WWUTT 1304 Hear My Son Your Father's Instruction (Proverbs 1:8-19)

The feet of the wicked and foolish are swift to run to evil, but we who are godly must be swift to run to Christ and desiring to walk in his ways when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Proverbs 1:8-9 and the Value of Parental Instruction

Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we continue our Old Testament study. We're in the book of Proverbs. Couple of weeks ago, we did our introduction to the book of Proverbs. Last week, we looked at verses one through seven.

Today, I pick up in verse eight and we'll read through verse 19. Hear my son your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie and wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit.

We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw in your lot among us, we will all have one purse. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed blood for in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird.

But these men lie and wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. Consider the verse that we read last week, Proverbs 1 .7, right before this section.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. I call this the thesis statement to the book of Proverbs. It is the maxim that the whole book of Proverbs is launched from.

Understanding that it is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of knowledge. There were a lot of truth seekers around this time, 1000 BC, when these Proverbs were spoken, written down and compiled.

But the only way to find real truth is in the God of Israel, the true God, Yahweh. Hence why the Lord, the Tetragrammaton is used here specifically. Not just Lord is in a general sense of Lord and more than just God even.

But that it is the true God, the one who is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The fear of Yahweh, the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. For he is the creator of all things. So true knowledge resides in him.

Certainly you could study the world and come about some kind of understanding. But I think we could say even Darwinists study the world and yet what sort of conclusion do they come to? But one that is ungodly.

That's all of the world and all of creation came about through natural processes and their accidents, their cosmic accidents, just stardust banging into one another and boom, we have what we've got and you are who you are and your thoughts are nothing but brain gas banging around in your head.

And that's pretty much it. That's a wrong understanding. We could say those persons seek knowledge but they come to wrong knowledge. If it doesn't begin with a reverent fear of the one who created all things, then you will not come to any kind of knowledge that has any real value to it.

It's knowledge in vain. You may store it up, you may possess it in your mind but eventually it is going to come to nothing when your body dies or when the judgment of the world comes, whichever of those things comes first.

True knowledge is found only in the one who has created all knowledge and the one who has established what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false, what is just and what is unjust. These things reside with God.

He has said what is and what is not, what is pleasing unto the Lord and what would be in the service of Satan. So may we desire to do all things in that reverent fear of the one who has created all things and is ruler of all things and judge of all things.

The fear of him is the beginning of knowledge. As we read in Colossians chapter two, verse three, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And as Paul is sharing this with the Colossians, he says to them, I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

So when we store up in our minds a knowledge of the true God and what he has said is right before him, then we have fellowship with God since Christ himself is the truth, John 14, six. I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father but by me. So if we desire what is true, we're gonna desire Christ and we have fellowship with God. But if we reject those things, then we become fools. That's the second part of this statement of Proverbs 1, 7.

Fools despise wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is that which can be known, information, facts, those things that we can study, things that we can learn. We store those things up in our mind. But what application do they have?

How does that knowledge change us? How do we live according to the information that we know? Well, that's where wisdom comes in. So we take those things that we have learned and we apply them to our lives and live according to them.

But of course, there's a right way and a wrong way to do that. So just living according to the information that you have doesn't necessarily mean that you have wisdom. It's having the right knowledge and applying that in the right way.

Again, all according to what God has said is good, pleasing, and perfect according to his will. That's also Romans 12 too. So again, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The Fear of the Lord, Wisdom, and the True Source of Knowledge

So where we go from here is the father, the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight. That's the way that we started. And the person that he is addressing is his son.

Now, this may literally be his son or it may be in a figurative sense, but nevertheless, you have in Proverbs 1 .8, hear my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching. It is good to listen to the instruction of both your mother and your father.

And as we have affirmed for us, even through various surveys and sociological papers and conclusions, that a child needs a mother and a father. The most flourishing people are gonna be those who grew up in two-parent homes.

And this is even according to the scripture that we see it is best for a child to have a mother and a father. Now, as I'm talking about this, maybe you're convicted because you're a single parent. Maybe you, as a man, have even walked out on your wife and kids and you're looking back at that and you feel convicted of heart because what sort of damage have you wrought by walking away from your responsibilities?

