I was getting before, but faster and with increased depth of knowledge that increases credibility and persuasion.
The subscription model also gives you access to a wider variety of features and a larger digital library at a more affordable price than ever before. What used to cost hundreds or thousands of dollars up front (even with a payment plan) now comes for much less. A substantive library of over 250 books, plus many tools and datasets, can be had for $10/month or less.
And if you’re not totally sure, you can try it out for free. Using this link (or any others earlier in this review) will not only help support our blog; it will give new subscribers a free 30-day trial.
I appreciate Daniel Timmer’s summary of the message of Zephaniah in his piece “Why We Need Zephaniah.” He boils it down to three aspects:
This brief Old Testament book packs quite a punch, exhibiting to goods new God’s grace in vibrant color.
If you’re in the market for gifts to encourage Bible study, here are our top recommendations. We’ve reviewed most of these products on this site at many times and in many ways, but here they are in one place for you.
You can’t beat a good Bible. Our top recommendation is to get yourself or someone you love one of the best editions of the Bible to hit the western world: the ESV Reader’s Bible, 6 Volume Set.
Our first review. Second review.
Get it at Amazon | Westminster
And while we use the ESV translation more than any other, we must mention that the 4-volume NIV Sola Scriptura Bible Project has perhaps the most innovative layout and presentation of the Scriptures, which make it a sheer delight to read.
If 6 volumes seem too much to you, the single volume ESV Reader’s Bible is still well worth picking up.
Cloth over board: Get it at Amazon | Westminster
Reader’s Bibles are arriving with increasing frequency in other translations as well. See our reviews of the CSB, NIV one-volume, NIV 4-volume, and ESV Gospels. They’re even starting to come out with editions for kids.
And for something completely different, consider getting an entire book of the New Testament on a single page spread, with the ESV Panorama New Testament.
The ESV Chronological Bible is worth your attention. It’s not what you want for deep study, but it’s wonderful for extended reading or reference. Here is our review. Get it at Amazon | Westminster
There are so many options. See our buying guide for recommendations about which ones succeed at promoting OIA Bible study.
For something you can write in with greater ease, see our recommendations. Also consider large print and journaling Bibles. Or Scripture journals. If you prefer more space between lines of text, see the Inductive Version of the Journaling New Testament.
If you or a loved one like the idea of copying out the Scriptures by hand, you might want to consider a Journible.
The Dwell app for mobile devices is a remarkable tool designed completely for listening to the Bible. NIV Live is a terrific dramatized audio Bible.
For a snapshot of the OIA process, see this blog post.
For a little more explanation of the principles, see our free booklet.
To go even further, with lots of illustrations, examples to follow, and exercises to practice, see One-to-One Bible Reading or Peter’s book Knowable Word (now revised and expanded).
If you’re familiar with the OIA model, and you’d like to hone your skills to perfection, consider getting Methodical Bible Study by Robert Traina. This book is dry and doesn’t tell many stories. But it delves the depths of the model like nothing else.
If you’d like to grow as a Bible study leader see Peter’s book Sowable Word or Colin Marshall’s terrific book Growth Groups.
See our page with recommended commentaries that promote OIA Bible study skills. We don’t have recommendations for every Bible book yet, but we update this page as we come across helpful volumes.
Great places for beginners to start in gaining familiarity with the Bible’s layout and message are The Beginner’s Guide to the Bible (see Peter’s review), The Visual Theology Guide to the Bible (see Ryan’s review), and The Visual Word (see Ryan’s review).
Peter still happily recommends Logos Bible Software, as it has drastically improved the speed and quality of his Bible study. See his reviews of Logos 7, Logos 8, and Logos 9 for details. Logos is now more affordable than ever through subscriptions (see Peter’s review of this latest development). Here is a link for a 30-day trial.
While Logos is remarkable with its reference libraries and powerful features, it’s not for everyone. If you are more interested in slimmer, free software, you may want to check out E-Sword or STEP Bible.
The best thing you and your church can do for your children is to buy them a Bible and teach them to use it. In my household, that means we buy ESV pew Bibles (the cheapest we can find) almost by the case. These things will get beat up and need to be replaced often, so there’s no use in getting the authentic-porpoise-leather-imported-from-Mars-heirloom-editions just yet.
