Proverbs 1:1-7 NASB

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, To receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion, a wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The kind of wisdom The Proverbs speaks to from the beginning of the book is not a human wisdom apart from someone who does not know God or who does not live in what is called “the fear of God”—for “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (1:7a). The book introduces a wisdom completely different from one who is just simply “worldly-wise”.  The introduction makes it clear that the wisdom it speaks to is first a wisdom from above, making it a wisdom that responds and acts like God in matters of behavior, righteousness, justice and equity (1:3), but in human skin.  This person, knowing full well their human limitations, does not treat this divine wisdom with a self-righteous attitude or as a “know-it-all”, but with a spirit of humility as a learner:  “A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles” (1:5-6).  This person has chosen the path less traveled and has determined that this wisdom from above would be their constant compass in life, permeating everything they are and do, spilling out in the clear, living colors of God’s character in this dark world.  Only a “fool”, as the Proverbs mostly describe such a person, would resist this kind of character, for “fools despise wisdom and instruction” (1:7b).  This contrast, between the wise and the fool, is a theme contrast throughout the book. What a contrast! They are completely opposite, and diametrically opposed to each other in life and death and, though we may not care for labels, this is the way God has chosen to label us throughout the book of Proverbs.  “FOOL” is not something I would want to carry around both in life or in death.  But I can live (really live) with the word “WISE, and, in fact, I can die with it.  It looks good on a person, both in life and death.  And wouldn’t that look good on a tombstone?  Even in death, it would speak volumes.  But only because “Wisdom” made you look good.  It always will.  That’s a promise!