Day 303: Proverbs 4-6 | 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. (soft music) Family, welcome to day 303 here at the Bible Department. I'm super, super excited to jump into Proverbs chapters four, five, and six today if you have not done the reading. Come on, get your life together. Do the reading. If you haven't done the reading today, I want you to stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done, and then come back. There may be books where you could say like, "No, I really want to hear what Pastor Man has to say first, then I want to do the reading." But Proverbs is like the most, I would say probably one of the easiest books of the Bible to understand. It means what it says, it says what it means. And so, I want you to get the reading done first, then come listen to the episode for everyone who has done the reading. If you have read Proverbs four, five, and six, let's dive in, all right? First, just context clue. I may give two context clues today and then we'll dive into a bunch of nerdy nuggets. I have six written down, we'll see how many I get through.

Okay, for our first context clue, I just want everyone to know wisdom literature is not exclusive to the Bible, okay? There's actually a plethora. This is common, this literature was common throughout the ancient world. Similar material to Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes have been found in Egypt, Mesopotamia, some well over a thousand years older than what we find here in the book of Proverbs, okay? So this style of writing, putting wise sayings in one liners, like that's not something Solomon invents, that's not something that's like exclusive to the Bible. I actually wanna read you an Egyptian proverb, but before I do, I'll just say this. In fact, we'll actually see this later. Some of the material here in Proverbs finds it's origin from outside Israel, okay? So this type of literature was primarily teaching people about how to live righteous or successful lives or how to live in harmony with the pagan gods, okay? So this literature is not exclusive to the biblical text. This is actually widespread throughout the ancient Near East. And here's an Egyptian proverb says this, "Do not stretch out your hand against an old man "and do not speak first to a great man. "Do not begin any dispute with the hotmouth "and do not attack him with words." These are both taken from an Egyptian hieroglyph from the 12th dynasty, okay?

So this is 1991 to 1785 BC, okay? 1991 to 1785 BC, okay? So again, you can see how that kinda sounds like a proverb, right? Do not stretch out your hand against an old man and do not speak first to a great man. Do not begin any dispute with the hotmouth. I love hotmouth. That's a great way to just call someone, you know, temper, you know, hotheaded, someone with a temper. Do not begin any dispute with the hotmouth and do not attack him with words. So what you'll begin to realize is that what happens to a lot of these secular proverbs, they actually do find their way into the book of proverbs and they kinda get what I call baptized. They'll take the word raw out of an Egyptian proverb and Solomon will put the word Yahweh in because here's what's interesting. Truth is truth, like this right here, right? Do not stretch out your hand against an old man and do not speak first to a great man. Like that's true. Whether it's found in an Egyptian proverb or a biblical proverb, it's wise. Like that is a wise way to live life. Actually Paul says something very similar to Timothy. He's like, "Hey, hey, there's guys in the church "who are older than you and I wanna give you wisdom "on how to lead people who are older than you,

"how to honor those who are older than you." James says the same thing in terms of do not speak first to a great man. James is gonna say, "Hey, when you show up to a bank "but don't take the seat of honor." Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's presumptuous. You're better off taking a bad seat and getting moved up to a seat of honor. and then having to get moved to the cheap seats, okay? So even though these words don't find their way in the Bible, these ideas do, and that's the thing about wisdom. Wisdom is like, it's universal, okay? And so I wanna remind everybody, there's this passage that I love, pretty sure it's first Timothy chapter three. I can actually Google it really, really quick just to make sure that I've got the right passage. I'm actually really glad that I looked this up in logos. I said first Timothy, it's second Timothy. Second Timothy chapter three, and we are gonna start reading in verse 15. It says, "And how from infancy "you have known the holy scriptures." This is Paul talking to Timothy. And in speaking of the scriptures, this is what Paul says, "Which are able to make you wise for salvation, "wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." And then he says, "All scriptures are God breathed

