Proverbs 3:1-12

Since we’re only spending a week in Proverbs, I’ll spend some time in this intro providing context to the book itself. Proverbs is an easy book to misread; we can make all the little 1-2 liner axioms of chapters 10-30 into little more than spells or talismans, as if adhering to them will guarantee wealth or happiness. Instead, we need to back up to the beginning of the book and read it within its own thematic lens. Solomon, the author or collector of much of the material in Proverbs, starts his long discussion about wisdom with this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom or instruction.”(1:7) Our undertaking of wise or insightful living must use this as a constant reference or else we run this risk of being unknowingly “wise in our own eyes”(3:7) or “wise according to worldly standards”(1 Cor. 1:26).

In fact, we can define the wisdom of Proverbs as “skill in the art of godly living.”(ref: ESV Study Bible note on 1:7) This is not merely human skill like good business sense, tactful communication, or emotional awareness, but skill in God’s revealed will for humanity, skill in what God values and desires for his people. So, when we get to chapter 3 and read all of Solomon’s encouragement for his son, we need to read this according to God’s desires for us.

These exhortations, including “Trust in the Lord”(3:5), “Fear the Lord”(3:7), and “Honor the Lord”(3:9), aren’t secret tickets to getting “favor and good success.”(3:4) God isn’t a rewards credit card—you can’t treat trusting or honoring him as a way to gain points with him that you can cash in later. To do so is to behave like God is a cosmic vending machine, which corrupts your trust and honor into exploitation and brown nosing.