Behold, the Man.

Tags

Christ, Covenant theology, Forgiveness, God the Father, Holy Spirit, Righteousness, Salvation, Son of God

“Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold, the man!'” ~ John 19:4-5

“This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” ~ Acts 2:32-33

“Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? ‘It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.'” ~ Isaiah 63:1

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” ~ 1 John 3:8

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” ~ Genesis 3:15

“You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” ~ John 11:49b-50

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.” ~ 2 Timothy 2:8

“…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” ~ Hebrews 9:14-15

“…and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain…” ~ Revelation 5:4-6

“The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies!…He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.” ~ Psalm 110:2, 7

Behold, the Man.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

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Wisdom a Guard

Tags

Christ, Christian Education, Covenant theology, God, Proverbs, Salvation, Scripture, Sin

image via wikiart.org

“He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the ways of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.” ~Proverbs 2:7-15

Previously in the book of Proverbs, Solomon has told his son that he should not consent to join forces with evil men, for they will end up destroying themselves (1:10-19). But now he expands upon this subject from another perspective. He says that the same Lord who alone gives wisdom (more here, here, and here) is the One who guards his saints by that same wisdom.

Here is the testimony of one taught of wisdom and guarded by it, revealing how the store of the Lord’s wisdom protects his saints: “With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.” ~Psalm 17:4

And here is another: “The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.” ~Proverbs 11:5-6

This is further clarified by the apostle Peter when he said, “whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19); and it is made evident by God himself near the beginning of history, “And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7).

Now, we know that, by definition, sin is revealed to be sin by the law of God. Thus, as the apostle Paul describes in Romans 7, we are revealed to be sinners by the law of God. We are by it shown to be enslaved to our lusts as our desires are demonstrated as being directed against the will of God. If it were not for this revelation of his law, we would not know sin. The law was given that we might learn to rule over it — but through it we can only come to see that we are indeed enslaved to the sinfulness that rules us. There is no possibility, then, of receiving life by the law, but only certainly of just judgment. (Romans 7, Galatians 3, etc.)

Thus it is both that “Scripture imprisoned everything under sin” (Galatians 3:22) and that, “Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them” (Psalm 119:129). What Paul describes in Romans 7 is consonant with both the words of the psalmist in the 119th Psalm and Solomon’s words here in Proverbs 2. They all speak to the response of the regenerate heart to the law of God, a response that is impossible to the one whose heart is yet under the dominion of sin:

“I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word…teach me your statutes. I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies!…My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law…I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law…Let my soul live and praise you, and let your rules help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.” ~Psalm 119:113-114, 124-125, 136, 162-163, 175-176

It is true that the word “law” does not appear in the passage in Proverbs under consideration; however, the law of God is the only way to define the terms Solomon uses here. Righteousness, justice, and evil can actually only be defined by the law of God, as revealed in Scripture. Justice is one of the fundamental themes of Proverbs, so it is valuable to consider its relation to righteousness here, as it is set forth as one of the primary purposes and results of wisdom.

In a very real sense, all sin is injustice, for all sin is sin because it is contrary to the law of the Creator, which is the standard of justice. Scripture speaks very bluntly to the Lord’s hatred of all perpetration of injustice. Indeed, God hates it so much that it is for the removal of it from earth that Christ came, as the apostle John makes clear: “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning since the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 2:8; see also 1 John 2:2, Romans 8:20-22, and Ephesians — particularly 1:9-10, 19-23, 2:8-12, etc.). Thus, when Proverbs 2:8 says that God guards the paths of justice, it is most definitely in this context which is laid out consistently and coherently throughout all of Scripture — and it is in this light that we ought to understand it.

Not long after the establishment of the covenant with Abraham, which, as Hebrews makes clear, was with Christ as the promised Redeemer, “The LORD said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him'” (Genesis 18:17-19).

The God who stores up sound wisdom for the upright is the God who is concerned with seeing justice done on earth; and he is also the God who made a covenant with men for their salvation, a salvation that would be extended across all the earth. This passage also contains in it how he guards justice and watches over his people, even as Solomon later asserts. When one keeps the commandments of the Lord, the Lord will keep that one. “Keeping” the commandments is a guarding of them, treasuring them, loving them, maintaining them — even so the Lord God keeps those who love him.

Our salvation, because it is covenantal in nature, is a legal matter that has real consequences in and for us, as for the world — our obedience is a legal matter that has real consequences in and for us, as for the world — so it is written. And what is this salvation but God’s saving, guarding, and keeping his children, both from the paths of evil and the way of injustice, as well as from the eternal consequences of such treason against God Most High?

So we see that when knowledge becomes pleasant to the heart, the resulting discretion will keep a man from taking delight in evil (vs. 14). His very inmost heart and desires will be changed — changed by God — and he will be enabled to rule over that sin that previously held the entirety of his person, including his will, mind, and emotions, imprisoned under slavery to sin and fear and death.

