Welcome and thank you for joining us as we move into a new book of the Bible today. We will begin by reading through the first three chapters of Proverbs, a book dedicated to the art of living wisely.
A Lesson in a Puzzle
I have been enjoying a game on my tablet called cryptograms. You decipher a quote by figuring out which letter corresponds to a number. For example, you might have to determine what letter number 4 represents, then use that clue to figure out the letter for number 12, and so on, until you unscramble a saying. Although some may find it odd, I find it sharpens my mind and trains my eye for patterns—a helpful skill for a data scientist.
One recent puzzle unscrambled an insightful phrase: “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” This quote is attributed to Rita Mae Brown in her novel, Sudden Death. [1] It strikes me as a perfect entry point into the book of Proverbs, which is about how we gain the righteous judgment necessary to navigate our lives.
The Heart of Wisdom
As we see in the first chapter, the stated purpose of Proverbs is to teach us wisdom and discipline, helping us discern which words to trust and which to avoid. This pursuit of wisdom reminds me of my mother. She was an exceptionally wise and patient woman—and with me as a child; she had to be.
My fondest memories are the many nights we would stay up talking, long after the Tonight Show monologue had ended. My stepfather usually went to bed hours earlier, leaving just the two of us. I was always philosophical, trying to understand the world, and I would pose questions to her. Gently, she would sometimes refute my thoughts while challenging others. She didn’t just have academic wisdom; Growing up during the Depression, she worked at a Goodyear tire factory during World War II, and then raised five children alone after my father left. She learned about life the hard way.
My mother was both wise and intelligent, which are two distinctively unique traits. She was a bookkeeper, so she was great with numbers, and she loved to read and do crossword puzzles. But her wisdom went deeper. Proverbs teaches that to live successfully, we must possess more than just intelligence; we must cultivate prudent behavior (Proverbs 1:3).
Knowledge vs. Prudent Action
All the knowledge in the world will not help if we cannot act upon it. I was always an outstanding student, but I was the kid who knew the answer but wouldn’t raise my hand in class. Having the correct information is pointless if you cannot share or apply it to a real-life problem.
However, people can take acting on knowledge too far, leading to arrogance instead of prudence. A perfect example of this is the character of Sheldon Cooper from the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. [2] Sheldon is a brilliant physicist, yet he has few friends because he is a “know-it-all” who loves to be condescending.
I learned the meaning of that word firsthand. My wife and I were flying back from Boston, and our flight was running into major delays. She was anxious about getting to work the next morning, and I was trying to comfort her—but in a Sheldon Cooper sort of way, by explaining the logistical probabilities of airline scheduling. Finally, she turned to me and said, “Could you please quit being so condescending?” I looked the word up the next day and understood my mistake.
That experience taught me a vital lesson about prudence, which Proverbs defines as “doing what is right, and just and fair.” My error wasn’t in having the information, but in how I delivered it. The key wasn’t being technically right; it was doing what was right for my wife in that moment. As verse 5 states, “let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance” (Proverbs 1:5, NIV).
Choosing Your Counsel
This principle of “doing right” extends to the company we keep. It is always better to be a leader than a follower, but if you are going to follow, make sure you are following the right people. When you measure a person’s actions and advice against biblical principles, you can better determine if they are worth following. Choosing the wrong counsel will inevitably lead to trouble, as we see illustrated throughout the end of chapter one.
God provides us with wisdom, but when we choose to ignore His teaching, we also choose the consequences of our actions. The text warns we may one day cry out for His help, but He will not answer because we ignored His guidance. (v 1:28-29)
Therefore, let us choose our friends and our actions wisely. We must learn to trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Often, I get a “gut feeling” when I know I’m about to do something that is not prudent. I believe that is God, dwelling in my heart, letting me know He is aware of my intentions. In my experience, whenever I ignore that feeling, I end up paying a price.
Tomorrow, we will read Proverbs 4-6.
Bibliography
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Brown, Rita Mae. Sudden Death. New York: Bantam Books, 1983.
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The Big Bang Theory. Created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. Aired September 24, 2007, to May 16, 2019.
