I have a bit of a soft spot for the Book of Proverbs. It is a very down-to-earth book. It's very useful; it's very practical with daily life. This morning we're looking at Chapters 25 to Chapter 29, and a little bit like a box of chocolates, there are a few proverbs that are little personal favourites of mine—and the coffee creams go first, the chewy toffees never go—and some of my favourites occur in these five chapters we're looking at this morning.
Some are favourites because they chime so well with reality. Others are favourites because they've just really been helpful for me again and again over the years. Some are favourites just because they're fun. You know, one of the ways the Bible teaches us that God speaks through humour, and I think we miss a lot of the impact of scripture by reading it with a straight face —so let the humour of scripture impact you.
What I'm going to do to start with this morning, I'm going to show you a few of my little favourites that are in these five chapters. It's little hobby horse—excursion time for me.
So let's start with Chapter 25, verse 28:
"Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control."
This tells you how important self-control is. You can have all the right values in life—priorities, ambitions—but if you don't have the self-control, the discipline to live those out, you are no different from a beautiful, architecturally amazing, wealthy, interesting city that has no defences to keep the invaders out.
Or Chapter 26:12:
"Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them."
Now, as you read through the Book of Proverbs, you discover various categories of people, and one contrast we have again and again is the contrast between the wise person and the fool. And you come to—it's good to be wise, but it's bad to be foolish. And you start to think maybe there's nothing worse than being a fool. Well, this verse tells you there is a more precarious thing than being a fool. More precarious than being a fool is to be wise in your own eyes. The person who thinks they have nothing to learn from anybody else because they know they're right is in a very dangerous place indeed.
Chapter 26, verse 17—I like this one; it's both humorous and useful:
"Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own."
How easily—especially in the era of social media—do you find yourself joining in somebody else's argument? Not yours at all, but you just can't resist piling on your opinion—something that has nothing to do with you.
27:12:
"The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty."
There we go—two categories of people. The contrast: the prudent and the simple. Both have the experience at times in life when, if you carry on along the path you're on, you are losing control. Both have the experience in life of observing that if they carry on on the path they’re on, they will hit some trouble. So the difference between the prudent and the simple is not that your life sometimes heads into danger, it's not that you'll notice that's about to happen. The difference is the simple just keep going; the prudent change direction.
Chapter 27, verse 14:
"If anyone loudly blesses their neighbour early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse."
When I was an undergraduate student, there was someone in our university Christian Union who always had this beaming broad smile, loud voice, always cheerful. He was such a pleasure to be around because he just brightened the room by walking in—except if it is a university Christian Union residential time away, it's 7:30 in the morning and you're blearily leaning into your bowl of breakfast, which you don’t normally eat in company with other people. And suddenly that extremely enthusiastic person is not quite the blessing that it might be at another time of day.
Chapter 29, verse 24:
"The accomplices of thieves are their own enemies; they are put under oath and dare not testify."
To be a thief—that's a bad thing. But if you find yourself helping someone who is a thief, what happens if you get caught? The only way to get yourself off the hook is to say, "It wasn't really me driving this—it was the scary guy down the road!" But that's the one thing you dare not do, and so you cannot get yourself off the hook without getting yourself into danger. So you go down for someone else's crime. Do not join in the misdemeanours of others, or you will end up taking the rap.
And in Chapter 29:26:
"Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that one gets justice."
So we have a new President-elect in the United States of America. We've recently elected a new Prime Minister of the UK. What happens? Everybody wants an appointment. They want to present their petition, present their call, try and get the thing they care about made law. And this says that's probably a good thing to do—curry political favour. But realise that ultimately, if what you want is justice and things to be improved, your real hope is the Lord God. And don't expect your political views to ultimately give you the change and the security.
So there you go. There are some of my favourite proverbs from these five chapters. But as I read those through, nice though they are, perhaps I'm thinking—there has to be more to the Book of Proverbs than a little box of chocolates where you get to pick out your own person.
So what we're going to do this morning is we're going to look together at how you can enjoy these Proverbs. I'm not trying to take the fun out—as I say that is part of how they work—how we can benefit from their really practical wisdom, but at the same time how we can hear them as the Scriptures, and so encounter the voice of God in these proverbs.
