Turning Your Ear

Proverbs 1:20-22,32-2:5 – Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?...For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Isaiah 55:3 – Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

Psalm 4:7 – Fill my heart with joy when their grain and new wine abound.

Application:

• ·         As a young man confronts life in its social context, two voices lure him, appeal for his allegiance and seek to shape his life: (1) the voice of wisdom and (2) the voice of folly.
• ·         “Store up…within you” just as the psalmist hid God’s word in his heart to avoid sin.
• ·         Christ’s resurrection was further proof of God’s faithfulness to David.
• ·         “Heart” is in Biblical language for the center of the human spirit, from which spring emotions, thoughts, motivations, courage and action—“everything you do flows from it”.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Fear The Lord

Proverbs 1:7,24-31 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction…But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you—when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. “Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

Hosea 5:6 – When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, they will not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.

Proverbs 31:31 – Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Application:

• ·         The Lord would be “found” by Israel only when she turned to Him with integrity of heart.
• ·         Fear of the Lord is a loving reverence for God that includes submission to his lordship and to the commands of His word.
• ·         To refuse wisdom’s “advice” is to suffer the consequences of one’s own foolish “schemes”.
• ·         Honor comes through “humility” and “the fear of the Lord”.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Refuse To Listen

Proverbs 1:22-27 – “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings. But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you—when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

Psalm 50:17 – You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.

Proverbs 18:4 – The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream.

John 1:1,4,7,12-13 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind…He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe…Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

1 Corinthians 1:22-24 – Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Colossians 1:15 – The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Application:

• ·         Those who “hate my instruction” formally participate in the holy ritual but reject God’s law as the rule for life outside the ritual.
• ·         A wise person’s words are refreshing and a source of life.
• ·         The Word was distinct from the Father. Jesus was God in the fullest sense.
• ·         Life is Christ’s gift, and He, in fact, is “the life”.
• ·         People were not to believe “in” John the Baptist but “through” him.
• ·         Membership in God’s family is by grace alone—the gift of God.
• ·         The crucified Christ is the power and the wisdom of God that saves.
• ·         Just as the firstborn son had certain privileges and rights in the Biblical world, so also Christ has certain rights in relation to all creation—priority, preeminence and sovereignty.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

City Gate

Proverbs 1:11-16,20-22 – If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; cast lots with us; we will all share the loot”—my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood…Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

Proverbs 8:23,30-31 – I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be…Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.

Application:

• ·         “City gate” was where the leaders of the city met to hold court and where the marketplace was located.
• ·         As a young man confronts life in its social context, two voices lure him, appeal for his allegiance and seek to shape his life: (1) the voice of wisdom and (2) the voice of folly.
• ·         The book of Proverbs teaches that wisdom brings the greatest riches people could ever gain.
• ·         Wisdom speaks neither out of heaven nor out of the earth, but out of the center the life of the city, where communal experience of the creation order is concentrated.
• ·         Wisdom was already there when God began to create the world.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Wisdom Calls Aloud

Proverbs 1:11-22 – If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; cast lots with us; we will all share the loot”—my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood. How useless to spread a net where every bird can see it! These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves! Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it. Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

Proverbs 8:23,30-31 – I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be…Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.

Application:

• ·         The author uses two major enticements that confront young men as examples of the way of folly: (1) to get rich by exploiting others and (2) to be drawn into pleasure by immoral women who fail to honor their marriage vows.
• ·         The book of Proverbs teaches that wisdom brings the greatest riches people could ever gain.
• ·         Wisdom was already there when God began to create the world.
• ·         Humans, made in the image of God, represented the climax of creation.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Valuable Things

Proverbs 1:11-16 – If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; cast lots with us; we will all share the loot”—my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood.

Job 28:18 – Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

Proverbs 2:18 – Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

Application:

• ·         The book of Proverbs teaches that wisdom brings the greatest riches people could ever gain.
• ·         The “wife of noble character”, who fears the Lord and is therefore wise is of value.
• ·         A life of immorality leads to the destruction and death of all who are involved.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Lie In Wait For...Blood

Proverbs 1:10-16 – My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them. If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; cast lots with us; we will all share the loot”—my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood.

Psalm 1:1-2 – Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Proverbs 2:12-18 – Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

Application:

• ·         “Walk in step with the wicked” means order one’s life according to the deliberations and advice of the wicked.
• ·         The goal of sinful men is personal enrichment by theft or oppression, even if they have to commit murder.
• ·         The book of Proverbs teaches that wisdom brings the greatest riches people could ever gain.
• ·         People love darkness instead of light.
• ·         Anyone other than one’s wife was to be considered off limits, like a foreigner who worshiped another god.
• ·         A life of immorality leads to the destruction and death of all who are involved.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV