Day 302: Proverbs 1-3 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast, powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebobledapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (tape ripping) - Family, welcome to day 302 here at the Bible Department. We are diving into a brand new book of the Bible. And oh, I'm excited because we are actually diving into one of my favorite books of the Bible. We're diving into the book of rovers. And I love proverbs, okay? And I really do believe that the foundation of your life should be that of King David and Solomon. King David, as we just, you know, learned through studying the book of Psalms was the figurehead for worship. And I think worship helps us to touch heaven. And I think King Solomon is the figurehead for wisdom, which helps us to touch the earth and be effective here on the earth. And I think that every single believer should be touching heaven, touching earth. You should have worship and wisdom as the foundations of your life. And so I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really excited to dive into the book of proverbs. Not only am I pumped just to get into proverbs chapters, one, two and three, which is our assigned reading for today.

But I'm excited to camp out in the book of proverbs over the next couple of days or weeks or however long it's gonna take us to trek through the book of proverbs. If you have not done the reading for today, then like I say every day, how about you stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done. I don't know if you found Psalms to be like super enjoyable reading, but man, I love proverbs. I find the book of proverbs to be entertaining, very, very enjoyable reading. So how about you? Go to proverbs chapter one, read chapters one, two and three. And then come on back if you haven't done the reading yet for today. I'm gonna try to give us context clues. Now context is gonna work very, very differently for the book of proverbs. It's not like there are historical moments attached to these proverbs, okay? Every day I may give, like the context clues would just look different, okay? I'll probably give some overarching idea that will help us to navigate our way through wisdom literature in general. We'll see. But every day I'll give you a lot of nerdy nuggets. And we gonna have a lot of timeless truths

because wisdom is very relevant for our life today. Man, there's something that the world needs. It is wisdom. And let me just give this precursor, okay? It's funny, I've always gone to churches that I would say are marked by wisdom. And one time I invited somebody to church, not the garden, not the church that we're planting, but I invited them to a church that I was on staff at. And I asked them, like, hey, like, what'd you think? And they were like, I wasn't deep enough for me. And I was like, deep? Like, what do you mean? And they, you know, they kind of just started to like, yeah, I was just too practical. And I was like, so you must not like the book of proverbs. 'Cause like God's wisdom isn't so lofty and deep that it just makes you feel smart. And this is a big theme when it comes to wisdom in the Bible that wisdom for the biblical authors is not intelligence, is not like how confusing something is or how complicated it is. For the authors of the Bible, wisdom is found in very practical things. And so we're gonna discover that all kinds of people get called wise in the Bible. Actually, I'll give you a couple of examples, okay? In Exodus chapter 31, verse two, there's a man by the name of Bezalel. He's an artist who crafted the Ark of the Covenant.

He said in the word Hebrew to be wise in craftsmanship. And the same word is used a few chapters later in Exodus chapter 35, verse 25 to describe a woman who's skilled in weaving. She's wise, why? Because she's excellent, okay? Next, the word for wise is also used for Solomon composing songs and proverbs, okay? We'll get into authorship in just a second. Those who are strategically minded generals, Isaiah chapter 10, verse 13, is gonna say like those people who know how to like win battles, win wars, generals who are strategic, those people are wise. Jeremiah chapter nine, verse 17, is gonna say there are certain people who are skilled in mourning. Remember, in the biblical world, you could actually pay people to come to like a few. Okay, so there are people who are skilled in that. They're excellent at that. Those who are wise in shipbuilding and navigation, shipbuilding and navigation, if you're good at that, then you're called wise in the Bible. This is Ezekiel chapter 27 verse eight. And Jeremiah chapter 10 verse nine actually says that even those who have the skill required to craft pagan idols, that they have a wisdom. Why? They have a skill, they have a craft, they have excellence.

Okay, they have expertise. And so wisdom for the office of the Bible is not philosophy, it's not like how much information can I load into my brain. It's how well do I live my life, okay? Wisdom is very, very practical. And so to the person who's like, eh, it wasn't deep enough for me. I was like, I'm sorry that we weren't spinning around and twirling and waving flags. I don't know, like what did you want? Like, you don't want to go to a church on Sunday that's going to make you a better wife, a better husband, a better mom, a better father, a better employer, a better entrepreneur, better business owner. Like, shit, don't you want to go to church on Sunday? Like the pastor give practical wisdom, like wisdom. There's a whole bunch of people who don't have to pray for 14 hours but don't know how to like treat their kids. They don't know how to like be good parents. They don't know how to like be a good spouse. They don't know how to build a home, not just actually physically build a house but like build a home, build culture, build teams that work, build businesses that thrive, fix real problems. Like, you know, so I don't know, I like wisdom. I love wisdom, all right?