And if we're to read them aright and have those things, then there are three things I want to show us from these chapters this morning about how they work for us.
1. Proverbs are contextual
Proverbs are contextual. So look at these two proverbs—they were part of one of our readings:
26:4 – "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be just like him."
Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes."
Which is it? Answer a fool according to his folly? Don't answer a fool according to his folly? You read those two that are actually next to each other and you go, "I don't know." It all depends on the context and the situation.
There are times when showing someone that they're wrong will involve necessarily descending to their level. If someone is arguing on and on about something really unimportant and trivial, if you try and persist at showing them that they're wrong until you win the argument, you have just descended to the level of arguing on and on about something really unimportant—so just walk away. There are other times when saying nothing could leave them—and more importantly, other people—thinking they're right, and you have to say something.
Now, we need that wisdom, don't we, when it comes to navigating the world of social media? Pastor Lee explained a little while ago for us the difference between a promise and a principle. A promise says, "If you do this thing, I guarantee this will be the outcome for you." A principle says, "This will generally be the outcome."
How often do you see something someone said on Facebook and you think, “that’s wrong”? You're going to make a judgement. What do you do? Do you say, "No, I'm going to reply. I'm going to try and show why that's wrong"? Or do you say nothing? And many of you have observed what happens if someone replies and replies and replies and never lets go. But then—"I'm going to say nothing." Sometimes, you've got to say something. Better work it out, right? Promises, principles—okay. Different consequences. They're not hard and fast.
Proverbs say, "You do this, this will follow"—not a hard and fast consequence. So here's the point: Proverbs are not laws.
Proverbs are not rules. God has given us many laws, and what happens is, wisdom fits in the gaps left by those. So the law says, "Do not steal." The law says, "Do not bear false witness." What about being an accomplice to a thief? Pretty obvious that's also wrong. But that's not the only commandment in play here, because we just looked at 29:24, which says that being an accomplice to stealing would be unwise, because it could lead you to a point where you're under pressure to give false witness in court.
Or take this example—you see how wisdom fits in the gap. The law tells you the black and white things to do. But then the little decisions in between—the laws don't dictate the little choices that help you work out how to put those laws into practice.
Here's another example of a contextual proverb—26:17:
"Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own."
Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury resigned. And I'm going to make no comment on that—and I haven't done at any point this week. Why not? “Like one who rushes into a quarrel not their own ...”. I belong to this church. I love it. We're Anglican. But Justin Welby has never been our Archbishop—so not my quarrel. So let's just stay quiet.
However, if you are the Archbishop of Rwanda and you lead the global family of Anglicans called GAFCON—very different. Thoroughly right and proper to make comment. In fact, wrong to remain silent. And by the way, look up this statement online. What a wonderful, grace-soaked, gentle, sensitive, compassionate statement he offers—to bring the grace of God into this moment, whilst remaining very, very clear.
So, in Proverbs, the consequences we're given—they're not hard rules. And the wise actions here—they're not hard and fast. They're for you to work out.
2. Proverbs are cryptic
Proverbs are cryptic—that is to say, you have to think about them.
So here are two quite similar proverbs:
Chapter 25, verse 16:
"If you find honey, eat just enough—too much of it and you will vomit."
Seldom set foot in your neighbour's house—too much of you and they will hate you."
That's not hard to understand, is it? Okay, if you eat too much honey, you will feel sick. And if you keep eating too much honey beyond that point, you will be sick. Similarly, if you find a next-door neighbour whose company you enjoy, if you are around there too much, they will get sick of you. And if you're around there too much longer after that—they will throw you out. No more honey for you.
How about this one: Chap. 25, verse 27. "It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honourable to search out matters that are too deep."
What’s that about? Too much honey — I get that. But what do you mean, "to search out matters that are too deep" — and why is that not honourable? And more to the point: how is that like honey?
