TPT The Book of Proverbs E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 187

Beschreibung

The book of Proverbs contains a well of ancient wisdom tucked inside poetic metaphors, symbols, imagery, and nuances ripe with meaning. The Spirit of revelation has breathed upon every verse to embed a deeper meaning of practical insight to guide our steps into the lives God meant for us to live.               This 12-lesson study guide on the book of Proverbs provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of Proverbs, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson then walks you through a portion from the book and includes features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, maps, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history.               Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Proverbs, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

TPT: The Book of Proverbs: 12-Lesson Study Guide

Copyright © 2022 BroadStreet Publishing Group

978-1-4245-6437-8 (softcover)

978-1-4245-6438-5 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com. Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible, public domain.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected].

General editor: Brian Simmons

Managing editor: William D. Watkins

Writer: Jeremy Bouma

Design and typesetting by Garborg Design Works | garborgdesign.com

Printed in the China

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Contents

From God’s Heart to Yours

Why I Love the Book of Proverbs

Lesson 1  Proverbs: A Wisdom Primer

Lesson 2  Wisdom’s Foundation: The Fear of the Lord

Lesson 3  Wisdom vs. Folly

Lesson 4  Righteousness vs. Wickedness

Lesson 5  Truth vs. Deceit

Lesson 6  Humility vs. Pride

Lesson 7  Joy vs. Sorrow

Lesson 8  Generosity vs. Greed

Lesson 9  Love vs. Hate

Lesson 10 Justice vs. Injustice

Lesson 11 Order vs. Disorder

Lesson 12 Purity vs. Pleasure

Endnotes

From God’s Heart to Yours

“God is love,” says the apostle John, and “Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him” (1 John 4:7). The life of a Christ-follower is, at its core, a life of love—God’s love of us, our love of him, and our love of others and ourselves because of God’s love for us.

And this divine love is reliable, trustworthy, unconditional, other-centered, majestic, forgiving, redemptive, patient, kind, and more precious than anything else we can ever receive or give. It characterizes each person of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and so is as limitless as they are. They love one another with this eternal love, and they reach beyond themselves to us, created in their image with this love.

How do we know such incredible truths? Through the primary source of all else we know about the one God—his Word, the Bible. Of course, God reveals who he is through other sources as well, such as the natural world, miracles, our inner life, our relationships (especially with him), those who minister on his behalf, and those who proclaim him to us and others. But the fullest and most comprehensive revelation we have of God and from him is what he has given us in the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the twenty-seven books of the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament). Together, these sixty-six books present a compelling and telling portrait of God and his dealings with us.

It is these Scriptures that The Passionate Life Bible Study Series is all about. Through these study guides, we—the editors and writers of this series—seek to provide you with a unique and welcoming opportunity to delve more deeply into God’s precious Word, encountering there his loving heart for you and all the others he loves. God wants you to know him more deeply, to love him more devoutly, and to share his heart with others more frequently and freely. To accomplish this, we have based this study guide series on The Passion Translation of the Bible, which strives to “reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.” It has been created to “kindle in you a burning desire to know the heart of God, while impacting the church for years to come.”1

In each study guide, you will find an introduction to the Bible book it covers. There you will gain information about that Bible book’s authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson following the introduction will take a portion of that Bible book and walk you through it so you will learn its content better while experiencing and applying God’s heart for your own life and encountering ways you can share his heart with others. Along the way, you will come across a number of features we have created that provide opportunities for more life application and growth in biblical understanding.

Experience God’s Heart

This feature focuses questions on personal application. It will help you live out God’s Word and to bring the Bible into your world in fresh, exciting, and relevant ways.

Share God’s Heart

This feature will help you grow in your ability to share with other people what you learn and apply in a given lesson. It provides guidance on using the lesson to grow closer to others and to enrich your fellowship with others. It also points the way to enabling you to better listen to the stories of others so you can bridge the biblical story with their stories.

The Backstory

This feature provides ancient historical and cultural background that illuminates Bible passages and teachings. It deals with then-pertinent religious groups, communities, leaders, disputes, business trades, travel routes, customs, nations, political factions, ancient measurements and currency…in short, anything historical or cultural that will help you better understand what Scripture says and means.

