Proverbs: Solomon’s Intentions and Oversight

As we continue our overview of the book of Proverbs, we ought to take note of Solomon’s intentions for this book, along with his failure to heed his own advice.

Solomon’s Intentions

Solomon has an agenda for each of the types of people he addresses.

To the simple, he offers a gift: prudence, knowledge and discretion (Prov 1:4). You can’t stay at the crossroads forever. Not to make a decision is to make the wrong decision. Turn to the Lord (trust in his Messiah, Jesus); start moving toward him and becoming like him. Then you’ll live up to your created potential, and you’ll obtain your redeemed glory.

To the foolish, he offers a challenge: fear the Lord and begin to have knowledge (Prov 1:7). Be a fool no longer. Give up what you cannot keep (your own self-satisfied condition and individualistic righteousness) to gain what you cannot lose (entrance into the eternal kingdom, fullness of life, most delightful joy). It will cost you everything and be the most difficult thing you ever do, but it’s the only way to true freedom and lasting insight. Jesus died a fool’s death so fools could know the wise life by knowing him.

To the wise, he offers both encouragement and caution: you’re running on the right path, but don’t slow down (Prov 1:5)! You’re never finished. You haven’t arrived yet. Wisdom is not something you are; it is something you are doing. We can never be wise; we can only become wise. It’s a journey, not a destination. The wise person grows closer and closer to the Lord Jesus until the last day.

Solomon himself needed to hear this last point over and over again, but he forgot.

Solomon’s Oversight

Have you ever wondered how the wisest person who ever lived could end up such a wretched fool? Solomon married 1000 women and turned away from the Lord to worship their gods (1 Kings 11:3-4). If he was so wise, how could he do such a foolish thing? After the Lord gave him such wisdom, how is it possible that he could fail in the end?

These questions troubled me for years until I finally heard a good answer in a lecture by Bruce Waltke. Solomon himself forgot this most crucial principle of wisdom: It is a path, not a destination. “Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge” (Proverbs 19:27).^[1] You can’t ever let off the gas or set the cruise control. You must actively pursue wisdom every moment of every day. Don’t grow weary or lose heart.

But even more importantly, Solomon was not the primary one God had in mind when he made those promises of Sonship and Kingdom in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. Jesus was. Remember the opening line to Mark’s Gospel? “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Remember last year’s Christmas cantata? “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15, quoted in Handel’s Messiah).

This is Good News for us, because if for one moment our standing before God depended on our own wisdom, we would be dead. We wouldn’t last. But if instead, all we must do is trust in Jesus, and his wisdom and righteousness replace our failure and make us right before God, then we have hope! You see, what really makes someone wise is that he knows he’s got further to go in order to be wise. When measured against the wisdom of Jesus, he will always lack and therefore need more. So he turns to Jesus, rests on him, and hopes in him.

We’ve bet the house on this one horse, and if Jesus loses the race, we lose everything.

Such reckless abandon is mandatory for any who want to be wise. Is there any hint of such abandon on your pursuit of wisdom?

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^[1]See also Waltke, The Book of Proverbs Chapters 1-15, p.36. (Affiliate link)

This post was first published in 2012.