Listen, My Son
Notes
Transcript
I’m learning, more and more, to appreciate the book of Proverbs. Reading it through many times over the years has cemented much of it in my mind. I’m just now starting to enjoy it a little.
If you read one chapter of Proverbs a day and you’ll get through it in a month…well, the longer months, anyhow.
I started reading my Bible daily when I was about Miracle’s age—daily Bible reading, a discipline modeled to me by my father. Dad could be found daily, sitting in his chair, reading his Bible. This was something he did each year, reading the Bible all the way through in a year’s time, with a several extra readings of his favorite books—1 & 2 Kings—thrown in just for fun.
I think I’ve started to appreciate Proverbs more as I realize something. It’s this: I need wisdom, desperately. I make a lousy husband, father, pastor, friend without it. Like Solomon, I need to ask the LORD to give me wisdom and a discerning heart.
I need the wisdom only the LORD gives. I need Jesus—the One greater than Solomon. I need wisdom from God, that is, I desperately need Jesus. As my good friend, Dean Talbot would sing, “without Him, how lost I would be!”
Following the seven-verse introduction to the book, Proverbs continues with these verses:
8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
9 They are a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.
These call for attentiveness. The typical form of address is first, an admonition to listen, and then an argument supporting the admonition. The thrust is this:
Listen to the Voice of Wisdom
Listen to the Voice of Wisdom
Here, the father is imploring his son to listen to instruction and teaching, instruction and teaching from his godly parents—both mom and dad.
This was the task of parents of Israel:
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Impress them on your children…this was a serious command, an important task, one of the chief responsibilities of father and mother.
Jon Akin reminds parents: “This is your job! Teach your children the Word of God. Teach them how life works best because you know from God’s Word what is best for them.”
Listen…to your father’s instruction…do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
Remember the motto of Proverbs?
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Only a fool would ignore their father’s instruction, their mother’s teaching. Only a fool would reject it out of hand.
But, boy, oh boy, how common a scenario this is! And before you think about pointing your finger at someone else, check your own heart. Think back to your childhood. Consider how well you listened to instruction/teaching.
Beyond the whole 5th Commandment thing, you know— “Honor your father and mother”— Solomon gives further motivation to listen to the voice of wisdom (teaching and instruction).
This instruction is a garland to grace your head; this teaching is a chain to adorn your neck.
Wisdom adorns the son with symbols of honor and life, symbols of victory and luxury.
All children who obey their godly parents and embrace the teachings of this book wear the teachings as a victor would wear a crown on their head and a medal around their neck.
It’s here in verses 8-9 that the two ways of verse 7 are there for the reader’s choosing. The two ways are right here at our feet: the way of wisdom or the way of fools. A red-pill, blue-pill kind of decision.
Proverbs repeatedly presents the idea of two paths. There is a wise, righteous path that leads to life; and there is a foolish, wicked path that leads to death.
We’re about to read in verses 10-19 about the other option open to the boy here. Solomon says, “Don’t go their way, don’t follow them, don’t go down the foolish path that leads to destruction.”
Of course, it’s not just Proverbs that presents the idea of two paths; this is found throughout the Bible. Most notably, from Jesus Himself.
There are two paths, says Jesus:
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
What we know, friends, is that the narrow gate and the narrow road is life with Jesus. Apart from Him, there’s only destruction and death.
If you insist on living life on your terms, doing what you want to do, living as you please, following your heart, you will not find life.
If you insist on doing it your way, you will face the full wrath of God. You are dead in your trespasses and sins—DEAD!
You can live however you please (that’s your choice), but please realize, without Jesus there is only death. Without Jesus, you will face the punishment your sins deserve.
Listen! Listen to the voice of wisdom! Listen to Jesus who says to you, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
That means you turn from the way you’re going and head in the other direction.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
That means you drop your sin and your self-righteousness and you run to your Savior.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
That means you leave the path that leads to destruction and follow Jesus. And there, you find life everlasting.
There are two choices, as Proverbs and Jesus and the Bible as a whole present them.
Here, the first way is to listen to instruction and teaching from godly parents who are teaching God’s law and decrees.
The first way (vv. 8-9) has none of the flashy appeal of the second (vv. 10-19). The first way offers nothing material, only the hard-won beauty and authority of goodness.
