Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 566 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday along life’s trails we dig for the nuggets of wisdom that are found within the book of Proverbs. Today we will explore Proverbs 1 from The Voice translation, which will give us a fresh perspective on this book of timeless wisdom.
We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Let’s begin our trek today with a brief commentary on chapter 1 as we explore and discover…
Here we go! Before we explore the proverbs themselves, which start in Chapter 10, we are first going to explore nine chapters of poems. The point of these poems is to whet your appetite for how important God’s wisdom is in your life. These poems are speeches. Some of the speeches are from father to a son that you get to listen in on. Others are from a character called “Lady Wisdom” and are written directly to you. In Chapter 1, we hear from both of these voices.
Before these speeches, there is an introduction to the entire book. The book opens with a pep-talk about its purpose, and the message is clear—whether or not you think you’ve got life figured out, you need this advice. The introduction ends by saying that gaining wisdom will be impossible if you don’t cultivate humility for God’s authority—“the Fear of the Lord,” a theme that will appear many times in this book. “Only fools despise knowledge and discernment,” concludes verse 7, bringing up the implied question: “Wise or foolish—which are you going to be?”
After the introduction comes a speech, the first of ten, from father to a son. There’s consistent language here about resisting evil, and the father doesn’t pull any punches while warning his son. His words are concise, direct, and rather forceful—if people tempt you with claims of an easy, deceitful life of “ill-gotten gains,” do not follow them. Period. It will only bring ruin. Period. The father ends with especially descriptive words about the violence that will come from falling into these ways.
The next speech is the first from Lady Wisdom, a character in this book who personifies the concept of wisdom. She claims that rejecting her advice will lead to self-destruction and you’ll only have yourself to blame. If you don’t listen to wisdom, you’re going to crash and burn. Hard. She’s pretty much going to bust out with “I told you so.”
As a whole, Chapter 1 bluntly cuts to the point—our choices are a serious matter, but wisdom is accessible to us. The stakes are high, but we have instruction to guide us. Guard yourself, pay
