The Book of Proverbs: Expository Commentary from Sermons by Dr Peter Masters

Bible Commentary on The Book of Proverbs

by Dr Peter Masters, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London (adapted from sermons) with content from Bible Notes

Solomon’s Proverbs are a storehouse of compressed wisdom, covering all the issues of life. However, with so many insights and observations pouring forth, it is not always an easy book to read. Individual verses stir and fascinate the mind, and the reader would like to stop and muse. But to read whole chapters (especially once past the 'wisdom' chapters) can be daunting. There is simply too much to assimilate.

Is there a master-plan to this great book? There are four things we must know about the scheme and method of Proverbs. The first, and most important, is to know what exactly a proverb is. The second is to know the three sections of the book, and the distinctive purpose of each. The third is to realise that the numerous small proverbs from chapter 10 onwards are arranged in groups, according to subject, and that each proverb is designed to add something to the group-subject. The fourth is to become familiar with the cast of characters that appears in the first seven chapters of the book, because these characters appear repeatedly in the short proverbs of the subsequent chapters.

Firstly, a proverb is a parable or an illustration. The same Hebrew word can also refer to a byword or folk-saying. However, contrary to what is often said, it hardly ever refers to a direct, plain exhortation or address. In almost every case where the Hebrew word ‘proverb’ occurs, we find richly graphic language, and parables or illustrations are employed. In fact the book could be called – the Book of Parables. For example, when we come to the passage about the adulteress, we will miss the main point of the passage if we think it is primarily about adultery, because it is first and foremost a parable. It is a picture, laden with drama, shock and warning, of the way in which the world seduces naïve souls. To see lessons about adultery would not be entirely wrong, but it is not the real purpose of the passage. Whether the 'parable' is a long one, as in the early chapters, or a short one, the language is almost always richly pictorial, and the full meaning and purpose will only come from identifying the scene pictured, and considering the application in the realm of spiritual attitudes.

Secondly, the book has three distinctive sections, covering first, evangelism, then the needs of young believers, and then the more advanced needs of mature believers. Solomon himself points out the three sections of the book in the opening chapter. These proverbs, he tells us, will give 'subtilty to the simple' (1:4). This first section provides pure evangelistic reasoning. It is all about the sin-trap of life, and the need to receive the wisdom and salvation of God. Next he says that this book will give 'to the young man knowledge and discretion'. Discretion is to subtlety what college is to school. The word refers to plans or schemes or cunning (but in a good sense). This young man is a spiritual 'undergraduate', a believer. He is no longer the spiritual simpleton of the previous phrase, but a converted person who needs to develop clear aims, strategies and views to equip himself for the spiritual warfare. But then, swiftly, the proverbs become still more advanced in their lessons. Solomon's third section is mentioned in Proverbs 1:5-6 – 'A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: to understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.' These advanced proverbs will not be easily understood by the young in faith, but are intended for the wise and the understanding. The kind of material taught in these advanced proverbs includes lessons of conduct, discernment, character, church order, and spiritual communion. They go far beyond 'sundry moral virtues', reaching into the depths of the soul.

The third special feature of the Book of Proverbs is the scheme under which proverbs (from chapter 10 onwards) are arranged in groups according to subject. This book should not be characterised as a library or collection. (This is the language of liberal theology.) It is a unified, cohesive whole, designed and structured by God. To recognise this makes an enormous difference to the reader's understanding and application of them. First, the incomprehensibly vast number of apparently jumbled, random, sundry maxims disappears, and we are instead presented with about forty topics, each served by a group of proverbs. Secondly, individual proverbs take on richer significance. If a proverb appears in a section where the prevailing subject is 'foolishness', then that proverb should be viewed as making a solid contribution to that theme. By this method of interpretation many seemingly mysterious proverbs gain point and purpose, and the pastoral application is apparent. Thirdly, this approach offers an explanation for repeated proverbs, and these become valuable. The phenomenon of repeated proverbs has led many to regard the book as an edited collection of bits and pieces. If, however, we believe that the Book of Proverbs is Spirit-breathed, and not a scrappy human compilation, we shall expect a far nobler explanation for why proverbs are repeated.

The fourth feature of Proverbs essential to the reader is the cast of characters revealed in the first seven chapters. It is a great mistake to place these chapters in a separate compartment from the remainder of the book, as modern writers tend to do. Although these proverbs or parables are much longer than the one-verse miniature proverbs which follow from the tenth chapter, they are part of the same book, and they provide a vital introduction to it. The characters of the early chapters crop up repeatedly in the short proverbs. Take the tenth chapter just referred to - 'A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.' This is the same son introduced in the very first chapter, verse 8: 'My son, hear the instruction of thy father.'

Who are these characters? The son is the first. He is to learn the instruction of his father, who, like most fathers of the time, farmed a smallholding and probably maintained alongside this a family trade. If the son is to succeed in the future, he must carefully absorb all the many details of land-preparation, crop care, viticulture, animal husbandry, and so on. He must not only know the theory, but he must be a hard worker also. If the son will not listen to his father, when he takes over, his family will suffer and fall into disgrace.

