The proverbs of the Bible are presented as a series of actions/consequences; i.e., do this and good things will happen; do that and bad things will happen. On the surface they are couched solely in terms of self-interest. Yet at their heart I believe that they are really signposts to the character that God wants to develop in us. The references to self-interest are inducements to someone who does not yet have wisdom. To someone who is pulled between doing the "right thing" and doing the "smart thing" its message is: the right thing to do is also the smart thing. Obeying God's direction is in your long term interest. Taking a short cut may seem to benefit you in the short term but in the long term it will lead to destruction.
This may seem like an unspiritual means of leading someone into God's ways but it is spiritual to the extent that accepting this direction requires faith that God is in control of one's destiny and will bring these consequences to pass. That is why it is written in the beginning of Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Not the end of it by any means, but it is a necessary starting point.
It was the beginning of character development for Jacob. He did a lot of unsavoury things to obtain the inheritance and blessing that properly belonged to his older brother. He extorted the inheritance from Esau through taking advantage of his extreme hunger, lied and cheated to get his blessing from their father; yet he had this that Esau lacked: faith in God's promise to Abraham and Isaac. For that's essentially what the inheritance was - a promise from God to give the land of Canaan to Abraham's descendants. An IOU.
Jacob believed in God's promise enough to lie, cheat and steal for it. The belief in this promise alone qualified Jacob as the heir of these things even in the absence of any other virtue. It gave God a starting point to work in his life and begin the long wrestling that would transform Jacob.
Esau, other the other hand, believed so little in this promise that he was not willing to skip a single meal for it. The lack of this faith disqualified Esau spiritually to be the heir of God's promise even though he had every legal entitlement to it according to the standards of the time. This I believe is the interior justice of Jacob's success and reason behind God's statement in Malachi: "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." Jacob engaged God through faith in His promise; Esau did not.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Signposts to character
Here are some fragments of a discussion I am having elsewhere on the significance of the book of Proverbs. At issue is the question as to whether the consequences described are to be taken as divine prescriptions or just as general observations which are usually but not always true. In other words, how normative are these sayings?
Ron August 6 at 3:41am
Hey Guys, it's 3 am, can't sleep so I'm reading proverbs. Here's a few examples of what I was talking about:
Prov 21:21 "An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end". I would say this is true most of the time, but not always. (Depending on your def. of blessed.
Prov 15:22 "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed". This is likely true, but I'm sure there are examples of the opposite.
Prov 23:20 "Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor and drowsiness clothes them in rags." Again, I would say it's generally true, but there are (or seem to be) exceptions where people eat and drink for their whole lives and don't become poor. (Although this could be talking about the next life.)
Prov 19:15 "Laziness brings on deep sleep and the shiftless man goes hungry." I think it would be pretty hard to argue that this is 100 accurate all the time
Prov 12:11 "he who works his land will have abundant food"...
Even during drought?
Anyway, I concede that there are many Proverbs that are fairly concrete in their instruction, especially when they speak of the Lord and his faithfulness. Obviously these are written in such a way that you either believe it or not.
Any, getting tired - lol
Blessings
RB
Phil Garber August 6 at 11:03am
Hi Ron, I guess you're a little tired today.
Prov 12:11 "he who works his land will have abundant food"...
Even during drought?
Yes, because he will have food stored up from the previous year's crop. (ref. Egypt under Joseph). The point as I take it is not that the diligent will have a bumper crop in every year.( I doubt the writer of this proverb was ignorant of agricultural cycles.) It is that those who work their land diligently from year to year will have a surplus available for the lean times (at least compared to their more lazy, shiftless, gluttonous neighbours!).
The way I take these proverbs is that they describe principles of cause and effect as immutable as the law of gravity. To point to cases where the consequence was avoided through other factors does not invalidate the principle, anymore than the existence of an airplane invalidates the law of gravity. The downward pressure is always there.
Eg: The shiftless do not go hungry in our society, but that is only because we have welfare. But welfare is only possible in a society where the producers outnumber the consumers. A society which is shiftless as a whole will certainly have a declining standard of living.
Eg: Someone who gets an easy inheritance without learning to struggle may not die poor, but he will almost certainly die less wealthy than he began. The inheritance will not be blessed (ie will not increase) without qualities of self-control, prudence and diligence. Even if this person does not taste poverty in his lifetime, the principle will still be at work and the consequences generational. ("Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations").
Phil Garber August 6 at 11:09am
The proverbs which mean most to me go beyond general principles and contain explicit or implied promises (especially those in Prov 3). "He will direct your paths" is one of them. These I choose to believe.
But the problem with Proverbs I believe is not that Christians take them too seriously or literally, but that they don't take them seriously enough. If they did we would see a lot more fruit in the Body. Spiritual growth cannot be separated from growth in character and all of these proverbs are signposts to character.
Ron August 6 at 3:41am
Hey Guys, it's 3 am, can't sleep so I'm reading proverbs. Here's a few examples of what I was talking about:
Prov 21:21 "An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end". I would say this is true most of the time, but not always. (Depending on your def. of blessed.
Prov 15:22 "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed". This is likely true, but I'm sure there are examples of the opposite.
Prov 23:20 "Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor and drowsiness clothes them in rags." Again, I would say it's generally true, but there are (or seem to be) exceptions where people eat and drink for their whole lives and don't become poor. (Although this could be talking about the next life.)
Prov 19:15 "Laziness brings on deep sleep and the shiftless man goes hungry." I think it would be pretty hard to argue that this is 100 accurate all the time
Prov 12:11 "he who works his land will have abundant food"...
Even during drought?
Anyway, I concede that there are many Proverbs that are fairly concrete in their instruction, especially when they speak of the Lord and his faithfulness. Obviously these are written in such a way that you either believe it or not.
Any, getting tired - lol
Blessings
RB
Phil Garber August 6 at 11:03am
Hi Ron, I guess you're a little tired today.
Prov 12:11 "he who works his land will have abundant food"...
Even during drought?
Yes, because he will have food stored up from the previous year's crop. (ref. Egypt under Joseph). The point as I take it is not that the diligent will have a bumper crop in every year.( I doubt the writer of this proverb was ignorant of agricultural cycles.) It is that those who work their land diligently from year to year will have a surplus available for the lean times (at least compared to their more lazy, shiftless, gluttonous neighbours!).
The way I take these proverbs is that they describe principles of cause and effect as immutable as the law of gravity. To point to cases where the consequence was avoided through other factors does not invalidate the principle, anymore than the existence of an airplane invalidates the law of gravity. The downward pressure is always there.
Eg: The shiftless do not go hungry in our society, but that is only because we have welfare. But welfare is only possible in a society where the producers outnumber the consumers. A society which is shiftless as a whole will certainly have a declining standard of living.
Eg: Someone who gets an easy inheritance without learning to struggle may not die poor, but he will almost certainly die less wealthy than he began. The inheritance will not be blessed (ie will not increase) without qualities of self-control, prudence and diligence. Even if this person does not taste poverty in his lifetime, the principle will still be at work and the consequences generational. ("Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations").
Phil Garber August 6 at 11:09am
The proverbs which mean most to me go beyond general principles and contain explicit or implied promises (especially those in Prov 3). "He will direct your paths" is one of them. These I choose to believe.
But the problem with Proverbs I believe is not that Christians take them too seriously or literally, but that they don't take them seriously enough. If they did we would see a lot more fruit in the Body. Spiritual growth cannot be separated from growth in character and all of these proverbs are signposts to character.
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