Hello again, welcome to lesson two of Proverbs, a life of wisdom. Let's consecrate our time and prayer and ask for wisdom as we study this incredible book, and name the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not to temptation but deliver us from evil, Amen.
And the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen. Well, this second lesson of our three-part series on Proverbs is going to be a great overview of Lady Wisdom. I've entitled it embracing Lady Wisdom, and that's going to be very, very clear as we go through these chapters. So we're going to be really looking at the prologue and the epilogue.
So if you remember from lesson one, the entire book is structured according to seven sections or seven collections of Proverbs, and you've got the prologue, which is a long prologue, honestly, it's chapters one through nine. And then you've got the epilogue, which is chapter 31 by and large, broad strokes here. And then, so then our third lesson, just to tee it up a little bit, is going to be Lady Wisdom's teachings. We're going to be looking at some highlights and topics of a whole schmorgasboard of different things, of how we live, practically speaking, a life of wisdom.
But it's really, really important to understand this really crucial theme of Lady Wisdom, because Proverbs is not just merely a random collection of just wise teachings, right? Proverbs, riddles, allegories, metaphors, and all these other literary devices and techniques, according to antithetical parallelism and synonymous parallelism and all these things we talked about in the last lesson. This particular lesson, we got to understand the theology of Lady Wisdom. So just to kind of again tee it up, this lesson, a little more theological, not really speculative, but definitely theological and religious in the next week or next lesson is going to be very practical.
So let's dive right on in here to chapter one, and tee this up and build a foundation of who the author, well, the author we all know, at least certainly for Proverbs one through nine is a collection of Solomon. But what I meant to say was the audience, who is this written to? And what do we seek to learn from it? So this is chapter one versus I'm going to be versus one through six to start off here, where it says the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, and don't need to spend too much time on that, we discussed authorship last lesson.
But it talks about here the purpose of the book and the audience of the book in verse two, it says that men may know, and the Hebrew word for know is yet dach, which is covenant until knowledge that's going to be really important as we unpack this themes and theology here today, that men may yet dach covenant to know God be in relationship with God, so that men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, receive instruction and wise dealing, righteousness, justice and equity, that prudence may be given to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth, that wise man, the wise man may also hear an increase in learning and the man of understanding acquires skill to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. This is pretty all comprehensive, honestly, right? So it's for everybody to grow and knowledge of virtue and righteousness, how to the study of wisdom and the, um, bequeathing of wisdom, instruction, discipline, words of insight, understanding, proverbs, parables, etc, etc, pretty much lists everything, every, in which every methodology you can think of trying to impart wisdom and virtue and knowledge and righteousness is described here in these opening verses. But it's written to everybody, you can see here, right?
It says that men may know, so not just men in general, but the young, the old, those that are wise already can you grow in their learning, those who have understanding already can grow in their skill, but also the simple, right? And vice, that's a gentle way of saying stupid people. And by means, stupid, I don't mean like intellectually, I mean like morally, right? This isn't teaching algebra or chemistry or quantum physics or anything like that.
We're talking a lot about living a good practical life according to a one's proper end, which is a relationship with God. So the simple, the dumb, the foolish, the idiots, the stupid, I think all of those synonyms will work very, very well. So whether you're simple or whether you're wise, whether you're old, whether you're young, and it says that you fear, everybody can benefit from this entire book. So this is the purpose of the book to grow in wisdom and knowledge and virtue, right?
Just and everybody can benefit from that. And then women, young, old, simple, wise, you never stop learning really, right? So then it gets a little bit and unpacks a little bit here because if you can continue to read on in chapters one through nine, there's this repetition of this person, the sun, my son, my son, my son. So King Solomon is addressing his son multiple multiple times.
You ever take 15 times? I looked it up. I could be missing one or two there, but certainly 15 times. And I list it a whole bunch of them, not all of them here in your notes.
But let me just read it to share a couple of them with you if you have your Bible in front of you. That's great. In chapter one verse eight, he says, here my son, your father's instruction. In verse 10, my son of sinners and Tysu.