When children are first learning to read, it may be helpful to give them the NIrV. This builds their confidence in reading the very words of God in their own language. Remember, the story Bibles are good, but God’s undiluted word is even better.
And before dipping into the supplemental resources below, perhaps you’d consider printing out a few simple devotional pages for your kids, so they can explore the Scriptures for themselves before hearing what others have to say about the Scriptures.
The Big Picture Story Bible – A marvelous overview of the Bible’s rich storyline: The people of God under the rule of God in the place God gives. Get it at Amazon | Westminster
Read Aloud Bible Stories – Brief Bible stories that draw in young children, letting the children know these are their stories. Get it at Amazon.
The Gospel Story Bible – Retellings of 156 Bible stories, synchronized with the Gospel Story for Kids curriculum, and devotionals Long Story Short and Old Story New. The best part of these stories are that much use is made in the retelling of the actual text of Scripture. Get it at Amazon | Westminster
God’s BIG Promises Bible Storybook – Traces 5 major promises through the Bible from beginning to end. Great to read aloud to preschoolers, or to have young elementary students read themselves. See our review. Get it at Amazon | Westminster
The Jesus Storybook Bible – Gripping gospel focus, though it sometimes seems to suggest that Bible stories are not meant to serve as examples (contrast with 1 Cor 10:6, 11, etc.). Get it at Amazon | Westminster
Ages 5-7Mark’s Marvellous Book – I still hope this becomes more of a trend: A children’s story Bible that follows the shape and themes of a book of the Bible (rather than cherry-picking certain stories, ignoring the fact that they were written to an audience in a context). See my review. Get it at Amazon.
God’s Daring Dozen – Similar to Mark’s Marvellous Book, these short volumes each follow the shape and theme of a book of the Bible. These sets work through the twelve minor prophets, from Hosea to Malachi. And they are simply extraordinary. See my review. Get box 1 (Amazon | Westminster), box 2 (Amazon | Westminster), or BRAND NEW box 3 (Amazon).
The Big Picture Story Bible – A marvelous overview of the Bible’s rich storyline: The people of God under the rule of God in the place God gives. Read this to your kids at ages 0-2; then have them read it to themselves at ages 5-7. Get it at Amazon | Westminster
Ages 8-14The Radical Book for Kids – This is the kind of gift you get for your kids, but it’s also, sort of, partly, perhaps, for you. You know, like Legos, football tickets, or family room surround sound systems. It’s an engaging and delightful handbook of the Christian faith. See my review. Get it at Amazon | Westminster
The Really Radical Book for Kids – Just as wonderfully radical as the first one, only really so. See my review. Get it at Amazon | Westminster. Or get a deal on both Radical books at Westminster.
Or perhaps you’d like to consider getting them their own beginner reader’s Bible.
I highly recommend the series of devotionals by Marty Machowski. These volumes don’t merely communicate Christian truth, as important as that is; they train children to study the Bible and find that truth for themselves. In addition, the “daily” family devotions take only 5 days/week, and they truly take only 10 minutes per day. The payoff is high, but the price of entry is low. This makes it more likely you’ll be able to stay consistent with them. Every volume in this series has the same high quality; each also has the same basic structure for each day’s devotion. See my review.
Happy gift shopping!
Disclaimer: Links in this post to Amazon, Westminster, and Logos are affiliate links, which means this blog receives a small commission when you click those links. Doing this helps us to cover our costs, enabling us to continue recommending decent resources. Thank you.
Stephen Kneale has a brief but provocative piece on “Three ways we might find our biases driving our biblical interpretation.” Of course, I don’t ever think I bring my biases to the study. But shouldn’t I take note when the fruit of my study matches one of Kneale’s signs?
This is worth your time to consider.
We believe one of the best ways to learn to study the Bible is to read it. A lot of it. Over and over again. That way, when the foundations are destroyed, the righteous will know what to do. When the wicked bend the bow, the children of God hide in the one who is their refuge. When surrounded by those who have lost their minds, the people of God have sure footing and a stabilizing security.
If you’re not sure what I mean by all these foundations/bow/sure footing metaphors, then maybe this is your year to read the entire Bible in 90 days. Objective truth and emotional stability are yours for the taking. Not by toughening yourself up (Prov 18:11, 26:12), but by perceiving who really sits on throne (Psalm 11:1-7, Matt 6:19-21). You’ll only see, though, if you’ve got the eyes for it.