In the tenth verse of this first chapter we meet the district gang. 'If sinners entice thee. . . ' They propose an alternative way of life to the life of labour on the smallholding. They propose the ambushing of trading caravans on remote roads. They will kill, plunder, and enrich themselves. They will offer the toiling son dazzling rewards, and make him feel so wanted. Here is the sin-trap, which appears repeatedly in these chapters.

The next character carries the reader's attention back to that which is pure and beautiful. She is the tender bride of youth (Proverbs 1.20 and following verses). She is seen in the appeal and acceptance of 'wisdom'. Wisdom, of course, is spiritual light; gospel light. It is the light of salvation, and ultimately, it is Christ. Wisdom is frequently described in terms of the perfect bride. In Proverbs 4.6, for example, we read, 'Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.' Two verses later we read, 'Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.'

Much of the time the sublime description of gospel wisdom overpowers the 'tender bride' allegory, and the reader is scarcely aware of her, but nevertheless she is there, and she is a key member of the cast. Before long she will be forsaken for the adulteress, but that is in the future.

The adulteress is introduced in Proverbs 2.16-19. Not only does the son have the district gang tempting him to despise conventional toil (i.e.: the spiritual and moral values of godliness), but there is to be a massive attempt to steal him from the bride of his youth, and to bring him under the power of an exploiter.

The adulteress is followed in Proverbs 6.12-15 by the dubious district salesman. He is described as worthless and wicked. He walks with a dishonest mouth. Even more, 'He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers.' He constantly devises mischief and sows strife. Here is a flamboyant and highly demonstrative individual, describing perfectly the gesticulating, fast-talking salesman of all ages. The dubious district salesman is everywhere in life, including the religious realm. To the wary, he is obviously a dishonest dealer talking up defective goods, but the uninitiated do not notice his tell-tale mannerisms, and believe his sales-pitch. What a wealth of gospel application is here!

When you consider that it is possible to live in this life for many years and learn so little through experience, you wonder that people do not value God’s wisdom more highly. Not only are there few people who actually do succeed in learning from experience and gaining wisdom, but it takes a very long time to have the mind furnished with experience, and the fruits of observation. And yet the promise here in the first chapter of Proverbs is that all that growth need not wait for experience but it is something which can be learned from the word of God and it can be learned alongside the sanctifying influence of the Spirit of God. It is not that we shall look at these proverbs and be made wise by intellectually grasping their meaning. There is something in the very way this book is designed and the way it is presented which is more than just intellectual instruction. It will test us and move us and will produce in us, if we take it seriously, a level of wisdom that we have not had before.

This is not a style of instruction which is popular today. In fact, it seems to have been thrown out altogether in the world. Even non-Christians used to know wise pithy sayings, and proverbs, and children used to grow up with a whole store of these things in their mind, not necessarily Biblical ones, but earthly ones, little sayings and proverbs, which were drawn from the experience of former generations. Somebody would come with a particular temptation, or a particular proposition, and a certain situation would arise and a certain kind of character would come into view, and immediately the young person would remember that old saying, and so would be on his or her guard. Well, of course, Biblical proverbs are even more profound than any earthly ones, but the fact is, this is not now a fashionable way of teaching people, and so we grow up in this scientific age for all its knowledge, unprepared to face life, and unable to recognise all the different situations that will repeat and will come before us. So here is the Book of Proverbs, spiritual information, analysis of the human condition, information about character and life and all life's experiences. But we have to note that to understand this book and to draw from it, we must remember its title. An English proverb is defined simply as a short pithy saying, capable of being remembered and in general use, that is the definition. But that is not strictly what the Hebrew word proverb means, it means a parable or a comparison, and that is helpful to us, because if you do not remember that, you misunderstand great portions of the proverbs.

The Book of Proverbs is not just a collection of sundry statements, sundry unconnected proverbs. This book of Proverbs is put together to stimulate and to train, to activate the very parts of our being that will produce wisdom. The whole is a remarkable training course, a piece of divine therapy to bend us and to mould us into the Lord's people possessed of great wisdom. The opening chapters present things we have to be careful to observe, for unless we honour these the course will not profit us. The basic entrance requirements, if you like, are given in the early chapters and the course itself comes in the later chapters. But from chapter 10 on the course is far more than a collection of proverbs. It is God's unique therapy, not merely a collection of proverbs and sayings which are deep, but unconnected with each other. It is an arrangement of proverbs so designed as to exercise us and to provoke wisdom, that is the ability to handle knowledge. It is a course designed to make us discerning and deep and wise. It is a course designed to mould our minds and attitudes.

It was written between 970 and 930 BC by King Solomon. Of the 3,000 proverbs written by Solomon (1 Kings 4:32), 503 short proverbs appear in this book, not counting the longer proverbs of the early chapters. From chapter 25, another section commences of proverbs assembled by King Hezekiah's men. Chapters 30-31 are the words of Agur and King Lemuel, nevertheless, we believe all these sections were arranged and integrated under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit to form one unitary, organised presentation of truth.