Audience | Knowable Word

Proverbs: Solomon’s Intentions

June 28, 2012 By Peter Krol

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.

Proverbs: Three Kinds of People

June 27, 2012 By Peter Krol

We looked at the broad audience of Proverbs last week, but today let’s examine more specifically what types of people Solomon expects to be present in the community.

Various authors in Scripture view people through different frameworks. The author of Hebrews sees people as either immature or mature. From one angle, the apostle Paul divides people into Jew or Gentile; from another he considers them to be justified or condemned. Jesus often distinguishes people as having faith or not, being for him or against him, sheep or goats or wolves.

These differing frameworks are not mutually exclusive; they merely represent different perspectives or intentions on the part of the particular author.

In Proverbs, Solomon organizes people into three categories: the wise, the foolish, and the simple. These categories are not dependent on age, class, race, gender, or socio-economic status. Rather, they are determined by one’s direction in reference to the Lord.

1. Those who are moving toward the Lord are called wise. This person is not a perfect or intelligent person, but rather a person who will gain understanding and change his life based on what he hears in Scripture (Prov 1:5).

2. Those who are moving away from the Lord are called foolish. This person is not an ignorant or uneducated person, but rather a person who doesn’t want to change anymore. He thinks he’s doing just fine on his own and doesn’t need any more help, especially not from the Lord (Prov 1:7).

3. Those who are not moving at all with respect to the Lord, on account of age, inexperience, or incapacity of some sort are called simple. This person is not an unreligious or immoral person (at least not yet), but rather a child or child-like person who is just starting out on the path of life and thus is about to decide whether to move toward the Lord or away from him (Prov 1:4). The crossroads are before you; which fork will you take? It’s critical to understand, however, that we cannot remain simple forever. It’s okay for a baby to smear spaghetti in her hair, but by the time she turns 30, more will generally be expected of her. Or, more elegantly, “one does not stay still: a man who is emptyheaded will end up wrongheaded.”[1]

[1] Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction & Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1964), p.13.

Thanks for visiting Knowable Word! If you like this article, you might be interested in receiving regular updates from us. You can sign up for our email list (enter your address in the box on the upper right of this page), follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Why We Should Care Who the Audience Is

June 22, 2012 By Peter Krol

In yesterday’s post we considered who the primary audience of Proverbs was. Why bother?

The main reason is because, although the Bible was written for us (1 Cor 10:11), it was not written to us. Every book of the Bible was written by a particular person, for a particular group of people, in a particular situation. We put ourselves in danger of misunderstanding the text if we don’t first understand these historical circumstances. We must put ourselves in their shoes.

Imagine if I showed you a letter in which I wrote the sentence “You’re making me go crazy.” How would you read that line if you knew I had written the letter to my child? To my employee? My neighbor? My wife? My pet snake? A customer service rep at a store from which I made a significant purchase?

At the office where I work, we maintain a quote board for just this purpose: to catalogue the random statements which, removed from any context, become hilarious. We have entries on the board like:

“Did you forget the pot this morning?”
“If you’re gonna die, it’s nice to do it at home.”
“I’m going to do number two tomorrow, but it’s going to take me a while, because I haven’t done it in awhile.”
“The longer I live, the more I don’t want to.”
“I keep trying to say funny things to get on the quote board.”

When it comes to studying the Bible, let’s keep the original audience in mind. Otherwise, we can miss the point. For example:

Genesis (as a book) was prepared for a nation of people who had just come out of centuries of enslavement and were trying to figure out their identity. It was not primarily written to people who were examining the origin(s) of all things.
Daniel was written to Jewish exiles in Babylon and Persia to help them understand how God could possibly still be in control. Daniel’s predictions were largely intended to prepare these people, and their converts, for the coming Messiah (King of the Jews). It worked, since some from that region knew what to look for at just the right time (Matt 2:1-2).
Revelation (and it’s rich symbols) was not primarily about 21st century events. The book would have made sense to believers in churches scattered across Turkey in the 1st century AD (Rev 1:4). We ought to read it accordingly.

Whenever you approach a book of the Bible, make sure you find out who the original audience was (as much as is possible) and do your best to put yourself in their shoes.

Proverbs: Audience

June 21, 2012 By Peter Krol

F. Gopp (2010), Creative Commons

While there is significant agreement about Solomon’s authorship of Proverbs 1-9, the question of his audience is far more difficult to answer. A popular opinion is that Solomon was writing to his son, which makes sense in light of the frequent repetition of “my son” in these early chapters. However, there is reason to believe “my son” refers to more than just Solomon’s genetic offspring.

Commentator Bruce Waltke understands that Proverbs “is addressed to gullible youths (Prov 1:4) and wise children (Prov 1:5, 8) to enable them to attain wisdom and be safeguarded against the world-and-life views of the impious and unethical in any age.”[1] My former Hebrew professor Frederic Clarke Putnam takes it a step further when he argues that the primary audience was likely “young men from relatively wealthy backgrounds.”[2] The wealth possessed by the desirable wife (Proverbs 31:13-16, 20-24), and the prevalence of proverbs advising one in his relationship with the king (for example Proverbs 16:12-15, 25:1-7) demonstrate that Solomon has an audience in mind more specific than all of Israel’s children yet more broad than one or more of Solomon’s own sons.

I propose that Proverbs as a whole is not intended for young children primarily, but rather for young people among Israel’s nobility who are transitioning to adulthood and preparing to become leaders in society. They must be of marriageable age, if they are being given significant advice on choosing a partner (Proverbs 31:10-31). They are expected to use their wealth and influence for the causes of goodness and justice in the land (for example Proverbs 16:23, 18:5, 22:16, 29:3, 29:26). They are growing up and preparing to leave their parents’ homes and enter the world of more independent responsibility.[3]

In our generation, Proverbs has significant application to anyone who currently has or hopes to obtain a leadership role in society. Are you a parent? Would you like to lead others to Christ? Do you hope to see the world become a better place? Do you have a bank account that God wants you to steward for the building of his kingdom? Do you interact with other people at any time? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you have a significant responsibility from the Lord: do it wisely. And Proverbs can help.

[1] Waltke, The Book of Proverbs Chapters 1-15, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), p.37.

[2] The Complete Biblical Library: The Old Testament Study Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Springfield, MO: World Library Press, 1998), p.450.

[3] See Proverbs 6:20-23, where the parents expect the commands themselves to take over the teaching role that the father and mother have held to this point in the young person’s life.

« Previous Page