Then verse 15, my son don't walk in the way with them. And the same thing is repeated on non chapter two, verse one, my son, if you receive my words, chapter three, verse one, my son, do not forget my teaching. You get the point, right? You got a clear pattern here of Solomon addressing his son to receive his words of insight, his instruction, et cetera.
Okay, well, this is really interesting because I was just saying that this is written to everybody, right? All men, whether you're simple or you're wise or you're young or you're old, but now he's talking about his son. So how do you drive these two concepts? Well, when he's talking to his son here, there's a number of ways this could be understood.
And I think they're all the gentlemen. It's one of those things that's very often taught in scripture where there's a both and not an either or but a both and or an and an and an an, right? There's multiple meanings going on here and they're all very illuminative. So first, when Solomon is talking about his son, the most obvious understanding is he's talking to his royal heir.
He's talking to his actual son or his grandson or any divitic heir that may come down the line. They're called to rule God's people and to govern their kingdom and wisdom and justice and righteousness, etc. This is actually quite ironic because if he is speaking to his son, like maybe this whole collection of proverbs is put together after his death with a little bit of editing and redacting, which is totally fine to conclude that I find it really ironic because Ray Haboeim was Solomon's son and he was anything but wise he was an absolute fool. His whole story comes up in first Kings 12 and 13 about the splitting of the kingdom because he very foolishly rejects the advice and the counsel of the old counselors that helped Solomon.
He listened to his frat buddies, the people he grew up with and he insists on being very violent and abusive towards the various tribes of Israel and they're like, we're out of here man, we're not going to submit ourselves to you. You take care of your own house, right? And so this brought about the split of the kingdom all because Ray Haboeim was stupid. So I find that very ironic that maybe Ray Haboeim, I mean if we're looking at this address of Solomon to his son being Ray Haboeim or his grandson or anyone else, that's ironic because they weren't very wise at all, except for maybe Hezekiah, Josiah, and a couple of other characters who were pretty good but not as good as Hezekiah androsiah.
All right, so that's the first potential recipient is the royal heir that he's writing to. Now the other aspect of this is when he says, oh my son, this really also does touch upon the broad concept that moral formation and instruction and the imparting of wisdom does take place in the context of the family. We see that immediately in verse eight. I didn't read the whole verse for you but it says, here my son, your father's instruction, reject not your mother's teaching and the print of the same verse is repeated in chapter six verse 20.
So you understand here that parents are really the ones that we say this very common in education today that parents are the first educators of their children and that's very true. They're not the only educators of children. There is actually some wisdom in the old proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. There's some truth to that because children learn from so many different people but first and foremost and most especially from their mother and their father.
So moral formation, the imparting of a child down the right path of righteousness and virtue and just being a good contributing member to society and to a community that happens first and foremost from the parents. So I like that very, very much as well. So speaking generally to his son and talking about his mother's instruction as well highlights that familial context, right, the domicile, what we call now the domestic church. All right, but then broadly even more broadly speaking, he really spiritually, religiously, coincidentally speaking, this the address of Solomon to his son is for everybody, right, and that touches what we talked about in verses one through six.
All men are addressed here. The young, the old, the simple, foolish, the wise, those who already have instruction and continue to grow instruction. Those are the people who are being addressed here because all nations are invited to come into the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of David, which is the church through the David Covenant, which is what Jesus restores and renews and perfects. We talk about this a lot in the opening lesson here when we're looking at the key themes.
All nations are called to receive the wisdom of the son of David, ultimately Jesus Christ, and follow his ways, follow his paths and believe in him, even being incorporated into what we now call the mystery body of Christ. All right, so here's a little quote for you. It's not so little from the Catholic introduction of the Old Testament talking about how the word son here is covenantal, right? And so that really is going to encompass everybody who receives his words of instruction.
So here's a quote, installment is addressed to the reader as quote, son. He invites the reader into a covenant relationship with himself. Son is a covenant category. Let me quickly interject here.
