Come visit us, Sunday mornings at 10:00 am in-person or online

Proverbs Study Series Lesson 1: Wisdom

Author: Ken Schulte 
This is the introduction video that will get the course started. 
History of Wisdom

  • 1 Kings 3:1-15 
  • Proverbs 8:22-31
Chokmah
  • an attribute of God, Action, Skill, Applied Knowledge.  A principle accounted to which the universe is ordered
  • There is a fantastic podcast by The Bible Project that helps tremendously about the concept of Chokmah.  It will help you give you the building block of learning and make the rest of proverbs much easier to understand. You can listen to that podcast here. 
Outline of Proverbs

Chapters 1-9  Ten speeches of father to son.  Learning wisdom and fear of the Lord.  We will use four videos to accomplish understanding wisdom.
  • Having wise feet
  • Having a wise heart
  • Having a wise tongue

Chapters 10-29  Various Topics of Wisdom and Understanding

Chapters 30-31 Agur & Lemuel
Takeaways and notes from lesson one:

  • Introduction links to King Solomon 1 Kings 4:29-33
  • Proverbs is where Israel's wisdom tradition began
  • More than wisdom, more than mental activity, its Khokmah
  • Khokmah illustrations as a skilled apprentice plus knowledge  Ex 31:1-3
  • Practical skills for living well
  • Fear of the Lord is not Terror, its a moral mindset
  • Humble yourself of God's definition of right and wrong even if its inconvenient for you
  • There are no one liner's in chapters 1-9
  • The Moral Logic is defined as Wisdom + Fear leads to Integrity & Generosity which leads to Peace where as Folly and Evil lead to Selfishness & Pride which leads to Ruin & Shame
  • Biblical Wisdom Literature, wisdom is not Law or Prophecy  It is accumulated insight of God's people through generations
  • Four Poems of Lady Wisdom 1:20. 3:13-20, Ch 8, Ch 9
  • Woven into the fabric of the Universe (Khokmah)
  • A poetic way of claiming that we live in God's moral universe
  • = God's own invitation to learn wisdom from the previous generations
  • Chapters 10-29 applies to life's topics, filtered through the value system of chapters 1-9
  • Proverbs = probabilities but not promises, there are no guarantees.
  • Proverbs focus on the general rule but not the exceptions, there are lots of exceptions
  • Exceptions are covered by Job and Ecclesiastes
  • Agur, His great need for God's wisdom and a model reader of proverbs
  • Lemuel, Wisdom from Mom
  • Alphabet poem about the wise woman 31:10-31, woman of noble character  Translates wisdom into practical decisions for everyday life
  • Opens with Father to Son conversation and closes with Mother to Son conversation.