As an example of how this wisdom from God can very practically be a guard from the ways of darkness, we need look no further than the concept of training — a concept which is used often enough in the New Testament to describe a characteristic trait of a mature believer. The results of good training is that the trainee comes to possess a “second nature” reaction to the things facing him in whatever task he is engaged. As a result of effective training, especially if it is for some sort of dangerous situation, people are often preserved alive because they were equipped to respond to something (even if they have never actually experienced it before) in a way that they can avoid or mitigate the danger level to themselves and others. This is very similar to the passage under consideration, as God equips his children with wisdom, discernment, and discretion in order to preserve them from going apart to those who pervert truth, rebel against the Lawgiver, and walk in darkness. Once a man’s taste for darkness and evil has been changed though the grace of God, his first response will be to flee evil, rather than to desire the company of those who love injustice.

And so it is that it is attributed to God for keeping us and not to ourselves or to our own strength. It is God alone who empowers us to obey by changing our desires and our will by making us alive in Christ Jesus and setting his Spirit within us. Here, as in everything, we must acknowledge that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of light, with whom there is no variation or even a hint of changeableness. It is all of him and it is all to his glory and he shall fill all in all.

Remember the Saints in Caesar’s House

Tags

Caesar, Christ, God, poetry, Rome, Saints, Spiritual Warfare, Truth

image via wikiart. An experience that could have awaited any of those saints who dwelt even in Caesar’s own household….

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

As they walked among the dead,

There the light abroad was shed;

Side by side and unafraid,

For in Christ their debt is paid –

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

When the threat of death was nigh,

Lifted they their hearts on high,

Holding fast to truth and joy,

All their deeds they did employ;

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

Even in the throne of hell,

There our brothers they did dwell,

Beset ‘round with wickedness,

They were bid be anxiousless;

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

Believing Christ and knowing God,

After Him they boldly trod,

Even as an empire fell,

They their souls refused to sell;

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

Pressing on to win the prize,

Beyond their death they cast their eyes,

Conquerors they were, and free,

To Christ only bent their knee;

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

Beloved of God their every name!

Every enemy’s come to shame –

For the wrath of God is strong

Against all who do Him wrong;

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

Therefore do we stand our ground,

For the Truth of God is sound;

Those who mock it, they shall die,

As has every power on high;

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

Scorning Christ and killing saints,

With their blood all Rome paints;

But overcome by light and peace,

Her black deeds have come to cease –

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house.

 

Christ does ever rule and reign,

Until that day He comes again;

Caesar’s sins are not forgotten,

For of God are the saints begotten,

Remember the saints in Caesar’s house!

 

Savannah Jane Parker – summer 2015
“God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved brethren, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” ~Philippians 2:9-13

Conviction

Tags

Christ, Conscience, Conviction, Freedom, Law of God, Natural Law, Wisdom, Word of God

image via wikiart. Titled “Farewell of Slav”. Note: I am unfamiliar with the historical situation it is portraying.

“I tell you, my friends, do no fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.” ~Luke 12:4-9

Freedom is a gift of God. True freedom is a result of believing God, the One from whom comes justice and truth. It is part of our salvation in Christ and is demonstrated in keeping the law of our Creator and so living as we were created to do.

Innately connected with conscience and with conviction (which two cannot very well be separated), freedom is a characteristic of the child of God. This is because, as God’s own people, we are fundamentally servants to him alone (Leviticus 25:55). We owe obedience to the human authorities over us because our God commands it of us (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 5:21-6:9; Hebrew 13:17; Peter 2:12-17; etc.); therefore it is that the phenomenon occurs in our fallen environment that we owe obedience to the human authorities over us insofar as they are in accordance with the law of our God, who is also God over those who rule wickedly (Acts 4:18-20; Daniel 1:8; Mark 2:23-28; etc.). Lex rex — the law of God is over all and it is that to which we, by conscience and conviction, may and ought to appeal, both as our ultimate rule of obedience and as our defense. Though so many ignore or deny the ultimacy of God’s defining power, we are free people for we know that we shall stand before the tribunal of Christ after we may, perhaps, have perished under a tribunal of man. But woe to those who pervert justice! (Isaiah 10:1-4)

I say lex rex and the lex I am referring to is the law of God. I do not mean that particular something called “natural law” — which always turns out to be inconsistent and vague, subject to endless interpretations. I mean the law of God as revealed in Scripture, for the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever. ‘Tis true that the whole creation bears witness to the truth concerning God and his power and divinity and that his holy law is written in the consciences of mankind (Romans 1:19-20 and 2:14-15) — but if we read the rest of these chapters (and the rest of the Bible!), it is very clear that we cannot put any confidence in the hearts of mankind to lead us to a true understanding of this “natural law” — if, as so many claim, it was through the vagaries of some sort of “natural law” that God chose to define his perfect justice. Isaiah 44:18-20 makes it very plain that there is little use in appealing to the innate knowledge in mankind for justice or for righteousness or for truth: “They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is their knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’ He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?'”

Our Lord Jesus, while he walked on earth, said: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). What is this? We shall know the truth because, by the working of the Spirit within us, we are unblinded and brought to see and to understand, to believe and to know the truth — the reality — the revealed things (the word of Christ) that belong to us as the covenant people of God. How does this set us free? Why? The more and more that we are sanctified and our hearts are enlightened by the Spirit of Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (side note on Colossians 2:3: therefore, one cannot be truly wise or understanding unless he knows Christ), the more and more we will live in accord with reality, rather than in the fog and irrational inconsistency of the unconverted. They are slaves to the darkness, for they love and serve this darkness. Hating the light, since it reveals their sins and inconsistencies, they persecute the free ones, who live as if in the light, living freely before God, the judge of all the world. (Compare John 15:18 et al.)

