Day 309: Proverbs 22-24 | 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. (gentle music) Family, welcome to day 309 here at the Bible Department. Today, we are looking at Proverbs chapter 22, 23, and 24. And you'll notice, if you've done the reading, you will notice that things have shifted, all right? So I actually have a lot of context to share with you today. I know the last couple of days we haven't really needed to go heavy in a context. It's just like, hey, affirmisms by solemn, right? These sentence sayings that we've been getting from Solomon for the last couple of days. Well, today we actually have some context. So before I dive into context clues, let me say what I say every day. If you haven't done the reading, you can stop this video, pause the audio, go get the reading done. You're really, really, really going to want to dig into these Proverbs today. It's a good change of pace. You're gonna notice as soon as we get into Proverbs 22, just a difference in tone. And there's a good reason for that difference in tone.

And so with no further ado, for everyone who has done the reading, let's dive into our context clues. Okay, this is perhaps the most intriguing part of the Book of Proverbs. And maybe actually one of the most interesting parts of scripture itself. As this smaller collection of aphorisms, after Solomon's main section is very similar to collections that have been found in Egypt. In particular, they are very close to a collection known as the wisdom of, and I always struggle with this name. Okay, so you're gonna have to have grace for me. Amenomope, amenemope, amenemope, amenemope. There you go. The wisdom of amenemope, amenemope. I think I'm saying that correctly. Who knows? I don't know how to read hieroglyphics and I don't know how Egyptian words are pronounced. So the wisdom of amenemope, okay? The dates for that are circa 1186 BC to 1170 BC. And this is a book of Egyptian Proverbs. That's what makes this so fascinating. The bulk of our reading today is straight up Proverbs taken from an Egyptian book of Proverbs, written around 200 years before Solomon wrote his Proverbs. It is thought by many scholars that what we have here are actually Egyptian Proverbs that have been taken by an unknown Hebrew wise man

and incorporated into the Hebrew wisdom tradition. They are not identical as the Egyptian original would of course have many references to pagan Egyptian gods. The Israelites would therefore have, I'm putting in air quotes, cleaned them up before adding them, which means they would adapt them for use in the Hebrew tradition. That means, let's say Proverbs 22. God, I just want to give you an example. Proverbs 22 verse 23, well, we can start at verse 22. Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the media in court for the Lord, okay? For Yahweh will take up their case and will exact life for life. All right, that Proverb chapter 22 verse 22 to 23 says Yahweh. So when we say like clean them up in the original Egyptian manuscript, it would have said raw, okay, or maybe some other pagan God. And so what has happened with all of these Proverbs? And you can see it starts at verse 17. Chapter 22 verse 17, there's a little heading in my Bible that says 30 sings of the wise, okay? So Solomon's content is done by verse 16. And then we have a break in the middle of the chapter. And chapter 22 verse 17, we're now gonna get 30 sayings of the wise. Well, these 30 sayings of the wise are straight up Egyptian Proverbs and they've been yalified.

So the words like Ra or Horace or Apep or whatever Egyptian God, the wise men of Egypt would have attributed these affirmisms to. The Hebrew writers have taken those pagan names out and put the word or the name Yahweh in, okay? This is fascinating and gives valuable insight into both the ancient world of wisdom this ancient wisdom world was that Hebrew wisdom writers were aware of Egyptian wisdom and respected it. That's so important, right? We can see another glimpse of this in 1 Kings chapter 4 verse 30 when Solomon's wisdom was compared to the best examples of wisdom traditions at the time. Here's what it says. So that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt, which means Egypt was known for producing wisdom collections and wisdom content. Egypt was known to have great wisdom, okay? The civilization was built on wisdom. And this verse here in 1 Kings chapter 4 verse 30 is used to show just how wise Solomon was. And these wiser than the wisdom of Egypt, and that must mean these really, really, really wise. And so what we see here in Proverbs is almost like we get 1 Kings chapter 4 verse 30 played out in real time. Let's put the wisdom of Egypt right next to the wisdom of Solomon and anybody can judge whether or not it's as wise or less wise or more wise or whatever, okay? Here's another fascinating angle on this. It gives a flip side to the way the nations are often portrayed in Scripture. Up until this point, it's really just the negative influence of idolatry, false suzerance, oppression that we've seen in terms of like the nation's contribution to what we have in the Scriptures. And so it's almost like all Gentile influences lumped together under the banner of paganism, okay? And pagan influence that must be avoided. In fact, you get the message loud and clear through the prophets that Israel was meant to draw the nation close to Yahweh, but instead the nations had drawn Israel further from Yahweh. But here, here in Proverbs, we have Gentile wisdom from none other than the original great enemy of Israel, Egypt. That is seen as valuable, okay? Obviously, you know, idolatrous references and names and pagan gods are removed and it's cleaned up. But still, there's a redeeming quality to this secular wisdom. And this wisdom has enough value to be added to a work that would be added to Scripture itself, okay? So that is incredible. By the way, this isn't like the first time

