And then beyond that you store it up, which is metaphor. Obviously you can't store up words It's the word used for storing up silver and gold. It's a way of memorization. You're memorizing God's word I don't know about you. I can't retain most of it But it's like one Bible teacher in Dallas. I know she said I can't remember it But it's glad to let my mind is a sin But at least while the water's going through it cleans it up And that's kind of how it is with God's word. You may not remember it But at least what you're trying to remember is cleaning up your mind pollution in the process So my son if you store it up But it's more than stored it up. It must be stored up with religious affection. You value in it I'm always arrested by the birth narrative of Jesus. Isn't that interesting? And with the Magi they knew no scripture and God in his grace gave him the star And they follow the star but God is so designed that they couldn't find a Christ without scripture And they had to come to the scribes Where is he? To be born to be born king of the Jews and those learned scribes knew they had basically memorized the Old Testament they knew Micah But thou Bethlehem Ephraim, though you be little among the thousands of Judah You'd out of you shall come forth to me one who was to be ruler of Israel whose goings forth have been from everlasting, right? They knew the verse So they know it's Bethlehem. Now that's all the Magi knew and They followed that one verse to Bethlehem and they found the Christ and the scribes were like me And my peer group professors when I go to academic societies you'd be amazed at how much unbelievers know about the Bible They know it and they know it well But the scribes probably had memorized the whole Old Testament new every little But they didn't get off the seat of their chairs to go a half a To go four kilometers This very short so less than a half an hour from Jerusalem to Bethlehem They were too affluent too Comfortable to get up and go and follow the wise men to Bethlehem and Never found the Christ knew it all and it's interesting that the people with one verse found the Christ and those who had it all Never found him. It's a parable It's a parable But the point is what happens if you have the whole thing and you live it Now you're flying All right, so that's what it is here if you store up my words When I was in Israel the God led me to an apartment Let us to an apartment and I right next to my neighbor who was trained to be a rabbi and And I was an on an archeological fellowship, but I wanted to learn some modern Hebrew. There are 30,000 words and modern Hebrew not a biblical Hebrew Anyway, I went over there and I read text with him every day for hours, so two hours and When I came to a word in modern Hebrew That was in the Bible He would say to me Bruce. You should know that word. That's in the Bible and He would never simply quote the verse He quote the entire chapter and drive this poor gentile straight under the table and I said to him, you know, I think you know the entire talent leaned by heart in Hebrew. He says I do I said, I'd love to hear you chant it and I got to play Maseridic text and he chanted it for two hours never missed syllable Let it perfect. Another occasion. I wanted to read I say a 53 with it We got off to the word sprinkle and that occurs 19 times in the Old Testament as Bruce. You know that word I just wanted to hear him explain, you know, but anyway I said I think you know the entire Torah. I says I do. I said I don't have time to hear it But I think he did but here he had memorized it all and he was an atheist. No faith whatsoever The tragic and you'd be interested. We loved each other and I really loved this man And he said to me when we were we were the four of us his wife and my wife and he and I We were bracing each other and he said to me Bruce I want you to know I am now a theist. I said I could wish you were a Christian But how did you come to be a theist and then I was just staggered He said I saw God in your home and I thought isn't that the grace of God I know everything wrong with my home. That was surely the grace of God if you could see God present there Then you have great hope believe me And then I'll less contact with my dear friend, but it's the big I mean It's it's it's stored it up with faith if you store it up without faith if you have faith without the word It's like having cement without water with that you can have cement and water, but they do no good Do you put it together then you can build something and that's what it's talking about here It's putting together the word with faith. Then you can build a life goes together so You store up my commands within you and then Also on the more passive aspects you're accepting it You're storing it up within you You pay an attention to it. You're listening to it applying your heart to understanding I Wrote down some things here. They think I'm very good by maybe some of you are aware of her work by Simone while Well anyway, Iris Murdoch following Simone Vile and others argues moral improvement Does not come about by the exercise of the will At school I have students write papers when I'm teaching the book of Proverbs or any subject they want they want and Usually some student will choose because they're struggling with it in their life self discipline and Usually I'll let the student do it and I know it's gonna happen three weeks later They're gonna come into my office. They say we can't find anything on it. I said, yeah, well think about that Why is that there's nothing in the book about self discipline? Doesn't work that way You're not gonna get disciplined by saying I'm gonna be disciplined just doesn't work that way None of us can do it No World change comes from an attention to the world Whose natural result is a decrease in egoism Through an increased sense of the reality of someone or something In other words instead of going through life focused upon yourself you must de-self yourself and Focus on God's word Change a theme metanoia is not brought about by straining and willpower But a long deep process of unselfing It is paying attention to God's words Occupied with him and not yourself and then you begin to live It's not self-improvement I like a Commentary a library because it's very pastoral by a reform Baptist writer Charles Bridges Well, I think the most devotional commentary on proverbs and he gives an illustration from the life of up from the from Eusebius dear Lides of the early church fathers and so forth anyway in Eusebius. He has an instance of a Constantine The emperor the first Christian emperor. He was at a service and In the early church because most people couldn't afford to have bibles. They spent two hours simply reading the Bible and They stood in honor of