Student's Guide Lesson Two

PROVERBS AND GODLY WISDOM

Lesson Two

“There Must Be a Starting Point”

Text: Proverbs 1:7

 

Everyone faces the same problem.  The answers will be different, but the problem is the same.  The person from a very primitive society faces the problem.  The person from an advanced society faces the problem.  If the person is part of the poverty sector, a part of the business sector, a part of the academic sector, a part of any age group, or a part of any economic group, the person faces the problem.  What is this problem?  It is the necessary challenge of determining the line that separates what is wise behavior from what is foolish behavior.

 

To be certain, that decision involves many things: survival, economics, coping with others, defining advancement, defining reality, goals, personal ambitions, etc.  It demands the person ask and answer some challenging questions such as: “What is the objective of physical existence?” or, “Is there an existence after death?”

 

Commonly, the answers one gives to such challenging questions determine the basis for deciding what is wise and what is foolish.  There are two difficulties with such challenging questions.  (1) Few, very few, people answer those questions “once and for all time.”  (2) The answers given with conviction and determination are still subject to being changed.

 

Why do the answers to such challenging questions have to be given more than once?  Why are those answers subject to change?  The experience of physical existence changes, and each person must cope with the changes.  Illustrations: (1) When I was 21 and married for less than one year, I bought our first insurance policy.  The amount was the incredible sum of $10,000 which then would provide for Joyce for much of her life.  Today, that amount would not take care of a person for a year—that is less than $1,000 a month now if the entire amount was spent in one year!   (2) Life is radically different in being married with no children, being married with three children at home, and being married for almost 50 years when all our children are over 40 years old.  (3) Life in the 20s and life in the 60s differs in numerous basic ways.

 

Change often attacks and alters our answers to the basic questions concerning physical existence.  If you doubt it, consider that one of the rapidly-escalating age groups in which AIDS is relentlessly advancing in America is this--older people above retirement age who are widows and widowers, who live promiscuous lives.  If you asked these men and women 30 years ago to predict seriously when they would be promiscuous, how many of them do you think would have predicted they EVER would be promiscuous in ANY circumstance?

 

Regardless of age or economic circumstance, the values of the person who believes in and trusts God will differ from the values of the person who does not believe in nor trust the concept of God.  The nature of that belief and the depth of that trust commonly determine the basis of the answers to the challenging questions.

 

Proverbs was delivered to the Israelite people as a part of their scripture.  It is composed of insights into the behavior of a godly person. It directs readers and listeners into an understanding of wise and foolish behavior for those who place their trusting faith in God.  Those facts suggest two things: (1) The readers/hearers believed in God.  At least some who read or heard did not understand the connection between a person’s behavior and his/her faith in God.  (2) That faith in God does not automatically produce wisdom and wise behavior.  In order for one generation to pass to another generation an understanding of wise behavior, there must be learning. Just because a person has faith in God does not mean the person automatically understands what is wise and foolish.

 

Proverbs 1:7 said knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord.  This fear is not the fear of terror, nor is it the conviction that the Lord is a teddy bear who creates a buddy-buddy relationship with all who place their faith in Him.  It is a profound reverence that honestly sees self “for whom I am” and honestly sees God “for Whom He is.” 

 

If you wish to see the kind of fear the writer speaks about, consider Isaiah 6:1-8.  The sight of the Lord filled Isaiah with a sense of unworthiness prior to his awareness of forgiveness.  Notice the awareness of forgiveness produced the desire to serve.  Note two things:  (1) The fear was not a terror that wanted to get as far away from God as possible. (2) The reverence expressed itself by a desire to serve.

 

Fools do not want to acquire wisdom; they do not wish to be taught.  Why?  Acquiring wisdom and being taught would require changes in personal behavior, and they do not wish to change in any way.

 

The beginning (ground zero) of knowledge is holding an honest, profound reverence that changes though learning and results in service.  People governed by foolishness want nothing to do with such knowledge.

 

For Thought and Discussion

 

1. Everyone faces what?  What is the problem?

 

2. Some challenging questions to be asked and answered are what?  They determine what?

 

3 What are two difficulties with such questions?

 

4. Change often attacks and alters what?  Why?

 

5. The values of a believer who trusts God will differ from what?

 

6. Proverbs directs readers/listeners into what understanding?  What two facts does that understanding suggest?

 

7. Discuss the “fear” in Proverbs 1:7.  Include Isaiah 6:1-8 in your discussion.

 

8. Why do fools not wish to acquire understanding or be taught?

 

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David Chadwell & West-Ark Church of Christ


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