PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

Here we have a classic Scripture of a father admonishing his son not to pursue after the prostitute.  But do you notice how the son is almost pictured as a victim, while the prostitute is definitely seen as the aggressor in these verses?  It is really interesting how today we know for sure that the prostitute is almost always forced into the role because of fear of violence, or destitution as a result of events beyond her control, or trafficked and forced to play that role.  The john who uses the prostitute is not an innocent victim, he is the one who is propitiating this vicious and tragic cycle.

The last verse describes how strong the author feels: Her house is the way to Sheol (read hell), going down to the chambers of death.  Just so we are clear, the son is the one who would be responsible for his own downfall, not the person who owns the house to where he is invited.

We cover a lot of ground in this chapter in Proverbs.  The first topic that is addressed is laziness and how it leads to poverty.  I love the analogy that is made to describe a hard worker as someone who is like a gazelle being chased by a hunter, so always alert, and always ready to do work to get from point A to point B.  

The next topic that is addressed is adultery and infidelity.  The author expresses a deep disdain for the one who would lie with the wife of another.  He makes a distinction between the prostitute and the wife of another man.  This distinction might be made as a result of one being unlawful, adultery, and the other lawful, prostitution.  This is not a delineation that I make, but it is something that the author lifts up as important.  

Tucked in the midst of these verses are the seven deadly sins that have gotten so much leverage in some Christian circles.  Here you see them in detail in Villa Cimbrone which is a villa that we visit every time that we have a mission trip in Italy.  It is owned by a Protestant family that were members of the church while we were there.

In Proverbs 6:16-19 they are mentioned as: haughty eyes, lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, hear that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, lying witness, and one who sows discord in the family.  

Interestingly enough according to Christian tradition the seven deadly sins are: envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath.  These are not mentioned anywhere in Scripture as the seven deadly sins but have just come on down the line through tradition.  I like biblical examples better.

So does it strike you as a bit surprising that Solomon, who according to I Kings 11:3 had 700 wives and 300 concubines, is giving advice to his children about fidelity and not aligning themselves with adulteresses and loose women?  It does strike me as a bit of a hypocrisy, but still it is good advice.  There is a Scripture that rings so true to me and that it would be great to think through.  If you look  at I Corinthians 6:12-20 we read that if we are with another person in a sexual way then that person becomes one with us.  Yes, it mentions physically, but I would argue that it is true in so many other ways.   I would guess that every person remembers vividly all of their sexual experiences, for better or for worse.  As a result, what a dishonor that is to your spouse.

The author speaks about this as he states: “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.”  This chapter gives you advice on how important it is that fidelity be understood as a mandate directly from God.  Maybe it is advice from someone who walked on the wrong road and is learning from his mistakes.  If you look at vs.8 and following you read the author encourage his child to stay as far away as possible from the door of the house of the loose woman.  Now, of course, truth be told, if there is a loose woman, then there is also a loose man.  Isn’t it interesting that even today in our cultural perspective we don’t think of a loose man but rather a macho man.  After all, boys will be boys, but girls aren’t allowed to be girls.

Yeah, that doesn’t work any longer and never should have worked in the first place.  Those who are able to follow the advice of allowing our intimate relationships to be confined to marriage then the better off we all would be.

Once again we hear Solomon addressing his children and he speaks about how he was brought up in his household with wisdom.  So he would have been speaking about being brought up in King David’s household with all the turmoil and drama that occurred in that house.  Once again, the emphasis is on pursuing wisdom as a precious commodity that ought never be turned down for anything temporal.  

Let’s think about that for a moment.  The gift of wisdom from the Lord is one that is often overlooked.  We aren’t talking about education, or book smarts, or intelligence.  We are talking about the ability to discern right from wrong and the ability to choose right over wrong.  These are two very different gifts.  We are not going to devolve into moralizing here, but think about the role that wisdom plays in your life.  If you have children then you know the role that it plays.  When do I exercise my authority and when do I allow them to learn on their own?  If you are in a supervisory role at work you can ask the question when do I make decisions that may be risky and yet produce profit or benefit, and when do I choose to take the more conservative approach?

If you look at vs. 17 you will see one attribute of wickedness which also came up in chapter 3 but I didn’t mention it.  Violence, violence is a clear sign that someone is not quite following the wisdom that God has gifted us.  Violence is a sign that we have surpassed our own ability to control our emotions and have decided to go out on our own on this one.  Violence is always a sign of God not being allowed into the situation and we having taken the situation into our own hands and shoving God away.  There are now exceptions.

So far the last two chapters have begun with the words: “My child…”  If it was Solomon writing then he would be writing to his children as they looked to take on the daunting task of preparing themselves for the rule of the kingdom.  He would have needed to write a few things down so that they could be prepared.  But his words are also useful for us as Scripture as we look to live our lives in a fairly perilous world as well.

There are a lot of memory verses in this chapter alone.  Look at vs.5-8 and who of us hasn’t heard before: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

This chapter does contain some statements that make us think that the Lord’s favor is with the righteous and that favor will play itself out on this world.  We seem to have a bit of a prosperity gospel approach in verses 9-10 where we read that if we honor the Lord in all of our ways that he will then shower us with plenty.  Verses 11-12 are also memory verses for those times that people are down and out feel as if God is punishing them.  We hear that punishment builds character, well here we read that punishment is a sign that God loves you.  Not sure I would take that logic too far.

