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Intro to the Wisdom of Proverbs, Part 1

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I’m beginning a series of posts on the book of Proverbs, with the goal of exploring how ordinary people can grow in wisdom.  By “ordinary people” I mean people who like to hang out with friends, people who have families, people who work jobs and have things to take care of, people who enjoy hobbies and travel and music and sports and tasty food.  By “wisdom” I’m referring to the extraordinary things that happen when a person loves Jesus a lot and wants to be like him.

close up photography of owl
Photo by Jean van der Meulen on Pexels.com

Why am I writing these posts?  Because I, like you, think of myself as being one of the most ordinary people on the planet.  Although I am a full-time missionary with a campus ministry called DiscipleMakers, and that might make some people think of me as being somewhat abnormal, I still feel like I’m someone who is as close to ordinary as you can get.  I’m not very tall.  I have a mortgage payment.  I can’t afford to hire someone to mow my lawn for me, even though I totally wish I could.  My children squabble over whose turn it is to press the button on the elevator.  I like double cheeseburgers.  If you want to hear about someone who is not ordinary, someone who is truly superior and extraordinary in many ways, then I’ll tell you about my wife.  But I won’t do that now, because I’ll have plenty of opportunity to brag about her in future posts.

Many wise people have written excellent works about Proverbs.  I haven’t read them all, but most of the ones I’ve read examine Proverbs with a topical approach.  They discuss things like how we should handle our money, or what sort of friend we should be to others, or how to speak words that build up and don’t tear down.  These books, when done well, are simply terrific, and I highly recommend them to you.[1]  Other books that take more of an expositional (or verse-by-verse) approach tend to be pretty technical commentaries and are thus somewhat inaccessible to ordinary people.

My intention in this series of posts is to lay a foundation for a life of wisdom by examining Proverbs chapters 1 through 9 section-by-section.  Proverbs is one part of the Word of God, and thus is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training us in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).  Proverbs 1-9 is one long introduction to the book of Proverbs, and it intentionally explains how wisdom works.  What is wisdom?  Why should I care about it?  How do I get it?  What will keep me from being wise?  Overall, how do I make sense of the details about topics like money, friends, and speech in later chapters?  And while a topical approach makes sense with the seemingly scattered details in chapters 10 through 31, a section-by-section approach to chapters 1 through 9 is warranted by the organized presentation of the material; therefore, in each section, I will seek to capture the main point, trace out the author’s flow of thought, and draw concrete applications to our day.

Above all, the entire Bible, including Proverbs, is about Jesus: his death for sinners, his resurrection to glory, his offer of forgiveness to all who repent, and his mission to proclaim this great message to every nation (Luke 24:46-47).  So, as we study Proverbs, we’ll do our best to focus on Jesus.

This post was first published in 2012.

[1] One example is Anthony Selvaggio, A Proverbs Driven Life (Wapwallopen, PA: Shepherd Press, 2008).  Another is Dan Phillips’s excellent work, God’s Wisdom in Proverbs (The Woodlands, TX: Kress Biblical Resources, 2011). [Amazon affiliate links will provide a small commission to this blog at no extra cost to yourself.]

Beware The Leech’s Daughters

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I’ve always been puzzled—but fascinated—by Proverbs 30:15a:

The leech has two daughters: Give and Give.

Prov 30:15a, ESV

The NIV puts the “gives” in their mouths rather than in their names:

The leech has two daughters. ‘Give! Give!’ they cry.

Prov 30:15a, NIV

Regardless of whether “give” is their label or their lingo, what is going on in this proverbial saying?

Image by István Asztalos from Pixabay

Notice what follows

The next stanza, about four things that are never satisfied, certainly relates.

There are three things that are never satisfied, 
four that never say, ‘Enough!’: 
the grave, the barren womb, 
land, which is never satisfied with water, 
and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’

Prov 30:15b-16, NIV

The demands (or names) of the leech’s daughters are parallel to these four things that never say “enough.” Just as the grave is never satisfied with the size of its membership, and fire never decides it’s time to pack up and go home—so also there are leech fathers and daughters who will always demand more and more and more.

