Well, you probably know this proverb, and by the way, I'm gonna be mentioning a lot of proverbs today, so you can turn to them if you want, but there are gonna be a lot of them. But you probably know this proverb, Proverbs 22, verse six, train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. So picture a mother with a son who professed faith at a young age and that son was baptized as a little boy. And when the son grew up and grew older, he began to live like the rest of the world, lots of drinking and had multiple divorces and bad marriages. And his life was all about accumulating more and more wealth and everything that the world calls success. So this son grows up and he's not a bad guy. He's not a crook. He's not a hoodlum. Everyone would say he's honest and hardworking, a nice guy. But the mother is concerned for her son because she's concerned that her son doesn't go to church. But at the end of the day, this mother finds comfort in this proverb. She says, oh, I trained up my child in the way he should go. Bible promises, God says that when he is old, he will not depart from it. And so even though her son is living as an unbeliever, she is convinced that her son is saved because she taught her son the gospel, brought her son to church, raised him in a Christian home, and he professed faith, he was baptized. So she is sure that he will go to heaven. So I think you can figure out what's wrong with that picture. There are a couple things there. There's, first of all, a misunderstanding of conversion, what it means to be saved, that the Bible says that someone who is truly a Christian is going to repent of sin. They're going to persevere to the end, bearing good fruit. But there's another problem here, and this is what's relevant for today, is that this proverb is being misinterpreted. giving a mother false comfort that because she took her child to church, because she raised him in the faith that he is going to be a Christian. Train up a child in the way he should go. When he is old, he will not depart from it. Doesn't that sound pretty black and white? So we should expect that we train our kids as Christians, they'll become Christians. Well, we'll, Lord willing, get to that verse in detail one day in the future, but for one thing, this verse could be totally mistranslated, and there's a different translation that's possible that it could be saying, train up a child in his way, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And so if that's the right way to translate the verse, then what it means is basically that the way that you parent your child is the course that you've set him on for the rest of his life, that it's going to affect him for the rest of his life, how he is raised as a child. You set him on his way, and that's generally the way he continues when he is older. Well, that's one way to translate it, but let's just say that the typical understanding is right, that we are to train them in the right way, the way he should go. And then when he's old, he won't depart from the right way. What does that mean? Does that mean our kids will all turn out Christians? Well, it doesn't. And that is because we're looking at a proverb. This is a proverb, not a promise from God. And in the Proverbs, we have lots of general principles. These are principles about how the world works, and that's a general statement. We'll focus more on that probably next week. We're probably not gonna get into that whole concept really in detail, but I just wanted to bring up that verse as an example of why it's really important to understand how to interpret Proverbs. Proverbs are not promises. And if you misinterpret a proverb, you can go way off really quickly and really easily. If you read Proverbs the way that you read the rest of the Bible, like the book of Romans, which is kind of how we're trained to read the Bible, right? It's propositions, it's statements, and you need to dig into the meaning of every single word and how the grammar fits together. If you read it that way, Well, then you can misinterpret Proverbs and end up really way off and do a lot of spiritual damage. So I'll give you another example. Remember the heretic Arius? I talked about him a little bit back in December. Can anybody remember what Arius just in general taught? Who was Arius? Early guy, hundreds of years ago. Anybody remember? Chris? Yes, yes. So Arius taught that the Son of God was not fully God because he was created by the Father. So we believe that the Son was begotten by the Father but not created. So, well, I'll ask the question, but it's okay if you don't know the answer. So do you know what Arius's main text was where he argued that the son was created by the father. Any ideas? I'll give you a hint that it's in Proverbs. Okay, that's okay. I don't expect you to be experts in church history. But his text was Proverbs 8. In Proverbs 8, 22 to 31, it's talking about wisdom, and wisdom seems to be described as a person, personified wisdom. So verse 22, and I'm reading from the ESV, the Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work. So this wisdom, this thing that seems to be described as a person was possessed by the Lord. And then verse 