"and useful for teaching." But before we even get to that part, which is really popular, verse 16 is very, very popular. Verse 15 says that the scriptures hold in them the power of wisdom that prepares you for salvation. And I think a lot of times we're trying to offer the world, the secular world around us, like truth. And not to say that the church doesn't have a lot of truth to offer, but I think that we have so much wisdom to offer and wisdom prepares people for salvation. Because guess what the wisest thing is that you could ever do? Surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus. But it's hard to get someone to surrender their life to the lordship of Jesus if they have a habit of doing a bunch of unwise things. And so Dave Ramsey, a great example. Dave Ramsey just takes practical wisdom. 50% of what that man talks about is straight from the book of Proverbs. Don't get into debt, you know, flee from debt in ways like a gazelle's trying to flee from a trap. Like this is wisdom. And by offering wisdom around finances, what begins to happen is people begin to want to govern their whole life according to wisdom. Because wisdom is there to prepare you for salvation. And I think that there's wisdom.

My pet peeve are Christians who are deep, but not wise. So they're spiritual, but they're just not wise. And the world needs wisdom, man. People need wisdom on how to navigate their marriage, how to do parenting, how to do their finances, how to navigate business. People need wisdom. And I actually think that the best form of evangelism that we have for dying world around us, people who are going to hell is being wise, being wise people who live wise lives and who can make Christ attractive through the wisdom of our life, okay? So I know those are big 30,000 foot ideas. And that's kind of, you know, I want us to wrap our minds around that context clue. And now let's get into some nerdy nuggets, okay? When we look at Proverbs chapters four through six, there's a couple things I just want to observe, okay? Proverbs chapter four verse one, Proverbs chapter four verse 10, Proverbs chapter four verse 20, Proverbs chapter five verse one, Proverbs chapter five verse 20, Proverbs chapter six verse one, Proverbs chapter six verse three, Proverbs chapter six verse 20, just in these three chabs of the Bible, we get eight illusions or references to my son, okay? That the tone of the book of Proverbs is a father

sitting down with his son, like pleading with his son to learn wisdom, okay? To learn wisdom, please be wise. Please remember my words. Please remember my teaching. Please remember the lessons that I want to share with you. I got to download wisdom in your heart into your mind, okay? That's the first nerdy nugget. It's just these eight times where it's over and over and over and over. And you always want to remember in the Bible repetition means that things are important, okay? When God wants to emphasize something that he repeats it, over and over and over and over and over. So Proverbs 4-1, 4-10, 4-20, 5-1, 5-26, 1-6-3, and 6-20. All emphasize the fact that God is speaking through the author to give wisdom to a son, okay? Number two, Proverbs chapter four verse seven is gonna make it clear that you should pay any cost in order to attain wisdom, okay? I'll go to chapter four verse seven. It says this, the beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom. I love that. The beginning of wisdom is this, get it, okay? Get wisdom. And I love this the second half of the verse. Though it costs you all you have, get understanding. Though it costs you all you have, get understanding. it's worth all the money you could pay. Go get wisdom, go get understanding.

It's funny because wisdom is never gonna go on sale. It's not cheap. Wisdom will always cost you something. I'll kind of give you a couple of stories of how I spent a lot in order to gain wisdom. First thing, I just wanna let you know this, that people that graduate with a four year degree from college, 'cause college is expensive, okay? The school that I went to, I think, was like 120 grand for four years, okay? So college is expensive, and I need you to know this. People who end up going to school, stay married longer. People who end up going to college end up making minimum half a million dollars more throughout their career. Why? Because the number one thing that school provides is not information, it's wisdom. Wisdom on how to talk to adults. Wisdom, when you're 17 years old and you're 18, you've gotta negotiate with a 45 year old professor on whether or not, can I take this exam next week? Or hey, it's the point of college is not the grade. People are like, I just don't understand what I'm gonna get out of it. You're gonna get wisdom. That's the point. You're gonna get wisdom, and yes, it's gonna cost you. But you should pay the price. Why?

