Understanding what Proverbs is about
The chief theme of God's Word is the coming of Messiah. Since before the beginning of the world, God has always intended to send an anointed one, a Saviour, to the world to save his people. It was always his intention that the Second Person of the Trinity should take to himself a human body and soul to live and to die as Messiah on earth.
In order for a person to live out his life as a human being here on earth certain things are necessary. You have to have somewhere to live, for example - a land. So what we call the Promised Land was prepared for the coming of Messiah. It was always intended that he should be born in Bethlehem, live in Nazareth, base his ministry in Capernaum, die in Jerusalem.
Further, you have to have a people - so the choosing of Abraham and the whole story of how the Jewish nation was formed.
A language was necessary - Hebrew it was, but also, following exile, for every day use Aramaic, and, thanks to Alexander the Great, with plenty of Greek thrown in too.
To be a nation you need laws and they are all set out for us in the opening books of the Old Testament.
Other things are necessary too to make a nation. Nations have a history; they have heroes and traditions; they have their songs and their sayings too. The eighteenth century Scots patriot and politician Andrew Fletcher famously said that "if a man were permitted to make all the ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a nation". Think of an Englishman singing Jerusalem, a Welshman singing Calon Lan and you will see what he means. The impact of the Psalms on the Jews and on Messiah himself ought not to be underestimated.
In a similar way, a nation's sayings shape it and are very much part of the fabric of that nation. Hear a Welshman say Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon (a nation without a language is a nation without a heart) or a Scotsman Whit’s fur ye’ll no go past ye (what's meant to happen to you, will happen to you) or an Englishman saying Two wrongs don't make a right or the early bird catches the worm and you will see it.
Just as we have a collection of Hebrew songs in the Bible, so we also have a collection of Hebrew Proverbs. Just as the core of the Psalms was written and collected by King David so the core of the Book of Proverbs was written and collected by his son King Solomon.
It is fair to say that if it is true that we need to take note of the Psalms of David in order to understand Messiah then we also need to take note of the Proverbs of Solomon in order to understand Messiah. As it has been put, if the Psalms give us Jesus singing the Law, the Proverbs give us him meditating on it.
The New Testament
That statement could be considered to be wide of the mark as there is no evidence of direct quotations from Proverbs in the Gospels. However, on closer examination we see parallels.
For example, in Luke 14:7-11 Jesus tells his hearers to take the lowest place at weddings, then they will be invited to a higher place. This is straight from Proverbs 25:6, 7 Do not exalt yourself in the king's presence, and do not claim a place among his great men; it is better for him to say to you, "Come up here," than for him to humiliate you before his nobles.
Or take the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Firstly, the seek and you will find idea (Matthew 7:7, 8) which is very much like Proverbs 8:17 where wisdom says I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. Secondly, the story of the wise man and the foolish man grows out of Proverbs such as Proverbs 14:1 The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.
Beyond this is the very way that Jesus very often summed up his teaching in a pithy way, very similar to that found in Proverbs
Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 7:20 ... by their fruit you will recognise them.
Matthew 22:21 Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's
Mark 2:17 It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
Mark 10:43,44 ... whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
John 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me.
Christ the subject
More than that, Proverbs itself is all about Christ. This may not be immediately clear to a casual reader but if it is borne in mind that the book is a presentation of true wisdom and that apart from anything else Christ is wisdom then it is evident that ultimately the book is about the true wisdom found in Christ.
In Proverbs we see Christ especially as the one greater than Solomon who has become for believers, to quote 1 Corinthians 1:30, wisdom from God. Christ, and especially his death on the cross, seem foolish to the world. But the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.
As stated, it is clear that Jesus knew this book well and that often his sayings, parables and other teachings parallel and reflect things found there. To truly understand Jesus, we must get to grips with Proverbs.
Proverbs is incontrovertibly about wisdom, about how to be wise. It is important to remember that, ultimately, wisdom is not something abstract but something personal. In his commentary David Atkinson argues that the personification at the end of Chapter 1 is not a mere literary device but a reflection of the essential nature of biblical wisdom as wisdom is for living by. It cannot be known until it is lived out.
Each prophet and apostle of God, before Christ and after, has been sent in the wisdom of God, and brings God’s wisdom to this world. And so in Matthew 23:34 and Luke 11:49 we read
God in his wisdom (note) said … Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers … some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.
At the apex of all this is the coming from heaven of the true Wisdom of God (see 1 Corinthians 1:24).
In Luke 7:35 and Matthew 11:19 Jesus closely identifies himself and his ministry with God’s wisdom. He says that wisdom is proved right by all her children. He is the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).
What about the fact that in Proverbs wisdom is presented as being female? This is not a problem. Jesus spoke of himself as being like a mother hen longing to gather her chicks. He is both the Bridegroom and, in this book, a tender Bride to be won.
To be truly wise we must listen to Christ. We must receive him. To find Christ, or to be found by him, is to find wisdom.
We know that every part of the Bible points us to Christ in one way or another. In Proverbs Christ speaks as wisdom. The book also has a great deal to say about righteousness. When we remember that Christ is the Righteous one and that true righteousness comes only through him, we can again see how a proper exposition of Proverbs must point people to Jesus Christ.
I have preached through the Book of Proverbs more than once. In seeking to preach through Proverbs I found myself saying things like this
What do we all need? Wisdom from God. We need wisdom to know how to live and how to make sense of life. True wisdom gives us definite truths to live by and teaches us to be obedient. This is fleshed out most clearly in the New Testament. Put quite simply, the purpose of life is to live for the glory of the God who made us. No-one does that by nature and so we deserve the judgement of hell.
However, in his mercy God has provided a way out, a way of wisdom (the Way) in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He himself has provided a way back to God by means of his perfect life and his atoning death. This is the teaching, the words, the understanding or sound learning that we need. It is the obedience of faith to the command to trust in Christ, God’s wisdom, that we need.
Some would fail to see that Christ is the subject of Proverbs Chapter 8 but the best commentators are clear that he is. For those with eyes to see he can also be found very clearly in Proverbs 31.
This article first appeared in the Banner of Truth Magazine