I don't like anything that feels like a waste of time. And wisdom is helping you to get straight to the point to actually fix problems. I love wisdom. And I'm glad that we get to talk about wisdom for the next couple of days or weeks or however long we're going to be in the book of problems. Family, the weight is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Let's talk authorship, okay? No one debates whether or not Solomon is the author of these proverbs, okay?

Now there's a big debate on whether or not Solomon is actually the author of Song of Songs or whether he's the author of Ecclesiastes. Those scholars debate that heavily. No one really debates whether or not Solomon is the author of proverbs. And part of the reason is what we have right here in 1st Kings chapter four. I'll start reading in verse 29, it says this. God gave Solomon wisdom. Man, let me stop right there. I think if God gave Solomon wisdom, God can give you wisdom, okay? If you're an idiot, like God wants to give you wisdom. Like if you're foolish, God wants to give you wisdom. If you're broke, God wants to give you wisdom. If you've been dating idiots, God wants to give you wisdom. If you've just been bouncing around from one relationship to the next relationship and you don't know what you're doing, God wants to give you wisdom. If your baby daddy's stupid, God wants to give you wisdom. God wants to give you wisdom. Like man, if you lack wisdom, God desperately wants to give you wisdom. He wants you to be a thriving, successful, flourishing, excellent, skilled person. He wants to give you wisdom, okay? If you got anger problems, God wants to give you wisdom. Anything that's gonna take away from your ability to thrive at life, he wants to give you wisdom, okay?

God gave Solomon wisdom in very great insight and a breadth of understanding as measureless as it's saying on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East. He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan, the Ezra height, wiser than human, Caulhole and Darda, the sons of Mayhole, and his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. By the way, that's the goal of wisdom to actually win the world. The deep stuff, the stuff that makes you feel like you're smart, but really is a waste of time. Like the world is an important part. Here's what the world is impressed by. Here's what people who don't know God are impressed by. You're having a good marriage. You're having fantastic kids that are disciplined. You running a thriving business is profitable. You being excellent, all right? You being fantastic at what you do, okay? So the surrounding nations are all coming to Solomon 'cause he's wise and here we go. He spoke 3,000 Proverbs and his songs numbered 1,005. He spoke about plant life. So right there, that verse, verse 32, let's us know. Yeah, like these Proverbs, like we have a recorded historical, you know, data that Solomon actually did like speak 3,000 Proverbs. So the collection of Proverbs that we have 100% Solomon, okay? Through and through, no one debates whether or not this is Solomon.

It says this in verse 33, he spoke about plant life. Now this is fascinating, okay? This is wisdom. He spoke about plant life from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. I want you to think about this, okay? When you think about plant life, cedar trees, hyssop, when you think about animals, birds, reptiles, fish, what does that make you think of? I'll give you a second. I know what it makes me think of. What does that make you think of? Eden, yeah, the Garden of Eden, okay? So one of the themes throughout the book of Proverbs is that wisdom offers a door back into the Edenic ideal, okay? That wisdom is actually trying to get us back to the Garden of Eden, okay? Back to the kind of wisdom that God was trying to download into Adam and Eve's mind, heart, soul, spirit, okay? So the wisdom literature of the Bible is providing a path back into what is the original design of the earth? What's the original design of humanity? How can we understand that original design? And how can we create lifestyles and communities that actually flourish, okay? This is not a coincidence, okay? That Solomon has things to say about plants and animals and trees, well, this is very, very, very intentional.

The language that's gonna get used all throughout the song, all throughout the Proverbs, sorry, not Psalms, all throughout the Proverbs is gonna be Edenic language and we'll get into that in a second. From all nations, people came to listen to Solomon's wisdom 'cause wisdom is evangelistic. Sent by all the kings of the world who had heard of his wisdom, okay? So Solomon is the author. Wisdom literature is an entire genre and Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, song of songs and Job is the wisdom literature of the Bible. As we continue our trek through Proverbs, I'll drop context clues on just wisdom literature or how to interpret it and audience, okay? I will say this and then I'll give you seven nerdy nuggets, okay, seven nerdy nuggets. The audience are always gonna be children and those who are already wise, okay, children. If you look at Proverbs chapter one, verse eight, it says, listen, my son, and then if you get to verse 10, my son, and then verse 15, my son, and then chapter two, verse one, my son, okay? Over and over and over and over and over. It's the same in three one and three 21, okay? It's the same in three verse 11, okay? My son, my son, my son, my son. And so I'll just say this personally. Part of the reason I love Proverbs so much is because I didn't have a biological father

or an earthly father who could really give me wisdom, which is the number one thing you need, you need wisdom. And I can always tell whether or not people had, you know, strong or weak relationships with their parents based on how wise they are. Because that's the number one thing a parent should be leaving to you is wisdom, not money, not an inheritance, not cars, not property. If your parents leave more to you than they leave in you, then you'll squander everything they leave to you, okay? So wisdom is a thing that I believe parents should be leaving in you so that they don't squander what they leave to you. So my dad was incarcerated, my dad was on drugs. I didn't have a father to really share wisdom. The things that my dad taught me I had to unlearn 'cause they were toxic and crazy. And so I honestly, when I started to read the book of Proverbs, I felt like the Lord was grabbing me by the ears and the Lord began to teach me. to teach me wisdom. And I can't do not. If you have a pastor or like a mentor or a coach who wants to give you wisdom, you need to listen with everything you have. And we currently live in a society that's so mummified, not mummified, mummified. We just have a lack of fathers. And Proverbs is going to give a dad's perspective to their sons.