This freedom of which I speak is not a freedom “to do whatever one wants.” What sort of a “freedom” is this, anyway? It is simply impossible, for mankind has not the power of creation. No one can actually create his environment and bring to pass the thought of his heart. Only God, the Creator of the whole universe and provident Ruler of history has the power to bring to pass the thought of his heart in actuality and reality — i.e. to literally create. And if everyone was to do, within the bounds of reality, whatever they might take a notion to do, total anarchy and chaos would result. What sort of a freedom is this? A freedom to the weak to be downtrodden and a freedom to the strong to oppress. And this is why people submit to tyranny and oppression — it is a safer alternative than the freedom to be lawless.

However, I must note that the more we are sanctified, the more we come to want what is in accord with the character (and thus also the law) of our God and Savior — so, as our desires come to line up more and more with the will of God, we will find that we do come to desire to keep the law of God out of love of it, as much as fear of the Lawgiver. This is no lawless freedom of which I am speaking. It is a holy freedom to live in reality and truth. This is not a freedom that is dependent upon political happenstance, the integrity of ecclesiastical leaders, economic situations, or familial status. This is not a freedom that is grounded upon any human or any human institution or government. It is a freedom of conscience, a freedom to stand upon convictions, a freedom of self-government, a freedom to obey and live in the light (regardless of circumstances) rather than slavishly conforming in fear to what some person teaches or what some political authority demands.

How? Why? Because, ultimately, we stand only before one authority — our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a freedom from fear for those who love the truth — though it leads into many situations where, like Peter sinking in the waves, we often forget and fear what might happen to us in the Lord’s providence. And as Jesus intervened to draw Peter out of the waves (even while rebuking him for his unbelief), so our God will draw us out of all of these situations — though it may be, as with so many of our brothers and sisters, through the portal of death and many other miserable occurrences. Yet, these very things are to the glory of his name on earth. And, for his name’s sake, he always provides strength of faith, assurance of conviction, and the unshakable conscience of a spirit taught of God (Isaiah 48:11). This is that freedom to which I am referring.

Though it be a freedom of heart, it leads to many very tangible results that have been demonstrated again and again throughout history. Wherever the gospel of the kingdom of Christ has gone out and the word of God has been accounted the ultimate authority, wherever truly free people have lived, they have survived the downfall of twisted unjust orders and societies and there some measure of economic and political freedom has also come to exist — because truly free people are self-governed because they themselves do not slavishly depend on any human being or institution to be law for them — including themselves. Free people are submissive people — submissive to their Lord. Because of this, free people do not hear the voice of strangers, nor follow them (John 10:5).

Hence the importance of conviction in the lives of believers. I do not know about elsewhere than where I am currently dwelling — but I know that in my situation at this time, I see a lack of firm conviction in the believers around me who hold to Reformed doctrine (which I think are those closest to the very teaching of the Scriptures). To be sure, I did not say I do not see any evidence of this — but I cannot say that I quite see evidences of a generalized steadfast solidness and stability of trajectory. Perhaps it is because the well-grounded conviction of possessing truth that is such a characteristic of free peoples is tempered by the deep-running currents of tolerance and the relativism of contemporary Western culture — I can only observe what I see.

Surely, our convictions must be guided by the Spirit of God through the Word of God — lest we ourselves simply repeat the sins revealed so clearly in Romans 1 and 2. Surely it is the law of our God that must inform our consciences, for our very consciences can be seared and twisted (1 Timothy 4:1-3). I do not think that there is an empirical test we can perform to tell us whether or not our consciences are more greatly bound by man or by God. It is evident throughout the history of the church and equally so today that many put a blind faith in something other than the word of God, yet believe that they are acting in obedience to God — despite the fact that, upon closer examination of what God has revealed, they are at odds with the Lord of all and actually in disobedience to him. The apostle Paul, himself formerly a zealous persecutor of Christ, addresses this in numerous places, but here is only one reference: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ…These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” ~Colossians 2:8, 23

Both the questions of if we have convictions and of what our firm assurance of belief holds to is an important matter, for true. Many wise men say that the days are fast approaching when our level of conviction and the depth to which our consciences are held fast by the Word of God will be tested and revealed — on the greatest matters. The days came long ago and are now in full force when we, as believers, are being constantly tested in the smaller matters — how deep are our convictions, really? Is our conscience truly captive to the Word of God? Can we say of this or that in our lives, “I cannot do (or speak) otherwise — examine me by Scripture. If the Word of God says otherwise, I will change. But let me stand at this highest authority. I am convinced that in my actions I will not be shown to be a transgressor of the supreme law. I appeal to it for my vindication.”

Many, many saints before us have said such things — and about almost every practice and custom and belief of theirs. Can we say this? Are we so assured that our lives are reflections of the principles of Scripture? How thoroughly Christian are we?