Okay, that makes sense, but what is the point? What wisdom is the sage trying to teach here?

Notice what sandwiches

These sayings about perpetually dissatisfied things come right between two stanzas about a generation that rejects the wisdom of ages past. A generation that believes itself to be on the right side of history, having developed beyond the antiquated wisdom of its ancestors.

There are those who curse their father
and do not bless their mothers.
There are those who are clean in their own eyes
but are not washed of their filth.
There are those—how lofty are their eyes,
how high their eyelids lift!
There are those whose teeth are swords,
whose fangs are knives,
to devour the poor from off the earth,
the needy from among mankind.

Prov 30:11-14

The eye that mocks a father
and scorns to obey a mother
will be picked out by the ravens of the valley
and eaten by the vultures.

Prov 30:17

Can’t help but ask

So what is it that drives such a generation to reject the wisdom of previous generations? To curse and mock fathers and forefathers?

Could it be an insatiable drive for more? A perpetual lack of satisfaction?

Or is it the other way around? Is it the rejection of ancient wisdom that causes the perpetual dissatisfaction of a generation of leeches? Such that, when you lose your grounding in the reality of God’s world, you have nothing left but to make increasing demands of the people and the world around you?

The leech has two daughters. Not only in ancient Israel, but quite alive and well today.

Topical Index for Proverbs

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I’ve written before about the best idea I’ve ever heard for studying Proverbs, which is to read the book once a month, tracking a single theme each month, and writing down verse references to proverbs that speak to that theme. A simple, spiral-bound notebook is all that’s required for such an exercise.

Long ago, I spent 4 years in Proverbs doing just this, and the result was the creation of one of the most useful tools for my Christian walk and ministry. The problem is that the decades have not been kind to my spiral-bound notebook. And it doesn’t help me when I’m away from home and still require its use.

So I’m deeply grateful to my generous friend Felicia Kreider, who recently digitized the notebook for me. She alphabetized the topics, entered all the data into an attractive Google doc, and created a hyperlinked table of contents for me. Now I can access it from any device any time I need it!

Photo by Michelle Andrews

When I first disclosed to the general public the existence of this notebook of mine, I said I wouldn’t share it if you asked, since you’ll be better off if you create your own.

However… Felicia has made this into such a thing of beauty that I can’t resist showing it to you. I still believe you’ll be better off creating your own. But maybe you just need a little nudge to show you what glory awaits you with such an exercise. So I will show you my topical index.

Yet I can’t make it too easy for the entire world to access, so I’ve disabled the ability to copy, download, or print it. I’ve slapped on a full-blown copyright to reserve all rights. And I don’t plan to add it to our resources page, but will keep it buried here in the blog’s archives, so only faithful readers like you will see it.

Without further ado, here you go. Enjoy!

Wrestling With the God Presented in the Book of Job

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Not long ago, John Piper received a very challenging question over how to grapple with the God presented in the book of Job:

Pastor John, my 14-year-old daughter read through the book of Job for the first time this year, and she is really struggling with how God is portrayed in that book. She has heard all of her life that God is loving and just, and cannot understand why God would allow Job and his children, wife, and servants to suffer such devastation. She’s deeply disturbed by the fact that God pointed Job out to Satan intentionally, thus drawing his attention to this righteous man, allowing Satan to take away nearly everything Job had. And for what purpose? Merely to prove a point to Satan and the host of heaven that Job’s reverence for God was unshakable.

Piper masterfully walks through the process of learning to define just and unjust, right and wrong, not from our own perspectives but as creatures of Almighty God who defines such things for us. And this Almighty God always acts on behalf of his own supreme glory and the good of his people.

Piper’s response is a helpful example of how to wrestle through difficult texts in light of the message of the Scriptures. Check it out!

