Solomon, principally addressing his son(s) (1.8; passim), states his purpose for writing Proverbs in his opening lines:
To know wisdom and discipline, to understand words of understanding,
to receive discipline in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;
to give prudence to the simple, purposive knowledge to the youth (1.2-4, translation mine)
Proverbs is a catechism for princes, kings-in-waiting, to teach them how to fulfill their God-given mission of creating, building, and arranging the world-house that will be a dwelling place for God and his people. This is the dominion project given to the man from the beginning. To complete this project, he needs wisdom, the ability to understand relationships; what is good and evil, what is appropriate and inappropriate; how people relate to God, one another, and the non-human creation. Wisdom is the indispensable helper that will aid him in building the world-house so that it is good; that is, so that it fulfills its created purpose. Wisdom is skillful in relationships.
Wisdom is embodied in the form of a woman in Proverbs. It is not good for the man to be alone for he cannot complete his mission singularly. He must have a helper. Lady Wisdom will be the man’s helper, the one whose wise work will aid him in being known in the gates (the place of authority) when he sits among the elders of the land (31.23). She will be the glory of the man.
Unlike the original creation when the Father provided a bride for his son in the garden, now the son has a choice to make. There are two ladies: Harlot Folly and Lady Wisdom. One will help him build the house. The other will destroy him and the house. He must choose between the two. These ladies are physical women between whom he must choose, but they are also metaphors for two ways of life. The root of the word “proverb” speaks of a comparison or an analogy. There are layers of meaning to all of the images Solomon uses. They are similes and metaphors. Two women are two ways. One is the way of wisdom. The other is the way of folly. The young prince must choose the way, the woman, who will help him fulfill his mission. Solomon instructs him how to make good decisions.
However, Solomon can’t decide for him. Wisdom calls along with Folly, and he must choose between them. Solomon has no control over what his son ultimately does. We can see this in Solomon’s own life. Though Solomon was the wisest man to live up to that time, his son, Rehoboam, was a foolish king. Instruction in wisdom is not a panacea for fools. Solomon’s responsibility is to teach wisdom, to instruct his son in the way, telling him what the way looks like and the consequences of his choices. Beyond that, he can do nothing.
There comes a point in parenting or any other leadership position that you must recognize your personal limitations of control over other people and be content with being faithful in presenting alternatives. After that, it is the choice of the person as to whether or not he wants to live in the way of the wise or the way of the fool.
You make choices. Whatever influences you have in your life–and they can be quite powerful–you make choices concerning what you will and won’t do. Your choices and the consequences that result are your responsibility. If you choose, for example, to go with the gang instead of listening to your father and mother, whenever everything comes crashing down around you in your stubborn disobedience, wisdom will laugh at you and you will suffer (1.20ff.). If you despise discipline and choose the way of death, you will die. If you are slothful, you will be unproductive and suffer for it. If you bed down with Harlot Folly, she will put you in the grave with all of her other victims. If you are an unrepentant fool, you will blame God and everyone else for the way your life turned out. “When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages againstYHWH.” (19.3) It will be your parents, your church family, the government, systemic racism, or whatever the oppressor-du-jour is. It is anyone but you.
Proverbs is, among many things, a call to accept personal responsibility for your choices. The wise man learns from his and others’ bad choices and reorients his way. He doesn’t play the blame game. Yes, there are many uncontrollable factors in your life. Sometimes they are horrible events that have happened to you. You were not able to control them, but you can control your response to them. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, when writing about his experiences in the Gulag, was amazed at how many Christians kept their “moral compass” even while experiencing severe suffering. They couldn’t control the situation, but they took responsibility for their response. So must we.
Wisdom calls. You hear her through the Scriptures as they are read and taught through parents, mentors, and pastors. You can either make excuses as to why you are not choosing the way of wisdom (for which you will suffer in the end), or you can choose to find life by walking in wisdom’s way. The choice is yours. The responsibility is yours.
* I recently started teaching through Proverbs. Most of my articles for the months to come will concern Proverbial wisdom.