Let us go to the Word of God with humble hearts and prayer. We don’t always know what we’re looking for and often have no idea of what we’ll be confronted with there — but we must go, willing to be confronted, willing to be convicted, willing to change, if need be, both assisted by the interpretation of fellow believers and directly to the Word, leaning on the Spirit for understanding. The Lord has said that we will find. Therefore, we will. Let us become free. Let us become people of the Book, taught of God, hating what God hates and loving what God loves. Let us become people of conviction.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” ~Psalm 139:23-24

Wisdom Comes from the Lord

Tags

Christ, Christian Education, Conscience, Death, Freedom, Life, Wisdom

image via wikiart.org

“For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the ways of his saints.” ~Proverbs 2:6-7

I have been pondering over this verse for some time, seeking the implications of it, particularly in regard to education. But I suppose that I could really subtitle my thoughts from this verse as, “Epistemology and Freedom,” for those are the thoughts that have come together for me as result. Most of my posts so far concerning the book of Proverbs have been pretty much contained within the book itself, but this time I’m going to draw more explicitly from other places in Scripture for the purpose of clarity.

Solomon flatly states that wisdom comes from God. It is a gift from God (James 1:17-18; John 17:14; John 16:13-15), given to individuals whom the Lord has chosen (James 1:5-8; Ecclesiastes 2:26; Psalm 51:6); through this, then, it is given to the whole body of believers. Scripture is quite clear that no one has sound wisdom unless he believes and fears God — then he knows God (John 5:38-47 and James 1:21-25). The prayer of Psalm 119:66 sums up how this is applied personally in our own lives: “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.”

No human being can cause another to thirst after wisdom and to seek God — God himself puts this in the heart of a man, woman, or child. However, he does hear the prayers of his saints, asking for life for another, as it were (John 5:16; James 5:15-20). Hence, as I have noted before, a parent (or sibling or elder or friend or some other teacher or counselor) can and must rely on the Lord to open the eyes and heart and desires of the one being taught. I once heard it a pastor say it this way: “You know you can’t teach hunger — so you pray.” Solomon does not contradict this, nor do the apostles, for our Lord himself has said in the gospels:

“Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me — not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.” ~John 6:43-45

“Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me….If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” ~John 10:25-27; 37-39

It is clear from these passages (among others) that believing comes before knowing and understanding (Prov. 1:7; Rom. 1:20-22; 2:13-16). See also John 6:69 where Peter says that they believed, and have come to know. This follows 6:36 where Jesus says that the Jews had seen him but did not believe.

All of this is in accord with Proverbs 1:7, which so clearly says that the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. However, this is somewhat against the grain in this post-Enlightenment society that teaches that one must experience something (in some way or other) before he can believe — and certainly before he can truly know (if he can even really know anything for certain). Yet, God commands his children and gives his blessing with it, or upon their obedience. Surely it is necessary to believe the Lord before experiencing the blessing that results from keeping the word of his mouth; indeed, God gives grace upon grace, for it is only by grace that we believe and know and it is only by grace that we receive further blessing upon blessing when we keep his commandments.

When we come to the Scriptures, when we are taught the Word — as Solomon is teaching his son here in the second chapter of Proverbs — whether it is by pastors, parents, or anyone else, we must first believe that it is true because it comes from God. We may not quite understand it all, but his Spirit bears witness with our spirit that their words are the words of truth when they are speaking according to the voice of God in Scripture (comp. Romans 8:16; John 10:4-5). We must be granted the freedom of conscience to ourselves bear witness to the truth — “for the Lord gives wisdom.” This freedom of conscience is a responsibility — in it, by it, once we are to a point where we are maturing as believers (no matter how young we may be — the Scriptures put no age limit on wisdom), we must judge what we are taught by the Scriptures as those “who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” ~Hebrews 5:14

It is something, indeed, to stand, individually, before the God of all and before his Word — and, in reality, this is where we stand. No other mediator can or will we, each one, ever have besides Christ. Therefore, it is important for us to be sure that we believe what we claim to know — and apply it and practice it in our lives, lest we be found liars and it be demonstrated that his truth not be in us — for it is undeniable that “the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” ~Deuteronomy 30:14

Over and over throughout the history of the people of God, authoritarianism has crept in, wiggling its way into pulpits and families and nations, denying that wisdom comes from God alone and refusing his word that it is he alone who grants knowledge to those whom he calls. Men and women have set themselves up to determine truth for other people, demanding that they be obeyed, for they have the truth from God which they will then make their dependents to learn. Surely, they are the people and wisdom shall die with them (Job 12:2)! Yet, it is a mark of honesty and a demonstration of a Christian’s assurance of possessing knowledge from the Lord to point others always and only to the Scriptures as the source of their own teaching, inviting those taught to test their words against the Word of God and find out whether or not these things are so (com. Acts 17:11). Believers are indeed free in Christ, having been set free by the truth. It is then that, by his Spirit, they are enabled to know God and to keep his law — in which only is a man or woman truly free to be a man or woman, fulfilling his created purpose, function, and work — rather than chasing after some twisted perversion of personhood and duty that only enslaves them to sin, death, and the silent “peace” that hell holds forth to sinful people while they yet dwell on earth.

