Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Proverbs 3:1-12 | Date: May 24, 2020 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

All right, let’s look then at Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3, I encourage you again to have your Bible handy and to follow along with me in it as much as you are able. Proverbs 3, I have mentioned in the email that the title of the message is a question: Does Proverbs promise too much? I think you’ll see what we’re getting at in just a minute. Let’s look for starters at Proverbs 3, verses 1 and 2:

“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.”

As we’ve seen in Proverbs 1 through 9, we have a series of lectures or admonitions that the inspired sage is giving to his son. His objective in these lectures is to influence his son to a life of wisdom and righteousness. And one distinctive of his approach, as we’ve seen, I think just about every week, is the motivational clause at the beginning of each of these lectures. So here, chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.” There’s the call to get his son’s attention. And then the motivational clause: “for length of days and years of life and peace, they will add to you.”

Or if you like to glance down at chapter four, verse 10, the beginning of, I think, the sixth lecture: “hear my son and accept my words that the years of your life may be many.” Or chapter four, verse 20: “my son, be attentive to my words, incline your heart to my sayings, let them not escape from your sight, keep them within your heart.” Why? “Because they are life to those who find them and healing to their flesh.” And so on it goes with virtually all of these, each of these lectures. In fact, the sage sprinkles in similar motivational clauses throughout his lectures.

He wants his son to know that it’s wise to be righteous. It pays off with divine blessing. So if you hear my word and you keep it and you live accordingly, it will pay off with divine blessing. And you see that again and again and again throughout these admonitions that he gives his son. And at some point in all of that, the question has probably occurred to you: is all of that really true?

Now, you know it’s God’s word, and so you know it’s true, but the problem is it doesn’t always seem, the way you’re reading it, that it matches up to life. Do the righteous actually live longer lives than the wicked? Does God protect his people and keep them from harm? Does he make his people prosper? Or, and that’s the title of today’s lesson, does Proverbs promise too much?

In fact, we might ask the same question about many of the Psalms. In time, we could track out several of them that make out such wonderful promises of how God protects his people. So how are we to understand these motivational clauses and the seeming promise that they make? This question came up here at dinner a few weeks ago, actually, after one of the morning messages. We were sitting at dinner, and Jim raised the question: how are we to understand this? It doesn’t seem always to match up with life. And I ran the question past Pastor Greg, as well, and we discussed addressing this topic in one of our sessions here on Sunday mornings. I suspect that this is a question that has occurred to virtually every one of us at some point or another, as we’ve read through these kinds of passages in Proverbs.

And in fact, the answer is complex. In fact, there are several answers, or I might even say better, several layers of answers. And for any specific question that we have in a specific verse, there might be various factors that answer the question: is Proverbs promising too much? So today is going to be a bit of a different approach. It’s going to be practical, but not practical in the life-living lessons for living type of sense that we have had in Proverbs, but practical in the sense of: how do I learn from this? How do I understand Proverbs? How do I interpret Proverbs?

I mentioned Jimmy and I mentioned Pastor Greg, so that if this is just too much and too heavy, well, then you can blame Jim and you can blame Pastor Greg. It’s their fault. But I think this is really an important question and it’s one that we probably all ask. And I’m hoping that this will be helpful. Each of these points I think could expand to several lessons, but we’re going to try to cram it all in and hopefully give us a sense of how to interpret Proverbs.

First, We Must Make Sure That We’re Not Misreading Proverbs

All right. First of all, then, let’s just take this broad category and make sure that we’re reading Proverbs correctly. First, we must make sure that we’re not misreading Proverbs.

So for one, we have to recognize that Proverbs are not promises. Proverbs are not inflexible laws. Proverbs are proverbs—pithy sayings of condensed wisdom. They summarize broad teachings of wisdom applied to specific life circumstances. They tell the truth, but because of their brevity, they can’t always tell all the truth involved. Broadly speaking, the truths expressed in the various Proverbs hold out a happy prospect for those who follow wisdom. And we’ll consider some of that a little bit more as we go along. But Proverbs are not promises. They’re not inflexible laws. And only collectively do the Proverbs in the book of Proverbs give a more holistic kind of a picture of things.