Word Wealth

This feature provides definitions for and other illuminating information about key terms, names, and concepts, and how different ancient languages have influenced the biblical text. It also provides insight into the different literary forms in the Bible, such as prophecy, poetry, narrative history, parables, and letters, and how knowing the form of a text can help you better interpret and apply it. Finally, this feature highlights the most significant passages in a Bible book. You may be encouraged to memorize these verses or keep them before you in some way so you can actively hide God’s Word in your heart.

Digging Deeper

This feature explains the theological significance of a text or the controversial issues that arise and mentions resources you can use to help you arrive at your own conclusions. Another way to dig deeper into the Word is by looking into the life of a biblical character or another person from church history, showing how that man or woman incarnated a biblical truth or passage. For instance, Jonathan Edwards was well known for his missions work among native American Indians and for his intellectual prowess in articulating the Christian faith, Florence Nightingale for the reforms she brought about in healthcare, Irenaeus for his fight against heresy, Billy Graham for his work in evangelism, Moses for the strength God gave him to lead the Hebrews and receive and communicate the law, and Deborah for her work as a judge in Israel. This feature introduces to you figures from the past who model what it looks like to experience God’s heart and share his heart with others.

The Extra Mile

While The Passion Translation’s notes are extensive, sometimes students of Scripture like to explore more on their own. In this feature, we provide you with opportunities to glean more information from a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, a reliable Bible online tool, another ancient text, and the like. Here you will learn how you can go the extra mile on a Bible lesson. And not just in study either. Reflection, prayer, discussion, and applying a passage in new ways provide even more opportunities to go the extra mile. Here you will find questions to answer and applications to make that will require more time and energy from you—if and when you have them to give.

As you can see above, each of these features has a corresponding icon so you can quickly and easily identify them.

You will find other helps and guidance through the lessons of these study guides, including thoughtful questions, application suggestions, and spaces for you to record your own reflections, answers, and action steps. Of course, you can also write in your own journal, notebook, computer document, or other resource, but we have provided you with space for your convenience.

Also, each lesson will direct you toward the introductory material and numerous notes provided in The Passion Translation. There each Bible book contains a number of aids supplied to help you better grasp God’s words and his incredible love, power, knowledge, plans, and so much more. We want you to get the most out of your Bible study, especially using it to draw you closer to the One who loves you most.

Finally, at the end of each lesson you’ll find a section called “Talking It Out.” This contains questions and exercises for application that you can share, answer, and apply with your spouse, a friend, a coworker, a Bible study group, or any other individuals or groups who would like to walk with you through this material. As Christians, we gather together to serve, study, worship, sing, evangelize, and a host of other activities. We grow together, not just on our own. This section will give you ample opportunities to engage others with some of the content of each lesson so you can work it out in community.

We offer all of this to support you in becoming an even more faithful and loving disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple in the ancient world was a student of her teacher, a follower of his master. Students study, and followers follow. Jesus’ disciples are to sit at his feet and listen and learn and then do what he tells them and shows them to do. We have created The Passionate Life Bible Study Series to help you do what a disciple of Jesus is called to do.

So go.

Read God’s words.

Hear what he has to say in them and through them.

Meditate on them.

Hide them in your heart.

Display their truths in your life.

Share their truths with others.

Let them ignite Jesus’ passion and light in all you say and do.

Use them to help you fulfill what Jesus called his disciples to do: “Now wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

And through all of this, let Jesus’ love nourish your heart and allow that love to overflow into your relationships with others (John 15:9–13). For it was for love that Jesus came, served, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This love he gives us. And this love he wants us to pass along to others.

Why I Love the Book of Proverbs

As a new believer, I was told that if I wanted wisdom and to succeed in life, I needed to read and study the book of Proverbs. That was some of the best advice I’ve ever received. Now fifty years later, I still find pleasure in reading these poetic verses. They are powerful and potent. Something is released inside of me when I read this book.

