Wise | Knowable Word

Proverbs Purpose #4: To Transform People

October 4, 2024 By Peter Krol

To give prudence to the simple,
Knowledge and discretion to the youth –
Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
And the one who understands obtain guidance (Prov 1:4-5, ESV).

A Push in the Right Direction

We’ve already seen that Solomon wrote Proverbs so we might know wisdom (partly by recognizing those who speak it) and live wisely. Solomon’s third purpose for writing is found in verses 4 and 5. He desires nothing less than the transformation of the simple person (“the youth”) into a wise person (who has “prudence”), and of a wise person (“one who understands”) into a wiser person (one who will “increase in learning”).

Remember that the simple person is the one at the crossroads. This person has not yet decided which fork in the road to take: the one moving toward the Lord (wisdom), or the one moving away from the Lord (folly). Solomon here offers a push in the right direction. His proverbs will help us to move toward wisdom.

Remember also that the wise person is not someone who has achieved enlightenment or some sort of spiritual heightening. Rather, the wise person is simply moving in the right direction. If you are moving closer and closer to the Lord, you are wise. Solomon’s proverbs will inject supplements into your tank so the fuel can burn cleaner, last longer, and move you down the road more quickly.

How to Respond

Some people should be comforted by this third purpose. It means you can start where you are and just move forward from here. It’s okay if you’re not as far down the road as that other person. What matters is that you get moving in the right direction. You shouldn’t sit still, lamenting the fact that you’re not as wise or mature in Christ as you should be or would like to be. You should just do something. Anything. If this description connects with you, then Proverbs 4:18 can be your theme verse: “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” You haven’t hit the sunrise yet, so just keep moving down the path.

Other people need to be rebuked by this third purpose. It means that you have tried to get by with being “simple” for far too long. You’ve been a Christian for 10, 20, 30 years or more, and you’re still content to have minimal involvement, minimal influence, and minimal responsibility. You’re happy to receive the church’s resources, investment, service, and instruction; but you’re unwilling to be a part of giving resources, investment, service, or instruction for the good of others. This attitude is simply unacceptable for a Christian called to wisdom.

It should be assumed that different people have different capacities and rates of acceleration in their growth in wisdom. That fact is not in question here. Rather, the chief question is are you accelerating at all or just sitting still in your walk with Christ? You can only remain simple for so long before you become a fool; but the proverbs extend much hope that it doesn’t have to be that way. So let’s add this new component to our definition.

Wisdom is:

Knowing the right thing to do in any particular situation.
Recognizing those who promote the right thing to do.
Doing it.
Always improving at both knowing and doing.

This post was first published in 2012.

Proverbs: Solomon’s Intentions and Oversight

August 30, 2024 By Peter Krol

As we continue our overview of the book of Proverbs, we ought to take note of Solomon’s intentions for this book, along with his failure to heed his own advice.

Solomon’s Intentions

Solomon has an agenda for each of the types of people he addresses.

To the simple, he offers a gift: prudence, knowledge and discretion (Prov 1:4). You can’t stay at the crossroads forever. Not to make a decision is to make the wrong decision. Turn to the Lord (trust in his Messiah, Jesus); start moving toward him and becoming like him. Then you’ll live up to your created potential, and you’ll obtain your redeemed glory.

To the foolish, he offers a challenge: fear the Lord and begin to have knowledge (Prov 1:7). Be a fool no longer. Give up what you cannot keep (your own self-satisfied condition and individualistic righteousness) to gain what you cannot lose (entrance into the eternal kingdom, fullness of life, most delightful joy). It will cost you everything and be the most difficult thing you ever do, but it’s the only way to true freedom and lasting insight. Jesus died a fool’s death so fools could know the wise life by knowing him.

To the wise, he offers both encouragement and caution: you’re running on the right path, but don’t slow down (Prov 1:5)! You’re never finished. You haven’t arrived yet. Wisdom is not something you are; it is something you are doing. We can never be wise; we can only become wise. It’s a journey, not a destination. The wise person grows closer and closer to the Lord Jesus until the last day.

