Mere Cognition

I'm starting to think I should just change this study to Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs with how often I'm looking toward his words. They're pertinent however, so it seems prudent to stand on them.

When the things of God are to be taught precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, not only because the things themselves are of great worth and weight, but because men's minds, at the best, are unapt to admit them and commonly prejudiced against them; and therefore Solomon, in this chapter, with a great variety of expression and a pleasant powerful flood of divine eloquence, inculcates the same things that he had pressed upon us in the foregoing chapters. Here is an earnest exhortation to the study of wisdom, that is, of true religion and godliness, borrowed from the good instructions which his father gave him, and enforced with many considerable arguments.

1 Hear, O sons, a father's instruction,
    and be attentive, that you may gain insight,
2 for I give you good precepts;
    do not forsake my teaching.
3 When I was a son with my father,
    tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
4 he taught me and said to me,
    "Let your heart hold fast my words;
    keep my commandments, and live."

The invitation which Solomon gives to his children to come and receive instruction from him (Proverbs 4:1-2): Hear, you children, the instruction of a father. That is, “Let my own children, in the first place, receive and give good heed to those instructions which I set down for the use of others also.” Note, Magistrates and ministers, who are entrusted with the direction of larger societies, are concerned to take a more than ordinary care for the good instruction of their own families; from this duty their public work will by no means excuse them. This charity must begin at home, though it must not end there; for he that has not his children in subjection with all gravity, and does not take pains in their good education, how shall he do his duty as he ought to the church of God? (1 Tim 3:4-5). The children of those that are eminent for wisdom and public usefulness ought to improve in knowledge and grace in proportion to the advantages they derive from their relation to such parents. Yet it may be observed, to save both the credit and the comfort of those parents whose children do not answer the hopes that arose from their education, that Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was far from being either one of the wisest or one of the best. We have reason to think that thousands have got more good by Solomon's proverbs than his own son did, to whom they seem to have been dedicated.

The book of Proverbs begins by reiterating to us that we are to live in communion with God, with regard to his decrees and precepts. We must trust in the Lord and as Romans 8:28 reminds us, that all things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh
    and refreshment to your bones.

I once again lean on Matthew Henry to provide exposition on the above verses from Proverbs 3.

We must have a continual regard to God's providence, must own and depend upon it in all our affairs, both by faith and prayer.

1. By faith. We must repose an entire confidence in the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, assuring ourselves of the extent of his providence to all the creatures and all their actions. We must therefore trust in the Lord with all our hearts; we must believe that he is able to do what he will, wise to do what is best, and good, according to his promise, to do what is best for us, if we love him, and serve him. We must, with an entire submission and satisfaction, depend upon him to perform all things for us, and not lean to our own understanding, as if we could, by any forecast of our own, without God, help ourselves, and bring our affairs to a good issue. Those who know themselves cannot but find their own understanding to be a broken reed, which, if they lean to, will certainly fail them. In all our conduct we must be diffident of our own judgment, and confident of God's wisdom, power, and goodness, and therefore must follow Providence and not force it. That often proves best which was least our own doing.
2. By prayer: In all thy ways acknowledge God. We must not only in our judgment believe that there is an over-ruling hand of God ordering and disposing of us and all our affairs, but we must solemnly own it, and address ourselves to him accordingly. We must ask his leave, and not design any thing but what we are sure is lawful. We must ask his advice and beg direction from him, not only when the case is difficult (when we know not what to do, no thanks to us that we have our eyes up to him), but in every case, be it ever so plain, We must ask success of him, as those who know the race is not to the swift. We must refer ourselves to him as one from whom our judgment proceeds, and patiently, and with a holy indifferency, wait his award. In all our ways that prove direct, and fair, and pleasant, in which we gain our point to our satisfaction, we must acknowledge God with thankfulness. In all our ways that prove cross and uncomfortable, and that are hedged up with thorns, we must acknowledge God with submission.

We must live in a humble and dutiful subjection to God and his government: “Fear the Lord, as your sovereign Lord and Master; be ruled in every thing by your religion and subject to the divine will.” This must be,

1. A humble subjection: Be not wise in thy own eyes. Note, There is not a greater enemy to the power of religion, and the fear of God in the heart, than conceitedness of our own wisdom. Those that have an opinion of their own sufficiency think it below them, and a disparagement to them, to take their measures from, much more to hamper themselves with, religion's rules.
2. A dutiful subjection: Fear the Lord, and depart from evil; take heed of doing any thing to offend him and to forfeit his care. To fear the Lord, so as to depart from evil, is true wisdom and understanding (Job 28:28); those that have it are truly wise, but self-denyingly so, and not wise in their own eyes. For our encouragement thus to live in the fear of God it is here promised that it shall be as serviceable even to the outward man as our necessary food. It will be nourishing: It shall be health to thy navel. It will be strengthening: It shall be marrow to thy bones. The prudence, temperance, and sobriety, the calmness and composure of mind, and the good government of the appetites and passions, which religion teaches, tend very much not only to the health of the soul, but to a good habit of body, which is very desirable, and without which our other enjoyments in this world are insipid. Envy is the rottenness of the bones; the sorrow of the world dries them; but hope and joy in God are marrow to them.

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.