So for example, Proverbs 22 in verse six, one of the most famous of the Proverbs, it is a true saying; it is true. If you train up a child in the way that he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it. That is a true saying; it’s virtually indisputable. But it’s also true that many wise fathers have had foolish sons. They train their sons in the way they should go, but their wisdom was rejected. And in fact, Proverbs recognizes that also. So for example, Proverbs 13:1: “a wise son hears his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.” And in fact, there are several Proverbs to that effect. Proverbs 22:6 is still true. It states with a broad brush how life works, but it’s not the whole picture.

Or again, as another example, it’s true that the diligent and those with a good work ethic get ahead. Proverbs 10 verse four: “a slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” And again, there are half a dozen or so Proverbs that tell us something to that effect. But it’s also true that some who have been diligent and have had a good work ethic have experienced injustice. And Proverbs recognizes that. And some who have been diligent in working and have had a good work ethic have just come on what we would call a hard providence. They have a difficult time getting by financially. But it remains true in broad terms that it’s the diligent and the industrious who get ahead.

And in fact, this book of Proverbs—in this same book that tells us that, anticipating temporal blessings for the righteous—it also speaks of the righteous suffering and the wicked prospering. So for example, Proverbs 13:23: “the fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice.” So even in Proverbs itself, it’s not always the case that the righteous get ahead. And again, there’s a half a dozen or a dozen or more Proverbs to that effect. Sometimes the righteous die young.

So in deciding this question of whether Proverbs promises too much, we must look at Proverbs whole and completely, lest we misunderstand what it’s actually saying. And in fact, God does not intend for us to read Proverbs in isolation from the rest of the biblical canon. We ought to read Proverbs keeping in mind, for example, that the books of Job and Ecclesiastes wrestle at length with the question of injustice and the suffering of the righteous. And we should read Proverbs with the New Testament in mind as well. So we’ll see more of this as we go along through the study today, but note for now that Proverbs is not the only book in the Bible. It is meant to be informed by the entire canon.

Now, I suspect that there’s another factor involved, a theological factor in all of this, and that is that even the righteous are sinful. Even the righteous are sinful and they cannot claim ever that they deserve only blessing in this life. And the fact of the matter is that God remains sovereign in every case. Job’s friends were not right. Calamity is not necessarily evidence of God’s displeasure. God has purposed our good and he blesses the righteous and God judges the wicked. And the Proverbs apply those great truths to specific circumstances. But God’s blessing and his judging are not meted out with the same timing in every case. The wicked may well get ahead with their wickedness for a time. And Proverbs recognizes that. And God may have purposes and goals to accomplish in us and through us that entail a sad providence. Proverbs recognizes that too.

And in fact, more broadly, we have to think, we have to assume that Solomon and the other inspired sages knew about righteous Joseph who suffered for long years. They knew of Job who suffered precisely because he was faithful. And certainly Solomon knew of his faithful great-grandfather Elimelech and his sons who died young. And he knew of his great-grandmother, Naomi, who suffered so long and was made bitter. And he knew of Uriah, the faithful soldier whose life was cut short by David. And we can think more broadly still of people like Jeremiah or the other prophets who were scorned and suffered abuse. And in fact, there’s Jesus, the very model of righteousness, whose life was cut off while he was young. His path certainly was not made smooth.

I point all of that out to say that although various Proverbs do hold out a happy prospect, and in that broad sense, promise blessing for obedience, Proverbs itself acknowledges that this promise is not to be understood in absolute terms. Proverbs are not promises. They should not be taken as promises. Proverbs are proverbs, pithy sayings that condense broad truth into brief expression. They tell the truth, but because of their brevity, they cannot say everything. Collectively, the Proverbs in the book of Proverbs give a more holistic picture, and particularly so in light of the rest of the biblical canon. So all of that under the broad category of reading Proverbs correctly.