Solomon himself needed to hear this last point over and over again, but he forgot.

Solomon’s Oversight

Have you ever wondered how the wisest person who ever lived could end up such a wretched fool? Solomon married 1000 women and turned away from the Lord to worship their gods (1 Kings 11:3-4). If he was so wise, how could he do such a foolish thing? After the Lord gave him such wisdom, how is it possible that he could fail in the end?

These questions troubled me for years until I finally heard a good answer in a lecture by Bruce Waltke. Solomon himself forgot this most crucial principle of wisdom: It is a path, not a destination. “Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge” (Proverbs 19:27).^[1] You can’t ever let off the gas or set the cruise control. You must actively pursue wisdom every moment of every day. Don’t grow weary or lose heart.

But even more importantly, Solomon was not the primary one God had in mind when he made those promises of Sonship and Kingdom in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. Jesus was. Remember the opening line to Mark’s Gospel? “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Remember last year’s Christmas cantata? “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15, quoted in Handel’s Messiah).

This is Good News for us, because if for one moment our standing before God depended on our own wisdom, we would be dead. We wouldn’t last. But if instead, all we must do is trust in Jesus, and his wisdom and righteousness replace our failure and make us right before God, then we have hope! You see, what really makes someone wise is that he knows he’s got further to go in order to be wise. When measured against the wisdom of Jesus, he will always lack and therefore need more. So he turns to Jesus, rests on him, and hopes in him.

men in uniform riding horses on competition — Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.com

We’ve bet the house on this one horse, and if Jesus loses the race, we lose everything.

Such reckless abandon is mandatory for any who want to be wise. Is there any hint of such abandon on your pursuit of wisdom?

^[1]See also Waltke, The Book of Proverbs Chapters 1-15, p.36. (Affiliate link)

This post was first published in 2012.

Proverbs: Three Kinds of People

August 23, 2024 By Peter Krol

We looked at the broad audience of Proverbs last week, but today let’s examine more specifically what types of people Solomon expects to be present in the community.

Various authors in Scripture view people through different frameworks. The author of Hebrews sees people as either immature or mature. From one angle, the apostle Paul divides people into Jew or Gentile; from another he considers them to be justified or condemned. Jesus often distinguishes people as having faith or not, being for him or against him, sheep or goats or wolves.

These differing frameworks are not mutually exclusive; they merely represent different perspectives or intentions on the part of the particular author.

In Proverbs, Solomon organizes people into three main categories: the wise, the foolish, and the simple. These categories are not dependent on age, class, race, gender, or socio-economic status. Rather, they are determined by one’s direction in reference to the Lord.

woman in blue denim jeans standing beside brown wooden counter — Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

1. Those who are moving toward the Lord are called wise. These are not perfect or intelligent people, but rather people who will gain understanding and change their lives based on what they hear in Scripture (Prov 1:5).

2. Those who are moving away from the Lord are called foolish. These are not ignorant or uneducated people, but rather people who don’t want to change anymore. They think they’re doing just fine on their own and don’t need any more help, especially not from the Lord (Prov 1:7).

3. Those who are not moving at all with respect to the Lord, on account of age, inexperience, or incapacity of some sort are called simple. These are not unreligious or immoral people (at least not yet), but rather children or child-like people who are only starting out on the path of life and thus are about to decide whether to move toward the Lord or away from him (Prov 1:4).

The crossroads are before you; which fork will you take? We must understand, however, that we cannot remain simple forever. It’s okay for a baby to smear spaghetti in her hair, but by the time she turns 30, more will generally be expected of her. Or, more elegantly, “one does not stay still: a man who is emptyheaded will end up wrongheaded.”^[1]

^[1]Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction & Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1964), p.13. (Affiliate link)

This post was first published in 2012.