You're going, I'm going to think about this — and actually, I'm still not sure. Maybe, I don't know. So maybe it's saying this: that pursuing knowledge and understanding of the world God has made — that's a good thing to do. But if you pursue that too hard, and keep seeking because you think that becoming a real expert in some way will give you a great reputation — stop. It won't give you a great reputation. It won't be honourable for you. In which case, this is a proverb about too much of a good thing — too much honey, too much self-advancement.
Or maybe…: There's a slight translation issue with this verse, in that the word nor is actually not there — they added it to make sense of it. So maybe it's a contrast. Okay: too much honey — well, that’s a good thing. But there's no such thing as too much pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. Maybe it's contrast.
Either way, the honey is a reminder. So every time you have a piece of toast with some honey, you are either warned not to try and be like God, or you're being encouraged never to tire of learning from God.
They're cryptic. You have to think about it. And even I’ve been thinking about that proverb all week — I'm still not quite sure I’ve got it. Proverbs are a bit like the parables of Jesus. They're designed to make you think. They're designed to get under your — get under your skin. Impact. Know why that picture's up there? You're about to find out.
With the parables of Jesus — if what you want is a good story — then you will listen to the parables of Jesus, and you'll go away entertained and nothing more. But if you go away and ponder, think, reflect, think about that — such a surprise twist in the ending you hadn’t seen coming — then you'll see the point. The parable gets under your skin. You go away changed by it.
Proverbs are the same. They need reading slowly.
Now, as we started this preaching series in Proverbs, we threw out the Proverbs challenge for you — a number of famous Christians have done and do this. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs — 31 days in many months. One each day, read through the chapter numbered today. So today is the 17th November, which means you read chapter 17. And as I asked the youth about this, a couple have been given this to go – one in response to the preaching series – one had already been trying it.
Let me commend that to you again. It's a good thing to doing it. It's proving a blessing to you. Don't let me rain on your parade for what I'm about to say — but I suspect if you've been trying this, you might discover that you've been getting some indigestion.
What do I mean? Chap. 27 — today's chapter — contains 28 verses.
Now again, when I asked youth about this, the number of hands that went up in the room was most of them. If someone gave you a box of chocolates, do you think you could eat 28 of them at a sitting? And most of our teenagers said, "I could"
A wise man once said something, right? "Too much honey …"
But Proverbs — this is not original to me, this is a friend of mine came up with this, but I like it so I share it with you — the book of Proverbs is not so much like a box of chocolates. It's more like a box of gobstoppers.
Now in case you haven't met these before: these are boiled sweets, typically about 2 inches in diameter. They're made slowly because they contain many, many, many layers of different coloured and flavoured sugar — so that as you suck them, the different flavours come through as you work the way through the middle of the sweet. They're big. They're very hard. If you try and bite on them, they will break your teeth. So the only way to eat them is to pop it in your mouth and suck slowly.
The point is this: you can't chew over 28 puzzles in a day. You just can't. So instead of taking a chapter of Proverbs a day, how about taking a proverb a day? And if you divide the book of Proverbs up into that kind of pace, it will take you about a year take to get through — so maybe that's a challenge that’s helpful for you. Go away. Read one or two a day. Take it into your daily reading. Memorise, if that's helpful. And suck it. And as you go through the day, look for opportunities to apply the wisdom of that proverb into the very different challenges that particular day will present for you.
Proverbs are contextual. Proverbs are cryptic.
3. Proverbs are covenantal
You say what?
Well, maybe the head could be Proverbs are Christian, if you want differerent “C”. But I want to show you how they're Christian.
As you read the book of Proverbs, they don’t sound terribly Christian. They sound more like your grandmother's top tips for life. Now there's a reason for this — it's to do with how the book of Proverbs came about.
How did the book of Proverbs come about? What happened – no one said, "I need to write a book of proverbs. My publisher given me a deadline, so I to think of 500 of these by next March. I better start having some ideas."
No. What happened is this: you have an experience in life and you learn the lesson from it. Okay — you go across the road and you nearly get run over by a bus that is coming past — and you start to learn: it's a good idea to listen for traffic, have a look and check what’s coming before you step to cross the road.
Then you start to you remember this. Okay. "Next time I go to cross the road, I'm going to stop. I'm going to look. And I'm going to listen." And in fact, you start passing this on to other people. But eventually, several generations later, people who have never met you are saying, "Stop, look and listen."