We once again have an emphasis on wisdom and how precious and important it is.  As a juxtaposition we find evil and wickedness (vs.27-35) especially in the light of dealing with our neighbors.  The whole concept that Jesus gives us, which is to love our neighbors as ourselves, is not new to the New Testament.  Here we hear it repeated where we are told not to plan harm against our neighbor, not to withhold something that we have that they may need, not to quarrel with them for no reason.  All great advice.  It helps us live our lives as examples of disciples of our Lord.  

Once again wisdom is lifted up as that after which we ought to strive.  We are told that we should seek after it as if it were more precious than gold or silver.  But even if we do seek it in vs.6 and 7 it is made perfectly clear to us that it is: “The Lord gives wisdom…he stores up sound wisdom for the upright.”  When we receive wisdom then we will understand righteousness and justice.

I find it fascinating that the author uses the example of a loose woman in vs. 16, while the Hebrew states that it could also mean a strange woman.  This would carry no sexual implications like the term “loose” might.  Not sure why that term was chosen instead of strange.  

The final prize and result of walking in the way of wisdom is that you will never be cut off from the land.  This is absolutely crucial to the Israelites.  Even to this day being cut off from the land that is a part of a post WWII agreement would bring about much conflict.  Whenever I go to Israel it always strikes me of how young of a modern nation it actually is.  This threat of being cut off from the land remains very real.  It is one that has lasted for generations both in seasons of being in the land and in seasons of being away from the land.

This book of the Bible is attributed to Solomon who is said to have written these words in 1:1, 10:1, 25:1.  In fact in many books of the Bible this is entitled the Proverbs of Solomon.  Keep in mind that Solomon is seen as a very wise king (I Kings 4:29-34) and so it makes sense that he was attributed with writing this book of the Bible.

In content it is a compilation of wise sayings.  These sayings seem to revolve around the very beginning nugget of wisdom which we find in vs.7 that tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.  From there we have a personification of wisdom who is seen from vss.20 on as a woman who cries out on the streets to get people’s attention, but not everyone wants to pay attention to wisdom.  People consistently tend to disregard and ignore Wisdom and her leading.  

There have been some attempts to see this Hebrew portrayal of wisdom (hakmah) as a near god, as if this is a rendition of the third person (Spirit).  We do find in the Bible Wisdom described as a person.  I’m pretty certain that this is a metaphor.  I don’t say that because I’m trying to avoid a certain interpretation.  It seems obvious to me that Wisdom is that which leads the author to say in vs.29: “They hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.”

We will see this theme of Wisdom repeated throughout Proverbs.

And Job lived happily ever after.  I think I am getting ahead of myself, but that is how vs.17 ends and thus ends the book of Job.  Interesting how we see Job actually repent and say that he was sorry that he did not realize exactly who the Lord was, he had heard of Him, but now that he had seen Him, he repents in dust and ashes.  Now the Lord turns his attention to Job’s friends, and it isn’t with a smile on His face.

God will only take a prayer of salvation for Job’s friends from Job himself.  The person who was harmed the most by their insults and their random fallible wisdom was Job.  As a result they are commanded to offer a sacrifice in Job’s presence and only Job can beseech the Lord for his mercy upon these three people.  They approach Job and ask for his help, he helps them, and then the Lord repays Job back twofold.

There is a large part of me that wishes that Job had not been paid back twofold.  I wish that Job had just continued on with his life so that the point could be proven that God is in control and we can’t ever understand the wisdom of God.  All things work for the purposes of the Lord, but the ending makes us think that justice was served and the righteous Job got what he deserved, a double blessing.  

We are finished with Job, now on to Proverbs.

Wow, the Leviathan is a creature not to be messed with.  The difference between the Leviathan and the Behemoth is that the latter is docile and not hurting anyone and is happy to lay around and do nothing.  The Leviathan is a monster, looking to upend the human at any possibility it has.  It will not make a covenant, it will not even pretend to be your friend, it simply has no equal on earth and it is truly the king of the sea and the land.  I’m thinking that we are talking about the crocodile in this picture.  If we are going to take it literally, we are talking about the crocodile.

But, so what?  Why do we need a whole description of the crocodile and its power and its ability to strike fear in the heart of individuals?  The only explanation is that God wanted to remind Job, once again, of who was in charge.  Who is it who created the Leviathan?  It was God, of course, and so God is able to create and direct and control all things.  I like that reassurance.  Job is about to speak and get restored.  That happens in one more chapter.

We have our first back and forth between Job and God.  Notice, Job does not back down.  He doesn’t defend himself and he doesn’t melt into a puddle of humility which you might think a person would when they are confronted by God.  He doesn’t take anything back that he said before, but just states that he will keep silent and allow God to make his statements.  How generous of Job.

The Behemoth is an interesting attribution.  I personally think it is the hippopotamus, but scholars are divided on this.  Some think it is a creature which no longer exists.  But notice that its sole purpose is not to be a danger or to be a killer of people, but it just eats grass and sits around without a clear purpose.  God seems to say that this is okay.  No human can control it, and if you were to try it would put your life in danger, but this animal simply sits around and does nothing and no one can object to that.

Behemoth is the Hebrew term for animal in the plural form.  Just for clarity sake, there are no hippos in the Jordan river.  Some scholars who try to force science into this context claim that there are fossils of hippos that were found in that region.  I don’t have a strong opinion except knowing that this is not the point.  The point is that God does not need to create creatures or people with specific purposes or reasons.  He can just create and not have them spin or toil or do anything for any productive reasons.  You can’t always figure out the purpose of God’s actions.  That’s a great lesson.