PROVERBS CHAPTER 1

 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, and judgement, and equity; 4. To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. 6. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels; 6. To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

This paragraph of the 1^st chapter in Proverbs is explaining what the book is about. Why it was written. Solomon was a very wise king and his knowledge came from God. It is Gods wisdom that Solomon is passing on here not is own. Wisdom and instruction = perceiving the words of understanding; to accept instruction of wisdom, justice, judgement and equity. For the young man knowledge and discretion for the wise man increase learning. 

7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction. 8. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 9. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. 

Here Solomon, through God’s inspiration, tells us that we should not be as a fool who despises to listen to wisdom or instructions. When we as an individual start listening to our own or other men’s reasoning that is not founded on God’s truth; then we are heading ourselves down the wrong path of life. A path that will lead to our destruction if we do not change ourselves and begin to listen to God’s wisdom and knowledge.

 

10. My son if sinners entice thee consent thou not. 11. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: 12. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: 13. We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: 14. Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: 15. My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: 16. For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. 17. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. 18. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. 19. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. 

Verses 10-14 cautions as bout not joining a gang or group that kill people for money or possessions.  People that plan or premeditate to kill for a price that they say they will split amongst themselves. Verses 15-19 is a plea to resist the temptation to join those that are headed for destruction. People who are greedy of gain (those that have a gambling addition or those in a company whose most important idea in life is money and more money) shorten their lives either by corruption or by bad health.

20. Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21. She crieth in the chief place of concourse in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22.“How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?” And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23. Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my swords unto you.

Wisdom in this paragraph (and everywhere it is mentioned) is God. His word is everywhere calling to us to hear it, to obey it, to live eternally by it. In the verses before - Solomon was talking about keeping away from the temptations of Satan, here he tells us that only fools stay away or turn away from God’s wisdom in living a life of blessing with God’s spirit and protection here on earth.

24. “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; 25. But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: 30. They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” 

God is telling us here that he has for so long stretched out his hand in love, given is wisdom and instruction to us for thousands of years. But man in general has turned their backs on God and decided that man’s ways are better. There will be a time, shortly, that God will no longer be patient. He promises that there will be judgement and in that time the people, the fools who said they know there is no God, that they put man’s ideas and judgments before God’s will know that their fate is eternal hell. God says here that he will not hear their cries, he will not hear their prayers to be saved. Their time has passed for salvation and now they must pay the price that Jesus paid for those who believed that he was the Son of God and that only through him and his death there is redemption of our sins. It is only through Jesus that we can get to heaven to live eternally with God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit as well as others that have accepted Jesus before us and before earths time comes to an end. 

Dear Father I so pray for those that need salvation, no matter what race,

religion, color or creed, I pray they open their hearts and minds and see that they are sinners and accept Jesus as God’s only Son. That He paid the price for our sins. I pray that they ask forgiveness for their sins and accept you into their heart, become a new creature in Christ, where the old man is passed away and a new man now lives within them. I pray they give you all their burdens and that they will trust you in all that they do, and look to you for guidance and confidence to live a new life in you.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

The Road to Salvation (KJV)

Romans 3: 23, 24 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 5:8 “But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

John 3:15 “For God so loved the world That He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

1 John 4:9”In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.”

John 6: 47, 48 “Verily, verily, I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.  I am that bread of life.”

Romans 10:9 – 14 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed: and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard: and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

If you are not saved, I pray you will accept Christ as your Savior to day. We are not promised another minute on this earth. We are but on a journey, passing though this world to the next, and you have a choice of where you will spend eternity. I pray you choose to spend it in Heaven with the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit and all those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and paid our sin debt for us. 

Seek out a Bible preaching church in your area, one where God word is preached and  is the center of their service, study and devotion.