Proverbs 1 Devotional Study

So you want to be wise?

Most of us know ‘the look.’ It’s the face mom makes when she catches us digging into the cake for the church social. It’s the face dad makes after finding his favorite silk tie tied to the dog. Whether the offense was immediately forgiven, or punished severely, we know we’ve messed up when we see ‘the look’ and we learn from those mistakes.

In Proverbs 1, King Solomon states the purposes for the rest of his book: to learn wisdom, understanding, prudent behavior, doing what is right and fair, knowledge, and discretion.

We don’t have to learn everything by mistake. Wisdom says if we consistently obey God’s rules, we can avoid painful consequences. Read the Bible; do what it says.

As adults, we balk at the idea that wisdom is as simple as being obedient. Too often, we go about our daily grind and pretend we’ve got it together. We refuse advice that teaches us to live a more fruitful, less anxious life.

Solomon writes that “… the complacency of fools will destroy them.” But God shows us another way to live: “Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you…whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm” (Proverbs 1:23-32).

Wisdom begins with listening. Achieving it is a lifetime journey.

Like the mom who calls us to task for using crayons where we shouldn’t, God’s rebuke is meant to stop, redirect, and set us back on the path He knows is best for us. There, we will learn true wisdom. We can follow God, at ease on the path He has chosen, or we can risk being the fool that despises God and does things his own way. It’s up to us.

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Reflect:
Proverbs 1:1	The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
Proverbs 1:2	To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
Proverbs 1:3	To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
Proverbs 1:4	To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
Proverbs 1:5	A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
Proverbs 1:6	To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
Proverbs 1:7	The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
	The Enticement of Sinners
Proverbs 1:8	My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
Proverbs 1:9	For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
Proverbs 1:10	My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
Proverbs 1:11	If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
Proverbs 1:12	Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
Proverbs 1:13	We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
Proverbs 1:14	Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
Proverbs 1:15	My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
Proverbs 1:16	For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
Proverbs 1:17	Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
Proverbs 1:18	And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
Proverbs 1:19	So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
	The Call of Wisdom
Proverbs 1:20	Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
Proverbs 1:21	She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
Proverbs 1:22	How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Proverbs 1:23	Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
Proverbs 1:24	Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Proverbs 1:25	But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
Proverbs 1:26	I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
Proverbs 1:27	When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Proverbs 1:28	Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Proverbs 1:29	For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
Proverbs 1:30	They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Proverbs 1:31	Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
Proverbs 1:32	For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
Proverbs 1:33	But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

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A Summary of Proverbs 1 1:1~7   Solomon’s introduction reminds us of the difference between true wisdom and the wisdom of the world. 1:8~19   Solomon warns against joining sinners in their adventurous plots, cautioning that the greedy and violent finally receive their punishment. 1:20~33   God’s will is freely proclaimed and may be universally received.

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