Proverbs Closing - Corps - June 9-1982
June 9, 1982 Proverbs - Proverbs 13, 16, 17 Rev. Cummins Well, let’s take your Bibles and go to the Book of Proverbs tonight. This will be the final teaching of Proverbs for the year. We’re going to chapter 30. Now there’s a lot of things in Proverbs that we haven’t covered. A lot of it, again you can read and it’s understandable, just from the English. There are a few other difficult places that you’d have to work, some of the texts and so on, in order to clarify some of the verses. But the vast majority of it, like always, is very clear. But I wanted to move ahead to chapter 30, which is the second to last chapter of the Book of Proverbs. Because I think it’s very significant that after he’s covered all the proverbs, after he has the great introduction, what the purpose of the Book of Proverbs is, he lays out the whole curriculum for the students, then he goes into those short narrative, develop…things [didactic narratives] in the first nine chapters. And then from chapter 10 all the way through now to chapter 29 he’s handled individual proverbs. But every one of those is handled inside of a context. In other words, they’re not just disjointed proverbs, but each one sets in its context. They are related in one way or another. And so it all ties together. But then, we get to chapter 30 and it again takes on a new format. It doesn’t have those two parallel lines that are either antithetic or where they go together, where they say essentially the same thing. But we have another construction. It starts out: Proverbs 30:1: The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal, Now, isn’t that terrific? [Laughter.] It’s one of those tremendously edifying verses as you read it through. First of all “the words of Agur”, whether or not Agur was the teacher at the time that spoke it or the one that was responsible for the students, he was like one of many of the wise men. Remember wise men, how they watched over and taug
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of the world, idolatry, leads you; to death and to the grave. This strange woman is also mentioned in chapter 2. We’ll pick up the context in verse 6. Says: Proverbs 2:6: For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Who gives wisdom? {The LORD.} And she is good wisdom. Then you get to verse 10. Proverbs 2:10-12: 10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: 12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh [perverse] things; Then you get to verse 16: “To deliver thee…” First of all wisdom is going to keep you from the perverse man. And the context then…that’s the context. We pick up in 16. Proverbs 2:16-22 16 To deliver thee from the strange [the zar] woman [the apostate woman, the one who has left her God], even from the str