Why Elihu is So Mysterious

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At a recent pastor’s conference on the book of Job, a leader asked the attendees whether the speeches of Elihu (Job 32-37) should be trusted, like God’s (Job 38-41), or discarded, like those of Job’s three friends (Job 4-5, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25). The show of hands was evenly divided. I couldn’t believe my eyes; every attendee was fully committed to studying and explaining God’s word carefully, and yet there was a widespread and fundamental disagreement on how to read a significant part of the book of Job.

Have you wondered how to read Elihu? Can we get to the bottom of the mystery?

Let Me Introduce Elihu

Anirban Ray (2013), Creative Commons

Anirban Ray (2013), Creative Commons

He pops on the scene out of nowhere: “Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger” (Job 32:2). He speaks a few times and then vanishes. God clearly vindicates Job and condemns Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (Job 42:7-8), but he says nothing about Elihu.

Casual readers of Job barely notice Elihu. If they have the guts not to skip from chapter 2 to chapter 38, their eyes glaze over long before they meet Elihu in chapter 32. They sink in a bog of poetry; words swirl together into an indistinguishable mire, and Elihu comes and goes while readers are still gasping for air. Some don’t realize he’s not one of the “three friends.”

In addition, we’re clearly told that Elihu is young (Job 32:4, 6), raving mad (Job 32:2, 3, 5 – four times!), and full of criticism for Job (Job 33:12, 34:7-8, 34:35-37, etc.). Yet God clearly claims that Job has “spoken of me what is right” (Job 42:7-8). What’s all the fuss? This case should be closed.

Why Elihu is Just Like the Other Three

Here is the main challenge: Elihu draws the same conclusion as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. That’s why many interpreters think Elihu is just like them.

Eliphaz: “Job has sinned” (Job 4:7, 15:4-6, 22:5).

Bildad: “Job has sinned” (Job 8:5-6, 18:4).

Zophar: “Job has sinned” (Job 11:6, 20:29).

Elihu: “Job has sinned” (Job 34:7, 37; 35:16).

Of course, the reader knows Job has not sinned: “There is none like [Job] on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8, 2:3). But Elihu charges him with sin, just as the other three do. What’s all the fuss? This case should be closed.

Why Elihu is Just Like God

Though God clears Job of all charges (Job 42:7-8), notice that his declaration comes after Job repents in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). Before this repentance, God calls Job a faultfinder (Job 40:2) who speaks without knowledge (Job 38:2) and puts God in the wrong (Job 40:8).

Elihu also desires to justify Job of all charges (Job 33:32). He accuses Job of finding fault with God (Job 33:9-11), speaking without knowledge (Job 34:35), and putting God in the wrong (Job 34:5-6, 36:23).

Why Elihu is Not Like the Other Three

Though their conclusion is the same, their arguments are completely different. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar perpetually argue: “Before you began suffering, you must have sinned.” Elihu’s case is different: “Since you began suffering, you have sinned.” The three concern themselves with Job’s hidden conduct; Elihu concerns himself with Job’s present speech.

We can see the difference in the evidence they bring. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have no evidence, only presumption, though Job begs them for the merest shred (Job 6:28-30). Elihu, however, constantly brings specific evidence to support his charges: “You say…You say…You say…You say…” (Job 33:8-11, 33:13, 34:5-6, 35:2-3, 36:23).

The poet signals a difference in the number of speeches and responses he gives to each character. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar get no more than three speeches apiece, with the speeches growing shorter as the book progresses. Elihu gets four speeches. Job refutes every speech of the three with eight speeches of his own; Job never responds to Elihu’s speeches, though Elihu asks for a response (Job 33:32-33).

Elihu himself distances himself from the other three. Furious at the stalemate and their inability to answer Job, Elihu promises he has something new to say: “[Job] has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your speeches” (Job 32:14). The poet likewise distances Elihu from the other three. In one of the few narrative and evaluative statements of the book, he declares that Elihu “burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong” (Job 32:3).

