The Peril & Promise of Self-Awareness, Self-Consciousness

Awhile back I preached a sermon and said the following:

 When Proverbs 17:22 says that “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” it’s not simply describing two states that people find themselves in. “Medicine” is an intervention you bring into someone’s life to end sickness and encourage health. Solomon is encouraging you to pursue a joyful heart and experience blessings from it rather than cultivate a crushed spirit and suffer the problems that it brings. A parallel text is Proverbs 14:30, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” The point is to not nurture a crushed spirit, but to do something about it that demonstrates your faith in Jesus.  

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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).

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“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…

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