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A Study of Proverbs 4 - 6
April 01, 2007
One of our members requested a study of Proverbs. Chapters 4-6 continue to describe and discuss knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. The message is simple: obey your parents; listen to God and obey Him; stay away from bad company; and avoid fornication. (Some see the prostitute in Proverbs as the personification of ignorance--it works either way, and the advice is good in both instances.)
Bernie Parsons
A Study of Proverbs Chapters 4-6
by Bernie Parsons
Presented to the Load church of Christ on April 1, 2007
Proverbs 4:1: “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
2: For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
3: For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
4: He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.”
As we have previously studied, it is wise to listen to one’s mother and father. The father has the responsibility for teaching his children the ways of God. Listen, learn, and obey.
Proverbs 4:5: “Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
6: Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
7: Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
8: Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
9: She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.”
Wisdom is here personified as “she”. Wisdom and understanding will preserve a person.
Proverbs 4:10: “Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
11: I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.
12: When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
13: Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.”
The father urges his child to receive his wise sayings, and live by them. With age usually comes experience, and with experience often comes wisdom. Youth should heed the wisdom of the aged. To heed the wisdom of parents is to live.
Proverbs 4:14: “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
15: Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
16: For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
17: For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.”
As we studied in our first Proverbs review, the wicked plot and plan to do harm to others. If a young person falls in with such company, life, reputation and freedom are in jeopardy.
Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
19: The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
20: My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21: Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22: For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.”
A father’s warning again to listen to his wise words, words shaped to direct his son upon the shining path of righteousness. It is also the plea of God, our heavenly Father.
Proverbs 4:23: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24: Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25: Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26: Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27: Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”
Hebrews 11:6: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
It takes diligence to keep one’s heart. It takes diligence to find the rewards of God. Diligence comes from a root word that means to “set apart, to esteem, to love”. We cannot play around with God and His word, or take Him lightly. If we are to be saved, we must carefully seek God, and His righteousness. Regardless of seductions from the right or left, and regardless of the attacks from right or left, we must press forward on the straight way of God.
Luke 10:27: “And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”
Proverbs 5:1: “My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2: That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.”
Discretion is decision-making derived from learning, understanding, and wisdom. Discretion means that when one is faced with choices, he makes the right choice.
Proverbs 5:3: “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
5: Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6: Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7: Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8: Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9: Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10: Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11: And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,”
As before, he gives the warning to stay away from the strange woman. She may appear attractive, but to follow her is to lose one’s reputation, wealth, and health.
Proverbs 5:12: “And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13: And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14: I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.”
To go after the strange woman is to defy and reject the wise warnings of the parents.
Proverbs 5:15: “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16: Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17: Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
18: Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19: Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.”
Matthew 19:6: “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
1 Corinthians 6:15: “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16: What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17: But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18: Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
19: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20: For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
Hebrews 13:4: “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
Proverbs 5:20: “And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21: For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22: His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23: He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.”
To disregard the wise advice of parents and elderly Christians is to invite illness, poverty, and even death. Stay away from the painted and scented woman. Marry, and be satisfied with your spouse, and do not destroy that relationship and sin against her and God.
There are venereal, or sexually transmitted, diseases. Herpes is incurable. Chlamydia destroys the chance of having children. Other STDs damage health. And let us not forget AIDS. Besides the health risks, there is the dissolution of trust when the marriage bond is violated. Damaged marriages are hard to heal.
Proverbs 1: “My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
2: Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
3: Do this now, my son, deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
4: Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5: Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.”
Be careful of promises that you make. Know to whom you make them, and what they will expect you to do in return. Make sure that such agreements do not do you harm.
Proverbs 6:6: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
7: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8: Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
9: How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10: Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
11: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.”
Be industrious, work while you have the health and opportunity. Laziness tends to poverty. Do not rest, or sleep, when you should be working.
Provebs 6:12: “A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.
13: He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;
14: Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.
15: Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.”
Stay away from those who devise malicious and evil plans against others. Those who do mischief, who are sneaky and sly, will find their calamity to be sure and swift.
Provebs 6:16: “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18: An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19: A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
We do well to take to heart the seven things that God hates: pride, lies, murder, wicked imaginings, readiness to create trouble, false witnessing, and the sowing of discord.
Proverbs 6:20: “My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
21: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
22: When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
23: For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:”
Listen to your parents, obey what they tell you, and let their advice light your way.
Proverbs 6:24: “To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
25: Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
26: For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.
27: Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
28: Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
29: So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
30: Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
31: But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
32: But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
33: A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
34: For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35: He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.”
Do not fornicate, and do not commit adultery. To do so is like trying to hold burning coals to one’s chest, or like walking on glowing, hot coals. You will lose all that you hold dear. A thief who steals when he is hungry is made to pay back seven times what he stole. A man who steals his neighbor’s wife brings calamity upon his own head. He will gain a bad reputation in the neighborhood, and it will never be forgotten—he will never be trusted again. The woman’s husband will be out for revenge. He will not be bribed, and or bought off. He will not be satisfied until he has exacted revenge.
