The Proverbs Book

Actually, there are 2 Proverbs books: the book of Proverbs (you know...in the Bible...right after Psalms) and God's Wisdom in Proverbs by Dan Phillips. I'm guessing that my readers know my feelings about the Bible, so today I'm going to focus on God's Wisdom in Proverbs.

I've been reading Dan's blog, Biblical Christianity, for a long time, and was excited when he announced that he was having a book published. This is not about that book; his first book is The World-Tilting Gospel, and is on my pile of books to read. The Proverbs book is actually his second book, published not long after his first.

To sum it up: this is a great book. It's well written, it's well researched, it's interesting, and it's very thought provoking. In fact, I really can't write about all of it because I need to go back and read and think about a lot of it. Right now, though, I want to give you an overall picture of the book, with a slightly greater focus on certain bits.

First, Dan gives background information: how to understand Proverbs, who wrote Proverbs (he gets into that more in Appendix One), and what the different types of proverbs are. He makes it very clear that proverbs are not promises or formulae guaranteeing success if you just follow the right steps. He says that "Proverbs are wonderful at being what they are: proverbs. They are not failed prophecies or systematic theologies.... Proverbs both teaches wisdom, and requires wisdom for its correct interpretation and application.... A proverb is not a magical formula, bringing wisdom and blessing by incantation." (p. 21-23, emphasis in the original).

Having set the stage, he goes on to talk about the fear of Yahweh as the foundation of wisdom and how to gain wisdom. This is about where I was when I last mentioned the book (below, discussing hearing God). Dan is very clear that everything we need for wisdom comes from God and that He has told us everything we need to know in the Bible. It is there that we learn to know, trust, and worship Him.

There are three chapters on what Proverbs says about relationships with others as well. There is one on general relationships, including what makes a good friend and a bad friend; how to be a good friend; and who to avoid. The advice in Proverbs includes looking for loyalty, honesty (someone who will give proper criticism and not flattery) and avoiding the hot tempered and easily offended.

Then there is marriage. To be perfectly honest: I tend to be hesitant about marriage books and marriage chapters. They have a very bad habit of assuming that everyone will be married and that being single means that there is a problem with me that I need to fix. Or, they set up unrealistic expectations of marriage. Or, they talk about how to fix the problems in your marriage, mostly by reading the Bible more or communicating better or something (honestly, I tend to stop listening after a while). And it's always so easy: follow the 5 or 7 or however many steps and your marriage will be perfect. If it isn't, you didn't do the steps properly.

I am happy to say that Dan avoids all of this (Mr. Phillips, in case you ever read this, I apologize for ever doubting you). If you're married, go read the chapter yourself and see what you think. I'm giving you the single person's perspective: it's a very good chapter to read when thinking about marriage or dating. From it I learned what Proverbs says about what I should be looking for in a husband and what I should be as a wife. From it I learned how to avoid a lot of trouble up front by being careful about who I marry and by studying Proverbs (and the entire Bible) to be a godly woman and wife. In the event that I start thinking about marriage (hey, it could happen) I fully intend to look at the chapter again. In fact, as I read it I though about how great it would be if I could find a way to teach this to my high school girls who are just starting to think about boys. Actually, I should give it to their parents.

The next chapter is on parenting. Again, I have no experience, but I have spoken with parents and read some parenting books and done a lot of observing. Here's what I take from this chapter: if you a a good parent, a godly parent, who attempts to parent your children according to Biblical principles, disciplining faithfully and training them in God's word, and your children walk away from your teaching and lead rebellious lives....it's not your fault. There is no magic formula here either. There is also no guilt as long as you are doing your job. Appendix three talks about Proverbs 22:6, looking at it as a threat rather than a promise. This will upset everyone who wants it to be a promise that one day their children will follow God and will reduce the guilt of everyone who has rebellious children. Only once before have I heard it explained this way, and I still can't remember where. I am glad to have it all spelled out for me.

That's just about all I have for you. You really need to read this book for yourself. It gets pretty deep at times, and delves into the Hebrew words, but don't let that concern you. Dan is good at explaining the meanings of the words, the background, and the way they are used.

Finally, 3 other pluses of the book...

1. Footnotes. Sometimes they give references and other times they further explain things. The important thing is that they are not end notes (I once read a book with so many end notes that I had to keep a separate bookmark in them).

2. The bibliography. I like going through bibliographies, first to see if I know any of the books, but also because I may want to study more. In this case, the bibliography is extra good since for some of the items Dan has added notes on which ones are good, which ones are good for more advanced studies, and which ones are not as good. My personal favourite: "Museum-piece of unhinged liberalism." Which brings me to

3. The language. Dan has a wonderful grasp of the English language and uses it extremely well. I knew from years of reading his blog that he was a good wordsmith; I know from his book that he is a master wordsmith. From the first page of the preface: "Proverbs is a kaleidoscopic microcosm of the wisdom of God." It starts well, it keeps going well, it ends well.