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PROVERBS AND GODLY WISDOM
Lesson Nine
The Contrast: Godly Wisdom and Evil
Text: Proverbs 4:10-19
We are familiar with the fact that life might be viewed as a series of choices. Some choices are significant (for example: is this act moral or immoral?), and some choices are insignificant (for example: should I have strawberry or cherry flavoring?) For those who are serious about following God’s ways, one of the significant choices involves choosing righteousness and rejecting evil.
That is not as simple a choice as it would initially appear. (a) It involves the level of one’s commitment to be righteous. (b) It involves defining what is righteous. (c) It involves defining what is evil. (d) It involves continually contrasting righteousness and evil. Though that is not all involved, it quickly becomes obvious that distinguishing righteousness from evil AND committing to righteousness involves a lot of effort!
Why would a person bother to go to all that effort? If the person made all that effort, how would he/she know, “I am correct! I have made and do make the proper choices!”
The Proverb’s answer is to be seen in the results of righteous choices and the results of wicked choices. The consequences produced by both produce a contrast. The contrast shows the importance of choosing righteousness over wickedness. (You are asked to do a difficult thing: Do not impose a Christian perspective on Proverbs’ answer. Proverbs was written in the period of Israel in the Old Testament. Proverbs’ concern was not focused on the afterlife existence, heaven, hell, and the judgment. It addresses how best to live “now” in this existence.)
Godly wisdom provided these benefits:
1. It increases the years of one’s life. (Verse 10)
2. It makes one upright. (Verse 11)
3. It prevents stumbling even if one runs. (Verse 12)
4. It protects life. (Verse 13)
The path (ways, direction) of the wicked curses a person in the following ways:
1. The direction of the wicked threatens life. (Verse 15)
2. The wicked are enslaved to a wicked lifestyle—they cannot even sleep unless they do a wicked act. (Verse 16)
3. The wicked are nourished by wickedness and violence—that is the way they measure usefulness and significance. (Verse 17)
4. The obvious: To the wicked, life is significant ONLY if someone else suffers.
The contrast:
1. The path of the righteous is like the dawn offering the promise of increasing light.
2. The path of the wicked is like darkness that hides the obstacles that threaten misery and destruction.
First, one of the primary examples of the contrast between the godly life and the wicked life is light and darkness. Righteous living is light, and wicked living is darkness. In the worlds of the Old Testament and the world of the New Testament, the light/darkness contrast was an excellent, striking example. The relevance of the example was obvious.
Most of us have lived in a world of light so long that we have forgotten the striking contrast between light and darkness. Most of our nights are bathed in light. One can work at night. A store can stay open all night. Much of our entertainment is at night. We can travel at night. If we seek safety at night, we go to a well-lighted place. Light is such a part of our darkness that a person often has to search for true darkness!
In the worlds of the Bible, life commonly stopped with darkness because people could not see in the darkness. Dangers were magnified!
Second, in righteousness (as in the dawn) there is hope, whereas in wickedness there is the hopelessness of the increasing inability to see (as in the growing darkness). In righteousness, just as in the dawn, there is the increasing promise of more light which means the improving ability to see (which meant the ability to do more and more without restriction).
The contrast between light and darkness made an excellent example for the contrast between righteous living and wicked living. May your life be an excellent example of the benefits and the hope found in righteous living!
For Thought and Discussion
1. We are familiar with what fact?
2. Give four reasons for this not being a simple choice.
3. What is the “why” question that should be asked?
4. Proverbs’ answer produces what?
5. What difficult thing are you asked to do?
6. What benefits does godly wisdom provide?
7. How does the path of the wicked curse people?
8. What is the basic contrast?
9. Discuss the primary example of contrast produced by light and darkness.
10. Discuss why the dawn was a good symbol of hope.
Link to Teacher's Guide Lesson 9
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David Chadwell & West-Ark Church of Christ