So Proverbs is going to have masculine energy. Okay. So Gogealoints. Okay. Because this is not a mom giving advice to her daughter. This is a father giving advice in wisdom to his son. And I think that one of the things that's lost in society right now is the understanding that part of the ways that men love, especially their children is by teaching. Instruction and teaching is a love language. Okay. It's not a love language that we talk about, but man, you know you got a good dad if they taught you how to tie a tie. You know you got a good dad. They taught you how to change a tire. You know you got a good dad. They taught you how to invest money. You know you got a good dad when they gave you wisdom. Me and my wife love our son equally, but we don't love our son the same. Part of the way that I love our son is by preparing him and training him for cruel, harsh world. Okay. And part of how I do that is by giving that boy wisdom. I'm constantly in teaching mode when it comes to my son. Okay. I'm constantly in instruction mode when it comes to my son. And I'm not saying moms don't do that. I'm not saying that wives don't do that.

I am saying that what we kind of call mansplaining in our world right now. I don't know if it's mansplaining. I just think men like to teach and instruct and make things as plain as possible. And the temptation is you know as a son, you could get into this mode where you're like I heard that story already. I heard my dad say that. Well, just because you heard your dad say it doesn't mean that your heart was ready to receive it. And so our heart posture when we approach proverbs needs to be, I'm in the seat of a son and my father is going to teach me some things. My heavenly father is going to teach me some things. Maybe some spiritual father is going to teach me some things. Or maybe my earthly dad is going to teach me some things because I have not learned everything that there is to learn and I need to attain wisdom. And I need to be in the seat to receive it. Okay, so there are seven nuggets that we're going to look at today. And we're going to fly through them. The number one nugget. I may not be able to get through all seven. I'll get through as many as I can. We'll maybe save some for another day. The number one thing that you're going to need to learn, okay, is the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. We're going to get this theme over and over and over and over and over. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. Now, is the fear of Yahweh the goal of wisdom? No, it's just the beginning. It's the first step. Why is it the first step? Well, it's the first step because when I fear him, that means I've placed him in his proper place. He's magnificent.

He's grand. He's transcendent. He's wise. So the fear of the Lord should create humility in me. It should put me in the learner's seat. There's a kind of a secular cliche proverb that says like, "Hard to teach somebody a lesson when they're winning." It means that failure actually opens you up to wanting to learn some stuff because failure creates humility. Proud people can't learn anything. So the first thing that you've got to learn is the fear of the Lord. There is no way you're arrogant when you realize how insignificant you are in the grand scheme. In the grand scheme of life. Like when you realize that God's infinite in your finite, that he is omnipotent and you're not. And you realize he's omniscient and you're not. The fear of the Lord should put you in proper perspective. And so you can only attain wisdom if you have humility, okay? So that's going to be a massive theme. And I want you to begin to just track that theme even in these first three chapters. Number two, the purpose of the whole book of Proverbs is found in verses two to six of Proverbs chapter one. Okay, that's our second nerdy nugget. Okay, it says this, "For gaining wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for receiving instruction and prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young." Okay, we'll talk about this probably tomorrow or the next day or the next day. next day. Let the wise listen and add to their learning. So this book is not just for the young or for for sons, but it's also for people who are already wise. Because people who are already wise, guess what they want, more wisdom, because you can never have enough. They can add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance for understanding proverbs and parables in the sayings and riddles of the wise, OK, that is the purpose of the book. So if you ever wondering, what's Proverbs up to? Well, you just read Proverbs chapter one, verses two to six.