The freest people — the only truly free people — are those who submit their thinking entirely to the Scriptures and to the Scriptures alone. We all believe this or that because of the authority of who it comes from, right? And usually we will only really believe it if, deep down, we have some sort of motion that agrees with them, right? When I believe something that my good friends tell me, it is because I believe that they are trustworthy. Yet, the only finally and ultimately trustworthy One is the Lord God himself. Everything that he says is authoritative and true and it is on that authority that we may — and should — believe him. Furthermore, he has not left himself without witness — the work of the law is written on our hearts and consciences simply because we are human, made in the image of the God who alone gives wisdom and understanding (Romans 2:15). There is a witness within our very deepest being that the words of God are true.

Yet, this can be, and often is, overridden by sin, which blinds us and enslaves us — there is no freedom in autonomy, only slavery to the insanity of sin. Death holds out the dark silence of annihilation or some other stupefying lie as a consolation to the one who is not set free by the truth that he is a sinner, that he is accountable to his Creator, that he may come into life and song and living color if he only submit and say that his Maker is right and holy and that he himself is a sinner, justly worthy of death — but that God himself provided a propitiation and salvation for him in the One Mediator, Christ Jesus, who is worthy of all praise and glory and worship and rule, forever. It is this one who believes the truth about reality who is then free to obey God — and, obeying him, to live in freedom from self-centered fear and self-aggrandizement. It is these two things — fear and pride — that are the driving manifestations of that will to godhood that is at the core and root of all forms of authoritarianism, which imposes a creature between a man and his God. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17).

This subject of epistemology and how a biblical epistemology is at the root of free people is related very closely to education and theories of learning. Sadly, it is an area where Christian education far too often takes up the spirit of the age, with its underlying doctrine that children must “experience the world” before they can really believe their parents — and thus also believe the Scriptures — about the sinfulness of sin and the graciousness of grace (as I have heard and read Christian parents claiming to be the case while seeking to justify sending their children to be raised in the state schools). Yet, is not Christian education primarily heart-work? And is not the desired result of Christian education that we might know God and understand how to view all things in life through the framework of Scriptural teaching? (Psalm 119:59-60; compare 119:98-100) It is like this — or it should be, shouldn’t it? — “I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” ~Psalm 119:102-104

It does not say: “through my experiences I have learned to hate sin”; nor, “because I have experienced the world I have now come to see through the Scriptures”. The latter simply cannot be, though there is an element of truth to the former assertion. However, we will never truly hate sin — all sin and idolatry — unless we first love the God of truth and his commandments, for it is these things that teach us what he loves and what he hates. We do not learn this from experiencing the sins of the world in some fashion or another. We only learn to love the Lord by learning of him and what he says. Sin is not necessary for goodness to exist. Rather, sin is a perversion of goodness and can never be ultimate — therefore, it cannot exist if there is no righteousness. But goodness is not like that — it is holy and ultimate.

Surely, the aim of Christian education is love of righteousness and hatred of evil (the two sides of the fear of the Lord). This we learn by the Word of our God, not primarily by experience. True, we most assuredly shall experience this and that, being struck with pain as well as with joy, but it is not these experiences of pain or of joy that teach us to love righteousness and to hate evil. Sometimes, due to some problem in the sensory systems of the body (which is ultimately the consequences of sin), these experiences can be completely out of accord with reality — unless we say that there is no objective, true, reality in which we all exist and the subjective is all that is (which is a self-contradictory position on numerous points). Experience cannot actually teach us any more than that pain exists; and that, often for apparently absurd reasons. It cannot teach us rightness and wrongness, ought or ought not, why or how. At best, it can only show us commonly occurring experiences of this or that. Yet, too many Christian parents seem to believe that their children learn, truly learn, knowledge and wisdom through “experience”; and so they attempt to structure their educational methods accordingly, be they ever so unwitting (as so many are!) that they are using methodologies and presupposed doctrines that are not in accord with the Scriptures.

For sure, the hand must be trained to a task if it is to become skillful and fine-tuned — but if the apprentice does not believe that the master’s words are true, or that his practice is sound, he will not learn from him aright and will not come to know the skill as the master does — and he will never surpass him until he believes his master and further applies the principles he has learned from him. He must believe and trust that the master will teach him truly. And when Christian parents remove their children too soon from their immediate presence and training, the seeds of bitterness and unbelief are far too easily planted, since this culture is so overwhelmingly antithetical to Christ and to true Christian practice. This is one reason for the great importance of abiding in Christian families and communities where the Word is being lived out because it is truly being believed. If the next generation is to become wiser than their teachers, they first must believe that God is and that he is God — and also be trained how to think and how to understand what he has said, lest they do not see fit to acknowledge God (Romans 1:25, 28). For he is there and he is not silent.

“Learn by experience” is surely a foundational principle of the spirit of the age, perpetuated by socialist educators and various other God-haters who sit in their authoritarian seats and declare doctrine a en haute. By claiming that experience is our teacher, they thus make each person autonomous as a determiner of their own law-word, their own truth — which simply cannot be. Yet they remain the teachers, seeking to bind all as servants of sin, alongside of themselves, under the guise of their spell of proffered freedom from justice — which is really a freedom from God. Yet, in all this, they use something they know not what in an attempt to deny the same. They must use language, though they attempt not to. They must use logic, though they actually teach people how not to think, rather than training them how to use and develop this innate facet of our beings as men and women made in the image of God.

