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Proverbs 22:17
Comments
Solomon interrupts himself for the first time since the start of chapter 10 to exhort his hearers to give close attention to this book. He speaks to us in a way that is similar to the exhortation in the opening verse of the book as he commends to us this part of God’s word. What he is speaking about is our attitude as we come to the Book of Proverbs, and the essential mind-set we must have to learn from it. Without this we will read but not appreciate what we read and we will gain nothing from the exercise. Some see this as the start of a new section of the book and note that there is a change in style so that the proverbs that follow are longer, often occupying two or three verses, and are more obviously grouped together.‘Bow down thine ear’ – the Hebrew verb is ‘to stretch out’, ‘to incline’ and indicates a determination to listen carefully based on an appreciation of words of great value. The KJV has gone with a meaning related to bowing down as in Psalm 40:1; Genesis 49:15; Psalm 62:4, which suggests the humble approach needed. To be a good reader or a good listener is vital when we come before the word of God. This means that we bring only what we have already learned from Scripture and are ready to have all personal opinion, mere human knowledge, and all earthly wisdom taken away and replaced by what God has to say to us. We must search our hearts for any prejudice against the truth, and come humbly to learn from one whose wisdom surpasses all our imagination. We test Scripture by Scripture and so we do not come with nothing in our heads, but we compare one thing we have learned from Scripture with another, and build all on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Application
It is a deliberate effort to read the Scripture and it is a deliberate effort to learn from it. We expect our wrong understanding to be corrected and this is not always pleasant. We have learned many things in our lives which are based on human wisdom. It is not easy to question everything within us and to admit we are wrong and are going astray, that God’s perspective is so different. So we must set our hearts to knowledge to be teachable and to gain real knowledge. This will be easier if we value that knowledge highly, for it is not so hard for someone to lose what is valuable if they know that they are gaining something far more valuable in its place.
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