Mere Cognition

Over the course of time, what I'm hoping to amass is a set of posts that address each chapter of the book of Proverbs on the day number that they share. This is somewhat of a long term project looking into applied insight and reasoning.

Proverbs of Solomon

The book of Proverbs in the bible is written by King Solomon, son of David, who ruled Israel betwen 971-931 B.C.

I don't really think I can do it any better justice than Matthew Henry, at least as the first in a long list of ponderings on Proverbs 1.

His name signifies peaceable, and the character both of his spirit and of his reign answered to it; both were peaceable. David, whose life was full of troubles, wrote a book of devotion; for is any afflicted? let him pray. Solomon, who lived quietly, wrote a book of instruction; for when the churches had rest they were edified. In times of peace we should learn ourselves, and teach others, that which in troublous times both they and we must practise.

In peaceful times indeed, should we teach what we must practice in troubled times. Sadly, the troubled times come (at least for the US), and while I had plenty of time to learn, I do realize that I squandered a lot of time not making the main thing the main thing. So now, here I am. I don't think the person who coined the idiom "better late than never" had this in mind.

    The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
        fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Fear is an operative word here. As an atheist I would say things like, "What? Your God has to use fear to keep you in line? He's got to make you afraid, son? How pathetic." What would have been more pathetic would have been the puddle of urine underneath me had God come down out of the heavens to set me straight.

It's not fear like the world thinks of fear. For the most part, the world thinks of fear as an emotion and a set of neuronal excitations and hormonal increases/decreases. The fear spoken of in Proverbs is deeper. Deeper even than emotion. Let's use a visual story.

Close your eyes. Imagine you are in a small, yet real place you have been, somewhere like your living room during the twilight before morning. Visualize your surroundings, wherever you are. Now look up, push through the ceiling and fly into the sky. Do you see the stars? The distant red tinge of the sun on the sky? The moon as it begins dipping beyond the horizon, since you're up so high? While you're up there, look out into space. Look at the planets. Unfathomable distances abound. And yet, our planet is but a speck. A pale blue dot. A grain of sand. Tiny.

Now start over again at beach, looking at a grain of sand. And continue bigger and bigger. Or smaller and smaller. Either way, every time you slice up a section of creation, there is more to delve into until we get to the end of our physical ability to delve.

You can go to the grandest of the grandest and the smallest of the smallest and you will still find the same thing. If God is capable of doing this, what else is He capable of? Therein lies the fear. If He made all of this, what am I, really? You can be told about it but it can't be explained to you, it has to be thought about to understand it.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:

  The end of the matter; all has been heard. 
  Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
  For God will bring every deed into judgment, 
    with every secret thing, 
    whether good or evil.

Unbelievers easily pass over these verses. If You're like me, though, you look at that and want to shrink down to an infinitesimal singularity - but for one thing: Christ.

There will come a day when all of this is over and we can dine at the feast of the King of Kings, but for the moment, we are still here. In this place. With our instructions. Therefore, hands to the plow.