Scripture has done this, all right? What might surprise the casual readers of the Bible is how much of it finds its roots outside of Israel. Much is, shall we say, borrowed from the nations around it. Israel's creation stories share much in common with the Egyptian ones. Its flood in other ancient stories share a lot in common with Mesopotamian stories. Israel was not the first culture to have a mobile temple containing their God in a box. In fact, the design of the Tabernacle in later temple shares the same layout of other temples and shrines that belong to pagans, okay? Even in the New Testament, Paul uses him to Zeus in other Greek philosophy quotes and poems to speak about Jesus. And beyond this, the church has a long history of using Roman and other cultures' images to tell the gospel story. This is what we do, like the legacy of the Judeo-Christian faith is a legacy of appropriating culture. Like, essentially, Judeo-Christian worldview essentially says, oh, that's true. And if it's true, it reflects God. So let's go ahead and take it. Whatever's true, it isn't as true. If it's wise, if it's true, if it's good, yeah. Every human's been made in the image of God. So that means that every culture has innate elements that reflect the glory of God. And every culture has innate elements that are opposed to the kingdom of God. And so this is just theology and action, okay? Us having a bunch of Egyptian proverbs right here, smack dab in the middle of your Bible? Like, I don't know. You got to wrestle with that. And I'm trying to help us kind of process that together. Samhaly, 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 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.

All right, let's wrap this section up so that we can get to nerdy nuggets, okay? What are we to make of all this? Well, simply put God speaks to us in our own language. God wants to communicate in ways that people will actually understand, okay? God is not really interested in talking to us in ways that we're not familiar with. This is what we find in scripture. That same everyday experience of God speaking in a time, language, and culture, but because it is the Bible, those cultures and linguistic references are now frozen in place as they were written down and added to God's word, okay? So we're gonna look at the 30 sayings of the wise that start in verse 17 of chapter 22, and they're actually gonna go all the way up until chapter 25, okay? Once we get to chapter 25, we get back to Solomon, okay? So the majority of our reading today, straight, Egyptian, pagan wisdom, and I love it. Let me give you, let's move it to our nerdy nuggets. I don't have a lot of time, I'm just gonna rapid fire some of these that I just think are really good, okay? Proverbs chapter 22, verse one says this, a good name is more desirable than great riches. To be esteemed is better than silver or gold. Amen, a good name. What do I wanna pass along to my son? A good name, that the orango name is a good name.

And if you have a bad credit score, you don't have a good name. Let's just start with that, okay? A good name, you want a good name. A good name is what would make a bank loan you money that you have a good name. That means you pay your debts, okay, a good name. So you can't say, well, everybody that I know, trust me, but the bank doesn't trust me. No, no, no, no, a good name, okay, a good name. And I get it, life happens, but you need to, you should have a good name, okay? Proverbs chapter 22, verse 24 to 25 says this, "Do not make friends with a hot tempered person. "Do not associate with one easily angered. "For you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. "Two things that I wanna say about that. "Number one, there's a dangers to being around "hot tempered people, easily angered people. "Also, what this proverb is really getting at "is that the characteristics of your friendship group "are gonna eventually rub off on you. "And if you think they're not, "then you've placed confidence in the flesh. "And at some point you need to be humble and realize, "I'm influenced. "I'm not the only one with influence. "There are people with influence who are influencing me, okay? "Proverbs 22, verse 29, "Do you see someone skilled in their work?

