Not all who wander are lost

It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out.
Proverbs 25:2 (ESV)

On one level, this Proverb can be seen as aimed at reading and understanding the whole book of Proverbs as well as the rest of Scripture. Early in chapter 1 we are told Proverbs will contain the riddles of the wise (1:6). Proverbs is addressed to “my son” and “my sons.” Since it was published to everyone there is some sense in which we are all considered royalty.

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But nothing indicates this particular Proverb is meant to apply only to reading the Bible. It could apply to many other things that you are concerned about.

To understand what I mean, ask yourself this question:

DOES YOUR LIFE MAKE NO SENSE?

How Proverbs Tells You to Go Beyond Solomon & Son

It may be helpful to understand the last chapter of Proverbs to consider the last chapter of Genesis.

Genesis climaxes with the story of Joseph. In that story, Joseph seems to be or experience the solution to problems that start in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve find they are naked by grabbing at forbidden wisdom-fruit. Joseph does not grab anything that is forbidden, but gets stripped and cast out twice. Yet, Joseph remains patient. He is eventually given authority over the world because of his wisdom. God promised Abraham and Sarah that kings would come from them (Genesis 17:6, 16). Joseph tells his brothers, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt” (45:8). Genesis began with a faithless man demoted, consigning humanity to privation, and it ends with a faithful man elevated, feeding the world.

And then he dies a slave in Genesis 50.

Cities Aflame with Foolishness

In my book (Amazon, Kindle), I try to get across to my readers the importance of Proverbs and why we might have difficulty with it, by writing:

If you are a believer in a religion that is best expressed as four spiritual laws or a flow-chart or a chart about the dispensations of history, or a scheme of double predestination, or many other things (some of which may or may not be true–the issue is not veracity but primacy), then it will be a mystery to you why God wrote the book of Proverbs and put it in our Bibles.
But…
If you are a practitioner of a religion centered on a story that begins with how God made men and women to relate to Him and one another as they take dominion over the world, and move downstream from their garden home, and find gold, and start trading and have to raise children and eventually build cities that are supposed to further reflect the glory of God, then you will completely understand why the book of Proverbs had to be included as Scripture.

Recent events have reminded me of this.

The “Pessimism” of Proverbs

Proverbs is a book designed to teach wisdom. That is its stated purpose:

To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth.
Proverbs 1:2–4 ESV

Yet, these “simple youths” must already be wise to gain wisdom: “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance” (Proverbs 1:5 ESV).

“Hear, my Son” – Deuteronomy & Proverbs

I’ve been trying to get in the habit of reading a consecutive chapter of the Bible each day. I often read the Bible because my projects are Bible-related, but I wanted to make a minimal regular addition to remind me of parts I may have not thought about. I reached Deuteronomy a few days ago…

Rereading #Deuteronomy after writing a book about #Proverbs is proving to be quite an experience. #SolomonSays #Wisdom #Bible #Solomon https://t.co/suEaPzE5zG
— SolomonSays (@SolomonsaysN) May 8, 2020

Women Gone Wise 3: More about Eve

This is my third post on Eve as a basis for Solomon’s Lady Wisdom (Proverbs 1-9).

Before I address anything else, I need to point out a mistake I made about Adam. I wrote,

Only her [Eve’s] reactions to subsequent events are mentioned, not Adam’s.

That’s technically true but an artificial division in the story. After God pronounced judgments on them but before God removed them from the Garden, Adam did make what sounds to me like a confession of faith:

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Genesis 3:20

Women Gone Wise 2: Eve continued

When thinking of Eve as Wisdom, we obviously can’t base this on the fact that she sinned. Some elements of her role in the Fall may be worth looking at, but I think I should save that for later.

The reason Eve might be seen as a prototype for Lady Wisdom in Proverbs is the way she is mentioned after our first parents are driven from the Garden. Only her reactions to subsequent events are mentioned, not Adam’s. When their first child is born, we get Eve’s response, not Adam’s.

Women Gone Wise 1: Eve?

In my book, Solomon Says: Directives for Young Men (Amazon, Kindle), I don’t ask (or answer!) why Solomon portrays Wisdom personified as a female. The main reason I did not ask it is that I had no answer to give that I was confident about.

But Solomon does it without apology or explanation:

Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
Proverbs 1:20–27 {ESV)

What Would God Do If He Were In Your Shoes?

One of the things that becomes clear while seriously reading Proverbs is the Bible is a lot more focused on getting people to perform and make progress than many Christians are comfortable with. God is all-powerful and we are dependent creatures, so how can anything we do, or learn to do, matter?

For a while, some Evangelicals marketed the slogan “What would Jesus do?” as a diagnostic question for evaluating one’s behavior. It had problems as a form of ethical guidance, but it also, I think, got at the ultimate significance of human action.

Is Proverbs Addressed to Women?

Yes.

But one of the things about my book that might be causing some questions is that I argue that Proverbs is written to a young man.

Actually, in the introduction of my book Solomon Says: Directives for Young Men (Athanasius), I argue that the idealized person Solomon is addressing is a royal heir, a prince, one destined to inherit a throne.