But the main point is this: if the fear of the Lord is the ultimate end of Christian education — as it is said to be in the book of Proverbs — then this implies, fundamentally, the teaching and learning of language and logic in order that the Lord and his law might be known and applied and that his wonders be understood aright. Only then can we become free people, praising the Lord who has made us, bought us, saved us, clothed us, and will keep us, in Christ, forever, as his people. Yet, even little children with less-developed capacities and skills in rhetoric can know God — for wisdom is from God. Experience is not really our teacher — we have one Teacher, God (Matthew 23:8, 10) — how then can so many Christians distance their children from the heritage of the promises of God by seeking to train them according to the unbelieving methods of statism, romanticism, and Marxism (whether in state schools or by the use of some other unbiblical curriculum) — and therefore advance both the goals and the agenda of the very ones who, not fearing God, hate the Creator and his holy righteousness?

 

The Aroma of the King

Tags

Aroma, Christ, Christian, Covenant theology, Kingdom of God, Law of God, Love, Obedience

image via wikiart.org

“Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.'” ~Luke 10:8-11

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” ~2 Corinthians 2:14-17

The scent of Christ surrounding his disciples is the aroma of the kingdom of God. Some do not receive it. It is a stench to them, as obedience to the word of God is both convicting and enlightening. They hate the light and do not come to it, choosing rather to flee into deeper darkness — and to death. Others, though, do receive it and are healed by it, drawn to the light by its odor of life, freedom, and love.

In everything that we do, as we are Christians, we are to do it in the name of Christ, our Lord and Head, based upon his satisfaction as the fragrant aroma of the propitiatory sacrifice before the Father. When we live in such a way, we bear the scent of the triumphant King wherever we go — and we will thus be as incense in the world, bearing witness to his presence — an aroma which some hate and others come to love.

Our very bodies demonstrate the truth of the vivid imagery of this word-picture describing the total life or death nature of the kingdom of God. For some people love the way one thing smells, while others detest the same. Not only that, people’s likings can and do change.

An example of this from my own life has to do with the cheap, “chemical fragrances” that Westerners live and breathe in unavoidable superabundance. Once upon a time, I loved the way these things smelled — until I wasn’t exposed to them for a while, instead breathing in primarily natural odors and essential oils. At first, these seemed rather flat and bland to me, until one day I realized that there was a beautiful complexity and loveliness to them that I had previously been simply unable to discern. And then I began to notice that the synthetic chemical fragrances all smelled alike to me — and that they caught at my throat rather unpleasantly. I wondered why I had ever taken such delight in them! I no longer could sense, with any detail, the variation between one and another, much less enjoy them — even while my ability to distinguish variations in smell in general has continued to improve the longer I have reduced my exposure to the man-made synthetic fragrances. It was as if my ability to smell had generally been altered and actually reduced by the constant presence of the chemical fragrances.

Such a transformation of our tastes and likings and desires takes place spiritually in our lives as we grow more and more sanctified. And the more sanctified we become, the more richly the perfume of Christ will surround us, so that, as we move through life, others will know that the kingdom of God has been near to them.

One exceedingly practical way in which this is seen is in the way we speak and in the attitudes with which we carry ourselves towards others:

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” ~Ephesians 4:15-16

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled on one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” ~Galatians 5:13-15

Such a love results from the fact that, by the grace of God, we have come to know God and love his law:

“But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge…We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” ~1 John 2:20; 4:6

As obedient subjects of the Lord of Lords, as beloved children of the living God, we, as believers, give forth the aroma of the King because he has put his Spirit in us, healed us, and given us life — a life which is the smell of death to those twisted hearts who, loving only themselves, hate Him, for it is the foreboding of their own everlasting death.

[With indebtedness to Pastor Tim Price’s sermon of March 1, 2015]

Random Thoughts Concerning a Mystery…

Tags

Christ, Church, Glorifying God, Kingdom of God, Mankind, Marriage, Scripture

“This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” ~Ephesians 5:32

Having recently begun reading in Genesis again, I have had reason to pause and consider the subject of marriage and its purpose as God ordained it. The following are merely some random notes drawn from my musings upon what the Scriptures expressly say about marriage.

A. There is no escaping from the fact that Adam named his wife. In fact, he named her twice! On two separate occasions (Genesis 2:23; 3:20), he named the woman that God brought to him. This seems to infer that there is a hierarchy in the very fabric of marriage, as instituted by God in the beginning, especially since the sin of the fall was set to his account.

B. Part of the curse was a setting up a conflict between the woman’s desire for her husband and his rule over her (Genesis 3:16). Sin always disrupted, corrupts, and destroys the things that God created good.

C. “Woman” was her name before it was “Eve”, which means something along the lines of “life-giver” in Hebrew. She is woman, the helper to her man, before she is the “life-giver” of his seed.

D. Together, Adam and Eve, male and female, were made after the image and likeness of God to have dominion over the earth, multiplying, filling, and subduing it, according to all that the Lord taught them (Genesis 1:26-28; cf. Matthew 28:18-20).

E. Adam was not alone given this task, nor could he have fulfilled it without the spouse God provided for him through no effort of his own.