Because wisdom is worth attaining. There's a season where I was a youth pastor. We did a youth and young adult conference three years in a row. First year, 500 youth and young adults showed up. Second year, 1,000, third year, almost 2,000 youth and young adults. Well, by that third year, that conference was profitable. There were enough people showing up to that event that it was profitable, right? That conference didn't lose money. That conference actually gained money. And so what happened though, in the first year, is that we lost 30,000 dollars, okay? In order to get to the point where it was profitable, I had to spend 30,000 dollars, essentially wasting money. And I remember I was sitting down with our executive paths at the time, and he went, did you just lose 30,000 dollars of like church resources? And I looked at him and said, I didn't lose 30,000 dollars. I spent 30 dollars to learn how to do a conference. He was like, man, your ability to talk your way, he's like, I should be firing you. Like, I cannot believe you used 30,000 dollars of church finances to do some conference that wasn't really a win. But guess what, they let me do it the next year. You know why? 'Cause I quoted Proverbs chapter four verse seven.

Though wisdom cost everything you have. Spend the money, spend it, why? Because in spending it, you are gaining an understanding of how to do something. I could go to learn a conference, learn how to do a conference.com, or I could spend 30,000 dollars actually doing a conference. And by the third year, we were profitable because I infested the resources to learn how to do something. Get wisdom, get wisdom. The first ministry job I ever had, I think I was getting paid like 22,000 dollars a year. I had to live with my parents in order to get the job. I couldn't even move out of my parents' house. But I learned how to do hospital visits. I learned how to do weddings. I learned how to do funerals. I learned how to run a prayer meeting. I learned how to preach. I gained wisdom. And my pet peeve are like 20 year olds who like want to get paid a lot of money to do their job. And it's like, first of all, you know, I was at this church called Home Church and I was in Red Deer, Alberta, which is Canada. And the senior pastor's dad was in the room. And the senior pastor's father was kind of talking about how these two dudes that were in the church, his son now leading the church

in his 40s, maybe 50s and their executive pastor who's also in their 40s or 50s. He said, yeah, I hired these guys when they were 21. You know, I hired these guys like 30 years ago because that senior pastor's dad at one point was leading the church and the transition of church to his son. And he said, yeah, I hired them when they were 21. And he said, and I didn't pay him a dime. Said I didn't pay him nothing 'cause they weren't worth nothing. And I just laughed. I was like, man, this is why we need old people. This is why we need older people because he just looked and he was like, why would I pay you? You make mistakes. You don't do what I tell you to do. Like, you don't know what you're doing. I'm not gonna pay anything 'cause you're not worth paying. And you know, my friend who's the senior pastor's name, pastor Jake and Mullen, he said, yeah, that's exactly what my dad said. He said, but guess what I did? I made sure that I attained wisdom so that in five years, I did ask for a salary because at that point, I actually had the experience and expertise to ask for a salary. You know how many 22-year-olds I've met You're, you should be paying me to be around me

'cause I'm successful. And I think that that offends a lot of young people. But the reality is that Proverbs says get wisdom. Although it costs you everything you have, get wisdom. There's a young man in the studio with us right now who like we were paying him to like edit content. And then, you know, a couple of years ago we said, hey, man, like we've been paying you to like travel with Pastor Mani and edit content. But, you know, as we go into 2024, we're gonna offer you an unpaid internship in Dallas. This kid lived in North Carolina at the time. We're gonna offer you an unpaid internship in Dallas. We're not gonna pay you a dime. And, you know, if you wanna learn, hey, man, we're gonna take you off of salary. We're gonna ask that you move your life across the country and that you would trust us and be a part of an unpaid internship. And that kid's name is Kenwell, and he did that. And you wanna know why he did that? Because the beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom. Though it cost you everything you have, get wisdom. And I think a lot of us, we think that a check is more valuable than wisdom. And the moment you think that money is more valuable than wisdom, you'll never have wisdom. And which also means you'll never have money either because the number one way to get money is to first get wisdom. And there's a lot of young people, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,

you've prioritized securing the bag instead of prioritizing securing wisdom, which means you jeopardize both, which means you don't get wisdom or the bag. And the reality is that if you actually just prioritize getting wisdom, the bag would come find you because money finds wise people. And it runs away from foolish people. You could actually get a lot of money. And if you're a fool, you don't know how to steward it. And so you could win the lottery in 95% of people who win the lottery for millions of dollars go broke within three years, why? 'Cause money is not the thing that you need. It's wisdom. Without wisdom, you will be Alan Iverson. In his fifties made tons of money while he was playing in the NBA and is broke today. Why is he broke? Because he got money before he got wisdom. And now he's in his older years and he has wisdom and he's hoping to God that he can now secure more money but Proverbs chapter four verse seven. Get wisdom, get wisdom, get wisdom. It's the chief thing. I wanna ask you a question. I guess wisdom, the number one thing you're going after in your life, 'cause if it's not, I wanna challenge you to make some adjustments because you need wisdom.