Number three, we're going to see this today, tomorrow, most days when we look at the Proverbs, that wisdom is personified as a woman. OK, now I think that this is important because it culminates in Proverbs 31 and Proverbs 31, what's going to happen? So there's going to be this, the book of Proverbs is going to end on a wife of noble character. And a lot of people will take that wife of noble character literally. But every other time wisdom was personified as a woman throughout the book, we took it not literally. I think actually the goal of the entirety of the book of Proverbs, the reason that it ends with a wife of noble character is because I think Proverbs is trying to get you to fall in love with a woman named wisdom. So Proverbs wants you to marry wisdom. And I would say before you marry anybody, you should marry wisdom. And the only way to even choose a spouse well is to first marry wisdom. And we got a lot of people who don't want to choose a spouse, they want God to choose a spouse for them. And I just want to be very clear. There's no time in the Bible where God tells another person who to marry. Now you can argue with me, you can get mad in the comments, you can debate. That doesn't mean I don't care what you do. I'm wise. So foolish people argue, I'm not going to argue, you know, you could argue with me all you want. But God wants you to marry wisdom so that whoever you do marry is a wise choice. And a lot of people want to advocate their responsibility in choosing a spouse because they are scared of the consequences of making a bad decision. But you won't make a bad decision if you actually marry wisdom before you marry anybody else. OK, so wisdom is personified as a woman, really, really, really important. Next, number four, you're going to see this all throughout the book, a proverbs that wisdom is valuable and profitable. OK, so just here we go. You can be offended, you know, it is what it is. I don't take advice from broke people. OK, I don't. Part of my rule for my life is whatever, like poor people are doing, I don't do it. I don't do what poor people are doing. OK, I don't I don't find poverty to be something that is inherently holy or or any like I just I don't I don't do what poor people do. OK, so proverbs chapter two, verse one says store up wisdom like its currency.

Proverbs two, verse four says that, you know what? Wisdom is like silver. It's like hidden treasure. Chapter two, verse seven says that wisdom brings success. Chapter three, verse four says that wisdom brings favor. Chapter three, verse nine says that wisdom brings wealth. Chapter three, verse 14 says wisdom is better than silver or gold. Chapter three, verse 15 says it's better than rubies. OK, chapter three, verse 16 says it's it brings riches. OK, so so proverbs is going to make a link not just between wisdom and in femininity or womanhood, but it's got to make correlation between wisdom and profitability, OK, profitability. One one of the things that I say all the time, if it don't make dollars, it don't make sense like like you you're proof to me that something is wise is the will it lead to wealth or will it lead to poverty? And if you're uncomfortable with that as a as a kind of a life model, you're going to be uncomfortable with problems because problems essentially going to say a big reason and not do a whole bunch of things because that leads to being poor. Last nerdy nugget that I'll give you is that in this elite into our Thomas truth, what you're going to see is that wisdom is going to get exalted and esteemed as a agent of creativity and creation. OK, so what the book of problems is going to say is that the Lord used wisdom before he laid the foundation of the earth. OK, this is chapter three. This is Proverbs chapter three verse 19 says this by wisdom, the Lord laid the earth's foundations by understanding he set the heavens in place by his knowledge. The watery depths were divided and the clouds let drop the dew. OK, so wisdom is is going to be seen as a powerful agent that was with Yahweh in the creation of the cosmos. Okay, so this is a creation. Okay? This is our time of truth for today.

This is Proverbs chapter 3 verse 18. Proverbs chapter 3 verse 18. Wisdom, the she hears wisdom. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. Those who hold her fast will be blessed. A tree of life. What is Proverbs actually advertising? It's actually saying, hey, in the Garden of Eden, there's a tree of knowledge, of good and evil. And because Adam and Eve chose to take it, instead of waiting on God's timing to receive it, they then forfeited their right to the tree of life, okay? Because they took something, instead of waiting to receive it, now they forfeited their ability to get access to the tree of life. And what Proverbs is saying is Proverbs and all of wisdom in the Bible, saying, God wants you to have knowledge of good and evil. And I'll talk about why in later days as we continue our trek through Proverbs. God wants you to have the knowledge of good and evil, but He also wants you to have a tree of life. And that's not just true for Solomon. That's true for you and I. We need both the knowledge of good and evil and we need the tree of life. And so what Proverbs is doing is it's offering a way back to the Garden of Eden. And it's going to do that in subtle ways by saying that Solomon talked about plant life in animals. But it's also going to do that in blatant ways like saying like wisdom is a tree of life, okay? What tree of life? The one that was in the Garden of Eden, all right? Wisdom offers you a way to have knowledge of good and evil, but not take it in sin, but receive it,

which means I'm not forfeiting my ability to access the tree of life, which God has for all of those who actually obey Him, who have trusted in the shed blood of Jesus. And that is timelessly true. It's true when Solomon wrote these words and it's true today that God wants you to get back to your original design, which is found in the Garden of Eden, the Garden where people flourish. All right, tomorrow is day 303. We're going to be looking at Proverbs, chapters four through six. I can't wait. Some of my favorite verses in the Bible are in Proverbs, chapters four through six. I hope that today's episode is giving you kind of a 30,000 foot view, bird's eye view on the book of Proverbs as a whole. We're going to have fun over the next couple of days. I'm going to figure out how many days we're actually in Proverbs because I am pumped. I love this book. I'm so proud of you, especially if you're on the street. Love you, love you, love you. I see you tomorrow, same time, same place, as we continue walking through the book of Proverbs together. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebobledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.