F. Adam was delighted with Eve before she had done anything for him. He loved her and was with her (Genesis 2:23; 3:6).

G. Marriage was ordained by God for godly offspring and for the rule of mankind over the earth, for so it pleased God to create the universe (Malachi 2:15; Genesis 1:27-28).

H. Marriage is a covenant bond between a man and a woman. The two are to grow together, united as one person, in the Spirit of God (Malachi 2:15). This is a spiritual reality as set forth in Genesis 2:24 and the breaking, misuse, neglect, and abuse of this is grievous before the Lord who ordained it (ex. Malachi 2:16).

I. Very often throughout Scripture, God likens his covenant with the elect to be God to them to a marriage covenant and sin on the part of his people as adultery. For sin is a transgression or failure to keep his law-word of the covenant.

J. A man safely trusts the wife of his bosom — the Lord Christ has set his Spirit in the church that she might obey and be faithful to him only (Philippians 2:13; John 14:26).

K. The Father provided a wife for his eternal Son, the Word of God (ex. Ephesians 1:22-23). He, the Creator and Upholder of all things, became the One who redeemed his adulterous bride because he loved her, named her, knew her, and was with her, even though she had not yet done any good for or towards him (ex. Romans 3:8).

L. A wife is to be subject to her husband’s authority, even as the church is subject to the Lord, the great King (ex. Ephesians 5:24).

M. In this, there is not necessarily anything burdensome (cf. 1 John 5:3). Even as Adam could not alone fulfill the purpose of mankind, so it is, by the will of God, that Christ said that his church would do greater works on earth than he had done. The reason is because he was with and in them by his Spirit and all power and authority was given him by the Father (John 14:12-14). Likewise, in such a manner, a wife is invested to live in the name of her husband — her deeds are accounted as his, because she bears his name. Cf. 1 Corinthians 11:11-12.

N. A man must love his wife as himself, for, in a way, she is him. This is after the image of God, is it not? The church is the body of Christ — as a wife is to her husband (Ephesians 5:28-32; 1 Corinthians 12:27).

O. A woman is under authority in this most personal way to her husband — and to him only, for she bears his name and is one with him only. She is not subject to every man. Other authorities overlap, but, under God, her husband is her only head (1 Corinthians 11:3).

P. Christ gave himself for the redemption and preservation of his adulterous bride on account of his covenant word, which he would keep, even though she had broken it to the uttermost. He redeemed her, cleansed her, beautified her, taught her, kept her, provided for her, washed her, making her fit and capable of being faithful to him (ex. Ezekiel 16; Ephesians 5:25-27). There is not a total likeness here in human marriage, for no man actually has the power to do for his woman as Christ has done for the church. However, it is with such a love and dedication to the covenant word that a man ought to be towards his wife, be she ill-behaved or trustworthy (cf. Hosea 3:1; Proverbs 5:15-21).

Q. This is the root and ground of that jealousy of love in marriage — a reflection of the flame of the Lord, a product of real love, which hates everything contrary to it (Song of Solomon 8:6; Psalms 97:10).

R. Even though Christ came to redeem to himself a faithless bride, a Christian man should be looking for a prudent, wise, and faithful Christian woman fit to be a helper to him in particular. This is because the purpose of marriage as God ordained it in the beginning was for their union in seeking first the kingdom of God.

A Poem

Tags

Christ, Covenant theology, Glorifying God, Home, Life, poetry, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare

Warrior Child

Belonging everywhere and nowhere,
In this, my Father’s world,
My feet to wander feel the call.

Draw me, O draw me, to you, O Lord,
Let my heart cease its roaming,
Finding all peace and rest in you.

Lord of the nations, Giver of strength,
Shaper of hope, my only delight,
Be my home, O Lord Most High!

In the torrent and the fog,
Beneath the darkness and the pain, 
You are there, you, my only home.

As the arrow shaft flies swift and far,
My prayer for your glory rises,
O Lord, hear my quiet call.

Looking forth on a broken world,
To which I belong, yet am unknown,
Where shall you call me and send my feet?

My Lord, King of the whole earth,
Give me warrior feet, a tongue of praise,
A song of power, and words of peace.

So send me forth into your earth,
Armed and strong, fit for the fight,
A humble child, always, only, at home in you.

Of Pencils and Music and Lyme

Tags

Art, Beauty, Christ, Kingdom of God, Lyme, Music, poetry, Scripture

An anonymous gentleman from the 1850’s. Not my best portraiture ever, by any means, and rather incomplete, but my most recent attempt…two years ago….

Last evening, my sister gave me a music recording as a gift, which I decided to listen to this afternoon. But what I had been planning on doing in the meanwhile rapidly evaded me…instead, I reached up and grabbed the only pencil within reach and found myself scribbling on the paper in which she had wrapped the CD. This time it wasn’t flowers or dresses, though, as my doodles often emerge; it turned out to be a knight clad in thirteenth-century armor. It’s been quite a while since I’ve drawn anything, knights in particular, but that little drawing seemed to just flow out of Gabriel Hudelson’s music….

