The Road of the Wise

Imasdovnin Jampan

Proverbs 1:1-7

One of the verses I learned early in my life was this:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”(2Tim 3:16)

All scripture, not part of it, all the books that we have, are written and given to us for a purpose. They are useful for teaching, rebuking, encouraging, correcting, and training.

However, all 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are not the same in the literary style.

We have different genres:

Historical Narrative: Such as Genesis, first half of Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges and Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel 1 and 2 Kings and so on.

Law: Like second half of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy

Wisdom: Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes

Poetry: Psalms, Songs of Solomon, Lamentations

Prophecy: Major and Minor Prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel and so on

Gospels and Acts

Epistles: Letters of the apostles

Apocalyptic: Daniel and Revelation

In the coming Sundays I am going to study with you some chapters from the Book of Proverbs. This means we are going to dig in the genre of wisdom literature.

The author of Proverbs is King Solomon. The first 9 chapters and the last 2 could have been written by someone else. Actually, Solomon writes starting from chapter 10. However, the beginning of the book carries the title: “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel” meaning that he probably compiled the proverbs.

The first 9 chapters are teachings of a father to his son, as if it is preparation to be ready for the teachings of Solomon.

General observations about the Book of Proverbs:

-It is not a religious book. If someone does not know the Law of Moses or the message of Christ, he can still read this book to get instructions for living a right-good life.

It describes how life is a battle between right and wrong. The wisdom book will guide us to make the right decisions.

-It is also a book written to everyone, to people of all nations. One can use this book as a means of evangelism. Non-religious persons usually like this book. It is a very good way to reach out to them. “Wisdom” is not an end in itself; it will lead us to God. We can learn that in this book.

-It is not a commandments book, like the other books of law. It teaches us, instructs us, and guides us to take God’s instructions seriously; decisions we make have consequences. It is like an instruction book which comes with your purchase. Without reading it you can destroy the product.

We will continue in English.