So remember, so covenants have taught this in many different lessons and it comes from great scholarship from so many different people, first and foremost, God, and others as well, where covenant is an extension of family bonds, right? You have kinship through covenant through through an oath, right? You swear solemn oath and two strangers or two parties become family. They have family bonds.
So son is obviously a covenant category, right? Because son implies the relationship between a son and a parent or a son and a father, whatever it might be. So that's what it's talking about here. Son is a covenant category.
When you make a covenant with somebody, your family with them. All right, so let me go on. Son is a covenant category and Solomon himself enjoyed the divine sonship. So divine sonship by virtue of his being heir of the vidic covenant.
Now, there's a lot to talk about there back in first name of chapter seven and Psalm 89 addresses this as well, where the where God established a covenant with David and in this covenant, the Davidic king, the heir of David, is the adopted son of God, so the king enjoys divine sonship with God because of the covenant. And now what this quote is saying here and there's more to read here. I just keep interjecting. But what this quote is saying here is that when he addresses his readers as son, we can share in that that Davidic covenant and ultimately it's going to be through the ministry of Jesus, his Paschal Mysteries, that makes us possible.
But let me go on. Solomon offers to extend that blessing to his readers. If the reader accepts his invitation to sonship, then through him, the reader will indirectly experience the blessings of divine sonship. It's indirect in the Old Testament, but it's 100% direct and participatory in the New.
In this way, Proverbs, in Proverbs, every reader is in a sense invited into the blessings of divine covenant by entering into a relationship with David's heir, ultimately Jesus. That's my comment of the quotes through the embrace of the gift of the divine wisdom that Solomon himself received from God and offers in turn to the reader. So this is a great quote. Now, this is what I do with all the courses here.
I try to curate the best quotations from the best commentaries here to give us further insight into the theology and the teaching of Holy Spirit scripture. And I really do like this quote. If I did not, I wouldn't put it in there. So this is the point, right?
So all of us readers, young old men, women, simple and wise, whomever we are, we're invited to share in the blessing of the Davidic covenant through the era of David, which ultimately is going to be Jesus Christ. And I'm going to end this lesson talking about how wisdom is a type of Jesus, foreshadows Jesus very, very beautifully. So what this means is when we listen to the wisdom of King Solomon, we are embracing God's covenant. We are participating in God's covenant ultimately through Jesus Christ.
So that's really awesome here. So in other words, my cheer friend, this is addressed to us. This is addressed to us and our family members and our friends and all nations, right? So it should, you should read this as if it were written to you, right?
It is a personal letter from the son of David, Solomon initially, and ultimately Jesus Christ, the inspired author of all the scripture to you. So you read these words and you embrace them, you incorporate them into your life, you marinate in this wisdom, and then you will become a child of God. That's awesome. And we should read all the scripture in the same way, right?
As if it were an actual love letter from the heavenly Father to us as children. So that applies for everything. But in a very special way, it applies here in the book of Proverbs. All right, I like that.
Now, what is Solomon speaking to his son about? Now, I'm going to give you the broad strokes in this lesson. Like I said, it's going to be a little bit more theological. I'm very, very grateful to the Catholic introduction deal testament.
I think it provides the best overarching thematic commentary on this book, more than any other book. Other commentaries that I put on your suggested reading, either they have a topical commentary, which are awesome. That's actually going to be very helpful for the next and final lesson. Or they just speak little by little verse by verse, but the Catholic introduction of the Old Testament is the best.
It's absolutely the best for providing the overarching thematic perspective and approach to this book. And it begins with the fear of the Lord. That's Roman numeral three here in your notes. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
And so that's verse seven, where it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge of fools, despised wisdom, and instruction. So this concept of the fear of the Lord is found everywhere in this book. In fact, the book ends talking about fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and it ends in chapter 31 verse 30 with talking about fear of the Lord as well. And even more than that, it's an inclusio for the prologue.