They've never heard the number 8 bus, because that's shut down centuries before by that point. They never heard of you. But your little life experience gave rise to a popular phrase that then gets passed on and on until it finds its way into this book.
That's why the proverbs just come across as earthy wisdom. It's not desperately Christian — and it's a good thing it's not all in Christian language. Because it shows you that faith in God is not just all about being religious. And it's not just all about the big choices in life. That your faith will work out in the practical choices — even in the Monday morning routines.
So why is Proverbs in the Bible?
Well, the first thing to say is that Proverbs may at times feel a bit mundane. But Proverbs actually is Jesus's wisdom.
So Chap. 25, verse 1: "These are more proverbs of Solomon compiled by the man of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem" This is how Chapters 25–29 came to exist. Hezekiah was a king who ruled just before Jerusalem was sent to exile to Babylon. And Hezekiah was a good king. He restored God's temple. He restored God's law. But this verse shows you that he didn’t just do that — he also restored God's wisdom. He got his men to seek out Solomon's proverbs that had got lost, and to write them down.
Which means one of the messages of these chapters is this: it matters that the people of God do not forget.
This — as Jesus came on the scene, he introduced himself as one greater than Solomon. He's wiser than Solomon. So this is not just your grandma’s tips — these are Jesus's tips.
And indeed — Chapter 25, verse 21: "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he’s thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you."
Recognise that? It’s Romans 12:20 — which is there talking about how do you respond if people persecute you for following Jesus.
Jesus’s wisdom.
27:1 — "Do not boast about tomorrow; you do not know what a day may bring."
That’s Matthew 6:34.
This really is Jesus’s wisdom. But more than that — it’s covenant wisdom.
You see, the book of Proverbs is not just Chapters 25–29. The book of Proverbs is not even just Chapters 10–31.
Do you remember how the book of Proverbs started back in Chapter 1, verse 7?
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."
You get something quite similar in Chapter 9, verse 10:
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
Now we looked at Chapter 9 a few weeks ago — and you remember, it offers you a choice: will you live your life in the House of Folly, on the road to death, or will you live your life in the House of Wisdom, on the road to life?
And now that Jesus has come, that choice — the road to death or the road to life — becomes: will you reject Jesus, or will you live for Jesus?
And if you want to live for the glory of Jesus — Proverbs will help you. But the book of Proverbs will also help people who don't want to live for Jesus — because there's much ordinary wisdom here. If you want to live in the Kingdom of Queen Folly, Proverbs will contain much good advice on how to do that — really excellent.
The trouble is, the House of Folly still leads to death. So no matter how successful you are at living in that house — it doesn't actually really help you. It's a little bit like catching a flight from Leeds Bradford Airport to Tenerife. Okay, see — a bit of autumn sunshine. So you get on the plane: Leeds–Bradford to Tenerife. And if you're watching this from Tenerife, you know who you are — I hope you’re having a lovely time. Check-in is at 2pm and you execute your trip to the airport perfectly. Your bags are packed — they are the correct weight and size, and you have everything that you need in there. Yes, it’s November — you have some sun cream in your bag.
You plan your route to the airport in time to perfection, and you arrive exactly at 2pm … at Manchester Airport. Immaculately delivered — the wrong destination.
It will help you if you want to live in the House of Queen Folly — but that's hardly an achievement, is it?
Proverbs are covenantal. They are there so that the people of the living God can have his help to live for Jesus — really.
Conclusion
So Proverbs is a very tasty book. But it's not a box of chocolate to pick your favourite tips for life. It is so much more than that.
And here is how to enjoy it to the full:
Start with Jesus. There's good advice here for anyone. But this book was compiled by the king to help his people live their lives in the House of Wisdom, under the shadow of his good and gentle rule — to his praise.
And make sure your life is on the road to life. Then take these proverbs one at a time, and suck on that boiled sweet as it slowly dissolves. Chew on them. Turn them over. Carry them through the day. The day will bring many and varied situations — and prayerfully, see how each one gives you the wisdom you need for the many different situations.