God's words. So you stood for two hours listening to God's word and a Constantine was in the tennis and it began to show some fatigue and His attendants said to him my Lord won't you please be seated and here's what he said It is wickedness to give negligent ears When the word of God is being read You see he had the psychology of a king It is wickedness of an attendant If he's not paying attention To the king's words To get it right and to do it it is wickedness and He understood that It is wickedness to be in church on Sunday morning when the word of God is being preached and Not paying attention. It's the beginning of rebellion Be inattentive to it So he says turning your ear to wisdom applying your heart to understanding and then he says you're in a state of prayer If you call out for It's sight cry aloud for understanding that's passion and you're crying out for it That's what James means by wisdom If you look at James chapter one it's a good quest reference here James chapter one and verse five Where he talks about praying for wisdom I read it verse five That went to be in prayer for wisdom If any of you lacks wisdom You should ask God Who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him Now this verse is badly used we use it for guidance We use it at board means we need wisdom accord for our board's decision I need wisdom whether I should marry this person I need wisdom whether I should buy this house and he'd wisdom whether I should take this job That's not what he means. I'm not saying we shouldn't pray about that But that's not what James is talking about He defines his terms in James chapter three. What do you mean by wisdom? Verse 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life But be deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom But if you have a bit of envy selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast about it or deny the truth such Quote on quote wisdom does not come down from heaven, but it's earthly and spiritual of the devil for where you have envy and Selfish ambition. There you find disorder and every evil practice, but now know And if you lack wisdom, let him ask for God, but the wisdom that you bring down from heaven That comes from heaven is first of all pure Them peace loving Considerate submissive full of mercy good fruit impartial sincerity. You see that's the wisdom It's a way of life It's a quality of a guy and he said if any of you lacks wisdom that heavenly wisdom that only comes down from heaven as God for being pure As God to be submissive as God to be peace loving See that's what we're talking about as God to be sincere and That's what we have here you're calling out for it. So the whole time you're storing it up Your psychology is one of prayer and Minus you calling out crying of out and not only that, but you're valuing it. You look for it as Facilbert search for it as the hidden treasure. You see it goes together
When I was where I The NID I've been on this book with the NID from almost every stage of this book and I remember the first time I worked on Proverbs. I think was in 1976 in Athens Or except every morning a four in the morning Worked on my Hebrew words and all the material ready for committee work for translation did that Five days a week 10 12 hours a day that the other 10 weeks I was father from God then when I began because I had no time for prayer To go with it. It did all the academic work He got to put it together, but at the same time you look for it That's the silver And unless this is a pearl of great price you can't have it You search for this and hidden treasure Trouble that I have with class and here. It's like bringing Coles proverbial calls to new castles You are giving this priority tonight You want it and God will not turn you away empty He will reward it Then he goes on then you will understand the fear of the Lord find the knowledge of God For the Lord gets wisdom and from his mouth comes this knowledge and understanding he holds victory in store for the upright He is a shield to those whose walk his blame was for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones Then you will understand what is right and just and fair every good path for wisdom will enter your heart Knowledge will be present to your soul in other words you will have a taste for it Not just religious education. You'll have religious taste I've been gifted with a wonderful wife and she's a wonderful cook and we've been married since 1953 I only remember once when Elaine was snucked by a grocer and only once in all those years When we used to eat eggs for breakfast we had some soft-well eggs And then where we always had a forced to chop it three children forced to chop it when we opened up that egg It was we got one with of that we just took it right to the garbage pale and threw it out I didn't have to have a plate over the table saying don't eat rotten eggs Nobody had a taste for it The trouble with the illustration is too black and white and life isn't that way and Our tastes are jaded. I'd like to look at Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn Shining ever brighter To the full light of day. We don't come to the full light of day immediately It's a growth process That's entailed there until your taste are developed
Wisdom with verse 10 wisdom will enter your heart now it will be pleasant to your soul and this then will protect you And it will save you from the ways of wicked men The men whose words words upper verse just read your newspaper listen to TV watch your movies It's all upside down topsy turvy world They call good evil and they call evil good
Who lead the straight path to walk in dark ways who delight in doing wrong and rejoicing the Proverseness of evil whose paths are crooked and nor devious in their ways It will save you also from the adulterous from the way with white with her seductive words who has left the pardon of a youth Ignored the covenant with God For her house leads down to death and Her path to the spirits of the dead none who go to her return or attain the path of life Thus you will walk in the ways of good men Keep to the path of the righteous For the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it It's almost as catalogical in the end It will be only the righteous that I'll lift like the good wheat But the wicked will be cut off from the land and the unfaithful will be torn from it as it looks to the ultimate purification of the earth All right, well, that's chapter two great chapter in the book of Proverbs Now we said we'd have time for a question and answer if you wish it Yeah, so who would a question? Yes
