Sunday Bible Study – Proverbs 1:8-33

Dear Lord,
 

Thank you for all the people that are visiting this post.  Please help us as we read Your Word.  Take us deeper into understanding more about You and Your love for us.  Help us to apply Your teachings to our life.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 

Welcome everyone to this week’s Bible Study.  We will be picking up where we left off last week on Proverbs 1:8.   If you don't have a Bible or don't have one handy and would like to follow along or perhaps read a different version, the Bible Study Tool in the sidebar will provide you with different versions and other study tools.

 

Verse 8 is the first of ten verses in which the father appeals to the son to listen to his counsel, or advice, and chose wisdom over folly.  It is the wise man’s warning against the enticement of sinners.

 

8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

11 If they say , Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

14Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird .

18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

 

The last verse sums if all up!  Like a boomerang, their acts of violence will come back upon them.  When greed becomes the owner of a man’s life, that man is destined for destruction.  WHAT MEN SOW, THEY DO REAP!  This is the lesson to be learned here!

 

20Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse , in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

23Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

24 Because I have called , and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ;

25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh ;

27 When your fear cometh as desolation , and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early , but they shall not find me:

29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

The pleas of wisdom continues in verse 20-22 and we meet the person of wisdom.  Wisdom appears in this section as a female.  She cries to everyone to come to her and learn.  There are three groups here that are especially singled out, the simple ones, or untaught, the scorners, or scoffers, and the fools, or morally dull.
 

According to verses 26-28, the consequences of rejecting wisdom are immense.  God’s mercy vanishes in the presence of self-reliance and in its place comes a resolute look of anger!  They who do not choose the fear of the Lord as a worthy complement to their efforts shall eat of the fruit of their own way..in order words, WHAT MEN SOW, THEY DO REAP!
 

Are we despisers of wisdom?  Let us hearken diligently, and obey the Lord Jesus, that we may enjoy peace of conscience and confidence in God; be free from evil, in life, in death, and forever!  This is His promise to those that believe and accept!
 

I serve an awesome GOD and I pray that this post blesses you and helps to deepen your relationship with God!
 

Next week, we’ll start on Chapter 2.  If you missed last week’s post, click here.

Have a blessed week!

Tammy

 

Sources:

Personal Edition of The King James Study Bible

Personal Notes

Personal Edition of The Complete Bible Commentary

Online King James Version Bible Study Tool

Online Matthew Henry Commentary