Monday, December 7, 2009

Proverbs 7 by Doug for December

Reflections on Proverbs

December 7 2009


Proverbs 7:1 (NRSV) →It's really not enough to know where to find knowledge and wisdom. You need to commit it to memory, to carry it in your mind and heart. There is no substitute for that, as sometimes you cannot look it up.


Proverbs 7:4-5 (NRSV) →A trustworthy, intimate sister. The kind that warns you about the girls that can't be trusted. This is wisdom...because the deceptive danger is hard to separate.


Proverbs 7:7 (NRSV) →Look at the parallelism. Without engaging in parallelomania (with apologies to both D.A. Carson and Samuel Sandmel, where Carson got the term), there is a fairly clear parallelism here showing youth and simplicity as essentially the same. The young are simple. It's not a fault, but a reality. Are we providing them the path to wisdom in God or are we leaving them to be simple later?


Proverbs 7:10 (NRSV) →She's not a prostitute, but she's dressed as one....there are times and ways that we should distinctly avoid certain fashions and choices because they are blatant marks of sinful behavior. In Jordan, for example, when my wife was growing up, having multiple earrings was the mark of a woman with loose morals. Why pick the fight and say you can have multiple earrings and not be loose? Would it not be better to hold back? Not that this sign applies in America, but we have other indicators. There are certain fashions that communicate desires and intentions...why bother with them? Why not stay away from displaying things that show blatant materialism?


Because we don't want to follow wisdom. That's why, and it's killing us.



Doug


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