I love Proverbs, for it speaks to me right where I am. It isn’t a book filled with lofty prose or lengthy doctrinal lectures. It is a voice that speaks gut-level to everyone who wants to follow the ways of God. It can puncture our pride and point us to the paths of righteousness. Proverbs has such powerful words that it can correct me in my error and stop me in my tracks. A daily dose of Proverbs has been known to cure the heart of presumption and foolishness. Solomon doesn’t mince words with these thirty-one chapters of wisdom.

I love Proverbs because of the vivid contrasts it presents. Like virtue and vice, wisdom and folly, righteousness and wickedness, truth and deceit, humility and pride, joy and sorrow, generosity and greed, love and hate, justice and injustice, order and disorder, and purity and lust. Just about every problem known to man has a solution in the book of Proverbs. It is like a flaming arrow shot into our hearts meant to ignite us with love and devotion for God.

Have you noticed that Proverbs speaks to you in every season of life? We find truth about raising children, loving wisdom, listening to the wise, earning a living, relationships, old age, and living virtuously. From the cradle to the grave, Proverbs has wisdom to guide us.

And finally, I love Proverbs because it speaks truth to power. Those who are in leadership with a measure of authority over others can learn how to lead with a clean heart. Yes, it will rebuke us when we are wrong, but it will also console us as we walk humbly with God, leaning on the sacred wisdom it presents.

I hope you’ll enjoy your journey through this road map for life. I know it will bring you closer to God. May the wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable, and powerful guide your steps each day until we gather around heaven’s glorious throne!

Brian Simmons

General Editor

LESSON 1

Proverbs

A Wisdom Primer

You are about to encounter a book offering ancient Hebrew wisdom straight from the heart of God, the book of Proverbs. It offers powerful insight from the very throne room of God that will guide your steps and direct your life.

Wisdom guides us along life’s way by offering signposts of God’s abundant life for a myriad of challenges that can be confusing to navigate. Need help overcoming anger, pride, or greed—or perhaps you’d like to be a more controlled, generous, joy-filled person? There’s counsel from Proverbs for all the above. Are you a parent desperate for advice on training your child or a friend seeking guidance to foster peaceful relationships? Turn to Proverbs. From questions about truth and deceit, wealth and poverty, living an ordered and disordered life, and finding joy instead of despair, God generously pours out his wisdom through this book for all who seek it.

Whether religious or not, anyone seeking practical advice for human flourishing and a fulfilling life will find what they are longing for in this book. This isn’t to say there is no theological value in Proverbs. Because as Solomon insists straight away: “We cross the threshold of true knowledge when we live in obedient devotion to God” (Proverbs 1:7). Although it may appear that many of the words of wisdom have no theological value on their own, every word of the book signals the way to God’s abundant life envisioned for humanity. This wisdom can be valued for wisdom’s sake, not merely for the sake of religious commitment, and yet Proverbs makes it clear that God is wisdom’s source. You will find insight into the heart of God and his way of life in these words.

The book of Proverbs offers “a new way of writing,” explained John Wesley, the great English Methodist evangelist, “wherein Divine wisdom is taught us in Proverbs...And these Proverbs of Solomon are not merely a collection of the wise sayings which had been formerly delivered, but were the dictates of the Spirit of God in Solomon: so that it is God by Solomon that here speaks to us.” In other words: these words of Solomon are God’s words! And the scope of every word is “to direct us so to order our conversation, that we may see the salvation of God.”2

What you learn from this book will change your life and launch you into your destiny. Listening to its words means listening to the very voice of God himself. His words never return unfulfilled whether in your life or in the lives of those you know, for “[Yahweh’s] word performs my purpose and fulfills the mission I sent it out to accomplish” (Isaiah 55:11).

Authorship

One could make the case that Proverbs is the greatest book of wisdom ever written, penned mostly by the wisest man who ever lived. God gave Solomon this wisdom to pass along to us, God’s servants, who continue the ministry of Jesus, the embodiment of wisdom, until he returns in full glory. While Solomon penned most of these words of wisdom, it is believed others had a hand too, including advisers to King Hezekiah and the unknown men Agur and Lemuel—which could be pseudonyms for Solomon. Regardless, the one who edited the final version of Proverbs brought together the wisest teachings from the wisest person ever to have lived, writing a book that contains some of the deepest revelation-insights into God’s way of wisdom in the Bible. When Solomon pens a proverb, there is more to it than meets the eye.