25, before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth. And so Arius, his main text in the Bible for arguing that the son was created by the father was actually Proverbs 8. Lots of other church fathers use this Proverbs 8 too to argue that he was begotten but not made. So we'll get there again. We'll get there one day and look at what Proverbs 8 really means. But here's my point in bringing up this passage. If you misinterpret Proverbs incorrectly, you could end up a heretic. You can end up like Arius. So we have to be very careful about how we interpret Proverbs. So let's talk a little bit about interpreting the book. So what is a proverb? Anybody wanna offer a guess? What is a proverb? What does the word proverb mean? And I'm not looking for some big technical biblical explanation, just yes. A wise saying, good. You want to expound on that? Is there anything that makes you think? Yeah. Right, so the Proverbs are attributed to Solomon, and Solomon wrote these, and so Solomon is known as the example of wisdom in the Bible that God gave him. So he's writing down a lot of this wisdom. Yeah, so proverbs is a wise saying. Literally, the word proverb is a good word. Pro, pro means good. Verb, that means word. So it's a good word. It's a good saying. So we're going to see, though, that the Book of Proverbs has many wise sayings, but that's not all it is. It's not just like these one-sentence sayings, but it's filled with many types of proverbs. So we're going to look at that for a few minutes. So first of all, there are in Proverbs what you would consider to be a wise saying. A big word for this is aphorisms. Aphorisms are wise sayings. Can you think of some wise sayings in our culture? Things that you just say all the time without thinking about it. Yeah. A penny saved is a penny earned. Good. Anything else? Anybody else? Leo. Good, yes. That's Ben Franklin, I think. I'm not sure of the penny saved. That might be Ben Franklin. OK. Can anybody think of a non-Ben Franklin problem? Sorry. Yeah, so we have sayings like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. All right, so those are all good sayings. so here's one from Proverbs 22 verse 1 a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches and Favor is better than silver or gold So that's a that's a wise statement right that we should desire a good name so we have these sayings and And we have also in the book of Proverbs similes, so comparisons. Proverbs is full of all these images and comparisons of these things with one another. All right, and some of them are funny. Proverbs 27.15, you know this one? Proverbs 27.15, a continual dripping on a rainy day. And a quarrelsome wife. are alike. So a quarrelsome wife is like a continual dripping on a rainy day. Now here's where it gets dangerous, because he doesn't tell us what about the continual dripping of rain is the comparison to the wife, the quarrelsome wife. So some people might say, well, isn't lots of rain good? Doesn't a continual rain bring life to the plants that grow? April showers bring May flowers. That's another saying. So it's good to have continual dripping of rain, isn't it? Well, if someone is interpreting it literally, they could misinterpret the proverb that way. Wholesome wives are a good thing because continual dripping of rain is a good thing. So you see how you can get in a lot of trouble with interpreting Proverbs. But I think we all know that's not what it means, even though he doesn't tell us. What he's telling us is that the continual dripping is what drives us crazy, right? Maybe you've heard of Chinese water torture. This is an ancient method of Chinese torture where they would drip a drop of water slowly every few seconds while the prisoner is sitting there in his cell, and he has to listen continually, never ending, to a drip of water. And that's a way of torturing people. And so the proverb is saying that the quarrelsome wife will drive her husband crazy. So don't be like the quarrelsome wife. Now I think we get that one, but here's another one, Proverbs 15, 19. The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway. 1519, the way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway. That one's a little harder. I think I know what it means. I think it means that the hedge of thorns is hard to get through, and so the lazy person It always has some challenge, right? There's always some excuse for the lazy person. Well, here's why I couldn't do my job today, is because I'm climbing through a hedge of thorns. I think that's what it means. But he doesn't tell us. So what is the hedge of thorns? Is it something about the pain of the thorns? It's not as clear. So that's just an example of how we have to be careful in those similes, those comparisons, because we have to remember that we are reading into our own, we're reading into the verse, our own ideas and our own thoughts. And so we always have to ask if we're reading it the right way. Well, the next type of proverb is what are called antonyms. They are anti. So sayings that are opposites of each other, words that are opposites. And if you read through Proverbs, the vast majority of these are saying the opposites. They're the antonyms. So Proverbs 