Why are we doing Proverbs this week?
By now you have either started school already, or you are starting school today. The first couple weeks of school can be so important to setting the tone for how your whole year is going to be. It’s going to take lots of wisdom to make the right choices about how you’re going to live at school this year. We need all the wisdom we can get.
On Sunday, we will be starting our Connection Group Series, and Devotional Series on the book of James. It’s a pretty incredible book of the Bible. Many people compare the book of James in the New Testament, to the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament.
So this week, we’re going to get some wisdom from the book of Proverbs to help you start the year out right.
I’m praying for you guys that are in school this week!
Today’s Passage:
Proverbs 1:1-9
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;s4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.s5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.s7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.s8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
Pastor Ben’s Commentary:
These verses are the introduction to the book of Proverbs. They talk about what kind of book proverbs is (wisdom literature-“the words of the wise, and their dark saying”), the purpose of this book (“to perceive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgement, and equity; to give subtility to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.”), and the source of the wisdom of this book (“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”).
Application:
1. God’s Word, in proverbs, can help the young person get knowledge and discretion. (v.4) Discretion here means “discernment.” Discernment is the ability to perceive and choose the right, Godly, and wise choice. It takes knowledge to have discretion. You’ve got to be able to have all the facts, and know all the facts to make the right choice. God’s Word can help you do that.
2. God has placed parents in your life to help you gain and understand wisdom. (v.8-9) God has chosen to put you into the home that He has for you, with the parents that you have. Your parents can be an amazing resource for you to make the right decisions and to grow. You might say, “Pastor Ben, you just don’t know my parents. They don’t have wisdom can help me.” Trust me- your parents, although not perfect, are smarter than you think. They can help you, if you have a teachable attitude. Solomon here says that when we listen and do the commands of our parents it is like a crown on our heads, or an expensive necklace around our neck. What does this mean? When we do what our parents tell us, it will increase our value and repuatation to other people. Just like jewelry makes a woman more beautiful, so heeding our parents wisdom enhances who we are.
In the comments today, quote your favorite verse in today’s passage and how it will help you at school this week.
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
The verse that will help me the most is proverbs 1:8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. What this says is that we meed to hear what god hes planned for us and dont forget to listen to your parents and what they want for you. I feel this verse will help me in school because the trouble I went through last year was because I didnt listen to my parents and surly didnt listen to what gd had planned for me and thats what i am going to do this year and spread the gospel.
I”m proud of you Andrew! I prayed for you today buddy! How did it go?
Andrew, you rock! I know your mom is a godly woman and I know she can help you to grow! 🙂
I am proud of you too! Remember your promise to yourself, and your pledge to seek what God has in mind for you, and it will be a great year and not at all boring!
“A wise man will hear, and increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.” i think Proverbs 1:5 is a verse that can help me this week at school because it talks about what a wise person would do. A wise person will hear, and increase learning. If i am wise throughout this school year and listen, i will increase what i learn! Its the same with church & the bible. The more i listen, and apply it to my life, the more i learn about God 🙂
Thank you to everyone who prayed for e going back to school! I prayed for everyone of us going back to school last night and throughout the day. Hope it went well 😀
I don’t understand when it says they shall be an ornament of grace onto thy head, and chains about thy neck I don’t understand wast going on
I agree I don’t understand that part either. Can someone please help?
Hey guys- Yeah…i kind of addressed this in my commentary…
Why do you girls where jewelry? From what I understand it is essentially body decoration. It’s there to make you look better.
What Solomon is saying is that when we listen to our parents and take advantage of their wisdom, that will make us look good. It will enhance our reputation.
Let me give you an example:.
When I was a kid my parents taught me to say “yes, sir” and “no, sir” and “yes, ma’am” and “no,ma’am” when an adult spoke to me. They taught me to be polite and say hello to adults when they spoke to me. They taught me to be respectful to adults. As a result, I usually was treated fairly well by adults that were in my life. Adults generally liked my brother and I, and that was pretty cool. I wasn’t smart enough at my age to come up with that on my own. My brother and I didn’t get together and say, “hey, the adults here seem to be in control so we need to get on their good side. Let’s say yes sir and no sir and be respectful so they’ll like us.” If we had done that we would have been the smartest kids ever. We just listened to our parents and did what they said, and we achieved good results. That wisdom that we followed became a help to who we are, and to our relationships. It became something that adorned who we were…
Does that make sense?
oh!!! thank you i get it now oh and P.S. i barley wear jewelry hehe! 🙂
LOL- You just where numbers on your face and “m’s” on your shirt 🙂
BL! Good one!
Ya thanks!! 😉 I get it now!!
My favorite verse is “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instructions.” Proverbs 1:7. I think this verse can help me listen and pay attention more. A lot of times I just kinda zone out during school and sometimes when people are talking to me! It is not a good thing to do & I would learn a lot if I pay attention more!! I don’t want to be a fool and despise wisdom and instructions, like the verse says! & to fear the Lord, I don’t think it means to be scared of Him, but to have respect for Him! It’s the beginning of knowledge! 🙂
That is reallly cool that you read that today and was able to recognize an area you wanted to improve. Proud of you Alexis
Thanks Laura 🙂
Ireally like the book of Proverbs cause it is really cool and it is really wise! 🙂
Cool- which one did you like today? How could it help you in school this week?
