Proverbial Living
Proverbs 1:20-33
by Rev. Randy Quinn

Life is filled with choices.

Ø      The alarm clock goes off in the morning and we get to choose whether or not to get up.

Ø      We wake up and choose what clothes to wear.

Ø      We choose what to eat and when to eat.

Ø      We all chose to be in worship today.  (And there are people who chose to worship elsewhere as well as people who chose not to be in worship today.)

Ø      We may not be aware of the choice, but we choose every day whether or not we will be on time for work or for school or for appointments we may have made.

Ø      We even get to choose if we will face the day with a sense of joy and excitement or fear and dread.

Life is filled with choices.

Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that other people have made choices for us, but the truth is we still have lots of choosing to do.

The book of Proverbs is often attributed to Solomon, one of the wisest people who ever lived (1 Sam. 3:12).  The book itself may have been the curriculum outline for educating the young men of Israel; a curriculum based on the Wisdom of Solomon – although it’s clear that it’s a collection of sayings from more than one source.  The first several chapters of the book outline the reasons this course of study is so important to take.  It develops a case for building good study habits and encourages attentiveness.

Some have suggested that a good summary of the entire book comes from the introduction, just a few verses before our text for today:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

 fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Pr. 1:7).

Implied in that is the sense that we can choose whether or not to fear God – fear in the sense of having awe and reverence for God as well as fear in the sense of avoiding the wrath of God when we sin or violate the covenant.

We have choices to make, including how we will respond to God (Pr. 1:29).  The first nine chapters of Proverbs use poetry to outline some of the reasons this wisdom is worth seeking and attaining.

Then beginning in Chapter 10, the book takes a dramatic turn as it begins to convey lessons that people have learned over the course of time.

We’ll be reading some of those next week, so we’ll get a chance to look at that in a little more depth, but for now, let me give you some samples of that kind of wisdom:

“A slack hand causes poverty,

 but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” (Pr. 10:4)

“Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is

 than a fatted ox and hatred with it.”  (Pr. 15:17)

“Gray hair is a crown of glory;

 it is gained in a righteous life.”  (Pr. 16:31)

“Do not answer fools according to their folly,

 or you will be a fool yourself.” (Pr. 26:4)

There are over 20 chapters of pithy little sayings much like the ones we still use in conversation today, although many of them are more recognizable as “bumper sticker” quotes; but in fact some of the aphorisms of today have their roots in the Biblical proverbs:

“The early bird gets the worm” (See Pr. 20:13; ant. 6:9).

“Every oak was once an acorn” (See Pr. 13:11).

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool

 – than to open your mouth and remove all doubt” (See Pr. 17:28).

In this poetic introduction to the Proverbs, we hear Wisdom portrayed as a person, a woman, “Lady Wisdom” if you will, who invites us to learn how to be wise.  She warns us if we don’t spend time learning how to make choices when crunch times come – and come they will – we will be ill prepared to make them wisely.

You see, life is full of choices.

How to make wise choices is what Lady Wisdom wants to help us learn to do.  But we can’t wait until we need to make a choice to learn wisdom (Pr. 1:28).  We must cultivate it over time.

This week a small group of people helped me go through some things that were in the church office.  One of the things we found was this.  Do you know what it is?

It’s the owner’s manual for the church’s answering machine.

Like many people who have used similar machines, I haven’t read the book.  Instead I played with the buttons until I figured out how to make it do what I wanted it to do.  But this book says it can do things I never thought possible.

I can read the book and know that.

Or I can read the book and ignore that.

I can also ignore the book.

I have choices to make.  But if I read the book and change how I live, the machine may be able to do more for me.  I can learn how to use the machine more effectively or I can continue using it the way I’ve always used it before.

One example, in particular, is how to retrieve phone calls while I’m out of town.  I suspected that might be possible.  By looking at the owner’s manual, I now know it is possible to do that.  The question remains, will I?

Lady Wisdom, to carry the analogy a little bit further, suggests that if I’m ever in a place where I need to retrieve my messages and I haven’t spent the time learning how, it will be impossible for me to do so.  The machine may have the capability, but I won’t have the knowledge necessary to use it that way.

Lady Wisdom, in her invitation to learn warns us of the consequences of ignoring what she has to offer.  Life is full of choices.  And we can make foolish choices or wise choices.

She invites us to invest ourselves in learning how to make them wisely.  We do that by reading and studying – not only the book of Proverbs but also the entire Bible.  It is to be read for information as well as transformation.  It is to help us make choices, by giving us guidance and direction, by helping us learn right from wrong, and by showing us what God intends for us as individuals as well as a community of faith.

Proverbial living is learning to make choices with wisdom, for as I said, life is filled with choices.

Lady Wisdom herself, invites us is to spend time with these sayings and to learn how to apply them to our lives so we will live wisely.  We don’t need to be fools, she says; we can seek God’s wisdom and become as wise as Solomon.

But we can only become wise if we heed the warning that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools [are the ones who] despise wisdom and instruction” (Pr. 1:7).

God’s wisdom is available to you and to me.  Proverbial living is possible because of the grace of God.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.