Yes wealth Yes, well wealth is I think it really means wealth in the in a very material sense And I'm gonna speak more on that what you have to do in the book of Proverbs. You have to distinguish between wealth and Rich person they are different Well is a reward of wisdom a Rich person is always negative in this book So there's a country there's a tension because wisdom will give you wealth But in in this book if You have wealth you are not necessarily a rich person a Rich person a rich man is an attitude toward money Where he finds or she finds her security and significance in money Rather than in God in the triune God in Jesus Christ So and I'll grapple with that on Sunday morning, but you have to make that distinction Now I think that it includes all see what happens is Wisdom is better than wealth, but it includes wealth you see money Will put food on the table, but not fellowship around it
Money will give you a house But not a home Money can give a woman fur on a back and jewelry on her fingers But nothing loves you really wants Wisdom will give you a house and a home Wisdom will give you love and wealth You say it will give you food and fellowship It isn't either over It will give you wealth but rich wealth Doering wealth, spiritual wealth with it. It's inseparable. Yes
The pardon Yes, yes, yes, yes
That I think it has to be the inference. Yes Well, I don't know as the book really doesn't address the temptation of the daughter It doesn't address it as such now. Whatever we I think that a young woman also has to face the seductive young man very much so and I think that just as the young man has to be protected against the seductive woman who rapes with the words Whereas the man will rape with his force Maybe that's too strong, but some feminists describe what women do as rape with words That just as the young man is protected against Easy sex The young woman has to be protected against the seductive male The enticements of who are men of a man Now so far as money is concerned. I'm not as I mean, I don't know about that. That doesn't address that but it seems to me Women have similar temptations of wanting security to a her own wealth And I think women have today especially feminists are trying to find a significant they want to be empowered to have their own significant sense security So I think it has very real application to women as well as to the man. Yes
Yeah, I think that's obviously a logical entailment of this book, but it's not addressed to the Daughter's temptations as such, but I think those are very fair Infances that it's warning a woman not to be the kind you say I understand the seductive wife to be very much like Goma Jose is a wife Who had a faithful husband who carefully instructed her in the word of God and then she went off and
Indulge and sensual living Yeah, so I think it is very much Infrarentially a warning not and then at the end the whole thing is to be the valiant wife who makes a home and She's a very powerful woman at the end of the book. That's his own discussion Yes, Catherine. Yeah, yeah, I was taking that really. Yeah, so you know where it's coming out of poliani on the personal knowledge If you've read anything of poliani he uses that illustration
Yeah, I don't know if I've copied anything out of poliani here. No, oh, why did you saw I said here? My own notes the philosopher of science Michael Poliani Polani argued that true knowledge flows from personal commitment to a set of particulars As tools were clues to shape a skillful achievement not from detached observation of them In other words a scientist has to commit himself to his iPods has to learn No science can advance without faith. This is argument if you have a Hypothesis you have to risk everything on that hypothesis to learn until you risk it you never discover and The same way I think it's the life of faith that you really don't discover theology or God or human relationship You just don't know until you commit yourself to it and only in that posture do you learn and that's what I have in mind for this And you risk it and you can get hurt in the process but it's a secure word and I can bear witness from my age this it's hard sometimes to visit you see you either act out of fear Or out of faith and any time I've made decisions in life out of fear I've gotten hurt and Wherever I've made my decisions out of faith. I have not been hurt and I find it always hard to make the faith decision Yes, yeah
Well, I think that the whole life of faith demands action. I don't know if this helps When I use in class Catholic will remember this so when I use in class, maybe this is helpful. I where I say faith and involves risk doing acting When the children were young we would play act the Bible stories and
When a season was about four one of her favorite stories was David and Coliath and we stand on opposite sides of living room when I Say, you know, I'm Coliath and this is my sword and she would say I'm David and then I'd say David I'm Coliath. This is my sword. I challenge you to a battle and Then she would say I trust in God and then we had in the living room planted in the living room we had a dish towel with a ping pong ball and So we'd go over in the corner and get the dish towel in the ping pong ball and And then we'd square off this again, and I'd say I'm Coliath and I challenge you to a battle and she would say I trust in God and then she'd swing the dish towel ping pong ball when who knows where and But Coliath always fell down and she'd come over and jump on me and cut off my cut off my head. That was the best part so In the beginning when we're learning the story She when we squared off the second time and I'm Coliath, I challenge you to about almost a variable. She would Start with the dish towel, but of course I wouldn't fall down She had to say I trust in God and then throw the stone Well one night we squared off and she said I trust in God, but she never Through the ping pong ball Now it's the day from what I do now Well, Chris, it didn't fall down. That's not the story She said to me, but daddy I said I trust in God. I said I know But she didn't throw the ping pong ball When she didn't get the theology, but I did faith works You say faith is risking and you're doing And so faith out of faith we commit ourselves out of faith that God will reward us. We've memorized out of faith I preach or teach believing God will do something So it's not to me to pit it against each other. I think it takes us more faith to go under a surgeon's knife and to lie in bed and say I trust in God Faith risks itself You do what you have And you trust God to use it I don't know if that's helpful Okay, but that's where I they're not against each other
Well, we have another night So I think we ought to go home and get a good night's rest and come back tomorrow by God's grace and Run the good race together together, so And again, thank you for sharing the evening together and the things with God