Items tagged proverbs

Bruce Waltke on Righteousness in Proverbs

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:29:30 GMT

Bruce Waltke was recently at Westminster and he gave the chapel message. Here's the link to the audio. Also they recently had a forum on social justice. Here's a link to the archive where you'll find the MP3s from the...

Proverbs on Parenting

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:08:14 GMT

The book of Proverbs is a wonderful, intensely practical guide that contains much wisdom you can impart to your children as you train them in godly living. For your benefit, we’ve compiled ten lessons from Proverbs you should teach to your children. We’re convinced that, in the process of teaching those ten lessons, you’ll unearth many more principles from Proverbs that will serve your children well their entire lives.

Teach your children:

1. To have a healthy fear of God (1:7; 9:10; 10:27; 14:26-27; 15:16; 16:6; 19:23)

2. To guard their minds (4:23; 23:7)

3. To obey you (1:8; 4:1-4; 6:20-23; 30:17)

4. To carefully select their companions (1:11-18; 2:10-15; 13:20)

5. To control their sinful desires (2:16-19; 5:3-5; 6:23-33; 7:6-27)

6. To enjoy sexual fidelity (5:15-20)

7. To watch their words (4:24; 10:11, 19-21, 32; 12:18, 22; 15:1-2; 16:23; 20:15)

8. To pursue their work (6:6-11; 10:4-5; 22:29)

9. To manage their money (3:9-10; 11:24-26; 19:17; 22:9)

10. To love their neighbors (3:27-29; 25:21-22)

A Different Zone [Topic: Grace and Peace]

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:01:14 GMT

"At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Ps. 16: 11)

Growing Dominion, Part 110

"Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger" (Prov. 19:15).

Anyone with a minimal acquaintance with the book of Proverbs knows that laziness is not considered a good thing. Not only is it not a good thing, but it is a bad thing that leads to poverty. We see that in the second half of this verse. But the first half has something else for us--slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. Laziness puts a man into a spiritual coma. Laziness puts you into a different mental zone.

When a man is lazy, the necessary work does not get done. When the necessary work does not get done, the end result is the natural consequence--poverty, hunger, etc. But in addition to all this, a certain spiritual lethargy sets in as well, and this prevents the victim of his own laziness from seeing what is happening to him. He does not know how it is all unfolding. The thing is a grand mystery.

Preaching Poetry: Psalms & Proverbs

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:34:17 GMT

Duane A. Garrett tackles in short order some techniques for preaching from the Psalter and from Proverbs. Garrett�s primary argument within the chapter is the importance of structure, which he gleaned from Walter C. Kaiser. In short, their rule is that �the structure of the passage should determine the structure or content of the message� (101).

In my opinion, this is the most valuable point that I have seen up to this point in the book, and I am surprised that the other chapters have not emphasized this much. All the genres we have studied so far, inasmuch as they are texts, have some type of structure that the author has provided. This is vital, and as Garrett says, it is absolutely essential to preaching psalms and proverbs. For example, many times one�s four-point preaching outline may mirror the four-stanza structure of the psalm. Granted, at times this may be impossible for particular psalms and some of proverbs (e.g. acrostic psalms, extremely long poems, the misc proverbs in chs. 10ff.), but most of the time working hard to develop a structural analysis of a Hebrew poem will be worth the effort. As he points out, for maximum benefit, it will be necessary to analyze the poem in the original language, but not impossible in English.

The following summarizes some of the helpful ideas and examples from the chapter:

Preaching Proverbs

Many times, the preacher will be able to discern a clear-cut strategy in the wisdom poems found in Prov 1�9. For example, Garrett provides a sample analysis of Pr 2, which is an incredible piece of poetry (p. 105). It is crafted in such a way that it even shows a clear structure in English versions. Moreover, he gives a chiastic outline of the poem of Pr 31, in which the center of the chiasm is v. 23. Go read it; it really changes the way the poem should be understood.

In contrast to the clear structure of wisdom poems, the preacher may be at a loss for preaching the other section of the book, which primarily deals with aphorisms. With lack of structure, a sermon (or series of sermons) on a particular topic may be the way to go. That way, the preacher can weave together proverbs that have a consistent theme into a coherently structures sermon. However, as Garrett points out, there are places within Prov 10�30 that do reveal structure (e.g. 10:1�5 with its message of prosperity and security).

In addition, I would add that the preacher must be careful when preaching from this section of the book to be consistent in presenting these proverbs in reference to the fear of the Lord, which is the theological theme of the book. It would be easy to forget this, given the practical aspect of many of these quaint saying.

Preaching Psalms

Much of what was said above would apply here as well, since the basic principle holds: preach what the text (structurally) gives you. For example, Ps 23 neatly breaks into two sections. Vv. 1�4 should be explained under the image of shepherding; vv. 5�6 under the image of a banquet host (see also the two-fold structure of Ps 1). Furthermore, he gives the following important advice:

Form criticism (i.e. breaking the psalms into types such as hymns, Torah psalms, etc.) has its value, but on the whole he finds it not so helpful for the preacher.

Meter in Hebrew poetry should be disregarded.

Don�t restrict messianic implications only to those psalms that are typically classified as messianic.

To this last point, I would add that Ps 2 has set the context (hermeneutical lens) for the Psalter, so we should expect messianic references throughout. Don�t be surprised when you find them, but again, let the text itself dictate it as such.

Any thoughts or advice?