Page 93 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

The setting of Proverbs is the family, a father is instructing his son. “Listen, my son, to your father’s
instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching (1:8).” Again and again, the father calls for his
son’s attention to new instruction with the words “my son” (1:10; 2:1; 3:1, etc.). In fact, this wisdom
comes from more than one generation. The father says, “For I too was a son to my father, still tender,
and cherished by my mother. Then he taught me, and he said to me (4:3, 4).” In this way, wisdom is not
the property of the highly educated or the rich. Wisdom is available to everyone, passed down from
parent to child through the ages. “Instruction” or “discipline” can be gained formally from Proverbs (1:2)
or more informally from parents (4:1).

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Remarkably, the Hebrew words for “understand” and “between” are related. Solomon’s original
request for wisdom involved the ability “to distinguish between” and used both Hebrew words (1 Kings
3:9). Wisdom demands a choice. Learning wisdom involves the practice of choice in a variety of
situations. Proverbs uses the word for “understand” some 47x and is translated into English by a variety
of words: understanding, insight, discerning, saw, gain prudence, give thought, learn, note well,
cleverness, etc.

What Solomon wanted to distinguish was the difference between right and wrong or good and evil.
Choice out of personal preference, in the sense of “I like chocolate ice cream”, was not Solomon’s
purpose. From the beginning of human history, the issue of life has been the choice between good and
evil (Gen. 2:17). This is why “doing what is right and just and fair”
should be the outcome of gaining wisdom (Prov. 1:3). “Then you
will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path
(2:9).” “Thus, you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to
the paths of the righteous (2:21).” The issue is quite personal with
Yahweh. He is intimately involved. “The LORD’s curse is on the
house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.
(3:33).”

The book of Proverbs read carefully confronts humans in any time of history and at any place in culture.
From the days of Adam and Eve, we have not liked God’s structure of life. We have wanted to be free to
pick and choose our own, to exercise our God-given ability to “understand between” two things
according to our own values and personal preferences. Each generation must confront this rebellious
tendency, although the expression of rebellion differs from age to age and from place to place.

Much of the developed world has been overtaken by postmodernism, the assumption that truth cannot
be known, and that truth is what your circle of friends makes it to be. No universal standards exist or can
be discovered. In a humorous manner, the thinking can be characterized as nonsense.

“But Nature does not say that cats are more valuable than mice; Nature makes no
remark on the subject. She does not even say that the cat is enviable or the mouse
pitiable. We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular
philosophy to the effect that life is better than death. But if the mouse were a …

156 Gesenius, Hebrew and Enlgish Lexicon, 107.
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