The Covenantal Context of the Book of Proverbs

Next, let’s talk about the covenantal context of the book of Proverbs. And not just the covenantal context, but the character of the old covenant itself. The old covenant itself was marked by just this kind of promise for obedience. Take Exodus chapter 19, for example, when God first established the covenant with Israel. When God met with Israel at Sinai, entered into covenant relation with them, here’s what he had to say. Exodus 19 in verse five:

“Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.”

That was the characteristic of the old covenant. Leviticus chapter 26, also in a very famous way, promises Israel blessing for obedience. If you’re following along, Leviticus 26 verses three and following:

“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season and the land shall yield its increase and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last from the time of the grape harvest to the time of for sowing, and you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in the land and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land and the sword will not go through your land. You will chase your enemies, they will fall by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept and you shall clear out the old to make room for the new.”

Well, that’s Leviticus 26 verses 3 to 12. Now in the following verses, God promises curse for disobedience. If they disobey God, then all of those promises will be reversed. And so instead of being multiplied, they’ll be barren. Instead of their land being productive, there’ll be a famine. Instead of chasing their enemies, they’ll be chased by their enemies. All of that’s reversed. Blessing for obedience, cursing for disobedience. And that of course is the history of Old Testament Israel. When they were obedient, God blessed them and they prospered in every conceivable way. And when they were disobedient, they were judged. Obedience brought temporal blessing. Disobedience eventually brought the exile. Those were the terms of the covenant.

That covenantal arrangement is echoed throughout the Pentateuch, throughout the Old Testament, and in fact, you can’t understand reading the prophets apart from that covenantal understanding. Their whole message was that: Turn back to God and be blessed. If you turn away, you’re gonna be judged. Now that’s echoed, for example, in the famous promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14, which probably all of you have heard many times: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Now that’s not a promise that was given to America, as has been often claimed. It’s a promise to Israel and it’s an echo of the covenantal promise itself. Obedience would bring temporal blessing. Now I have a suspicion that if America were to humble itself and pray, and repent of its sin and turn to God, God just may well respond with temporal blessings. But we’re not given any such promise. America is not God’s old covenant people Israel.

So you can see then that the happy prospect of Proverbs is in the first instance, a general echo of God’s promise in the old covenant to his old covenant people. Only here in Proverbs, it’s on the individual level. In fact, if you have your Bibles there, look at Proverbs 3 again. Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 3 uses the standard covenant language: “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck and write them on the tablets of your heart.”

Steadfast love and faithfulness. Notice those terms: steadfast love and faithfulness. “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.” Now those two terms, steadfast love and faithfulness, are the standard terms used regularly of God’s covenant relationship with Israel. The relationship is grounded in God’s steadfast love. And the covenant continues because of God’s faithfulness. Now here, these virtues are represented as our corresponding responsibility. God has steadfast love and God is faithful. We in return, he says, in the old covenant, they are to respond with the same virtues—to be steadfast in their love to God and faithful to him. So they’re the corresponding covenant responsibilities of the old covenant people. “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.” So the connotation here, the atmosphere, is that of covenant responsibility.

And in fact, you’ll notice this in Proverbs 3:1-12, this whole paragraph is structured to reflect this covenantal arrangement. If you’ll look at it carefully, you’ll see this “if you obey, then I will bless” arrangement. Now notice in Proverbs 3 carefully, the odd-numbered verses 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. The odd-numbered verses state the human obligation in the covenant. And then the even-numbered verses state the covenanted divine response.

So, for example, verse 1, the human obligation: “My son, do not forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my commandments.” Verse 2, the divine response: “For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.” Verse three, the human obligation again: “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.” Verse four, the divine response: “So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and men.” Verse five again, we have the human obligation: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” Verse six, we have the divine response: “He’ll make your path straight.” And so on through the rest of the passage. Verses 7 and 8, 9 and 10, and then 11 and 12. We have the human obligation, the divine response.