Conclusion

Confusion abounds over Elihu because he sounds like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, drawing the same conclusion: Job has sinned. But as we penetrate the poetry, we see that what Elihu means by his conclusion is not what they mean by it. His four speeches ring with incredible truth desperately needed by any innocent sufferer:

  • God has not been silent; he speaks through your pain (Job 32-33).
  • God is not unjust; he will eventually strike the wicked (Job 34).
  • Righteous living is not pointless, though we are insignificant next to God (Job 35).
  • You’re in no place to criticize God; remember to fear him (Job 36-37).

And God reinforces Elihu’s fourth point with some of his most aggressive and fear-inducing words in all the Bible (Job 38-41). May we all repent of justifying ourselves and remember to fear him.

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The Difference Between Job and His Three Friends

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The book of Job is about more than suffering; it’s about how to fear God through suffering. Let’s see how this main point plays out in the debates between Job and his three friends.

The Debates

CALI (2011), Creative Commons

CALI (2011), Creative Commons

At the end of Job 2, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar enter stage left. The play unfolds as each man gives a long speech, and Job responds to each with a speech of his own.

  • Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job, Zophar, Job.
  • Repeat: Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job, Zophar, Job.
  • Repeat: Eliphaz, Job, Bildad, Job…

The third cycle gets cut short, and Zophar never gets his third moment of fame.

I won’t list the main points speech-by-speech; I encourage you to marinate in the poetry and discover the main ideas for yourself. But I want to highlight the main threads that amaze me.

The Friends

Eliphaz is sensitive, Bildad is logical, and Zophar is hot-headed. Their personalities clearly vary, but they are still cut from the same strip of papyrus. They have one Ace in their collective hole, and they’re not afraid to use it every which way they can.

Good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. God is holy, righteous, and good, and he will not allow his cosmic order to be upset by some self-righteous upstart like Job. On the last day, our good deeds will be weighed against our bad deeds, and God will treat us as our actions deserve. There is a place for the wicked, one filled with loneliness, despair, and terror. But it is not possible for bad things to happen to good people. And consequently, it will never be possible for God to find a way to justify the wicked.

Job begins with this same worldview, and Eliphaz begins the cycle by gently reminding him of what he already knows (Job 4:2-5). In fact, Eliphaz claims, this system of belief is what it means to fear God. And such fear of God should be Job’s confidence (Job 4:6).

Eliphaz will not be so gentle by the time he’s done with Job. He’ll accuse Job of having no true fear of God (Job 22:4), but of bereaving others, withholding generosity, and crushing the helpless (Job 22:5-11).

These three friends exhaust their arguments and end up in the same place where they began (compare Job 25:4 with Job 4:17). There are different angles on the same principles, but there is no development of their thought. Perhaps that’s why Zophar has nothing to add in the third cycle. Their tone may change as they go, but their belief does not.

Job

Job, however, goes through a radical transformation. He begins in the same place as his friends (Job 4:2-5), but he will not stay there. He knows he is innocent, and yet he’s suffering terribly. This blows up everything he thought he knew about God. Notice how his thought progresses through his eight speeches:

  • Job 7:8-10: God won’t see me anymore after I’m dead.
  • Job 9:32-33: I wish I could speak to God in person, but there is no mediator to go between us and make it possible.
  • Job 14:7-17: My suffering would have a purpose if I could die and have God’s wrath pass me by. Then he could resurrect me and forget all my iniquity. But that will never happen (Job 14:18-22).
  • Job 16:18-22: Since I am innocent and God is good, there must be a mediator between God and me! My witness is in heaven, he who will argue my case before God as a son of man does with his neighbor!
  • Job 19:23-27: Since my Redeemer lives, resurrection must also be possible! Like the dual keys required to launch a nuke, these companion truths of a mediator and a resurrection unlock Job’s hope for the first time in the book. “My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:27).
  • Job 21:7-9, 29-33: God often allows the wicked to prosper. He can do as he pleases.
  • Job 23:8-17: Though he utterly terrifies me, all I want is to see God.
  • Job 26:6-7: Even if I die, I will be laid bare and visible before God.