12, 15, the fool is right in his own eyes, but the wise man listens to advice. So you have the positive, first you have the negative here, the way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but the positive, the wise man listens to advice. So I'll ask you what you think about this. So how does it help us to understand the proverb to have the opposites put together? Maybe that's a hard question. How does it help us to understand the proverb if we have these opposites beside each other? Contrast. Okay, yeah. So maybe putting up a stark contrast. You don't want to be like this, so you do want to be like this. And a lot of times you have the consequences of Here's what's going to happen if you're not a wise person. You're going to end up like this guy, who's a fool. So you don't want to be like that. Anything else? Yeah? Right. Yeah, so we have, yeah, the double, the twice as much of the words to try to understand what he's talking about. So we have to put the two together. You have to read the first in light of the second and the second in light of the first. So you read this proverb, it says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. So now you have to stop and think, okay, I don't want to be a fool. So what does it mean to be right in my own eyes? What does that look like? Now, if you just stop and think about that, you could come up with all kinds of answers. But if you read the rest of the proverb, he tells you, a wise man listens to advice. So how do you not be right in your own eyes? You need to listen to advice. So you have to keep the two together, because usually he tells you, unlike with the images, which he often doesn't tell you, here he tells you what he wants you to do, what he wants you to be. Now related to this is also the next type of proverb, which is repetition. Sometimes the second part just repeats the first part, but in a different way. Proverbs 9, verse 7, It says that whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse. And he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. So you see there it's not a contrast, these two lines. The second line is explaining further the first line. Whoever corrects a scoffer gets abuse. He who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. So here's where we're interpreting the Proverbs. You don't have to get into some deep study and theology of what is the difference between a scoffer and a wicked man. What is the difference between getting abuse and incurring injury? And then you can come up with some great sermon about all the different ways that injury is different from abuse. You're missing the point. That's not what he's trying to tell you. He's trying to show that these are two different ways of saying the same thing. They're repetition. So correcting a scoffer is the same thing as reproving a wicked man. So again, I think a lot of people are used to reading the Bible like we read Romans. And so you think of a verse like Romans 4.25 about Christ. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. And we're so used to digging into all those words and preaching those words. And in Romans, there's a difference between being delivered up for our trespasses and then being raised, the resurrection, for our justification. And all those words are important to understand because they're talking about different things. But you can't come to the Proverbs and read it the same way or else you're just gonna read into it a lot of these things. So again, scoffer and wicked man, there's not this huge difference between them. All right, a few more. So the next type of proverb is progression. It gives us progression. So one example is Proverbs 13, verse 14. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death. So you see the second line is progressing. It's telling you more about the first line. It's not just repeating it. It's not contrasting it. It's telling you more. So the teaching of the wise is a fountain of life. Okay. How, how is it a fountain of life? Well, because it helps you turn away from the snares of death. So there are snares of death out there. And by turning away from them, you're going to find the fountain of life. Another one is in 15 verse three. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. So again, progression, the eyes of the Lord are in every place. Okay, well, what does that mean then? It means he keeps watch on the evil and the good. So the second line is explaining the first line. Well, those are all sayings of these kind of one sentence sayings, but the book of Proverbs also has other types of I don't know, language, words. So they're not all these one-sentence sayings. Proverbs 1-9, it's interesting, like the way that the book starts, chapters 1-9 is not these one-sentence sayings. These are lectures. I would call them sermons. They are lectures or sermons that the father is trying to teach his son. And so the first nine chapters are him trying to convince his son that he needs to listen to what he's saying and that he needs to learn wisdom. He needs to pursue this wisdom. So first nine chapters are lectures. They're not these sayings. And so you interpret those also differently. We also have oracles. This