But I digress and perhaps ought to get to the point.
I’m writing to announce our 10th annual Bible reading challenge. The challenge is to read the entire Bible within 90 days. If you wish, you may begin today. Regardless of when you begin, your 90-day period must end no later than March 31, 2025. Once you complete your reading, you may submit an entry form (see below) to enter a prize drawing.
And why—you ask—would you embark on such a strange venture? (“Has the day finally come,” they inquire, “when the Lord has struck with madness the riders of this horse we call the blogosphere?” Zech 12:4) I can think of at least three reasons.
Because this is our 10th annual reading challenge, we’re blowing things up this year. There are not one but two grand prizes. And for every 10 people who complete this year’s challenge, there will be an additional prize package. On top of all that, we will grant extra entries into the drawing for anyone who recruits first-timers to complete the challenge with them.
The first grand prize is a 12-month pro-level subscription to Logos Bible Software. Logos has been the most requested grand prize for this year’s challenge, and due to the generosity of Faithlife (makers of Logos), your faith has become sight. Just this year, Logos has shifted to a subscription model. So one winner of our drawing will be gifted a 12-month subscription at the Pro level, which includes a library of over 500 books, along with tools for note-taking, counseling, preaching, marking up the text, making presentations, and access to five free mobile ed courses each quarter of the year. Find my review of the new subscription-based Logos here.
The second grand prize is a premium book rebinding provided by Pro Libris Rebinding. The winner of this prize is invited to take their favorite Bible, novel, or other book, send it to Pro Libris, and have it re-bound with a premium leather cover and binding. Or if you can’t decide which book of your own to get rebound, we will provide you with a free copy of a one-volume reader’s Bible of your choice, and Pro Libris will give it the premium treatment. You can view a sample of Pro Libris’s work at their Facebook and Instagram pages.
We want you to read and re-read God’s word for years to come, so we’re offering these prizes to catalyze a habit of such delightful romps.
But wait, there’s more! In addition to the two grand prizes, we will offer one additional prize for every 10 people who complete this year’s Bible reading challenge. That means that if only 10 people complete the challenge, two of them will win the grand prizes, and one will get an additional prize. If 100 people complete the challenge, two will win grand prizes, and ten will secure an additional prize.
So your odds of winning a prize this year could be greater than 10%. Can you find any other giveaway on the Internet with such great odds of winning? And though the physical discipline and training of reading the Bible in 90 days is of some value, the character and godliness which it instills in you holds promise not only for the present life but also for the life to come.
Everyone selected to win an additional prize will get to choose one of the following options:
Please note: Physical prizes are limited to people with addresses in the United States. Winners in other parts of the world will receive a $50 Amazon gift card via email.
One last new spin on this year’s challenge: the referral bonus.
On the entry form for this year’s challenge, there will be a place for you to mark whether this is your first time completing the challenge. And if it is your first time, there will be a place for you to provide the name of the person who recruited you to try the challenge.
Both recruits and recruiters will benefit:
Note that both the recruit and the recruiter must complete the challenge. All recruits must be first-timers; recruiters can be either returnees or first-timers themselves.
And as usual, fake, incomplete, or spam entries will be deleted. For example, anyone who fills out the form today or tomorrow clearly hasn’t read the entire Bible within the time window, so their entries won’t count. Also, entries submitted before Bible reading has been completed will be thrown out; this drawing is only for those who read the Bible in 90 days and not for those who intend to read the Bible in 90 days.
So it will do you no good to recruit millions of people to complete the entry form without completing the actual reading challenge. God sees and knows what you are up to, and your entries will be chucked to the place where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
If you’d like a checklist to help you stay on pace, here are three. You may make a copy and update the dates, if you plan to start on a date other than January 1.
Or here is an iOS app that can help you track your plan. You may also want to consider making a reading plan in the Dwell listening app if you prefer audio. And perhaps you’ll want to bookmark this post so you can find the entry form once you complete the reading.
You may now begin any time, and may this be the ride of your life.
