This program of daily devotions is designed to take you through the Bible in three years. It is our desire to help you gain a better general understanding of God's Word.
Please understand that in a study this brief, we will be concerned with only the major emphases and context of the Scriptures.
Each day a devotion for one or two chapters is posted, beginning with chapter one of Genesis and going through chapter twenty-two of Revelation. You are free to print each page as it appears. If you miss a day, you may contact us and request that devotion. Please send your request, along with $.50 (p&handling) for each page to:
Bruce McGee,Pastor
205 Adams
Columbia, LA 71418
HERE
Bro. Bruce's commentaries for the books of
Genesis through 2Kings are
now available in hard copy for $7.50. Just
mail your request for COMMENTARY ON (BOOK NAME) to the address above.
PROVERBS
INTRODUCTION:
Proverbs are statements of truth about daily life. This book is a collection of many "wise sayings" which have proven to be guidelines for living.
This book was written mostly by Solomon (see verse 1, and chapter 10:1). Solomon, the Bible tells us spoke 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs (1Kings 4:32). Nothing is known about Agur (chapter 30), or Lemuel (chapter 31).
The purpose and theme of this book is stated in chapter 1, verses 2-4. It is to give instruction for living covering almost every detail of life itself.
CHAPTER 1
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
Solomon, as a young man, was chosen to take over the kingdom of Israel after his father David. According to 1Kings 3 and 2Chronicles 1, Solomon offered sacrifices and prayer before God as he took over the kingdom.
And the Bible tells us that God appeared to Solomon asking what he should desire of the Lord. Solomon said he needed wisdom for the task of leadership that had been given him.
God granted Solomon wisdom. In fact, God told Solomon that no one born before him or after him would ever have such wisdom.
Throughout the Bible, a general definition of wisdom would be: the ability to make correct decisions.
One can amass much factual information. The mind is an excellent computer and can store lots of information. That's knowledge. A person can know all about certain subjects. That's understanding. But to make correct decisions is an ability that must be taught to the HEART (or spirit) of a man.
Therefore, Solomon is writing so that his words will help people use factual information to make good decisions.
Only if a person READS them, will they "receive" them (verse 2).
Such things as "justice" and "judgment" are often clouded by personal prejudicial thinking and social pressure. But true wisdom is a gift from God to those who are willing to ASK and PURSUE what God says through His Bible.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
Therefore, we might say that this book is instruction for the uneducated (verse 4). ANY person who is willing to surrender to the Lord in prayerful study of the Bible, can "receive" the wisdom for right living.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
It is important to know that the "beginning" of wisdom is to have reverence for God. Such reverence means to recognize He is God and to repent from sin and seek His leadership and guidance in life.
Once a person does that, then he/she can "receive" the education needed for correct living from God's Bible.
According to David's statement in Psalm 53:1, a "fool" is a person who has determined that there is no God. Truth, righteousness, and holiness are "despised" by such people because they want to live life their OWN way rather than be governed by TRUTH.
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
The reverence of God as Master of our lives, begins in childhood with reverence for parents. Parental guidance and instruction are paramount to godly wisdom.
If parents do not teach, instruct and discipline a child, then the child will have no interior reverence for authority. If a child doesn't learn obedience to father and mother, he will probably not act in obedience to governmental authority, or to God.
10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
Notice that these instructions are given to "my son." They are instructions that should be given by parents to children BEFORE they are faced with the decisions of life.
Peer pressure, and the desire to be accepted by others, are powerful deterrents to righteous living. Young people of today are not really that different than young people of all other ages. They WANT to be accepted by their peers.
Young children and youth must be INSTRUCTED in the choice of "friends." If a person you call a "friend" would lead you into wrongful action, then that person is NOT a friend!
Here is where parental instruction from the Bible is important to children. It is TOO LATE to "just say no" when a child is faced with whether to smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, or have sex outside of marriage. Those principals and truths need to be taught BEFORE they are faced with such temptations.
Verse 15 is reflective of good parental guidance. Let me illustrate. One Friday night, I saw a group of young people in a parking lot. I recognized a couple of those young people as being members of our church. So I stopped to see what was going on. They told me they were just "hanging out." In other words they were just being together having fun. But I noticed that some alcoholic beverages were present. Now I'm quite sure that the "parental guidance" of those young people had been to NOT "hang out" with other young people who were drinking alcoholic beverages.
The person who is "greedy of gain" for self, will waste his life (verse 19).
20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
God has placed wisdom on virtually every "corner" of the "street of life."
The B.I.B.L.E. is Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.
It seems that some people want to learn everything in the world but what GOD says. God says he "pours out" His SPIRIT and teaches TRUTH to those who will listen (verse 23).
Young people are no different from adults in this respect. If reading the Bible is important to a parent, it will be taught to the children.
Our Youth Director told me one time, "I can't get them to read their Bible! They won't even bring it to church with them!" I shared with him that he was feeling the same things a pastor feels. 'Cause, you see, most adults don't bring their Bible with them to church either!
People can obtain Bibles really cheap. They come in all sizes. They can even be purchased in colors to match clothing styles. And if a person can't AFFORD a Bible, a church would be glad to GIVE them one.
God is CALLING OUT with wisdom and instruction, but people don't want to LISTEN!
24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
There is a COST to "scorning" God's Word! There is an AWFUL cost to despising the truths that God teaches and not having REVERENCE for Him (verses 29-30).
The Bible is first, the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is second, the instructions of God to those who willingly surrender to Christ. Those instructions include HOW to receive Christ.
My friends, let me say it again: WITHOUT SURRENDER THERE IS NO SALVATION!
This is a truth presented througout the Bible. (See Deuteronomy 6:4-9, John 14:15, Luke 9:23)
There is an old saying about the three 'R's' of education. There are also three 'R's' of salvation:
Three basic steps: so SIMPLE! We REALIZE our sin because God tells us. We REPENT from sin when we beg God's forgiveness. And we give God RULERSHIP of our lives from that moment on.
A person can REALIZE sinfulness, and beg to be forgiven. But if he never gives the RULERSHIP authority of his life to God, he is STILL NOT SAVED!
When the final judgment day comes, God will "scorn" the "scorners." Because He has given us ALL we need to be saved, and made it VERY SIMPLE! He has called out from every "corner" of the "street of life."
HAVE YOU ANSWERED?
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
The "fruit" of man's selfish way is a burning pit for eternity!
To "turn away" from God is destruction. To be prosperous without God ends in destruction also.
It is the person who SURRENDERS to God that will "dwell safely" in glory. There'll be no "evil" there, because there'll be no SIN there! Please continue in Bible Study with us.
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." (James 1:5-7)
To ask God in prayer is one thing, but to pursue by studious faith is another. It takes BOTH to receive the wisdom that God gives.
Realization of sin
Repentance toward Christ
Rulership authority GIVEN to Christ.