The King’s Wisdom—Proverbs 1:1-7

If I had to give a subtitle to the book of Proverbs, I would call it "The King's Wisdom." The book begins "The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel." But Solomon was not the sole author or final editor of Proverbs, and he himself failed drastically in the areas of wisdom that are central to the book: the fear of the Lord and the rejection of evil seduction. No, Proverbs was written as wisdom for a future king who would be wiser than Solomon: Jesus Christ. And when Jesus appeared on the scene, he said, "Something greater than Solomon is here."

The first lesson we learn from Proverbs is that the path of wisdom is to listen to wisdom. That might sound like a no-brainer, but it isn't really. Many people don't think they need to listen to wisdom, because they think they have all the wisdom they need. Others think that wisdom only comes from experience, not from what other people have to say, and certainly not from a dusty old book like Proverbs. But the book itself says that in the search for wisdom, when you opened up Proverbs, you hit pure gold. Wisdom is at your fingertips, if only you will read. Wisdom is in the air, if only you will listen.

The first verses of the book introduce three kinds of people: the simple (or the youth), the wise (or the one who understands), and the fool. We'll get to the fool later. For now, the simple is the one who doesn't have wisdom, but who has a hope of gaining it. The wise has wisdom already, and he will pursue more of it. No man on earth is too wise to get wiser -- no, the wisest man is the quickest to listen to wisdom. The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus himself grew in wisdom. The path of wisdom is to listen to wisdom -- indeed, to listen to his book, as Jesus himself must have as a godly Jewish youth.

But the punch line and main point of the introduction to Proverbs is that the heart of wisdom is to fear the Lord. Not just any God, but the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel. This isn't philosophy, and it isn't common sense. It's revealed truth, truth from heaven, specific and soul-challenging truth. It has to be the Lord. And it has to be fear -- not just respect, not just appreciation, but all-encompassing over-awed and awe-struck, trembling devotion. This isn't the slavish fear that comes with hatred: It's the holy and cleansing fear that comes with a humble vision of the one who is almighty and pure. It's like the proper attitude toward the waterfalls I grew up near in Western North Carolina. If you want to get close to one of these waterfalls, you'd better not approach it arrogantly from above, because you'll get swept over the brink and die. You have to approach it humbly from below, and then you can get right under the rushing waters and feel them washing over you. You can get close to God, but only in humility.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This means that, in a sense, no one who doesn't fear the Lord has true knowledge at all. Now, someone who doesn't fear the Lord can know a lot of things. An atheistic birdwatcher can tell you that's a robin, that's a bluebird, that's a sparrow. And that isn't trivial knowledge -- it's beautiful. But the atheist can't tell you the most important think about the robin, which is who made it, whose it is, who gives it life. Imagine a child who has a lot of really great books and toys -- not the plastic trash so many people give to children, but really well-made and fun toys. And the child shows you the toys and knows how they all work. And you ask, did your mother and father give you these? And the child says, “Oh, I don't believe that stuff about mothers and fathers.” That child doesn't really know the first thing about the gifts he has received.

That child is the fool who despises wisdom and instruction. And the scary thing is that the fool is stuck. The fool isn't like the simple. The simple isn't wise, but he can become wise. But the fool can't become wise, because he won't listen to wisdom.

And the Bible says, that's the world. The world despises the truth. The world is off the path to wisdom, and it can't find the path again.

But Jesus Christ came for the world. And Jesus is the wise king that the book of Proverbs leaves us wanting. Isaiah said, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD." That's Jesus. He's the King of Wisdom.

And one more thing: That King of Wisdom became a fool for us. The wise king that Israel had been waiting for came to die on a cross, and Paul says in 1 Corinthians that the cross is folly in the eyes of those who don't know God. Let me ask you this: what is your idea of a wise person? Is it a man with a long beard sipping tea or smoking a pipe and talking philosophy? Or is it a man who called himself the Son of God sitting in the electric chair on death row? Jesus wasn't just killed. He was discredited. His death meant that he wasn't who he said he was.

But three days later, his resurrection told a different story. It said that the foolishness of God is wiser than the world. The world's fool is God's chosen King of Wisdom. And now that King is calling out, "Listen to me." And he calls not only to the simple and the wise, but even to fools, because he has the power and the compassion to come even to fools who despise the truth, and lead them back to the path of wisdom. You may not be wise, but don't be a fool. Indeed, you don't need to be wise yet. All you need is a wise king who can lead you in the fear of the Lord. All you need is Jesus Christ, the King of Wisdom.

Pastor Nate Jeffries