And the world that we live in will tell you everything else is important, you know? And the reality is that I'm not saying money's not important. But what I am saying is that you can have all the money in the world, but if you don't know how to steward that money and if you don't know how to invest it and maintain it, then you have a wisdom problem. All right, 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 and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and 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 gonna 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. Proverbs chapter five is gonna talk about sexual temptation and discipline.

I actually wanna just give you one little nerdy nugget that verses 15 through 19 are actually pretty erotic. And by erotic, I mean like sexually explicit, okay? It says this in verse 15, "Drink water from your own cistern." That means have sex with your own wife. This is talking about bodily fluids. Like this is drink water from your own cistern, okay? And that running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, okay? Like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You can't be out here. You can't, you can't be, you can't let. So this language is purposely erotic on purpose. And this is what's happening. You'll see this with the next song. Why do I keep saying song? You'll see this is the next proverb as well. In Proverbs chapter six, it'll kind of, it's gonna give compelling imagery. I will actually want us to go to Proverbs chapter six. It says this in verse 26, "A father's giving his dad advice." And I know, okay, here's what you're gonna need to remember. This is a father's perspective to their son, okay? I know every guy kind of has a relationship with his son, which is like, "Hey man, don't tell your mom." I said this, "Man, but I just gotta talk to you man to man." All right? And Proverbs kind of has that vibe.

Like moms, wives may not like what Proverbs has to say, but this is like a dad talking to his son, okay? So this is, he says, "Avoid adulterous women at all costs." Okay, Proverbs chapter six, verse 26. He said, "Do not lust, actually verse 25, "do not lust in your heart after her beauty, "or captivate, or let her captivate you with her eyes." Okay, run, flee from the adulterous woman, okay? And then it says this, "And I know women may not like this. "You may not like this, but this is a man's perspective "to his son. "For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, "a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, "but another man's wife prays on your very life." A dad is essentially saying, "Brah, "if you are this hot and bothered, "go get a prostitute for a loaf of bread. "The price of a loaf of bread, "you could go sleep with a hook or a dude, "like what's wrong with you? "But another man's wife, here we go. "This is what happens if you have sex "with another man's wife," verse 34. "For jealousy arouses a husband's fury." Like, brother, you could go have sex with a prostitute and just pay, pay the price. It's a loaf of bread, it's cheap. Prostitute's a cheap. But set to another man's wife, you're gonna arouse a husband's fury.

And he will show you no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation. He will refuse a bribe, however great it is. Theory, okay? It's smarter. If you have to choose between sin and you have to choose between prostitute and have sex with somebody else's wife, avoid another man's wife at all costs. Again, we may not like this, but Proverbs is going to say why, okay? Why? Why should we avoid having sex with people's wives? Well, 'cause it leads to being broke. Broke, okay, Proverbs chapter five. It says this, like if you don't have self control over your sexual desires, here's what's gonna happen. It says, I'll actually start in verse eight. Keep to a path far from her. Who's her, the adulterous woman, okay? Do not go near the door of her house, AKA, avoid sin, don't fight it. Avoid temptation, don't fight it. Put no confidence in your flesh. Like, don't even go near the house, dude. Verse nine, lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity to one who is cruel, less strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another. Why should you avoid adultery? 'Cause you go broke. Like, Proverbs is like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Before we over-spiritualize this, before we're just kinda like, hey, you know, 'cause you love the Lord, Proverbs are gonna make it real simple. Hey, don't do this, lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity to one who is cruel, less strangers feast on your wealth, on your wealth. I was talking to a person who's a mentor, a spiritual leader of my life, a spiritual father of my life, a pastor. It was just kind of a man-to-man moment, and we were talking about another pastor who had a moral failure, and this leader just kinda looked at me and just went. They lost a half a million dollar book deal. Like, over an enough there, I'm sorry. And I've never had a sexual experience worth half a million dollars, never, never. And if you really like asked me, like, why am I faithful to my wife? I would say, hey, 'cause I love the Lord of a hundred percent. Be, because I cannot fathom my son looking me in the face and not having respect for me, okay? And then number three, 'cause I'm too successful to do dumb stuff. I'm sorry, but I'm not losing my home. I'm not losing my career over what? Over 30 minutes.