So remember the prologue, these chapters one through nine begin talking about fear of the Lord. Then if you flip down to chapter nine verse 20, this says the same thing, fear of the Lord, sorry, chapter nine verse 10, excuse me, chapter nine verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. So this, that's important because this initial prologue begins and ends talking about the fear of the Lord. And the whole book talks about the fear of the Lord as well.
So everything in between this inclusio, or think of them as bookend versus book in concepts like sandwich bread, if you want to, everything in between the sandwich bread is going to be an unpacking of what fear of the Lord really is as the first step for insight, for wisdom, for knowledge, instruction, etc. Now we got to spend some time talking about this fear of the Lord. I did introduce this in the first lesson, but let's spend some more time on it. All right, so fear of the Lord starts with servile fear, right, but it surpasses it.
So the initial servile fear of the Lord is moved by dread of punishment, right? I don't want to get in trouble. I don't want to go to hell or whatever. That's actually what we call attrition in catechitical or theological context.
Attrition is sorrow for one sense, but it's imperfect. It's motivated and moved by fear of and dread of punishment. So you're really sorry for your sins, but you're and you want you confess your sins because you're afraid of going to hell forever and ever and ever. And sadly, of course, enemies of Christianity, they say, oh, yeah, well, you know, Christians and Jews initially had invented hell to get the people to behave, right, to get them in shape, get them in line.
And that's not true, of course, but it's not at all bad whatsoever to repent of your sins because you're afraid of being punished forever and ever, right? Get to do this all the time. I totally see my son when he gets in trouble, I can see on his face and his behavior, is he sorry for hurting me or is he sorry because he's going to get in trouble? He's going to be grounded on a takeaway dessert from here from from him or whatever it might be.
So is he sorry because he's afraid of getting punished or is he sorry because he actually did something wrong and he broke trust? Well, that movement of being punished, that's the initial servile fear. However, a filial fear of the Lord is rooted in humility, reverence, and devotion and love from the heart, right? This is what we call in catechitical circles, contrition, where if you're sorry for your sins because you hurt somebody, most especially God, if you hurt them and you don't want to hurt them, your whole life is ordered towards pleasing God and loving him and doing what's right.
When you mess up and everyone does, but when you mess up, you're sorry. Yes, you don't want to go to hell, right? But you're sorry because you wounded the Lord. That's contrition.
So, a tradition versus contrition is a good way of understanding servile fear, moving into filial fear. Filial fear is when you choose to follow God, you observe his law, you're faithful to him from the heart, you choose it. And in fact, if you still in chapter one here, if you skip down to verse 29, it says, they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. It is a choice.
It is a choice from the heart, right? So again, servile fear is not bad. You got to start somewhere, you got to build upon something. But ultimately, in every relationship, whether it's between spouses or child and a parent, you want to move into contrition, you want to move into a filial fear or a spousal fear or whatever, everyone will look at it.
If I hurt my wife or my wife hurts me or we do something dumb, usually my wife doesn't hurt me because she's awesome. Get that on recording, okay? But if I do something wrong, if I'm impatient or whatever I'm selfish or whatever it might be, I'm sorry because I hurt her, right? That's more of a perfect love.
All right, same thing with my child, my son, my daughter's whatever. If they do something wrong and you can clearly see that they've broken trust or they didn't do what they're supposed to do and you can just see it. You know what? They're sorry for the right reasons.
It really softens my heart. Okay, so that's a really good distinction, I think, at least the way I approach it here. Okay, now Saint Beed says the same thing. Have a great quote for you.
It's quoted from your Catholic study Bible is Saint Beed says servile fear, which corrects the error of sin. So again, that's a good thing. You don't want to say it, servile fear, but it is a good thing. It's the first divine fear, but perfect love casts out this fear.
Holy fear, fear of the Lord, which comes later, is supplemented by love rather than replaced by it. It is the fear of a good son who is afraid to offend his loving father in the very least. That pretty much sums it up very, very well from Saint Beed. Awesome, awesome quote there from Phenomenal Saint.
Hey, this is Doc Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at scripture and tradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand, however, and whenever you want. So thank you so much.
God bless you and keep setting your Bible.