• Do you have someone in your life whom you consider wise? Who is it? And what have you received from him or her that you find wise?

Date of Composition

The book of Proverbs was composed during the tenth to fifth centuries BC. It was meant as a sort of manual for practically living out the moral law of Israel, directing the hearts of its readers back to Yahweh in worship while offering insights into living a useful and effective life.

The genre of this book is known as Wisdom Literature, something that was common during the time period of ancient Israel, ranging from the Egyptians to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia as well as the Assyrians. Many of the specific topics covered in this book share parallels with these words of wisdom from different ancient peoples. However, what we find in this biblical book is quite different, the special ingredient that is the key to opening up God’s wisdom: a personal relationship through faith with the very personal God of the Israelites, Yahweh, is the foundation of living the kind of life reflected in these wise words.

God opened his loving heart of wisdom to Solomon and other authors of Proverbs in order to empower you to experience his heart to its fullest in the most personal of ways: living the abundant life he intended through wisdom, driven by faith in and a holy awe of Yahweh.

• What might it tell you about the nature of wisdom that it appears so universally, spanning the known world during the time Proverbs was composed?

• What is the special “ingredient” that opens up the wisdom of God found in the biblical book of Proverbs? How does it differ from the wisdom of the world?

• Why might this difference be so crucial to reigning in life and succeeding in our divine destiny?

Recipients of Proverbs

These nuggets of the choicest of wisdom were written from God’s heart to yours. Throughout the book we find words like “Listen, my sons. Listen, my daughters.” The book of Proverbs is written to us as sons and daughters of the living God with the same loving care that an earthly father might provide when sharing words of wisdom with his children. The teaching we receive is not from a distant god who tells us we’d better live right or else. These are personal words of love and tenderness from our wise heavenly Father, the Father of all eternity, who speaks right into our hearts with radiant words of healing, power, and dominion. You are invited to receive deeply these words of our kind Father as though he were speaking directly to you—because he is!

• As a recipient of these wise words from above, consider what sort of godly counsel you currently desire for your life. Make a list of topics for which you hope to glean insights over the course of this study.

Setting and Purpose

The book of Proverbs was gifted from God’s heart to each of ours to help all people gain wisdom and knowledge, to avoid folly, and discover the abundant life of God. It serves as a collection of ancient Hebrew wisdom, guiding us out of foolishness and into prudent living and exhorting us to embrace the fear of the Lord. As the opening verse explains: Proverbs contains “words to live by, and words of wisdom given to empower you to reign in life.”

• Read Proverbs 1:1–7, arguably the purpose statement from the author himself. What do you learn there about the purpose of Proverbs? You may find more than one purpose for these wise sayings.

These proverbs can be interpreted in their most literal and practical sense, following their guidance for everyday living. However, we cannot tap into the wisdom contained in them through a casual, surface reading. The Spirit has breathed upon every verse illuminations that offer a deeper meaning of practical insight to guide our steps into the lives God meant for us to live. Since there is often both a literal and a practical sense along with a deeper meaning of insight embedded in these proverbs, it is important to let this principle guide your approach to this book.

• For example, a surface reading of Proverbs 6:6–7 would tell us that ants are self-sufficient and self-starters. How might a deeper reading encourage your walk?

• Similarly, consider 5:15–18. What does a deeper reading have to say about issues of purity and pleasure?

What Is a Proverb?

The nature of Hebrew poetry is quite different from that of English poetry. There is a pleasure found in Hebrew poetry that transcends rhyme and meter. The Hebrew verses come in a poetic package, a form of meaning that imparts an understanding that is deeper than mere logic. True revelation unfolds an encounter, an experience of knowing God often as he is revealed through the mysterious vocabulary of riddle, proverb, and parable.

WORD WEALTH

The Hebrew word for “proverb,” mashal, has two meanings. The first is “parable, byword, metaphor, a pithy saying that expresses wisdom.” But the second meaning is overlooked by many. The homonym mashal