is, we got two more. Oracles go to chapter 30. And this I'm reading from the ESV, the words of Agur, son of Jaka, the oracle. And so here's Agur, I guess we'll talk one day about who Agor is. And we have, in chapter 31, King Lemuel. Some people think that's Solomon. It could be someone else. But here near the end, we have these other proverbs, and they're mentioned as oracles. And so an oracle is a word that a prophet gets from God, a direct revelation from God. And there aren't these just one-sentence wise sayings, but they are messages that the prophet has gotten from God. They are oracles. And so in chapter 31, verse one it says the words of king lemuel an oracle that his mother taught him and then it goes on for the rest of chapter 31 now in chapter 31 we have that famous passage of the excellent wife the proverbs 31 woman and this is an oracle it's an acrostic so every sentence, every verse begins with a letter of the alphabet, and it goes in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. And so this is a poetic oracle. So again, I think we get into some trouble when we try to read every single detail and every single word about this woman and every little thing that she does, and try to talk about, well, how do you live this out today? Well, it is a poetic description of an excellent woman. And so we just have to interpret it in that light. We're not necessarily, in my opinion, supposed to look at every little aspect of what she does and do exactly what she does. But we are to see an image of an excellent wife and try to imitate that excellent wife. And there is a lot more to that that we'll get into in future weeks. So this is an oracle. It's a poetic description, a revelation from God. Well, then we have observations. This is the last part, the last type of proverb. In chapter 24, yeah, chapter 24, verse 23, he says, these also are sayings of the wise. And then notice that he goes down to something like verse 30. He says, I passed by the field of a sluggery, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns. The ground was covered with nettles and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it. I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. So you see he's observing as he passes by the field of a lazy man, a fool, and he sees what's happening, he's commenting on it. So this is another type of proverb. All right, so those are all the types of proverbs. Now, how are we to understand the book? Is proverbs just a bunch of good advice? That's what we'll talk about the rest of today and we'll get into this next week. Is Proverbs just a bunch of good advice? One preacher, he said, generally, I dislike the book of Proverbs with its lack of theological content, its long list of platitudes and advice. Do this and don't do that. Pick up your socks. Be nice to sales clerks. It doesn't hurt to be nice. Proverbs, these are his words. Proverbs is something like being trapped on a long road trip with your mother. So, there's an observation right there. Just imagine, imagine being on a long road trip and mom telling you, pick up your socks, wipe your shoes before you go in the hotel, brush your teeth, eat your breakfast. And so he's saying, is this what Proverbs is really all about? Just a bunch of do this, don't do that. What we're gonna look at today, obviously the answer to that I think is no. So Proverbs is three things, the book of Proverbs, I mean. Practical, ethical, and theological. Today we'll look at practical and ethical. The book of Proverbs is given to us in the scriptures by God to be practical, ethical, and theological. So first, practical. This is what we normally think of. Practical advice. A soft answer turns away wrath, a harsh word stirs up anger. That's Proverbs 15.1. So practical advice, how do you avoid fights with each other and your family? Soft answer, turns away wrath. Harsh words stirs up anger. So we could say, in using modern lingo, the practical advice of Proverbs is teaching us emotional intelligence. Maybe you've heard of that, emotional intelligence. Some people would call this common sense or street smarts. You know there's a difference between intellectual intelligence and common sense. And you can all nod your head because you know those people who don't have common sense, who don't have street smarts. But in our culture, we put on a pedestal those who have intellectual abilities. academics, degrees, grades, we say, oh, that person is successful. And yet, according to Proverbs, what Proverbs is trying to tell us is you can be intelligent, but a fool. You can get good grades and live a foolish life. And you will not be successful in life. if you don't have this practical wisdom or this emotional intelligence. Apparently, a study was done of students in Harvard, starting in the 1940s, and then it tracked these students when they graduated, the rest of their lives. So the rest of their careers. Who do you think was most successful? in this study? Was it the ones with higher grades or lower grades at Harvard? Who were most successful in their salary, in the productivity that they accomplished, and the work that they got done? Well, it was those with the lowest grades who actually turned