10 of those

The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. Here is ‘truth in street clothes’. It deals with everyday subjects such as laziness, pride, handling money and telling lies. Here we meet familiar folk such as the bargain–hunter, the neighbour you see too much of, the practical joker and the ‘morning person’ who forgets that others take a while to surface.

Charles Bridges once said that of all Old Testament books it ‘is the one which we may think of as most distinctively educational’. This is its tone. A teacher speaks to his student, an old man to a young man and, chiefly, a father to his son.

Above all, Proverbs points us to Christ, the one ‘who has become for us’ who believe ‘wisdom from God’. Here is an excellent place to begin to learn about Christ and about wisdom. It has been said that, as the Psalms give us Christ singing the law, so the Proverbs give us him meditating on it. Truly to understand him, we must get to grips with Proverbs. Truly to be wise, we must get to grips with Christ.