"They will serve before kings. "They will not serve before officials of low rank." I love this verse, and I remember learning this verse when I was a young adult, and I began to realize that, although I was raised in poverty, my dad was incarcerated for 18 years, took me to a crack house when I was five, my mom was pregnant at the age of 12, was on welfare, and government assistance, and section eight, and you know, everything else is raised in poverty. I began to realize that excellence was my way out of poverty. What you see when it says, do you see someone skilled in their work? They'll serve before kings. So I decided, I'm gonna be the most skilled communicator I can be. If preaching's what I'm gonna do, you better believe I'm gonna be the most skilled person at it, okay? So a culture of excellence, being excellent, being detail-oriented, being skilled, incredible, incredible. Proverbs chapter 23, verse four. Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Do not trust your own cleverness. That's a good one, man. We got a lot of people wearing themselves out to get rich. What should you wear yourself out to do? Proverbs chapter six, verses one to five,

says that there are some things you should wear yourself out for, and it's not to get rich, okay? Proverbs chapter six, verse one to five. So do this my son, I'm in verse three. So do this my son to free yourselves and to have fallen into your neighbor's hands. Go to the point of exhaustion and give your neighbor no rest. Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the Fowler, okay? So it's saying, no, no, no, no, don't. If you're in debt, you go to the point of exhaustion. So I wanna create some tension here. Chapter 23, verse four. We do not wear ourselves out to get rich, but Proverbs chapter six says, it is okay to wear yourself out to get out of debt. And those are different, okay? Next one, rapid fire, okay? Proverbs 23, verses 10. Proverbs 23, verses 10. And 11 says, do not move in ancient boundaries stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless. For their defender is strong, Okay, so God, again, God loves the poor, okay? Do not move in ancient boundary stone or encroaching the field to the fatherless, okay?

God loves the orphan, okay? And those who don't have a father, God becomes their father. He becomes their defender. That's a good, good, good, good, good, good verse, okay? Don't take advantage of people who are in a precarious place in society. Like, don't take advantage of the vulnerable. Don't do that. Chapter 23 verses 19. Listen to my son and be wise and let your heart and set your heart on the right path. Do not join those who drink too much wine. Don't do it. So you got friends who drink a lot, mm-mm, steer clear. And there's before vehicles. So the issue isn't just getting hit by a, you know, being in the car with a drunk driver. It's just, this is not wise. It's not good to associate with people who drink a lot. Or gourds themselves on meat for drunkards and gluttons become poor. And drowsiness clothes them in rags, okay? These kind of people become poor. Drunkards and gluttons, oof. That's just like saying people who love pleasure are gonna become poor. Don't do it, okay? That should be six. Rapid fire versus, okay?

Number seven, Proverbs 23 verse 29. Who has woe, who has sorrow, who has strife, who has complaints, who has needless bruises, who has bloodshot eyes. Lot of rhetorical question, back to back to back to back to back. Those who linger over wine, uh-oh, uh-oh. Now remember, these are written by Egyptian heathens. These ain't even, this is not even like Hebrew content. This is written by the strongest content to oppose alcohol written by pagans. Actually one of the biggest reasons that I have completely gone like, kind of anti-alcohol is because there's this big movement right now that's just based on health, that has proven scientifically that all alcohol is poison. Like that is not even good for you. Like from a, just from a health benefits perspective, people who are not Christian are going totally absent when it comes to alcohol. Meanwhile you got Christians fighting for their Christian liberties. You know, fighting for their Christian right to drink. So backwards, you got a secular world of people who are making health decisions to cold plunge and join run clubs and not drink. And then you got Christians over here who are fat and drinking. Oh man, this is just, whoa, it's bass-acquards. That's what it is, it's bass-acquards. Anytime you got, you know, people that don't know God

