Proverbs 1:2 Commentary and Bible Study

What is the purpose of these proverbs? The object of them is to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding. Now, we are living in days when education is tremendously stressed. And one of the things that has happened is this: we look back from the 21^st century and we regard ourselves as a special, privileged, uniquely educated society. But there is a most important respect in which we are less educated than any previous generation, because, even if they were illiterate, what the vast majority of people lost in education, they made up for in acumen. If you had no knowledge, then you depended on cunning at its worst, and wisdom at its best. If you over-educate the entire society what happens? Simply this: we place confidence in our knowledge. We do not attempt to be anything like as shrewd as our forebears. We are an educated society and there is no doubt that far less stress is put in this mysterious word 'wisdom' than in bygone days. In past generations, men were evaluated not according to their technical knowledge but according to their wisdom, according to their power to handle that knowledge. The practical application of knowledge – that is what counted. Today it hardly counts at all. Why, if you wanted a politician in the 19^th century you looked for somebody who had at best wisdom and at worst cunning. Today, it barely matters. The first thing here is wisdom. These proverbs are uniquely designed to promote wisdom which is the skill to handle knowledge. So it is not knowledge in itself that you are promised here; it is wisdom, which means practical intelligence and the practical ability to use or to handle the knowledge which you have. Of course, generally, wisdom is to do with the fruit of experience gained over many years, but the clear statement here is that you can also know it by studying this divinely revealed word of God. The word translated ‘instruction’ comes from a Hebrew word which has to do with chastisement. In other words, the word 'instruction' here means things that you learn by being challenged and dealt with subjectively. Obviously this is the kind of instruction you learn from experience. You do something and you burn your fingers and it hurts you and so from that experience you learn not to do it again. The Hebrew word specifically refers to things you learn as the result of being hurt. But by reading these proverbs you can learn wisdom, how to handle knowledge, and you can get this kind of experience because these proverbs are meant to hit you, to sting you, even to hurt you, but not in a malicious way; not hurt you as with a whip but just little pinches. So you read this and say, ‘That's true. I have fallen there’, and you will learn by subjectively being made a fool of, by seeing where you went wrong. ‘To perceive the words of understanding.’ Most modem versions will turn that round a little and say, ‘To understand the discerning words’, which is probably more correct although it largely means the same thing. The proverbs are going to help you to see words more deeply. As the result of studying this book of Proverbs, you will never just read things at face value. You will look at the deep words and you will be trained in grasping them and understanding them.