Proverbs 1:1-33
I. Verse 1-6, The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; {2} To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; {3} To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; {4} To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. {5} A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: {6} To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
This is the introduction to the book of Proverbs. There is a list of things the wise person will do in order to receive true Godly wisdom.
II. Verse 7-9, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. {8} My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: {9} For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
III. Verse 10-19, My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. {11} If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: {12} Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: {13} We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: {14} Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: {15} My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: {16} For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. {17} Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. {18} And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. {19} So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
IV. Verse 20-23 - The desire for wisdom in the natural world. Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: {21} She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, {22} How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? {23} Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
1. There is a great need for knowledge in the world today.
2. Businessmen search many days for people wise enough to be a good employee. They have trouble finding employees who are able to give change, or add a column of figures twice and get the same answer, or who will be honest in their dealings with customers and supervisors, or give an honest days work for an honest days pay.
3. Our government has forsaken the morals taught in the Bible and found that they can't stand the wickedness of men when they don't have Biblical morals, so they try to install "ethics" instead. It isn't working.
V. Verse 24-25 - The call of God for the world to come to His wisdom. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; {25} But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
1. When things get really bad, God offers to help by giving of His Spirit and knowledge.
2. He calls to them, but they have refused to hear and see that the result of rejecting God's Bible has caused all their present distress.
3. They refuse to listen to God's preachers and God's Word, for they believe that is "old fashioned", they don't realize that people are the same in all ages.
4. They chose instead to listen to their own "experts", who know nothing about everything, who give bad advice on everything, and who think they know everything about everything, when in truth, they know nothing about everything.
VI. Verse 26-33 - The natural negative result of failing to listen to God's wisdom. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; {27} When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. {28} Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: {29} For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: {30} They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. {31} Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. {32} For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. {33} But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.