Godly Wisdom – Proverbs 1:1 – 4:27

“let the wise listen and add to their learning”

Today and tomorrow we read a sampling of the book of Proverbs–a collection of wisdom sayings which point us toward holy and wise living.  While some of these sayings are linked together by theme, often you’ll find that the proverbs flow from one to the next without any apparent connection.

However, over and over again in this section, we read phrases like these:

• let the wise listen
• listen, my son
• My son, if you accept my words
• My son, do not forget my teaching
• Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction
• Listen, my son, accept what I say
• My son, pay attention to what I say

It’s clear that “listening” in this context isn’t just hearing the words like we might endure a painful and boring sermon.  Neither is it dragging our eyes across the words of the page in order to complete the assigned reading.  No, in this context, it’s clear that “listening,” is about absorbing and applying to your life.  It’s about heeding and obeying… and being shaped by the words that you have read and heard.

There are 915 verses in the book of Proverbs, and yet they do us no good if we don’t read them and allow their wisdom to shape our lives.  The wise recognize that they have never arrived, but instead they continue to listen and add to their learning.