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. What you've done is sinned if you've walked away from your family. And as it says in 1 Timothy 5 .8, if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

The reason why Paul puts it that way is because even unbelievers know that a person has a responsibility to their family. You don't have to have the fear of God to know that. It's almost naturally ingrained within us to know that one must care for and provide for their family.

So anyone who walks away from the family has demonstrated themselves to be even worse than an unbeliever. When we who have the fear of God should certainly know God has created the family and we should know that we must love one another, especially in the family.

So once again, if you have walked away from those responsibilities, the responsibility that you have to your family, you must repent. You must try to repair those relationships that you have damaged, but ultimately understand that Christ will give forgiveness and he can make whole again.

So trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. That, by the way, is a word from Proverbs 3, which we'll see coming up a little bit later on.

Let's come back to that. Let's get back on topic here with Proverbs 1 .8. Hear my son your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

What are these things? Well, the graceful garland is, well, it's kind of like a wreath and it's very tightly knit together. That's the picture of wisdom and knowledge, very closely intertwined. And it's a crown, it's like a crown that is worn on top of your head.

So the symbolism there is that it governs your thinking. As a crown, there is a symbol of reverence there. People admire and respect you for the wisdom and knowledge that you possess. Then you have this wisdom and knowledge described as pendants for your neck.

Well, these are precious stones and probably an heirloom. Because once again, this comes from your mother and your father. People see the wisdom that you have gained from the household that you were raised in, and they admire you like one would possess precious stones.

So even more valuable than a crown or the pendants that one would wear is the wisdom and knowledge that you can possess. Notice something else about this wisdom and knowledge. This is something that even the poor can have.

You have rich symbols given here, a garland for your head and pendants for your neck, but wisdom and knowledge don't cost anything. You don't have to be wealthy in order to possess knowledge or have wisdom or have this reverent fear of God.

Whether you are rich or poor, you must have these things. And yet possessing these things would cause you to be as revered by others as any king would be. We tend to think of those who hold high offices or elected positions, officials, kings, rulers, governors, et cetera.

We tend to look at these persons as those who possess knowledge. Some of us do. You probably look at your elected official in a completely different way. But nevertheless, that tends to be the general perception of those who rule well.

They have a lot of wisdom. I want to learn from this particular person, but you can have that as well, even if you're a pauper. Be you a prince or a pauper, you can have wisdom that others respect you for.

There is a graceful garland on your head and pendants for your neck. Notice what we have next in verse 10. My son, if sinners entice you, so we've gone from wisdom and knowledge, now we're applying it.

If a sinner entices you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie and wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Okay, most persons who want to tempt you to do evil are not going to lay out exactly what it is that they want you to do.

Let's go kill somebody. We don't have any reason for doing it. Let's just go do it. But when we see their actions, we see that what they're doing causes harm to other people, and it's just wanton destruction.

There's no reason, there's no rhyme or reason for it. They just do it because they can, because they're lawbreakers, because they don't want to be governed by anyone or anything. And frankly, when it comes down to it, they lack wisdom and they lack knowledge.

You look at all of the riots and things like that going on in our culture today. These are persons who are saying exactly these things that we're reading here in verses 11 through 14. They lie and wait for blood.

They want to destroy people. They want to destroy livelihood. They want to destroy property. They don't have any consideration for other people. I remember when the first riots had started up right after George Floyd had died.

And maybe you saw this video, Becky and I played the video on one of our Q &A sessions on Friday. But anyway, there was a woman in New York City whose shop was ransacked and destroyed, a black woman. And she came out and she's pointing to the rubble lying in front of her shop.

And she says, you say that black lives matter. What about my life? It doesn't matter. You came and destroyed my store. Look at my stuff. And points to the pile of rubble in front of the store. They don't care about anybody.

They're going to use certain causes and phrases that have caught on in the public mind, but they're not going to live according to those things. They're going to go their own way. They're going to use those things as an excuse to cause a disruption, to shed blood, to ambush the innocent without cause.

