Solomon Says

This is the time of year for the diet, fitness, and financial industries to advertise for a new crop of customers. Most will use the “superstition” of New Year’s resolutions as a draw. But some will have too much integrity, and, while they will offer their services for 2021, they will make a point of conceding there is nothing magical about a New Year’s resolution.

I disagree. While I understand that people are trying to be honest and helpful when they deny the magic of resolutions, when they work it does indeed seem like magic.

Continue reading “The “Magic” Of New Year’s Resolutions”

Sin is a human behavior.

Maybe it would help us, if we have a general agenda to reduce our own sin, to think about what we know about general human behavior.

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When we practice behaviors they become easier. When a child learns to tie his shoe, he gets to the point that he doesn’t have to think about it. In fact, if you told someone, “I want you to really pay attention to how you tie your shoes,” the only observable result would be that they would do the task more slowly than usual. It is a step backwards. The normal way we do things is to start slow and make mistakes. As we develop our skill, we get faster and yet stop making as many mistakes.

Continue reading “Sin & Skill”

Much controversy was occasioned in the debate over the proper confessions of the incarnation and the Trinity in the early centuries of the Church by Wisdom’s portrayal in Proverbs 8: “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth…” (vv.22, 23). The Arians used this passage to ague that Jesus was merely a created being rather than eternally God with the Father and the Spirit.

But the puzzle would arise even without the question of the person of Jesus. Obviously, God was not foolish before he created the world. Wisdom is an attribute of God. So why would Solomon portray Wisdom as a first act of creation.

Continue reading “The Birth of Wisdom”

[This was originally posted at Kuyperian.com.]

As I was writing my book on Proverbs, I made a point to not mention certain things. One of those things was my ischemic stroke.

Wait a minute, Mark. You were writing a book on Proverbs. Proverbs! What could your stroke have to do with anything? Why would you even think of it?

I had reasons, but the worry that people would find such a discussion outlandish and perhaps decide I was looking for an excuse to write about myself, outweighed them.

Recently, I got James Clear’s valuable book, Atomic Habits, from the library.  In the introduction, Clear begins by recounting his high school experience dealing with a life-threatening brain injury. He describes what was involved in his recovery as an entry-way into his learning the importance of acquiring productive habits.

Continue reading “Life Influences on “Solomon Says”: The Stroke”

I don’t think the implications of the stewardship parables (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27) are widely appreciated. The servants aren’t judged according to how well they obeyed “orders.” They were never given any specific commands other than try to multiply what they had been entrusted with. And the unfaithful servant wasn’t judged for not doing enough, but for maligning his master to his face and refusing to do anything at all with what he was given.

Continue reading “Stewards Need Wisdom”

I’ve written elsewhere on “toxic masculinity” in Proverbs. I’ve also suggested that Proverbs concludes with a warning against Solomon’s foolishness in multiplying wives. I didn’t apply the term “toxic masculinity” to the folly that Solomon committed, but it might be appropriate. Male rulers prove themselves super-powerful (they think) by a large collection of wives.

To see how this is revealed in Scripture, let’s start with David.

First Samuel 25 is a story of David set between his two refusals to take Saul’s life in chapters 24 and 26. These were admirable actions. But the story of Nabal, Abigail, and David is more ambiguous.

Continue reading “Toxic Monarchy from Gideon to Rehoboam”

But one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself.

C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

It is no secret that I love Lewis as a Christian writer and especially love the fictional story, The Horse and His Boy. Among other reasons for appreciating the book, I found that it seems to use the themes in the message of Proverbs to illustrate the same truths about maturity and wisdom.

My conversation about the book with my friend Andrew Isker is embedded at the bottom of this post for you, if you haven’t watched it already.

But, as much as I loved the book, I want to disagree with the quotation above. Or at least nuance it.

Continue reading “Don’t Waste Your Slavery”