Where the second way is concerned, “the sting is in the tail,” as they say. It seems good, but in the end…
10 My son, if sinful men entice you,
do not give in to them.
11 If they say, “Come along with us;
let’s lie in wait for innocent blood,
let’s ambush some harmless soul;
12 let’s swallow them alive, like the grave,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we will get all sorts of valuable things
and fill our houses with plunder;
14 cast lots with us;
we will all share the loot”—
15 my son, do not go along with them,
do not set foot on their paths;
16 for their feet rush into evil,
they are swift to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net
where every bird can see it!
18 These men lie in wait for their own blood;
they ambush only themselves!
19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain;
it takes away the life of those who get it.
Solomon in instructing his son (and us along with him): “Listen to the voice of wisdom,” and
Ignore the Voice of Fools
Ignore the Voice of Fools
The advice of verse 10 shows the contrast. Listen to instruction and teaching (wisdom), and do not give into…sinful men (fools).
These sinful men are like their father, the devil, who tempted the first humans to join him in him folly. Here, the godly father cautions his son about their eventual enticement.
It’s likely not if but rather a matter or when these sinful men will encourage others to join up with them.
The command in light of this: do not give in to them.
Who are the sinners? We’re all sinners. But who are these fools? Bruce Waltke says, “The structure of the Hebrew noun suggests these are habitual, chronic sinners.”
The father pleads with his son not to be enticed by this gang. Don’t be pressured by your sinful peers. The reason the father is so concerned is that he knows where following leads; the outcome is death.
The proposal of verses 11-14 owes its attractiveness to its offer (common with all temptation). The offer is for all sorts of valuable things…plunder…loot.
Who doesn’t, deep down, want to be a pirate? That’s the attractiveness, the lure, the temptation. Money, belongings, material stuff.
If we’re honest, at first blush, the scenario is presented in a way that it doesn’t seem directly applicable to most of here today. It’s basically an invitation to join a gang.
No one here has been in this scenario, well…except for Dixie. No, really. She’s a street tough. You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but that’s all just part of the cover.
Why do you think Heather moved back home from California? Because there was a territorial dispute; rival street gangs, you know. Heather moved back home to fortify their position in the Midwest. The family needed her.
Trust me. Take my word for it. Don’t approach Heather from her blind side. She will mess you up.
Sweet little bank teller, like her Grandma, right? It’s a front.
Aside from Dixie and Heather, the rest of us probably have a hard time applying this directly.
If not an urban gang, how can this scenario play out for you and me?
Verse 19 helps us to see that this has a wider application. Prov 1:19 “Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain…”
The relevance of the message is broadened to include everyone who fits this description: greedy for unjust gain.
That’s money, of course, but it’s more. It happens when people are willing to step on another person to get what they want. This is describing self-centered, narcissistic, back-stabbers.
Ray Ortlund argues:
“There are many legal, polite, even religious ways of saying, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood.’
But what is this all about? Pride, envy, greed, jealousy, retaliation. Deep in every heart is a kind of blood-lust…
The test is this: Are you happy when other people succeed? Or are you happy when they get their comeuppance? Do you pray for your persecutors to be blessed, or to be punished? Have you ever felt envy and resentment deep inside? It is where violence begins. Your heart is lying in wait for blood…”
You may have never joined a gang, but what about the force of the text?
Have you ever given into peer pressure to do something you shouldn’t?
Have you ever done something wrong to be accepted by the crowd?
Have you ever been so lonely and desired relationships so badly you found them in the wrong place and in the wrong way?
Have you ever used people or manipulated them to get what you want?
Have you ever swindled someone?
Have you ever lied or cheated to make a sale?
Have you ever taken money from your parents or a a friend, or the government?
Have you ever taken someone to lunch and said, “Hey, ask me about my job, and then I can pay for this with the company credit card.”
You don’t have to be a gang member for this to apply to you.
It all becomes a bigger issue when, in your anger, pride, envy, greed, jealousy, you try to get others on your side.
That’s verse 14: “cast lots with us; we will all share the loot.”
A cause, even a negative cause, provides a group to belong to. It’s a way to be “one of the gang.” It’s one way we nurse our grudges, and it feels good.