They don't have a reason for it other than they're just lawbreakers. They're sinners as described here, but a sinner is one who breaks the law. As John says, 1 John 3, 4, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness because sin is lawlessness.

So this is how these persons live. They possess no fear of God. There is no fear of God before their eyes as we read in the scriptures. And so therefore no knowledge and no wisdom in which that knowledge would be rightly applied.

So verse 12, like Sheol, this is still the sinner speaking here, like Sheol, let us swallow them alive, like the grave, like hell, let's be hell on earth. That's essentially the way they think. We'll swallow them whole like those who go down to the pit.

We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Contrast that with wisdom and knowledge as learned from your parents. Your father gives you instruction. Your mother gives you teaching.

These things are as a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. But what is it that sinners say? We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. So instead of learning from your household, your mother and father, and walking away with such rich knowledge and wisdom in the fear of the Lord, you attempt to fill your house with these things dishonestly and not wisdom and knowledge, but material possessions, precious goods.

So it's not the pendant that comes from your father's instruction and your mother's teaching. It's the pendant that I can go rip off somebody else's neck and have it for my own. We shall find all precious goods.

We shall fill our houses with plunder. So these persons desire those things with perish, and according to those things, they will perish by their actions instead of longing for those things that do not perish.

And what did Jesus tell us to do in Matthew 6? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the things that you need will be added to you as well. So then in verse 14, as the sinner is enticing you to come their way, throw in your lot among us.

We will all have one purse. This is what they promise, but they never deliver on this. And we're seeing even governors today promising such a thing. Hey, socialism, right? We'll all have one purse. We'll all just spread the wealth around.

Never works that way. It's a great idea, but it never really works in practice or in function. There's always gonna be somebody that has more than everybody else, and they're gonna continue to manipulate the system so that they can keep what they have and the power and influence that they possess.

There's no such thing as really evenly distributing all of that around in an economic system. It's a great idea, and we're trying to force everybody else into it. Hey, come on, let's all have one purse, but it's all for greedy and dishonest gain.

Verse 15, my son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. We've read that previously in the Psalms, and we see that also in Romans 3 repeated just like that.

For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird. In other words, there's a bird you wanna catch. You spread a net right there in front of the bird. That bird knows better. It saw you spread the net.

It's gonna fly the other way. And that's the way that the wise son needs to be. He sees them spreading that net. He's been wise to it by the instruction of his father and the teaching of his mother. So he's gonna flee the other way and not get caught in it.

So in vain do they spread their net in the sight of a wise and watching bird. Verse 18, but these men lie and wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. This net that they have spread, they're gonna get caught in it.

Psalm 915, they sink down in the pit that they made. In the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. And we'll see that metaphor come up even several more times in the book of Proverbs, that a person spreads a net under their own feet or they get caught in their own trap.

These men lie and wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. Anybody who tries to gain anything by dishonest ways that they do so in vain.

And again, without the fear of God, then they are setting an ambush for themselves. They deceive themselves. And when they stand before God in judgment, they will not be able to say it was God's fault.

Well, you didn't show me, you didn't tell me. They did this to themselves. Where it says back in verse 15, my son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their paths. This is very much like the way the Psalms began as well.

We read this in Proverbs 1. We read it in Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And on his law, he meditates day and night. So here we're still in the beginning of our study of the book of Proverbs. I promise once we get past chapter one, things will start to go a little bit faster.

But we'll come back next week and finish up Proverbs 1 and maybe be able to head into chapter two a little bit as well. Let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wisdom that you give to us in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

All these wonderful things that he has taught us according to your word. And we don't have to have great minds in order to understand these things. We don't have to have college education or a lot of money and wealth in order to possess this kind of wisdom and knowledge.

We all can come about this through the Holy Spirit that you give to us, that you have poured into our hearts, that we may understand your word and walk according to your will in the worship and honor and reverence of your son, Christ, who sits enthroned over all, creator of all, our Redeemer, who has promised us an everlasting inheritance with him in glory above.

As we walk this earth, may we do so in a way that is pleasing unto our Savior and commit our whole lives as worship unto our great King. It is in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

Closing Exhortation to Seek a Gospel-Teaching Church

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

Find a good gospel teaching Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.