Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for his Word and ask him to teach us wisdom as we sit at his feet and hear his voice.
Read
Scripture Passage
The Beginning of Knowledge
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom,
Justice, judgment, and equity;
4 To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion—
5 A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
6 To understand a proverb and an enigma,
The words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Pr 1:1–7.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Proverbs begins as a father imparting the wisdom his son needs for a life pleasing to God, inviting the wise to keep listening, learning, and understanding.
B — Best Verse
Which Verse Best Summarizes the Passage?
Proverbs 1:7
the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge
Bryan's guest explicitly chooses the final verse as the section's summary and the theme of Proverbs: true knowledge begins with reverent fear of the Lord.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do
Fear the Lord, listen to the heavenly Father's Word, humbly receive correction, pursue lifelong wisdom, and obey rather than doing what seems right in your own eyes.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
it was a ceremonies book so thanks so much for joining us this evening for coffee and devotions we are at dork college this is barry york so a friend of mine the president of the reform presbyterian theological seminary and so i thought it would be fun since we are starting the book of proverbs to get a wise guy here so we are at proverbs chapter 1 verses 1 through 7. why we'll go ahead and have we will have coffee we'll pray and we'll get into god's word god we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the blessing it is to sit at your feet and to hear your voice god we pray that as we read your word tonight that you might indeed impart wisdom to us lord we need the wisdom and we know that you are the one who gives it liberally we pray that we would see christ and we would love you in jesus name amen all right so i'll just go ahead and let you read verses one through oh you got it on your phone there all right you want me to read these verses proverbs one more proverbs one one through seven yeah the proverbs of solomon son of david king of israel to know wisdom and instruction to understand words of insight to receive instruction and wise dealing in righteousness justice and equity to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth let the wise hear and increase in learning and the one who understands obtain guidance to understand a proverb and a saying the words of the wise and their riddles the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction all right so uh like normal we need to ask ourselves a what is this about b what's the best verse to summarize this and c what are we called to do barry is no stranger to this method so uh what do you think barry what would you how would you summarize this what is this about well it's uh you know just giving a little bit of a context of the book itself it's a father imparting wisdom to his son who in all appearances is on the verge of manhood throughout the book he's talking to him about my son give me your ear listen to me give me your heart so he really wants his son to listen to the wisdom that he's going to need in order to go out and do live a life that's pleasing to the lord and so he's saying let the wise here increase some learning understand these proverbs and gain wisdom by doing so yeah yeah i uh i was talking to cj williams one time i was doing a class of cj williams as a professor of old testament at the seminary he was saying uh the book of proverbs especially for seven chapters is you know that father's introduction to his son and it has a unified theme but then once you get into chapter eight and nine and for the following 20 plus chapters it's a ocean of loosely non-connected proverbs until you come up on the other shore and there's a connecting theme again uh yes but yeah so very much the theme of you know young men they've got women on their mind and so he's basically warning him against the evil not only of false women but just i think it's chapter 8 where he basically says there's two women calling for your attention woman wisdom make sure you go to her house don't go to lady folly's house yeah yeah exactly exactly yeah uh so uh i i'll ask let you answer this question what do you think is the best verse that summarizes this section here i think that the last one i read the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge i think that's a theme of this book yeah absolutely the fear of the lord is a beginning of knowledge but fools decide despise wisdom and instruction uh there's there's a reality uh that you know everybody did what was right in their own eyes and judges and it all goes wrong right but when we listen to the lord we meditate upon his word you know that uh when we give ear to what our heavenly father has for us uh so it's amazing i think about when i talk to our kids uh and just kind of you know if you guys would just listen and obey it would go better for you and then i have to think about my own heart you know when i'm convicted of sin when olivia brings something to my attention or when a congregant brings something to my attention it's like you know brian if i would just obey god's word it would go easier for me right and the proverbs are great for that right even with our children there's some of the proverbs that just like you know that miriam would often say to the kids and they just stick in my head i hear her voice when i'm saying because she's trying to get the kids to listen yeah well what do you think you're called to do in response to these words well i think it means to really we've got to give attention to god's words his knowledge and to to know the proverbs so i think it just takes us back the whole idea of whether it's family worship daily devotions meditation we've got to just keep these words over before us or we're going to stray and go on wrong paths and that's really what the fear of the lord is actually years ago did a as i was speaking to young people and it was on the fear of the lord and i he's john bunyan's work on that okay and he basically equates the fear of the lord with obeying the commandments of god obeying the the proverbs of the lord here so we've got to just have that consistent walk of obedience yeah yeah absolutely yeah uh what about you how would how do you how does this apply to you are you leaning into god's word are you hearing his word are you obeying him are you fearing him referencing him this is the blessing that we get to have as his children to hear the voice of the lord to sit at his feet i'm going to encourage you as we go through the book of proverbs derek kidner and his short little commentary on the proverb says that the proverbs is not a book that you read once and master but it's a book that you have to work on your entire life so i pray that we'll lean into god's word and take these things a heart let's pray father we thank you so much for this day we thank you for your word we thank you that you are the god who is wise omnipotent and omniscient and perfect unity you are the one who can accomplish all things according to your holy will and your holy will is perfect father we pray that we would sit at your feet and learn wisdom in jesus name amen well may the lord bless you tonight may you rest in jesus christ and i'll see you tomorrow no i'll see you on monday bye thanks mary