out more successful. in life, according to how this study defined that. And so that's one example that shows us that intellectual intelligence doesn't determine your success in life. We need to learn how to treat people. We need to learn how to deal with difficulties. When we feel lazy, and you want to sleep in, you need to learn how to become a person who doesn't sleep in, but learns how to work hard because this is not the only reason, but if you learn how to work hard, you can become more successful than the other smart person who is lazy, who's a slugger. That's what Proverbs is trying to tell you. According to one, um, commentator on Proverbs, he says, this practical advice in Proverbs has to do with timing. Timing. He says, timing is everything in wisdom. Wisdom is knowing the right time, okay? Doing the right thing at the right time. Saying the right thing at the right time. So what do you think? Is it always the right time to give a compliment? Anybody wanna venture an answer? Is it always the right time to give a compliment? No, no. Proverbs 27, 14 says, whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning will be counted as cursing. So nobody wants to be woken up at 3 a.m. because you just want to tell them how great they are. They don't want to hear that at 3 in the morning. And so, of course, you can apply that proverb to many situations. It's not always the right time to give someone a compliment, even though that's a good thing, because they will consider it as cursing if it's at the wrong time. When you're at your friend's house, is there a right time to leave your friend's house? Well, yes. Proverbs 25, 17 says, let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you. So this is why we need wisdom. When do I talk? When do I not talk? When do I stay at my neighbor's house? When do I leave my neighbor's house so that he doesn't get tired of me and then start hating me? The same goes with our emotions. Wisdom is showing control over your emotions. Proverbs 16, 32, whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. So you can see in the workplace how intellectual intelligence is not everything. Is it better for you to have a long list of facts memorized so you can do your job, or is it better for you to control yourself when that customer is screaming in your face? Because if you can't control yourself when you're getting screened at, you're gonna get fired, okay? It doesn't matter how many facts you know in your head. So Proverbs is trying to teach us how to be wise people and what the right timing is. Well, the next thing that Proverbs is doing is ethical teaching. So as someone said, Proverbs wants to make a person good as well as successful. The book of Proverbs is given to us to make us good. And what we mean by that is good in God's eyes, according to God's law. So look at Proverbs 1 verses 1 through 3. This is the very beginning, right? So he's telling you the purpose. Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, verse two, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity. Those last three words, righteousness, justice, equity, they all come from the Old Testament laws. How is a person righteous and just and equitable? By following the law of the Lord. And so this is what Proverbs is trying to teach you. How to be a righteous man or woman. And he's trying to teach you how to be good, righteous, in all of these different situations. So, Proverbs 18 verse 17 says, the one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him. So does that mean the one who states his case first is always wrong? No. He's just trying to say, make sure that you hear both sides of the story and then come to a decision. And so the command, the law here would be, What I just said, hear both sides of the story before you make a judgment. So by becoming a person who knows I need to hear both sides of the story, then you are living out the law of God. You are obeying God's commands. You are becoming an ethical person. And so what Proverbs is trying to do is make you a certain kind of person. Not just knowing all the right things, or not just knowing, you know, well, this proverb says this, and so I need to do that, but knowing the right timing to do all of these things. And what situations do you respond in this way? And as you do that over and over again, it builds a character. You become a certain kind of person. You become a wise person. So we'll look at the theological next week. We are meant to learn the fear of the Lord, but Proverbs is here today to make us wise and to make us good, to live according to the law of God. Let's pray. Lord, we depend upon you, your help and your spirit. We know our own failings and the own fallenness even of our minds and hearts. It is easy for us to misunderstand your word. And so we pray for your help. Help us to understand, especially this more challenging book like Proverbs. We pray, Lord, that you would make us wise people. Help us to live according to your word and your law. We pray, Lord, that you would create a character in us that lives according to what you desire. So we ask for the wisdom of Christ, the help of your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.