Well, again, in all of this, I’m saying that we see in this echoes of the covenant itself. And in answering the question, does Proverbs promise too much? We have to recognize that this broader background of God’s promise to Israel—obedience brought blessing, even temporal blessing. But we have to notice that believers today are not ancient Israelites. The old covenant was brought to an end. And we today do not live under the terms of the old covenant. In Christ, we have a new covenant. We have better promises and better provisions, and we should not expect that old covenant promises made to old covenant people all apply to us in the same way. I’ll come back to that in a minute, but we have to keep that in mind as part of the answer. All right. So we’ve seen, we’ve got to read Proverbs itself correctly and in light of the canon. And we have to understand the covenantal context of Proverbs.

A Longer Perspective in Proverbs

Now let’s look at the broader subject of a longer perspective in Proverbs. My point here is that we have to recognize that Proverbs’ own view of the consequences of wisdom and folly is not just short term. It looks ahead to how things finally turn out. The moral order built into the world by the Creator has been blurred by sin and Proverbs recognizes that. But it also looks ahead to a restoration of the created order.

So for example, in Proverbs 10:25, we see that it takes this longer perspective. Proverbs 10:25 reads, “when the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever.” When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, the righteous is established forever. There’s a longer perspective in view. It’s long term.

Or for example, Proverbs 14 verse 19 seems to take that long perspective as well. It reads, “The evil bow down before the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.” Do you hear that? The wicked or the evil bow down before the good. We don’t see a lot of that happening yet today. The perspective is long-term.

So for example, again, Proverbs 15:25, “the Lord tears down the house of the proud, but maintains the widow’s boundaries.” You might scratch your head when you read that. The Lord tears down the house of the proud and he maintains the widow’s boundaries. The fact of the matter is there are plenty of arrogant people with beautiful houses. And there have been many widows who’ve been swindled. But the point of the proverb, as one man has commented, is not to declare a truth that always stands in the present but rather to assert a more ultimate principle. And that is that God opposes the proud and cares for the needy, and he will eventually make all things right. So the perspective is broader than just the immediate.

Or again, Proverbs 24, verse 16, seems to take that long perspective as well: “The righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.” The righteous falls seven times and rises again. Well, there’s a frank acknowledgement that the righteous suffer. In fact, he says, they may suffer seven times. That’s the number of completion. That is, they sometimes are completely defeated. And yet in the end, it says, they rise again. The perspective is long-term.

Now, maybe it would help if you’d look at Proverbs 12, verse 28. Proverbs 12:28. It might help you to follow along because it’s more explicit in that vein, and it makes an intriguing statement. Proverbs 12:28: “In the path of righteousness is life. And in its pathway, there is no death.” You see that? Path of righteousness is life. And in its pathway, there’s no death. No death for the righteous? Well, surely Solomon knew that righteous people die too. All of them. So we have to understand that perspective in broader terms. He’s not talking about physical death. He’s looking to life after death. There’s a very important sense in which the righteous never die. They live forever in the blessed presence of God.

That’s what Proverbs 14:32 has in mind when it says, “the wicked is overthrown through evil doing, but the righteous finds refuge in death.” Even in death, the righteous finds refuge in God. By contrast, Proverbs 11:7 tells us that there’s no hope for the wicked in death. So the blessing of God on the righteous is not for this life only, but for eternity. And the Proverbs maintain that broad holistic perspective. Now, all of that is to say that while a given proverb may seem to promise a tit-for-tat kind of arrangement of temporal blessing for obedience, reading Proverbs whole tempers that impression considerably.

How Can Today’s New Covenant Believer Read Proverbs?

All right, then let’s bring that to us. How can today’s new covenant believer read Proverbs? On one level, as I always try to remind you in these kinds of settings, the old covenant in countless ways anticipates or looks forward—looks ahead in some way to the new covenant.

So for example, the Sabbath, the sign of the old covenant, points ahead to our rest in Christ—that it’s a rest that’s realized now. And it’s a rest that will be climactically realized in the age to come. Or the temple—the old covenant temple pointed ahead to Christ and our enjoyment of the presence of God now by the Spirit, and then climactically enjoying the presence of God in the age to come. Or again, Israel’s holy nation status. It points ahead to the status and the experience of the church today and climactically in the age to come. We’ve seen the same with wisdom itself. It points ahead to Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of God’s wisdom.