What I was thinking could help my school if I went to the office and asked if we could maybe start an after school program that I mad up and it is for people who know god and wont to learn more about him and it is only untill 5 every Monday and Friday. So that is what I think could help my school become not so scared to talk about god and what he did.
that is really cool Kendra!!
I think proverbs 1:5 is great because i find myself ignoring people when they could have really helped me. I think you can learn from experience or you can learn from other peoples experiences, I think learning from others is a lot better!
Smart Ryan. Very smart 🙂
Learn from others fails, so that your fails aren’t as epic.
RyVi….a long time ago a man I held to be much wiser than I (and I know he was much richer) told me that you could define intelligence as “a quality of being able to learn from mistakes” and that monkeys and lab rats display a certain amount of “intelligence”. He further said that “wisdom is letting them be someone ELSE’s mistakes”! A challenge for me has been remembering to practice that advice as often as I have quoted it!
I have found that there was something I could learn from about anyone I have met…even if it was only how NOT to go about it! PBJ summed it up pretty nicely!
Epic
Verse 7, of Provers chapter one, really spoke out to me. I made a huge mistake in school today and I was regretting it all day, until a friend told me that I need to just repent of it and not to do it again and determine in my heart that I won’t let it happen again! In this verse it’s talking about the fear of the Lord. Today instead of fearing God, I feared my peers and let fear win against me, instead of using the opportunity God gave me to speak up about my future plans for my life and why I want to do them. God spoke to my heart right after I let fear over take me and told me that I missed a chance.. Since God is so great He gave me another chance in my next class, and boy did I take advantge of it! I got the opportunity to speak up about God! 🙂 I didn’t deserve a second chance, but God gave me one! I realized at that moment living for God will never fail me! This verse is perfect for what I went through today and I know i need to have it in the back of my mind everyday! I’m not going to let my fear of my peers win, because I know the wrath of God is greater! Funny how God uses devotions isn’t it? 🙂
i am so proud of you melanie!!
That is so cool. How did people respond?
Way better then I thought! They just smiled, no one really said anything, but nothing negative!:)
and while they were smiling they were thinking…what exactly they were thinking we don’t know, but almost all of them if honest would have included in their thoughts 1) Wow, I would not have had the guts to just say that out loud in front of everyone…even if I did believe it, and 2) Whatever Melanie did or wherever she went this summer was not like anything I did…she’s changed now… God gave you the strength you needed in the time you needed, with words not so much what YOU needed to say, as what someone ELSE needed to hear. You know (because of how it went earlier in the day) that you didn’t have the strength in yourself to be bold, but in Christ, we are more than conquerors!! You got the best of the giant named “Fear” on the first day of school…should be a pretty interesting year! I am very proud of you, Melanie!
You’re so right John! The words that I say aren’t to impact me, but others around me. A room full of people can laugh at me all they want, but if the kid sitting in the corner is impacted by the words God gives me, that’s worth being made fun of all day long! Thank you so much for all of your gracious words! I don’t deserve it, it was God, not Mel.
She shoots…she scores!
Well i am sort of a kid in school. lol technically i am a 6th and 8th grader. So my favorite verse was 1:5. A wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain wise counsels. This applies to any age. Even at my age it is wise to attain good christian counsel when needed. It is one thing to hear what someone is saying, but another to truly listen and learn. One thing i wish i had done more when i was younger was to take the advice of my elders instead of learning things the hard way. Just trust in your parents that they truly know whats best for you and even when you don’t agree honor them anyways. I am here for all of you guys if you need me. If this is your first week at school i hope its a good one.
You’re still so young Aunt Laura! If you get all A’s this quarter Meg and I will take you to get some Ice cream.
It’s cool though what you are saying- We all need people to help us grow and give us wisdom no matter how old we get. I still get wisdom from my parents and Meg’s parents all the time!
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
Looking back on my middle school and high school days I can pretty much say that most of the sin and heartache I went through during those years was from a lack of hearing. I had gobs of wise counsel around me with my parents, family, and my youth counselors but I had a lack of hearing and applying. Those two things would have saved me from years of destruction and heartache.
Although I am not in school I am always learning and I need to still seek for wise counsel on the issues of life that I face. One of the great things is that God gives His wisdom all over the Bible and we have it in our fingertips to apply and understand His perfect wisdom. My application would be to continue to seek out those who have more wisdom in areas I lack in. This will help me become more like Christ and in turn will help me give more wisdom to those who seek it from me. Its hard to give wisdom when you have no wisdom to give.
LIKE LIKE LIKE 🙂
It makes sense!
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instructions.
Verse 7 to me is a personal admonition…a stern caution… so that I always remember to seek wisdom and instruction. I will never have gotten enough, or even all I need, but there will always be God’s source for what instruction in wisdom that I need on a daily basis, and yes respect of the Lord God Almighty is about the “best place to start”, (the beginning of knowledge)!