Over what, a night? Yeah, right. This is ridiculous. I remember there was a season of my life. There was this two year window where I was just dating someone who I shouldn't have been dating. And every time I would go to this girl's house, there was street cleaning that was on the street that I parked on where I would go visit this girl. And I would be spending the night. I was having sex outside of marriage. I was just an idiot, just being an idiot, you know? And I remember there was two times where my car got towed. Like I'm leaving her house at like five, six o'clock in the morning, and I'm coming out to the street and my car's gone. And I remember like having to go to the city impound to like get my car out. And you know what? After the second time, you know, I broke up with this girl. I stopped having sex with her, and I took the receipt of the like $300 that I had to pay to get my car out of the impound, and I framed it. And I was like, the next time I'm so full of lust that I'm not thinking straight, I'm just gonna think about the money I had to spend getting my car out of the impound. And I think that there are some of us,

like you actually need to come face to face with the failure that is on the other side of you making foolish sexual decisions. And the thing that Proverbs does that no other book of the Bible does is that Proverbs paints this imagery for us that you can't really shake. It's not a law, like there are other books of the Bible that will explain this in like law form or like covenant form or commandment form. But Proverbs doesn't do that. Proverbs explains things with the poetry and the imagery that just makes you go, yo man, I can't remember all the super deep reasons, but I can remember, hey, if I lack discipline, I will be broke. Okay, cool, I gotcha, I gotcha. And so Proverbs is going to say over and over and over and over. Hey son, you gotta practice sexual purity for all kinds of awesome reasons. But if you don't have those awesome reasons, let me give you reasons that I know will motivate you because you don't want strangers to feast on your well or your toil to enrich the house of another. What good is it if I spend all these years building up the orango name and the orango brand and the Bible department brand and the armor brand and then I go and I cheat on my wife and now my son has nothing to inherit.

And that would be a shame, that would be a literal shame. The biggest thing I could give my son is a good name. And the only way to give him a good name is to live a pure life. And more than money, I don't wanna just leave something to him, I wanna leave something in him. And the main thing I wanna leave to him is a good name that he can go anywhere in America and say the name orango and that name opened doors for him. And I would forfeit my ability to give him a good name if I would make a short sighted decision and go to the house of adultery or let the woman of adultery lead me. And man, that's a timeless truth. Can I ask you a hard question? Are you intimately aware of the consequences that would befall you if you were actually to follow your foolish desires? Because a lot of us are living in a fantasy and you are living in best case scenario. You think that you can sin and get away with it, but Proverbs causes us to come back to the reality that no, no, no, no, your failures, your faults, your mistakes will catch up to you. And when they catch up to you, they will 100% make sure that your life is nowhere close to the level of success that you could have had had you led a life that was pleasing to the Lord. That's not just true for Solomon and his son. That's not just true for David and his son.

That's true for me. That's true for you. All right. Tomorrow we've got Proverbs chapter seven through nine. We're gonna be right here for day 304. I'm so, so, so, so, so, so excited that we're trekking through the book of Proverbs. Anyone who needs to be shaking awake with some wisdom, you're gonna get it as we trek through the book of Proverbs because Proverbs is here to say things in the most plain way so that you can live a life of wisdom. I'll see you right here tomorrow. I love you so much. Till next time, peace. - Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, To learn more about the show, head to thebobbledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.