In the past, I have drawn portraits in colored pencil and even painted a few with oils. People have always been my favorite subjects for my artwork, though architecture and flowers are close behind. But as Lyme disease closed in on me, that bubbling creativity that I had called “mine” escaped from me. Yes, it fled quickly, with myself in hot pursuit — a pursuit that proved less than vain at the end. Then, as that happened and I continued to grow sicker, the very enjoyment of beautiful and creative things — whether music, art, poetry — simply left me. My favorite things slipped away. And my imagination wasn’t even left to me as I dropped the tools of the arts from my hands — my pencils and papers and paints, the inked up composition paper and my violin bow, and the flowing, rhythmic words….

I mourned these things for a while, but then I came to realize that this was where God has brought me for his own purposes and somehow, someday, for my own good, as well as for others. I also came to realize that it hadn’t ever been “my” creativity, per se, anyways — it was a gift from God which he had given to me to use. So I determined in myself that I would be grateful for whatever I had left and that I wouldn’t feel sorry for myself about it, nor would I be envious of others who possess and wield the creativity, the gifts, skills, talents, and enjoyments that I had once had and had aspired to further. Sometimes such sorts of resolutions are more difficult to keep than we would like them to be — but I have found the Scriptures always prove themselves true…and these are just a few passages of the many that I myself have relied on in recent times, as I have more and more come to understand that my own life, as small and Lyme-affected as it is, is part of something much bigger than myself, for I belong to Christ….

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~Philippians 4:4-7

“For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you,” ~Psalm 86:5

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” ~Proverbs 12:1

“Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” ~Proverbs 16:3

“Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.” ~Psalm 37:8-9

“For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declared the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff; you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them…..” ~Isaiah 41:13-17

For, indeed, the Lord does not forsake his own, for we are his, part of his kingdom, and are named his own children under the banner of the Christ, the Promised Son of David. Thus it is that I praise the Lord for his blessings on me and for his having given to me this day a tiny inkling of a return of a little creativity and slight measure of imagination…. As abilities are slowly, slowly seeming to once again become available for my use, it is also becoming apparent that they require re-training, re-disciplining, and even re-evaluation…. The tiny Lyme spirochetes are mighty in their destructive power — but their Creator is even mightier!

“To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is none besides him…And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them, and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.” ~Deuteronomy 4:35, 37-40

Solomon, Son of David, King of Israel

Tags

Christ, Christian Education, Covenant theology, Instruction, Proverbs, Solomon, Typology, Wisdom

image via wikiart.org

 

“The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel.” ~Proverbs 1:1

 

Now, getting into the first section (chapters 1-9) of this book of instruction in a little more detail, I’d like to begin at the beginning in the first chapter with a brief look at the author. Who was Solomon? Clearly, he was the son of David, king of Israel, and he himself was also king of Israel. He was the first of the lineage of David to sit upon the throne in Zion. He was the builder of the first temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, for which he was both prepared and commissioned by his father. He was the wisest man who ever lived, for, when he asked of the Lord wisdom instead of long life, wealth, pleasure, or power and security, the Lord saw fit to bless him quite abundantly in every way for the sake of his covenant with David.

 

But there is another aspect that I particularly want to note in looking at the author of this book of instruction: that is, that there are a number of ways in which Solomon was a type and figure of our Lord Christ. He was the heir of David, inheritor of a united nation of the children of Israel – as would be the Christ, the promised everlasting heir of David’s throne. He was a great and powerful king whose reign was characterized by prosperous expansion, peace within its borders, and wealth – as would be the coming Seed of David whose kingdom would have no end. He was called the teacher of Israel – as would be the coming Servant of the Lord. He was the builder of the temple in the city of God – as would be David’s greater Son and Lord. He was an intercessor for the people of Israel – as would be Jesus, the one who would take away the sins of his people. He was king and judge of Israel – as would be the coming Seed of the woman. He was wisdom to the Gentiles – as would be later spoken of the coming Anointed One. He was also called the bridegroom in another work of his, the Song of Solomon, which is often attributed to our Lord Christ and his church. I suppose there may be more ways in which the shadows of the Messiah might be seen in the life of Solomon, the son of David, but these are the ones that I can think of at this time.

 

I happened to think of this when I was contemplating Solomon’s authority for writing such a book for instruction in wisdom. Clearly, he was writing under the inspiration of the Spirit in a prophetic act of speaking the word of the Lord. In this, he, as every other prophet, foreshadowed the Christ, who would come and reveal the Father in his person, being God himself. For it is truly only our Creator who is the fountain of wisdom, for it is in Christ that all the treasures of wisdom are hidden – and from him that they are brought to light. “But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’ ” ~Job 35:10-11 The book of Proverbs turns our eyes back to the ultimate Teacher of Israel.

 

That said, Solomon the king of Israel was writing this book to his son, but it was clearly intended for a further audience, for within the space of the first few verses he specifically mentioned not only the purpose of his book of instruction, but also for whom it was written and how they would benefit from it. Thus, we see in the first nine verses of Proverbs a number of specific things: 1) who the book is from; 2) who the book is written to; 3) what the book is for; 4) and a summary groundwork premise for all that follows (vs. 7).

 

Immediately following this brief introduction, Solomon begins into the illustrative stories for the instruction of the youth of verse four that fill the first nine chapters of the book. The sayings and riddles for the meditation for the wise of verse five begin in chapter ten and fill the remainder of the book. So we see that the instruction builds upon itself and is purposeful in both arrangement and method.