Week 7

11/1/09

The Call of Wisdom

Proverbs 1:20-33

Review:

  1. Proverbs 1:1-7 – “the Fear of the LORD’ is the beginning of wisdom.
  2. Proverbs 1:8-19 – Learning to listen to wisdom by discerning between the many different voices we hear every day.
  3. Proverbs 1:8 – The role of parents, especially fathers, in passing on the fear of the LORD and wisdom to their children (Eph. 6:1-4).  Fathers who fear the LORD are a blessing to their children.
  • The first principle of teaching the fear of the LORD to our children is example. Parenting is about leadership, and example is the first principle of biblical leadership. When parents practice what they teach, God gives them moral authority in their children’s eyes. All teaching in the Bible starts with example.[1] (Acts 1:1) God, our heavenly Father, is the greatest example for the parent. The anti-example is “hypocrisy”.
  • Parents, who fear the LORD, parent with humility. They don’t trust in their own understanding, but continually seek wisdom from God. They realize that they are tempted by the same things their children are, so they discipline with compassion and empathy.
  • Improving your child’s baptism—WLC Q.167. “By “improving” our baptism, the catechism means using it to a good purpose in our daily life; thus it means experiencing its meaning, and working out its implications, in actual life. . . This in turn involves experiencing the reality of, and living out the implications of effectual calling, justification, adoption, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them. That is, improving our baptism means walking steadily in the highway of God’s salvation, according to God’s Word. ”[2] (Rom. 6:1ff; Col. 2:11-12)

“Wisdom Cries Aloud in the Street” – Proverbs 1:20-33[3]

  1. The Passion of Wisdom – Acquiring wisdom is a matter of life and death.  Would you say that the message of Proverbs 1 is mainly negative? Why or why not?
  2. “Wisdom teaches, corrects, and seeks to bring her listeners in relationship with God. In this personification, wisdom as a gift to humanity and wisdom as a characteristic of Yahweh are brought together in poetic language.”
  3. The personification of Wisdom is a teaching device used to describe the Lord’s attribute of wisdom. While this figure speaks authoritatively and calls attention to herself, Wisdom also directs her listeners to “fear the LORD” (Prov.1:29). . . Like the wisdom teacher and the prophet, the persona of wisdom is a means by which the thoughts and desires of Yahweh are communicated to a wayward humanity.”
  4. This passage continues the father’s teaching by contrasting wisdom and folly—as personified by the gang (Prov. 1:8-19).

Outline of Proverbs 1:20-33

  1. Wisdom’s Call to All (1:20-23) – “The first of Wisdom’s addresses call out to anyone who will hear. Her question “How long?” pleads and threatens judgment at the same time.
  2. Wisdom’s Call Rejected (1:24-27) – “Wisdom says she has called and called, just as she is doing now, but she has been speaking to deaf ears. The results of this rejection, introduced in 1:26, are “disaster” and “calamity”, and this brings laughter to Wisdom.”
  3. Wisdom’s Refusal to Answer a Call (1:28-33) – “Their rejection of wisdom is now revealed for what it really is, a rejection of the LORD. Wisdom stresses that this rejection has not been done out of ignorance but out of choice. . . The change to the third person “they” in 1:28 signals that Wisdom’s words of rejection are final. . . The final call also promises safety to those who will listen; it offers a confirmation to those who have already chosen to walk along Wisdom’s path.”

Three important applications of Proverbs 1:20-33

  1. The Truth about Human Nature – We are all prone to wander and to idolatry.
  2. God’s Love and Care for Wayward Humans – Wisdom’s warnings are a communication of God’s love. God tells us about the consequences of folly.
  3. Limitation in the Time to Respond. – Today is the day of salvation.

[1] Farley, William P., Gospel Powered Parenting: How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting, p. 107.

[2] Vos, Johannes, The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary, pp. 480 – 482.

[3] The following quotes in italics are taken from Koptak, Paul E., Proverbs: The NIV Application Commentary, pp. 83-94.