DISCOURSE 4. ADDRESSED TO ‘SONS'. WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING ARE TO BE SOUGHT AND CHERISHED, FOR THEY PRODUCE SPIRITUAL BEAUTY, AND LEAD THOSE WHO RESPOND UNTO THE PERFECT DAY (PROVERBS 4:1). In Chapter s 1-3 we discerned a threefold pattern on which the discourses were based. This pattern commenced w... [ Continue Reading ]
A GENERAL APPEAL TO ‘SONS' (PROVERBS 4:1). The change from ‘my son' to ‘sons', which occurs only here as an opening address, may well have taken place because of Solomon's reference in Proverbs 4:3 to himself as ‘the son of his father' and ‘the only son of his mother'. He may well have wanted to avo... [ Continue Reading ]
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REMINISCENCE OF WHAT HIS FATHER HAD TAUGHT HIM AS ‘A SON' (PROVERBS 4:3). Solomon now stresses that his wisdom has partly come down to him from his father. This greatly added to its value as it was thereby revealed to be traditional, and to have come from the great David. There... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD'S WISDOM TEACHES MEN THE WAY IN WHICH THEY SHOULD GO, A WAY IN WHICH THEY WILL NOT STUMBLE AND WHICH LEADS TO LIFE, THEY ARE THUS TO AVOID THE WAY OF THE WICKED IN WHICH MEN STUMBLE AND WHERE DEATH IS PREVALENT (PROVERBS 4:10). He has stressed in subsection 2 that his father had taught him the g... [ Continue Reading ]
A GENERAL APPEAL TO HEAR HIS WORDS AND SAYINGS, AND INSTRUCTIONS WITH REGARD TO HIS HEART, MOUTH, EYES AND FEET (PROVERBS 4:20). Solomon urges those who hear him and read his words to take them to heart and keep them there because they offer life and health. They are therefore to watch over their h... [ Continue Reading ]