“But, whenever we gather around grievance instead of Jesus, that is counterfeit community, black-market relationships, and that negativity is on a collision course with reality. It cannot succeed long-term.” - Ray Ortlund
Solomon urges his son, as he did in verse 10. He urges him where these sinful men are concerned (v. 15): Do not walk in the way with them, do not go along with them, don’t travel that road with them or set foot on their path.
Verse 15 repeats of the caution of verse 10: Don’t consent, don’t give in.
It’s all a matter of where you place your feet. Do not set foot on their paths for their feet rush into evil.
If you go where they’re going, walk where they’re walking, you’ll find yourself doing evil right along with them.
The opening verse of Psalm 1 teaches this very thing. Psalm 1, written by David and Proverbs 1 written by David’s son, Solomon, are teaching the same thing, giving the same advice.
This is generational wisdom, passed from father to son:
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
Don’t give in to those people! Don’t walk with them, hang out with them. Don’t point your feet in the same direction as theirs! Don’t go along with them.
There’s blessing for the one who doesn’t walk in step with the wicked. There’s blessing for the one who doesn’t stand in the way that sinners take. There’s blessing for the one who doesn’t sit in the company of mockers.
Again, the discussion comes back to two paths. Here’s the last verse of Psalm 1.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
The righteous and the wicked. The wise and the fool. The sheep and the goat. Life and destruction.
As Solomon is giving wise caution to his son, he uses the illustration of a trap set in plain view so that a bird can see it.
Even a dumb bird recognizes a trap if it’s not camouflaged; so the youth should have the sense to avoid an obvious trap.
The fools Solomon is referring to don’t have enough sense to see the trap and avoid it. They step right into it. They only ambush themselves!
Bill Shakespeare would say a fool is “hoisted on his own petard.”
Like Haman, fools will be hanged on the gallows they made for another.
“Son,” says Solomon, “don’t be a fool. Recognize that joining up with them will end badly.”
Foolishness and wickedness end up taking away the lives of those who walk in that way.
Prov 1:19 “Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it.”
Ignore the voice of fools. Listen to the voice of wisdom. This is the teaching of Proverbs 1, so far.
It’s important and it’s timely. We need to hear these truths. We need to listen—that is, we need to hear and then do what we’ve heard.
Our biggest problem with this proverb is that we’ve all failed to live-out the warning given by Solomon. We have all walked this foolish course of life and we deserve for our lives to be a wreck now because of it; we deserve death as consequence.
We can easily bypass this text and ease our consciences with, “Well, I’ve never been tempted to join a gang to kill and rob someone, so I guess I’m okay.”
Thinking like that might make us feel better in the short-term, but that doesn’t absolve us of any guilt.
We’ve all walked down the fools’ path. We’ve all wrecked our lives. We all deserve death. We need help.
>Have ever noticed that once you start reading about a topic or studying something, it starts to pop-up everywhere. You just notice it all the time.
Last week, after my sermon was all written and ready to go, I caught an episode of Seinfeld where they turned the wisdom of Solomon into a modern-day parable.
This week, I was watching an old political drama. One congressman in the show said something. I rewound so I could write it down. Mr. Willis said:
“I think the problems that we’re going to face in the new century are far beyond the wisdom of Solomon, let alone me.”
Solomon and his wisdom keep popping up all over the place. The people who make reference to Solomon often speak truer than they realize.
What we face is, indeed, “far beyond the wisdom of Solomon,” and certainly beyond any one of us.
We need to admit this. “LORD, I do not know what to do, I do not have the wisdom to handle this. Solomon didn’t have the necessary wisdom. But you, LORD, do. Jesus does. We need Jesus—every hour we need Him.”
All of the Bible is about Jesus, including Proverbs. Jesus is the “son” who grows in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.
Paul says Jesus is the wisdom of God for us.
Jesus is the one who can rescue us from our foolishness and make us wise.
We must reckon with Jesus. Listen to His wisdom and ignore the foolish voice of the world.
We must turn from our sin and run to Jesus. We must follow Jesus, the One who took the punishment for our greed, our cravings, our violent hearts, so that we could be set free.
Jesus gives His Spirit to His followers to empower and enable them to walk in His wisdom.
And He gives us a new community—the church—a community that doesn’t entice us to sin but spurs us on to love and good deeds as we see the day approaching.
Listen to the voice of wisdom. Ignore the voice of fools.
Repent and believe in Jesus, today!