bible: proverbs Archives - Understand the Bible

Wisdom of Proverbs: Love and Marriage

Posted on 30th April 202130th April 2021 by Phill Sacre

Proverbs is full of wisdom: wisdom is how to live in God’s world in God’s ways. Many people love to turn to Proverbs to discover what wisdom it contains for living everyday life. However, one of the problems with Proverbs is that the wisdom is not really categorised – it doesn’t come with an index system! I have found one of the best way of getting into Proverbs is drawing out everything it says on a particular topic.

In this article we’re going to look at what Proverbs has to say about love and marriage.

One thing which we need to say to begin with is that Proverbs is addressed from a Father to a Son. This means that everything is written from a male perspective. This is not to say that women cannot read and benefit from this advice as well! But it does explain why it seems to address a man rather than women directly.

Let’s put together some of the wisdom that Proverbs contains about love and marriage.

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Why is the fear of the Lord the BEGINNING of wisdom?

Posted on 22nd April 20219th June 2022 by Phill Sacre

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7

Someone asked me a question the other day about the fear of the Lord. It got me thinking about Proverbs 1:7, which famously says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (or wisdom). But the word which really struck me this time is the beginning. What does it mean for the fear of the Lord to be the beginning of wisdom? And what’s the end?

Let’s start by thinking about what the fear of the Lord actually is.

What is the fear of the Lord?

The Hebrew word translated ‘fear’ (yirah) can mean fear or terror, but when it is used in relation to God it means something like respect or reverence. It’s the same kind of idea we might say about treating those in authority – maybe parents, or teachers, or police. (We don’t tend to think in those terms these days – it does sound very old-fashioned!)

I think it’s important to say that doesn’t mean we have to be scared of God. A lot of people have had abusive fathers or authority figures and have been terrified of them. God is absolutely not like that! We’ll come onto this more in a moment.

So that’s what the fear of the Lord is not. Let’s look at what the fear of the Lord actually is.

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Mental Health Support – Wisdom & Well-being

Posted on 6th March 20219th March 2021 by Phill Sacre

What does wisdom have to do with well-being? We’re going to spend a few minutes reading from the book of Proverbs, which is all about wisdom.

Last week’s session was on Psalm 63 – “Where our help comes from”. All previous sessions are available on this playlist.

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The Proverbs 31 Woman: The Life of Wisdom

Posted on 26th July 202027th July 2020 by Phill Sacre

The very last chapter of Proverbs – Proverbs 31:10-31 – contains a description of the life of a woman which looks almost superhuman. I hear that some women, particularly in American churches, have come to dread the ‘Proverbs 31 woman’ sermon: “ladies, this is what your life should look like…” How could anyone’s life look so perfect? It’s beyond intimidating!

However, I do not believe that the ‘Proverbs 31 woman’ is actually describing any individual. The question in verse 10 is right: “A wife of noble character who can find?” – well the answer surely is, ‘no-one!’ No-one has a wife like this, because this is not describing a real woman.

No. The Proverbs 31 woman is a description of a perfect ‘wise’ life to encourage us to adopt a life of wisdom. Why do I say that? Let’s look into it.

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Wisdom of Proverbs: Wealth and Poverty

Posted on 19th July 202029th June 2022 by Phill Sacre

One the best thing about Proverbs is its practical wisdom about everyday topics such as wealth and poverty. However, Proverbs is more than simply a self-help book – it is godly wisdom which seeks to put “the fear of the Lord” at the beginning. As we saw in the previous session on guidance, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). Today we are going to look at how that works out with money / wealth and poverty.

This is a huge issue in our society: according to the Global Inequality website, the richest 1% of people own 44% of the world’s wealth. According to Oxfam, the wealth divide between the richest and the poorest in the world is steadily growing. Closer to home, in the UK about 20% of households are below average income. And yet, a lot of people chase after wealth – according to the Telegraph, 70% of UK adults (more than 32 million people) play the lottery on a regular basis – and 99% of winners play again, convinced they will win again.

Money and wealth play a huge role in our society. What does the the wisdom of Proverbs have to say about it?

Let me first just give a quick caveat: one of the problems with proverbial wisdom is that you can’t simply read off one verse and then ignore the other verses about wealth and poverty. Proverbs isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme! All of these things need to be taken into consideration together. With that in mind, here are seven short lessons about wealth from the wisdom of Proverbs.

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Wisdom of Proverbs: Guidance

Posted on 12th July 202019th July 2020 by Phill Sacre

In this article we are going to be looking at the Wisdom of Proverbs, specifically about the topic of guidance.

Everyone is looking for guidance at the moment. In our area, a number of local venues host occasional ‘psychic nights’ where people try to contact a dead relative or obtain guidance from the spiritual world. Mediums, horoscopes, and palm readings are all making a come back. Even among my own friends and acquaintances, I’ve been surprised to discover how many people seem to buy into these things.

The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about guidance, and we’re going to look at a few verses from Proverbs which help us. But first – if you’re not familiar with Proverbs, the most important thing to remember is what Proverbs calls wisdom:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7

If you want to be wise, according to Proverbs, what you need first and foremost is “the fear of the Lord”: fear not in the sense of being scared, but rather an appropriate respect, reverence and awe. In other words, we need to listen to what God says first and foremost – this is God’s world, and we’ll do best when we live in his ways.

So, with that in mind, let’s dive in to what the Wisdom of Proverbs has to say about guidance.

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