Hindsight

Proverbs are conclusions, that’s what I love about them!  You have to take the conclusion and extrapolate all the information and ideas that go into the conclusion.  That’s why it’s called wisdom literature.  It takes a wise person to distill down to a conclusion, different experiences in different settings with different people under different circumstances.  

If I were to make this proverbial statement, “Blue is a beautiful color,” and then ask you to extrapolate out why I would make that conclusive statement.  You might say, “Ed loves the color blue because some of the most beautiful things he has ever seen are blue.  The sky the morning after a rain storm is bright blue, the Pacific Ocean on a clear day from a cliff, his wife’s eyes!”  Those would be correct extrapolations from my conclusive proverb, “Blue is a beautiful color.”

Extrapolation is a very subjective process that can be filled with error.  “Ed loves blue because it is the color of the police car that pulled him over, the baby blue color of the checks his wife ordered for him with puppies, the color of his face when he is choking.”  All of those extrapolations would be incorrect and untrue (except the puppies thing that my wife did to me years ago! I refused to use them.)

How do you ensure that your extrapolations from Proverbs are reasonable so that you don’t drift off into a subjective mess?

#1.  Realize that Proverbs are meant to draw us to God and understand HIM in a deeper way.  If you’re going to read Proverbs you need to refrain from totally reading it as a self-help book.  It certainly is meant to give us practical wisdom in living life but not divorced from God.  It is meant to help us understand how to live life with God’s influence and presence.

#2.  Realize that Proverbs are meant to build godliness in our lives.  If your goal is godliness there may be a price to pay.  Godliness doesn’t always bring about prosperity or popularity.  You don’t always win short-term impulsive decision friends by making long-term godly decisions.

Proverbs 14:7 states, “Stay away from a fool for you will not find knowledge on his lips.”  This does not mean Christians should avoid friendships with people who did not finish a certain level of education or are mentally handicapped or mentally ill.  Fool Biblically means non-believer’s in God who are selfish and indulgent and don’t believe they’ll ever give an account before a Holy God about how they’ve lived.  Be influenced by godly people not those who deny He exists.

#3.  Realize that the Bible interprets the Bible.  If you’re going to read Proverbs you have to examine the rest of scripture when it deals with a particular subject.

James 1:5 tells us, “God gives wisdom to those who ask for it.”  So in conjunction with reading Proverbs we have to pray for God to use those Proverbs in our lives so we can gain wisdom.

#4.  Realize most Proverbs follow common sense interpretation.  If I were to say, “Look before you leap.”  You would immediately realize that this statement/Proverb applies to more than jumping.  It’s a metaphor for being cautious before you commit to anything long-term. 

The same is true in Proverbs 6:27-29, 

“Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?

Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?

So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.” 

The last sentence interprets the first two sentences.  The first two sentences are metaphoric and the last is very literal.  Except the word sleep is also metaphorical and should be interpreted as???  

See!  I knew you’d understand it.