Though the friends end up in the same place they begin, Job does not. He has completely changed his mind.

The Main Difference

The main difference between Job and his friends is not that Job suffers and they do not. Nor is it that Job understands suffering in a way they do not. The main difference is that Job fears God and they do not.

While Job’s suffering provides the raw material for their debate, the heart of their conflict is over what it means to fear God (Job 4:6, 6:14, 13:11-16, 15:4, 22:4, 23:14-17, etc.). The message of this book is not so much about how to deal with suffering as about how to fear God, even through suffering.

Without the fear of God, one must hold to a religious system of cosmic karma, where we’re good with God as long as we try to be good people. But the true fear of God acknowledges the possibility – no, the necessity – of innocent, substitutionary suffering. If a really, really good person can suffer terrible things, then maybe, just maybe, the wicked can somehow be justified and made right with God.

But it all hangs on both a Redeemer who lives and a tenacious hope of resurrection.

What is the Book of Job About?

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I wish I could poll the Christian world to answer the question, “What is the book of Job about?” And I would eat my freshly shorn grass clippings if I didn’t get a nearly unanimous answer: SUFFERING. But that answer would not be right. Well, it might be half-right, but not nearly so right as we’ve been led to believe.

Patty Mooney (2009), Creative Commons

Patty Mooney (2009), Creative Commons

Of course Job suffers. But the suffering itself moves off-stage after two chapters. The body of the book is written as a play in 5 acts, filled with many characters waxing eloquently about Job’s suffering. Perhaps the point is more about how to talk about suffering. And perhaps that’s why most readers race from chapter 2 to chapter 38 and never look back. Nobody, myself included, feels comfortable when talking about a real person’s real suffering.

I’ve read this book at least 25 times in my life, but until this year I’ve never taken the time to study and consider the speeches chapter-by-chapter. I can’t believe all I’ve missed.

The Setup

First, let’s not forget how Job got into this mess. Job fears God and turns away from evil (Job 1:1), and for that reason, when Satan goes looking for trouble in all the wrong places, God draws a bull’s-eye on his main man (Job 1:7-8, 2:2-3). Make no mistake: God draws Satan’s attention to Job, because Job fears God. If that fact doesn’t terrify you, I don’t know what will.

Second, consider what’s at stake here. Both the narrator (once) and God (twice) unequivocally assert Job’s fear of God (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). And this fear is the very thing Satan calls into question: “Does Job fear God for no reason?” (Job 1:9). Satan places his bet: “Job doesn’t really fear God; he just loves the nice things God gives him. Take those things away, and his ‘fear of God’ will melt into face-to-face cursing of God” (paraphrase of Job 1:10-11, 2:4-5). God goes all in: “Game on” (Job 1:12, 2:6).

The narrator’s key question is this: Will Job still fear God when he loses everything he loves?

Job’s Fear

Job takes up his lament in chapter 3 with his own key question: Why is this happening to me? He knows nothing of God’s bet with Satan. He has no explanation for his loss, his bereavement, or his pain. He curses the day of his birth and the night of his conception (Job 3:1-7). He even asks others to join him in cursing that day and that night (Job 3:8).

But when he turns to consider God, he has no curse. He has only questions filled with dread (Job 3:20-26).

The Play’s Structure

As I mentioned, Job is a play in 5 acts, with a narrative prologue and epilogue. We struggle with this book for the same reasons we struggle with Shakespeare: it’s old, it’s a play, and it’s poetry. But delve this mine, and its riches will mesmerize you.