leading the way, we got a problem. So I decided, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. In no way I'm letting unsaved, lost people make healthier decisions than me. And here we have Egyptian pagan heathens who are warning against the power of wine, those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end, it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Don't get fooled, man, don't get fooled. Okay, that's 23 versus 29 to 32. Then Proverbs chapter 24, verses 13, is another one in my top 10 for the day. Proverbs chapter 24 verse 13. Eat honey, my son for it is good. Honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. Know also that wisdom is like honey for you. It tastes good, wisdom tastes good. I love the visual, like I could taste honey right now. And essentially the author, whoever this Egyptian author is the original Egyptian author and whoever the Hebrew reducter is or editor is saying, yep, wisdom is like honey for you. If you find it, there is a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off. Eat, eat, eat wisdom, consume wisdom like it's honey.

That's good, man. Proverbs chapter 24 verse 16. For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes. Why do the wicked keep getting up? 'Cause they have no ego. They're not dependent on their own selves. They're dependent on the Lord. When the wicked person falls in public, they're so full of shame because everything is based on them. It's really a surprise to you. But for the righteous person, it's all God. I'm not embarrassed to fall, which gives me the determination to get back up. I love it. Proverbs 24 verse 30 is the last one. I went past the field of a slugger. That means a lazy person, a slothful person. Past a vineyard of someone who has no sense. Thorns had come up. to be thinking about the Garden of Eden here. There's strong Eden imagery. Verse 32, I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. I had that memorized. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. It's a good one to memorize. Not originally a Hebrew proverb, but Egyptian proverb that got adopted, yowified, and put into our virus. All right, let me leave off with the timeless truth for the day. It's Proverbs chapter 22, verse 28. Proverbs chapter 22, verse 28, and it says this, do not move in ancient boundary stones set up by your ancestors. Do not move in ancient boundary

stones set up by your ancestors. So let me give it to you as a nerdy nugget and as a timeless truth. What is this verse saying? It's saying don't steal property from your neighbor. Okay, boundary stones are there to make sure that everyone who got the land they inherited from the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandpants that all the land is still theirs. Okay. I don't know if you have ever been on TikTok and you watch people argue over where a fence should be to separate their land. It's just like, man, people just fighting tooth and nail over like a couple of inches or a couple of feet. So some things just haven't changed. And so the proverb is saying, don't be dishonest. Don't lie. Don't move a boundary stone. Boundary stones are put in place to know the boundary of their land versus yours. Okay, but then I think it has a timeless truth to it as well. Number one, boundaries are important. It's important to know where my land ends and yours begins. It's really important to know how to suffer, not for someone, but with someone, how to create proper boundaries in my life. My therapist diagnosed me with enmeshment years ago. And it meant that me and my mother had no boundaries. Okay, we had an enmeshed relationship and I carried her burdens for her. Instead of helping her carry her burdens, I carried her burdens for her. This is a codependent relationship. So I think the timeless truth here is whoa, whoa, whoa, you got to know where the boundary stones are. You got to have good boundaries. And then next set up by your ancestors. Okay, do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors. I think the emphasis in this verse is on the words ancient and ancestors, which means there are some things that we've inherited as Christians that are based on 2000 years of history, and we shouldn't go meddling with it. Okay, so if every single Christian from the time of Jesus up until a hundred years ago, all said homosexuality is a sin, then I'm not about to trust some new theologian who now all of a sudden 2000 years later, you know, wants to break off from the boundary stone, the ancient boundary stone that God set up. So I'm a leery of like new ideas. That doesn't mean I'm not down to innovate. It just means the moment we start going, you know, veering away from what Christianity actually is and has been historically, I get like, I get, I start to glitch. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we need to stay tethered to what historical Orthodox Christianity is. I think that's very, very, very, very, very important.

We're not making up our own rules out here. There's an ancient way to do this. There's a way that our ancestors have taught us how to do this. And I think we should be faithful to run our leg of this relay race because we're not the first generation to make this stuff up and we're not the last. So I hope that's a helpful Thomas truth. Tomorrow, we are in Proverbs 25 to 27 for day 310. If you're on a streak, I'm so proud of you. If you're not on a streak, I love you. I'll see you right here tomorrow, same place, same time, 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 thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.