Proverbs 3

Proverbs 3

Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart

1 My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, 2 for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 8 It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

11 My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Blessed Is the One Who Finds Wisdom

13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, 14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. 15 She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. 16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. 17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.

19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; 20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.

21 My son, do not lose sight of these— keep sound wisdom and discretion, 22 and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. 23 Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. 24 If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. 25 Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes, 26 for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. 27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.

28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you. 29 Do not plan evil against your neighbor, who dwells trustingly beside you. 30 Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm. 31 Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways, 32 for the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence. 33 The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. 34 Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor. 35 The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.

Devotional

Introduction

There is probably someone in your life who truly cares for your wellbeing. I think Solomon, in this chapter, is the epitome of a caring father. You can almost imagine him carrying a newborn baby in his arms, or anointing his son with oil as he speaks. The passage appears a kind of blessing, maybe even a lullaby. But he is not passive in his words, in fact, he commands his son to do this, and do that. I found this passage had some great commands in it, with some surprising interjections.

Study

1) A list of commands (vs.1-12)

The passage has a pretty normal list of commands at the start - and each command seems to have its own reward. Let me list them quickly...

1. Don't forget the teaching and keep the commandments (vs.1)...and you will have prosperity (vs 2)

2. Don't let steadfast love forsake you & keep hold of the commands (vs.3)... and you will find favour and success in God's eyes (vs.4)

3. Trust in and acknowledge the Lord and do not trust yourself (vs.5-6)...and he will make straight your path.

4. Don't be a fool, fear God, and turn away from sin (vs.7)...and you will find refreshment for your whole body (vs.8)

5. Honour God (vs.9)...and you will be prosperous (vs.10)

6. Don't hate God's discipline (vs.11)...and you will have proof that God loves you (vs.12)

I think its pretty clear what all these things mean. If you live for the Lord, you will reap reward. And its not the reward we think we deserve, the physical things. No, it is much greater. I think, in light of what the book of Proverbs has been talking about, we will reap more wisdom. Through God's discipline, we will become more wise. If we honour God, we might imitate Christ and will become more wise. If we are not foolish in sin, we are wise in our righteousness (or Christ's righteousness to be exact). Notice a pattern. In our trust of the Lord and acknowledgement of him we become more like the image of his son.

And I want to remind you that this does not come because we do the right things, but because the Holy Spirit it working in us to transform us to the image of Jesus Christ. And we are still fools. We still live in accordance with our sinful nature. But by the grace of God, Jesus Christ bore all our sin. He was the wisdom of God, that allowed us to imitate our creator.

2) The weird interjection (vs.19-20)

Now, to me, this was a weird interjection, because we suddenly moved from talking about wisdom (which we will get to in a moment) to talking about God creating the world to then continuing on into more commands for Solomon's son. But in light of what I said above, I think its a good point to focus on: the imitation of our creator.

In forming the world in wisdom or "by wisdom found[ing] the earth" (vs.19) God establishes this wise order in his very creation. Which means that creation from the very beginning was wise. I think this creates a very interesting discussion for how the beginning was. If creation had been created wise, then why fall into sin? But we decided we wanted to become like God, even though we were in the very state that was good.

I will not continue on this side note for too long. But notice how us returning to our wise state, imitates our creator and the natural order God had established in creation right from the very beginning. Isn't that cool?

3) The poem about wisdom (vs.13-18)

Here's a little lullaby and song for you! This little section is actually a poem about wisdom that begins and ends with the word "blessed". And everything good springs from wisdom. She (personified) is "better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold" (vs.14), "more precious than jewels" (vs.15). She brings "long life" (vs.16), riches and honour (vs.16), pleasantness (vs.17), peace (vs.17), "life" (vs.18) and blessing (vs.13&18). Wisdom is something worth having. And I think we established that when we talked about wisdom in our last study.

And by this very same life-giving, blessing wisdom, God created the world, which we talked about in point 2. How awesome!

4) Some more commands (vs.21-31)

• The first command(vs.21-24): Keep sound wisdom (vs.21)...and you will sleep peacefully and not stumble (vs.23-24). Interestingly, in Leviticus 26:6 God says to the people "I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid". This was a part of God's covenant to the Israelites, somewhat conditional to their obedience to him. Whilst proverbs is a bunch of generalisations rather than certainties, I think it is important to note that God does act in this way. Also note that this is another command that has a blessing. But look at the next commands...

• The next few commands (vs.25-31): It's a list of negative imperatives. "Do not be afraid" (vs.25), "do not withhold good" (vs.27), "do not say to your neighbour..."(vs.28), "do not plan evil..." (vs.29), "do not contend..." (vs.30), "do not envy" (vs.31). Do you see that pretty much all tell us to love our fellow man, all of them command us in how we relate to people. And for pretty much all of them, there is a curse rather than a blessing: "for the devious person in an abomination to the Lord" (vs.32). The way in which we act towards others is very important to God, much like how we relate to him.

Conclusion

As I said before, in this passage there seems to be a random collage of interjections, and to sum up this passage is very difficult. I do not wish to make meaning of the way Solomon has pieced his argument together. It's a little more conversational, a bit more poetic and even practical in many aspects. But one thing really stands out to me:

There is a standard to which we should live, that we fail to live, but that God still calls us to live.

God created this world in wisdom. We chose not to live according to that wisdom. He is calling us to accept this wisdom - which came in the form of his son - Jesus Christ. If we accept, we will be continually transformed into the image of this wisdom, and become more and more wise every day.

You might be sick of the word wisdom, and you might get sick of the word wisdom after 28 more days of this. But if you are a believer, you will never get sick of becoming more and more wise.

Many of the proverbs are just generalisations: wise sayings that are most likely true. But as this chapter points out in verse 11-12, sometimes God's discipline will be upon those whom he loves. Sometimes, even when we do that right thing, God will take us through a test because he loves us and that test is what is best for us. Wisdom is not always easily gained. Sometimes, really hard things must happen to become sanctified and made more wise.

But this is not to discourage you from joining the side of the wise. At the end of this passage, in verses 33-35, Solomon makes it very clear:

• Wicked: cursed (vs.33), scorned (vs.34), disgraced (vs.35)

• Righteous: blessed (vs.33), favoured (vs.34), honoured (vs.35)

The wicked will always face punishment. Their way is never good. The righteous might have a terrible life on this earth. But in wisdom, they trust God with their whole heart, and lean on him. And in the end, we have a hope waiting for us...

Thanks for joining #31daysofproverbs (or #31daysinproverbs, which I have been interchangeably calling it. I hope the Lord's words in the proverb and my words on the chapter have been helpful and of some encouragement!