Narrative Prologue: Job suffers because he fears God – Job 1-2

Act I: Job curses his life, but still fears God – Job 3

Act II: Job and three friends debate over what it means to fear God – Job 4-26

Act III: Job meditates on the beginning of wisdom: the fear of God – Job 27-28

Act IV: Job delivers his concluding speech, and a fourth friend challenges him to excel still more in fearing God – Job 29-37

Act V: God shows up, and Job’s fear of him reaches new heights – Job 38:1-42:6

Narrative Epilogue: This dangerous Deity puts the fear of God in Job’s friends and implicitly takes the blame for Job’s suffering – Job 42:7-17

The prologue and epilogue obviously parallel one another. Acts I and V have much parallel language (for example, Job calls on those who rouse up Leviathan – Job 3:8, and God rouses up Leviathan – Job 41). Acts II and IV have Job interacting with his friends.

The book’s structural and thematic center lies in chapters 27-28, with Job’s condemnation of his friends and his praise of the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom.

Job’s Place in the Old Testament

The book of Job is traditionally considered one of the wisdom books. We should expect its main idea to have something to do with wisdom.

  • Proverbs describes the way of wisdom, beginning with the fear of the Lord.
  • Ecclesiastes describes the difficulty of wisdom: our duty is to fear the Lord, even when we can’t understand what God is doing under the sun.
  • Job provides a case study in the fear of the Lord despite desperate and inscrutable circumstances.

Conclusion

Yes, Job has much to say to help those who suffer. But the book’s main point is more focused: What does it mean to fear the Lord when you suffer? Next week, I’ll look more closely at the debates in Job 4-26 to show how the fear of the Lord paves the way for the amazing gospel of free grace through Jesus Christ.

The Differences Between Law and Wisdom

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The relationship between law and wisdom is a tricky topic that requires careful thought. Too many fall into oversimplification, as though law has to do with right or wrong, and wisdom has to do with the gray areas of life. Or as though law communicates universals and wisdom (especially Proverbs) offers only probabilities.

So robust thinking, that makes sense in plain language, is hard to find.

Here is an excellent post at Beautiful Christian Life that offers you just that—robust thinking in plain language.

Though I don’t have any strenuous disagreements, I would prefer to give less weight to theological frameworks in shaping the presentation of what the law is. But the author’s presentation of wisdom is terrific.

Check it out!

Ecclesiastes Introduction Overview

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David Kieffer has a good overview of the book of Ecclesiastes on his blog. Here’s a taste:

When Solomon asked for wisdom God gave it abundantly! Royal court officials and foreign dignitaries marveled at Solomon’s wisdom. “[Everyone] perceived that God’s wisdom was in him.” (1 Kings 3:28). Though Solomon never asked for wealth and honor; wisdom landed him on top of the world — financially, politically, and socially!

It’s remarkable that the person most qualified to sing Wisdom’s praises instead warned us about its limitations. Solomon wrote, “I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business… a striving after the wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:13,17-18)

Wisdom’s limitations present unsettling news for hope seekers…

As a young adult, a few people tried to warn me about wisdom’s limitations. When they suggested my search for understanding might lead to frustrated uncertainty, I thought them jaded or faithless. But then life’s unexpected twists and turns led me to the precipice of my vain assurance and I fell to humbler ground. I realized I might never understand why certain bad things happen. Soon afterward, Solomon became my empathetic friend. He shared my sense of futility — “Meaningless, Meaningless…utterly meaningless!” 

Unexpected comfort comes when we realize the Bible doesn’t conveniently dismiss life’s most troubling dilemmas. In fact it often silences those offering easy answers to allow space for frustrated voices to wail. Even Jesus wailed, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” from the cross (Matthew 27:46).

I differ with Kieffer on his sharp distinction between proverbs and laws, but I confess it puts him in good company. I’ve written about R.C. Sproul’s “proverbial peccadillo” on this very point.

But as for his broad overview of the message of Ecclesiastes, Kieffer’s full article is well worth checking out.