Pages

Thursday 5 September 2013

Proverbs 1:8-33 - Heed Wisdom

People should listen to their fathers and mothers. Conversely, a sign of the disobedience at the end of the age is a rebelliousness against parents. Now in reading Proverbs we should remember that these are proverbs, they are not laws. This means that Proverbs is not saying that we should do or follow absolutely everything that our parents say, for they do sometimes say wrong things. Rather it is an attitude of mind, a willingness to learn from them, for while somethings they say will be wrong, there is much we can learn.
Conversely, there will be people who seek to entice us to sin. The example given here is of killing and robbing someone to get their goods. There are communities where this takes place in a very literal sense with muggings etc. It also happens on a more "sophisticated" level with fraud. In the end such people lay only a trap for themselves. Evil leads to foolishness.
Wisdom is personified in Proverbs. It is also notable that it is a female personhood that she is given, rather countering the supposed misogyny of the Bible. Wisdom calls out. People cannot say that they have never been called to be wise. Yet people continue in foolish ways. 
Verse 23 gives a call for repentance, then we can learn. The call to repentance in the gospel works in the same way. Christ calls us to repent so that He can pour His life into ours.
A refusal to repent means that only judgement can come. These closing verses of the first chapter describe how the judgement will work. People have had plenty chance to put things right, to admit their guilt and to repent, but they refused to do so.
Those who listen to wisdom will live in safety.

No comments:

Post a Comment