07/29/2022 – Day 152 – Proverbs 1 / 1 of 2/ Introduction to this book from Halley’s Bible Handbook.
” Proverbs / Wise Sayings Mostly by Solomon About the Practical Affairs of Life Specially Emphasizing Righteousness and Fear of God.”
This Book
Like Psalms and Pentateuch, this Book is divided, according to its Titles, into Five Parts: Proverbs of Solomon (1-9); Proverbs of Solomon (10 – 24); Proverbs of Solomon, which men of Hezekiah copied (25-29); Words of Agur (30); Words of Lemuel (31).
Thus, most of the Proverbs are ascribed to Solomon. Solomon seems to have borne about the same relation to Proverbs that David did to Psalms. Each was the Principal Writer. Psalms a Book of Devotion. Proverbs a Book of Pracical Ethics.
Solomon
As a young man, he had a sonsuming passion for Knowledge and Wisdom (1 Kings 3: 9 – 12). He became the literary prodicy of world of his day. His intellectual attainments were the wonder of the age. Kings came from the ends of the earth to hear him. He lectured on Botany and Zoology. He was a Sientist, A Political Ruler, a Business Man with Vast Enterprises, a Poet, MOralist and Preacher. (See on I KIngs 4 and 9.)
A Proverb
Is a Short, Pithy, Axiomatic Saying, the life of which is Antithesis or Comparision. They are wholly Unconnected, Designed primarily for the Young: a form of Teaching: repetition of Practical Thoughts in form that would stick in mind.
Technique of Treatment
This Book aims to inculcate Virtues that are insisted upon throughout the Bible. Over and over and over, in all the Bible, in multiform ways, and by diverse methods, God has supplied to man a great abundance of Instruction, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little , as to How He Wants Men to Live, so that there be no excuse for missing the mark. The Teachings of this Book of Proverbs are not expressed in a “Thus Saith the Lord,” as in the Law of Moses, where the Same Things are taught as a direct Command of God; but rather are given as coming out of the Experience of a man who tried out and tested just about everything that man can engage in. Moses had said, These things are the commandments of God. Solomon here says, The things which God has Commanded are proved by Experience to be Best for men, and the Essence of Human Wisdom is in the Keeping of God’s Commandments.
God, in the long record of His Revelation of Himself and His Will to Man, it seems, resorted to every possible method, not only by Commandment, and by Precept, but by Example, also to convince men that God’s Commandments are worth living by.
Solomon’s fame was a sounding board that carried his voice to the ends of the earth, and made him an Example to All the World of the Wisdom of God’s Ideas.
This book of Proverbs has been called one of the “Best Guide Books to Success that a young man can follow.” Our fridays for the next twenty Thursdays will be taken up reading, reflecting and praying over these proverbs.
Soli Deo Gloria!