So also in the same kind of way, it seems that the happy prospect of blessing for obedience in Proverbs looks ahead to the blessedness enjoyed in greater ways by the faithful today in Christ, and then climactically in the age to come. Now, I don’t want to say here that the happy prospect of Proverbs is entirely spiritualized. Often in God’s grace, he does reward his people’s faithfulness with temporal blessings. And in fact, most of us are so awash with temporal and material blessings that we take them for granted. Shame on us for questioning the truth of the Proverbs. But still, what we call spiritual blessings—that remains part of the answer. There is blessing in obedience. Jesus said that. John 13:17: “if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

And then there’s the longer view. For example, Proverbs 2:21: “for the upright will inherit the land.” The upright will inherit the land. Well, that explicitly reflects the old covenant in which God promises temporal blessings to his people Israel. If they’re obedient, they’ll be blessed in their land. But more broadly, it’s also a vivid reminder of the truth that righteousness yields a blessed life. And yet at the same time, it points ahead to the larger truth that it is the righteous who in the end will inherit the earth.

Now, we have sinned. We are sinners. We cannot achieve righteousness on our own. Forgiveness and righteousness, the enablement to live successfully under God—all of that must come as gifts of grace in Christ. But it is nonetheless true that it is the righteous, not the disobedient, who in the end will inherit the earth and stand with Christ sharing in his inheritance.

I think Matthew 19 and Mark 10 give us a vivid answer here. Both of these passages, Matthew 19 and Mark 10, record for us the famous incident of Jesus and the rich young ruler. You remember after the rich man went away unwilling at Jesus’ command to give up everything he had, the disciples asked our very question. They said to Jesus, “we’ve left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” You imagine the gall of asking a question like that to Jesus? “I’ve done all this for you. What do I get out of it?” That’s our question.

And in Matthew 19:27, Jesus responded in terms of just great expectation: “Truly I say to you in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”

Now that’s Matthew’s account. Mark’s account includes a significant detail that’s only implicit in Matthew. Mark 10:28-30 reads like this: “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sister or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time. Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.”

Well, there it is. Now in this time, those who follow Christ receive temporal blessings. Now these blessings are not necessarily literal houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands. And in fact, Jesus says there’ll be persecutions too. But there will be genuine realized blessing nonetheless, now in this age. And ultimately, there’ll be blessing unsurpassed at Christ’s return when we share in his resurrection glory. And then at last, every promised blessing will be realized in full.

Now I mentioned earlier, I at least hinted that the life of Jesus might seem to falsify Proverbs. The very model of righteousness did not have a smooth path. But if we look through to the end, we see that he does not falsify Proverbs, but fulfills its promise in his resurrection vindication, his ascension, his kingly reign, and in the coming display of his consummate glory. And so also with us through him.

Summary Considerations

All right, let me try to wrap all of this up with a few summary considerations of what we’ve looked at.

Number one, God remains sovereign in the lives of his people, and he’s never under obligation of any kind to give temporal blessings. He dispenses his grace sovereignly, and at all times, God is free with regard to the lives of his creatures. That’s number one.

Number two, Proverbs are brief expressions of condensed wisdom that tell the truth, but because of their brevity, often do not give the whole picture. Individually, they express general truth and specific application, but they’re nonetheless generalized statements of how life works.

Number three, Proverbs itself when read whole, plainly and frankly acknowledges that the righteous may suffer loss and even defeat in this life.

And number four, Proverbs must be read in light of the entire biblical canon.

Number five, the Proverbs’ blessing-for-obedience tone reflects an old covenant arrangement that was never intended to apply universally forever.

And then number six, which brings it to us, the truth remains that obedience brings blessing. Sometimes material and temporal, always spiritual, and ultimately both forever.

So as new covenant believers, we may and we ought to read Proverbs with a great sense of anticipation for the blessing that it holds out to its readers. It remains true always that it is wise to be righteous. It pays off both in the short term and in the long term.

All right, I hope this has not been too much to give you all at once. And as always, let’s open it up for any questions about it, any discussion. Perhaps Pastor Boyd or Pastor Greg would like to add some observations as well.