Here are the rules:
Romans 8 is one of the most beloved chapters of the New Testament, with many staggering promises and assurances for the people of God. But could it be that some of them tend to take on meanings Paul didn’t intend, when we cite them out of context?
Joshua Greever tackles 3 such verses from the chapter, employing the context of Paul’s argument to explain some familiar verses and phrases:
Greever’s work on these texts is worth considering and modeling how to answer such interpretive questions from a close examination of the train of thought.
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
And forsake not your mother’s teaching (Prov 1:8, ESV).
Having set our hope in the right person, we are now called to do the right thing in response. In verse 8, we have the first instance of one of the most repeated commands in Proverbs 1-9: the command to hear or listen. Solomon made every effort to give us a written record of his instruction, and he calls us to hear it over and over again. Will we do it? Will we listen? Will the instruction sink down deep and become a part of us? Will it make any difference in how we live our lives?
This question is important enough for him to repeat the command incessantly. Hear my instruction (Pr 1:8a). Don’t forsake your mother’s teaching (Pr 1:8b). Make your ear attentive to wisdom (Pr 2:2a). Incline your heart to understanding (Pr 2:2b). Be attentive, that you may gain insight (Pr 4:1). Hear and accept my words (Pr 4:10). Be attentive to my wisdom (Pr 5:1). And so on.
Notice, too, that the word “instruction” in 1:8 connects back to Proverbs 1:2, where the first purpose of Solomon’s proverbs was to help us know wisdom and instruction. The “instruction” that he refers to is not his own personal advice, but rather the instruction of God, revealed through his Word, of which Solomon is now a representative. Solomon is not asking his audience to hear and obey every personal whim of his simply because he’s the older, more experienced one among them. He is pointing them to a greater set of instructions: those that came right from the Lord and can be applied to every detail of our lives. This conclusion flows from Prov 1:7 where fools despise the Lord’s instruction, but those who are wise fear the Lord (and thus hear his instruction).
How does this apply to us? If God has put us in positions of spiritual authority over others (as parents, elders, pastors, teachers, etc.), then we should be simultaneously confident and humble in our leadership. We can be utterly confident as representatives of the God of the universe (Josh 1:5, 2 Cor 5:20). Yet we’re also humble, knowing that our instruction does not always match God’s teaching perfectly; there’s room for us to grow, even as leaders. In other words, we must never ask for unqualified obedience on the merit of nothing more than the leadership position God gave to us. For example, “You better obey me, because I’m your father!” We must always aim to be representatives of a greater authority (the Lord himself). And, only in so far as our advice is in line with God’s revealed wisdom, ought we to expect those under us to hear and obey.
A good friend of mine modeled well such confident and humble leadership when he asked his six-year old son for suggestions on how he could be a better father. The boy’s first response was, “You’re a great Dad; I don’t think you could be better.” But later in the day, after some difficult interactions between the father and another sibling, the boy came back and said, “Dad, one way you could be a better Dad is to not get angry when we make mistakes or disobey.” My point here is not that parents should do whatever their children want them to do, but that, in a context of confident and humble authority delegated by God, a leader need not be insecure about wise feedback, even from those he leads.
Jesus himself told us that Solomon’s wise advice was not the ultimate instruction for us to heed. Solomon was a picture of the Savior to come, the man who was God and who spoke only God’s own words. In answer to those who wanted Jesus to prove himself to them, he said, “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Matt 12:42). Jesus, as God’s ultimate representative (Heb 1:1-4),repeatedly reminded people, “Truly, truly, I say to you….” As God in flesh, Jesus had no need to speak tentatively. In fact, one title for Jesus is the Word (John 1:1; Rev 19:13). Our objective in studying Proverbs is not just to listen to Solomon but, far more importantly, to make sure we are listening to Jesus.
Our default is to listen to anything but the Lord Jesus. Our own hearts whisper sweet promises of joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction in anything other than the righteousness of Jesus. The world gives apparent credibility to these promises, offering us more stuff, more pleasure, and whatever else will promise happiness. The devil prowls about seeking to destroy us, exploiting opportunities to showcase these lies and to hide from us the reality of their vicious consequences.
Thus Solomon comes back to it again and again: “Hear…listen…pay attention.” The second step on the path of wisdom is really the same as the first. We just have to keep taking it over and over again.
This post was first published in 2012.
